Josef glared at his opponent, watching for an opening. The smallest twitch could show the weakness that would turn his defeat into victory. A few feet away, Eli lounged in the sunlight, leaning against the branches that hid their tumbledown stone shack and grinning like an idiot.
The thief’s eyes flicked down, and Josef saw his opening. “Match and raise,” he growled, tossing two gold standards on the grass in front of him.
Eli’s grin faltered a fraction, and he picked up a pair of oblong coins from his own stack. “You’re showing a knight,” he said, pointing at the face-up card by Josef’s foot. “That’s five points at least. Maybe you’re confused, but in Daggerback, it’s the
“No.” Josef crouched behind his cards. “You’re not getting me with that again.”
“Have it your way,” Eli said, tossing his coins into the pot. “Let’s see who was right.”
Josef threw his hand down, adding a bearded man with a staff and an old geezer with a crown to his gallant knight in the grass. “Bachelor party: wizard, king, knight. That’s ten points,” he said, grinning.
Eli smirked and deftly flipped his cards like a fan. “Wizard, king, and my lovely lady.” He scooped up the queen card he’d laid face-up in the grass after the first round of bets, and his smirk became intolerable. “Nine points.”
Josef glowered murderously as Eli rubbed his hands together and reached out to gather his winnings.
“Grand sweep,” Nico said quietly, and the two men froze. “Hunter, weaver, shepherdess.” She named each card as she laid it in the grass. “Three points.”
Eli sighed and shoved the pile of gold toward Nico. Now it was Josef’s turn to grin. “Too bad, Eli,” he said, leaning back against one of the mossy trees that ringed their tiny clearing. “Next time, you should worry less about bluffing me and more about not losing your shirt.”
“I don’t mind losing to Nico,” Eli said, tossing her the last of the coins. “She’s a much better winner than you are.”
Josef grunted and nodded over his shoulder in the direction of the castle, where the spires were barely visible through the thick trees. “Speaking of winning, have those idiots gotten back to us? We’ve been sitting here for almost a week, and if I have to spend another day playing Daggerback with you lot, the name might start to sound like a good suggestion.”
“Actually, the flag went up fifteen minutes ago,” Eli said casually. “I just wanted to see if I could win the rest of your gold before telling you.”
Josef jumped to his feet. Sure enough, a large flag dangled from the top of the second tower, its white folds lying limp against the slate shingles, twitching in the breeze.
Eli winked at Josef’s murderous glare and walked whistling into the hut.
The king was lying on the dirt floor, looking miserable as always. Eli had left him under the watchful flicker of the fire, which, in exchange for Eli keeping Nico outside for most of the day, was willing to make sure their royal prisoner didn’t escape. Eli skirted the edge of the hearth and poked the king’s shoulder with the toe of his boot.
“Almost done, your royalness.”
The king sat up stiffly, and Eli handed him a tiny pot of ink and a pen nib attached to a stick, which he produced from somewhere in his pockets. “All you have to do now is write exactly what I say, and we’ll take you home.”
The king looked defiant for a half second and then he nodded glumly and began to copy Eli’s demands word for word.
Josef was gone when Eli emerged ten minutes later, the king’s letter rolled in a tight tube and ready to go. Nico, however, was where he had left her, arranging her newly acquired gold in shining patterns across the scrubby grass.
“Don’t worry,” she said without looking up. “He’s just gone to scout the meeting place.”
“Why?” Eli said, laughing. “We haven’t even told them where it is yet.”
Nico shrugged. “He said you would say that, and he said to tell you that you can’t make assumptions about anything.” She paused thoughtfully. “He also said to tell you that if he does find any traps he’s going to make sure you stand on them.”
“Marvelous.” Eli sighed. Why did swordsmen have to be so competitive about
Nico turned back to her coins. “Do you expect things to go off course?”
Eli shrugged. “Does anything we do ever go as planned?”
Nico looked up at him and shrugged back.
“Anyway,” Eli continued, holding up the note, “I’m going to find a bird to take this to the palace. If Josef gets back before I do, make sure to tell him that if his trap finding is as good as his card playing I’ll gladly stand anywhere he tells me.”
Nico’s mouth twitched, and if Eli hadn’t known better, he would have said she had just suppressed a laugh. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he turned and walked into the forest, whistling a falcon call.
An hour before the appointed time, Josef made everyone move out.
“You can’t be serious,” Eli said from his comfy spot in the grass.
Josef just shook his head and strapped another bandolier of throwing knives on top of his already impressive personal arsenal. “Last to a fight, first in the dirt,” he said, hooking his short swords into place, one on each hip. When those were set, he grabbed his enormous iron sword from the log beside him and slung it over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”
He turned and walked out of the clearing, his heavy boots surprisingly quiet on the leaf-littered ground. Nico followed just behind him, moving over the fallen logs like a shadow. Eli lounged for a moment longer. Then, with a long sigh, he heaved himself up and went into the hut to get the king.
They walked single file through the forest. Josef went first, stalking through the tree shadows like a knife- covered jungle cat. Eli strolled a good distance behind him, leading the king by his rope like a puppy. Nico trailed at the back, her enormous coat pulled tight around her despite the warm afternoon, and her eyes glued to the thick undergrowth.
“You’ll never get away with this, you know,” King Henrith said, trying to keep some of his dignity as he stumbled after Eli. “As soon as I’m back with my own men, I’ll put my entire army after you. You won’t even reach the border.”
“Splendid!” Eli said, ducking under a low branch. “At least things won’t be boring. After this last week, an army on our heels sounds like a welcome vacation.”
“Don’t you understand?” the king sputtered, shaking his bound fists at the thief’s back. “I’ll have you drawn and quartered! I’ll hang your innards up in the city square for birds to pick at, and what’s left, I’ll throw in the river for the fish!”
“That doesn’t sound very sanitary.” Eli pressed his finger to his lips thoughtfully. “Still, it’s the thought that counts.” He looked over his shoulder, a heartfelt sunbeam of a smile lighting up his face. “I’m so happy we got to know each other like this. That’s the best part about this business: You meet so many interesting people!”
The king turned purple with rage, but before he could think of a proper comeback, Eli came to an abrupt halt, causing the king to run face first into his back. A few feet ahead, Josef had stopped and was watching the trees, one hand hovering over the short sword at his hip.
They were at the edge of a small gap in the trees, not really a meadow but a rare sunny space where bushes and wildflowers had taken root. The forest around them looked just like every other bit they’d spent the last twenty minutes walking through, a mix of midsized hardwoods and thick undergrowth. The only sounds were the cries of far-off birds and the wind rustling the leaves high above them.
“What is it?” Eli whispered, creeping toward the swordsman.
Josef stayed perfectly still, with his hands on his swords. “We’re being followed.”
