The stranger stood up. The boys closed in around him.
THIS IS UNCALLED FOR. I SEEK ONLY TO LEARN. WHAT PLEASURE CAN HUMANS FIND IN A MERE REITERATION OF THE LAWS OF CHANCE?
'Chance doesn't come into it. Let's have a look at him, boys.'
The events that followed were recalled by no living soul except the one belonging to a feral cat, one of the city's thousands, that was crossing the alley en route to a tryst. It stopped and watched with interest.
The boys froze in mid-stab. Painful purple light flickered around them. The stranger pushed his hood back and picked up the dice, and then pushed them into Wa's unresisting hand. The man was opening and shutting his mouth, his eyes unsuccessfully trying not to see what was in front of them. Grinning.
THROW.
Wa managed to look down at his hand.
'What are the stakes?' he whispered.
IF YOU WIN, YOU WILL REFRAIN FROM THESE RIDICULOUS ATTEMPTS TO SUGGEST THAT CHANCE GOVERNS THE AFFAIRS OF MEN.
'Yes. Yes. And . . . if I lose?'
YOU WILL WISH YOU HAD WON.
Wa tried to swallow, but his throat had gone dry. 'I know I've had lots of people murdered —'
TWENTY-THREE, TO BE PRECISE.
'Is it too late to say I'm sorry?'
SUCH THINGS DO NOT CONCERN ME. NOW THROW THE DICE.
Wa shut his eyes and dropped the dice on to the ground, too nervous even to try the special flick-and-twist throw. He kept his eyes shut.
ALL THE EIGHTS. THERE, THAT WASN'T TOO DIFFICULT, WAS IT?
Wa fainted.
Death shrugged, and walked away, pausing only to tickle the ears of an alley cat that happened to be passing. He hummed to himself. He didn't quite know what had come over him, but he was enjoying it.
'You couldn't be sure it would work!'
Cutwell spread his hands in a conciliatory gesture.
'Well, no,' he conceded, 'but I thought, what have I got to lose?' He backed away.
'What have you got to lose?' shouted Mort.
He stamped forward and tugged the bolt out of one of the posts in the princess's bed.
'You're not going to tell me this went through me?' he snapped.
'I was particularly watching it,' said Cutwell.
'I saw it too,' said Keli. 'It was horrible. It came right out of where your heart is.'
'And I saw you walk through a stone pillar,' said Cutwell.
'And I saw you ride straight through a window.'
'Yes, but that was on business,' declared Mort, waving his hands in the air. That wasn't everyday, that's different. And —'