FF Chapter 33

Alex and Luck gamble for the city.

Chapter 33

      Jack led Alex and Indol to the back door, and warned them. “My illusions can mask sight, but not sound or touch, so don’t talk or bump into anything. Also…do you have any plan for once we get inside?”

      “Yep.” Alex smiled.

      “How about one for getting out?”

      “…um…”

      Jack smirked. “I thought not, but I do. Unfortunately, I’ll need Indol’s help.”

      “Won’t that leave Alex alone?” Indol interjected.

      Alex and Jack locked eyes, and shared a smile. “You like it better this way, don’t you?”

      Alex shrugged “It just feels right, facing Luck one-on-one.”

      “I understand. Normally I’d say ‘good luck’, but that just feels wrong here, so I suppose I’ll say ‘may Fate be with you’.”

      Alex touched the cards in his pocket and smirked. “I think he is.”

      With that they held hands, and Jack cloaked them in his veil. He slowly led them by the hand through the first floor, to the second. When they got there they noticed Luck standing near the back door, she was dressed in a stunningly beautiful gown adorned with so many jewels the children couldn’t name them all. She obviously wanted to impress her guests.

      Alex tapped Jack on the shoulder. With a reassuring smile he signalled that he was ready, and let go.

      As Jack removed his veil illusion, it was as though Alex suddenly appeared in the middle of the room. He announced “I am Alexander Abaven, and I challenge Luck to a duel!”

      As if summoned be her name, Luck quickly appeared before him, smiling. “It is you. Well, isn’t this a surprise. I suppose I don’t have to ask what brought you here.”

      “Luck, I challenge you to a game of cards. I win, you let Eira go; you win, I stay here.”

      Luck thought for a moment, before looking around the crowd. Everyone knew who Alex was, and the prophecy regarding him, and he’d just challenged Luck herself. She couldn’t refuse. “Very well, what is the challenge?”

      He held up his deck. “A game of Kings Court, one hand takes all.”

      Luck stared at his cards, and remembered what Jack had told her about Alex always losing against his own deck. She smiled as the crowd around her watched. “I accept.”

 

      Deese was summoned to her side, and waited the table. He brought Alex and Luck drinks, and aided in shuffling the deck. The cards were passed around, as per tradition in a high stakes game. First Alex shuffled, then Luck, finally Deese shuffled before passing the cards back to Alex to deal.

      They both privately investigated the five cards they’d been given. Luck traded in two cards, while Alex decided to trade in none. This drew gasps of surprise and excited mutterings; such a move was almost never done.

      Luck locked eyes with her opponent. “Confident, are we?” She asked, but Alex just shrugged and smiled. “Well let’s see if your bravado pays off. I have a full house.” She laid her cards down, and revealed three aces and two jacks.

      Alex grinned and played the ace, king, queen, jack, and ten of clubs; a royal flush, an unbeatable hand.

      A stunned silence hung over the crowd like a thick fog as everyone tried to process what had just happened, but no matter how many times people looked at the cards, they didn’t change. Alex had just beaten Luck herself at cards.

      Luck placed her head in her hands and tried to shut out the murmuring around her. “Deese, get the brat.” She growled.

      Alex gathered his cards and put them back in his pocket while excitedly waiting to be reunited with Eira. He waited, and waited, and waited. Luck twisted in her chair and stared at the door. Deese had vanished a few minutes ago. It shouldn’t take that long to grab the girl. Alex looked at her, but both knew she was bound by her word.

      Deese finally returned, alone, and obviously flustered.

      “What happened? Where is she?” Luck glared.

      “I-I don’t know ma’am, I really don’t know. She’s gone.” Deese stammered.

      “What? How?” She demanded. The whole room was on their feet.

      “I don’t know ma’am. She’s not in the room, she’s not in the hallway, and she’s not hiding in the dresser. I-I searched everywhere. She’s gone!”

      The look of shock and panic on Luck’s face quickly melted into a fiendish smile. She turned to Alex and slyly purred. “The deal was that I would give you Eira, but since she’s not here, I suppose said deal is null and void.” She rose from the table, and looked at him hungrily.

      Alex smiled “You know I had a feeling something like this would happen.” With that he flipped the table over and cowered behind it, hoping that whatever idea Jack had would be good enough; it was.

 

      As soon as things turned sour, Jack and Indol threw bombs into the tanks lining the walls. They exploded, flooding the entire room and unleashing a wave of SawJaws from their prisons.

      Jack used his illusions to make it seem like the Dan’darun were rampaging, and the stampede of patrons leaving masked the children’s escape perfectly. Luck couldn’t even use her lightning powers with all the water covering the floor, just as Jack had planned. The trio of kids fled, and didn’t stop until they couldn’t hear the panicked screams anymore.

      They met up with Frey and Malent, but the deflated bully stayed silent a few steps away. Before they could explain that Eira was still missing, the princess herself appeared from around a corner.

      Eira was immediately swarmed by the group, and even a startled Malent got up to check if she was really there. Frey almost cried; her friend was there, in the flesh.

      Alex got in line to hug her and yelled “We came to rescue you.”

      Eira shrugged and joked “You took too long.”

      “But how did you escape?” Indol demanded.

      Eira glanced at Jack “They underestimated me. They set a bunch of dralgs to guard me, but Luck needed me alive, so they were ordered not to kill me, just guard me. In the end all that did was give me more beast marks.” She showed her arm proudly. “I unlocked my beast gift, and used it to escape.”

      Frey smiled giddily. “Really? What is it?”

      She held her hand out towards a puddle, and the water leapt from the ground and formed a perfect sphere in her hand. “I can control water.” She announced. “Between the tea and a pitcher they gave me, I had plenty of ammunition, and some commotion downstairs got Deese away from his post.”

      “That was me!” Alex blurted out. “He came down to watch me play. Then he went back up to look for you and you weren’t there. He came back down and Luck attacked us. We only got out because of Jack-.” He turned to see his friend was staring at the casino in the distance. The explosives had blasted some rubble from the side of the building.

      Staring at his former prison, he laughed. It was the first time anyone of them had heard it, even Indol had never seen Jack as happy as he was now; so overcome with joy that he had to vocalize it in the most natural way humans knew how.

      Through his spasms of joy, he yelled “Man, if I knew it’d feel this good I’d have stuck it to that diva years ago!” As his laughter died down, he whispered to himself through chuckles “She’s going to be so mad.”

      “Gaius!” Alex realized.

      Eira jumped up “My father’s still in danger. We have to get back to him, let him know I’m alright.”

      Jack fully regained his senses, and explained “Johnathan might still try to stage a coup. That guy’s only interested in power, and he sees the crown as his next promotion.”

      “Then we have to get going.”

      Jack looked back at the ruined casino and shook his head. “You have to get going. The deal was I’d help you get Eira, but I’m not risking any more than I have too. I stayed cloaked, so Luck doesn’t know for sure I was involved, but I’m not about to spit in her face. I’ll stay here with Malent while you guys go.”

      Alex looked at him and understood. With a quick goodbye they left Jack and Malent in the alley and rode towards the castle.

 

      Inside the evacuated casino, Deese looked around at the mess, but also at his mistress. She wasn’t throwing a tantrum; in fact she hadn’t said a word since Alex escaped. She just stood in the ankle deep water, completely silent. This terrified Deese more than any outburst could.