Nightfall studied the coin, scarcely daring to believe Johastus and Rivehn appeared to have chosen one of the oldest and most artless scams in existence. He had not only seen it performed many times, he had watched these two carry it out without a hitch. Still, though his mind told him the sequence of events to come, no method of foiling the scheme accompanied it. Scams that persisted did so because they worked, and Nightfall had never seen this one fail. He opened his mouth to decline, and a new idea awakened. Behind every successful swindle lay a victim whose greed exceeded his intelligence, and over-confidence only sweetened the pot. If he could find some way to turn the scam back on its operators, he doubted he could find a more ideal target. So far, he risked nothing. The two would see to it the first coin toss fell in his favor. "So I can either pay for this round, like I planned; or I can take a fair chance on you paying for me."
Johastus nodded. "Right."
From the corner of his eye, Nightfall noticed Rivehn casually threading through the patrons toward them.
Nightfall showed the appropriate amount of suspicion, "What do you get out of this?"
Johastus raised and lowered his massive shoulders. "I’ve lost a fortune betting against you already. I might as well play one directly. At least, if I lose this time, I feel like my money’s going to a good cause.” He made a grand gesture to indicate every man in the bar.
Though a meaningless gesture, Nightfall followed the movement with his gaze. Since he had already agreed to pay for the round, Johastus’ money would, essentially, go into his own pocket. However, no good pigeon would ever point out such an advantage. "How could l refuse?" Nightfall fished in his pocket for a copper coin. By the time he pulled it free, Rivehn had arrived at the table.
The slender swindler chose the seat directly opposite Nightfall, thrusting the chair backward between his legs and draping his arms, with cool indifference, over its back. "Couldn’t help overhearing. Can I get in?"
The barmaid set three mugs of beer on the table then hurried off to serve the others.
Nightfall glanced to Johastus, who shrugged. “Why not? Every stranger who joins the game makes my chances of paying less."
In response to the statement, Nightfall nodded, noting how Johastus had taken the need to fake unfamiliarity with his partner to a transparent extreme. Stranger, indeed.
Rivehn freed a coin of his own. "Why don’t we play it odd side pays? We all toss and catch, call out what we got, and the one that don’t match takes the tab."
Nightfall pretended to consider, as if he had never heard of such a game. Outside of a barroom, he had not. "All right." He worked his coin between his first two fingers and thumb.
Rivehn and Johastus also positioned. The skinny man counted. "One, two, three-toss!"
The three men flipped up their coins together, caught them, and glanced into their own hands.
"King’s head," Johastus announced.
Nightfall also had Idinbal showing, but he knew their scam would work more quickly and efficiently if he gave the opposite response. "I have the reverse."
"Reverse," Rivehn echoed.
"Damn." Johastus thrust a fist into his pocket and headed toward the bar to pay the tab.
Rivehn seized the moment. "Listen, the big fellow," he inclined his head toward Johastus, "he’s a merchant with more money than sense. I think we can relieve him of some of his… um… burden. You in?"
"In?” Nightfall repeated, feigning ignorance of the street slang.
"There’s a fortune in it if we work together." Rivehn kept his attention riveted on his companion at the bar, as if fearing he might return too soon.
"A fortune?”
"A fortune," Rivehn repeated. He tore his gaze away with apparent effort. "You in?"
"In. I guess so. What do I have to do?”
"Whatever side of the coin comes up for me, you say the opposite. I’ll do the same. I’ll collect the money. When it’s over, we meet at the main market gates and split the take."
Nightfall geared his responses to other suckers he had seen caught up in this scam. He took note of the fact that the location Rivehn chose to meet him was on the opposite side of the city from the money-sharing place he usually went to reunite with Johastus. That seemed to confirm his suspicion that they still used the same site, though he could always follow to make certain. "What money?"
Rivehn waved him silent. “Just follow my lead." He raised his voice to the normal conversational level as Johastus returned. "… always tastes sweeter when someone else buys it." He took a long gulp from the mug.
Nightfall cradled his own drink.
Johastus made a disgruntled noise, though in a good-natured fashion. He flung himself back into his seat and sipped at his beer.
Rivehn laughed. "So long as we got something going here, why not try to win your money back?"
Johastus lowered his mug, wiping foam from his lips with the back of his hand. "Depends. What are you suggesting?"
Rivehn glanced casually at Nightfall. “We toss coins. This time, odd side wins, and we’ll play for the three tossed coins."
Nightfall shrugged, followed by a nod to indicate that, although he found it an unusual gamble, he would play.
"I’ve obviously got some talent for being the odd side." Johastus smiled. "Let’s bet."
And they did. With Rivehn and Nightfall always claiming opposite tosses, Johastus could not help but match one of them every time. Occasionally, Rivehn allowed Johastus a win or a draw; but, as night faded into pre-dawn, the money had landed in three unequal piles. The smallest lay before Johastus, the largest at Rivehn’s hand.
Nightfall kept count of the coins, especially as the stakes turned from copper to silver. He estimated a one hundred thirty-five silver total when Johastus finally hurled his "last" coin to Rivehn. "Obviously, I should have said my prayers this morning. I’m out of some god’s favor." He rose, snatched a fur wrap from a hook near the door, scooped up his meager pile, and headed out into the night without bothering with parting amenities.
Rivehn kept his expression blank, giving Nightfall a conspiratorial wink. He gathered his own winnings into a bag, then unobtrusively started on Nightfall’s stack.
"Hey," Nightfall whispered, reaching to protect his money.
Rivehn shook his head stiffly, the gesture scarcely noticeable. "I need it all to split even. Remember where we meet. We’ll both take a long, slow route so no one follows." With a single gesture, he swept the last of the coins into the bag. "You can leave first and wait for me. It’ll seem suspicious if we go at the same time."
The swindler counted on Nightfall’s greed and fear of the law proving stronger than his doubts about Rivehn’s honesty. To create a scene here would surely reveal the scam to all present and earn hostility from every man who had lost a copper to Nightfall since his arrival in Trillium. Nightfall could not quell all of his concerns, however. The scheme had all the classic features needed for success: simplicity, duplicity, and a sharing of blame such that he could not report the crime to authorities without admitting his own guilt. Soon, Rivehn and Johastus would gather to split their take from him, little knowing their pigeon had plans to rob them of their cash and his own. He would have to trail Rivehn to make certain the swindlers’ dividing site had not changed. Now that Rivehn had nearly all of his money, he could not afford to make a mistake.
Nightfall headed out the door, trying to appear a bit too casual, for Rivehn’s benefit. Once outside, he sauntered into a nearby throughway then around to the back, where the exit from the inn rooms opened onto a cobbled road. Once there and alone, he scuttled toward an alley that would give him a reasonable view of both doors. He had taken only a few steps when the front panel swung open. Mally, the slave girl, scampered out. She froze for a moment in the doorway, moonlight plastering her shadow against the Thirsty Dolphin and fusing it with so many others.