The Magic Trick (The Card Game #2)

Ch 20 - Tunnels and Terror

TUNNELS AND TERROR

When the trio reached Kasta Way late the following evening, it was to a warm welcome. The twins took their exhausted horses toward the stables, and over Rover's music, Belch sang homecoming ballads that sounded a bit too affectionate for comfort. Arseni, meanwhile, ushered the travelers past the rows of gravestones and into the Doghouse. Evenova had helped Roksana decorate the shack's interior with greenery and candles, and together the girls had prepared a genuine New Year's feast. Evenova slapped Arseni's hand away from the pancake pie stuffed with chicken and rice, giving the first piece instead to Andrei. The oukha soup, the product of Romani ice fisherman, appealed to Romulus, while Viktor, his arm draped around Roksana, gorged straight into a berry-stuffed pastry, eating so wildly that she cringed and pushed him away.

Spirits were high that night. There was much talk and laughter, though some of it was nervous, as the others were eager to hear the verdict of the trip to Iletsk. After everyone had eaten their fill and the energy had died down, Roksana and Evenova passed out yet another course-this time buttery coffee cake and cold kvass-while Romulus began to recount the details of the trip. Evenova came and nestled in the nook of his shoulder, and Roksana lounged with Viktor among the shack's many pillows and blankets. Viktor watched the others react to the trip's highs, lows, and ultimately its failure to gain Director Buryov's assistance.

In the end no one seemed too disappointed-rather the opposite: They had never been so convinced that they could and would ruin their enemy. The Leopard was no more than flesh and blood, and if the Iletsk Ostrog had held him prisoner for several years, then he was far from omnipotent. Viktor felt oddly at peace as he listened to Romulus and the twins, who were already dreaming about visiting the Leopard's last prison, the distant Peter and Paul Fortress. Surrounding by friends, his stomach full, and his two-week deadline met, this was happier than he had been for a long while. He almost didn't notice Charlotta's absence.

"And what about you, Andrei?" Rover said with subtle meaning in his voice. "You fared fine on the trip?"

"I made it in and out of my old prison, yes, if that's what you're wondering," Andrei grunted.

The talk in the Doghouse fell off. Evenova coughed. The rest of the Crossbones Clan glared.

"That's right," the boxer said with a toothy smile, "I told the Aryk-angels about my heritage and history-and yours."

Evenova's curls swung in confusion, but Romulus shot her a tell-you-later sort of glance. Viktor saw the rest of the Gypsies looking completely mortified-except maybe for the twins. Cappi dipped his hat and winked; Dukker rolled his eyes, licked two fingers, and snuffed out a red New Year's candle.

**

After a few pleasant days spent in Kasta Way, Viktor was sorry to see the insides of Staryi Castle. Every line of dark grout between the stony walls reminded him of the evil that had seeped through the cracks in the fortress, blackness oozing up from the dungeons themselves. Viktor couldn't stop thinking about what he learned in Iletsk about the Leopard and Vyrhus and the late Captain Ulfrik. It was sick to think that the captives had become captors, and more awful to think about the Ghosts themselves. Those living, breathing souls were rotting away under the very stones that Viktor stood on, and if they remained captives, then he might soon become one also. In a way, he already had: It wasn't by free will that he had returned to the Apprenticeship Trials.

The Mineralogy Trial was next and loomed near, and so much of these days were spent in the Instructor Messor's cavern-like study. Viktor had little love for stones or gems, which reminded him only of the lifelong toil of his father and forefathers in Aryk's mines. His work was saturated in a spirit of resentment. From the year's onset, a great number of bound books had been delivered to the servants' meeting room, and by now Viktor and his friends felt the pressure to crack them open nightly. Among them were herb guides, ancient Latin texts, remedy recipes from a host of foreign cultures, and a number of encyclopedic works. It was information that Viktor had never been exposed to, and in another time and place, he might have found the knowledge fascinating, if only his existence hadn't hinged on his mastery of each page.