Chapter 18
Jack
Jack’s high honor of playing adviser to the prince quickly soured into an exercise in frustration. Claire was off with Malachi, doing who knew what, while Arthur made the rounds in the main space—kissing hands and sharing drinks. No doubt pleading his case.
And Jack was stuck twelve steps above it all. Benched.
He couldn’t wander about the room, like Tiki. A pimpernel couldn’t get away with that any more than a general could.
That was all Jack could think about until a young man, probably around seventeen, approached the platform. It was the smooth gait of the challenger’s walk that caught his eye—as if each step was practiced choreography.
There were different kinds of body control. Most were familiar with the training that made the body explosive and athletic, but very few understood the more cat-like discipline that rendered a person silent and fluid.
This teen—young as he was—had clearly trained himself in the latter. No nerves. No tension.
Stillness.
“Your Grace,” he said, taking a knee and holding out a single deck of cards in one hand. “My challenge today is a simple one.”
Not likely, Jack thought, forgetting Arthur for a moment and leaning forward.
“Proceed,” Prince Abed said, and the boy rose.
Jack noticed the mirrors shifting above them, drawing focus to where the challenger stood and reflecting it out to the rest of the room in different mirrors.
Close-up magic. Jack’s favorite.
Arthur and Claire pushed to the side of awareness for the moment, Jack gave his visual focus to the practiced confidence of the teen.
“To ensure I have no accomplice, would His Majesty see fit to join me on the platform?” he said.
Prince Abed tipped his head in agreement and rose, descending the six steps to where his challenger stood with a small portable table and the deck of cards.
“My challenge for His Majesty is easy—”
Jack took note of how closely all the mirrors were zoomed in on the action. The teen was confident or he was editing sleight of hand out of the more public picture. Jack focused on the teen, not a mirror, as the magician fanned the cards out on the table, face-down.
“—using your left hand, slide one card out of the deck, without looking at it.” When the prince did so, the magician quickly added, “Now slide one more card with your right hand.”
The prince chose a second card, leaving two cards face-down in front of him on the table.
“Are you happy with your choices?” the magician asked. “Would you like to swap either of those cards out for another one?”
Prince Abed shook his head. “I’ll stick with what I have.”
“Excellent,” the magician said. “What if I told you that I knew you would choose those cards. Would you believe me?”
“You would have to prove it,” Prince Abed said with a cocky grin.
“I’ll let you prove it,” the teen said, clasping his hands behind his back and nodding toward Abed’s selections. “Would you please turn over the cards you chose? It’s okay if we all see them.”
When Abed flipped over his cards, mirrors around the room showed a three of diamonds and the nine of spades. The magician nodded as if that was all according to plan.
“Now I haven’t touched those cards since you chose them, correct?” the teen asked. “You’re the only one that’s handled them. Would you agree?”
Prince Abed nodded. “Yes. You have not touched them since I chose them.”
With a fair amount of showmanship, the teen picked up the card on the far-end of the fanned out deck and flipped it over.
It was blank. No value. No suit. Just plain white card.
“I was so sure you’d pick those two cards,” he said before picking up another card and hooking it under the bottom card to reverse the fanning of the deck to face-up. All the cards were blank white, “that they are the only printed cards I placed in the deck.”
Prince Abed’s eyes went wide with wonder.
Jack smiled, impressed that such a strong challenge had come from someone so young. The guy had a bright future ahead of him.
The challenger stepped away from the table. “If Your Majesty can tell me how I knew you’d pick those two cards, I will consider my challenge answered.”
One look at the prince’s unblinking stare and Jack knew he had no idea. It would be a miracle if he did. The boy was twelve.
Jack was not.
He tried not to take it personally when the prince’s first look for help was aimed at Tiki. But when Abed found her crossways in her seat, pretending to do the backstroke while humming to herself, he looked right past the general and made eye contact with Jack.
A look was all it took. He didn’t even send the prince a signal before the prince’s chin came up confidently.
“I trust my pimpernel to speak for me on this matter.”
Jack rose to his feet. “It would be my honor.” He started down the stairs, holding the attention of the prince. “Would you stay and continue to assist, Your Grace?”
When the prince nodded, Jack acknowledged the fellow magician.
“I would also appreciate your assistance, just so you can judge for yourself that your challenge is answered.”
The teen dipped his chin. “My pleasure.”
Jack made it down the stairs and joined the two boys at the table. “Mind if we use your cards to ensure that all things are equal?”
When the teen nodded again, Jack looked between the two, quickly choreographing his response in his mind before pushing the three and the nine to the side and picking up the deck of blank cards.
“What we have here is a deck of blank cards,” he said fanning them out for the boys and the mirrors. “Are we agreed?”
When he got two nods, Jack restacked the cards, placing them face-down on the table and fanning them out again. He put distance between the table and himself, making it clear he wasn’t touching them.
“I’d like each of you to slide one card out of the deck with your left hand—not looking at it, as before.” They both did. “Do the same with your right.”
They did.
“Now,” Jack added, with an arched brow for melodrama. “Do you want to switch cards? If so, now is the time.”
The magician slid the card under his right hand back into the fan of cards and drew out another.
“Excellent choice,” Jack said, as if he’d been planning on the move. “Are you both happy with your selections? You can trade back if you want to.”
“I’m good,” Prince Abed said.
“Me, too,” replied the fellow magician.
“Perfect,” Jack said, gathering the deck, flipping it again, and fanning it out, blank-side up. “What we have left is a deck of blank cards. Am I right?”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
“And the only cards that are face-down are the four you two chose of your own free will. I didn’t influence you in any way.”
The teen saw the trap coming but had to nod the truth. Abed looked more curious than wary as he did the same.
“Now, what if I told you that I knew exactly which cards you were going to choose?”
The magician’s eyes narrowed in challenge. “Can you tell us now, or do we need to flip the cards first?”
“Ah,” Jack mused. “I didn’t see you do this part, but I’ll give you a hint. I am a Jack and you two are princes, so I thought it would be rather poetic if you chose the four jacks. Why don’t you flip the cards to see if I was right?”
The teen flipped his cards first. Jack of hearts and jack of clubs.
Abed blinked in surprised before flipping the two cards he’d chosen as well. Jack of diamonds, jack of spades.
Looking less like a king for the day and more like a kid at a party, Abed beamed up at Jack for a moment before correcting himself. Several oohs sounded out around the room and Jack even heard a few claps.
That was nice, and technically the challenge was answered, but what was the fun in stopping at the bare minimum?
Jack turned to the challenger. “Now, just to make sure that all this is on the up-and-up, I’d like you to pick up three jacks of your choice—leaving one on the table for His Grace—and inspect them. Make sure they’re real cards.”
The boy picked up all the jacks but the jack of diamonds. He checked the texture with his hands and looked them over. “They’re real cards. Not fake.”
“Very good,” Jack said, again pulling focus. “Now that we’re sure of that, I want you to take the three cards you’ve chosen and press them to your chest.” He positioned the teen’s hands himself, pressing them into place so that the cards were trapped between the guy’s chest and hands. “Hold them there, nice and tight.”
The teen was watching him like a hawk, waiting to catch him making a move. Jack answered his vigilance with a smile and a question.
“Now, tell me. What cards are you holding?”
The challenger looked at him like it was a trick question. “The jacks of clubs, hearts, and spades.”
Jack arched a skeptical brow. “Are you sure?”
The boy glanced at Abed’s diamond, clearly watching for a curveball. “Pretty sure.”
Jack gestured to the table. “Then prove it. Show us your cards.”
When the teen placed his cards down, all three of the jacks now had diamond suits. Four jacks of diamonds lay on the table. All other suits were gone.
That got a few more claps, which Jack ignored.
“Hmm,” he said, pretending to be perplexed. “Four jacks of diamonds. Is that what you keep up your sleeve?”
When several onlookers chuckled, the boy’s chin came up. “I keep no cards up my sleeve.”
Jack narrowed his eyes skeptically. “Are you sure? You’re saying that when I change those cards back to what they’re supposed to be, I’m not going to find three jacks of diamonds up your sleeve?”
“You will not,” the teen said, pushing his cuffs away from his wrist.
“If you say so,” Jack said, before waving his hand over the three jacks with flair.
By the time his hand passed over them, all the diamonds were gone and the clubs, hearts, and spades had returned. The clapping was louder this time, but Jack still had a few moves left before he could pay attention to the audience. The teen was watching him like a hawk, trying to catch the sleight of hand and coming up empty.
Jack had to admit that it was fun fooling a fellow practitioner of considerable skill. But he wouldn’t celebrate until he was finished.
“See, I knew the two of you would choose the jacks, which is why they were the only cards I left in the deck,” Jack said, before gesturing to the teen’s sleeve. “Just like I knew you would swap these cards out for the diamonds up your sleeve.”
The teen shook his head. “No. I don’t have any cards up my sleeve.”
Jack tilted his head skeptically. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
For the first time, Jack acknowledged the onlookers with a sweeping gesture of his hand. “Mind proving that to our audience by shaking your sleeves out for us?”
Knowing he was walking into a trap, but not knowing how, the teen did as instructed, pulling his sleeves open and shaking them over the table.
Three jacks fell out, landing on the table. Three jacks of diamonds.
“See?” Jack said, wagging his finger at him. “I knew you were tricky. I don’t know how you swapped them out, but I’m impressed.”
Prince Abed was grinning from ear-to-ear, clearly having a blast with the show Jack was putting on. That was good, but it was almost time for the finale.
“You can put all those diamonds back up your sleeve now,” Jack said, before gesturing to the blank fanned-out cards. “As for the rest of the cards, it’s time to put this deck back together, wouldn’t you say?”
“Yes!” Prince Abed said, all but clapping his hands with eagerness for whatever came next.
Jack gestured to the jacks, along with the three and the nine Prince Abed had originally chosen. “I want you boys to push the cards you’ve chosen back into the deck—facing up, like all the others. Anywhere you want. Scatter them out. Don’t put any two together. Really mix them into the deck.”
Prince Abed didn’t hesitate, pushing the cards on his side in eagerly before focusing as close as he could on the cards, ready to spot anything. The challenger picked his placements with more focus and intent. He wanted to catch whatever Jack did next. Unfortunately, Jack had no intention of letting him.
When the four jacks, the three of diamonds, and the nine of spades were spread out into the row of blank cards for all to see, Jack gathered the deck back into a stack and shuffled in clear view.
“To recap, I didn’t touch any of the cards you put back in the deck.”
“Right,” Prince Abed said, still grinning.
Jack shuffled again. “There’s no way I could know where your cards are in the deck—especially now that I’m shuffling.”
The teen nodded this time. “Yes.”
Jack could feel the attention on his hands, but the challenger wasn’t the only one who had trained in the art of being quiet with movement.
Jack could also be still.
“So…” He eyed the challenger with a look of intrigue. “What if I told you that you have your blank deck of cards back again—that all the cards you chose are white again?”
He could see the wheels turning in the teens head—trying to figure out what was being done, and how. Trying to see what was coming next. “I … would say that is a neat trick.”
“Yeah?” Jack said.
The kid nodded. “Yeah.”
Jack handed in him the cards. “Then why don’t you do it?”
“Me?” he said, taking them.
“Sure. Fan these out—face-up—for everyone to see.”
The teen looked like he wanted to protest, but there was only one thing to do: fan the cards out, face-up. And he did.
All the cards were blank.
Prince Abed clapped, beaming up at Jack like he was the coolest person he’d ever met at that moment.
It felt good.
The realization was joined by the sound of clapping all around him, including a few whoops from the audience. When Jack looked out to acknowledge them, he found nearly everyone in the room looking back. And they were all clapping.
Even Arthur, although his expression was unreadable.
Jack tipped his head in thanks as the teen gathered up the deck of blank cards and reached out to shake his hand.
“That was amazing,” he said, dipping his chin respectfully to Jack. “It was an honor being bested by you.”
Jack reached out and shook his hand. “It was an honor to be challenged by someone so worthy.”
The teen smiled, his unflappable demeanor falling for a moment as he accepted the compliment.
The audience was still clapping as Jack and Prince Abed climbed the six steps back to their seats. That’s when Jack realized that maybe he wasn’t benched after all.
Maybe the best place for him to champion his cause was center stage, putting on a show to remember for everyone who could change Claire’s fate.
A smile crept onto Jack’s lips as he took his seat and looked over the spectators with new eyes.
Tonight, he was going to give the Royals a show to remember.