The Magic Trick (The Card Game #2)

Ch 22 - Silver Splits and Moonstones

CHAPTER XXII

SILVER SPLITS AND MOONSTONES

"Chopped clean off?" Romulus repeated. "I didn't see that coming."

Viktor nodded absently and stared at the wall. Days later and he was still trying to expunge the image of Fredek's lifeless hand, those curled up fingers. He switched the subject. "So how did you get back here anyway? I visited Evenova's house. Kira said you'd left."

"Andrei and Rover helped me make the walk." Romulus sat perfectly upright on his bed and looked around at his cozy, underground Wolf Den. "I couldn't lie and listen to Kira and Evenova bicker for anther minute ... And I'm not so sure Kira approves of me."

I wonder why, Viktor thought, looking at the bandages that were wrapped around his friend's bare torso. Those wounds might be healing, but the message—and the danger that it came with—was there to stay: FAITHFUL SONS GATHER ROUND HIM.

"Anyway, at least I can move around a bit," Romulus said. "Blizzard's been keeping me guard, and now I've got time to stock up."

Viktor followed Romulus' nod at the worktable. A cache of supplies towered like a mountain. "Blast it ... What are you doing with all this?"

"If the Leopard wants to raise the stakes, then so will I. New inventions."

New and disturbing, maybe, Viktor thought while he walked along the table. His hand brushed over dangerous materials, among them metal beads and pebbles, leather straps, casks of gunpowder, and also an assortment of foreign powders and liquids. He hefted an object that looked like an Orange Split except that it was slightly larger, much weightier, and instead of twine it was wrapped in shiny, metallic wire.

Romulus shifted too quickly, cracking his scabbed back. "Ah! Careful with that—Silver Split."

"Why's it so heavy? What's in it?" said Viktor.

"Pellets." Romulus paused and shook his wild hair. "Don't look at me like that. My inventions saved your life, remember."

"Yeah, and what'll these do when thrown?" Viktor cried.

"Relax, would you? The blast is actually quite small. But they break skin and sting like you wouldn't believe."

"How would you know what—" Viktor trailed off as Romulus flashed an elbow, which was pocketed with red, infected-looking divots. His other arm had raised welts the size of fists.

"Yeah, the bruises are from Hailstones," said Romulus, gesturing to the table, where rested a lumpy orb wrapped in brown twine. "Pretty much the same thing but with pebbles. Thankfully I shielded the rest of me when I was running tests."

Viktor stood there with a slackened jaw. "You've really lost it. I'm serious this time. You're going to get yourself killed—and others too if you keep fiddling around with these mad—"

"I don't think you understand," Romulus said loudly, "what breaking into Staryi Castle for a second time will look like. Do you think that the Leopard will be absent again—or that his forces will be in disarray? Last year was luck. We caught the castle in a fifteen-year spell of peace. Now the Silent Deal is broken. The House of Cards is fallen. Our enemies were already armed—and now they control the Cards' old armory as well. They're prepared for battle."

"A battle we're going to avoid!" said Viktor.

Romulus snorted. "We're only alive because the Leopard has no idea of our plans. The Ghosts have been his prisoners for so long that the possibility of their escape hasn't crossed his mind. If he even began to think about what their testimonies would do to his empire, he would kill them on the spot—and then the Card-maker—and then us."