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I'm woken about three thirty in the morning by Makri. #2 | | |
"Makri, how many times do I have to tell you not to barge into my rooms? I might be doing something personal." #3 | | |
She laughs at the thought. #4 | | |
"I'm going to start putting a closing spell on that door." #5 | | |
"Your closing spell wouldn't hold out for fifteen seconds against me, Thraxas." #6 | | |
I expect it wouldn't. Makri started fighting in the slave pits when she was thirteen. Seven years as an Orcish gladiator does give a person a tendency to be forceful. I struggle to rise as Makri clears some space on an old box to set up my niarit board. #7 | | |
"What's the matter with you?" she asks. "You're looking sadder than a Niojan whore." #8 | | |
I tell her what happened with the Princess. "I got three days' pay but I was hoping for a lot more. I guess she won't hire me again after this. And I wouldn't count on her help getting into the University." #9 | | |
"You mean you insulted her?" #10 | | |
I admit it, but point out it was justified. #11 | | |
Makri takes out a couple of thazis sticks. #12 | | |
"This'll cheer you up." #13 | | |
"If Gurd catches you taking them from the bar you'll be out on your ear." #14 | | |
She shrugs. I light my thazis stick. #15 | | |
"How's your studies at the Guild College?" I ask. #16 | | |
"Okay. Better than rowing a slave galley." #17 | | |
"You don't sound too happy about it." #18 | | |
"It would be fine if the other students weren't on my back all the time. I heard someone whispering "Orc" when I was coming out of my rhetoric lecture. I'd have chopped his head off except then they'd throw me out. Also they don't let me take my axe into class." #19 | | |
Makri lights up another thazis stick and sets up the opposing forces on the board, the front rank being, from left to right, Foot Soldiers of the Hoplite variety, Archers, then Trolls. The back rank comprises Elephants, Heavy Mounted Knights and Light Mounted Lancers. Each player has in their side a Siege Tower, a Healer, a Harper, a Sorcerer, a Hero and a Plague Carrier. At the very back of the board is the Castle, the object of the game being to defend your own Castle and storm your opponent's. #20 | | |
"Kerk was hanging around outside your door earlier," Makri tells me. #21 | | |
Kerk is an informant of mine. Fairly useless generally, and a hopeless dwa addict. #22 | | |
"Must have some information for me. He wouldn't come in if he heard I was with a client. I'll look him up tomorrow." #23 | | |
I open a bottle of beer, pour us out a little klee, draw deeply on my thazis and make my standard opening, sending my Foot Soldiers up the flanks. Makri responds, as she generally does, by sending out her Mounted Lancers to harry them but I notice that she is also surreptitiously preparing to bring her Plague Carrier up the board early. I advance my Archers to support my Foot Soldiers and make sure my Sorcerer and my Healer are ready to react. #24 | | |
Makri, generally an impetuous player, tries to force an early engagement by suddenly sending out the rest of her Heavy Cavalry, followed by her Elephants. I withdraw slightly and, in a new variation, send my Harper, protected by my Hero, to play to the Elephants. The Harper's music has the power of entrancement and it sends Makri's Elephants to sleep. She can only watch in frustration as my Trolls advance among the immobile beasts and finish them off. #25 | | |
My solid phalanx of Hoplites and Archers is meanwhile holding off her cavalry and I start to send my Siege Tower lumbering up the board. Makri's cavalry are causing casualties among my Hoplites but I've already got my Healer on hand to alleviate the situation. My Sorcerer is meanwhile holding her Hero at bay. #26 | | |
Due to her imprudent attack Makri's Sorcerer is out of position and when battle is thickest in the centre I am able to send my Hero up the right flank with a horde of Elephants and I start to break through. My forces have an awkward moment when Makri suddenly and unexpectedly backtracks with her Plague Carrier and I lose a few Elephants to the plague before my Hero engages the Plague Carrier and puts him to flight. Meanwhile my own Plague Carrier is sneaking up the left flank, weakening Makri's forces. Suddenly I break through on both sides. My Trolls and Heavy Mounted Knights surround and kill her Sorcerer and her Hero. My Hoplites break her cavalry in two and march up the board, followed by my Siege Tower. She tries to muster her forces but her last resistance is broken when my Plague Carrier kills her Harper before getting in amongst her Trolls and decimating them. Soon I'm swarming over her forces and I move my Siege Tower right up to her Castle. #27 | | |
In niarit it's possible to come back from a poor position but not when playing against a master like me. Makri's remaining forces are hemmed in and gradually whittled down as I prepare my final assault. #28 | | |
My Hero leads a horde of infantry up the Siege Tower and into her Castle. Victory to Thraxas. #29 | | |
"Damn," says Makri, and looks extremely annoyed. She's not a good loser. Neither am I. #30 | | |
Fortunately I always win. #31 | | |
"I'll beat you next time," states Makri. #32 | | |
"No way. I'm still number one chariot around here." #33 | | |
Makri grins, drinks the rest of her klee in a gulp and departs to her room along the corridor. I struggle into my bedroom, blow out the candle and settle down to sleep. My slumbers are badly interrupted when Hanama, deadliest member of the extremely deadly Assassins Guild, pricks my throat with her dagger. It's a poor way for a man to be woken up after a hard day's work. #34 | | |
