Iorrjaer

Chapter 34

Malka sat across from Granna, completely enticed by her presence. She had adopted the appearance of a nonagenarian, stooped with wrinkly and baggy skin. Her eyes were nearly milky white but he could see the brown irises peeking through. Her white hair was tucked back under a colourful shawl that meshed well with her complexion. She sat across from him, trying to play up her frailty but Malka saw through the facade; her joining the game was not for mere distraction.

She met his measured gaze and knew she had an opponent in this queer-looking man before her. His dazzling eyes and rainbow hair mocked her in their dancing movements. She rued that her hand had been played, Shanna was supposed to have beaten him in the game. She did not care if it was by distraction or seduction or any other means, he was not supposed to have won. She cursed her grandson Allin for his inability to walk Shanna through the winning strategy and she cursed the girl's stubbornness; she plays the fool but has more cunning than both of her grandsons. She cursed her foolishness for trusting one as young as that false Paladin - now realizing that she was totally at Malka's mercy when it came to the information that she wanted.

The board before them was set, and as Malka was the winner of the last match, he could chose which pieces he wanted to play. He decided to continue with the ivory set. He wanted to test his meddle against Granna; on the trip he had always played on defence, to test his teammate's strategy, and now he wanted to try his hand at offence. He also needed to keep a measure of defence up, as he was not sure what tricks Granna would be, cautiously and cunningly, making. He saw nothing but facade and illusion around her and knew that he was most likely going to be playing serval games at once.

He considered his approach as she considered hers. Would keeping his pieces tight to the center be the best, as it was with Shanna? Or would Granna be more aggressive - leaving openings? She would be expecting him to go for another rij and he suspected her of the same approach; it was a logical move that had great benefits for the one that pulled it off and was pretty much the game-breaker. It was something that he was going to work towards, subtly. Shanna was a great opponent, reserved in her plans and aware of his calculating nature; he was able to use that to keep her guessing until the obvious was already in play. He would not be able to do the same against Granna.

She knew his thoughts, he was considering going for a rij, or not. On one hand, she knew that he would know that it would be an obvious plan of attack, but she also suspected that he might be expecting her to think that he would go for the aggressive attack right off the bat. A rij would win the game faster than it would if they tried to remove each other's pieces one by one. A feat the game inherently made difficult. She had him figured out: he was going to go for the rij. His fear for her would win out against his patience.

Granna smiled at him and moved her bottommost center knight down.

A curious starting move but Malka, who had adopted his original sitting position, responded with moving the opposite pawn: he moved his bottommost center pawn down.

She kept her smile but there was a slight twitch to her bottom lip that told Malka that he was continuing to go against what she expected. She decided that pretense was moot and she was going to go for what she needed. She moved her rightmost center knight over.

He thought for a brief but pregnant moment. He moved his leftmost corner pawn over to be behind his first pawn.

It did not matter. She moved her leftmost knight inwards.

He considered the board: she was going for something more than just winning and he needed to keep her guessing to his strategy, keep her threatened and be ready to counter once she started to make her attacks. He moved his bottommost center pawn to the right.