Blind God's bluff

difference.”

A’marie’s eyes kept drilling into me. “You don’t know anything about our world or how we live. All you’ve seen is the lords’ stupid game. So don’t try to tell us you understand them and their ways better than we do!”

“I wasn’t,” I said, although I guessed that really, I had been.

“Please, A’marie,” Mrs. Rufino said, “it’s all right. He’s done so much already. We can’t ask-”

“It’s not all right,” snapped A’marie, “and I can ask! Of course we’re grateful for what he’s already done. But we need him to help everybody, not just one person!” She turned her glare back on me. “If you won’t do it because it’s right, do it because I stopped Leticia from hurting you.”

“And then I stopped her from hurting you,” I said. And was sorry as soon as the words came out of my mouth, since A’marie had only been in trouble because she’d stuck her neck out for me.

I could tell from the way her mouth twisted that she agreed with me that it had been a dick thing to say. “Fine,” she said. “Do what you have to do. Help Timon, take your money, and go away. We’ll fix our own problems.”

With that, she turned and disappeared down the dark hallway. Her spindly goat legs moved in kind of a delicate, mincing way even when she was mad and stamping along.

After that, there wasn’t much to do but ask Rufino and the family if they knew their way out. It turned out they did, so I didn’t have to help them look for it. I borrowed one of the hurricane lanterns-A’marie had taken our candle with her-and climbed the stairs back up to my room to put on fresh clothes.

There was a manila envelope leaning against the bottom of my door. And maybe all the danger and craziness was making me paranoid, but I got a bad feeling as soon as I saw it.

But it probably wasn’t a letter bomb, or the magical equivalent of one, and I couldn’t just stand and stare at it all day. I picked it up, tore open the flap, and dumped out what was inside. It turned out to be a cell phone.

A gift from Timon, to replace the one he’d blown up? I doubted it was his style to be so thoughtful. I flipped it open and checked for stored numbers and messages. I didn’t find either one.

Feeling edgy, I unlocked the door, carried the phone inside, and set it on the table in the middle of the dirty breakfast dishes. I was just pulling on another shirt when it rang, playing a bland little riff of tinny electronic music.

I snatched it up and said, “Hello.”

At first, nobody answered. I wondered if I should throw the phone across the room before something supernatural and nasty jumped through the connection. For all I knew, that kind of thing could happen. Then a girl said, “Billy?” I could tell from the catch in her voice that she’d been crying.

All of a sudden, my throat felt clogged. I was scared in a way I hadn’t been even when all the finhead impersonators were coming at me with their knives. “Vic?” I answered.

“They beat me up,” she whimpered. “And they say they won’t let me go until-” Then she wasn’t there anymore.

“Vic?” I said. “Vic?”

“She’s all right,” Rhonda Sullivan said in her husky four-packs-a-day voice. “But she isn’t going to stay that way unless you bring my money.”

“I’m getting it!” I said. “I just need a little more time!”

“This afternoon,” Rhonda said, and then hung up.

My hands shaking, I hit Redial. My call didn’t go through.

I strained to push panic out of my head and think. None of this made sense. Rhonda and the Martinezes shouldn’t have kidnapped an innocent, a real citizen, no less, just to put the screws to the likes of me. The return wasn’t worth the risk. And even if they were going to, they shouldn’t have picked on Vic. They shouldn’t even have known who she was.

And speaking of stuff that didn’t add up, how had the new cell phone gotten in front of the door to the room, and how had Rhonda known to call me on it?

There was only one explanation. One of the lords had somehow gotten Rhonda to do something she’d normally never do. Which still left the question of how any of the monsters had known about Rhonda or Vic. But hey, magic.

I ran downstairs to the front desk. The guy behind it told me Timon wanted me and was waiting in the meeting room where we’d talked the night before. So I rushed back up to the mezzanine.

Timon looked like his recovery was coming along. He had pale, glistening lumps in his sockets, although they weren’t anything you’d actually call eyes. Not yet. He sniffed twice when I burst through the doorway, then scowled.

“You’ve been working magic,” he said. “Why?”

“It doesn’t matter,” I answered. “Something’s happened.” Pacing around, I told him what it was.

When I finished, he said, “Hm. When you were experiencing your ‘flashbacks,’ as you called them, it’s possible Leticia caught glimpses of them, too. That could have led her to this Victoria.”

“Whatever. The point is, I have to pay Rhonda, and that means I need my money early.”

“No,” he said, “the real point is that one of my rivals wants to lure you out of the hotel, where you’ll be easier to attack.”

“I know that,” I said. “I’m not stupid. But I still have to help Vic.”

“Why?” he asked.

“What?”

“If she’s your ex-fiancee, why do you care?”

“Because,” I said, “not so long ago, she meant everything to me. I’m still grateful for all good times we had and all the things she did for me. I don’t expect you to understand-”

“The problem,” he said, “is that you don’t understand. This woman is only a human, and you’ve grown into something more: a lord’s champion. You can’t let a sentimental attachment distract you from what’s actually important.”

I glared. “Meaning, saving your ass.”

“Meaning, fulfilling your responsibilities according to our bargain, and so assuring yourself of a comfortable place in the world where you really belong.”

“Look,” I said, “it doesn’t have to be one thing or the other. If you’re worried about me, give me some bodyguards to tag along when I deliver the money.”

“I admit, that would reduce the danger. But not enough. My rivals are powerful and clever, and I seem to be going through a patch where my servants aren’t as motivated as they ought to be.”

“Well, how about if you have a messenger deliver the money? I can tell him where to take it.”

He frowned. The blob in his right eye socket started twitching over and over again. Bubbly fluid seeped out from underneath it, and I caught a raw-meat smell through his usual cloud of funk. “If I pay you in advance,” he said, “what is there to keep you motivated?”

“Oh, come on!” I said. “If you’ve been paying attention at all, you know I want to beat these assholes. Hell, everything they do just makes me want it more. And I will. I’ve dominated the table ever since you brought me in.”

“Still… ”

“If I lose, I’ll pay you back.”

He scowled. “Yes, you will, or-”

“You’ll kill me,” I snapped. “Or hex me. I understand that, too. I’ve seen how you people work. So let’s skip over the threats and just get the damn money together, okay?”

Eventually, we did. One of the Tuxedo Team brought bundles of bills from the hotel safe. We counted out a hundred and fifty thousand, and I pocketed twenty. I swear to God, at that point, all I really cared about was getting Vic out of trouble. But still, there was no point giving away money I didn’t owe.

Timon sent a guy named Donald, who looked pretty normal except for really long, pointed fingernails, each painted a different color, to deliver the cash. Afterward, I prowled around the hotel and waited for my new cell phone to ring.

It didn’t. And as time crawled by, I got more and more worried. More and more sure that sending the money wasn’t really going to accomplish anything at all.