The Knight

 

The entire surface of the table was painted like a chessboard, with the pieces set up, ready for battle. All the pieces were beautifully carved from a heavy wood and they looked worn from handling. The dark pieces weren’t actually stained – they had been carved from ebony, and the shapes were distinctively elegant. Every piece on the board was accounted for except for one black knight.

“Show me Léon’s piece,” I whispered to Tom.

His eyes were riveted to the board, as he drew the chess piece he had been carrying around with him since Léon died in 1428 out of his pocket. With a shaking hand, he placed it on the empty square.

It was a perfect match, and the table seemed to hum with energy.

“Pick it up,” I whispered urgently.

Tom retrieved the piece and held it tightly in his fist. His eyes met mine, and the shock in them was palpable.

“How could Léon have had a piece from this set?” he asked. “He wasn’t a Descendant at all.”

“Léon was Jewish, and you said the piece had been in his family a long time,” said Archer. “Maybe it came from Jerusalem.”

“Bas told us about Saladin carrying a black knight piece in his pocket. What if this is that piece? Saladin was there, in Jerusalem. It could have been lost after he won the city.” I knew I was grasping at straws, and then I pulled the scrap of paper out of my back pocket and read the prophecy Aislin had given me.

“When man of War

And Sight portends,

What great one lost,

And young one sends,

The first one seeks,

The hurt one mends,

What War begins,

The dark night ends.”

The silence was almost louder than my voice until someone said, “Whoa.”

Ava’s eyes gleamed with understanding. “It’s not night, the opposite of day – it’s knight, the black knight of chess.”

“But why a chess piece for the Monger artifact, and what can it do?” asked Adam.

Archer seemed lost in thought as he moved a white pawn forward two spaces. “Chess is an ancient game of strategy.” He moved a black pawn forward one. “Each piece is granted its own very specific move.” The white bishop slid all the way out to the edge of the board. “Offenses are plotted several turns ahead.” He slid a black pawn forward to block the white bishop’s attack on the queen. “And the weakest defenses …” The white bishop took the black pawn, “become the strongest attacks …” He moved the black knight out from behind its pawn to take the white bishop, “when the knights are in play.”

Tom had followed the chess moves with a kind of mesmerized fascination, and at the end, he looked into my eyes with an expression of complete astonishment and said, “I think I know how to steal the ring.”

 

It was agreed that only a very few people would know the entire plan, and everyone else would be fed just their piece of the puzzle. This was not only to protect the game, but also the players, since no one could tell someone else what they didn’t know.

It was after midnight when we finally left the chess room in the Monger Tower, and we all understood now why the Monger artifact was a chess piece. Every facet of the plan could be acted out on the board, and every possible attack and defense could be anticipated.

Tom was utterly brilliant at it. When he physically held the black knight in his hand, he could spot every flaw and weakness of every part of the plans we discussed. He tried it with different pieces, and he tried it with the knight in his pocket. None of those options worked – only when the black knight was in his hand did his strategic brain turn on and practically light up. The rest of us tried it too, but only the leprechaun, with his part-Monger blood, could feel a difference in his tactical thinking, and it was agreed by all that Tom’s strategies were by far the best.

When each of us understood our own jobs, and plans had been laid for the next day, we finally said good night and went our own ways. I grabbed Ringo’s hand before he turned toward Connor’s room. He was taking Logan’s bed, and Logan would sleep in the shape of a Kitten curled up at the foot of his brother’s mattress.

“Do you want to come with me to get Charlie tomorrow?”

He nodded, and I didn’t like that I couldn’t see his expression in the dim light. “Yeah, I’m comin’.”

“You don’t sound happy about it.”

“I know ‘ow I feel, I just don’t know ‘ow she does.”

He turned and disappeared into the shadows of the bedroom and closed the door softly behind him.