King

Every town had a couple rulers. The guy who is elected to run the joint by ‘the people’, the guy who runs the joint because he owns most of it, and the guy who actually runs the joint because he’s in charge of the criminals. Often, two of all three of these are the same guy.

But this town had two men who could claim to be the head of the underworld, and that just wouldn’t do. Don Carrino was about to end this problem when some random thug did it for him.

Sometimes a pawn can take a king…

Queen

I took the knee, and waited. After a few moments, a swirl of pink frills brushed the ground where my eyes remained fixed.

“Your Majesty…”

There was a soft sigh from a few feet above me.

“My loyal servant, I know I’ve asked many things of you over the years, but today, perhaps, I ask of you the biggest one of them all.”

I braced myself.

“The King of Greenoko is coming to hunt with me, I need you to help me ‘catch’ something. But for now, help me out of this dress.”

I rose to help undress my King.

Rook

The rook landed on the tree branch, and darted its head from side to side, looking for food. Humans meant food, and given there had been many humans here, the rook was sure there would be food.

But there was no human food, at least not any human food he was used to. There were, however, many piles of meat that smelt acceptable, and so the rook flew down and began to tear off strips of dead human. A near-dead human lay nearby, waving a stick at the rook and singing something. The rook ate.

Gomyan The Wizard flew away

Bishop

Faith can move mountains. But who controls Faith?

I suppose you have to say it is the God or Goddess or whatever at the center of the Faith, of course. But in my experience, they rarely get directly involved with day to day matters.

No, if you wish to control Faith, you need to control the clergy. You control those who run the church, you control those who believe in the church, you control Faith. And that, as we established, can move mountains.

Now, our price sheet is right here, very reasonable prices, starting with “The Ruler Is Probably Fine”…

Knight

Given the way his armor gleamed in the sunlight, I had a solid quarter hour from the moment I saw him riding up to me to prepare. I debated with myself about getting into a defendable position, or an aggressive one, but in the end I stuck to the plan and tried to look as casual as an independent merchant would be when faced with a Knight of Land.

I was prepared for him to attack me without breaking his gallop, or to interrogate me about why I was so near the castle.

Didn’t expect him to be my contact.

Pawn

His name is Max.

In the slums, guys like him are practically a dime a dozen. Young, dumb, usually with an inflated sense of self worth. You can pick them up almost anywhere and use them as drug mules, lookouts, bullet sponges.

Fall guys.

But here and now, Max, standing in front of Don Carrino, the most powerful man in the city, the Don looking the kid up and down and giving him a slight nod? Having a man give, for him, a fulsome, complete endorsement? That changes everything.

Because after all, sometimes a pawn can indeed become a king…