Skandra couldn't believe that Ithacles had willing turned into the fury of a sucker punch, especially from such a large fellow. Anyone would have been staggered by so ferocious a blow. Ithacles was no exception. The prince hopped on one foot and hobbled as if wounded or drunk, cursing and looking like a fellow Skandra had once seen piss himself after a good one on the jaw. Ithacles had better not wet his trousers. He would never live it down, son of a king or no. But there was no telltale hiss, nor a spreading of wet stain, so Skandra assumed the moment was past. However something did happen to catch his attention. Behind Red Coat and nearly buried in the crowd was a fellow of medium heigth, with sandy brown hair and eyes that watched too kenly.
"See him?" Skandra murmured to Vedette, under the guise of urging her away from the fight. "Brown eyes, brown hair, looks like he's got money on it."
Which was a tavern rat's way of saying he knew it was going to happen before it actually did, a sure sign of fixed odds, and more than enough proof of guilt for a knife in the dark. Only they couldn't stab the fellow. They had to seize him, yes, but also somehow keep him alive and extricate him from here. Who knew? He might be nothing more than a messenger sent to make sure Red Coat did the things for which he'd been promised money, win or lose. Well, probably winning was a condition. Couldn't send someone to rough up the prince and then pay full price if they lost. Of course, Red Coat wasn't merely planning on roughing up the prince. He was planning on killing him. Skandra didn't mention this fact in case Cavras and Vedette were too dense to figure it out themselves.
Ithacles would have to take care of himself for a moment.
"Go left, I'll go right," Skandra urged her with a quick nod - and then he was gone, bouncing around the inner edge of the circle while shouting, and drunkenly waving one silver pence above his head - enough to seem like a gambler and nothing more, but not enough that he would feel bad if it slipped from his grasp.