Four Suits (Book 1)

Day 42-1: Bluff

DAY 42-1: BLUFF

   He doesn't have a face.

   Despite being perched on her bed for a day now, it's the one thing that stands out like a blot in her mind.

   Ro didn't have much of anything, for that matter. The being she saw lying in that room hadn't even looked like him.

   Protruding skeleton and organs through jagged flesh. Relentless blood seeping through useless bandages. Deep frostbite considering he had no decent skin to shield the effects.

   Even his breathing was faint and almost nonexistent.

"A Mond, huh? I haven't seen one of you since I was a little boy. And that was in a picture book."

Although Leda had appreciated Mavix's nonchalance when she woke up, it's now become an annoying buzz in her ears. She knows she owes him for sheltering and caring for them—a group of strangers—but that's it. No talk about a cure, or what to do. What they can do.

As if it doesn't matter.

As if Ro on the verge of death doesn't mean a thing.

"Master Leda." Orian's green eyes are filled with sorrow as he offers her water. "You should drink, at least."

"Couldn't you tell he used a spell?"

He freezes at her question. Mavix calmly sips a glass of wine from where he is. It sickens Leda.

"As I previously told you," Orian says, "magic is something everyone within Annadia can use, and it varies amongst the suits. Spades in particular are blessed by the Monglow fairies so they are born with extremely durable bodies. They are also taught from a young age to use glamour spells."

   "Glamour?" she asks. Mavix had once mentioned that.

   "It refers to appearance. They can change the way they look at will." Orian's face hardens. "I had sensed something strange about Master Ro from the moment we met... but I didn't think it was too big of a—"

   "Deal?" Leda doesn't care that her voice has surpassed a weak whimper, or that the glare her eyebrows knit into sends him jolting from the bed. "He isn't even alive, Orian. Not like that. He hasn't been since we found him and yet we pushed him to this edge. And now he's... he's..."

   This entire trip's been too much to swallow. It started off so peaceful. They interacted like it was normal.

   Leda bites her lower lip, blinking back hot tears. First Nixon, and now Ro.

   "With that illness, most Spades are too weak to use a spell, much less one to that calibre," Orian mumbles, frowning heavily as well. "But Master Ro is stubborn. He pushed himself to his limit to keep it up. To ensure his citizens wouldn't lose hope in the royal family. To go on trip after trip searching desperately for a cure. He wanted to save them so badly. That's why he..."

"How can I ever expect to die when I've made up to mind to save my citizens—my family? I will not leave this world until I find a cure. That is something I have decided long ago."