Prince of Lies

Chapter 10

"And those were his reasons?"

Chaol moved his bishop out of harm's way, leaving the space in front of Haruto's pawn empty.

Chess was really a useless game to play, given that Haruto could read Chaol's mind and render the game quite boring.

"Yeah." Haruto attacked with a knight. This was more a training exercise so that, if it ever came to life or death, Chaol would (hopefully) be good enough to beat an opponent.

"I think that-"

"Don't do that!" Haruto interrupted, waving his hand in front of Chaol's so that his cousin paused and waited for what Haruto had to say.

"My rook has you in check if you do that. Move something else."

Chaol pursed his lips and set his remaining knight back in place. To Haruto's surprise (and slight annoyance), he didn't move. Instead, the tan skinned boy put his arms on either side of the board.

"You know." He began, and Haruto locked eyes with him. "For someone so good at chess, you're really bad at playing it."

Haruto's eyebrows furrowed. "Huh?"

"You need to start seeing life like you see chess." Chaol gestured to the board, and reached out to grab Haruto's king.

"This is going to be you, one day."

"Thanks for the reminder." Haruto scowled.

"And this..." Chaol picked up Haruto's queen. "This is who's going to be at your side. But I think you forget. In chess, you don't have to be a queen to move like one."

Chaol reached out and moved one of his pawns to the opposite side of the board, holding out his hand for his queen back.

Haruto handed it to him.

Before he put it back down, Chaol held the queen by the base in one hand so Haruto could look at it better. In his other, he held his pawn.

"This is Jace." He said, shaking the smaller piece. "And even though he didn't start out as anything, he can become anyone you want him to be. So do you want him to be your knight, or your queen?"

"That's a terrible analogy." Haruto scowled.

"What do you want, Haruto?" Chaol repeated. "Because just like you have to fight to get that pawn all the way across the board, you have to fight for Jace to be yours. So what do you want, cousin?"

Haruto said nothing as he examined the pieces. Then, slowly, he reached out his hand and took Chaol's queen.

"I want to fight. I want Jace at my side, for however much longer I have left."

Chaol smiled. "Good choice." He replaced his pawn with a queen. "Check."

Haruto took it with his rook. "Checkmate."

Haruto waited in his sitting room, tapping his fingers on the side of his chair, staring at the clock as the minutes trickled by.

It was time for a very important meeting.

Jace was out training with the troops this morning, so Haruto knew that his meeting would not be disturbed for awhile.

He waited until he heard a knock at the door.

"Haruto? She's here." Chaol, standing in for Jace, announced.

Haruto didn't bother straightening in his chair. It was kind of a joke, anyway. What kind of prince needed to sit up straight in order to be respected? Some kind of joker, that's who.