The Silent Deal (The Card Game #1)

Ch 30 - The Leopard's Secret

CHAPTER 30

THE LEOPARD’S SECRET

Viktor gaped at Romulus, who knelt by the roof’s edge, shirtsleeve soaked with blood. Surely this was a nightmare. This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be.

Ulfrik stared up at the full moon that illuminated the castle, smoke-chugging chimneys and all. “You knew he’d be in the forest tonight, didn’t you?”

“We know a lot about your master,” growled Romulus through clenched teeth, his head bowed. “His crimes, his experiments—it was all recorded in my father’s journal—even how he betrayed his closest friend, Nocktayl, just like he’ll do to you.”

“Nocktayl,” snorted Ulfrik. “He was weak—unfit to rule.”

“The Leopard framed him in cold blood!” spat Romulus.

“Wrong. Nocktayl chose to sacrifice himself for the Leopard. Although one could argue that his mind was already wearing away.”

“You didn’t know him!”

“Wrong again. In fact, it was Nocktayl himself who recruited me to join the Leopard’s coming kingdom. I was young but rising in rank when he was transferred to my prison.”

“Prison?” said Charlotta. “Surely no criminals can become a captain.”

Ulfrik blew out a smoke ring. “Ah, but I’m not a captain in the Russian Army, am I? I’m a captain in the Vorovskoy Mir, the Thieves’ World—a commander of criminals.”

Evenova looked up, wide-eyed. “But what about all the castle guards? If you command them, they would also be …”

“Don’t look so surprised. The Leopard has no wish to be monitored by servants of the empire—that’s half the reason why he haunted this town for so long. It got the nobles to move away, letting him replace them with criminals of his choosing. And those of high rank join my force of Masqueraiders.” Ulfrik nudged his beaked mask with his boot; the tile roof was so dewy that it slid down the slant and over the edge. He cursed.

Viktor watched the mask shatter on frozen river below, thinking over the past months. “That’s why you could speak Fenya at the boxing match—you learned it in prison.”

Smoke poured out of the Ulfrik’s nostrils.

“The Leopard brought back that prisoner to fight,” Viktor said. “An old adversary … to cut ties to his past. Wait … It was Nocktayl who died on the ice, wasn’t it?”

“Eh, in a way, Nocktayl was there, but the man who died was Petya’s son, that Dragonist fool, Rodya. Why do think he cried out for his father on the ice? It was because I told Rodya that I’d cut his father down. And once you die under torture, Petya’s sacrifice will become utterly meaningless.”

My parents told me about Petya’s imprisoned son, Rodya, Viktor thought. And I knew the Leopard’s policy to wipe out entire families. Why couldn’t I put that together? What else have I missed?

“So they were Cards,” Romulus said. “That’s why Petya recognized me and my card. It’s how he knew about Maksim and why he told us about the Silent Deal.”

“Indeed,” growled Ulfrik. “Even as Petya died, he sung that terrible Card tune the miners love to chant.”

Aleksandr was right, thought Viktor. In the mines, my old friend heard the same song that hangs in the House of Cards: “Mighty clubs, clovers, arm and protect us …”