"Meaning?" Gord pressed.
"The linens on the bed are always fresh and smooth, and it makes itself immediately when I climb out of it. I jump in and out again sometimes when I'm bored, Just to see it happen. Each day when I get out of bed there is a big basin of water for me to climb in and bathe. If I don't do that, then there's no food downstairs," Tharizdun added, evidently recalling a rebellious failure. "There's always a change of underlinen too, and fresh robes and hose, and all that". He brightened. "What would you like to play? I have games which I'm sure grownups play — quoits, even chess!" There was eagerness filling his voice, and he began rooting through his belongings in search of the games.
"Perhaps later." Gord said. "What lies above? I see a ladder and trapdoor there."
"Oh, that is my observatory. From there I can see all the lands around. I don't like it there, though, for it is boring."
"Go up the ladder, boy," Gord instructed. "We will all observe what's to be seen up there." Tharizdun actually scowled at the command, but he put aside the things he was pulling forth and clambered up the bronze rungs of the ladder. Above was a conicalroofed space, the top of the turret. It was covered all over with the same adamantite armoring, and where there were spaces between the merlons of the thick battlement, the clear metal formed a barrier. "There is little to see, actually," Gord noted, looking at the lad.
"Just the mountains all around, the road, mists everchanging below, clouds in a million forms above." He sat down with dejection on the low step of the dais-like disc that filled the center of the place as if to provide a circling bench for all who would come to the place to look out. "At least your coming has made this place a little warmer!"
"It certainly is very cold up here," Leda said with a little shiver. "Can we go back below?"
"Yes, Gord," Gellor agreed. "Leda is right. It's too chill and damp here for us or the boy. Let's consider what's to be done where it's warmer."
A touch made Gord withdraw his hand from the stone seat. "This still sends forth waves of cold as the ice did. The mass of stone here must have absorbed the chill and not yet warmed as the remainder of the castle seems to have done. Very well, we can climb back down now. There is nothing further to see."
Gellor and Leda went back down the ladder, then Gord sent the boy scrambling below. He came last, closing the trapdoor to keep out the bitter air from the observatory above. The lad had wasted no time, and Tharizdun was again rummaging around in his great boxes, tossing out things to amuse his guests and himself. "Here's the chessboard — the pieces are in that box under my bed! Let's play for a wager."
"And what stakes do you think appropriate?" the bard asked casually.
The boy drew out a large metal casket as well as the smaller box that he had indicated as the receptacle of his chess pieces. "I have lots of these stones," Tharizdun said as he flipped the coffer lid up. "I'll stake all the ones of blue color against your ring," he said, heaping a handful of moonstones and bluewhite opals into a small mound as he pointed to Gord. "Or else I can play with these amber-colored ones against his," Tharizdun said as he pointed at Gellor, "or else the pearls for the dark lady's ring."
"I thought you said that the ring I wear belonged to you already?" Gord queried softly.
"Of course. Didn't you understand? I am to be Emperor of everything, so everything is mine. I don't want to be mean, though. That is base. Nobles can have things, and if I want them, the nobles have to give them to me as gifts of their own free will, or else I can win them."
"Who told you that?" Leda asked.
"All you three do is ask questions! Let's play a game or two, and then I think I'll want to leave here."
Leda turned and headed down to the chamber below. "You two play against the boy if you like," she called over her shoulder as she went. "I am hungry and thirsty. Can I bring you some food when I come back? Or will you join me?"
The boy scowled, but neither Gord nor Gellor was inclined to follow. "Have a care with the stuff, girl," the troubador advised. "It might . . . you know!"
"I am not so naive as not to test for toxins, Gellor,"
Leda said as she disappeared. "I'll be back . . . ." and her voice trailed off as she moved out of earshot.
"All right, sonny boy." Gellor said as he turned from the stairs to where Tharizdun selfproclaimed stood awaiting. "I will play at chess with you."
The ring you have for these few gems?" the youth asked, pointing at the heap of fifty or sixty large amber and tiger's-eye stones he had mounded to one side.
Before the bard could respond to that, Gord stepped forward and stood between his comrade and the boy. "Wait a moment, please. On your own word, lad, I was given the challenge to play first. Before you can test the bard's skill at the game, you must defeat me."
"Oh, yes," the lad said, brightening at the prospect of an eager opponent "You first, sir rescuer, then the man with the funny eye. Perhaps by then the night lady will wish to have a game, too."
"I am Gord, he is Gellor, and the lady with ebon complexion is Leda. Now, what is the wager again?"
The blue ring you have, sir, against all of my azure stones."
"Let us begin," Gord affirmed, reaching for pieces to place on the board. "I enjoy this pastime." The game was similar to the dragonchess form that the young champion had first played against the Catlord. Twelve squares across, eight deep, with a lower board that the boy pronounced the netherboard, and an upper one he called the astral, to make three fields in all. Spirals stood as posts at the four corners, and each was also a checkered path that wound from the lowest board to the middle and on up to the highest. There were four steps to each successive plane.
"What of these?" Gord inquired. "Can any man use such a means to ascend or descend?"
"You may move first, Sir Gord, so you take the pale men, I the dark" the boy said. "Only those able to go on squares of different colors can use the twisting paths as they would move normally, a single space or many squares. Vaulting and skipping pieces count all squares and move upward accordingly, and off to another board if there is distance remaining, but they must stop as soon as leaving the spiral. If an enemy man occupies the space, then it is en prise if capture is desired. The diagonal-movers use only two of the four vortices," Tharizdun went on, "because of the color of entry, of course. When these move to another field, their color changes. Dark and light alternate above and below, though so to go from nether to astral or vice versa means there is no shifting from such transfer."
"I understand."
"Exit from a spiral requires pause."
"You mean that my oliphant could move up from the lowest to the highest, but then not continue on along rank or file?"
"That is correct," the boy said with a smile. He then tested Gord's knowledge of the pieces and their powers. They were much as those of dragonchess, but the two sides varied in name and move of forces. The youth arranged his major strength on the lowest of the three boards, twenty-four being set there. He and Gord both had but twelve pawns and pieces to array on the middle board. Gord's men alone occupied the uppermost of the fields. "Fine," the boy said eagerly as the young champion placed his last piece into starting position. "You must now move!"
Although only some of the men were allowed to jump from board to board, Gord reasoned that the steps at the corners would be important means of shifting strength to other fields as the game progressed. Pawns, dark or light, for instance, became progressively more powerful as they progressed upward or downward, and the fact that captured pieces of the enemy allowed you to create a new pawn would lead to a contest wherein the number of men did not diminish significantly as in most forms of chess. He played using this strategy, aggressively but not rashly.