The Silent Deal (The Card Game #1)

Ch 7 - Romulus' Tale

CHAPTER 7

ROMULUS' TALE

"I have no memories of my parents. It was my grandmother who raised me, and I remember her one strict rule: I wasn't to venture outside, or make friends, or show my face in town. Yes, I grew up in Aryk," Romulus said, seeing Viktor's surprise, "but I was never a part of it. My grandmother and I lived in a poor serf home like everyone else, but I didn't grow up like other children. I grew up confused and angry and alone.

"My second clear memory was of my grandmother weeping. She always cried at night, and I could do nothing but listen. Somehow time passed, but my memories are clouded. As seasons changed, my grandmother began to appear older, slower, more fragile. There were slices of time when she seemed very distant ... and as a child, it frightened me.

"Then came the terrible ache of hunger. One day, the coins just ran out. My grandmother was bedridden, begging me for food, so I stole bread that day and nearly got my throat slit. I felt ashamed and swore not to do it again, but the next day, I faced the same problem.

"That's when I began to hunt—but in the lowest of ways. I rummaged through garbage. I ate scraps. But it wasn't enough. Starving, I searched our entire house for kopeks, and that's when I found an envelope buried in a desk drawer. In it was my father's card and necklace, items my grandmother sometimes muttered about in her sleep."

Romulus laughed hollowly. "I was half our age then, but I took them, and they gave me hope that I might survive."

"What did you do?" Viktor whispered.

"I foraged for food any way I could. The first year was horrible. I spent my days coaxing mice and rats with rotten eggs and throwing up poisonous plants and foul bugs. I was in a miserable state, and my grandmother grew weaker.

"I clung to life, but by the end of winter, I was a skeleton. It was sheer madness that drove me into the forest. I abandoned my fears and decided to think, really think, about how I could survive. That second year, I built traps for animals and found edible plants and studied my surroundings. My grandmother and I were more estranged than ever, but I provided for her, and that thought let me sleep each night.

"I could tell you about the following years, but really it's all the same. I was so taken by the forest that I dug this home and lived here. With endless free time, I invented everything I could dream up, and grew to know these woods well. My life was stable for once, but lonely. Gaining a blood brother, let alone a friend, was the best thing that's happened to me yet. So ... now you know why I keep my past private."

Viktor looked at Romulus with a vast newfound respect. "But you survived."

"True ..."

"But what about your parents?"

"My parents?" Romulus echoed. "Just like your dreams, that subject haunts me. My grandmother refused to speak of them, though I always got the feeling she hated my father. Until yesterday, I hadn't even heard their names."

"You mean, you think Petya was telling the truth?"

"I know he was. I could feel it. Maksim and Adelaida—they were my parents."

"You know Petya was a miner," Viktor pointed out.

"So?"

"So Maksim was probably a miner, too. That's probably how Petya knew him."

"Maybe you're right."

Viktor raised an eyebrow. "Can I see the card?"

Romulus handed over the crinkled king of spades. "I kept it nice forever, and look at the damage one night did. It fell in a puddle when I dropped it in the alley."