The Shambala Chronicles(Sample)

Chapter 7 - The card game

"Sure why not? Shall we have stakes?" she answered cheerily, between sorting out her cards.

"Stakes? How mercenary," Rudra commented, though it was clear that this was meant to be a joke.

"Certainly. Perhaps, if I win..." He quieted, thinking before his smile returned. "If I win, I'd like you to tell me more about the challenges."

"Are you trying to wriggle out information from me to make your brother win?" She asked.

"I want him to win so that we can be related and get more opportunities to meet." He gave his most dazzling smile which quickened her heartbeat.

"But that would be duping.  Your brother should win fairly." She said.

"Hmmm, perhaps I should change my stakes. How about if I win you tell me just the first challenge ?"

"It's still unfair." She replied.

" You just need to tell me what is the challenge. I am not asking for the key to solving it. It's still fair." He insisted.

She pondered over a moment.

"Ok. And if I win...I want you to tell me something about you, which no one knows."

Rudra met this with a laugh. "You hardly need to provide an incentive for that. Men are all too happy to talk about themselves, boost their conquests" he said, sportingly.

"In fact, I'm certain that it's our favourite subject!"

"I am charitable," she returned. 

She made quick work of shuffling and reshuffling, the cards cascading over one another in a blur. And, seeing as she already had the restored deck in her hands, she began to deal. 

"In fact, if you win, I'll throw in a secret no one knows " she offered conversationally, not lifting her eyes from her cards.

This 'secret' she had in mind was none less than how she had hunted a magical beast, Griffin, once.

"Interesting" he replied and gazed at her skilled hands.

He didn't look concerned. He seemed quite self-assured. 

Casually, he dropped two cards face down into the pile. "Two fours."

After a pause, she added, "Three fives."

 This was a lie, as the three kings in her hand would attest, but this early in the game, it would be unlikely for her bluff to be called - there hadn't been enough cards to count yet, nor visual tics to begin noticing. She proved to be correct, as he continued without comment.

Unknown to her, he had been observing her ever since she had entered the ballroom. 

His breath had stopped the moment she had entered. While others were busy accessing the older princess. He had been gazing at Toshani.

Her soft breast spilt a little from the top of her bodice, few tendrils of loose hair frames her lovely face. And those eyes! he could keep looking in their depths for hours.

It's not like he was in love, but like any teenage boy, he wasn't immune to beauty.

"You seem pretty confident my Lord," Toshani said.

"I admit I am quite skilled in it."

"But it's still a game of luck isn't it?"

He smiled. "True. Though most people only cite luck when it's their loss; when they win, of course, skill accounts for everything." He had a vaguely cynical brand of humour, but he kept it light.

He put down a card that he affirmed to be a six and continued. "So are you often lucky, My lady?"

"I might have been, but what does that matter now?" she rejoined.

 Two sevens joined the pile, from her hand. "Luck resets all events. For example, the contest, the winner needs skills as well as some amount of luck to win."

"Yes, I suppose that's true. A coin isn't more or less likely to land on heads after a streak of nine tails."

He smiled tilting his head. 

The game had gone on long enough. Offering a smile, she selected two eights - from distinctly opposite ends of her hand (where she had set them carefully before), and laid them face down on the bench.

"Two eights," she pronounced, innocently.

It was impossible that Rudra hadn't noticed. His gaze had been attentively focused on her all along, and now they flickered to her face, with a sharp kind of intelligence to them that told her immediately he suspected both the cheat and the false mistake.

 "Bluff," he said, experimentally, and reached out to flip over her last two cards. Four hearts and three spades gleamed out at him. He chuckled. "I suspected as much. Well done."

He gathered the pile, sorting it deftly into his hand, the smile still lingering at his lips. Interestingly, Rudra didn't appear the least bit put off by the loss. He seemed rather pleased with her for it.

The game continued on, at a casual pace. Two tens, three jacks, and a queen began the new pile, and several more continued to join. It was all fairly innocuous, until -

"Two jacks," said Rudra. After a moment, he rubbed his neck.

"Bluff," She said and turned over the cards.

When she turned over the five and the three, her lips twitched downward into not quite a frown, and she looked decidedly unsatisfied with her victory. 

"You did that on purpose." She almost accused him.

"I'm sure you're giving me more credit than I deserve," he retorted. He reached for his cards.

Still, it nagged at her. Why lose so intentionally, and in a way that felt deliberate to spark her recognition of the bluff? 

"That was a fake tell," she said, suddenly, and felt immediately that she was right.

 "You wanted me to notice it, wanted me to think I'd gotten the better of you. Then you'd pretend to bluff again with it, only to trick 

Rudra raised an eyebrow.

 "Why would I do that," he said, mostly to himself.

They continued to play, and in doing so, match wits. Rudra proved to be a difficult and crafty opponent, but she was able to hold her own, and on a few occasions, catch him off guard. Once or twice, she caught him looking at her oddly - his gaze measured, curious and even distracted.

Toshani was in the process of retrieving a pile when -

"My lady ?" A voice called out.

Something in her face seemed to fall. 

Oh no! Oh no! Not caring enough to veil her sudden discomfort, she swallowed and glanced almost fretfully at the source of the call, and the unmistakable frantic cry and footsteps could be heard. 

Another set of clanking and running distracted Rudra.

"I need to go... Maria is looking for me...." She said.

The rhythm of her speech quickened as she hastily slipped the cards back into the cache and pulled herself to her feet. One very deep breath later, she declared :

 "The first challenge is a written test."

He looked startled for a moment then realization dawned on him. Sucking in the last of her words, she dipped into a haste curtsy, 

He had risen as well, his full stature dwarfing the hedges that surrounded them; she hadn't realized how tall he was until they were both standing, and she had to crane her neck to look at him. He looked like he was close to laughing.

"Seriously? Is this a joke? A written test?" He looked appalled.

"That's all I can say, my lord." She smirked. 

Deep dimples appeared in her cheeks.

Toshani turned and ran indoors before her maids found her.

To be continued.