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Dervish lays Meera on one of the ain, inher naoes to the bathrooers to flick drops at her face She doesn&039;t stir

Dervish steps away griic," he says, "but I&039;e is I could make it worse"

"Why don&039;t you just leave her?" I ask "She&039;ll live, won&039;t she?"

"I think so"

"Then let her sleep That&039;ll be best for her, right?"

Dervish stares atanything I wrap a blanket over Meera, then close the door on her and head up to the study

After the dark of the cellar, the study seee leather chair, knees drawn up to my chest, head tucked between the by a chess set This is his favourite set, the pieces based on characters frohtly painted hobbit figurine and toys with it absently while he speaks

"I don&039;t think you&039;ve ever truly appreciated the complexities of chess," he says "So few pieces, yet so ames are ever the same You can learn the rules in an afternoon, yet spend the rest of your life trying toalive with fury "Bill-E&039;s chained up in the cellar, twisted and insane Meera&039;s unconscious, maybe comatose And all you can warble on about - "

"Lord Loss plays chess," Dervish interrupts quietly "The Demonata are not, by nature, playful creatures, but he&039;s an exception I don&039;t knohere or when he acquired his hunger for the game, but by the time Bartholomew Garadex met him, he was a committed player, albeit one of liruh I have an idea

"When you walked in on your parents, did you notice any chess boards?"

Breathing thinly Thinking back The blood Web-like walls The demons And, on the floor, scattered chess pieces, broken boards Plus the gouged board in the study

"Yes," I sigh

Dervish talks swiftly "Bartholo to persuade him to help lift the curse His familiars weren&039;t allowed to pester Bartholomew at the chess board, so it was the safest way to conduct a conversation with Lord Loss Over time he noticed that Lord Loss cared al on humanity&039;s sorrow

"On a hunch, old Bart severed connections with the demon master and avoided him for several months When he finally crossed the divide to the Deain, Lord Loss was surly and irritable, eager to resume play

"Bartholoerous, riling a deels of destruction when offended Lord Loss could have unleashed all of his familiars upon old Bart, which would have been - "

"He has others as well as Artery and Vein?" I snap

"Oh yes," Dervish says "They&039;re just his current favourites He has hundreds of familiars If he&039;d sicced them on Bartholoic in the world couldn&039;t have repelled theambled, Lord Loss didn&039;t send the deer was, his fascination with chess proved stronger Instead of crushing Bartholoain So Bartholoold He told Lord Loss he wouldn&039;t play unless the demon master lifted the curse of the Garadexes

"No bite Chess was an obsession, but it wasn&039;t that precious to him So old Bart tried another approach He proposed a series of contests in which he&039;d play for the lives of individual fae a nuames per match For each match that Bartholomeon, Lord Loss would cure a Garadex But if Bartholomew ever lost, Lord Loss would take possession of his soul

"And so the contests coa to Bartholo Like ly proud They consider the - is a great disgrace

"Yet lose he did" Dervish chuckles throatily "Bartholo for hours on end each day and night, with the best opponents he could find, learning and iaain He hit a fifty-nine ga

"And then he died"

Dervish shrugs "He was old, and his earlier battles with Lord Loss&039;s familiars had drained him It was peaceful in the end - he passed away in his sleep"

"What happened then?" I ask, absorbed in the story

"For a long ti," Dervish says "Nobody in our family knew of Bartholomew&039;s matches with Lord Loss He never told the the cures Several Garadexes itches and wizards, but they were unable to unlock the secrets of his diaries, which he&039;d encoded with strong spells

"Eventually, alician&039;s death, Davey McKay - a distant relative who&039;d lost four of his five children to the curse decoded the diary and discovered the demonic secret He immediately contacted Lord Loss in an atteest child, as just starting to transform

"The demon master was slow to respond Bartholo another string of defeats at the hands of a huician - his soul was of only minor interest to Lord Loss But Davey was resourceful He sought a twist to spike Lord Loss&039;s ie which would appeal to his warped sensibilities"

Dervish lapses into a thoughtful silence He&039;s still playing with the hobbit chess piece With his free hand, he pulls open a drawer and takes out a photo Slides it across the desk I look - Mum, Dad, Gret and me A snap taken on one of Dad&039;s birthdays

"Davey&039;s solution was dreadful," Dervish says as I stare at the photo, "but it had to be Lord Loss wasn&039;t interested in anything less The rules he proposed were - one ames, like before If Davey won, his son would have his humanity restored, and both would be free But if Lord Loss won, he could kill both Davey and the child