Card Mage: Tournament Topdecker by Benedict Patrick

Author:Benedict Patrick [Patrick, Benedict]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-09-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

The Book of the Water, Chapter 3, verses 22-25

“It is not you I wait for,” the voice beneath the water said. “I keep the blade for the one who will unite the peoples. I keep it for the one true king.”

“There is no king,” our Lord said, wading closer to where the woman’s hand held the sword above the surface of the lake, removing his golden chains from around his neck. “There is only me.”

It took ages for my friends to leave me alone.

Jelte had gone back to the rest of the Resistance within the first hour I’d been away, and everyone had been in panic mode since then. Things had gotten even worse once the inhuman screaming and explosions had started.

“What was it?” Pep asked. “We were nowhere near the Monastery, but we still heard the sound - half the Slums did, I think. What was making that noise?”

“An Inquisitor,” I replied.

Even Gunne’s face had lost its colour once that fact was out in the open.

“They’re real?” she asked, once she’d gotten control of herself.

I shrugged. “At least one of them, anyway. And the priests inside certainly knew what it was, so it can’t have been a totally unfamiliar sight to them.”

“I can’t believe you’re still alive,” Pep said. “And with a new card, too? Can I see it?”

I flicked the spirit bomb over to him, but shook my head at the same time. “It isn’t mine,” I said. “Was great to have some actual firepower in my deck, but I’m not going down the road of stealing cards - I’ll be giving that back to Maklerin as soon as I can.”

Pep nodded in agreement, but Gunne was less easy to convince. “But… but they’ve got plenty of cards in there,” she said. “Maklerin’s? They’ve got loads of cards. The loss of their wall is going to be a bigger blow to them than a two-cost spell card. You’re an idiot to throw away something that’s already proved it can save your life.”

“Card players don’t steal cards,” Pep and I both answered at the same time, and I threw him a grin as he passed the card back to me.

I eyed the spell card, looking at the screaming phantom on the front of it, with some kind of church clock tower framing the background. “Still,” I said, “maybe you’re right, Gunne; I don’t really want to give this up.” Decision made, I put the card back into my box. “Once I get my fee from the Resistance, I’ll use it to pay for the spell.”

They left me not long after so I could get some rest.

When I woke up, there was no doubt in my mind that my right leg was broken - it was swollen and purple at the ankle, and hurt like a bitch as soon as I tried to put any weight on it.

Excellent. Exactly what I needed.

The plan had been that I’d return to the Resistance along with Jelte. They hadn’t told me the meeting point, so he was to be my point of contact.

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