‘Wash it? Mother never washed her hair when she was alive – why should I start now? It’ll lose its lustre—’

‘Lustre? Oh, you mean fifty years of sweat and rancid lard—’

‘Wasn’t rancid when she was alive, though, was it?’

‘Thank Hood I don’t know—’

‘Will you two save your foul breath? Which way now, Spindle?’

‘Right. Down that alley. Then left – the hide tent at the end—’

‘Bet someone’s living in it,’ Detoran muttered.

‘You’re on with that one, too,’ Picker said. ‘It’s the one the Rhivi use to lay out Tiste Andii corpses before cremation. Ain’t been a killed Tiste since Darujhistan.’

‘How’d you find it anyway?’ Hedge asked.

‘Spindle sniffed it out—’

‘Surprised he can sniff anything—’

‘All right, set her down. Blend – the flap.’

The table filled the entire room within, with only an arm’s length of space around it on all sides. The low cots that had been used for the corpses went beneath, folded and stacked. A shuttered lantern was lit and hung from the centre-pole hook. Picker watched Hedge crouch down, his eyes inches from the table’s scarred, pitted surface, and run his blunt, battered fingers lovingly along the wood’s grain. ‘Beautiful,’ he whispered. He glanced up, met Picker’s eyes. ‘Call in the crew, Corporal, the game’s about to start.’

Grinning, Picker nodded. ‘Go get ‘em, Blend.’

‘Even cuts,’ Hedge said, glaring at everyone. ‘We’re a squad now—’

‘Meaning you let us in on the secret,’ Spindle said, scowling. ‘If we’d known you was cheating all that time—’

‘Yeah, well, your fortunes are about to turn, ain’t they? So quit the complaining.’

‘Aren’t you two a perfect match,’ Picker observed. ‘So tell us, Hedge, how does this work?’

‘Oppositions, Corporal. Both Decks are the real thing, you see. Fiddler had the better sensitivity, but Spindle should be able to pull it off.’ He faced the mage. ‘You’ve done readings before, haven’t you? You said—’

‘Yeah yeah, squirt – no problem, I got the touch—’

‘You’d better,’ the sapper warned. He caressed the table-top again. ‘Two layers, you see, with the fixed Deck in between ‘em. Lay a card down and there’s a tension formed, and it tells ya which one the face-down one is. Never fails. Dealer knows every hand he plays out. Fiddler—’

‘Ain’t here,’ Trotts growled, his arms crossed. He bared his teeth at Spindle.

The mage sputtered. ‘I can do it, you horse-brained savage! Watch me!’

‘Shut up,’ Picker snapped. ‘They’re coming.’

It was near dawn when the other squads began filing back out of the tent, laughing and back-slapping as they jingled bulging purses. When the last of them had left, voices trailing away, Picker slumped wearily down on the table. Spindle, sweat dripping from his gleaming hairshirt, groaned and dropped his head, thumping against the thick wood.

Stepping up behind him, Hedge raised a hand.