She cocked her head slightly and asked, “What is your name?”
Chapter 31 — The Pact
When Greta and her boy walked into the quaint old guest house, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. Their room was lovely and cozy, adorned with beautiful wall hangings and lanterns mounted against the walls for rustic atmosphere at night. Two single beds stood parallel to the large window where the cool air was playing with the pastel blue curtains; a similarly colored carpet covered most of the varnished wooden floor. Flowers in a vase stood on the bedside case that divided the two neatly made beds. Radu hesitated to put his small bag of clothing on his bed.
“What is wrong?” Greta asked, her hand on her upper abdomen as she had been doing for a while now.
“I don’t want to spoil how smooth the surface is. The surface of the bedding is so perfect right now,” he smiled and placed his bag on the reed woven chair against the wall instead. Greta had to chuckle at the child’s appreciation for the work of servants, much as she did. In her own home she often avoided dirtying just washed plates by taking her sandwich in her hands to spare the housekeepers from having to do it again.
But this endearing thought was stained by the sudden flashes of Sofie, the cook she had to silence when she would not let Greta take the seriously sick boy from his room before Herr Heller got home. In her mind the images of Sofie’s blood spattered face and gaping fleshy neck pounded the front of her skull like a persistent hammer. For a few seconds she had to pinch her eyes shut to contain the guilt and the blinding headache that ravaged her head.
Greta dipped forward, but recovered soon afterwards.
“Are you alright?” Radu asked.
“Radu, sit down.” He obeyed, and she sat on her bed, while he chose the empty chair next to the one occupied by his bag.
“I have to tell you something. The reason I brought you here was…” she sighed and rolled her eyes to the ceiling, folding her hands nervously, “…was because…I am very sick. And I wanted to keep my promise to you about bringing you to see your home, but I was afraid that, if I died, I could not keep that promise, you see?” she explained in a soft voice that was void of emotion. Radu could hear that she chose the most tender words to convey her case as not to upset him, to ease him into the bad news. She believed she owed the child that much.
“Are you dying?” Radu asked. He looked distraught.
“Yes, my darling. But one last time I want you to do me a favor,” she forced through her concerns as to how he would take it.
“Anything Frau Heller,” he said.
“We need to play the game that made you feel ill the last time, but just one more time,” she said quickly to lighten the blow.
Radu shook his head forcefully, “Oh no! No, no! I won’t!”
“Please! Radu, I need this one more little thing from you. You’ll be fine,” she lied.
“I can’t. It is a terrible, horrible, horrible feeling!” he cried.
She knew she would probably not find the rest of the deck, unless Igor had news on its location. But she could not take any chances and waste too much time. Heinz would come looking for them and then he would certainly stop her from forcing Radu to lay out the spread. She had to find Igor, kill Sam Cleave and destroy his equipment and get Radu to read the few cards that she did have. She did not have enough for a three row reading, so she figured Radu would lay out one row at a time as a complete reading, if that was even possible. There were only enough for two rows, give or take, as she counted them at nine.
One by one she had counted them — The Stone, to crush or block; The Goat, to sacrifice for attainment; The Ship, to flood or drown; The Tooth, to injure by cutting or ripping; The Shackle, to hold back or close doorways; The Wheel, to reverse or accelerate; The Coffin, to contain, bind or choke and The Pyre, to progress or prosper. She had not forgotten The Boy, the card in Radu’s possession — a card representing the Dealer or an unlikely successor, a person of dark power.
But cleverly she made Radu believe that this card was just his. That way he would not use it in the spread with those she gave him. Greta counted on his possessiveness and defensiveness over his precious picture card, so that he would only use her few.
They would have to suffice. If the past row was laid out by the Dealer, she was convinced she could reverse events to a time before she got cancer, thus being healed. Then she’d command the next row in the spread, the present, where she would topple leaders by closing their doorways and sacrifice them for her rise to glory at the head of the Black Sun, eradicating all challengers. The future row would have to consist of cards from the first two readings, a terrifying risk to take on future fate of all things, but she had no choice. Once her husband found them she would never be able to complete the spread.
Greta did her best to keep from losing her cool with the unwilling boy who was the only one who could bring her destiny into fruition.
“Radu, just once, and I will never ask you for anything again. Have I not taken good care of you?” she bit her lip to remain calm.
“Yes, madam, you did. And I appreciate it, but…it brings the most ugly feelings,” he whined with tears in his eyes.
“Nur noch einmal, bitte,” she whispered. Her eyes delved deep into his in a plea for one last time. He did not have to understand her native tongue to see this. She appealed to his sympathy. Radu whimpered, tears streaking his cheeks. But eventually he got up and walked to her with his arms outstretched and she wrapped him up in her embrace.
“I will help you, Frau Heller. But then you must set me free. You must let me go back to my life here. It is what I know, who I am. I want to be free from the ropes of what families bring. Does that make sense?” he sniffed. Greta felt immensely relieved to hear this. It would remove much of her guilt for causing the child’s death for preventing hers. She ran her perfectly manicured nails through his soft, dark hair.
“Of course, my darling boy. That is a fair trade. You will be free, I promise you.”
There was a knock on their door. It was the manager, Lola.
“Excuse my intrusion, Mrs. Heller. I was wondering if you and your son would like to join us for a game of checkers. A few of us enjoy a few games of checkers in the midday before lunch, and sometimes our guests join in for some good fun,” she smiled.
“Oh, no thank you,” Greta said politely. “I find games quite boring, actually.”
“Yes, she prefers cards,” Radu said zealously, and the exclamation made Greta wince. “But can I go, please?” he asked Greta in a typical show of hopping and begging with glee.
“Go on, then,” she smiled. “But I will be resting a bit, and so should you, before we go out this afternoon.”
“Thank you! Yes, I will come and take a nap before we go,” he promised. He gave her a peck on the cheek and skipped out with the laughing manager.
Greta punched a number into her cell phone to ascertain if the help she summoned — the Captain who had failed thus far to apprehend Sam Cleave and a few new men — had already arrived in Cluj. A short conversation followed and she was told that Igor had not surfaced since the last check-in, but that being in the company of the enemy probably deterred him from doing so right now. Greta lay back on the soft bed and smiled. From her purse she took her medicine and swallowed the painkillers with some water on the bedside table. Satisfied that she had secured her plans, she took some well-deserved rest to still the excruciating pain in her stomach and the fever that burned her skin.