The True Game part one
The True Game
King’s Blood Four
Necromancer Nine
Wizard’s Eleven
SHERI S. TEPPER
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Table of Contents
Book 1 King’s Blood Four
Chapter 1 – King’s Blood Four
Chapter 2 – Journeying
Chapter 3 – The Wizard Himaggery
Chapter 4 – The Road to Evenor
Chapter 5 – Windlow
Chapter 6 – Escape
Chapter 7 – Mandor Again
Chapter 8 – Hostage
Chapter 9 – Shapeshifter
Chapter 10 – Swallow
Chapter 11 – The Caves of Bannerwell
Chapter 12 – Mavin
Chapter 13 – The Great Game
Chapter 14 – Challenge and Game
Book 2 – Necromancer Nine
Chapter 1 – Necromancer Nine
Chapter 2 – A City Which Fears the Unborn
Chapter 3 – Perlplus
Chapter 4 – Befriend the Shadows
Chapter 5 – Schlaizy Noithn
Chapter 6 – Mavin’s Seat
Chapter 7 – The Blot
Chapter 8 – The Magicians
Chapter 9 – The Inner Doors
Chapter 10 – The Labs
Chapter 11 – Calling Home
Chapter 12 – Hull Again
Chapter 13 – Bright Demesne
Book 3 – Wizard’s Eleven
A Few Helpful Hints
Chapter 1 – Wizard’s Eleven
Chapter 2 – Xammer
Chapter 3 – Dindindaroo
Chapter 4 – The Great North Road
Chapter 5 – Three Knob
Chapter 6 – The Grole Hills
Chapter 7 – Reavebridge
Chapter 8 – Hell’s Maw
Chapter 9 – Nuts, Groles, and Mirrormen
Chapter 10 – Wind’s Eye
Chapter 11 – The Gamesmen of Barish
Chapter 12 – The Bonedancers of Huld
Chapter 13 – Talent Thirteen
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1
King’s Blood Four
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“TOTEM TO KING’S 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 Mertyn’s House, I liked Gervaise the best.
“When I said ‘no’, I meant the answer wasn’t 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 didn’t give him a chance.
“That’s correct,” he agreed. “Correct that it isn’t quite right and might be very wrong. The move is one we haven’t 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 Havad’s House down to River Reave where it wound like a tarnished ribbon among all the other School Houses¾each 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 Gamesmaster’s 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 wouldn’t 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 shadow¾somewhere 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 Gervaise’s only visible piece, the King, casting ruddy light before him. It was King’s Blood Four, an Imperative¾which 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 don’t give hints. Something similar, of like value, something…then I had it.