Chapter 122 A Game with the Captain (1/2)

The five day trip to Rouke Island went relatively smoothly. Though it was originally meant to be four days, they had been delayed slightly by a combination of less than desirable weather and Eb's learning abilities. He'd made a few minor mistakes, but it had been cause for course corrections and he'd been punished accordingly for it. Still, considering his clear fear of heights, he was picking up the job relatively quickly, and Jeremiah was once again impressed by Midas's sense for his crew. His First Mate had always been good at sensing these things about his crew members. Jeremiah had never been let down by it.

In addition to Eb, the other two new crew members were also working surprisingly well. They seemed to slot into their roles seamlessly, picking up the work quickly and performing no less diligently than the rest of the crew. After three days, there was no need to have Jorl supervise them, they simply received their work for the day and did it. It was on the fourth day that Jeremiah visited the Galley to eat with his crew. He did this occasionally in order to ensure that the crew were as happy as they could be and that work wasn't too hard for them. What he found was Rassa in the middle of a card game with several crew members, and stoic as a statue, he was winning.

”How many games has he won?” asked Jeremiah, turning slightly to look at Jorl who watched over the group.

”This is the first night he's played,” Jorl said, ”The first few nights he insisted he didn't know how and simply watched with his friends, tonight he said he'd be willing to give it a go. He's won four games so far, and his ability seems unmatched”.

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Jeremiah's eyebrows rose in interest and he turned to watch the game. In fact, the card game that was played was quite simple. They piled four decks of cards together with the values of cards being 3 as the lowest and 2 as the highest. At the beginning of the game, the winner of the previous game (playing the role of the King) would receive the highest value card dealt to the loser of the previous game (playing the role of the Slave), and would give his lowest value card back in return. Following this, play would proceed to the left with the first player determining what cards were placed out on the table. For instance, starting with a pair of threes. The next player would have to place cards of higher value, but still in a pair. The player to place the highest value on the pile would win the right to begin the next round. Play continued until players were able to discard all of their cards, the winner being the one to empty their hand first. The Joker cards were used as wild cards to represent any number of cards at any value.

Bets were placed on who they thought would win a game. The winner of the previous game was usually seen as most likely, but the game all came down to strategy. When to use your highest value cards and when to use your lowest.

As Jeremiah watched, it seemed that Rassa had not only grasped this concept, but had also seemed to have grasped the tendencies of the other players and could predict the moves they would make. The game had in turn become almost easy to the boy. He won the fifth game without any problems.

Jeremiah gave a side glance at Midas who stood by his side. Midas shrugged in response to the unanswered question. Jeremiah smiled as he turned back to the table.

”Deal me in”.

The crew seemed surprised at first, but then grinned shuffling to make room for the Captain at the table, ”Aye, Captain!”

As per the rules, new players entered the game as Commoners, those that had no advantage nor disadvantage. Hadolf, who'd lost the previous game, handed his highest card face down to Rassa who gave back his lowest card. Rassa then placed out 3 threes and play proceeded around the table.

3 fives.

3 eights.

3 jacks.

3 aces.

Rassa passed his second turn, indicating he didn't have 2 cards of a value higher than 3 aces. A short frown that was quickly gone from Hadolf indicated that the man thought it was unlikely. Jeremiah ascertained that Hadolf had likely handed over a joker card.

With eight jokers swimming amongst the five players, it was unlikely that Rassa didn't even have 1. It was not against the rules to pass a turn despite having appropriate cards to play however. It entirely depended on one's strategy.

Tank grinned as he won the first round with his three aces, placing the dead cards aside and starting a new round with a pair of threes.

Hadolf won the second round with a pair of twos.