Caraval

Scarlett details how she knows the picture card doesn’t belong to Tella. As a child, Scarlett loved castles and collected images of them. She imagined being protected by the fortress walls, but Tella was less interested in being a princess and those kinds of romantic ideals. The only bit of fantasy Tella loved as a child was mermaids, and she collected picture cards of mermaids. Tella liked the idea of being able to swim freely and travel the world. Scarlett knows Tella would never own a picture card of a castle and believes this out-of-place item will lead them to their next destination.

Julian recognizes the place on the picture card as a palace and starts to strategize about the third clue when Dante approaches Tella’s room. He flirts with Scarlett and asks how she slept in his room, but Julian stands very close to Scarlett, asking who’s there and referring to her as “my love” (137). Julian seizes on the opportunity to introduce himself to Dante as Scarlett’s fiancé and crushes Dante’s hopes of being with Scarlett. Dante is upset and leaves. Scarlett snaps at Julian for treating her like property. Julian asks her if she appreciated the way Dante was looking at her, and Scarlett rejects the notion that everyone thinks like he does. Julian tells Scarlett that Dante is bad news and that he won Caraval the last time Julian played. He warns Scarlett, “If you think my moral compass is damaged, his doesn’t exist” (139).

Scarlett and Julian leave La Serpiente de Cristal and take another boat ride toward the palace, Castillo Maldito, where Julian thinks they’ll find their next clue. Jovan, the girl who greeted them at the entrance to Caraval on the unicycle, rows their boat down the canal. From the water, Scarlett sees a struggling woman being dragged out of a shop and wants to know what happened. Jovan seems completely unbothered and insists that it’s probably just a part of the performance. They arrive at the sandy banks that lead up to the radiant palace. Jovan doesn’t charge them anything for the ride, though she advises they hurry, as the magic is fueled by time and days and nights are shorter.

When they get off the boat, Julian suggests they search for a place that Tella would be attracted to. Scarlett thinks about the clue, “Number three you must earn.” Scarlett is mesmerized by the tented courtyard buzzing with activity, including a kissing booth. Julian asks her if Scarlett is interested in the kissing booth, and she lies, pretending to prefer the plum-colored booth beside it.

Julian questions Scarlett about the count and tells her he must not be a good person because of his political status and the fact that he’s seeking a bride from a conquered isle like Trisda. He teases Scarlett and asks her if she wants to kiss him. Though Scarlett wants to be disgusted by his forwardness, she finds herself curious about him. Julian gets very quiet and walks ahead of her. As she’s trying to keep up with him, a young naked man covered in tattoos named Nigel asks if she wants to know her future. Julian tells Scarlett if she wants to go in, he’ll keep looking for clues. Scarlett decides to hear her future and worries as she enters the darkened fortune-telling tent alone.

Scarlett joins Nigel in his tent to learn about her future. At first, she’s confused because Nigel doesn’t have a crystal ball or any of the items she’d traditionally associate with a psychic. Instead, he uses his tattoos to tell the future. Scarlett’s eyes are drawn to the painted lock on his lips, which suggest that she is trapped by her fear. She also looks at the heart on the other side of his mouth, which he says means she craves love and protection. Scarlett thinks that these are only normal feelings and that everyone wants these things, but Nigel states that’s not true. Many people are attracted to the symbol for power on him or the dagger, the symbol for pleasure. Scarlett didn’t bother looking at these at all. Nigel explains his tattoos act as mirrors for a person’s future, as he believes the future, much like the past, is set based on established behavioral patterns. He tells Scarlett people run away from things we fear and towards those we desire unless something even more fearsome blocks the path. Scarlett also looks at the hat tattooed on him because it reminds her of Master Legend’s top hat.

Nigel makes her an offer: If she gives him a few truthful answers, then he will give her a truthful answer in return. Scarlett doesn’t believe it’s really that simple, but Nigel starts her off with a question about her feelings for Julian. Scarlett tries to keep her eyes trained away from the heart near Nigel’s lips as she says that Julian is “selfish, dishonest, and opportunistic” (151). He then reframes his question to ask if she finds him attractive. When Scarlett is unable to answer, Nigel gives her some kind of truth serum that forces her to admit that she does. In return, Nigel permits her to ask him two questions. First, Scarlett asks if the person she’ll marry is a “good, honest person” (152). Nigel replies that no one is honest, but even taking into account differences in morality, the count couldn’t be described as good, though he perhaps once was and could still be if he changes course. Scarlett asks a follow-up question to try and determine what he means. Nigel, using the idea that people are cats chasing mice, compares him to a cat chasing two mice and that she should be careful. Scarlett is frustrated by this response. Nigel turns to go back further in the tent, but Scarlett says she didn’t get to ask her second question. Nigel responds she asked three and that he doesn’t owe her anything.

Scarlett pleads with Nigel for his help in finding her sister. Nigel says if Scarlett really cared about her sister, she would’ve asked about her first. Scarlett admits that she was distracted by the heart on his lips because it kept reminding her of her wedding, and she is afraid of marrying someone she has never met. Nigel advises that she stop worrying about her wedding and that if she wants to find her sister, she won’t do so in the Castillo. She needs to “[f]ollow the boy with a heart made of black” (156). Nigel won’t say anymore, so Scarlett steps back into the courtyard and notices the Castillo is dimmer than it first appeared. She wonders if trading her feelings for Julian had earned her the third clue and immediately thinks Julian is the boy with the black heart. However, since entering the tent, she has lost him.

Scarlett checks inside an emerald tent filled with bottles of potions. The proprietor sprays her with a perfume that will help her find what she needs, and Scarlett is drawn to a blue vial labeled Elixir of Protection. To purchase the elixir, Scarlett has to tell the proprietor who she fears most. Scarlett names her father, Governor Marcello Dragna, and receives the elixir, which can be used only once and works for two hours.

Scarlett then leaves the emerald tent and crosses the courtyard after she glimpses Julian. She calls after him and is led through a series of archways to a garden with a dirty fountain at a dead-end, but Julian is nowhere in sight. Scarlett reasons that it’s impossible he disappeared here and realizes the fountain seems to drain her energies and heighten her sense of despair. She thinks this area must be enchanted to make people want to stay away from it because it’s hiding something. She spies the symbol for Caraval at the bottom of the fountain and touches it with a stick. The fountain drains and reveals a set of stairs descending into the ground. Scarlett is afraid but knows she is running short on time before dawn breaks, so she heads down the dreary, torch-lit staircase, which leads her to a corridor with multiple tunnels.

The girl who had originally rowed her and Julian the first night to the hotel confronts her about being down there. Scarlett explains she saw Julian come down here, but the girl urges her to leave. Scarlett hears a shriek from down the hall and wants to know what’s going on. The girl grabs Scarlett’s arm and pushes her back to the staircase. Another scream fills the air, and Scarlett thinks back to the woman she saw being dragged from the shop on their last boat ride. The girl insists that if Scarlett goes deeper into the tunnels, she’ll lose her mind just like the woman who’s screaming. Another scream pierces the air, a male voice this time, and the girl slams a door in Scarlett’s face to prevent her from going forward. Scarlett knows the voice doesn’t belong to Julian and trudges back up the stairs.

Scarlett returns to the hotel and looks for Julian in the tavern, but he’s not there. While waiting, Scarlett eavesdrops on conversations about clues others have found regarding Tella. Then, across the way, she sees Julian, his back turned to her as he flirts with another girl. She approaches him and places her hand on his shoulder, only to find out she is mistaken; it’s Dante, who is still upset with her. His companions treat her cruelly, and she leaves, angry with Julian for abandoning her. She returns to her room, and Julian isn’t there either. She can’t help but wonder if he’s still stuck somewhere in Castillo Maldito.

Scarlett falls asleep and doesn’t dream of Legend for the first time in a few nights. She is awakened by the sound of someone coming into her room. Julian enters through the hidden door, covered in blood. Even though she does not want him in her room, she wants to get him some help. Scarlett instructs him to lie down and asks where he’s injured. He uses the opportunity to flirt with her, and as she wipes off the blood with towels, she realizes that there’s no cut beneath all the blood. Scarlett is embarrassed and demands the truth about the blood. Julian gives her the scarlet stone earrings the man had stolen from Tella’s room earlier. Scarlett asks if he got hurt retrieving them, but Julian insists she thinks too highly of him again.

Scarlett doesn’t want him to leave if he’s hurt and asks him about the tunnels beneath Castillo Maldito. Julian says he was never there and soothes her fears that Tella is down there. He assures her he knows Master Legend well enough to know he wouldn’t hold anyone captive or lock them up in an underground tunnel. Scarlett asks where Julian thinks she is then, and just as Julian is about to answer, he sways to the ground.

Scarlett pushes herself against him to brace his weight as she eases back onto the bed. He has a head injury, and in this moment, Scarlett feels close to him. He’s looking at her with a passionate intensity, not like when they were at the kissing tent and he was teasing her, but like he really likes her. Julian caresses her, but Scarlett comes to her senses. Julian lets go of her and excuses himself. She knows “[i]t would have been a mistake to kiss him, yet she felt [...] disappointed” (173). Scarlett is so caught up in her mixed feelings that it takes her a moment to realize he never told her how he got hurt or how he managed to return to the hotel after dawn. No other participants have managed to come back after the doors lock when the sun rises.