The Magic Trick (The Card Game #2)

Ch 21 - The Mineralogy Trial

THE MINERALOGY TRIAL

It seemed that the students' midnight curfew, like many of the policies of Staryi Castle, was more of a threat than a rule, because Viktor's nightlong absence went unnoticed. The same was not true of Romulus' fate. News of his punishment had spread from the miners outward, and for the first time that school year, Viktor overheard his peers whispering his blood brother's name—or in Boris and Fredek's case, spitting it out with venom. The boy of the forest had become the son of Cards—and the alleged author of Brassard messages.

The Gypsies were appalled to learn the true version of that night's events, but none were more upset than Evenova. She visited Romulus as often as she could in the days after, and initially, Viktor accompanied her, but the reason his visits dwindled was twofold: First, there was always a great deal of sniffling, kissing, and throwing about terms of endearment between those two, which he was made to suffer through; and second, that same affection also cast Viktor into the middle of sparring matches between mother and daughter. Kira and Evenova combined were often more explosive than the bomb that had caused the entire mess.

Romulus' recovery would be a long one, but he didn't complain. His gamble of revealing his identity some months earlier had paid off. The fact that he was breathing proved that the Leopard's forces dared not kill him in the open for fear of inciting an uprising. Yet that wasn't to say that there were no lingering fears. The Bizarre Bazaar was still pitched in the deep snow, the Magician remained at large, and there was always the risk that he—or whoever the assassin might be—would return to finish the work that had been left undone.

Since Miss Inshova had been quite strict on the no-wolf-in-the-house rule, Romulus received guardianship from his only friends without prior obligations, Andrei and Rover. To Viktor's knowledge, it was probably the only period of time that the boxer and musician had ever spent in a proper house, because they had an excellent time mocking everything inside that they found strange or superfluous, from the concept of woodstoves to the fact that the adobe couldn't be packed up into a sack.

"Marvelous! What are these fools trying to catch—sunlight?" Rover asked one afternoon. He had been glued like a bug to the windows for hours, opening and closing the wood shutters with giddy fascination.

Not unlike a bug, Andrei's magnified eyes blinked in confusion behind Kira's extra pair of heavy spectacles. "Who knows? There's no reason with these Aryk-angels."

Viktor saw Romulus scowl from his prison of bed.

"So do you have a plan yet?" Romulus said.

"For what?" Viktor said.

"Oh, I don't know, the evening? For the Ghosts!" said Romulus. "You said you were working on it."

Viktor shifted in his chair as the Gypsies suddenly became interested. "I am ... I am working on it ... You might not like my idea though ... I have my doubts too, but I don't see any other way short of all-out war ... Arseni and the twins checked out the basement entrance again, and it's teeming with guards—"

"Just spit it out!" Romulus said.

"Viridis Pollex." Viktor cringed under the glares.

"As in the Botany Instructor?" Rover hissed. "You think he'll help us?"

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard," said Andrei.

"You've never even met him," Viktor snapped and then turned back to Romulus. "Pollex is Maksim's man. You know it and I know it. There's no other way. We've tried for outside help and we've gone in ourselves. Nothing's worked. We have to get on the real inside."