Page 99 of Bishop's Flight
“Because of the fire.”
“Yeah,” he said. “But I’ll tell you what I did hear. And what we talked about.”
Which was, Carwyn discovered over the following half an hour, quite a lot.
Carwyn stared at the boy, annoyed, frustrated, and reluctantly impressed. “You called her a bishop?”
Lucas nodded. “Because of the way she fights. Most vampires are chess pieces.”
And bishops are more effective when pawns are out of the way.
“Fuck me,” Carwyn muttered. The boy wasn’t wrong.
“Didn’t you used to be a priest?”
“But not a bishop.” Carwyn raised an eyebrow. “My street-smart wife is rubbing off on my language. You should be so lucky someday.”
Lucas smiled a little. “I think Brigid cares more about protecting people than anyone I’ve ever met. And pawns get in the way.”
“You’re not wrong.” He took a deep breath and sat across from Lucas on the opposite bench. “A bishop.”
“You’re not a bishop,” Lucas said. “I can tell.”
“In this situation, I’m feeling more like a pawn.” Carwyn crossed his arms over his chest and barely kept from shouting a stream of curses at his loving, impetuous, and stupidly brave wife.
“You’re definitely not a pawn,” Lucas said. “I don’t know you very well, but I think you’re a rook.”
“I’m a bird?” The black crow was the first thing that popped into his mind.
Lucas shook his head. “The rook is the castle.”
“Oh right.” Everything was chess to this boy. “Why am I a rook? Because I’m big like a castle?”
“A rook only looks like a castle in Western chess. It was originally meant to represent a chariot. The chariot drivers had fortified compartments that looked a little like castles.” Lucas shrugged. “You’re not a bird or a castle, you’re a chariot.”
“Why?”
Lucas smiled a little. “Rooks are placed in the corners of the board. Sometimes people overlook them.Oftenthey’re forgotten. But they’re actually more powerful than bishops or knights. After the queen, they’re the most powerful piece on the board because a chariot can go anywhere. Bishops can only go on black or white. Never both. Knights have very closely prescribed movements. But for the rook? All the squares are accessible. Black, white. They can go a few squares or all the way across the board.”
“Is that so?” The corner of his mouth turned up. Brigid was right. The boy was very perceptive.
“I think people don’t remember how powerful you are sometimes,” Lucas continued, “but in the end, a rook can win the whole game. He can capture the king. Checkmate.”
“Checkmate.” Carwyn stood, walked over to Lucas O’Hara, and patted him on the shoulder. “Good lad.”
Epilogue
New York City
She didn’t want to go to their house, so she broke into the building on the opposite side of the street and made her way to the roof that overlooked their lavish greenhouse garden and waited for the wind vampire to find her.
Brigid sat in an old folding chair that looked out over the glittering night streets of Manhattan and thought of home. She was a city girl. She was born in the city, went to school in the city, and worked in the city. She wasn’t a creature of the wasteland but one keenly connected to community. As antisocial as she could be, she knew she drew energy from life around her.
But for this job she needed a creature of the wasteland.
Tenzin found her within the hour.
The wind vampire landed on the roof of the building across the street and walked toward Brigid. “You didn’t come to the house.”
