The next card Joker gets is a third serpent. Meanwhile, sober Childermass is going to have so many regrets, but that's a problem for the future, not for now.

"Slandering? Hardly!" He replies with a laugh. "If you think about it, that place did not even actually exist, though I did mean here. Have you not noticed? How the rooms and places move around? I would not be surprised for one of those to spring into existence on a moment's notice."

He discards one of his own cards, drawing a new one. He takes a moment to rearrange his hand, though his easy expression doesn't change in the least, not giving away whether it's better or worse now.