Iorrjaer

Chapter 11

After his game with Barsabel, Malka called Bethar over. Bethar agreed readily, he and Häsmæl had just gotten Yophiel to leave them alone. He was unsure which Yophiel he disliked more, the confident and aggressive or the lost and curious. She had just spent a good while avoiding chores by interrupting Häsmæl's work to ask him inane questions.

Barsabel grabbed her after her game and Bethar nearly cheered aloud.

Häsmæl finished prepping the bones and antlers he had collected from the deer. He made an intricate webbing of shards, shavings, and knuckles to create a lattice wrapped around his forearms. He also made similar gloves that covered the back of his hands and reinforced his knuckles with the hardest parts of the antlers and bones, a veritable exoskeleton.

He also made several daggers and fileting knives; he made Barsabel a punching dagger and throwing knives, Graphiel a straight-back fighting knife, Kârael an elongated field dressing knife, Sorâth a hawksbill dagger, Bethar a spearpoint dagger, and Yophiel a simple dagger.

Bethar had reassured her that her dagger was useful, but she audibly doubted that Häsmæl had the intelligence to make something out of bones and antlers. Häsmæl shrugged indifferently at her comment and insisted that she take it anyway.

Bethar set up a log for a stool and got himself comfortable. He knew the game of Rij and had played it a bit in his youth, but it had been a while. Seeing the board brought back memories and when Malka asked him if he knew the game, he said: "Aye. Been since I was living, but aye."

"Are you willing to play?"

It was a thoughtful question that Bethar had not expected. He nodded thoughtfully.

"Aye, I can play."

"Great! Do you want ivory or ebony?"

"You've been playing ebony?"

"Indeed."

"Then I'll play ivory. I'll show you how it's done."

"Very well. I use Rij three rules."

Bethar skipped pretence. "Which means? I only know Rij two."

"You are allowed to take pieces. Captures are between two of yours and if you can complete a rij."

Bether nodded and moved his first piece - he moved his uppermost centrepiece up.

Malka moved his leftmost centrepiece in.

Bethar moved his upper rightmost piece over.

Malka mirrored his initial move.

Bethar moved his first piece up.

Malka had the option to jump and take Bethar's piece but he saw that was what Bethar was hoping for. He instead moved his uppermost centrepiece in.

Bethar moved his highest piece over to the right corner. He now had another piece of Malka's threatened.

Malka moved his threatened piece up.

Bethar moved his rightmost centre piece out.

"You are a very curious case." Malka said.

"You're not going to distract me."

"Of course," Malka said as he moved his bottommost right piece down. "But may I ask you about your bond with Häsmæl?"

Bethar did not answer immediately. Instead, he studied the board – he had to get his king out to the outer ring. The way the board was, Malka had made careful moves to make it so that there appeared to be openings. He also saw that he might have been too hasty in his initial moves. Still, he needed to keep Malka guessing. He moved his bottommost right piece up. "What about him?"