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He raised his eyebrows, as if to say,hew your own crypt.
Many, many people had looked at Cassia like that throughout her life. But she was expert at staying out of her own grave.
She was determined not to let her doubts overtake her. It was a board game. Even if she had never played, it must be a trifling challenge compared to real politics. What was the worst that could happen? She had suffered humiliation before, and it was meaningless. It wasn’t as if they were playing for real stakes. Not lives.
Or were they? Were the stakes not the very highest at every moment of this Summit?
“All new players are entitled to the same basic tutorial before the game begins,” Lio explained. “There are two different ways to win the game: brute force or strategy. Which method is right for you will depend on your natural aptitudes and preferences. Those who favor brute force use the sheer number and strength of their pieces to defeat their opponents, and those who find so many pieces at their disposal need only brute force to achieve victory. Those who have fewer pieces at their disposal need strategy to succeed, but those who favor strategy need fewer pieces to succeed.”
“I see,” said Cassia, although she didn’t. Perhaps once she watched the game in action, the obtuse commentary would come clear to her.
“I see that Hesperines use a round board,” Chrysanthos mused, “with circles instead of squares. How fitting. But the essential layout is the same. You have the plane beneath, and the paths superimposed upon it.”
Cassia studied the polished, inlaid board. Black circles alternated with pale ones in neat rows and columns, and she supposed players were to move pieces from circle to circle according to a pattern. But some circles were marked in red outlines or with red symbols that seemed to mark an entirely different route across the board.
Chrysanthos fingered a crow carved of petrified wood. “Familiar pieces. Rooks, knights. I am astonished you did not cast the sun from the ensemble.”
“Certainly not.” The princess pointed to a disk of golden wood. “We must account for the sun. But you will notice the moons remain powerful pieces, in contrast to their reduced significance in your own game.”
Two spheres gleamed at the center of the board, one of redwood, the other of ash.
Chrysanthos gestured at two stars made of pine and ebony. “Let me guess. There are queens on your board.”
“The most strategic pieces of all.” The princess swept a hand toward the board. “The guest gets the first move.”
A mere courtesy? Or perhaps there was something unique about each board that gave its owner an advantage, which must be balanced out by letting the guest begin the game. Having seen Rudhira whittle a goat figurine for Zoe, Cassia suspected that the First Prince had crafted Princess Alexandra’s game board, as well as taught her to play. Who knew what magic might be infused into each playing piece?
Chrysanthos reached for the pine queen. The moment his fingers touched the wood, he snapped his hand back, as if he had been burned. Frost coiled in the air around the piece.
The princess clicked her tongue in a scolding manner. “My turn.” She picked up the pine queen and moved her through three red-bordered circles in a little dance around the ebony queen.
“Well, well,” said Chrysanthos. “Strategic pieces indeed. A unique advantage to all Hesperines.”
“Undoubtedly,” Lio replied, but he reached for the rook nearest him and moved it four circles ahead in a straight line.
Chrysanthos steepled his fingers. “But you do not move a queen, Ambassador. I shall hazard a guess that only those of the Queens’ blood wield their power.”
The princess smiled innocently. “I did warn you that you would need help against me. Lady Cassia, it is your turn, now. The newest player always goes last, to allow time for observation.”
Cassia surveyed her options. So, not all pieces could be of use to all players, and if she chose poorly, she forfeited her turn. But what determined a player’s ability to move which piece?
A redwood knight drew her eye. The princess had dubbed her a diplomat, but Cassia decided to take a chance on the little warrior and his charging horse. With a smile for her hound, she reached for the piece. From the corner of her eye, she saw Benedict’s look of approval.
She found herself able to pick up the knight piece. It felt uneasy in her hand, but the longer she touched it, the more determined she felt to use it. With no idea what the rules for movement were, she marched her knight along the nearest path, red piece on red circles. That seemed logical. Cautious, she moved only two spaces.
She folded her hands in her lap and waited. When a miniature gargoyle swept across the board of its own accord and knocked her knight over, she jumped.
Lio winced. “The knight isn’t allowed that pattern of movement, as you can see.”
Princess Alexandra gave Cassia a sympathetic look and set the knight to one side of the board.
“This game has a brutal way of teaching,” Cassia said lightly, “but I shall indeed learn by observation at this rate, and quickly.”
On Chrysanthos’s next turn, he also moved a knight. He charged the piece forward one white circle, then one black, then leapt it through a red one. How obvious could he be? If this was how he taught his apprentices, Tychon must be a slow study.
The princess twirled the ebony queen in a pattern about the pine queen, and Lio followed up by moving a carved wooden scroll. What was all that supposed to accomplish?
Cassia eschewed Chrysanthos’s lesson and did not make another attempt with a knight. What she needed to do was explore the pieces and determine which were at her disposal. She must tally her weapons before she could decide how best to put them to use. That meant ruling out the ones that would waste her turns.
