Page 110 of A Shade of Myself
Poe sat up with a wince, brushing dirt off themselves, all their features now human. “A one-time trade. The token for an answer. No games.”
“Give me your promise on that, and that you’ll answer honestly,” I said. Yoshi had said a promise was a bond. Tatiana treated it like it was, as did the vamps.
“I promise. To all of it.” They glared at Laurent. “Happy?”
The wolf sat down docilly beside me and the violent current of energy in the forest ebbed away.
“What’s the question?” Poe settled themselves on the stump, their injured arm resting in their lap.
“What’s the Ascendant? It likely has some connection to stars.”
Poe frowned, looking genuinely intrigued. “I have no idea, but it sounds shiny.”
“Which is why I came to you. If a raven can’t find out about something shiny, then who can?”
A raven in a high branch cawed.
Poe nodded. “Yes, she must visit the Casino.”
The other birds broke into enthusiastic kraas, while Poe held up their good arm to placate the wolf, who’d jerked his head up.
“You can’t even keep your promise of no games for ten seconds,” I said.
Delilah sprung up to stand at my shoulder.
“Untrue. The Casino is where all the information gathered by our kind lives.”
“I doubt the Casino is a library. It’s the source of that magic, isn’t it?” Poe kept an impassive expression on their face, but I pressed on. “Is that why raven shifters perpetuate chaos? To keep the Casino fed? Is it like ohr?”
I didn’t take my eyes off the raven and eventually they looked away. I took it as their admission that I was right. “How would this work?”
Laurent thumped his tail against the ground but that was the extent of his disagreement.
“The few outside the flock who know of the Casino’s existence must play a game of the Casino’s choosing for an answer.” Poe’s eyes gleamed.
“Let me guess,” I said. “The odds tend to be in the house’s favor?”
“Yes.” They looked amused that I’d gotten it that quickly. “But you have a token and my promise, so you may play without repercussion. I guarantee that if the Casino doesn’t have the answer about this shiny-sounding item, then knowledge of the Ascendant has been lost forever.”
It all sounded legit, but I’d worked with enough slippery lawyers to know how flowery language could hide loopholes in plain sight.
Laurent caught my sleeve between his teeth and gently tugged me backward with a low growl.
“Your protest is noted,” I murmured, disengaging. “Let me think.”
If I’d learned anything about the magical community, it was that no one willingly handed over answers. Payment rarely took the form of cash either. These people traded in secrets and information. If I walked away, I’d just have to find someone else with some other hoop to jump through.
Besides, Poe had promised no more games and I was willing to bet that their self-protective instincts overrode any desire to lie to me while the wolf stood by.
I paced around the clearing.
It sounded like the Casino didn’t do anything without a price. Why would it help, even with the token? I reviewed everything Poe had said to me, taking the conversation apart word by word, until I figured it out.
“Ah.” I wagged a finger at Poe. “You promised you would answer honestly but you never gave me your word that the Casino would. Is that why you agreed to this so easily? I drop in the token, our deal is fulfilled, and the Casino doesn’t give a damn fact up?”
The wolf paced in a wide circle around Poe, never taking his eyes off them.
Poe jutted up their chin. “I can’t make the Casino comply.”
