Chapter 215

THE LIZARD STEAKS MADE AN interesting addition to dinner. Afterward, while the girls and their guys retired for the evening, I stayed up late playing cards with Belsesus, Ignatius, Gredel, and Chaieth. Playing against the Lieutenants and Gredel, who all had decades of practice meant quite a bit of sitting out for me in the beginning, I lost so quickly. Then they paired me up with one of them each game, considering it a personal challenge to beat the others while teaching me how to play.

'No,' Belsesus murmured in my ear. 'Play that one.'

I shifted on his saddle, my perch for this game, and offered the card up for the others to see. Belsesus plucked the card from my hand and dropped it on the pile. The other three regarded it suspiciously, with speculative glances at their own hands. The deck of cards belonged to Gredel, the same deck we'd used those long months ago while traveling to the castle. There were four classes in the deck; water, air, earth, and fire, and the cards bore imag