Chapter XXVII
STARYI CASTLE
Viktor spent the whole trip south arguing with Romulus and the girls to no avail. Now the group hunkered at edge of the forest, gazing up at Staryi Castle, whose turrets stood like four powerful rooks on a chessboard. The two western towers rose up like bishops, and beside them endured the oldest tower, the white queen in all her glory. Viktor prayed the king was away.
"Take a last look," Charlotta said from behind Dimovna's tragedy mask. Then she slid a hood over Viktor's head. A comedy-masked Evenova did the same to Romulus, next cuffing the half-locked manacles.
Cutting onto the road, the Masqueraiders guided their prisoners toward the castle gate. Without the sense of sight, each step felt longer to Viktor, but when Charlotta began to push him roughly, he knew they were in sight of the guards.
"Who goes there?" barked a man.
"Move aside!" sneered Evenova's voice. "We have the Leopard's prisoners!"
"Who are they? And what's in your bags?" Viktor took the guard's authoritative tone as proof the man was in charge.
"Fool!" spat Charlotta with enough venom that Miss Dimovna would have been impressed. "That knowledge is not for your ears. I have high orders to take these criminals to Captain Ulfrik."
"Not without confirmation of your claims."
"Confirmation? What does this look like to you!" Evenova must have flashed the king of spades card, because the guards fell momentarily silent.
"Open the gates!"
Massive gears clanked as the iron gates creaked open. Viktor was almost thankful he was handcuffed and blindfolded. The face of the great castle would have been enough to rob anyone of their courage.
"Bragin, you come with me."
"Yes, sir."
"Zhilov, keep charge until I return. None enter but the Leopard himself."
"Aye, sir."
Good. He must still be hunting, Viktor thought. Then he felt the guard grab his shoulder.
"Hold it a minute—you imbeciles haven't even fastened these handcuffs properly."
The girls went quiet as the head guard snapped the iron shut. Fear surged through Viktor as a burly hand led him forward. The girls couldn't take out the guards alone! Their second plan was crumbling faster than the first!
Had Viktor had sight, he would have seen the dead weeds and the dried water well of a courtyard that was once a beautiful garden. At the end of the white stone path, statues of two giant lions flanked the castle's oak double-doors, and inside the first grand hall, black-and-white marble tiled the floor. A crystal chandelier hung overhead.
Just as the Gypsies had foretold, Viktor heard many guards shift to allow the group to march up a stone staircase. Next came a long abandoned hallway, where Viktor truly began to panic. Yet in the middle of his internal struggle, he heard two sickly crunches.
For a moment, all was silent, and then smooth hands slipped around his, undoing his cuffs and pulling off his hood. On the floor lay two muscled guards—unconscious.
"Impressive," Romulus said to Charlotta's white mask.
"Uh, she's not the only one with a baton," said Evenova, pocketing Miss Dimovna's old nightstick and handing over Viktor's and Romulus' weapon bags.
Romulus took one of the guard's daggers and cut an opening for his eyes in his black hood, doing the same with Viktor's, giving them the appearance of robbers. "Alright, Evenova, Charlotta, thanks for everything, but it's time you left."
"You promised," said Viktor, before they could argue.
But in the distance, the castle's double-doors banged open. Footsteps pounded and a roar sounded. "Attention! The castle is compromised! A true Masqueraider was found dead! The ones here are imposters! Find the four intruders—KILL THEM!"
Viktor gazed at Evenova and Charlotta in horror. "I knew you shouldn't have come."
"Well, we're in this together now, aren't we?" Romulus snapped, pulling the girls along.
Bitter resentment rose up Viktor's throat. Was it as Lady Nutrix predicted? Would he lose those he cared about? No, he vowed. We'll find the Silent Deal and leave just as quickly. The Last King said it was hidden "high in the ancient castle ..."
The hall divided into three branches. In a split-second decision, Romulus ran down the western passage, the cloaked girls on his heels.
Viktor slowed to a stop. "Romulus—it's back this way. The Silent Deal is hidden in the ancient castle, right? Well, the two western towers of Staryi aren't ancient—they're additions. The eastern one is oldest!"
Romulus glanced back and forth in thought. "You're right! Let's go!"
But upon doubling back, the serfs barely slipped past soldiers at the intersecting hallway. Their lead was dwindling, and the castle plans felt fuzzy in Viktor's mind: Was it kitchens, servant quarters, and, outside, stables? Or is that the wrong order entirely?
Left, right, right, left: They sprinted down endless white hallways, stray bullets ricocheting off the stones. A puff of mortar burst next to Evenova's ear; Romulus snarled and pulled out two Orange Splits, while Viktor took the lead, dashing into the kitchens.
"They're too close!" Evenova shouted.
As cooks and servants abandoned their stoves, Romulus chucked the Orange Splits backward: Steaming pots and pans exploded, splattering guards with boiling soups and sauces; colors exploded into the air as vegetables burst apart, painting the walls red, orange, green, and yellow. Half the guards were slipping and tripping over one another, while the other half clenched burns, fighting to reach basins of cold water.
Viktor led the way down a shabbier hallway, no doubt the servant housing.
Charlotta grasped his arm. "Stairs!"
He took them two at a time. At this point, anything that led upward was the right path. After two sets, yet another corridor was reached. A spiral staircase was at its end, sitting inside a domed entryway.
"That's it ... the way ... up the eastern tower," he panted.
The flight was grueling. Every full rotation had a landing pad and a side door, many of which Viktor flung open to lead the guards off course. When finally the stairs came to an end, Romulus used his dagger to bar the handle of the last door behind them. Then the group turned to face a circular space with many identical doors.
"Which one do we take?" said Evenova.
Charlotta tried handle after handle. "They're all locked!"
Romulus paused in front of a door on the far right. "I know this room ... I remember it from my father's memoirs. It spoke of this door."
The girls came closer with Viktor, who traced his finger up the door. "Feather, crown, plant, spade, flask, orb, and the snakeskin leopard: These are the Leopard's marks. But that means—"
"Yes, this was once Nocktayl's old room," said Romulus.
Evenova recoiled. "The boy from Maksim's Memoirs? The one framed by the Leopard?"
"The very same."
"Years ago, he hid things here for the Leopard," Viktor said. "What if the Leopard never stopped using the old hiding spots?"
"Then we'll have found the Silent Deal," said Romulus, already fast at work picking the lock. He twitched the animal-bone tools this way and that, working feverishly to counterbalance the mechanism.
The door to the stairway shook. Guards had almost broken it open.
"Hurry!" Evenova whispered, watching the barred dagger bend under immense stress.
"If I—could—just—" Romulus twisted a curved bone; the deadbolt clicked open.
BOOM!
The stairway door broke off the frame. The serfs slipped into Nocktayl's room at the same moment, bolting the lock shut. They pulled off their disguises, thankful to get a few deep breaths of air. And while they hadn't been seen, another problem confronted them:
"We're trapped," murmured Charlotta, staring around the bedroom.
"Maybe not," said Romulus. "My father wrote that Nocktayl would often disappear from this room from the inside. Nocktayl may have had a hidden chamber for the Leopard's things."
Evenova m
oved around the room. "They say Ivan the Terrible was paranoid. Maybe he built escape routes."
The guards started breaking down a door across the hall.
"Search quickly!" Romulus whispered.
Viktor scanned the space uncomfortably, wondering what evil had taken place there. Opposite a grand fireplace was a royal bed covered in furs. Ornate wardrobes and cabinets hugged the walls. Dusty volumes lay open on a bookcase, showing star charts and diagrams of sliced-open flowers. One illustration showed the gruesome anatomy of human skeletons, while another showed a monster battling an army of men. Viktor was reminded of the legends of Ivan the Terrible and his monstrous foe and his piles of gold and his haunted castle.
BOOM! The guards broke into a room close by.
Jarred, Viktor glanced around to see Charlotta pushing at the bricks in the back of the fireplace and Evenova doing the same behind the bed's headboard, searching for a secret door. Viktor peered behind the bookshelf and the wardrobes, but there were no cracks in the wall.
"Here's that old hiding spot," Romulus said, prying up a loose floorboard. "But there's nothing but dried herbs hidden here—no Silent Deal, no exit!"
BANG! The guards burst into the room next door.
Charlotta gritted her teeth. "The door is in this fireplace—I know it. These uneven bricks stick out for a reason."
"No, it's hidden high in the ancient castle—like in an attic or tower," Viktor said. "How do we get higher up?"
"We can't," huffed Evenova. "Not unless you want to climb up the chimney."
The atmosphere of the room changed. In a mad second, their eyes all shifted to the dark bricks.
BOOM! A sledgehammer beat against the handle of their door. Romulus scurried over and braced his body against the wood. BOOM! His body shook.
"Charlotta, do the uneven bricks continue all the way up?" Viktor whispered.
"Yes."
"Climb."
CRACK! An axe cleaved through the door, nearly splitting open Romulus' head.
Charlotta obeyed, ascending into the darkness. Evenova went next, followed by Viktor. Then just as Romulus abandoned his post, dashed to the fireplace, and leapt upward, planting his boots on either side, the door splintered open. Everyone held their breaths as a horde of men charged into the room.
"They're not here!"
"They must be! They're hiding!"
"So turn this place over!" a head guard bellowed.
The guards flipped the bed frame. Wardrobes were smashed open. The bookshelf crashed to the ground. The serfs used the commotion to mask their climbing. Nearly fifteen feet up, a wide gap in the chimney wall was an easy exit point. Then the four stopped to listen.
"Where the devil are they?"
"On a different floor—that's where! You miserable lot missed them! Get after them if you value your hides!"
Footsteps sounded down the hall and slowly faded entirely.
Charlotta sunk in bliss. "We're safe here."
"Yeah, but where is that?" asked Evenova.
In the darkness, Viktor struck a match and could just make out a torch on the wall, so he lifted it from its holder and lit it, illuminating the space.
The large room had eight slanted walls that rose up to form none other than the steeple of the eastern tower. Yet far most interesting than the room's octagonal design was its centerpiece. In the middle of the floor stood a white stone pedestal, carved to resemble a pillar from the ancient world, and on it rested a faded stack of parchment.
Romulus' eyes glinted like a wolf's. "The Silent Deal."