Kolano made it as official as possible, with witnesses. If Cherry won even one of four, the boy's life was forfeit. Cherry glared sullenly, knowing she didn't have a prayer. Kolano wondered why the chess game had such power over Cherry. She never won, yet she never refused any stakes, even though almost no one could force her to carry through.
Kolano refused to travel the worlds with so young a child, so the witnesses had been gathered from among those who had never left the human's world. She transported the three of them to places with a relatively high concentration of the supernatural, and Cherry obediently asked those who wanted to witness to come immediately to the garden on the ninth floor of the abandoned castle. Many answered the summons of their erstwhile queen, even though Cherry made a point of saying that she was no longer a ruler of any on this world and they need not cooperate. Kolano noticed that, like it or not, Cherry was getting good at giving speeches.
The castle was formed exactly like the one they had left earlier the same day. However, with no one tending it, lichen and creepers had overgrown the stone and worked its way inside over a century. Although ten stories high, it looked squat when compared to its width and breadth. In the height of the power of the vampire kings, tens of thousands had been crammed into its long halls. Now were only spiders, rats, and the wind.
Kolano did not take them directly to the garden. Instead, she transported them to Cherry's chambers. They were in the same place here as they had been on the world of the supernatural. The broken furniture might or might not be the same (Cherry frequently threw a violent tantrum if not allowed her own way).
"You need to learn to control your temper, Cherry," Kolano scolded, nudging a pile of splinters.
"Better furniture than people," Cherry shrugged.
Kolano was forced to concede this to be true. "But you'd think, given the regularity with which he has to replace it, King Baslon would give you fewer rare and valuable things and more things which no one would miss."
"It's his choice. I'd be perfectly happy sitting and sleeping on the floor. Especially if its wasn't in these rooms. I think it has something to do with keeping up appearances. You know - showing he's rich enough to throw it away on me, making sure everyone knows the queen's going to be kept up to her station, implying he doesn't care that I get violent, that sort of nonsense."
Kolano made sure she was looking away from Cherry and smiled. The time had been when Cherry wouldn't admit to knowing those were important. Progress was being made. "Well, up to the garden."
The relatively good mood over discussing her worse moods fell, and Cherry grumbled, "You don't need the extra psychological edge."
"How will you ever win if you believe you'll lose?" Kolano asked. "Besides, if I replace one bad association with another, maybe you'll stop avoiding the place. It's a beautiful garden. I walk there frequently." Although if the ploy worked, Kolano would have to find somewhere else to go to avoid Cherry.
"Yeah, sure."
The garden on the ninth floor was surrounded by a two-story wall on three sides. The fourth side was merely a low balustrade that looked out over the castle grounds, a narrow strip of land inside the walls, and the cliff outside the walls. The rose bushes, with no gardeners to tend them, were mostly grey and leafless. The drooping willows were also grey-green. The marble path was broken up, but the earth where no feet had tread for a century was soft. Feet, accompanied by people who, with the aid of phantoms, poltergeists, or angels, had arrived as quickly as they could make up their minds to view the match. Kolano ushered Cherry, with much egging and hustling, to a high dias which Cherry viewed with revulsion. Kolano bowed silently to the witnesses, the considered the problem of getting Cherry to relax before she decided to destroy some of the lovely, ancient trees.
"The board?" Kolano asked.
Cherry unclenched her hands and made a magician's pass. A small table with a surface checked into sixty-four square appeared. The game would be played according to thoroughly modern rules. Two chairs fell out of thin air and landed in the proper position. Cherry suddenly flashed a grin. The sixteen pawns flew from her fingertips and whirled in circles. The court men appeared and jockeyed for position until they made a moving globe, not one of the thirty-two resting or touching another.
Kolano let it go on, because Cherry needed to let loose a little magic, but paid no attention, instead jostling the baby to keep it from crying. The spectators were appreciative of the artistry and pointed out to each other that it took an attentive mind to move thirty-two objects independently of each other.
Finally, Kolano shoved the boy at Cherry. "Here, hold this," she said. The pieces immediately froze in mid-air. Kolano sighed and began plucking them away and putting them in their proper places.
Cherry looked at the child incredulously, then sighed and shifted her grip on him. "Hello, Stephen," she said quietly, catching and holding his eyes. He stopped threatening to fuss. Kolano watched out of the corner of her eye. "You hungry, boy? Are you still on bottles?" He shook his head. "How about a banana?" Suddenly, her hand was closing around a banana from the same place as the chess set. It unpeeled itself, and a small piece broke off, dancing over to the boy's mouth. After a moment, he opened his mouth and let it fly inside. Cherry waited for him to chew and swallow, and then another piece broke off.
After a moment of this feeding, Kolano said, "We could skip the chess games, if you'll just promise to leave the kid alone and let me take him back home." Cherry's grip tightened, and the boy screamed, spitting out a bite of banana. It landed on Cherry's face. She didn't even grimace as she wiped it off.
"He can't grow up," Cherry growled.
Kolano stared at Cherry for a moment, then said, "Fine! Set him down, and let's get to it!"
There was a frowning murmur from the witnesses as they began to realize what the game was about.
Cherry locked eyes with Kolano. With great deliberation, and not looking away, she bent to set Stephen on the ground below the chess table. Then she unpeeled the banana the rest of the way, vanished the peel, and gave the fruit to Stephen for whatever purpose he chose, ignoring the possibility of him choking himself. Or perhaps deliberately hoping for it.
Kolano selected one white pawn and one black pawn, then formally handed them to Cherry. Cherry gave them a shake between long fingers and offered two fists to Kolano. Kolano selected the right hand and received the white pawn. They circled the table and sat down.
Kolano drew a long breath and started by sending her queen's knight to the center.
Cherry's lips thinned, but she made her moves rapidly enough at first, then gradually slowed. The witnesses, most of whom knew only elementary chess and some of whom could not even see the board, did not know whether to cheer for the person who they still perceived as their queen, or the person who seemed to have the moral right. The men on the board thinned, too, until Kolano seized opportunity and captured Cherry's queen, then looked into eyes which glowed a muted red with repressed anger. She almost started to move the bishop, then sat back and said, "I forfeit the game."
"You were going for the right move," said Kolano sympathetically.
Cherry glared and said through gritted teeth, "I forfeit."
"All right. Do you want to switch sides?"
Cherry made a gesture that might have meant anything. "It's not like I have to worry about the sun in my eyes in this cursed garden."
Kolano's eyebrows shot up. "You were married over five centuries ago, and it's not the garden's fault."
Cherry grinned mirthlessly, showing teeth that, while not as sharp as some, contained more canines than Kolano had. "I'll start this time, then."
Cherry was obviously playing to lose, this time. If Kolano had realized a little earlier and had wanted to, she could have ended it in two moves. Instead, she amused herself by stringing the game along without significantly weakening her position. She allowed two mates on Cherry's part and ignored several openings around the queen before deciding that, with such a lackluster opponent and two games to follow, she might as well finish it. It still only took two moves.
"Do you want to forfeit the next two games in advance?" Kolano asked.
"No."
Kolano bowed her head and began setting up the board again. She didn't want to take chances. Cherry had never beaten her yet, unless Kolano had deliberately thrown the game, but she would not let Cherry lull her into a false sense of security. Cherry wanted the boy's life. By the grace of whatever sent the visions, Kolano was in a position to save it. She ended the third game quickly.
Suddenly, Cherry shivered, and asked in a quavering voice, "How long do I have to leave him alone?"
Kolano looked up at her, startled. "Forever!" she said without thinking, although her answer would have been the same had she thought it over.
"No!" Cherry's eyes flashed a fiery red. The color drained from Kolano's face. She decided that, after the next game, instead of returning the child to his family as she had planned, she had better hide him from Cherry. And that would mean that until she was willing to travel the worlds with Stephen, she had to stay on this one. No wonder the first vision of the day had told her she would have to stay away for so long. Not to see Jason for years. Almost, it was enough to make her give the boy up. But then Cherry would kill him. When she herself failed to die, she'd know right away that Stephen was the wrong twin, and would go back and kill the girl. She should have led Cherry away from both of them, and bluffed with a completely unrelated child. But she hadn't known before the bluff. And then Cherry might kill all human children born at that time and place. She would just have to hide Stephen.
"Calm yourself," Kolano ordered, feeling far from calm but forcing her voice to stay level. "Think about the game. What moves will you make, and what strategies you'll lay out. Really, if you'll just think. It's not impossible to beat me. Many people have. You're not a bad chess player. Just calm yourself, and play." She would later advise Cherry to run off some of that excess energy before she worked herself into a storm, but now she wanted it over with. "Breathe." Kolano started to set up the board again. "Deep breaths. Calm, logical chess thoughts. Are you ready? You have the first move."
"Not fair," Cherry grumbled, but her eyes petered back towards purple.
"We play by the same rules. Or do you mean that you would prefer I move first?"
"Go ahead."
Kolano looked at Cherry, trying to make herself look small in her chair. She looked down at Stephen, who had finished the banana by largely smearing it over his face. She rolled her eyes heaven-ward. "Gods help me." Kolano was not referring to the chess game.
"Sure, they will," Cherry muttered. She was probably referring to the way some of the gods occasionally made a personal appearance in Cherry's life, largely, it seemed, to make it worse.
"You should have a little respect for someone. I should think you'd choose your superiors, since there are so few of them."
Cherry giggled. Kolano winced at the sound. "When they prove themselves my superiors in some way other than socially, I'll respect them. For now," she shook her head wildly. "I'll stick to the Goddess and the Creators. The god-Creators. Not Stephen."
The sudden silence made Kolano look out at the witnesses. "Get a hold of yourself and make your first move, you idiot!" Kolano hissed. She could imagine what was going through their heads. Their queen was insane. Which was quite true, but they shouldn't know it. Their queen was also irreverant, which they similarly should not know - and possibly more powerful than the gods. Which perhaps they should know, if they could be convinced that it was true. There was no way to salvage the moment, and no way to know what kind of pyre Cherry had built, but Kolano could try to top it. She laughed shrilly, drawing it out. "My Stephen's going to create a nice home for me when I take him away. Full of sparkly things to make visions." As if she'd ever want more than a vision a day, if she could somehow keep them away. "Play!" she growled under her breath. She raised her voice again. "We'll have such fun and it will be all like old times. Stumbler! Grievous tempter!" She turned to Cherry and said quietly, "Tempting me to murder if you don't get on with it and keep your mouth shut!"
"You were the one who insisted on witnesses," Cherry hissed back. She looked annoyed at being upstaged and appeared to study the board intently before moving her knight.
Kolano won that game quickly. She then picked Stephen up. With ill grace but interesting consideration, Cherry offered a towel to clean Stephen's face of banana. Kolano smiled at Cherry. "I'm taking him. I'll find somewhere to set up house. I'd appreciate it if you could tell Jason, but I don't really expect it. Relative to most times I've encountered you, and except for the fact that you're trying to kill a baby today, I had a good time. And I really think you should get rid of some of that excess energy before anything else. Go hunt yourself a deer or something. The food will do you good. Good day." She turned a deliberately mad smile on the watchers, then disappeared.
Finding herself alone in a place she did not want to be, Cherry first gave the witnesses an evil glare to keep them from thinking that they wanted to shake her hand and babble about honor. Then she hopped over the balustrade and had turned into a red-black raven before she reached the ground. She winged off, thinking to enjoy a peaceful week or two just flying before the orders in her head forced her home.
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