Book 4. Chapter 27
Brin’s coin purse jingled in time with his steps as he ran ahead of the Lance. They’d woken the Lance up right at dawn, just to punish anyone who’d gone too far with their drinking last night. After Brin and Sion had absolutely fleeced the Lance in their gambling game the day before, Sion had purposely lost the final round after going all in, meaning that the entire winnings of the day were now in a small sack on Brin’s belt.
Some of the men had chosen to drink their woes away, with Hedrek outdrinking everyone, but since he was a high-Vitality [Knight] he’d woken up fresh and chipper. The others were a lot worse off, and Brin could see them wincing every time that his full coin purse clinked. Aeron and Rhun looked the healthiest out of all of them. Rhun, because he’d only had a single pint of beer, and Aeron because he’d lost every penny he owned to the dice game and couldn’t afford any alcohol.
Normally Brin would secure any money he was carrying much tighter, and never in a sack at his belt that gave pickpockets an easy target, but today he wanted them all to see it. An object lesson on the dangers of gambling. Or a lesson against cheating for Brych? Or maybe Brin just enjoyed tormenting them.
They ran a mile, then a second, and a few of the men started looking around like they expected to stop soon. Brin had no intention of that. They circled the keep in a wide arc, running through the stony fields. Four miles, then five. By eight miles even Brin started to feel winded, mostly because of the full plate armor. At ten, he finally let them rest, and stopped by a well so they could all get water.
Cid took him aside, and tapped a hidden rune on his helmet. Brin felt the activation of sound magic; the helmet was using a low-powered but complex enchantment to give Cid privacy to speak to whoever he was aiming at, a necessity when leading a Lance that included a [Rogue].
Cid glanced down at Brin’s coin purse. “A bit brutal, don’t you think?”
“Brych was cheating,” said Brin.
“Were you cheating, too?”
“Well, sure, but that’s not the point,” said Brin. Brych had been carefully switching out weighted dice from a hidden pouch under his greaves, which had taken an admirable amount of skill. Brin had just used a cup to roll his dice and switched the dots around while they were covered. He had no idea how Sion had done it.