The Magic Trick (The Card Game #2)

Ch 18 - Iletsk Ostrog

CHAPTER XVIII

ILETSK OSTROG

"How did you do it? Tell me!" Viktor demanded, bursting into the Den with snow-covered boots.

Romulus was unimpressed by the question's force. He lounged with Blizzard before the fireplace, looking remarkable whole and healthy as he indulged in a thick slice of venison. He didn't bother to finish chewing. "You should know—same as last time. I vanished, showed up—"

"In the forest?" Viktor asked with false eagerness. "And I suppose it took you days to make your way back to Aryk?"

"It did."

"You're lying. It wasn't magic—it was a magic trick!"

Blizzard's throat rumbled.

"The only magic trick was the one meant to kill me—one I escaped from," said Romulus. "The Magician's bullet was real, wasn't it?"

"How could you know the bullet was real? You had already disappeared, remember?"

Romulus shook his head and stared off. "No, the bullet was why I disappeared. It was like last time, in the river. Somehow I knew I was going to die if I did nothing, and that summoned my mother again, but in a new form."

Viktor blinked away thoughts of Rusalki and Vilas. He took a new route, one that had been in the back of his mind for half a year. "I found the old entries from Maksim's Memoirs you hid."

A strange light flashed in Romulus' eyes.

Viktor wagged his head madly. "Your grandmother died long before you were born. So maybe you did grow up in the Blok Widow's care. Maybe you're simply fooling people with these magic tricks ... Or else, this is true magic, in which case you lied by default, because the forest really did raise you. But you can't have it both ways!"

"You want to play logic?" Romulus heaved his dinner plate at the wall. He pointed south. "Go run back to Molotov's lessons!"

Blizzard had risen on all fours. Growling, the wolf slunk past Viktor with its hair raised. A few quick bounds and it disappeared up the tunnel to the forest beyond.

Anger and doubt wracked Viktor, but the longer he held his ground, the lonelier he became. Everything he did seemed to push away the people around him. He hadn't visited Charlotta for months. He barely spoke to his old serf friends. He wasn't even that open with the Gypsies, and he couldn't bear to think about his family. Now here he was with his blood brother—his closest ally—and once again, Viktor saw the worst in him.

I have to stop. It'll destroy me if I don't. Viktor sighed and spoke after a beat. "A lot's happened since you left."

Romulus seemed to accept the silent apology in the words. "Tell me."

Viktor obliged. He spoke about his and Arseni's visit to the King of the Gypsies and later to the gambling Parlor, where Yanko and Zindelo had revealed the sinister connection between the Bizarre Bazaar, the Leopard, and Aryk's lost babes. He spoke of the hidden entrance to Staryi Castle's basement, and his subsequent plan with the Crossbones Clan. Finally he covered the day itself, with the Scientia Trial and the dungeons and the failed attempt to free the card-maker and the Ghosts.

By the end, a good hour had passed. Viktor's jaw was tired, for Romulus had said nothing throughout, absorbing life and death information without batting an eye. It was a trait that Viktor would never become accustomed to, and now he waited, anticipated, and watched for the reply that seemed so long overdue.