The Magic Trick (The Card Game #2)

Ch 25 - The Magician's Secret

CHAPTER XXV

THE MAGICIAN'S SECRET

It wasn't until they were back in the Wolf Den that the blood brothers began deliberating. As usual, Romulus was up and pacing, thinking aloud.

"So Fredek was our assassin the whole time, which means that the Magician might actually be our ally. And his last Brassard message said, 'The Last King comes to take the crown,' which seems to imply that he's the Last King, in which case the Leopard would be daring me, the Son of Spades, to rescue the Magician ... or the Last King."

"The Last King phrase rings a bell," Viktor said from his seat on the workbench. "I swear I've heard it before."

"Of course you've heard it before. I'm just trying to figure out if this is possible," said Romulus.

Viktor waited for an explanation, and so Romulus sighed, going to his desk and pulling a letter from a drawer. The parchment was worn and the handwriting scrawled, but as soon as Viktor took it, he recognized it as the note he'd found in the House of Cards last year. Not having looked on it for months, he reread the words aloud:

"'30 December 1826'

"'Comrades, this is my first time surfacing in weeks from deep darkness. If any of you were like me and, in the chaos, found yourself ill informed, then I am sorry to be the one who bears bad news. If you returned to this place in hope, let it die. Our allies in the west have failed. The overthrow of Tsar Nicholas did not come to pass. He yet rules. The leaders of the rebellion are to be hanged, the rest sent to prison camps. Here in the Urals, the Leopard is in hiding and has created the Silent Deal in his anger. I myself cannot stand by and watch it take effect. Therefore this letter will be my last act before I become mere memory.'

"'Farewell, the Last King.'"

Viktor looked up. "Okay, yeah, this note was signed by the Last King, but whoever's calling himself that can't be one of the true Kings—those four were betrayed and died before the rebellion, your father included."

"Read the first line again," said Romulus.

Viktor looked back down. "'Comrades, this is my first time surfacing in weeks from deep darkness.'"

Romulus nodded. "For weeks the Last King was trapped in deep darkness. The Last King missed the rebellion. Something caused him to miss it. Because he was trapped—"

"In deep darkness," Viktor cut in. "Yeah, I get it."

"I'm not so sure you do," Romulus growled. "Think. What's the one contraption we've heard about this year that actually trapped men, that allowed no escape?"

Viktor scowled. "You mean the deathtrap that my Grandpap and Lady Nutrix talked about? The Leopard's Gauntlet?"

"Exactly!" said Romulus. "And only one King was reckless enough to run the Gauntlet: The King of Diamonds—Feliks the gambler!"

Viktor looked at Romulus in utter confusion. "But if Feliks is the Last King—if he left this letter—then you're saying that he escaped the Gauntlet. But he didn't. He died there."

"And what if he didn't?" said Romulus wildly, pacing the Wolf Den anew. "If he resurfaced after being trapped for weeks, he would have missed the entire rebellion. It would have already failed. The Cards would be defeated. There would be nothing left for him in Aryk, and so where do you think he would go? Or better yet, who do you think he would go after?"