Page 23 of Song of the Shadow Prince
“Cock-what?” Maeve gasped, her cheeks tinting pink in embarrassment.
I frowned. “Cocktails, you freak! Get your head out of the gutter!”
She shook her head with wide eyes. “My lady, I do not know what it is you speak of.”
I sighed. “Never mind. What do they serve to drink here?”
“Ale,” she answered primly. “And I believe they have mead as well.”
I wasn’t a beer girlie, but I could enjoy a Corona and lime once in a blue moon. And like the good Colombian I was, I appreciated a nice refreshing refajo, which was a mix of beer with Colombian soda, something akin to champagne soda. It was quite delightful. “I guess I can go for some… ale,” I said reluctantly.
Maeve chuckled. “Stay put, and I’ll go get us some.” She stood and gave me a hard look, followed up with a stern reminder not to move, before heading to the bar to get our drinks.
I returned my attention to the commotion in the other corner of the room and craned my neck to see what was going on, but I couldn’t get a good look amongst the crowd. I glanced at Maeve’s back as she tried to push her way through the throng at the bar and smirked. My curiosity got the best of me and I decided to step away for a moment. What was the worst that could happen?
Untying my cloak, I placed it on my chair to save our table and gingerly crept over to the crowd in the corner. I pushed through the gaggle of men as they tossed money on the table and realized they were gambling.
Two men, one on either end of the table, were playing against each other. Each held a tubular wooden container with a flat surface at the bottom. After vigorously shaking it, they’d slam the wooden case on the table and yell.
“Big!” the man on my left shouted. He had shoulder-length, dirty blond hair tied back with a leather tie, with loose, sweaty strands stuck to his face. A brown leather eye patch covered his left eye, but his right eye was green and bright with excitement as he waited for the other person to declare his bet.
“Small!” the man on my right barked. He wasn’t as disheveled as Mr. Eye Patch, but I wouldn’t peg him as someone from the Northern District, either.
Each man removed the wooden case from the flat surface, revealing three dice that were still spinning. The crowd yelled out their predictions as money exchanged hands. The excitement was contagious, and I sort of wanted to participate myself, but then I remembered I was broke.
The dice stopped spinning, and the results were in. With smaller numbers emblazoned on his dice, Mr. Eye Patch lost. “Damn it!” he fumed, slamming his hands on the table hard enough to make all the coins rattle.
“Come on, Garrick! You lost again! You owe him!” someone from the crowd bellowed at Mr. Eye Patch, whom I now knew as Garrick.
Garrick grumbled and dug in his pockets, pulling out a few coins and slapping them on the table with a snarl. “There! Happy now?”
The coins weren’t round like the ones I was familiar with. These were shaped like leaves, made of gold. Another strange element to this bizarre world into which I’d fallen.
The winner, a sly-looking fellow with a sharp grin, scooped up the leaves with a proud flourish. “Very. Care for another round, Garrick? Or have you had enough?”
Garrick’s eye blazed with defiance. “One more round. This time, I’ll win it all back!”
“How about we sweeten the pot?” the winner said with a crafty smile. “Toss in the deed to your place and then we canreallyplay. I’ll match it with a hundred thousand gold leaves.”
The sparkle in Garrick’s viridian eye bloomed and I knew he was sorely tempted. I wanted to tell him to call it quits before he got any deeper into debt. His opponent seemed shady as fuck,but honestly, this was none of my business. Getting involved in their squabble would only bring trouble I didn’t need.
“My lady?” I heard Maeve shout, her voice panicked. “Lady Arya!”
I peered over my shoulder and watched her place two mugs of ale on our table and turn to search the bar just as Garrick yelled, “Deal!”
I turned and pushed through the crowd toward Maeve, who caught my gaze.
“My lady!” she admonished, her eyes widening when she realized where I had been. “I told you to stay put!”
I shrugged one shoulder and offered a crooked grin. “It looked fun. That one-eyed guy really has a gambling problem, though. He straight-up put the deed to his home in the pot!” I shook my head and reclaimed my seat.
“One eyed? You mean Garrick?”
The sight of Maeve sipping her ale like a princess made me chuckle. She might hail from the Southern District, but the girl was all Northern. I guess we had Arya to thank for that.
I nodded. “Yeah, I heard his name was Garrick.”
“Hmm.” She licked the foam from her upper lip. “He’s a famous warlock around these parts. Poor fellow has truly fallen from grace.”
