The Dragon Games

The Man in Black

No children were allowed near the gambling, except the serving wenches. Regan bought another girl's uniform for five coppers and spent the first half of the night serving beers and cleaning tables, waiting for sundown. When the light started fading from the sky, Angelo arrived, brushing Regan's shoulder as he stepped past. That was her cue. Regan crawled under a table, pretending to clean the floor as she watched Angelo saunter up to the spinning wheel. Thanks to his lumbering height, he looked older than his true age, and no one tried to stop him from betting.

"Five golds," Angelo said, slapping his coins on the table.

The dealer paused, surprised that such a young person would put down so much money. But he recovered quickly, flashing Angelo a yellow-toothed, smarmy smile. "On what? Black or white?"

"Gold," Angelo declared.

There was a beat of stunned silence. Then the crowd burst in chaos, whistling and cheering so loud it drew the whole inn's attention.

"Brillant, my boy!" a man exclaimed, shaking Angelo's shoulders.

"What a stupid bloody fop," a woman snorted.

Regan shut her eyes, trying to drown out all the noise. She reached for the gut deep inside her, and it instantly came to her call, like shaking hands with an old friend. When Regan opened her eyes, they were consumed with black.

"Ready?" the dealer said.

Angelo nodded, and the dealer thrust his hand, sending the wheel into a blur. Regan watched the wheel make one complete rotation. Two. Only when the wheel's pace began to drop, Regan stroked the air, and in pace with her hand motion, the wheel slowed. The tricky part was making it look natural. If the wheel suddenly stopped on gold, or sped up when it should have been slowing down, foul play would be obvious. The wheel needed to glide into gold, like it was destined to land there. And that was exactly what it did.

Angelo threw his arms in the air, shouting that he could not believe his good fortune. The table erupted in cheers around him, genuinely shocked by Angelo's 'luck'. Now Angelo was to play a few more games, and lose a small chunk of money. He could not leave right away, or it might look like he was running. But before Angelo could leave the table, a man came out of nowhere, setting his hand on the back of Angelo's neck. The man had a foot on Angelo, and a good eighly pounds of muscle, too.

He leaned over to say something in Angelo's ear. Angelo's smiled dropped, all the color leeching from his face. There was pure terror in his eyes. He tried to worm out of the man's grip, but the man squeezed Angelo's neck tighter, forcing him through the crowded inn and toward a back room. Angelo sent a desperate look around the crowd. Then, when he was unable to find whatever he had been looking for, threw back his head and shrieked at the top of his lungs. "Regan! Regan Black! It was her idea, everything, it was all her! She made me do it! She stuck a knife to my throat and she forced my hand!"

Regan's heart dropped. Whatever was going to happen in that back room, Angelo would need help. Regan said a quick prayer that he would find some and scrambled out from the table, hurrying for the exit.

"Hey!" a man shouted at Regan."Stop!" Just as she tried to step by, he seized her arm. Then he pointed at a stain in the floor. "You missed a spot."

"Right away, sir," Regan said, he voice choked and tight. "I'll grab a rag." As soon as he dropped her arm, Regan walked faster, as fast as she could without appearing to run. When she was out of sight of the inn, she broke into a sprint. With every job, Angelo got greedier. He kept pushing for a bigger score, more money, a slimmer escape. But it was not all his fault. Regan got swept along the rushing tide. She used to think money would make all her problems vanish, like the key to happiness was found in a full belly. But as soon as she ate her fill, food no longer interested her. She was still as hungry as ever. the only difference now was that she no longer knew what she was hungry for.