text: The courtiers arrived with a fresh, unopened box of Pickle-or-Pie. Tarcuna ripped the paper off, and picked the square pawn. "OK, Ythac. Triangle, circle, or egg?"
  
  Ythac glared at her. "You are not playing, Tarcuna."
  
  "Yes, I am. I'd kind of like not to be considered quite such a traitor."
  
  "No, you're not. You're Jyothky's hoven, not mine."
  
  Tarcuna snarled. "Llredh's too!" (Not true.)
  
  Llredh hissed, "Suicide permission, I also deny her to you!"
  
  Tarcuna threw the board at him.
  
  The twelve allowed players drew lots to see who would go first. Twelve bullets were put into a helmet: eleven lead, one steel. One of the magistrates got the first game. "When I promised my life with the purple oath, I never thought I'd risk it playing a children's game," he said.
  
  Tarcuna shuffled the cards and set up the game, hissing at Ythac and Llredh as she did. The magistrate picked the egg; Ythac picked the square. The magistrate drew a Move 3 card. Tarcuna offered the deck to Ythac. Everyone who wasn't risking their life giggled. Pickle-or-Pie cards are small enough to be comfortable to hoven children; Ythac, at full size, couldn't use them at all. "Tarcuna, please do me the service of drawing my cards and moving my pawn for me."
  
  "Sure thing. What, exactly, will you be doing in this game, Ythac?"
  
  "Ruling."
  
  But that wasn't all he was doing. Three dozen cards into the game, he was ahead by two spaces and close to the goal, and obviously finding the actual gameplay just as boring as Versley had suggested. He started casting a scrying spell. I whomped the spell with my vô to break it, and then breathed lightning into his left ear.
  
  "Ow! Jyothky! That hurt!" said Ythac. The hovens were all quivering and weeping in alarm. And some pain perhaps; a lightning bolt is rather loud indoors.
  
  "Yes, I presume it did. No spells, Ythac. This is supposed to be a fair contest."
  
  "I'm not doing anything that will affect the outcome of the game!" he whined.
  
  "Doesn't matter. No spells at all," I told him.
  
  "Fine, fine," he mumbled. He drew another card, and skipped five spaces ahead, next to the goal.
  
  The magistrate drew the Pickle, which called for him to move back to the middle of the board. "Curse that to Garchune."
  
  "That's how the cards fall," I said. "Nobody's been cheating."
  
  "Trying to, I'd say," said the magistrate. Tarcuna drew the top card for Ythac, which was "Move four" . The magistrate shook his head, "So much for that. So much for my life."
  
  Ythac proclaimed in a harsh voice, "The first of you has fallen to my unconquerable powers of playing Pickle-or-Pie. The chances of continuing the dracarchy have doubled. Who is next?"
  
  While the hovens fumbled with ten leaden and one steel bullet, Nrararn giggled privately to me. "Doubled, yes, from one in four thousand to one in two thousand."
  
  "He's not trying to win, remember? Just look impressive while he's giving up his empire."
  
  Quarri looked at the steel bullet in his hand, and fell to his knees whimpering. I poked him with my tailtip. "You have talked bravely. Now you must act brave." He got up and walked to Tarcuna, shaking, his fur flat, and picked his pawn (square) and first card (red). Ythac's first draw was the Pie, the symbol closest to the goal, and the game only went for four more draws.
  
  "Hovens are not doing very well recovering their country," said Ythac. "Who is next?"
  
  Next, by the bullets, was one of the other RARU leaders. "I think Tarcuna is cheating," he said. "She's not an honest Trestean."
  
  Tarcuna threw the deck at him. "I'm not cheating, and I'm as loyal a Trestean as possible at this point. Sporthen, nobody's questioning your loyalty to Trest. You shuffle. I'll just move Ythac's pawn."
  
  The RARUvite played fiercely. Or, rather, the cards fell in his favor several times. Once Ythac was two spaces from the goal, but drew the Pie and had to move back. Then the hoven was ahead for several turns. At the end, both players were near the goal. They each needed to draw a number card — any number — to get to it. They got a run of color cards, but Ythac drew a Move 3, and won. The hoven fell into tears, protesting his innocence. "That's fine, you are innocent," I told him. "I'm not going to kill you as a punishment."
  
  Sporthen shuffled the cards again, and held them as he drew a lead bullet. One of Ythac's gendarmes drew the steel one.
  
  "Is it too late for me to back out?" he asked.
  
  "Yes, too late by far," said Ythac. "Play."
  
  Ythac was ahead for most of that game too. But then the gendarme drew the Pie, and on his next turn Move 7, and Ythac was still meandering around the Sundae two coils of path below. Ythac grinned, and had Tarcuna take his next card: green, moving him a couple spaces forward. The gendarme drew Move 2, and won.
  
  "Gendarme Niremme!" roared Ythac, after a quick glance at the guard's nametag. "You have wagered your life, and you have defeated me at my game! From this defeat, I cede the greater part of my dominion and my husband's to you and your conspecifics!"
  
  Sporthen and the others stared at Ythac suspiciously. So I hissed at them, "No tricks. We pay our gambling debts."
  
  "You're just going to let me live?" he asked.
  
  "For now. Feel free to challenge any other time, and I will happily kill you," I said, because I was (and am) still rather upset with him. "Be glad he is staying on as a figurehead. You are still nominally his, enough so that draconic law keeps me from killing you without his permission. Or would you rather be entirely free?" I might not have killed him in any case — I have some manners — but I didn't much want him to feel entirely happy over defeating some dragons.
  
  The other hovens eventually realized that we weren't tricking them, and weren't going to massacre them. Llredh darted off to kill Shuvanne, which was either a relief or a final indignity to him, I don't much care which. Ythac, Sporthen, Versley, Csirnis, and a courtier or two started working on the wording of decree of mostly-abdication.
  
  Nrararn tugged my forepaw. "Let's leave. I'm not sure I want to be around Ythac and Llredh when they realize we've just mostly removed their territory. Even if they were helping out, they might be a bit upset."
  
  I dragged Tarcuna away from the growing celebration of her country's freedom, and we fled our victory.