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The carved doors shut behind us, two pages closing them securely and standing at attention with their backs to them.
We had entered a large drawing room, illuminated by crystal sconces that refracted the light from dozens of candles and made me believe the sun was shining outside.
Two large tables lined the side walls, brimming with wine and food. Flowers filled the room with color and their sweet scent. The floor was layered with many rugs. Settees, armchairs, lounge chairs, card tables, and sofas occupied most of the space, arranged in groups to form small gatherings. People fell into place like pieces of a chessboard as if they knew their proper stations and were afraid to be kicked out if they made the wrong move. It made me wonder how many times this game had been played out.
Casually, I moved to one of the food tables, picked up a glass of wine, and faced the guests as they arranged themselves. A corner was reserved for the Queen. She sat at a regal, high-back chair, from which she had a clear view of everyone in the room. The scepter lay on her lap while she talked to a gentleman with graying hair.
Bianca stood a step behind the Queen, relegated to the role of guard dog. It made my blood boil.
The Queen laughed at something the man said, and the scepter rolled off her lap and fell to the floor with a thud muffled by the rug.
Lovina barely spared a glance toward Bianca as she picked the scepter up and tried to hand it back. Instead, the Queen waved her hand to indicate she didn’t want it. With a shrug, Bianca set it on small table to the right of the Queen’s chair. The entire exchange struck me as odd.
Eyes glued to the scepter, I downed the wine in one gulp. Bianca was peering at me again, her eyes flicking toward the door, asking me to leave. I snatched another glass of wine and walked in her direction instead.
“I am so happy for you,” the older man was saying to the Queen as I came within hearing distance.
He appeared to be in his late forties. His clothes and posture conveyed a message of wealth that I recognized all too well.
Before I joined the Black Board and I resorted to theft for our survival, I’d learned to stay away from men like this. He was too rich, too confident in his position near the Queen. I hadn’t known then what it took to hold such privilege. Still, I’d been smart enough to stay away from the likes of him.
However, living close to the Black King had taught me what it took to become a favorite of the Queen or King. One had to be heartless.
Men like this facilitated the introduction of fresh victims to our blood-thirsty monarchs. Young society men and women healthy, plump, and ripe for the tasting. The King and Queen’s favorite.
Men like this relinquished their own sons and daughters for whatever advantages the monarchs could offer them.
“I was very sad when I heard your last Trove had died,” he continued. “A new Trove found so quickly is wonderful news.”
Wonderful news.
I had to set my glass down to make sure I didn’t crush it in my fist. For a moment, I pretended to be distracted by a chess game between a man and a woman. A black rook and a white rook were still on the board, like Bianca and I, they were trapped inside tight squares, able to move only in restricted ways.
Surreptitiously, I glanced back toward the Queen, then the scepter. Candlelight danced on its surface as it lay forgotten. It was then I realized the scepter was like the Queen, dazzling in its beauty, but ultimately fake. Lovina had practically discarded the golden trinket. This was not what I was looking for, what Maximus so deeply desired.
Call it a thief’s instinct, but I knew the Queen didn’t care about this scepter. The real thing was elsewhere, the throne room, perhaps. That would be my first guess.
“And is it true you are to be a Knight soon?” the man asked, his inquisitive attention shifting toward Bianca.
A Knight?!
My eyes darted from the scepter to Bianca. My mind reeled. Had Bianca issued a challenge already? Was she that desperate to become Queen?
In answer, she nodded. Afterward, her eyes met mine for the briefest of instants, and it was all I needed to understand that she was displeased. Had her hand been forced to a challenge? Had she been entrapped like me? Maybe she had changed her mind about becoming a Queen.
What if I stole the real scepter and, somehow, took her with me? My request for Maximus could be to leave Acedrex with Timotei and Bianca. He’d said I could ask for anything I wanted, after all.
“Knight Flagfall,” the man said, “It has a ring to it. My, my, she is certainly a prodigy.”
“Indeed,” the Queen said proudly. “Barely five months have passed since she first joined the Board, and she has already come this far.”
They talked about Bianca as if she wasn’t there, while she stood in place looking conflicted by her own rapid ascent up the ranks... or perhaps by something else I couldn’t fathom. Maybe I was simply imagining what I wanted to believe.
“Will you win, Rook Flagfall?” the man asked Bianca with a crooked smile.
Bianca said nothing.
“C’mon,” the man pressed. “Help me decide where to place my bets.”
The Queen threw her head back and laughed. “Considering that she issued the challenge against Knight Kelsus shortly after proving herself the fastest, most efficient Rook I’ve ever had, I would put all my money on her if I were you.”
I turned away and walked toward the exit. Yes. I was imagining things that weren’t there. Bianca was on a different path than mine. I couldn’t save her. She wanted this. All she cared about was revenge, and maybe that was all she really had.
For my part, I had Timotei.