Page 19 of Night's Reckoning
Tenzin walked out of the kitchen and into the courtyard, taking a seat across from her father, who had placed a table in front of him and was setting out the wooden pieces for a very old game called they calledabacheethat was a little like human chess.
She picked up a piece. “Where did you get this set?”
“I carved it,” Zhang said. “I thought you could keep it at your house.”
His hands were smooth and strong. He might be an ancient, but he’d been turned in his prime. He was a handsome man with a noble forehead and long black hair, a full beard and mustache. His eyes were unlined, and his skin unwrinkled.
Tenzin hated that she looked like him, but unmistakable shared ancestry marked both their faces. Zhang had come from the same human clan Tenzin had. The girl she’d once been shared blood with the creature who had murdered her. And Tenzin’s sire was the only one left who spoke the language of her dreams.
When she had dreamed.
“The light pieces are pear wood.” Zhang held them up to the lamplight as Jinpa’s granddaughter set down a tray of tea on the small table her sister had set out. “I like the finish.”
“They’re beautiful.” Tenzin set out the darker pieces he handed her, placing the soldiers and swordsmen before the archers, horsemen, and the sun and moon pieces. “And this wood?”
“Zitan.”
Tenzin looked up. It was the hardest and heaviest of woods. In some eras, zitan had traded for the same price as gold. “You honor me with this gift.”
“You honor me by being my daughter,” Zhang said. “Have you made any progress on the recovery?”
“The plans are coming along. Cheng says the best search window will be in three weeks’ time.” Tenzin glanced up.
Zhang answered her unspoken question. “I have not received a response to any of my letters.”
Tenzin huffed out a breath. “I’m calling Giovanni.”
“I ask that you do not.”
“If you don’t want me tocallGiovanni, then I will write him.”
“Or you could write to the human directly.”
“No. Ben is being childish not answering your letters. That’s not rudeness to me, that’s rudeness toyou. And the council. He should know better.”
Zhang shrugged and made the first move on the board, as was his right as the eldest player. “He’s human. And since when do you care about rudeness to the council?”
She ignored the question. “Ben is living in the immortal world. He knows more about protocol than most newly turned vampires.” She moved her own piece in response to his.
“Since when do you care about protocol?”
“Since I want to use it to my advantage.”
Zhang smiled. “At least you’re honest.”
It was amusing he thought she was honest. Tenzin and Zhang played in silence for three more moves, and Zhang took Tenzin’s soldier.
“I want to meet this man,” her sire said.
“Why?”
“You know why. Did you play at being naive with him? Maybe that is why he’s angry with you.”
“I am not going to talk to you about this.” Tenzin imperiled a swordsman but did not take it.
“I respect his uncle.” Zhang’s tenth hand came, which meant that he could make two moves. He quickly stole one of Tenzin’s archers and imperiled another. “How will you answer that?”
Tenzin stared at the board. Then she used her two moves to escape the trap he’d set and shore up the position of her most valuable piece, the sun god.
