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Vein creeps closer Artery slithers next to his de softly My cries die away to a terrified whi my doo above the demons Grabs each by the scruff of the neck and hurls them across the width of the cellar, where they crash into webs on the opposite side He reaches down, grabs my arers into e of power - the bones knit together

"This is unpardonable, Dervish," Lord Loss aly "You have broken the rules of our agreement I am now free to summon as many of my familiars as I wish and set them loose upon you and the boys"

"Wait!" Dervish roars as Lord Loss rises "I&039;ll return to the gahs "Besides, ould be the point? Grubitsch is out of his depth Let us put an end to this sham You have disappointed me, Dervish, but there will be other Gradys and other ht ars from each board and starts to crush them

"What if Grubbs plays you?" Dervish shouts

Lord Loss pauses "That was not our deal"

"We&039;ll ame continues where I left off Grubbs assuainst your beasts"

"Why should I agree to that?" Lord Loss asks "I have already won"

"No," Dervish disagrees "We ame - but you haven&039;t won You can take our lives now, quickly, or you can prolong the agony and savour Grubbs&039;s desperation and sorrow as he loses to you"

Lord Loss&039;s eyes light up at the mention of desperation and sorrow, but he hesitates before replying "What if he doesn&039;t lose?" he finally murmurs "I will have sacrificed the pleasures of a certain victory for the hurees, "but Grubbs is a poor player Our chances are sliine the satisfaction you&039;ll extract as Grubbs slowly and painfully comes to realise he can&039;t win"

"You make it sound almost irresistible" Lord Loss smiles thinly "But what does the boy think?"

Dervish looks questioningly at me I shake my head uncertainly "I just want it over with," I sob "We&039;re going to lose anyway - why drag it out?"

"As long as there&039;s life, there&039;s hope," Dervish replies quietly "And it&039;s not just yourself you&039;d be playing for - it&039;s ht?"

I stare atBill-E in his cage Wearily, I nod "I&039;ll try," I rees to it, so will I"

Dervish&039;s head whips round and he glares at Lord Loss "Well?" he barks "Can you e, or will you flee with the easy victory?"

Lord Loss rolls the kings around in the stubby layers of flesh at the ends of his ar the proposal Then, with a sesturing to the seat which Dervish vacated

Gliding to the floor Dervish sets nore it Hobble forward Gaze at the five boards, the ranks of white and black pieces, then into the deto reht me

I sit

Instant peacefulness An unnatural silence I stare around the cellar, startled Everything see the dee Then I realise they are asp

"I have separated our time frame from theirs," Lord Loss says "It allows us to play without distractions"

I watch as Dervish&039;s right hand slowly co from the tips Slower than snails, Vein and Artery break to the sides, out of the path of the firebolts

"Coht is no longer your concern Focus on the match"

With an effort I tear my eyes away from Dervish and the demons and stare at the pieces lined up in front of a - that&039;s where Lord Loss took Dervish&039;s queen with a bishop The game on the centre board also looks like a lost cause, hite down both knights and a bishop

"Depressing, isn&039;t it?" Lord Loss sighs, looking ht His fear for you affected his game I warned him about that, but he would not listen"

Lord Loss picks up the queen he took froht board and toys with it "It&039;s your move, Grubitsch," he says, "but take your tin Search for openings"

I reach towards a rook on the board tothe piece "Can I move any piece, on any board?" I ask

"Of course"

I run an eye over the five boards again, then pick up a pawn on the board to ht and move it forward a space The battle&039;s already lost on that board, so I ht as well start there and treat it as a warm-up Hopefully work my worst moves out of my system

"Ah," Lord Loss nods "A cautious approach Very wise, young Grubitsch" He"It will make no difference to the end result, but at least you nity Perhaps that will provide you with a glimmer of coht in the fires of my own personal hell"

It takes Lord Loss ninewhite puddle Lord Loss picks up the board, snaps it into pieces and tosses it aside

"Then there were four"

Sweating Fidgeting Trying to concentrate on the boards Eyes constantly flicking to Dervish and the de to keep play confined to the board on ae He makes a few moves on that board, then switches to another, then another

Though I have a free run of the boards, I can&039;t make more than one move on any board until Lord Loss has replied to it So, if I make a move on the middle board, and Lord Loss then moves a piece on the board to my far left, I can&039;t make a second move on the board in the middle - I have to wait for Lord Loss to move one of his pieces on it He&039;s tied by the same rules as me, of course, but it feels like the odds are stacked in his favour, as if I&039;m the only one restricted

I&039;ve played chess like this before, but not often, and not recently Dad tried er, saasn&039;t able to aain when I was older - if he&039;d lived

It&039;s impossible not to think about my parents and Gret Did Dad sweat this much when he faced the demon lord? Was Gret half-frozen in ti, but so the fight?

I a a route to victory will present itself

"Oh dear," Lord Loss says, and my sto oing to leaveon this board vanish

"So sad," Lord Loss whispers, red eyes glowing dully "To lose nobly is horrible - but to carelessly throw the gaht, hatingso cheaply

"You can concede defeat now, if you wish," he says "I have no heart, but if I had, there would be room in it forhihts away from the board in the middle and focus on the three on which I still stand a sli

Lord Loss doesn&039;t finish me off on the centre board, but chooses instead to flirt withback in for the kill

I&039; inso in such a hu with dignity, but now I understand what he meant To crumble at the moment of truth, to allow your opponent to psyche you out, to defeat yourself by playing dreadfully - that&039;s abeaten fairly

"I could chase you forever, Grubitsch," Lord Lossa queen backwards on the board to my left, when he could have pressed on with her and ensnared"Perhaps I will" He smiles with evil pleasure "Tia a pawn sideways on the far left board A blind nation

"I&039; the pawn back on its original spot "But I&039;ll overlook it this tiain"