“I find that hard to believe.” I grinned. I’d nearly forgotten the pawns that managed to survive the brutal slaying by more powerful enemies actually had a hidden power that made their existence worthwhile after all. I moved one of the last white pawns forward one small space.
“You know nothing, you silly girl!” His black knight leaped again to slay an unsuspecting white bishop, a powerful casualty, but a piece I could do without now.
I pushed my pawn forward one more space. “I know that you leave behind no family, no friends to be with me. I know that it is you who demands I be here rather than setting me free and moving to the commune.”
His hands clenched the edge of the table, like he dared to hope the stone would crumble underneath his pathetic grasp. “The lord of the village does not move into the commune.”
I drummed the fingers of my right hand on the stone table and cradled my cheek with my left. “That’s right. Because you are a man with power.”
“Are you so selfish?” He slammed the table with the palm of his hand. “That you would rather see a man wither than simply be with him? I could give you anything you desire. You would not want for comforts. I do not need your heart, I just need you!”
I bit my tongue and let the sting of pain shoot through me for a moment before releasing it and gesturing toward the game board. “It’s your move. I can’t let you win without at least a proper fight.”
A black-gloved hand grabbed that black knight again, and it jumped around the board searching for prey, landing in an empty patch of the battlefield. His voice grew quiet. “You were born to torment me.”
“I think the same of you.” I pushed the sluggish pawn one more space forward, passing up an opportunity to take out an overconfident knight that had yet to join the fray in order to make it to the edge of the board without notice.
I ground my teeth together until they hurt. “I’d like that pawn to become a queen now. And checkmate.”
The lord stood, upturning the game board with both hands. The bone figures went flying across the garden, the captured white queen caught tightly between the roses’ thorns.
When the day of Elfriede and Jurij’s wedding arrived, I expected nothing. The air was clear, and I thought I might be able to watch from my window at the very least. But I decided that would be more painful than not looking. If I was honest, it wasn’t the wedding I truly wanted to see, but the groom, even if for just a short while.
I hadn’t seen the lord since our chess game almost a week prior. He didn’t show even for dinner. The specters brought food to me in the garden or in my room.
That morning, the specters didn’t retreat from my room after they set down the tray. I asked them to leave me, but they didn’t. I yanked the spoon off of the tray and ate my fill, watching the specters warily. Only once I finished did they stir, a couple cleaning the table of my breakfast, and a few more heading to my chest full of dresses. They withdrew a pale lavender gown that I hadn’t remembered seeing before. But I’d paid such little attention to the fancy dresses.
A couple of specters appeared at my side, forced my arms up, and began to tug at my nightshirt.
“Stop! What are you doing?”
The specters shifted backward, and I thought I could see a flicker of flame in the red pools of their eyes. Then the spark died out and they were back beside me, tugging on my shirt.
I slapped at the nearest hand. “All right! But I’ll do that part myself, remember?”
The specters let go, and I walked behind the small screen where I could change into a slip in private. It was what I had done the week before, when I had asked them for help in dressing in that white gown.
I sighed and stepped out from around the screen, letting the specters fly into action. They slipped the gown over my head, then brushed my hair and worked in violet ribbons and lilies through the black tendrils. Purple lilies. Like the ones from the hilltops back home.
When they were finished with their work, two specters began tugging on my arms, and I struggled to break free. “Let me go!”
Both sets of hands loosened slightly. Then they tightened and started propelling me forward again.
“I’ll follow you, I promise, just let me go!”
They stopped. After a moment, they began walking in front of me. I straightened out my sleeves and followed behind them.
We walked down the stairs, through the empty entryway, and out the front door. The black carriage waited for me, its doors wide open.
The specters paused before the carriage, spread to either side of the pathway, and gestured inside. I took a deep breath and propelled myself up the step, using one of the specters’ extended hands to steady myself. A surge of panic implanted itself deep in my chest as I peered inside.
But the carriage was empty. He had let me attend the wedding, and he had not even spoiled the day by appearing himself. I didn’t know what I’d done to “deserve” the courtesy of attending my own sister’s wedding, but I was going to make the most of the opportunity as it was presented to me. I sat down, the doors shut, and I heard the quiet clop of the black horses as we headed down the dirt pathway.
***