Garban examined the cards in his hand and frowned. He’d been dealt the Seven of Gems, the Three of Cups, the Five of Blades, the Knight of Blades, and the Queen of Cups. No Crowns, which put him at a disadvantage in this game, but at least he could use the Knight to challenge another player, and the Queen to choose from the top 3 cards in the deck.

The goal of Crowns was to assemble a hand of three that was the highest value at the table. Each suite had a ranking, with Cups ranked the lowest. It was followed by Staves, then Gems, then Blades, and finally Crowns at the very top. A hand of three Crown Face cards was practically guaranteed a victory.

He watched as the tall woman with the scar—Seahawk, she’d said her name was—took the first turn. She discarded a Jack of Staves to draw a new card from the deck. Face cards had special effects when discarded, but number cards did nothing. If your hand fell below three, you would draw a new card on your next turn.

You could learn a lot about a man by watching how he played Crowns. Someone had told Garban that a long time ago, while in a drunken haze after losing a game, and Garban saw no reason to disbelieve it. Truss kept his face neutral and focused his efforts on discarding low-value cards, while Tress wore a constant smirk and appeared to discard with no rhyme or reason—high value, low value, it didn’t matter. Dorvo played much like Truss did, except that the lad had a truly terrible Crowns face, and it was easy to tell whenever the lad drew a good or poor card.

Seahawk was by far the most difficult of the players to read. Her expression was stony the entire game, and her discards seemed to be following some obscure and arcane pattern that Garban, try as he might, just could not discern. At one point, she even discarded a One of Crowns, which shocked him. Sure, Ones were of low value, but a Crown card was a Crown card. Did that mean that she had three other, higher value Crowns? Or did she instead wish to gamble her luck on drawing a higher-value Crown? He wished he could tell, but the woman’s face betrayed absolutely nothing.

So he tried talking to her.

“You a gambling woman?” he asked.

Her expression did not change. “I gamble when it matters,” Seahawk told him. “When it does not, I refrain.”

“Hmph.”

Well that reply told him less than nothing.

“This is fun!” Tress announced, placing her hand of three face-down on the table. Now that the first player had folded, everyone else had one turn left if their hand was already at three, or two turns if their hand was higher. “We should do this more often. And maybe we should bet more than five coins on it.” She glanced at Garban with an amused, almost mocking, expression.

That girl definitely had a good hand then. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t be able to keep the frown from her face. Oh sure, Tress could try to bluff, to pretend that she had a better hand than she did, but Garban had played Crowns with her before. Her lips and her eyes would twitch a certain way, and he would know immediately that she was fighting off a frown.

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But she was doing no such thing now. Garban, however, certainly was. He had a Five of Gems, a King of Staves, and a Three of Crowns. Withholding a sigh, he discarded his Five. Then, because it was his final turn, he drew up to three, one last time.

A King of Crowns.

He felt his eyes widen, and then immediately exerted some self-control. Sure, it wasn’t the best hand, but a King of Crowns was the highest-value card in the game. He might actually have a chance at victory. Garban placed his three cards face-down on the table.

Soon enough, everyone had folded. The players all nodded to each other, and then they all flipped their hands over to reveal what they had.

Garban felt a surge of triumph as he looked around the table. No one else had a hand that could match his. Tress’ came close—a King of Gems, a Four of Crowns, and a Seven of Crowns. Each card’s value was multiplied by the value of its suite, giving Tress an impressive 91 points. However, Garban’s hand just barely overcame hers, with an excellent 99. A smile played at his lips.

And then he saw Seahawk’s hand.

A Six of Crowns, a Joker, and a Joker.

His eyes widened, and Seahawk finally allowed herself a small smile. Jokers did nothing. They were worth nothing. But upon being revealed at the end of the game, they could be exchanged with any card held by another player.

Seahawk held up her Jokers. “I think I will take Tress’ Seven and Garban’s King,” she said.

Tress burst out laughing. “By the Twins, how did you get those?”

The taller woman shrugged. “I hunted for them.”

“That’s absurd! Garban nearly shouted. He felt his blood boil, and he fought to get his growing rage under control. “There’s only two Jokers in the deck! The chances that you’d actually manage to find them both…” Sixty-two cards and she’d somehow managed to draw both Jokers?

“I was lucky,” Seahawk said.

Garban bit his tongue. He wasn’t about to accuse the woman of being a cheat, not after one game. Maybe she had been lucky this time. “Fine,” he said, sliding his coins over to her. “Another game? Double the bet this time.”

“Garban…” Truss began, his voice soft. At the same time, Dorvo asked: “Are you sure about this?”

But he just waved away the humans’ concerns. They thought him foolish, perhaps, but Garban was not a man who simply accepted defeat. “I feel good about another hand,” he said. “Come on, let’s go another round.”

Seahawk regarded him coolly, then nodded.

“You’re on.”