Gaedren felt his fist slam into the cheekbone of his Lamb, and he curled back his lips in amusement. The boy slid across the floor and the rest of the Lambs skittered away like roaches in lantern light. The boy's prize, which he had dared to show to Gaedren, flew up into the air. Stiff cards with gorgeous multicolored figures and gilt edges spread across the room, and Gaedren stalked towards the fallen figure.
"A deck of cards? This is what I get for your night's work? You'll not eat for a week, how'm'I supposed to provide for you with this trash?" Gaedren yelled as he picked up the boy by the tattered shirt he wore.
"S'worth at least a gold," the boy muttered as blood dribbled down his face and onto Gaedren's fist.
"Shut yer yap! You goin' into business for yourself?" Gaedren watched as the boy quickly shut his mouth, biting back a retort. Gaedren raised his fist to strike again, but a sudden cruel idea crossed his mind. The boy had Varisian blood, that's true...the dark hair and eyes, skinny (lets him do his job better, Gaedren thought), but maybe he could turn this foul up to his advantage.
"Get the cards boy. You steal it, you gotta do a readin' now. Ain't that what yer mother did? Oh that's right, you don't know do ya?" Gaedren taunted. The boy visibly flinched, and he bent to pick up the scattered cards on the ground, and with as much poise as his small body could muster, he started sorting the cards.
"Ask your question," said the boy.
Gaedren rolled his eyes. He never had much patience for fortune tellers - he knew a scam when he saw it, and the rubes who swore up and down that their Harrowings came true were just one more easy mark. "What trouble did you bring me, boy?"
The boy selected the second pile of cards, then spread them out in a fan in front of him. "Pick one, and I'll pick four."
Gaedren's eyes narrowed as he drew a card. "Why four?"
The boy look confused. "That's what they do, the Harrowers."
Gaedren grunted, and looked at the card he drew. A red-eyed rabbit with a crown on his head and a rapier at his side looked back at him, and he snorted in derision. He flicked the card at the boy, and saw the array of cards the boy had drawn. A colorful dancer dressed in Varisian garb, a depiction of an avalanche, a cowled figure with a thieves' hand of keys, and a cricket in fashionable garb. "Devilfish dung," Gaedren muttered. The boy gathered up the revealed cards and shuffled them back into the deck, flipping and cutting the deck as well as any card shark in a dockside tavern.
The boy laid out nine cards in that way Gaedren had seen before, revealing the column on the left side first. Gaedren's eyes were drawn to the brightly colored winged serpent. "Good things came to you in the past when you chose the right moment to strike," the boy said, his voice cracking on the last syllable. Gaedren blinked twice - the fangs of the winged serpent seemed to glint like a dagger in the moonlight, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. The boy revealed the second column of cards, and the well-dressed cricket seemed to wink at him from the top of the middle column.
"A speedy travel, with a reward at the end," the boy continued to say, this time without cracking. Gaedren's flesh began to crawl, as he recalled that the tunnels he had cleared from beneath his safehouse did indeed make the trip much faster, and the fine meal laid out for him would be waiting there. Gaedren felt that bitter metallic taste in the back of his mouth, that taste of fear, rise up as he watched his Lamb flip over the last column of cards.
"Your determination will be tested when the Mute Hag speaks her secrets," the boy intoned. Gaedren Lamm looked at the cards the boy had indicated, and the eyeless gaze of the Hag bored into him. He stood up from where he had been squatting on the floor.
"Get yer cards together boy, and go earn yer keep," Gaedren said quietly. He turned to where the other Lambs had secreted themselves. "And that goes for the lot of ya!" he bellowed, and he heard the sound of blankets being thrown aside and the sound of bare feet on the floor.
Gaedren looked around the now-empty room, and looked at his pet, whose cold reptilian eyes gazed back at him. Gaedren noticed a piece of colorful fabric caught between the wickedly sharp fangs, and shuddered unwillingly as he thought of the fangs of the winged serpent.
...sweet. And scary. o.O;
...awesome.
I had to play around with the Harrow deck I got today, and that was what I came up with. :squee: