I wiped my mouth on a lacy napkin. “Do you want some of this? I can’t eat it all.”
“That’s kind of you, sir, but it wouldn’t be proper.”
“I won’t tell if you won’t. Come on. It would make me feel better about scaring you before.”
As she hauled another chair up to the table, I realized we didn’t have an extra fork. But I hadn’t gotten the spoon dirty, and she dug into the omelet and pancakes with that.
“I’m Billy,” I said.
“I know, sir. Everybody knows.”
“And you are…?”
“A’marie.”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, A’marie. And what are your people called? Your clan or whatever?”
Her face hardened. “Thank you for the food, but I have to get back to work. Please, when you’re finished, just put the cart in the hall.” She pushed back from the table.
“Please, wait. I’m sorry if that question was rude. Apparently I’m related to you ‘Old People,’ but I never knew until last night. I don’t know what’s good manners and what isn’t.”
She hesitated. “Really? You weren’t making fun of me?”
“Really.” I gave her the Cliff’s Notes version of how I’d gotten involved with Timon.
When I finished, she said, “It was fate, the two of you finding one another.”
“I don’t believe in fate. Luck, maybe. But anyway, should I not ask anybody about his race? Is that a big taboo?”
She hesitated. “No. It shows you’re a newcomer, and that might make people try to take advantage of you, but it’s not taboo. It’s just… when a satyr and a nymph have a boy baby, he’s supposed to be a satyr. When they have a girl baby, she’s supposed to be a nymph. And you see how I came out.”
“Seriously? Everybody’s fine with weird, ugly creatures like the Pharaoh, Gimble, and Murk the Talking Squid, but the way you look is a problem?”
“It was for my ‘clan,’ as you called them. I had to leave Tarpon Springs.” Tarpon Springs is a town in Tampa Bay with a big Greek-American population. Apparently it had a big Greek-mythology population, too. “But then I had other issues.” She forced a smile. “But it could be worse. At least I didn’t inherit the little billy-goat beard.”
“For what it’s worth,” I said, “I think you look good.”
A bit of the sadness went out of her smile. “You’re nice.”
“I don’t know about that, but I meant what I said.”
She hesitated. Then: “Do you want some advice?”
“All I can get.”
“Now that you’ve shown you can play, one of the others will probably offer you a bribe to throw the game. Take it. You’ll have the money you need, and once you bust out, nobody will have a reason to hurt you.”
I tried to read what was going on behind those silvery eyes of hers. “Are you telling me this because you’re worried about me, or because all you vassals and whatever want Timon gone?”
She hesitated again. “Both.”
“Is he really that bad?”
“If you’d been rough with me that would have been bad. But you could only have done what you’re really able to do. Anything can happen in a dream.”
“I guess I understand that. But are you guys sure another lord wouldn’t be even worse?”
“We’re willing to gamble. We think that if you go out, there’s a good chance Wotan will win. He owns so many dominions that he doesn’t spend a lot of time in any one of them. And people say that when he does show up, it’s mostly to hunt. So it’s not all that hard on his servants.”
I remembered Timon telling me that the majority of his kind didn’t literally eat people. “Who is it hard on? What does he hunt?”
“You have to understand, it’s not evil when one of his kind does it. It’s just a part of Nature.”
“I don’t think you really believe that, or that you want something like that going on where you live.”
“Maybe not, but I have to look after myself. It’s a hard world.”
“I guess so. And I’m sorry, but I’m not going to make it any softer for you. I’m not going in the tank.”
“Not even to save your life?”
“Timon says I’m safe in the hotel.”
“Timon will say whatever he needs to say to get what he wants.”
“I can believe that. Still, I won’t just sell him out.”
A’marie sighed. “I understand. Why would you care about us? You don’t even know us.”
“It’s not-”
“You care about winning, like any lord or champion. But thank you for being kind. Please be kind one more time, and don’t tell Timon what I said.”
“Sure.”
“Thank you. I really should go now.” She stood up.
After the door closed, I just looked at it for a second or two. Then I muttered, “Damn.”
Because I didn’t like the way the conversation had ended. I felt like I’d made a friend, then let her down and lost her, all in the space of a few minutes. But I didn’t feel bad enough to change my mind, and A’marie wasn’t there to hear about it if I did.
So I tried to forget about her and showered. When my various bandages got damp, they started peeling off, so I got rid of them. I’ve never liked leaving a Band-Aid on any longer than necessary anyway.
Afterward, on a hunch, I checked the dresser and closet and found fresh clothes. Someone had done a good job of guessing my sizes. Or maybe leprechauns had measured me in my sleep. Who knew?
I filled my pockets, found a room key on the little table by the door, and headed downstairs. I supposed a good champion would go looking for his patron right away. But I wasn’t in the mood for Timon yet. I figured I could at least let my breakfast settle before I started breathing his funk.
The Tuxedo Team had cleaned up after Wotan’s tantrum. And though they were still manning their posts, the lobby was quiet. And still candlelit. Unlike in my room, not a ray of sunlight penetrated the black windows. Maybe some of the Old People couldn’t tolerate it.
“Good afternoon,” said a scratchy voice.
Startled, I jerked around and saw Gimble in a shadowy corner. He was standing completely still, like a creepy statue outside a carnival spook house. That was why I hadn’t noticed him before.
“Hi,” I said.
“I guess you want to make sure no one mistakes you for the Pharaoh.”
“Excuse me?”
“You got rid of your bandages.”
“Oh. Right.” I know: So far, I wasn’t exactly coming across like a rocket scientist. Chalk it up to being rattled. You might think I would have gotten used to Gimble last night. But while we were playing poker, I understood how to relate to him, no matter how strange he looked. It was different now.
He waved at a conversation pit made up of chairs and a couch Wotan had missed, or else replacements for ones he hadn’t. “Shall we sit? Get to know one another?”
“Okay.” I figured the more I learned about Gimble and, well, everything, the better off I’d be. As I flopped down, and he sat with a smooth, slow motion that reminded me of a cherry picker lowering a worker to the ground, I said, “The little squirrel guys. They’re not anything like you.”
“No,” he said. Now that he’d moved around a little, his head had started nodding and probably wouldn’t stop for quite a while. “I won them and their lands in 1936. Before that, I’d never set foot in Pittsburgh. Of course, even if I’d come into existence there, it might not reflect in my appearance. I’m unique. That’s what nice about being a higher mechanical. No offense.”
“None taken.”
“So, how are you taking to our society? Our world?”
I considered trying to bullshit him and decided it probably wasn’t worth the effort. “Is it that obvious I’m a newbie?”
“Surprisingly, no. Not from your demeanor. But given your talent for cards, I assume you would already have made a name for yourself if Timon hadn’t just brought you up from the human world.”
“I get it.”
“But you didn’t answer my question. How are you holding up?”
“Well, I don’t keep wondering if I’ve gone crazy, or keep pinching myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. If there are people who really act like that, I guess I’m not one of them.”