Tal could respect gut feelings. When he'd been taking the dogs across the Tundra before the War it had often been the difference between a safe path and a slow death on the ice. Now that he traveled mostly in his skyboat those gut instincts steered him clear of dangerous downdrafts and saw him safely anchored before a storm wind could grab the Peregrine and run with her. The cards seemed as familiar to Alys as every board of his boat was to the courier, and he nodded in satisfaction at her answer.
His fingers wrapped around his mug as he leaned forward to look at the cards more closely, studying them in more detail as Alys explained further. He couldn't hide the nod of relief as she spoke of the future and free will, and some of the confusion finally lifted from his expression as he moved on to the last card. The realization of what 'reversed' usually meant drew a soft 'ah' from the courier, but he looked up at his tablemate again as she flushed and he cocked his head to the side like one of his hounds.
For once his filter kicked in and stopped him from blurting out a smug 'told you so,' but his grin lifted the furrows from his brow in a brief flash of sunlight before the journal was mentioned and he nodded slowly, sobering again. "I was wonderin' how often they were right," he admitted. "An'... how d'you know which deck to use for which question?"
His fingers wrapped around his mug as he leaned forward to look at the cards more closely, studying them in more detail as Alys explained further. He couldn't hide the nod of relief as she spoke of the future and free will, and some of the confusion finally lifted from his expression as he moved on to the last card. The realization of what 'reversed' usually meant drew a soft 'ah' from the courier, but he looked up at his tablemate again as she flushed and he cocked his head to the side like one of his hounds.
For once his filter kicked in and stopped him from blurting out a smug 'told you so,' but his grin lifted the furrows from his brow in a brief flash of sunlight before the journal was mentioned and he nodded slowly, sobering again. "I was wonderin' how often they were right," he admitted. "An'... how d'you know which deck to use for which question?"
