“Caelan already had his trust abused on this journey. I won’t be the one to damage his faith in people any further.”
There was no need to point fingers. Vale knew she was the one who’d broken a fuckton of trust. She straightened and took a step back from the table, her eyes downcast. Drayce didn’t care how she felt. He’d been the one with the knife pressed to his throat. Caelan had been the one to nearly shatter into a million pieces.
“Yeah, I get that, but maybe you could just not volunteer the information. Or at least wait until we’re in Mrtyu. He’s got enough on his mind already,” Drayce suggested.
Rayne bumped his glasses up as he pinched the bridge of his nose, then rubbed his eyes. “Drayce…” he said in such a weary tone that Drayce almost had pity on him. But he couldn’t. They had to play this game if they were going to get to Mrtyu. Caelan needed to get to Mrtyu to wake the Dead God, as he’d been commanded by the Goddess of Life. If they didn’t move forward, the Empire would free the Goddess of the Hunt and they’d all die. It was all very simple. There was nothing for Rayne to puzzle out.
Drayce placed a hand on Rayne’s shoulder and squeezed. “Don’t forget, you’ve got some healing goodness from Tula as well. You can always fix me up if things go really wrong.”
Dropping his hand to the table, Rayne stared at Drayce, his eyes blazing with rage and fear. “My healing skills aren’t nearly as advanced as Caelan’s. There’s no telling if I’d be able to save you.”
He wanted to offer up some more encouraging words, but Nanu was already returning with a shot glass in one hand and a small box in the other. She scooted into her side of the booth and set the shot glass full of amber liquid directly in front of Drayce. Next to it, she placed the box that resembled a tiny metal treasure chest. With a wicked grin, she carefully opened the lid to reveal two small silver balls no bigger than pebbles resting on a black velvet bed.
“The game is simple,” she started. “One ball is dipped in a lethal poison. The other is not. Choose one and drop it into the whiskey. Drink the whiskey. If you choose the one not poisonous, the Dead God does not want you and you are free to conduct business with Magar and Giri. If you choose the one coated in poison, you will die in a matter of seconds. We will celebrate your life and your friends will then immediately leave Temit, never to return. Fair?”
“Yup,” Drayce agreed.
“Wait!” Rayne shouted.
But Drayce didn’t wait. He grabbed the ball on the left, dropped it into the whiskey, and slammed the shot back, swallowing the alcohol and the little ball in one go.
The silence in the bar was deafening. Drayce was the first one to break it.
“Whoa! That’s good whiskey! Zastrian whiskey?”
“Uh…yeah,” Nanu rasped, her wide eyes jumping from the empty glass he’d slammed on the table to his face. Oh, she had not expected him to just jump right in. She’d probably figured that he’d dither about and try to either get the secret out of her about which was poisoned or at least attempt to get out of the wager altogether.
“Drayce?” Rayne’s voice was strangled, and he could only smile at the man, trying to reassure him, but there was nothing he could say. He had a secret. It wasn’t too amazing, but it did mean that he couldn’t be poisoned. Not that he could even tell Rayne that because the man would not be satisfied with just that explanation.
“What? I’m good.”
He looked at Nanu, who was now smiling, her expression quite triumphant, until a couple of seconds ticked by and Drayce still wasn’t keeling over dead. Oh, his stomach gurgled a little, possibly displeased with the poison or maybe just the addition of whiskey to the vast emptiness there. He needed something thick and heavy.
Leaning around Rayne, he pinned Vale with a narrowed gaze. “Can you get pancakes in Temit? Do Zastrians know what a pancake is?”
“A-a pancake?” she repeated as if he were the one speaking a foreign language.
Really, they needed to move beyond this poisoning thing. “Yeah, a pancake. Great breakfast food, covered in sticky syrup, maybe with fruit or chocolate chips. We haven’t done lunch yet. Or even a proper breakfast. I’m craving pancakes.”
“Yeah, no. I’ve never seen pancakes in Zastrad. They’ve got something like a waffle, though.”
Drayce wrinkled his nose. It wasn’t a pancake, but it would do.
“Will you stop worrying about your stomach? Are you all right?” Rayne snapped.
“Of course I’m all right,” he laughed. “I wouldn’t have done it if I wasn’t sure I was going to be fine.” He bumped his flabbergasted friend with his elbow before turning his attention to Nanu.