IV. Cards, Tricks, & Magic
Once again, Hawke regretted all his life choices leading up to this current moment. All right, maybe not all of them, but every single one he’d made since they rolled into town. It was supposed to be easy. Fling around a song, get enough coin for a room with a feather mattress, and rest. He could have been fooling around with Pretty Eyes or hell, at least passed out underneath a warm blanket. But no. He was here. Playing cards with a guy who’d just done something weird with dice. Had to be magic, especially the way Vahn’s eyes absolutely lit up seeing them roll in the air, but that was beside the point.
The last time he’d played cards was many moons ago and he’d gotten run out of town for cheating right afterward.
Vahn didn’t look too roughed up at least. Tired, sure, but he’d been that more than he’d been admitting to. Wrists were red around the bangles, but otherwise, definitely still Vahn. At least he had his wand back now too, but Hawke wished he’d use it. Catch this asshole off guard and then Hawke could clean up. The girls couldn’t have been that hard to knock flat.
But then Vahn would have no voice and Hawke had no idea how to get it back to him.
“Yeah, that’s fine with me.” Hawke shrugged, trying to relax. “Cards.”
He did not like the smile Jake gave him or the way he tugged Vahn closer until his hand was at his back. Vahn, ever the willing hostage, followed Jake to the campfire and they sat down side-by-side. Hawke waited another moment before he followed and sat across from them. The two girls—Mel and Mar—were thankfully on the other side of the fire. Their knowing smiles put Hawke immediately on edge.
Hawke also hated how silent Vahn was. It was unnerving. He’d never seen one done before, but he’d heard about them from Trice. She’d especially hated Spire Knights because many of them used it flippantly for shits and giggles and despite her once status, she hadn’t been immune. At the time, it sounded like a mere annoyance at best, but now? Seeing it in affect? A silent Vahn was wrong, just as much as a silent Trice would have been wrong.
“You played Crows before, yeah?” Jake asked finally.
“Yep.” It was the only game Hawke knew how to play well. Simple game. The main goal was to take more tricks than your opponent, but also assemble the cards you drew between hands into some kind of combo to score points alongside your taken tricks. Sometimes, you could take zero tricks and still win because the combo was that good, but Hawke didn’t like trying for that. Too risky.
Hawke didn’t know what robbing a High Magician entailed, but he was going to guess not a lot of good. Couldn’t put Vahn’s well-being at risk for that kind of play.
Jake was smug as he shuffled the cards and never broke eye contact with Hawke. Unsettling, to say the least, although it let Hawke study the man. If Hawke had to guess, Jake couldn’t have been much older than him. On one hand, it reminded Hawke how much of his own life had rolled by without anything concrete. On the other, Jake must have really made a mess of things if he ran away from the Spire Knights. The position was typically for life and came with a bunch of cushy extras to make up for when keeping the peace went sideways. Any other time, Hawke might have tried to get more out of Jake for a story, but he’d sound too pissed if he tried now.
“So serious,” Jake said. Vahn’s lips moved, but Hawke couldn’t read them. Jake must have heard something; he leaned toward Vahn as though listening to silent words, and then chuckled. “Even he says you should lighten up.”
Vahn responded by setting his mouth in a deep frown. Jake rolled his eyes. “I say it my way, little magician.” He stacked the deck together and held it out for Hawke. “Here, as a show of good faith, I’ll even let you shuffle too.”
The deck felt like any old cards and shuffled easily between Hawke’s fingers. He could hear nothing enchanted about them when doing so, either. Still, it felt like a trick. Mel and Mar stared at him, unblinking, as though they expected him to cheat. Fat chance at that. Not with this many eyes.
Hawke finished and though Jake held out his hand to take the cards back, Hawke held them out to Vahn. One way to see for sure if the deck was enchanted or not: let the little magician have it.
“Vahn shuffles too,” Hawke said as Jake’s mouth tightened. “Since he’s what we’re playing over, after all. Unless you don’t want him to.”
Jake smiled and pressed a hand to Vahn’s shoulder. “He can’t enchant them, you know.”
“I know,” Hawke said, although he’d secretly hoped Vahn could.
Not with the look Vahn was giving him. Between suspicion and curiosity, even Vahn had no idea why Hawke gave him the deck. At least that probably meant the cards weren’t already enchanted. Vahn shuffled them between slender fingers, slower than Jake and Hawke had done previously, and once he finished, Jake dealt the hands.
Five cards at the start and then the rest of the deck was settled between them for easy access when pulling new cards after the taken tricks.
“First to three wins,” Jake said.
“Thought you said we play until dawn.”
Jake smiled, but didn’t take his eyes off his cards as he sorted them in his hand. “I said if you can win by dawn. ‘Sides, I’d like to sleep at some point. Unless you literally want to go until dawn and see how many games I can wrack up.”
“First to three then.” Hawke swallowed. “Coin toss for first move?”
Mel and Mar patted themselves down until the one with the spikes in her ears pulled a shiny coin out from her tunic. “Heads is Jake—tails is you!” She attempted to toss it into the air, but Jake immediately snatched it. “Hey!”
Magic drummed off the coin and dissipated beneath Jake’s fingers. The girls pouted. “Let’s have our guest toss the coin,” Jake said cooly and dropped the coin into Vahn’s palm. He closed Vahn’s fingers over it before bringing it to his lips for a kiss of all things.
For fuck’s sake. What did they all think Hawke and Vahn were to each other?
Vahn was not flustered one bit—not like Hawke, who had to bite down an exasperated reaction. Vahn dutifully tossed the coin and they let it drop between them near the cards. Tails. Hawke eased out a breath and considered his first move.
First game was dog shit. Hawke lost four of the five tricks and his compiled hand wasn’t enough points to dig his way back from that. Jake smiled through it all, a self-serving smirk, and Hawke hated it with every fiber of his being. Give him a gambling house’s cardsharp any day over this guy.
“Relax,” Jake cooed and the girls giggled between themselves. Hawke wished they’d go back to slurping their stew. “You’re just too tense. Hm?” Jake glanced down at Vahn who was peering over his held cards. Jake happily showed him. “You play this game up there, little magician?”
Vahn eagerly nodded and as Jake went through his cards, Vahn flicked a glance at Hawke. It was then Hawke noticed the wand was in his lap now. And it was only after that did Hawke hear the softest trill of magic, a sound hardly heard over the crackling fire. Vahn’s gaze darted back across the cards, pausing long enough for a number of trills before he went on to the next one.
Hawke’s pulse raced, realizing what Vahn was doing. The slightest burst of magic for Hawke to hear. Telling him the cards Jake held.
Sneaky little Vahn. Hawke bit back from smiling and reconsidered his cards with the new information gracing his ears. Maybe he could win this way. He just had to play it cool.
Although it didn’t help when Mel and Mar decided to “help” him like Vahn was “helping” Jake. They surrounded Hawke on either side, pointed at cards to play, and huffed when he waved them off. Jake watched them, amused, and Vahn stayed the course too well, repeating the trills of magic over and over again. The distraction of the girls cost Hawke a trick or two, but he cleaned up the rest, especially with the combo he’d put together at the end. The girls high-fived behind Hawke and Vahn laughed with a genuine smile despite the lack of a voice.
“Hey,” Jake teased, shaking his head. “Just whose side are you two on here?”
Mel plopped herself down and put her hands behind her head. “It’s boring if you absolutely wipe the floor with him! Figured we could give him a chance.”
Mar puffed out a sigh, blowing the wisps of hair falling across her forehead. “Watching you flirt is always boring, Jake. Cut us some slack. Pretty bard here needs all the help he can get.”
Hawke gave them both a weary look in which they replied with confident grins of their own. They stayed out of the next game, however, but their eyes watched every single card Hawke touched and sometimes they looked just shy of redirecting him. Vahn kept up the trills, making himself look as bored at the girls at the same time.
This hand, Hawke threw on purpose. Couldn’t win too quickly after the first terrible hand, so he made a good show to hopefully indicate he was still learning to read Jake. Vahn shot him an alarmed look and the trills became more insistent this time.
“So,” Hawke conversed as Jake doled out another set of hands for the next game. “You guys been traveling together in that thing for long?”
“That thing,” Mar snapped, glaring at Hawke, “is our home, thank you very much.”
“Well.” Mel chewed on her lip and Hawke cursed the conversation starter. He wanted to get Jake talking to make it seem like Hawke was distracting him. The man just considered his cards and made another show of letting Vahn see them. “Not really our home. We have this really nice place in the woods up around Crestbrook.”
“Yeah, but we haven’t been back in a bit,” Mar argued. “Bet some vagabonds have made a nice cozy home in our stead.”
Hawke raised his eyebrows. “Why are you traveling for so long?”
“Reasons,” Jake said, ending whatever Mar and Mel had intended to say instead. They shared a quick look across Hawke and mimed buttoning their lips. “It’s not so bad living on the road. See lots of new and interesting people.” His gaze lingered on Hawke, the same self-serving smile slotting on his lips.
“Yeah, yeah.” Hawke started the hand and placed a card down.
“And what of you?” Jake asked. Vahn’s trills slowed; of course, he’d be interested too. Hawke didn’t like talking about it and had no intention to start.
“Same reason. Seeing lots of new and interesting people,” Hawke said. “I just go where the winds takes me.”
“Mhm.” Jake placed down a card and it was Hawke’s trick to gather.
“How long were you with the Spire Knights?” Hawke asked next, glad to have his attention. Jake flicked him a suspicious look over the edge of his cards. “Just curious. Don’t know much about them except for the sigil thing.”
All right, Hawke knew way more about them than that, but that was because Trice had been a magician in one of the Spire Cities and had to deal with them on the regular. Everything she’d said dripped with disdain like the knights there sought to make her life hard on purpose. Maybe they had. Hawke never had to meet any of them, thankfully. She was already on the run by the time he met her and they’d stuck clear of Spire Cities.
“I’ve been gone from them for about three years now,” Jake said. “Before that, I was with them for seven.”
Seven years holed up in a Spire City keeping the place in check and protecting it from hedge mages or unruly mages from above thinking to make a name for themselves down here. Hawke gave out an involuntary shudder; he’d hate it if he had to stick by a place for that long. Jake hadn’t even mentioned training, so Hawke wagered he’d been stuck in the same Spire City for close to ten years.
“Seeing the world is a lot more fun,” Jake said.
Something they could agree on.
By the end of this hand, Hawke cleared up and won, making them even with two wins each. Hawke prayed the cards worked in his favor for the next round. Cheating only got him so far if he got a shit hand.
In the end, it went too well. Suspiciously too well and Hawke’s pulse kicked up again. He ended up taking every trick and the combo finisher at the end was one of the better ones. Still, he grinned wide when he set them down, relishing in the win as much as he could. Mel and Mar sighed beside him.
“Jake, why’d you throw the hand?” Mar asked and pushed on Hawke’s arm. “This is a shit way to flirt, you know!”
Hawke shrugged her off and gazed over the played cards. Jake started the round, which after looking at all his cards, would have been an easy win if he’d chosen another start. A cold sweat broke out across Hawke’s brow. There must have been a reason.
But Jake only shrugged. “It’s how it goes,” he said softly as he leaned his chin on his palm. “Fortune swings one way and eventually, it’ll come back to me. Always does.”
Hawke cleared his voice. “Yeah, yeah—time to give Vahn back his voice, yeah?”
Jake smiled. “I will come morning.”
Vahn huffed, glaring at Jake, and then stiffened as Jake slid his arm around Vahn to press him closer. Hawke hesitated just the same, holding his breath.
“You girls fancy sleeping out here tonight?” Jake asked, glancing at them in turn. “Pretty nice night, you think?”
Mel and Mar exchanged a look, grinning and snickering. Hawke didn’t like that.
Jake held Hawke’s gaze. “You help them keep the fire going for me, hm?” Jake stood and hauled Vahn upward with him. Hawke jumped up and stepped between Jake and the caravan.
“And you and Vahn?”
Jake pressed Vahn closer. “Oh, me and him are gonna talk in the caravan. I’ve a few things to say to the man who helped you cheat.”
Vahn froze, eyes wide, and Hawke forgot to breathe. A bead of sweat ran down his temple and he finally swallowed. Shit. All their reactions did was leave a smirk on Jake’s lips.
“You aren’t the only one who has an ear for magic,” Jake said.
“Wait—” Hawke spat out the first word to verbalize as Jake pulled Vahn closer to the caravan. “Wait. Hold on. Why didn’t you call me out then? Don’t blame him.”
Jake shrugged. “It’s what the roll of the dice said before we even started. Thought I could head you off knowing that, but I know when I’m beat. Hence, the throwing. If I can’t win against sabotage when I do it all the time, what kind of player am I?” He chuckled and gently patted Vahn’s shoulder. “‘Sides, I’m not in the business of forcing people to do things they don’t want to. If he was willing to risk cheating to get out of helping… well, that’s that.”
Hawke glanced at Vahn, hoping for an opinion, but Vahn was only staring at Jake. Sad. Clenched jaw. Hands tight still around his wand. Words lost themselves on Hawke’s tongue; he wanted to say something reassuring to Vahn, like it wasn’t his fault, but the words stayed stubbornly in his throat. It’s not like he would have won without Vahn’s help.
“Vahn can stay out here with us,” Hawke tried.
“After the roughing up my girls did on your magician, I figured he deserves a bed to sleep in,” Jake said and Hawke bit his tongue. “Or are you worried about something else?” He said it so smugly, Hawke wanted to punch that smile right off his lips. When Hawke didn’t reply, Jake looked around Hawke to the girls.
Mar hopped up and snatched Vahn’s bag from the pile Hawke had left it in with his lute. She happily handed it to Vahn who mouthed a simple thank you for her.
“Take care of this one out here, you two,” Jake told the girls and they nodded, looking a little too gleeful at the prospect. Maybe they planned to torture Hawke and he stopped himself from wincing. Jake was looking at Hawke now, this time with a dark look that made ice collect in Hawke’s veins. “You touch either of them, they will disembowel you. And that’s not even counting what I’ll do to you.”
Hawke swallowed. “Noted.” Not like he was in the business of going after girls hardly old enough to drink. They’d stay on their side of the campfire and he’d stay on his.
Without another word, but a fleeting comforting glance from Vahn to show he wasn’t worried in the least despite Hawke’s hesitations, Jake took Vahn into the caravan and shut the door. Hawke let out a sigh, trying to breathe out everything telling him to bust down the door. Vahn had his wand. He’d be fine. He didn’t need Hawke to rescue him.
Hawke ran his hand through his hair and gazed at the sky. Sun was long gone, letting stars wash the sky as both moons in their crescent phase retreated.
There was a rustle of fabric toward the caravan and Hawke looked. Mel and Mar were freeing a bundle of blankets and pillows from the caravan’s storage space between the wheels. With their arms stacked high, the girls returned and decided on sleeping positions. Mel threw a set of blankets and a pillow toward Hawke.
“Jake must like you,” she said and let Mar take the rest of her blankets. She busied herself instead by peeking into the pot. “Usually, he chops off hands if you cheat.”
“Great.” Hawke rolled out the provided blanket. It smelled like oranges and cloves. They must have done the same cleaning spell Vahn knew. “Is Vahn going to come out with one less hand, then?”
Mel and Mar exchanged a look and Hawke was quickly growing tired of them. Twins. “Oh, Jake might have him do something with his hands if he’s agreeable,” Mel said and she erupted into a litany of snickers with her sister.
“And he might be,” Mar added. “He was looking him and down an awful lot.”
Hawke decided not to respond. It was bait.
“Aw, come on,” Mel said. “Don’t be a grump.”
“Why are you two with him?” Hawke asked and hated he sounded more pissed than he’d meant to be. He felt even worse when Mel handed him a bowl of what was left of the stew. Lukewarm by now since the fire had dwindled, but he supposed food was food. Didn’t taste half bad too.
“Jake raised us,” Mar said as Mel conjured water to slosh through the pot to clean it. “He’s not a real bad guy. Took care of us when no one else would.”
“‘Sides…” Mel dumped the water out on the ground and dried the inside with a towel from her nest of blankets. “Robbing people’s fun. I don’t mind it.”
Hawke frowned. “Don’t you want more?”
Mar thumped down on her blankets and set a steely gaze on Hawke. “Like what? Be a bard like you? I can’t even sing.” She flapped her hand at Mel who was taking her chance to belt out a rather terrible tune. “We know Jake’s doing something big, but doesn’t want us involved. And now we know it deals with a High Magician. So. You know.” She looked away and fed a stick into the fire. “Thank you for winning, I guess.”
Hawke gave her a dubious look. “You kidnapped my friend for this and didn’t even want it to begin with?”
“We didn’t want to disappoint Jake.” Mel settled on her blankets, leaving the pot beside the fire. “Was hoping if we did our part, he’d tell us what he was gonna do, but he didn’t until you all were involved. High Magicians are bad news no matter what, you know?”
Oh no. Sad girls. Hawke stammered on what to say as their moods quickly went from some variation of haughty to dejection. He had no advice; it wasn’t like he knew what all Jake had planned. So, he left it be. Maybe without a magician, Jake would forget all about his plan.
Hawke slurped the leftover broth and before he’d offered to wash the bowl himself, Mel had already taken it. She conjured more water, soft incantations dancing on her lips, and soon it was as clean as the others.
A soft trill from the caravan reached Hawke’s ears and he breathed out. Definitely Vahn’s magic. Hawke couldn’t quite describe how it differed from other magic, but he knew in his core it was Vahn. He must have been fine. Good. Hawke reached for his bag and lute, intending to get some shut eye, but noticed Mel and Mar watched him.
“Uh…” He swallowed. “Yes?”
Mel drew her knees to her chest. “Well, you see…” She glanced at Mar then back at Hawke. “We took your friend while you were playing the Dragon and the Maiden Fair.” She scrunched herself tighter. “Could you play it for us?”
Mar nodded, smiling. “Mel really likes it.”
“You do too!”
Hawke smiled, seeing them as the girls they were and not the highway robbers they aspired to be. What was the harm? He settled his lute into his lap and drew his fingers across the chords. The motion made his throat tingle in anticipation, but he bit the feeling back and nodded. He didn’t need any help; the girls were already invested.
“Yeah, sure,” he said. “You want the whole thing or do you have a favorite part? It’s pretty long.”
Mel and Mar smiled wide and tugged their blankets closer to his side of the campfire. “Play it all!” Mel said at the same time as Mar said, “We’ve got all night!”
Perhaps they did. It wasn’t like Hawke thought he’d sleep anyway after being on such high alert. He strummed the opening chorus and the girls watched him endearingly with such delight sparkling in their eyes.
Maybe they weren’t so bad.
🙡🙢
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