For t?e first time in his life, Gale had gotten a taste of legitimate work. Work that did not require him to mistrust everyone. Work that did not require him to keep his eyes on the exits and his hands on his blades. Work that had allowed him to put his darker side to rest, at least for a time. But most importantly, he had done work that had resulted in the love and trust of a family. Though the lie laid heavy on his soul, now more than ever he could not reveal that he originally had been sent to Stormweather to spy. He would not pollute their memory of him, though he knew it meant polluting himself by keeping it secret. Still, he wanted them to remember him the way he would remember them-with love. He was determined to leave with their trust. Hie trust he had earned from years of loyal service.
Look where their trust has gotten them, he thought bitterly. Thazienne near death. His lord and lady shamed, plus a_ multitude of murdered guests and guards. His presence here had put them all in danger. Previously, he had always told himself that by being here he actually decreased the risk they faced in Sel-gaunt's backstabbing world of secret plots and scheming nobles, not increased it. "I can handle the Righteous Man, " he had told himself again and again, as he had struggled to quell the pangs of conscience that tore at him. He now realized that he had been lying to himself, just as he had lied to everyone else.
No more, he vowed. No more. Abruptly, he came to a decision.
Everything changed, starting now. He would no longer put the Uskevren at risk. Either he got out of the life altogether or tonight was his last night in Stormweather; his last night as Erevis the butler. Resolved, he looked across the chessboard at Tha-malon. If his lord wanted to know who he was, he would tell him.
"Let's play," he said.
Over the next hour they played and talked.
Thamalon opened with a standard cleric gambit. Gale countered it in three moves.
"You play well, Erevis,1* observed Thamalon with raised brows. "I find myself unsurprised."
Cale smiled.
"I was taught by the best players in Westgate two decades ago. My instructors did not forgive mistakes, so I learned well."
Thamalon nodded sagely.
"I understand Westgate to have been that way. Still is, most say.";
A city comparable in size to Selgaunt and likewise on the coast of the Inner Sea, Westgate had a long history of being run by powerful thieves' guilds. Though no longer dominated by guilds, the city still harbored more thieves than a brothel did whores.
Move. Countermove. Cale felt lighter for having finally revealed some of his past to his lord. He had kept too many secrets for far too long. Once started, he found it hard to stop. With his face turned down to look upon the board, he revealed still more.
"Of course, my instructors as such no longer exist in Westgate. Other players allied and forced them out of business."
At that, Thamalon gave a barely perceptible start. His lord knew the history of the region. Years ago, an alliance of smaller guilds and the Westgate city authorities had allied to destroy the powerful guild known as the Night Masks. The guild that had formerly run the city. The guild to which Cale had formerly belonged.
So now you know, Cale thought. Your butler was a Night Mask operative. "I found chess to be a very cutthroat game, then," he added. "Fine for me as a younger man, but not a life I wanted to live forever."
Thamalon cleared his throat as though to speak but said nothing. Instead, he moved a vicar into position to threaten one of Cale's clerics. Cale countered and attacked with his second cleric.
"I understand," Thamalon managed at last, but he looked upon Cale with different eyes now. A mixture of surprise, respect, and fear. Cale didn't much care for the change. "That answers many of my questions."
While they had existed, the Night Masks had earned a reputation for violence and assassination. Even Thamalon apparently had heard of it. When Cale had fled Westgate and the guild, he had tried to leave that life far behind, but he had never seemed fully able to escape it. Soon after arriving in Selgaunt, he had fallen hi with the Night Knives, another guild of thieves. That fact he could not reveal to Thamalon. It was enough that his lord now knew him to be a former thief and assassin. Cale would not add spy to the list.
Move. Countermove. Cale had the advantage in the chess match.
"Your schoolmaster," Thamalon asked while trying to counter Cale's attack, "what did he look like?"
Cale smiled grimly but did not look up. Thamalon wanted confirmation.
When Cale had been in the Night Masks, the guild had been headed by a secretive guildmaster who called himself The Faceless-a man whose identity had been and remained to this day a mystery-to most everyone but Cale.
He looked up from the board and into Thamalon's eyes and said meaningfully, "I never saw his face."
Thamalon nodded slowly, his brow furrowed. Move. Countermove.
They played in silence for the next quarter of an hour. Cale knew Thamalon to be working through the implications of everything he had learned. His chess suffered for the inattention. Cale's attack soon had Thamalon's high monarch in retreat.
"You play aggressively, Erevis," Thamalon remarked, and removed his high monarch from immediate danger. Cale followed up with his archer and threatened anew.
"That is the only way I learned to play, Lord. Check."
Thamalon interposed a cleric, but both knew the game to be soon over.
"Unbridled aggression can sometimes be an enemy."
Gale halted in midmove to offer Thamalon a nod. "My Lord speaks truly. But the demands of the game frequently require it. When that is so, only the most cutthroat of players can win." He moved his low monarch into position and looked up into Thamalon's face. "Checkmate."
Thamalon smiled thoughtfully. He lay down his high monarch and sat back in his rocking chair. "A most enlightening game, old friend. Thank you, for everything."
It warmed Cale to hear Thamalon still call him old friend. Cale downed his wine in a single gulp, stood, and bowed.
"May I take my leave, Lord? I have…" he smiled without mirth, "I have another game yet to play tonight."
Thamalon raised his bushy brows and gave Cale a piercing stare. "Do you already suspect the name of your next opponent?" He sat forward in the rocker and his eyes blazed beneath his fatigue. "Tell me if so, Ere-vis."
Cale's lie came easy to him; too easy. "No Lord, not yet. But I will learn it."
Thamalon eased back into the chair but his eyes never left Cale's face. "Everything I have is at your disposal-coin, men, magic. You don't need to play alone, Cale."
Cale raised his eyebrows at that. Thamalon had never before called him Cale. This conversation had changed their relationship. "Chess is not a team game, Lord."
Thamalon smiled softly and nodded in acceptance. "No, I suppose it's not."
Cale prepared to leave but Thamalon stood and seized Cale's arm. "If the circumstances of the game change, and you require something, anything, you need only ask."
"I know, Lord." Gale smiled. He wanted to embrace Thamalon, the man who had been Mend and father for ten years, but could not bring himself to do it. He cleared Ms throat and stepped away from his lord.
"I keep my chessboard and pieces in my room. That's all 111 need for now. Ill leave immediately. When I learn something certain, 111 send word." He wanted to tell Thamalon that he likely would not be coming back, but feared the inevitable questions that would follow. Gale knew leaving without saying goodbye would be something he would regret forever, but he also knew that if he told Thamalon the truth, his lord's pained expression would also haunt him forever. If Thazienne learned of his past, she would despise him. He could not endure that. Better they thought him dead or vanished. Better they remembered him as Erevis the butler.