Chapter 19
A CLEAR CONSCIENCE MAKES A SOFT PILLOW
“Though I suppose saying ‘appearance’ is giving you a bit too much credit,” Nik said to the invisible specter.
The other two men at the table gave Nikolai a horrified look, and Eldar mouthed, “What are you doing?” While Andrey whimpered and said softly, “Please don’t make him mad.”
But Yuri, the ghost, didn’t seem to be mad. In fact, he laughed again. “Oh, I plan on appearing a great deal more after this, young man, especially now that you’ve discovered the key. I suppose I should thank you for that.”
“Oh?” Nik said, sorting his cards. “And why does that have anything to do with your ability to”—he screwed up his face as if searching for the right word—“transmew?”
“Because, as my pravnuk here likely knows, that little tin box doesn’t hold the title to this dilapidated old house or the directions to any hidden treasure.
No. He already owns the land, and if there were any money to be found, he would have already discovered it.
My great-grandson, you see, is after something more. Something bigger.”
“Is that right?” Nik said, turning over a card. “Trump is diamonds. I attack first. Your move, Pravnuk.”
Eldar stuck out a trembling hand and swallowed, a visible lump in his throat bobbing up and down.
He gathered his cards and played one to defend the attack.
Nik attacked again. Soon it was Andrey’s turn to attack.
The poor man was sweating profusely. He put down a card, and the ghost to his left defended.
He put down a second, and no card was played.
Nik took that opportunity to ask, “I know the stakes we were playing for. I’m assuming you’d also like to play for the right to open the tin box?”
“Not at all,” replied the ghost. “I cannot open it. I rely on human hands to do that bit for me. All I care for are the contents.”
“Why can’t you open the box? Obviously, you’re able to manipulate corporeal elements. You’re playing cards with us as we speak.”
Nik felt a breath of cold air wash over his face. It was fetid and reeked of all things rotted and decayed. Lifting his collar to his nose, he coughed once, trying not to gag, and then took a few steadying breaths before lifting his mug of sbiten and sipping.
“The tin is protected. It was locked and sealed by my lady wife. To open it, one must have earned her favor. And I, unfortunately, have never earned that. Not in my mortal lifetime. Nor will I earn it in the hereafter.”
“But what does it contain?” Eldar pressed.
“Is it a map to treasure?” asked Andrey.
“He already said there’s no money,” Eldar said.
“But money and treasure can be two different things,” Andrey replied.
“That much is true,” replied the ghost. “But what is inside the tin is much, much better than anything you can possibly imagine.”
“Better?” said Andrey. “What’s better than treasure?” His face brightened. “Oh, I know. Gold!”
Eldar cuffed him on the back of the head. “Same thing, durak.”
“Life,” Nik guessed.
“Life?” echoed Andrey. “What do I need that for? Already got it.”
“Perhaps not for long,” the ghost said, chuckling as he played a card. “Aren’t you playing for your life, Nikolai?” he asked.
“Indeed I am,” Nik replied, defending the attack.
Eldar then took a huge number of cards. The play continued in silence until the draw pile was exhausted.
Finally, it was down to two players: Andrey and the ghost. Back and forth they went, until Yuri put down a card, and if Andrey could have played, it would have been a draw. Unfortunately, he couldn’t.
The ghost said, “It appears as if you are the durak, my sad little friend.”
“Yeah . . .” His face fell, but then it brightened. “Yeah! Means I win, don’t it?”
“No. I’m afraid you lose.” The knife rose in the air and then whipped back and forth in two quick slashes. Blood gushed from Andrey’s throat, and he clutched at it, then slipped from his chair to the floor.
Nik gathered the cards and began shuffling. “Was that fair?” he asked. “You didn’t negotiate the stakes before gameplay commenced.”
“Nothing in life or death is fair, is it? Didn’t a great man once say, ‘Not being able to pravit the world, I pravit myself’?”
“Is that what you did to your children?” Nik accused. “You governed them to death?”
The table holding the cards began to shake.
Eldar pleaded, “Nikolai, stop antagonizing him!” Turning to the ghost’s chair, he said, “He didn’t mean anything by that, Praded. He was only . . .” The knife rose in the air again, and the tip pierced Eldar’s neck. A drop of blood trickled down his throat.
“Keep quiet, boy, if you want to live,” Yuri warned. “Remember: I have no problem killing my own flesh and blood.”
“Why?” Nik asked.
“Why, what?” asked the ghost, picking up his cards.
“Why did you do it? Kill your children.”
“You think I wanted to?”
“Are you saying you didn’t?”
“Of course I didn’t. Why do you think I’m here, haunting the place? It’s because she won’t let me leave. Won’t let me forget.”
Nik paused in the middle of the deal. “You’re saying Mama keeps you here?”
“That’s right. She forces me to relive all the horrible things I’ve done, over and over in some sort of countervenge.”
“Then why do you want her box?”
“Ah!” the ghost replied. “Because that’s the ticket out.
You see, my wife was something of a witchy woman.
A long time ago, she told me that the tin holds a spell—her greatest one, in fact.
I once overheard her tell our children that the one who inherited it would be a lucky soul indeed, for whoever did would obtain their true heart’s desire.
And my heart’s desire, my boy, is to live again.
Why? So I can leave this place once and for all.
I want to start over and forget my old life, these children, my wife, this town, everything.
The only way to do that is to open that box. ”
Nik nodded thoughtfully and picked up his hand.
Eldar turned over the first card in the stack. Queen of Hearts. “I attack first,” he said.
When half the round was played, Nik said, “I still don’t understand why you had to kill your children. I know you abused your wife, and she killed herself. Then you wanted to cover it up and remarry. Did you do it because you couldn’t find another wife?”
“I did find another wife, and a third after that. The problem was, each wife went crazy. Driven that way by my first wife’s ghostly visits. The second lasted just two years and the third only eight months. The townspeople started suspecting things after that. My first wife cursed me.
“After my third wife’s death, I lost the respect of the town and my position, especially after seeing the bruises on her wrists when she was buried.
I told them I had no choice but to tie her up, to protect her from herself.
They saw how she caused her own death by throwing herself out the upstairs window.
I was even telling the truth that time, but I could see they didn’t believe me.
I knew it was just a matter of time before they came for me. ”
“I might believe the window, but I don’t believe the wrists. I’ve seen the show, Yuri. I know you abuse women.” Nik defended two attacks, then played his own. “How did the kids end up chained under the house?”
“The crying wouldn’t stop. It started off with me just trying to scare them silent.
Then it got so quiet I forgot about them.
Two of them died from no water. After that, I knew it was over for me.
The town would never let me go free after that.
I chained them up and waited for them all to go.
My oldest was the last. Couldn’t bear to do the deed myself.
Would have been kinder. Least they all had each other in the end.
Then I hanged myself from the same tree where I found my first wife dead.
Only one of the children survived. I never could remember how many I had. Apparently, he hid.”
Nik continued to play, thinking about the dead man’s story.
It wasn’t that much different from his own.
He, too, had feared being discovered. True, he hadn’t been the person doing the abusing, but he had committed murder, accidental or not.
Just like this man, he had killed innocents.
He was no better than this ghost. Weight pressed down on him, and he remembered how the little man he’d met, Pasha, had told him he carried a sorrow on his back.
He imagined it was fairly huge at present.
After a few more attacks, Nik said, “Well, at least we know the stakes. It seems we’re playing for our lives, Eldar. He needs one of us to open the box. Best of luck.”
The big man nodded. As he played, he alternated holding his cards in one hand and wiping his sticky palm on his pant leg with the other.
Soon the ghost played his last card. “I’m out, boys. Let’s see which one of you gets to live.”
Nik set down his cards. “I forfeit. It should be your kin,” he said. “If you really want a fresh start, then try doing a kindness to your kinfolk. And while I got a say, I’d like to raise the stakes.”
“You would, would you?” the ghost said.
“Yes. No matter what you do, or who wins, let us bury those poor kids first. Mama wants it done. It won’t hurt you none.”
“If you’re thinking that once you’re out in the yard I’ll have no power over you, you’re wrong. I can kill the two of you faster than the time it would take for you to reach the tree. You’d be dead before your body even hit the ground. I owned this town and this land. My roots run deep.”
Eldar whimpered and began sweating profusely.
“I wasn’t thinking of escape,” Nik said smoothly. “Were you, Eldar?”
The other man shook his head and squirmed. He looked like he was about to faint.
“Good,” the ghost replied. “Is that all, then? Is there anything else you want to add?”
“No. That’s it,” Nik answered.
“Very well. I’ll agree to your terms.”