by Sarah Fine
When Virginia had put up a shield, it had apparently freed the Emperor Tamarin Dealer from her hold, but he was defenseless. Cardless. He was screaming for his deck. But Virginia, freakishly fast—presumably having played a few cards to make herself that way—had struck him, and then she’d taken advantage of a distracted Trey and pulled a huge portion of Alvarez’s deck right from the Raccoon Dealer’s hands. Trey cursed and ran to Alvarez, who was crumpled on the ground. The Raccoon Dealer looked pained as he pressed the three remaining Emperor Tamarin cards into Alvarez’s palm. The man looked like he was shriveling away before their eyes.
Virginia’s skin glowed as she shuffled Alvarez’s cards into her own deck, easily fending off strikes from Trey while Tarlae worked frantically to heal Minh, who was unresponsive and limp and bloody. “Obviously I chose the right side,” said the Chicken Dealer.
Trey let out an angry shout and swiped two cards at Virginia just as she vanished.
“My deck,” Alvarez moaned. Gabe, who’d managed to free himself from Ernie’s ropes, crawled over to help, pressing a Strength card to Alvarez’s chest.
“I’m sorry we doubted you, Emperor Tamarin,” Tarlae said. She looked shaken, her brown skin a shade paler, her hair soaked with sweat at her temples. Her hands were covered in Minh’s blood.
“Is he going to be okay?” Ernie asked.
“This is taking a while. His own Healing card would have worked faster, but she obviously took it. And she threw a Death card into that Strike. I don’t know why she would be so brutal.”
“I’m going with ‘Nazi.’” Ernie sat back but kept her hand on Bao’s body, stroking his heaving belly. He seemed to be breathing a bit easier.
“We have to find Virginia. Fast,” said Gabe. He gave Ernie a worried look.
Alvarez began to weep. “I’m dying,” he wheezed. “It’s too late.”
Trey shook his head, peering down at one of his cards. “Not quite.” He held up the cards he’d thrown as Virginia escaped—Revelation and Enemy. A grim smile spread across his face. “Cluckface has just been slapped with a tracker.”
“She’ll play her Conceal as soon as she realizes that, won’t she?” asked Ernie.
Gabe smiled like a proud teacher, and Trey nodded. “But,” he said, “if she runs to Duncan first, it’s all we need to know where he’s hiding. And . . . there we have it.” He walked over and put his hand on Alvarez’s shoulder. “If you can hang on, man, I’ll get you back your deck. I owe it to you.”
“You don’t owe him a damn thing,” Tarlae said. She was hunched over Minh, who was starting to come around but still looking ghastly. His shirt was gaping open, and his skin was red, barely knit together. It appeared that Virginia had basically tried to rip out his guts. “Do you want Virginia to do this to you, Trey? She could!”
“I still have my Healing card, babe. We should have known that Minh was going to be a target when his went missing.”
“It doesn’t matter! You don’t have to be in this fight.” A tear streaked down her face, and she turned away. Trey sighed and walked over to her. He knelt across from her and touched her cheek.
“You know why I’m here,” he murmured. And then he pulled her close and began speaking too quietly for Ernie to hear. It was painful, anyway. Ernie remembered how Tarlae had voiced her fear of losing her love, and now she seemed afraid the moment had come.
She looked away, focusing on Bao, who was struggling to get to his feet. She tried to help but was out of breath quickly. Gabe left Alvarez sitting in the dirt to join her. “What did you do for Trey that he’s so determined to help us?” Ernie asked quietly.
“I saved Tarlae’s life.” Gabe glanced at the couple. “I’m the one who got her cards back after Duncan had those thieves steal them. And I don’t think she’s ever forgiven me for it.”
As soon as Ernie and Gabe got Bao up on his feet, the pig waddled over to Minh, who greeted him with a gentle scratch between his hairy ears. Gabe straightened and pulled Ernie up with him. “Are you ready for your showdown, love?”
“I’m not sure this is the kind of thing you can ever feel ready for. But I have a few ideas.” And a trump card. She just needed to go get it.
“Oh, god,” Trey said, jogging over to Alvarez, who had slumped over. With horror, Ernie noted that his hair was falling out, silver wisps like dandelion seeds scattering in the wind. “We have to go get his deck back now!”
“But—” said Ernie.
“Now,” said Trey as he lifted Alvarez into his arms. The older man’s face was gaunt—he looked more like a living skeleton with every passing minute. “Hold on to me. Babe! Get over here!”
“We’re coming,” said Minh, finally back on his feet but still looking weak. With Tarlae’s help, he walked over and put his hand on Trey’s shoulder.
“They’re in some kind of mountain fortress,” Trey said. “All of them.” He heaved Alvarez onto his shoulder and peered down at his Revelation card. “Let’s go.”
All of them put their hands on Trey as a wave of terrible misgiving pounded over Ernie. This was what Duncan wanted. They were about to show up on his territory, weakened and reeling. With no plan. As she felt herself spiraling into darkness, the only thing that comforted her was the faintest pulse of warmth from her deck.
She still had a few cards left to play.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
They appeared in front of an arched stone gateway, standing in a howling wind that made Ernie wince and tuck herself against Gabe’s side. All the Dealers except her pulled Shield cards, the symbol a cross inside a circle. “We should just go in there and throw everything we’ve got at them,” said Trey.
“They’ve got more firepower than we do,” said Tarlae.
“But maybe we can shock and awe them a little bit,” he replied. “I can pull my best moves.”
“It won’t matter if your best moves bounce off Gabe’s best moves,” said Ernie. “Seriously, guys, we have to stop the lone ranger tactics and start actually acting like a team.”
All of them except Alvarez, who had apparently passed out, gave her skeptical looks.
“We can divide and conquer,” Ernie suggested. “I know I have to deal with Duncan, and honestly, that’s more than enough. That leaves Virginia, Ruslan, Rupert, and Akela. And whoever takes Akela should know that she doesn’t like the rest of them. She might be willing to switch sides.”
“I’ll take Virginia,” Minh said, his jaw tight. “We have a few things to settle. I’ll get Alvarez’s cards.”
The dying Dealer made a soft noise that sounded half-grateful, half-pleading. His head was hanging as Trey held him propped against his side.
“I can take on Akela,” Gabe said, looking down at Ernie and smiling. “It sounds like there’s some tension there to exploit.”
“I guess that leaves me and Tarlae with Rupert and Ruslan.” Trey leaned over to look at Minh. “But if you wanted to trade me for Virginia . . .”
“You’d be punching above your weight, kid,” Minh said.
Trey arched one eyebrow and looked over Minh’s bloody form. “Your funeral, man.”
“Better his than yours,” Tarlae hissed, then inclined her head in Minh’s direction. “No offense.”
“Considering you just did me the favor of stuffing my intestines back into my body, none taken.”
“As long as you guys stay in your lanes, there should be less risk of hurting each other,” Ernie said, wishing she felt stronger. Her heart was beating unsteadily, and her legs were trembling. She glanced over at Alvarez and wondered whether she’d look like that before the end, then shook off the morbid thought. “So everyone just stay focused. Don’t leave your fight until you really have your opponent—”
The stone gateway above their heads cracked and split, sending rocks tumbling onto them. Gabe shoved Ernie forward as the stones bounced off the Dealers’ shields. All of them rushed into the circular courtyard inside the gate, coughing from the dust, their faces white wit
h it. Ernie had landed on her hands and knees. Her palms were scraped and bleeding, but she quickly whipped her cards from her pocket. Hunched over and trying to catch her breath, she ran her thumb over the deck, praying for the warmth that told her Legs was with her. The warmth was there, faint and pulsing, more like the heartbeat of a frightened prey animal than a cold-blooded predator. Better than nothing, though. Ernie had no chance of getting the rest of the Diamondback deck without help from the diamondback herself.
She wheezed as Gabe pulled her to her feet. “Are they waiting for us to go find them?”
Gabe and the others scanned the space. There were three big sets of doors in front of them. The castle was huge and looming, lit by the moon filtering through gauzy clouds. Ernie shivered as an icy wind knifed through her thin shirt. “Or maybe they just want us to wait out here and freeze to death?”
“Guys?” said Trey. “We need to figure it out fast. I don’t think Alvarez is breathing.”
Minh cursed. “I’ll take the door on the left. Gabe, center. Tarlae, the ri—”
All three doors exploded outward with terrifying force, knocking Ernie back. Wood and metal shrapnel sliced at her skin, and she hit the ground so hard that her lungs wouldn’t draw air. Movement and sound were all around her.
Tarlae had loosed Rika and amplified the coconut octopus, which had grabbed Rupert’s hyena with one of her tentacles and was repeatedly slamming it into a nearby stone wall. The enemy Dealer seemed so distracted by the distress of his animal that he kept trying to attack Rika, leaving himself open to Tarlae’s quick and clever strikes.
Gabe and Trey were back to back, fighting Ruslan and Akela. But as Rupert pulled a set of throwing knives from nowhere and began flinging them at Tarlae, Trey cried out and charged at him. It left Gabe to fight the two Dealers alone, but Ernie realized Gabe was knocking Ruslan back while he spoke to Akela. She was frowning, throwing weak, easily diverted strikes at Gabe—and dirty looks at Ruslan.
Minh had found Virginia, who had once again turned herself into a weirdly jointed monster while her rooster ran toward Minh and dropped a grenade at his feet—leaving Ernie to wonder who had learned that move from whom. Bao appeared and rear-kicked the device right back toward Virginia while Minh channeled a wind so forceful it bent the old woman over backward. He looked fierce and focused, his blood-smeared jaw clenched. Another explosion, and the air was full of smoke and feathers—and cards, which Minh summoned to him with an easy flick of his wrist.
They were all following the strategy. They were winning. Now it was up to Ernie. She squinted through the smoke and squeezed the cards. “I’m here, Legs,” she muttered. “Where are you?”
Something moved in the shadow of the central doorway, dark and indistinct. It had to be Duncan. Ernie struggled to get to her feet. Her body was bleeding, her hands shaking. But her mind was sharp, as if she were seeing everything in slow motion. Her gaze dropped to her deck, and she found the cards she needed. She walked through the chaos on either side of her, one of Rika’s thick tentacles whooshing past her head, a sickle edged with someone’s blood twirling past, Bao charging by in hot pursuit of Virginia’s damn chicken, Trey using a baseball bat to send the hyena flying over the wall while his raccoon snuck up behind Rupert to snatch a few of his cards. Ernie noted it all with a faint hum of triumph, but she knew it was her turn to fight, her turn to give it her all.
Her enemy was waiting just inside. Weakened, like her, but with a major advantage: a lot more cards—that was her first challenge. As she got a few steps from the door, she saw Duncan move through a beam of lantern light, his cards in his left hand. She paused and took a breath, silently commanding Legs to come to her. With joy, she felt her left arm throb and heard Duncan mutter a curse. She took another breath, pulling her Strength and Prolong cards out and pressing them to her body. “I just need a little more juice here, baby.”
She felt it, a throb of energy stiffening her muscles, making them twitch with readiness. Just like before a race, when she knew she’d leave it all on the field. She scanned the gloom before her. He hadn’t struck yet. Maybe he was waiting to see how the courtyard fight played out, or maybe he was waiting for her to make a move, since everybody kept saying he was some kind of defensive master. Her eyes had adjusted a bit—a large entryway with a broad staircase was on the left, and there was little furniture that she could see. Suits of armor on either side of the stairs. A few swords and tapestries on the walls. A bit of moonlight streaming in through a high window. Duncan was standing below it. Legs was coiled a few feet in front of him, her scales glinting in the light of a lantern he now held in his hand.
Duncan smiled. His fingers twitched.
Ernie launched herself to the right by pure instinct, just in time to avoid the seething cluster of scorpions that hit the open door where her head had been. They fell to the ground and began scuttling away as Ernie kept moving, narrowly dodging another strike. He was toying with her.
Let him. It just gave her more time to plan her own moves. She skimmed two cards up her body and focused hard on what she needed. Chameleon. Deceive. As one version of her stood her ground and shouted stupid insults to a smirking Duncan—he was dumber than a stump, he was a light-beer-drinking Blue Devils fan, he was a real peach—Ernie stepped from behind the silly deception and slung a third card: Capture. And to her surprise, it totally worked. Four cards yanked themselves from Duncan’s grip and zipped toward Ernie, landing in her palm, glowing.
Duncan’s look of amusement contorted to rage. “You little bitch,” he shouted.
And suddenly Ernie was flying—up, through the air—impossibly high. The moon above her seemed closer than the mountains below her. She couldn’t breathe. She knew she was going to die.
And then she slammed into the floor of the castle, her chin bouncing off stone. Pain and blood welled in her mouth. Her right wrist felt like it might be broken. Duncan walked over, Legs slithering at his side. She wasn’t rattling, but the cold look in her lidless eyes made Ernie afraid.
“Did you think you were winning?” Duncan asked. “Did you think your band of misfits was doing well?” Duncan knelt next to Ernie, shoving his hand into her hair and wrenching her head up, angling it toward the courtyard.
The scene was very different than the one she’d left. Minh was bleeding and cornered by Virginia’s chicken, which was huge and pecking at him viciously while the old woman casually shuffled her thick deck of cards. Gabe was running across the courtyard, maybe trying to get to Ernie, maybe just trying to get away, because the hyena was hot on his heels while Rupert laughed and Caera screeched. Akela had chopped off one of Rika’s tentacles and was using it to swat at Tarlae, who was bleeding as she fought Ruslan’s Komodo.
Everything was a mess. They were losing.
“I thought it might be fun to begin by giving you a false sense of confidence,” Duncan said, showing her a card, one she recognized as the Mirage. He stood up and lightly kicked at her ribs, but in her weakened state, she felt one of them crack. Pain made her whimper. He grinned. “I’m enjoying this—aren’t you? And just to keep it interesting, I’ll let you keep the cards you stole from me for a few more minutes, even the ones you just took.”
He backed up lazily, clearly unworried, unrushed. Ernie couldn’t blame him. Blood dripped down her chin. Her body was screaming. Her breath was one pained wheeze after the next. It felt like a single hard blow was all it would take to shatter her. But she rose to her knees, then made it to her feet, trying not to sway, wishing the room were a little less blurry. She could still see Duncan, though. And Legs, close by. Watching. Maybe wondering whom to help, whom to trust. Or maybe whom to bet on.
Duncan fanned his cards and offered her an amicable smile. “Should I tell your fortune, like I did for your pretty friend?”
“You killed Jules, didn’t you? You didn’t foretell her future. You ended it.”
Duncan shrugged. “It had been a slow night. I was bored.”
Black ha
tred swelled inside Ernie. She didn’t just want to beat him. She wanted to hurt him. But the collection of cards in her hand was not exactly meant for war. She glanced at Legs, pleading.
Legs gazed back, unmoving. Unimpressed. She doesn’t trust me, because she doesn’t think I’m strong enough. If Legs chose Ernie and Ernie lost, Duncan would surely make Legs pay for it. Another thought that stoked Ernie’s fury. She turned her cards in her fingers. Then she put on a burst of speed, flipping the Capture card and holding out her hand. A sword came flying from the wall, and Ernie caught it as she ran for Duncan. She swung it at his legs as he threw the Shield card, so her blade went bouncing off. She threw the Tool card next, and her blade turned to a paint sprayer, which she used to cover his invisible barrier with baby-blue matte, giving her a chance to run for a buckler hanging on the wall. She blocked his next strike—a dagger that embedded itself in the metal and wood of her shield. Ernie dropped the thing because it was too heavy; her strength was waning fast.
“If Gabe told you where the Marks are, tell me how to get to them, and I’ll make this fast,” Duncan said. “Otherwise I’ll make you both suffer.”
Ernie threw her Revelation and Deceive cards, hoping to show a false image of where the Marks might be, but her focus was off, or maybe both cards had already gotten too much use. They projected a picture of Gabe fighting in the courtyard, and Ernie gasped and pulled them back. Duncan laughed. “You could have been all right as a Dealer,” he said to Ernie. “But you were never going to be great.”
He sighed and pulled out a card, one with a long diagonal mark across its surface. Beneath it, Ernie saw herself. She didn’t have time to pull another card before he slashed it through the air. Agony like she’d never felt sliced deep into her body. The ground gave her a harsh greeting as bone clattered against stone. She couldn’t make a sound, but inside she was screaming. Her hands flopped onto her chest as she stared up at Duncan, unable to move her legs.