The Island With No Parallel

The Golden Ram

"That looks like what we're looking for."

"Step right up, gentleman! Try your hand at Rafti's Eye," they could hear the dealer announce as they came near. He shuffled cards quickly between his hands before passing them out between the men sitting around at the table. His black eyes caught the three of them coming and followed them to their seats. "I see we have some foreigners that'd like to try their hand. Would you like to deal?"

Manuel put down the chips they were given to play with. "Absolutely. How do you play?"

The whole table started chuckling. Yunara bit her inner lip to keep herself from shrinking within herself. She imagined Cadri and how she always acted in the presence of powerful Lords. She never shriveled or backed down. Even if she didn't have an ounce of confidence, she was at least going to act like she did.

The dealer showed teeth as he smiled, a little too widely, his crooked nose coming in the way of his eyes as he tilted up his bald head. "It's simple. In the entire deck of cards, there is only one that is Rafti's Eye. I will deal out the entire deck to all of the players, and you will all guess who has it. The person that guesses correctly wins. If you have the card, you are not allowed to tell anyone, but if no one guesses you, you win the round. Easy enough, no?"

"Sure. Deal me in. Them, too," he said, pointing to Yunara and Kailu.

The dealer gave him a sideways glance, but he said nothing as he dealt the cards as agreed.

Yunara tried to be careful to keep her cards to herself, a difficult task with so many cards in her hand, but she finally managed a way to keep them all together without looking too clumsy. She didn't seem to have Rafti's Eye in any of her cards. Not that she knew what it looked like, but none of them called out to her as being it.

"Alright, men, take a minute to study the faces of your opponents," the dealer said, all of the men giving suspicious glances to one another, as though they were staring down thieves that would take from them at any time. They clutched their cards nearly flush against their chests, holding them only the slightest bit angled so they could study them and their opponents at the same time.

Yunara glanced across all of their faces, not sure what she was looking for. Someone that looked shifty? That could be said for all of them. Someone nervous? Well, in that, there was a mix. There were people that looked very good at keeping a straight face regardless, and those whose eyes kept darting, but it could be said that they were looking for the holder for the Eye as much as she was. And then there were more than a few that kept making glances to her that had nothing to do with the game at all. Self consciously, she pulled the bodice of her dress up.

"Have you made your guesses?" the dealer asked. He took out a notebook and pointed to Manuel first. "What's your name?"

"Manuel."

"Who do you suspect?"

He pointed to a man that was blowing rings of smoke from his cigar. "Him."

The man merely chuckled and kept blowing.

The dealer wrote it down in his notebook and proceed to record the guesses of all of the men at the table. It was obvious all of the men thought the three of them were rookies that were about to lose all of their money. Yunara couldn't say she disagreed.

Finally the dealer came to her. "Name?"

"Yunara," she squeaked, incapable of forgetting how much money she was putting into this bet.

The dealer frowned and cupped a hand around his ear. "You have to speak up ma'am, I can't hear you if you mumble."

A round of chuckles rumbled through the men, making her cheeks burn even more.