The wizardess rose from her perch and slithered up-ward. “It will be a while,” I said cheerfully. “Anyone for a game of Dragon Poker?”
Myth 18 - MythChief
NINE
“Patience is a virtue.” THE CHICAGO CUBS My employer didn't find it easy to endure the hours that followed.
“How can you sit and ... and play?” Marmel said, pac-ing around us like a dog on a short leash. “How does that help get rid of him?” He tilted his head toward the stairs and the imperious guard who stood there staring at us.
“It would help if you could just calm down,” I said. “But he could kill us all!”
“He won't,” I said. “Not until he gets what he wants, anyhow. Then I think he will leave. He seems pretty goal-oriented. Three disks. Call.” I tossed in my bet.
“Elf-high flush,” Guido said, and spread out his cards. I moaned. With a chuckle he raked in the pot of glass disks, which had been supplied by Marmilda in lieu of coins. We had all agreed not to play for money. I am not and have never claimed to be a great cardplayer, but I enjoy the ca-maraderie of the game. In fact, I realized, as I threw my hand in in surrender, that I had missed my friends more than I realized. It was good to be backonly I wasn't back. This detente was temporary. We'd go back to our separate businesses when all this was over. I felt my heart sink into my belly. If only I had been able to find Aahz and ask him the best way to reintroduce myself to the business. I hoped the Duchess was all right. She was eccentric with a capital “ECCENTRIC,” but she was Aahz's mother, and what hurt him hurt me.
“My deal,” Chumley growled, holding out an enormous purple hand for the deck. “Nah, it's Tuesday. The dealin' reverses itself every sev-enth hand.”
“Wha? Okay.” For the sake of our company the Troll pretended to be confused about the rules. The look of puz-zlement on his face was so convincing I nearly broke down and explained it to him. I stopped myself before I made a fool of myself again. He was generally the one who re-minded us of the subtleties of Dragon Poker during our friendly games. It had been too long.
I felt eyes on my cards, and looked up. Marmel hovered at my elbow. The Imp wound his hands together ner-vously.
“Are you all right?” I asked. “What if he comes down again?” Marmel asked. “He won't,” I assured him. “We made a deal. He's going to look. We'll wait.” “Are you sure?”
“I am sure,” I said. “I gave him my word.”
“Yeah, he's the Great Skeeve, remember?” Guido said. “You gonna bid or just shop?”
“Uh, I'll bid,” I said. “Three coins.”
“Yeah, Narwickius wouldn't dare do anything,” Marmel said. “That's right. You're the most powerful wizard in the world, right?”
“Nah,” Guido said. “Crunch, you in?” “Fold,” the Troll growled. “Raise,” Guido said. “You're bluffing.”
“Call me and see,” the enforcer said, with a grin.
“Yeah,” Marmel said again. “I shouldn't have anything to be afraid of. No!” He shouldered up to the Titan at the bottom of the stairs. “You wouldn't have the GUTS to take on the Great Skeeve, would you? Big guy? Tough guy?” He punctuated every word with a poke of his bony pink forefinger. “Huh? Huh?”
The Titan growled low in his throat. “Marmel?” I called.
“Yeah, Skeeve?”
“Did you hire me to help you find your inheritance, or not?”
“That's exactly why I hired you!” Marmel said.
“Well, then, did you buy the insurance rider against grievous bodily harm? Because I don't remember signing up to fight Titan bodyguards when we discussed the con-tract.”
The Titan grinned down at him, silver-white teeth gleaming. “Uh, no ...” Marmel said.
“Then maybe you ought to say 'excuse me' to the nice, big Titan and come over here before you have an accident?”
Marmel didn't need long to assess the situation. The forefinger retracted into his fist, and he backed away three steps. “Sorry, Mr. Titan, sir.”
The bodyguard showed his big, square teeth. “No prob-lem, squirt. Boo!”
Marmel jumped. He scurried away from the staircase and cowered in the corner of the room farthest from it. I sighed and shuffled my hand facedown.
“I hope Tananda's all right,” I said, staring upward. She had not yet revealed herself, but I knew she was keeping an eye on things.
“She's fine,” Guido said. “Watch the cards. Dis is a little trick I picked up on Taro.”
He sorted out the Dragon suit from the deck and spread it out on the table. With a wink at me, he waved his hand across them. We waited, as though we were in a seance hoping the ghost of our rich old aunt would communicate the location of her hidden cache of treasure. Suddenly, the deuce, the lowest-value Dragon card, twitched itself out of the pack. Guido pushed it back.
“She says 'bupkis,”“ Guido confirmed, in a voice too low for the Titan nearest us to hear. ”They have failed thus far to find anythin'. Private signal. Works real good. Your deal, Skeeve." He gathered up the cards and handed the deck to me.
I suppose we didn't really need the confirmation. Nar-wickius would have stopped throwing things out of the window if he had been successful. More objects hit the ground while we waited. Chairs, books, knickknacks of every description precipitated from above like an unusu-ally
