“Yes. Colorless, tasteless, and doubly effective when taken with liquor. Jerome and I were dusting our fingers with it before we handled our cards during each hand last night. Madam Corvaleur has a well-known habit of eating and licking her fingers while playing. Sooner or later, she was bound to take in enough of the drug to pass out.”
“Well!” Requin looked genuinely taken aback. “Selendri, do you know anything about this?”
“I can vouch for Corvaleur’s habits, at least,” she whispered. “It seemed to be her preferred method of irritating her opponents.”
“That it did,” said Locke. “It was quite a pleasure to see her do herself in.”
“I’ll grant your story is remotely plausible,” said Requin. “I had been…curious about Izmila’s strange incapacity.”
“Indeed. The woman’s built like an Elderglass boathouse. Jerome and I had more empty vials than her side did; what she’d had wouldn’t have gotten her eyelashes alone drunk, if not for the powder.”
“Perhaps. But let’s discuss other games. What of Blind Alliances?”
A game of Blind Alliances was played at a circular table with tall, specially designed barriers before each player’s hands so that everyone but the person directly across from them (their partner) could see at least some of their cards. Each silent participant set his or her right foot atop the left foot of the person on their right, all around the table, so no player could tap signals to a partner below the table. Partners therefore had to play by instinct and desperate inference, cut off from each other’s sight, voice, and touch.
“A child’s stratagem. Jerome and I had special boots constructed, with iron-shod toes beneath the leather. We could slide our feet carefully out the backs of them, and the iron would continue to provide the sensation of a full boot to the person beside us. We could tap entire books to one another with the code we’ve got. Have you ever known anyone to dominate that game as thoroughly as we did?”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I can show you the boots.”
“Well. You did seem to have an extraordinary run of luck…. But what about billiards? You scored a rather famous victory against Lord Landreval. How could you have finessed that? My house provides all the balls, the sticks, and the handling.”
“Yes, so naturally those three things couldn’t be fiddled. I paid Lord Landreval’s consulting physiker ten solari for insight into his medical complaints. Turns out he’s allergic to lemons. Jerome and I rubbed our necks, cheeks, and hands with sliced lemons each night before we played him, and used other oils to mostly cover up the scent. Half an hour in our presence and he’d be so puffed up he could barely see. I’m not sure he ever realized what the problem was.”
“You say you won a thousand solari with a few slices of lemon? Nonsense.”
“Of course you’re right. I asked politely if he’d lend me a thousand solari, and he offered to let us publicly humiliate him at his favorite game out of the kindness of his heart.”
“Hmmmph.”
“How often did Landreval lose before he met Jerome and myself? Once in fifty games?”
“Lemons. I’ll be damned.”
“Yes. When you can’t cheat the game, you’d best find a means to cheat the player. Given information and preparation, there’s not a player in your spire Jerome and I can’t dance along like a finger-puppet. Hell, someone with my talents who knew enough about me could probably string me right along, too.”
“It’s a good story, Master Kosta.” Requin reached across his desk and took a sip of his wine. “I suppose I can charitably believe at least some of what you claim. I suspected that you and your friend were no more merchant speculators than I am, but at my tower you may claim to be a duke or a three-headed dragon provided you have solid credit. You certainly did before you stepped into my office this evening. Which brings us only to the most important question of all—why the hell are you telling me this?”
“I needed your attention.”
“You already had it.”
“I needed more than that. I needed you to understand my skills and my inclinations.”
“And now you have that as well, inasmuch as I accept your story. What exactly do you think that gets you?”
“A chance that what I’m going to say next will actually sink in.”
“Oh?”
“I’m not really here to take your guests for a few thousand solari here and a few thousand solari there, Requin. It’s been fun, but it’s secondary to my actual goal.”
Locke spread his hands and smiled apologetically.
“I’ve been hired to break into your vault, just as soon as I find a way to haul everything in it from right out under your nose.”