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“Five thrones on Secundus Majora, bets of two.” Idira pushed her opening gambit across the ashwood table of the officer’s mess hall, next to the spread of cards before them.
Jae, her gambling partner and opponent, clicked her tongue in response. “Idira, shereen, you insult us both with such a low opening. And Secundis Majora at that! Come now, you can do better — ten thrones at least.”
They were in the final rounds of playing Calixian Suite, Footfall variant, with two cards left to draw.
Jae had had the upper hand so far.
She was cheating, of course; the cold trader always cheated at cards. But she was fun, and Idira got along with her well enough — well enough to brave the middle deck dives with her and gamble with idiots who weren’t yet wise to Jae’s ways. And anyway, it wasn’t like Idira couldn’t help but cheat sometimes herself. Her psyker powers had the habit of intruding at the best and worse times, so she reckoned it evened out in the end.
Idira made a show of thinking about her next play, considering the cards in her hand. The murmured conversations of other patrons surrounded them — interrupted by the occasional bark of raucous laughter and shouting, and the bump of waiters carrying plates of food. Idira could hear the whispers of everyone’s minds in the room, lying just below the tones of their chatter. She tried not to listen, but things slipped through here and there anyway.
“Don’t back down on me now, my divine, illustrious, all-seeing friend! The Exalted One surely smiles on you in these last hands, like the sun greets the desert sands.” Jae gave her a dazzling smile, and took a drink from her glass — some Janusian whiskey that shone gold-brown under the mess hall lights, the same colour as her coat.
Idira felt her eyes twitch as the little voices behind the door whispered in her ears, unbidden, their words carrying traces of the cold trader’s thoughts: Three false hearts on her sleeve, one hidden behind her smile. She passes coins like cold glass; a trick of the light.
And then Idira saw it: the subtle slip of a card from Jae’s sleeve into her hand, exchanging it with a different one. In the same motion, the cold trader took another sip of the whiskey held by her augmented arm, the rings on her metal fingers glimmering gold.
So, Jae had slipped a Primaris Three into her hand. She probably thought Idira had run out of her best cards last round, and was looking to cinch a victory by edging her into throwing more thrones onto a losing bet. And a Secundus Majora was extremely unlikely with the current spread of cards on the table.
But Idira had already divined the second card from the top of the deck. A Secundus Five that would make a flush with her otherwise useless hand. It would sweep the floor with whatever Jae had, even if her individual cards were worth more.
So Idira took the bait with a grin.
She grabbed fifteen more thrones from her stack, and unceremoniously tossed them into a central pile with the others. “Fine. Twenty thrones on Secundus Majora, bets of eight. You better have a good hand to push me like that, shereen.”
Jae’s dazzling smile turned cold for a moment before it settled back into an all-too-easy smile, full-teethed and gleaming white. “Perhaps. Twenty thrones on Secundus Majora it is.” She leaned back in her chair, the very image of a stretching lynx, and yawned. “Speaking of…did you happen to hear back from that mid-deck harranger azhi? The one caught with the void weighted dice?”
Idira took a swig from her own bottle, a rum-bellied Footfall brew from behind the bar, and drew the first card off the top of the deck — a Quintus Seven. Useless for her, but that didn’t matter. She tossed eight more thrones onto the pile. “Piece of grox-shit still owes us for scraping her out of that,” she said.
“Indeed she does. Four thousand thrones by my count,” Jae replied, glancing at the newest addition to the card spread, then back to her hand. She slid forward eight of her own thrones, slow and languid.
“So are we gonna head back down sometime, or—”
Idira cut off as the mess hall came to a sudden hush. The Lord Captain, Lady Amberlyn von Valancius, had walked into the room and was making her way to the bar. Some of the officers at other tables stood awkwardly. Others half-saluted from their chairs. But many others still didn’t quite know what to do in their Lord Captain’s presence during their off-duty hours.
Lady Amberlyn could take her meals in her room; it was what Lady Theodora had done. But she didn’t. It was her habit now to sit in the officer’s mess hall. Idira had asked her about it recently. She’d said it was something about wanting company, to be surrounded by people even if you sat alone. Idira could understand that. The Lord Captain seemed content to sit amongst her officers, quietly reading a data-slate or a book, while nursing a drink. Perhaps she simply wanted to blend into the crew, sometimes.
The conversation in the hall only resumed, slow and faltering, once Lady Amberlyn had taken her seat at one of the far tables, tucked against the wall-spanning voidship windows, draped in rich blue curtains.
Idira drew the next card from the deck. The Secundus Five. She tried to hide the giggle that bubbled in her throat, threatening to burst out, and tossed another eight thrones onto the pile. She might have been able to push Jae further, but she’d rather break with the victory she already had. She’d let Jae hang herself with more bets.
“We should return to the middle decks together sometime, my bright jewel of the bridge, and clear up that debt we’re owed,” Jae said, throwing sixteen thrones onto the pile. She clearly thought Idira had a poor hand, and was keen to coax her on.
Idira matched her bet and said, in the most nonchalant voice she could manage, “I’ll stand, you?”
Jae nodded. “I’ll stay,” she said, spreading her hand of cards out on the table.
The diviner couldn’t help the shit-eating grin on her face as she followed suit, showing off her Secundus flush. As she’d suspected, Jae’s hand was made of better individual cards, even after Jae had cheated, but Idira’s won out.
Jae swore in her native tongue, still holding her whiskey, and pointed her augmented finger at Idira. “You little ashmag! I was—do you know how unlikely that was? With that hand you should have folded before the last card!”
“You were counting the cards!” Idira laughed. “That’s cheating.”
“I was not! Your accusations are as unfounded as a desert sinkhole, shereen, ready to collapse.” She flicked her hand in Idira’s direction. “And counting cards is not cheating; it is simply discourteous on Efreet. As is gambling for gold — tempting fate, as it’s said. So take your thrones, you thief. You have robbed a princess of her rightful bounty this day.”
“Yeah right. I didn’t miss the card you had stashed up your sleeve either, you sly dog.”
Jae flashed her a look, her eyes bright and playful. “Dog is too…disparaging. I prefer sly fox.”
Just as the room had almost returned to its normal level of conversation, it died down again. Idira, in the middle of scooping up her pile of thrones, saw Heinrix van Calox lingering in the entrance doorway.
“Oh for—” Idira cursed. Of course the loyal Inquisition hound would come sniffing around here. “That’s really gonna bring the mood down.”
He made his way to the bar, leaning over it as if to order something from the severely unamused bartender while glancing all over the room, clearly looking for someone. And then his gaze settled on Lady Amberlyn, who was too involved in reading a data-slate to notice the change in the room. Heinrix quickly snapped his eyes back to the bar.
The little voices pressed at Idira’s mind again and she tried to keep them out, she really did. She really didn’t want to hear about the iceman’s — Tangled hands and tangled hearts. He lays a kiss each time, loving the way she blushes, burying beneath a drowning blue, not believing it will last.
Idira suppressed the urge to vomit with a loud gag, then nodded at Heinrix at the bar instead. “Okay, new bet, princess. Twenty thrones that iceman goes and sits at Lady Amberlyn’s table.”
Jae leaned over her chair to see, then gave Idira a cutting look when she turned back. “You’re divining this, aren’t you? You’ve seen them!”
Idira grinned behind her bottle of rum. “Before they even knew it.”
The cold trader leaned over the table, her voice dangerous, with a teasing edge. “Is that how you won the last round? That’s cheating too. No bet.”
“I mean, I don’t know for certain…” Idira spread her hands wide in a show of innocence. “But I’ve got a pretty good idea that the iceman’s got the hots for Lady Amberlyn. Just watch — he’ll sit with her. He can’t help himself.”
Jae clicked her tongue again as Idira’s prediction came to life. After gathering two drinks from the bar, the interrogator hovered awkwardly above the Lord Captain’s table, before finally coming to a decision and taking the seat opposite her. Lady Amberlyn looked surprised for a moment before smiling at him with a genuine warmth that made Idira want to gag again. Heinrix immediately relaxed, briefly taking one of her hands in his.
When the general conversation in the hall resumed, Jae tapped her fingers on her glass and said, “Our Lady von Valancius and van Calox together. Who could have predicted that?”
Idira scoffed. “Are you kidding? I just said—you’re talking to a—ugh.” She made an exasperated noise. “You haven’t seen them both making eyes at each other all the frakking time in the field, princess. You don’t need to be a diviner for that.”
“Perhaps the Rogue Trader doesn’t take me with her as often as she should. Then maybe I would have. But they do play regicide together frequently — if it is regicide they are playing.” She rounded on Idira again. “And anyway — I thought you weren’t meant to listen to whispers about our dear Lord Captain.”
“Hey!” Idira threw her hands up, then spoke through clenched teeth. “I can’t help it if they’re screaming their pining through the warp like banshees, Heydari. They’re both psykers! There’s only so much I can do.”
The cold trader laughed at that. “If I had your visions, I would be supremely tempted to dip my toes in and see more, Exalted One be my witness. You are a stronger woman than I. But I shall make do with hot baths, cold drinks, and spiced soaps instead. I have another idea anyway…”
Jae drowned the rest of her drink, then gathered up the scattered deck of cards. She smiled brilliantly. “We take on the middle decks again! My charm and quick fingers, and your divination. We’d be unstoppable, shereen! Just imagine us,” she spread her hands wide. “Stars of the middle deck gambling circuit! And we find where that ashmag who owes us has gone.”
Idira finished her own drink, slamming the bottle down on the table with a satisfying clunk. “Deal! How about now? Let’s go now!”
Jae returned her smile, all dazzling silver and gold augments as she rose from her seat. “Heart of my cards, I hope you aren’t reading my mind, because I had the exact same thought. But do keep that in your pocket for our next opponents. Telepathy could be just as deadly in a game of cards.”
As they left the mess hall, Idira chanced a look at Lady Amberlyn’s table. She was reading something out to Heinrix, and he — well, his drink was untouched, and his attention was rapt on her. Lady Amberlyn seemed oblivious, and Idira suppressed the urge to be violently sick again as she followed Jae out of the mess hall.