most.' He waved back at the glass bowl and the churning balls. 'One, two, and three,' he said. 'Let us proceed quickly so we can get on to the next.'
Anvilwood, Kestrel thought quickly, the very reason for coming to the casino in the first place! He touched the rucksack still hanging on his back. Again he scanned the rising stadium seats and the array of contestants on floor. 'Astron, where are you?' he muttered.
He glanced down at Phoebe and shook his head. With a sigh, he settled beside her and watched the dance of tiny, white balls. With all the contingents on the casino floor, it would take some while to get to Myra. Maybe by then the demon would appear-or failing that he could figure out how to get a flame lit for phoebe on his own.
The roar of the crowd was deafening. Of all the contingents that had swarmed onto the casino floor so many hours before, only Myra and Jelilac remained. Kestrel felt the tension grow in Myra's retainers. With each new challenger, they had hoped that Jelilac's luck would turn, but it held steady and true. Some of the opponents had taken more effort to defeat than the others. For one, over seventy spheres of no consequence popped free of the miniature maelstrom before Jelilac received his third victory. Another actually had one of his selections and for a moment trailed only two to one. But in the end, Milligan's master emerged triumphant over all, collecting the largesse of talismans and adding them to his store.
'And now Myra.' Milligan pointed at the one fortification still occupied in the center of the floor. 'What are your guesses, old crone? The hour grows late. We have been at this for the better part of a day.'
Myra grasped the talismans about her neck and hesitated. She squinted at the bouncing spheres while the bowl was being reloaded and then around the vast interior of the casino, as if looking for a sign. 'We both have warriors and shields still unspent,' she called out in a hoarse voice. 'It has made no sense to bring the fated twelve, if they are not to be used.'
'You talk as if you had a great store of wealth, Myra,' Milligan shot back. 'As great as Jelilac's own. But the ruse will not shake his beliefs. Having the dozen slash at one another is only a distraction. Eventually it will come down to the spheres.' He paused and waved. 'If you wish to increase the stakes, then it will be done. All talismans forfeited by the loser as before-but in addition, the retainers are to be given to the victor to do with what he will.'
Kestrel felt Phoebe tighten against him, but he did not know what to do. Myra or Jelilac-which one emerged the winner did not really matter; in either case, their fate was the same.
Myra scowled. She quickly counted the talismans about her neck and then looked around the now nearly deserted casino floor. She rubbed her chin and shook herself with a great sigh. Grabbing the largest stone hanging on her chest, she stared back at Milligan. For a long moment she did not waver. Then a hint of a smile formed on her lips.
'Done,' she said. 'Only instead of three balls let us make it two.'
Two of her retainers bolted to their feet but Myra motioned them to be still. 'Why not?' she muttered. 'You have seen what has happened to all the rest. This way our chance is the greatest, slim though it might be.'
Milligan frowned. 'But only two numbers increases the variability of the outcome even more,' he said. 'A truly lucky stroke could win, despite where lies the preponderance of wealth.'
'Precisely.' Myra cackled. 'Luck favors the believer and I will take what is my best chance.' She stopped suddenly and then reached into the paraphernalia her retainers had lugged out onto the floor. Kestrel watched with surprise as she extracted the navigator's almanac and opened it to a random page. He had thought it at the bottom of the sea; apparently it hadn't quite gone overboard from the raft.
'Eight and twelve,' Myra called out after she had stabbed her finger down onto the parchment. 'If I cannot win by simple luck, then calculations shall help me instead.'
She held up the volume with both hands over her head and turned slowly around so that everyone could see. The shouts of the crowd suddenly fell silent, as if their tongues had been sliced by a blade. For a long moment, no one stirred. Then a troubled murmur arose from the far end of the casino and flowed around the tiers.
'Calculations,' Milligan said after a moment. 'It is not our way-worse even than the slash of sword and clang of shield.'
'Eight and twelve,' Myra said. 'Perhaps now even Jelilac is beginning to have some doubts?'
'Never!' Kestrel heard Jelilac's voice boom out from the protection of the canvas framing. 'The old woman is desperate. I choose ninety-three and one hundred forty-two. Let the mixing begin.'
For a moment, Milligan did not move. Kestrel saw his shoulders twitch before he motioned for the air to begin pumping into the bowl. Almost instantly, a ball popped out the second tubing and everyone waited in hushed anticipation to see what it would be. 'Thirty-four.' Milligan set it aside. 'I admit that you will not be as easy as any of the rest, Myra, but even with calculations, Jelilac will prevail.'
Myra said nothing but stared back with unblinking eyes. Kestrel could see the stringy muscles in her arms draw into tense bands. He had to try something. Anything was better than just waiting to see which would be the victor.
'Yes, thirty-four,' he shouted suddenly. The prattle of numbers he had used many times before when posing as a magician came easily to his mind. 'Eight and twelve- eight and twelve are twenty and thirty-four minus twenty is fourteen, which is just two numbers from twelve. Two numbers, two-two is precisely the total to be chosen- as the calculations said they would be.'
Milligan frowned but said nothing. He reached for the next ball. 'Ninety-' he began, but Kestrel cut him off.
'Yes, in the nineties,' he said. 'Eight times twelve is ninety-six. The numbers emerged according to plan.'
Another ball bounced up to the exit orifice, but before it could start its journey it suddenly fell backward into the rest. The whirl of random motion died away. In an instant, all the spheres were lying quietly in the bottom of the bowl.
Jelilac emerged from the confines of his shelter. With a waddling gait he walked out to stand at Milligan's side.
'I have stopped the blower,' Jelilac said as he glanced quickly at Myra's tally on the board. 'If you truly believe in the power of your calculation, I have another proposition to offer instead.'
Myra tossed back her head and laughed, the tension suddenly gone. She glanced once at Kestrel and smiled. 'You said that I would not cause doubt, Milligan,' she wheezed, 'but your master's words speak otherwise. Do not mind this old book. It does not really matter. It served, to pull a lucky number from the air. It means no more than that.'
'I am willing to up the stakes still further,' Jelilacl said, 'and give you better odds.'
'You heard what my minion said,' Myra answered. 'The flow of luck is in my direction. There is no incentive for me to change.'
'If we employ instead the giant spinner, I will give you nine portions out of ten of the field,' Jelilac said. 'And in addition to the twelve, I propose that we become part of the prize pools ourselves.'
'No, not the spinner,' Milligan said. 'It is not proper. We have agreed not to succumb to the temptation that was offered. Let us continue with the dancing spheres. Surely you will prevail.'
Myra squinted. 'Nine out of ten,' she said, 'and your body to probe with my pinchers as I see fit.' She slapped the almanac at her side. 'Why not?' she cackled. 'Your luck is potent, but it cannot be that much greater than mine.'
Jelilac grimaced and motioned back to his retainers. 'I will be archon.' He answered the question forming on their lips. 'If we do not duel with the same tools, then how can we be sure?'
Milligan opened his mouth to protest, but Jelilac's stare turned him aside. He stood silent while two of the master aleator's retainers emerged from behind the tapestries carrying a large wooden frame into which a hundred pegs had been pounded in the outline of a great circle. With his head shaking, Milligan propped the panel upright. He offered no more aid as the helpers affixed a stout shaft onto an axle that protruded through the center of the frame. Kestrel saw that a flap of stiff leather was affixed to one end of the shaft and protruded just far enough to touch the circle of pegs.
'You may start the spinner into motion, Myra,' Jelilac said with tension in his voice. 'Then before it has completed its third spin, I will call out the ten numbers that I select as my own.'
Myra stepped from the fortifications. With a flourish of her cape, she walked across the casino floor, avoiding the mines that remained. When she reached the frame, she bowed slightly toward each of the six sides of the casino. Then, with an elaborate gesture, she grasped the opposite end of the spinner from the one that held the
