Lord Skybolt wrote:"Sure you can . What the hell . I have wasted time with that damn fish any way so go head and consult the "Cards" ."Alain says and thinking :Whatever consulting the cards means .
The gypsy woman withdraws a red leather case from inside the folds of her dress. She opens it to reveal a deck of ivory plaques. She hands these to you, watching you closely.
‘’Shuffle them.”
While you shuffle the cards, she comments- ‘’those are nice gloves. Custom work, no? “
She leans forward to whisper in your ear as she takes back the cards.
‘’I like a man with long hands. “
Reclining in her chair, she shuffles the cards again.
A young girl with milky eyes steps up and places a card table at the raunie’s left side. The girl quickly retreats to the vardo.
The gypsy matriarch favors you with an ageless smile as she lays four cards out face down in a cross.
“You are a man on a journey, so I will tell you about that journey.”
She reaches for the card—something flicks past Alain’s right cheek—and suddenly the lovely gypsy has got a crossbow bolt planted deep in her throat! Blood gouts from her mouth, she stands, and then falls. The cards scatter across the grass.
More bolts fly through the humid evening air; some strike soft targets with a dull thud.
The camp erupts in chaos as men, women, and children flee from the shooters. Dogs and horses go wild. Ten or twelve lightly armed horsemen ride into the camp, hurling firebrands at the wagons and the barge.
More attackers--unarmored bandits armed with clubs or hatchets-- march into the camp. They lurch drunkenly through the camp, beating or cutting down every gypsy or traveler in sight.
Harsh, high pitched laughter reaches Alain through the gathering smoke-
‘’Kill them all! Hahaaa!’
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.
-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
