The Silent Deal (The Card Game #1)

Ch 4 - Blood Brothers

CHAPTER 4

BLOOD BROTHERS

"One good skin! Would it kill me to get one good skin?" Romulus growled, staring from the bear's slit throat to the patches blown out of its coat. The wolf slunk over to his side, nuzzling against him. "Oh well ... at least you made it out alright, my friend."

Viktor's mouth hung open as he stood next to a lifeless bear, in front of a wild youth with a wild wolf, in a dangerous forest, in the twilight. It was unreal. He couldn't think of anything to say.

"I'm sorry! I followed you into the forest and got lost!" Viktor finally blurted out.

Romulus pushed back his tangled blond hair and stared at Viktor as if he were the outsider. "Why'd you do it?"

"It was because ..." Viktor paused, unable to bring up mention of the card. He was too worried about how Romulus would react. Even now there was a strange glint in his eye. "... because of a ... a dare."

Romulus stalked forward, dagger still in hand. "A dare? So you wanted to see if I was what the other boys said—a fiend?

Viktor shook his head and edged backward. "No, I don't think that! I'm not like them!"

"You're a bad liar. Tell me your real purpose. Why did you follow me?"

The wolf's throat rumbled.

Romulus made no move to stop the animal from approaching Viktor.

"No!" Viktor said. "It was a ... a dare—Boris and ... and Fredek ... they made me—"

"You're lying!" Romulus bellowed. "You put your life at risk following me in here! Why did you do it?"

"Cards!"

Just as the word fell out of Viktor's mouth, so too did the dagger fall out of Romulus' hand; its blade stuck into the mud. All anger was gone from the wild boy's eyes, replaced with deep eagerness.

"What do you know of cards?" he whispered.

"Not enough," said Viktor, "but enough to know that your king of spades could get you killed."

Romulus tilted his head with a new thought. "That first day at school—you wrote our names on our group's map. Is it true that you can also read?"

"Yes."

"I wonder—would you repay me with a favor?"

Viktor was in no position to refuse. "You saved my life. I'll do whatever you ask."

Romulus nodded. "Then meet me at King's Corners tomorrow—at midnight. We'll go to the walls covered in card graffiti, and you'll read the messages to me. That's my only request. I have my own interest in cards, and I've always wondered about those marks for years."

What is this? Viktor thought. Are my nightmares coming to life?

"Can you not do it?" Romulus asked, examining Viktor's worried face.

"What? No, I'll do it. I'll be there."

And Viktor would be there, because there was something about this meeting that felt destined. His sole peer with a deep interest in cards had rescued him and asked him this lone favor, like fate incarnate. Besides, it wasn't much of a decision. One way or another, he went to the Brass Art every night.

Romulus grinned and held out his cut, battered hand. Viktor took a deep breath and then sealed the pact with his own hand, bloody and dirty though it was.

"You know what this means," Romulus said, gripping tight, the blood commingling and dripping off their fingers to the forest floor. "We're blood brothers now."