Sheri S Tepper - The True Game

Kings Blood Four

TOTEM TO KINGS BLOOD FOUR. The moment I said it, I knew it was wrong. I said, No!

Gamesmaster Gervaise tapped the stone floor with his iron-tipped staff, impatiently searching our faces for a lifted eye or for a raised hand. No? he echoed me.

Of the three Gamesmasters of Mertyns House, I liked Gervaise the best.

When I said no, I meant the answer wasnt quite right. Behind me Karl Pig-face gave a sneaky gasp as he always does when he is about to put me down, but Gamesmaster Gervaise didnt give him a chance.

Thats correct, he agreed. Correct that it isnt quite right and might be very wrong. The move is one we havent come across before, however, so take your time. Before you decide upon the move, always remember who you are. He turned away from us, staff tap-tapping across the tower room to the high window which gaped across the dark bulk of Havads House down to River Reave where it wound like a tarnished ribbon among all the other School Houseseach as full of students as a dog is of fleas, as Brother Chance, the cook, would say. All the sloped land between the Houses was crowded full of dwellings and shops, all humping their way up the hills to the shuttered Festival Halls, then scattering out among the School Farms which extended to the vacant land of the Edge. I searched over the Gamesmasters shoulder for that far, thin line of blue which marked the boundaries of the True Game.

Karl cleared his throat again, and I knew his mockery was only deferred, unless I could find an answer quickly. I wouldnt find it by staring out at Schooltown. I turned back to the game model which hung in the air before us, swimming in icy haze. Somewhere within the model, among the game pieces which glowed in their own light or disappeared in their own shadowsomewhere in the model was the Demesne, the focal area, the place of power where a move could be of significance. On our side, the students side, Demon loomed on a third level square casting a long, wing-shaped shadow. Two fanged Tragamors boxed the area to either side. Before them stood Gamesmaster Gervaises only visible piece, the King, casting ruddy light before him. It was Kings Blood Four, an Imperativewhich meant I had to move something. None of the battle pieces were right; it had to be something similar to Totem. Almost anything could be hiding behind the King, and Gamesmasters dont give hints. Something similar, of like value, somethingthen I had it.

Talisman, I blurted. Talisman to Kings Blood Four.

Good. Gervaise actually smiled. Now, tell me why!

Because our side cant see what pieces may be hiding behind the King. Because Talisman is an absorptive piece, that is, it will soak up the Kings play. Totem is reflective. Totem would splash it around, wed maybe lose some pieces

Exactly. Now, students, visualize if you please. We have King, most durable of the adamants, whose blood, that is, essence, is red light. Demon, most powerful of the ephemera, whose essence is shadow. Tragamors making barriers at the sides of the Demesne. The player is a student, without power, so he plays Talisman, an absorptive piece of the lesser ephemera. Talisman is lost in play, sacrificed as we say. The player gains nothing by this, but neither does he lose much, for with this play the Demesne is changed, and the game moves elsewhere in the purlieu.

But, Master, Karls voice oozed from the corner. A strong player could have played Totem. A powerful player.

I flushed. Of course. Everyone in the room knew that, but students were not strong, not powerful, even though Karl liked to pretend he was. It was just one more of his little pricks and nibbles, like living with a hedgehog. Gamesmaster tilted his head, signifying he had heard, but he didnt reply. Instead, he peered at the chronometer on the wall, then out the window to check where the mountain shadow fell upon the harbor, finally back to our heavily bundled little group. So. Enough for today. Go to the fires and your supper. Some of you are half frozen.

We were all half frozen. The models could only be controlled if they were kept ice cold, so we spent half our lives shivering in frigid aeries. I was as cold as any of them, but I wanted to let Karl get out of the way, so I went to the high window and leaned out to peer away south. There was a line of warty little islands there separating the placid harbor with its wheeling gulls from the wide, stormy lake and the interesting lands of the True Game beyond. I mumbled something. Gervaise demanded I repeat it.

Its boring here in Schooltown, I repeated, shamefaced.

He didnt answer at once but looked through me in that very discomforting way the Masters sometimes have. Finally he asked me if I had not had Gamesmaster Charnot for Cartography. I said I had.

Then you know something of the lands of the True Game. You know of the Dragons Fire purlieu to the North? Yes. Well, there are a King and Queen there who decided to rear their children Outside. They wanted to be near their babies, not send them off to a distant Schooltown to be bored by old Gamesmasters. They thought to let the children learn the rules of play by observation. Of the eight sons born to that Queen, seven have been lost in play. The eighth child sleeps this night in Havads House nursery, sent to Schooltown at last.

It is true that it is somewhat boring in Schooltown, and for no one more so than the Masters! But, it is also safe here, Peter. There is time to grow, and learn. If you desire no more than to be a carter or laborer or some other pawn, you may go Outside now and be one. However, after fifteen years in Mertyns House, you know too much to be contented as a pawn, but you wont know enough for another ten years to be safe as anything else.

I remarked in my most adult voice that safety wasnt everything.

That being the case, he said, youll be glad to help me dismantle the model.

I bit my tongue. It would have been unthinkable to refuse, though taking the models apart is far more dangerous than putting them together. Most of us have burn scars from doing one or the other. I sighed, concentrated, picked a minor piece out of the game box at random and named it, Talisman! as I moved it into the Demense. It vanished in a flash of white fire. Gervaise moved a piece I couldnt see, then the King, which released the Demon. I got one Tragamor out, then got stuck. I could not remember the sequence of moves necessary to get the other Tragamor loose.

One thing about Gervaise. He doesnt rub it in. He just looked at me again, his expression saying that he knew what I knew. If I couldnt get a stupid Tragamor out of the model, I wouldnt survive very long in the True Game.

Patiently, he showed me the order of moves and then swatted me, not too gently.

Its only a few days until Festival, Peter. Now that youre fifteen, youll find that Festivals do much to dispel boredom for boys. So might a little more study. Go to your supper.