Piers Anthony - Phaze Doubt

That seemed fair enough. He picked out the 10 of hearts and laid it down. “When thou dost think o’ the rule, make thy guess,” he said. “It must be apparent within four cards, ‘less thou preferest other. An thou guess wrong, my point. An thou not guess it in eight cards, my point.”

“Aye. Lay thy four.”

He put down the 4 of clubs, the jack of diamonds, and the 5 of spades.

“That be not enough to define the rule,” she said. “An I guess a rule that fits, but it be not thine, what then?”

“I tell thee nay, but no penalty. Otherwise it became cumbersome for two. An several play, bad guesses help others to win, so players be cautious. But with two, there be no urgency to guess, so it can be the whole deck before a guess.” He was getting this from Nepe. “So I put limits, but thou canst protest them.”

“Nay, no protest. Thy rule be change color and diminish by six, in circular fashion. Mayhap also repeat not suit till all be used, but that were not certain.”

She had nailed it with alarming accuracy. Flach handed the deck to her.

“My deal be same’s thine,” she said, not taking up the four cards. “But my rule other.”

Flach studied the cards with new interest. “Two-digit number alternating with one-digit number,” he said.

“Nay. No penalty.”

“Lay more cards.”

She put down the 9 of spades, the 3 of spades, the 6 of clubs, and the 8 of clubs.

Flach stared at the cards. The colors no longer alternated, and the numbers no longer descended. There was no consistent pattern of odd and even. He had to admit he was stumped.

“Third card be odd,” she said.

“But the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth cards are odd!” he protested.

“Not odd in total, odd in being different from the first three,” she explained. “See: each has two symbols in top row, till the third, with one. Then two, two, and one.”

He looked, and it was so. She had looked at the cards in a different way, and been more original than he. “Thy point,” he conceded.

They played again. She dealt the 8 of hearts, 11 of spades, 5 of clubs, and 4 of clubs. When he was baffled, she dealt out the 9 of diamonds, the ace of diamonds, 7 of diamonds, and 6 of diamonds.

He was unable to get it. “Alphabetic,” she explained.

“But the ace should be first!”

“That be the one, as in one, two, three et cetera.”

He admitted defeat.

So it went. Icy was immensely more talented than he, in this game. By the time they were ready to camp for the night, he was hopelessly behind on points. Any penalties she had in mind for him were hers to dictate.

“How earnest thou so apt in cards?” he asked ruefully.

“My sire be chess champ o’ demons, and but for thy grandpa, o’ all Phaze,” she said. “From him do I inherit a memory and grasp o’ numbers and positions. None beat me at such.”

“Mayhap that be thy curse!” he exclaimed. “Demons like not to be beaten by demoness.”

She shook her head. “Thinkst I know that not? Were thou a prospective match, thou wouldst ne’er discover so helpless a female, in anything relating to male’s domain.”

It seemed she did know what she was doing. She didn’t need to worry about beating him, as he was in no way a prospect for her. It was foolish, he knew, but he almost regretted that.

They ate supper while riding. Flach conjured cold sandwiches and cold milk for himself, not wishing to upset her by having hot food, and she ate ice cream from her own store. After a while his milk froze, so they traded, and she chewed on it while he had some of her ice cream. If a person was what she ate, he could see why she was sweet.

The demon guards were hunting on the move. They skied down ice rabbits and killed them with ice spears. They fired ice arrows up at ice geese and brought them down. This frozen realm was full of life, when a person knew what to look for. Perhaps the magic that protected him from the cold, and shielded Icy from his heat, also facilitated his perception of the nature of this region. It was far more interesting than he had supposed. Now he saw that there were ice plants, too, ranging from cut-glass blades of grass to snow trees.

“I fear I be losing my touch,” Icy remarked. “Thine eyes be straying across the landscape.” She inhaled. “Dost spy elevations more symmetrical than mine?”

“Thou wouldst not tease me so, an thou knew not mine age,” he accused her.

“Aye,” she agreed, satisfied.

The dogs drew up at a bit of an outcropping of ice, perhaps a glacier that had gotten lost. To the west dark clouds were surging, blotting out the chilly sunset. “There will be nice weather tonight,” Icy observed. “But methinks thou willst prefer to be under co’er.”

“Aye. Snow and ice be not as appealing to me as to thee.”

She smiled obscurely. “Mayhap we shall see.”

The demon guards unpacked a tent made of stitched snow, and stretched it over great long icicles that made fine poles. Icy crawled in, beckoning Flach to follow. She brought out an ice lamp whose central crystal radiated cold blue light, just enough to illuminate the interior.

“There be not enough snow for two beds,” she said, brushing the snow into a central pile. “Thou willst have to share with me.”

“I can make a small spell to make mine own—“ he started.

“Nay, that were pointless,” she said, removing her coat. “Thy spell will stop thy heat from melting the snow.”

“Aye, but—“

“And I like thy company,” she continued, pulling off her fine sweater. “I like not sleeping alone, anyway.”

“But—“

“Get thy clothes off,” she said, stepping out of her layered ice skirt. “Dost want to soil clean snow?”

“But I need my clothes to keep warm!”

“Nay, thy spell protects thee,” she said, removing her scant undergarments and hanging them neatly on an ice hook. Her body was now innocent of apparel, and resembled a glass and alabaster statue animated by the Brown Adept as a lovely golem.

“But a man be supposed not to sleep beside a woman not o’ his family,” he protested.

“But thou dost be no man, but a child. Thinkst thou my memory be so brief?”

“E’en so, it be not right to be naked together.”

“So? Were that the way it be with thine o’er self in Proton-frame?”

She had him as handily outflanked as she had on the card game. Nakedness was the norm in the other frame. Of course Nepe was used to it, but he couldn’t turn the body over to her, because she lacked the magic to confine its heat.

Defeated, he undressed. He was tired, and did need the sleep, and the snow did look very soft and fluffy. Though he was clothed with illusion, his apparel seemed to fit the larger body as well as it fitted him, and when he doffed it his apparent body was as naked as his real one, in a more manly manner.

Icy lay on the bed. “Didst say thou was with a Pack?” she inquired.

“Aye. They were kind to me.”

“Then thou hadst a Promised bitch?”

“Aye. When we come of age, we will mate, and go our ways.”

Icy spread her legs. They were as marvelously rounded and symmetrical as her upper features. “Methinks I will show thee how to do it, so thou dost know, when.”

I knew it! Nepe thought. I saw it coming!

How do I get out o’ if? he thought desperately.

Why bother? It’s good information. I’m learning things from her like mad!

Fat lot o’ help thou dost be! he retorted. Aloud, to Icy, he said: “I thank thee for thy consideration, but methinks I had better sleep.”

“Dost remember our card games?” she inquired, stretching her nicely proportioned arms languorously.

“Aye. But—“ Then he caught her drift. “Consequences!”