“He won’t get much money for those,” Scarlett said bitterly.
“You’d be surprised.” Julian picked up a knob from the broken wardrobe. “People are willing to spend a lot of money, or give up their deepest secrets, for a bit of Caraval magic. But those who don’t play fairly usually pay an even higher price.” Julian tossed the knob into the air and let it fall to the ground before quietly admitting, “Legend has a sense of justice that way.”
“Well, I don’t want to play at all,” Scarlett said. “I just want to find my sister and get home in time for my wedding.”
“That’s a problem, then.” Julian picked up the knob once again. “If you want to find your sister before you leave, you have to win the game.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Let me guess, you didn’t look at the clue I gave you?”
“All my clue said was Donatella’s name.”
“Are you certain?” he challenged.
“Of course. I just didn’t realize it was a clue. I thought Legend—” Scarlett caught her mistake too late.
Julian’s lips were curving into that same mocking twist that appeared whenever she mentioned Legend’s name—even though she hadn’t finished her witless thought.
Scarlett double-checked the note attached to her key. The only words on the note were her sister’s name, but below that was a wide swath of empty space. Crossing over to the closest stained-glass candled lamp, Scarlett held the page up as Tella had done with the tickets from Legend. Sure enough, new lines of elegant script appeared.
After a moment the poem disappeared, and a new set of words took its place.
Scarlett’s dream must have been more than just a delusion. Legend really wanted her here. She recalled what the boy in the balcony had said: Once inside, you will be presented with a mystery that must be solved.
Figuring out where Tella had been taken must be this year’s mystery. That’s why so many people had been rummaging through her room; they were all searching for Tella as well. The note didn’t say what would happen to Tella if no one found her, but Scarlett knew her sister didn’t plan on going back to Trisda once the game ended.
If Scarlett didn’t find her, Tella would vanish just like their mother had. If she wanted to see her sister again, Scarlett really did have to remain and play.
But Scarlett couldn’t stay for the entire game. She was supposed to marry the count in six days, on the twentieth. There were five nights of Caraval, but it would take two full days of travel to return to Trisda. For Scarlett to make it home in time for her wedding, she would have to solve all the clues and find Tella before the last night of the game.
“Don’t look so distressed,” said Julian. “If your sister is with Legend, I’m sure she’s being treated well.”
“How do you know that?” Scarlett said. “You didn’t hear her; she sounded so frightened.”
“You saw her?”
“I only heard her voice.” Scarlett explained what had happened.
Julian looked as if he were holding back a chuckle. “You keep forgetting this is a game. She was either acting, or someone else was pretending to be her. Either way, I don’t think you need to worry about your sister. Trust me when I say Legend knows how to take care of his guests.”
Julian’s last words should have eased the knots in Scarlett’s stomach, but something about the way Julian spoke made them tighten instead. His smile left his eyes cold, untouched.
“How do you know how Legend treats his guests?”
“Look at the room we were given because you’re his special visitor.” Julian’s accent thickened as he said the word special. “It makes sense to think he’s put your sister somewhere just as nice.”
Again, Scarlett should have felt better. Tella was not in any danger. Her sister was merely a part of the game, and an important part at that. Yet that’s exactly what made Scarlett so unsettled. Why of all people would Legend choose her sister?
“Ah, I get it,” Julian added. “You’re jealous.”
“No I’m not.”
“It would make sense if you were. You were the one who wrote him letters all those years. No one would blame you if you felt bad he chose her instead.”
“I’m not jealous,” Scarlett repeated, but this only made the sailor smile wider as he continued to toy with the knob from the broken wardrobe, making it disappear and reappear between his deft fingers. A cheap magic trick.
She tried to think of Tella’s disappearance this way, a simple sleight of hand—she wasn’t gone for good, just out of Scarlett’s reach.
She reread her first clue again. Number two you’ll discover in the rubble of her departure. As Tella’s sister, Scarlett should have had an advantage. If something in the room did not belong to Tella, Scarlett would know, but there were hardly any items left. Except for the glass button and the picture card in her hand, which upon second glance no longer looked quite so ordinary as before.
“What is it?” Julian asked. When Scarlett didn’t answer right away his tone turned charming. “Come on, I thought we were a team.”
“Being teammates has mostly benefitted you, not me.”
“I wouldn’t say ‘mostly.’ You forget, if it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t even be here.”
“I could claim the same,” Scarlett argued. “Last night, I saved you from being kicked out of the game, but you were the one who slept in our room!”
“You could have slept in the bed as well.” Julian toyed with the top button of his shirt.
Scarlett scowled. “You know that was never an option.”
“All right.” He put his hands up in an exaggerated surrender. “From now on it will be a more even partnership. I’ll keep telling you what I know about the game. We share with each other what we learn, and we trade days for the room. When you sleep in there, I promise I will not. Though you are welcome to join me whenever you want.”
“Scoundrel,” Scarlett muttered.
“I’ve been called much worse. Now, show me what’s in your hands.”
Scarlett looked out toward the hall, making certain no one was lingering outside the door. Then she turned the picture card in her hand toward Julian. “This did not belong to my sister.”
14
When Scarlett was eleven, she’d been wildly in love with castles. It didn’t matter if they were made of sand or stone or bits of imagination. They were fortresses, and Scarlett imagined if she lived in one, she’d be protected and treated like a princess.
Tella had no such romantic notions. She did not want to be cossetted, or spend her days locked away in some musty old castle. Tella wanted to travel the world, to see the ice villages of the Far North and the jungles of the Eastern Continent. And what better way to do that than with a beautiful emerald-green fish tail.
Tella never told Scarlett, but she wanted to be a mermaid.
Scarlett had laughed so hard she’d cried when she’d discovered Tella’s hidden cache of picture cards. All of them with glittering mermaids—and mermen!
After that, whenever they fought, or Tella teased Scarlett, Scarlett was tempted to taunt her about being a mermaid. At least castles were real, but even Scarlett, who at the time still had impractical dreams and an untethered imagination, knew mermaids did not exist. But Scarlett never said a word. Not when Tella teased her about her castles, or about her growing fixation with Caraval. Because Tella’s fantasy of being a mermaid gave Scarlett hope—that despite their mother’s abandonment, and their father’s lack of love, her sister could still dream, and that was something Scarlett never wanted to destroy.
“My sister’s picture cards were a very particular collection,” she told Julian. “Tella would not have had a picture card with a castle on it.”
“I believe that’s actually a palace,” said Julian.
“It’s still not a picture she would have had. This must be the next clue.”
“You’re positive?” Julian asked.