“Cheer up, Skeeve,” Chumley said gaily, clapping me on the shoulder. “This is going to be easier than if we were trying to teach you the whole game.”
“It is?” I blinked, perking up slightly.
“Sure. You see, the conditional modifiers depend on certain variables, like the day of the week, the number of players, chair position, things like that. Now since this match is prearranged, we know what most of those variables will be. For example, there will only be the two of you playing, and as the challenged party you have your choice of chairs . . . pick the one facing south, incidentally.”
“What my big brother is trying to say in his own clumsy way,” Tananda interrupted by squeezing my arm softly, “is that you don’t have to learn all the conditional modifiers. Just the ones that will be in effect for your game with the Kid.”
“Oh. I get it. Thanks, Chumley. That makes me feel a lot better.”
“Right-o. There can’t be more than a dozen or two that will be pertinent.”
The relief I had been feeling turned cold inside me.
“Two dozen conditional modifiers?”
“C’mon, big brother. There aren’t that many.”
“I was going to say I thought he was underestimating,” Aahz grinned.
“Well, let’s bloody well count them off and see.”
“Red dragons will be wild on even-numbered hands….”
“… But unicorns will be wild all evening….”
“… The corps-a-corps hand will be invalid all night, that’s why we didn’t bother to list it, partner….”
“… Once a night, a player can change the suit of one of his up cards….”
“… Every five hands, the sequence of cards is reversed, so the low cards are high and vice-versa….”