The Sword of Retribution

The Wyrmhole - Part 6

     Thomas handed the glowbottle to Shaun, finding it easier to visualise the board in the darkness, and he and Lirenna walked up ahead with the slaver, well outside its circle of light, the wizard holding the demi shae’s hand so as not to wander off and get lost.

     After only a few moves he found it more and more difficult to remember where all the pieces were and had to get Lirenna to help him. Fortunately the cthillian, being completely without a sense of hearing, had no way of knowing that they were conferring over every move, or perhaps it just didn’t care, being so sure of its own superiority that it was confident that it could beat any number of them working together. As the opening gave way to the midgame, therefore, they called Jerry and Angus up as well, and the four of them worked together to defeat the slaver.

     The cthillian played strangely, in a way that, at first, made no sense to the questers. He completely ignored the conventional tactics of klann, of opening up clear lines of movement for his wizards, priests and cavalry and building a strong line of defence around his King, and instead moved his pieces in what seemed to the questers to be a completely pointless and haphazard way, with guardsmen scattered all over the place and most of his major pieces closed in and blocked by his minor pieces. He refused every offer to exchange pieces, which annoyed Thomas more than anything else as the effort of remembering the positions of fifty two pieces on a ten by thirteen board was beginning to give him a headache. Several times he made a move only to be told that he didn’t have a piece there, or that the move he wanted to make was blocked by a piece he’d forgotten about.

     As time went by, it gradually dawned on him what the cthillian was up to. It knew he was having difficulty visualising the board, and was deliberately trying to confuse him by leaving as many pieces on the board as possible and making nonsense moves to remove as much order and regularity as possible. If all the guardsmen were lined up in a neat row it would be easy to keep track of them, but with them scattered all over the board he had to remember the position of each and every one of them separately. It was waiting for him to make a mistake, to leave a gap in his defences, whereupon it would strike.

     So that’s your game, is it? he thought with a wry smile. Well, maybe you won’t find me such an easy victim as you think, Charlie old boy. He concentrated on the game with renewed effort.

     The cthillian finally won the game, but it wasn’t the convincing pushover it had been hoping for. It was a long, hard struggle in which even Angus was pushed to the limit, and despite the slaver’s intensive effort they were able to force exchange after exchange upon it until there were few enough pieces left that Thomas was able to visualise it without effort and plan several moves ahead. He was even beginning to think that they might be able to force a draw when the cthillian suddenly used his priest’s resurrection move to bring back a griffin rider Thomas had taken some moves before.

     “Victory in fifteen moves,” it announced.

     “What!” exclaimed Angus in outrage. “No-one can see fifteen moves in advance!”

     “I am willing to believe that none of your race can see fifteen moves in advance,” replied the slaver, “but so few pieces now remain on the board that any truly sapient being can easily see all possible outcomes. The move I just made took away your last chance to avoid defeat.”

     The trog closed his eyes tightly and examined the imaginary klann board closely. “Balderdash!” he said after a few moments. “I can see at least three ways whereby we can still force a draw.”

     The cthillian’s anatomy made it impossible for it to shrug, but it seemed to do so anyway. “Very well,” it said. “We will play on to the inevitable conclusion.”