The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie Read Free Book Online Page A

out on something fashionable just because he didn’t like it. Besides,
his father had bought him a beautiful ivory pipe the last time he was in the
city, and it looked very well on him. His brothers had not been happy about
that either, come to think of it.
    ‘I’m in,’ said Brint.
    Jezal swung his leg off the bench. ‘Then I raise you a
hundred marks or so.’ He shoved his whole stack into the centre of the table.
West sucked air through his teeth. A coin fell from the top of the pile, landed
on its edge and rolled along the wood. It dropped to the flags beneath with the
unmistakeable sound of falling money. The head of the gardener on the other
side of the lawn snapped up instinctively, before he returned to his clipping
of the grass.
    Kaspa shoved his cards away as though they were
burning his fingers and shook his head. ‘Damn it but I’m an oaf of a card
player,’ he lamented, and leaned back against the rough brown trunk of the
tree.
    Jezal stared straight at Lieutenant Brint, a slight
smile on his face, giving nothing away. ‘He’s bluffing,’ rumbled Jalenhorm,
‘don’t let him push you around, Brint.’
    ‘Don’t do it, Lieutenant,’ said West, but Jezal knew
he would. He had to look as if he could afford to lose. Brint didn’t hesitate,
he pushed all his own coins in with a careless flourish.
    ‘That’s a hundred, give or take.’ Brint was trying his
hardest to sound masterful in front of the older officers, but his voice had a
charming note of hysteria.
    ‘Good enough,’ said Jezal, ‘we’re all friends here.
What do you have, Lieutenant?’
    ‘I have earth.’ Brint’s eyes had a slightly feverish
look to them as he showed his cards to the group.
    Jezal savoured the tense atmosphere. He frowned,
shrugged, raised his eyebrows. He scratched his head thoughtfully. He watched
Brint’s expression change as he changed his own. Hope, despair, hope, despair.
At length Jezal spread his cards out on the table. ‘Oh look. I have suns,
again.’
    Brint’s face was a picture. West gave a sigh and shook
his head. Jalenhorm frowned. ‘I was sure he was bluffing,’ he said.
    ‘How does he do it?’ asked Kaspa, flicking a stray
coin across the table.
    Jezal shrugged. ‘It’s all about the players, and
nothing about the cards.’ He began to scoop up the heap of silver while Brint
looked on, teeth gritted, face pale. The money jingled into the bag with a
pleasant sound. Pleasant to Jezal, anyway. A coin dropped from the table and
fell next to Brint’s boot. ‘You couldn’t fetch that for me could you
Lieutenant?’ asked Jezal, with a syrupy smile.
    Brint stood up quickly, knocking into the table and making
the coins and glasses jump and rattle. ‘I’ve things to do,’ he said in a thick
voice, then shouldered roughly past Jezal, barging him against the trunk of the
tree, and strode off toward the edge of the courtyard. He disappeared into the
officers’ quarters, head down.
    ‘Did you see that?’ Jezal was becoming ever more
indignant with each passing moment. ‘Barging me like that, it’s damn impolite!
And me his superior officer as well! I’ve a good mind to put him on report!’ A
chorus of disapproving sounds greeted this mention of reports. ‘Well, he’s a
bad loser is all!’
    Jalenhorm looked sternly out from beneath his brows.
‘You shouldn’t bite him so hard. He isn’t rich. He can’t afford to lose.’
    ‘Well if he can’t afford to lose he shouldn’t play!’
snapped Jezal, upset. ‘Who’s the one told him I was bluffing? You should keep
your big mouth shut!’
    ‘He’s new here,’ said West, ‘he just wants to fit in.
Weren’t you new once?’
    ‘What are you, my father?’ Jezal remembered being new
with painful clarity, and the mention of it made him feel just a little
ashamed.
    Kaspa waved his hand. ‘I’ll lend him some money, don’t
worry.’
    ‘He won’t take it,’ said Jalenhorm.
    ‘Well, that’s his business.’ Kaspa closed his eyes