think, my dear?”
“I liked it very much,” she said, but that seemed inadequate somehow. “I could see what you were reading, as if it were happening afresh as the words were read.” She paused. “What do you think?”
He only smiled, then closed the book and handed it back to her. “Would you mind if I had a small game of chess with Ruith?”
Sarah pursed her lips. “You aren’t going to answer me, are you?”
“Timing, my dear. It is all about timing.”
And she imagined her time at Buidseachd would run out long before he managed to answer anything at all. She waved him and Ruith on to their game, happy to simply sit in front of the fire and be warm. She supposed she should enjoy that whilst she could.
She watched as Soilléir set up a chessboard between the two chairs.
But he didn’t pull out pieces.
She looked at Ruith in surprise, but he was only watching Soilléir with an expression she couldn’t quite identify at first. She wouldn’t have said it was resignation and it certainly wasn’t annoyance. It was as if he’d expected nothing less than what was coming his way and was almost resigned to his fate.
She wondered, briefly, what it would be like to walk into a place and be known, even after a score of years. She supposed she could have walked into the pub in Doìre and had Franciscus—
Nay, he wouldn’t have been there any longer. And if he had been, she would have had some very pointed questions for him as well. There would come a day when she had the boldness to demand answers from recalcitrant mages when she wanted them.
She turned back to what apparently passed for a game of chess at Buidseachd. Soilléir was very calmly setting up his board with traditional-looking pieces, though Sarah could easily see they were not fashioned from wood or marble. Ruith sighed deeply, then began to people his side of the board. They marched themselves out quite sedately, those creations of his imagination, beginning with the pawns, then moving on to the major and minor pieces in the back row. His queen he dressed in exquisite robes of emerald and his king in gold and sapphire. He paused, glanced at Soilléir, then placed fire-breathing dragons atop both his rooks.
He lifted an eyebrow in challenge.
Soilléir answered by changing his knights’ steeds into even larger, jewel-encrusted, fire-snorting beasts that hovered in the air just above their places, beating their wings impatiently.
Ruith looked at her. “You might want to move back a bit, love.”
She was happy to decamp for a stool a goodly distance away from the board.
“Your move, Ruith,” Soilléir said placidly.
Sarah was sitting behind him, but she could hear the suppressed delight in his voice, as if he were about to engage in something he’d savoured in the past and missed for far too long.
“Happily, my lord,” Ruith said pointedly.
A burly-looking toad hopped forward, hesitated, then belched. Soilléir laughed and the game was begun. Sarah had imagined it wouldn’t be all that sedate a match, but she realized quite quickly she had underestimated the skill and imagination of the players involved.
A mighty battle ensued, replete with fire and smoke and flashes of lightning cast down by clouds that sprang up over the board—and beyond, truth be told—and drenched all involved. Insults and weapons were hurled—and not just from the pieces—then chairs were pushed back from the board to give the combatants—mortal or not, as was the case—a bit more room to manage the fray.
And then Soilléir looked over his shoulder at her. “You might want to move,” he suggested.
Again? was almost out of her mouth but she didn’t have time for it. She watched as a spell sprang up to the ceiling, spread out, and dropped to the floor like a curtain. The board went skidding across the floor, its pieces clinging to it like a raft, only to immediately increase in size until it filled almost all the solar. The struggle continued, but this time it was life-sized and limited, apparently, only to the resourcefulness of the mages in charge of their armies. It was no sedate game full of dignity and Nerochian rules of fair play. It was a glorious brawl with swords, spells, and creatures from myth. She didn’t recognize half the beasties she saw nor the spells she heard. It was also quite obvious to her that Soilléir and Ruith had been at this sort of thing before.
In time, the game finished with