The Two of Swords: Part 8 by Parker K. J

Author:Parker, K. J. [Parker, K. J.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780356505633
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2015-09-14T22:00:00+00:00

If Axeo missed his treasure the next morning, he gave no sign of it. They resumed their places in the cart and set off down the miraculous road. Thirty miles, maybe less, to Merebarton.

“Another good game,” Axeo was saying, “is Blind Chopper. Do you know that one? We used to play it a lot in the army. It goes like this. Dealer deals five cards face down, you’re not allowed to look at them—”

Pleda was having second thoughts about Axeo’s men. At first he’d assumed they were deserters, with Axeo as their officer; it was common enough, a platoon or half-platoon deciding it had had enough of the war, or finding itself in trouble on account of some breach of military law, or simply unable to resist the commercial opportunities of the total breakdown of civilisation. That might in some part explain the unswerving obedience, and the way Axeo took them so completely for granted. Pleda was still fairly sure that the four silent men were soldiers – the way they walked, talked and moved, they couldn’t be anything else – but unless there were provinces of the Eastern empire he knew nothing about, which was rather unlikely, they most definitely weren’t Easterners. Possibly they were the other lot, which would make sense of Axeo’s remark about all being patriots, and there was a degree of logic in a group of Western deserters moving east, where the ferociously keen military proctors couldn’t follow them. It was the loyalty thing that bothered him most; more than loyalty, it was rather a sort of involuntary devotion. It reminded Pleda of a shepherd he’d known; horrible man, who used to take his bad temper out on his dog, but the more he kicked the dog for no reason, the more it worshipped him. That and the business with the cards— Well. Axeo had cheated on the deal, he’d seen it quite plainly. To win, of course, to make money. But the hands he’d dealt; oh, he was a clever man, sure enough. And the pack (yes, but it had been Pleda who’d suggested a game of cards), and the Ace of bloody Swords. He made a quick interpretation of the two hands; inconclusive. Pleda didn’t really believe in fortune-telling, because with a bit of skill and sophistry you could make a deal of cards mean anything you wanted it to. The cards Axeo had chosen for him could have meant he’d reached the end of his journey and now it was time to hand his burden on to a better, stronger man; even that would be a bit too vague and convenient to base a decision on. Of course, he had no way of knowing that the handsome man really was Axeo, though if you were going to assume someone’s identity, there were a lot of better ones you could choose. One thing he was sure of. No way in hell could Axeo be the Ace of Swords—

Could he?

He glanced at him, then looked away quickly.

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