A Shield of Sorrow by Kate Avery Ellison

Author:Kate Avery Ellison [Ellison, Kate Avery]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2018-04-05T04:00:00+00:00

~

Briand sat across from the thief-queen at the plank table the thieves had set down across four barrels in the middle of the round room. Sunlight poured down from the hole in the ceiling like light down a well, and it made a pool of gold on the rough boards and the cards spread across them. Rags had removed her threadbare coat and stripped off her woolen gloves and hat. She was sprawled comfortably on her barrel, legs spread, elbows on the table.

Briand sat straight on her barrel, shoulders back and chin high, gazing at her cards with casual confidence. In previous years, she presented herself as uncertain, timid, even ignorant of the game, but there was no point in such a farce here. Her Dubbok skills were known among the thieves. Already, the others were murmuring. Briand was famously skilled, and Rags had only a passing fancy for the game.

Rags, however, seemed unable to stop smirking. As if she knew exactly how the game were going to go, and she found the ending delightfully cruel in a pleasing way.

Briand kept an eye on her as she studied her hand. Rags might try to cheat, given that she was acting so pleased with herself, and the fact that the thief-queen was not known to be a strong player. She’d called the challenge poetic. Was that the point of this game? That Rags would publicly cheat Briand out of a win as she felt Briand had cheated her?

Briand did not intend to be cheated, no matter what Rags had up her sleeve.

“Nervous, Guttersnipe?” Rags asked. “You’re frowning.”

“Not in the slightest,” Briand said. She shuffled the cards and dealt the hands, then set the deck in the center of the table with a slap. She caught Nath’s eye, and his mouth pinched in an almost-smile from where he stood with his back to the wall and a thief’s knife at his throat. His eyes gleamed.

He had faith in her.

Let it not be misplaced, she wished.

“Let’s play,” she said.

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