⧗ CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE ⧗
"Queen to B-five."
A pawn went down.
Clack. Ksenia hit the timer, and now his clock started to tick.
Dmitri scowled at the chessboard. Ksenia's use of her queen meant every game she played was a massacre of fallen pawns, bishops, and rooks. His King was tucked safely into a corner, but that was a good way to get checkmated. He shifted his knight forward, taking one of her bishops.
It was a petty victory after Ksenia had thoroughly trounced him once more in their sparring lesson earlier that day. Every time Dmitri thought he was getting a little stronger, a little faster, Ksenia was there to humble him again. Though this time he swore she had already had the upper hand; rendering Dmitri already flushed and distracted when she caught him for a few stolen kisses before the class.
A wicked move. But a clever one. Dmitri had to be smarter next time. Something about Ksenia was strangely intoxicating; her coolness in public versus her warmth and affection in private — hot and cold, leaving Dmitri wanting and waiting for their next moment together, wanting to see a side of Ksenia that only he got to witness. That only she shared with him.
If the loss bothered Ksenia at all, she didn't show it. She just smiled at the consternation Dmitri apparently couldn't hide. "Relax, Dmitri, it's just a game."
"It's never just a game," Dmitri retorted, and she didn't argue. One of the large chambers, that had once been a parlor room or tea room or smoking room in the days of the Czars, had now been converted into a chess hall. A series of small tables arranged in straight columns with a large ornate clock sheathed in metal on one wall, with a scoreboard on either side. The large windows to their left were curtained shut, to keep in the warmth while a blizzard raged outside.
The only sounds were the many ticking clocks, the click-clack of pieces moving, the occasional creak of someone shifting in their seat, and the soft orchestral music playing from an old gramophone in one corner of the room.
There was some talking, though discouraged. When Oksana lost to Sabina, they watched as an attendant changed her ranking on the scoreboard. It was a years-old record, started ages ago when they were younger and playing make-believe; pretending they were world class chess players in an international competition. The Red Room rankings had no existence outside of the palace, and Dmitri had no idea how he'd fare against a real chess player. But it captured the experience well enough.
As it was, he was middling, and losing to Ksenia would only drop his score further. She was above him, though Sabina had maintained a two-year record as their chess champion. Dmitri was willing to cede to her the victory if it meant he didn't have to play this game anymore.
"I'm not sure why they're having us practice chess when the big outdoor test is coming up," Dmitri commented, not quite able to ignore the whistling wind beating against the glass windows. That was going to be them outside, soon enough. "It won't help us when a bear attacks."
"Who knows," Ksenia shrugged, as she left her Queen to reorient her King away from his Rook's range. "But chess isn't about survival. It's about the old world, and getting into it."
Dmitri frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Chess is a rich man's game," She told him, flicking some hair over her shoulder. "There's a reason why it's associated with high class and royalty, because those are the people who play it. Chess is the classic old boys club. It's how they judge themselves, and how they judge others. But it's more important than that. Anyone can learn to play chess. Which means anyone can play against a King. And win," She smiled, sliding her Queen forward again. "Check."
Dmitri cursed under his breath and shifted his King so it was out of her diagonal path. She couldn't move her Queen in without risking it to his other pieces. "So it's about getting into those circles. I get it. All I'm saying is it takes the fun out of it."
Dmitri used to play chess with his father. He'd been an aloof, difficult man at times, but he could be genial, too. Loved a bit of sport, as it were. Dmitri couldn't decide if it was the Red Room or his own father who taught him more about the game. And Ksenia's words had truth to them; his father was among those men who stood atop of the world.
For a little while, at least.
"I don't know about that," Ksenia said, with a little wink. "Just imagine the look on some fat old walrus' face when you beat him at his own game. Check."
"You use your queen too much," Dmitri muttered; there was no bite to the words, just aggravation on his part as he once more had to move to protect his king. Ksenia was absolutely dogged in her pursuit of victory. He had to save his plans for his knight for later.
"She's the most powerful piece on the board," Ksenia smiled, "Who am I to deny her that? And if you want practical history, Dmitri, I'd like to remind you that it was one of our own who won a grandmaster title in the 60's."
She nodded to the framed portrait of a young woman over the hearth; blonde hair and big dark eyes, staring out into the room with only the smallest quirk of mischief to her lips. "Chess was just another field on which the Cold War was waged on. And in a time when competitive chess was dominated by men, it was the Soviets who proved themselves the true egalitarians against America."
Dmitri cut her a skeptical look. "Sounds a lot like propaganda."
"Of course it was propaganda," Ksenia rolled her eyes. "You should hear the legends of this place before the Madame was in charge. Absolute nightmare for girls and women alike. But the point is that we dealt the West a moral blow. Women of America could look at us and see the opportunities they could have as Soviets. The fact that it got a Widow in the perfect position to assassinate an American diplomat is irrelevant. She earned her title fair and square."
Ah, now it made sense. Dmitri could only chuckle to himself, while Ksenia took the life of another pawn. "I should've known. There's always an ulterior motive."
"Always," Ksenia agreed. "But at least our sister Mila Nabatova got her name in the history books. Not her real one, of course. But still."
Dmitri glanced at the portrait again, wondering what it must be like, to be a Soviet spy and have your face end up in history books. He supposed there were plenty of famous spies, but so few were ever caught or exposed. If they were lucky, it was only after they died.
"If we're in the mood to critique," Ksenia added, as his knight took her other bishop and reached her side of the board. "You use your knight too much."
"Maybe," Dmitri said. He only had the one knight left, and he intended to use it wisely. "But I like the move set. He's versatile."
Being able to hop or skip past pieces in right angle turns always kept things a little unpredictable. Of course, if he was playing against Sabina, she might start honing in on it immediately. But not Ksenia — while her queen lived, she'd continue to pursue his king with dogged effort. An observation Dmitri decided to keep to himself.
"He's disposable," Ksenia sighed, but her attempt to catch his knight with her rook failed, and she wasted a move that could've been spent on her beloved queen. "Hey, wait —"
"Check," Dmitri said, for the first time in their game. He couldn't hide that shit-eating grin.
"Ugh!" Ksenia's fist clenched atop the table, and as he hit the timer, she glared at the clock as if it personally offended her with its ticking. She turned her attention back to the board. And as the seconds ticked on with no action, Dmitri knew he had her.
Her finger waved from a pawn to a rook, to her queen, perhaps debating between some futile act to block his knight from hopping over her defense, and moving her queen to somehow check his king, and put them both in a deadlock.
But to check his king, she'd have to knock down at least one piece first, one extra move she couldn't afford. At last, as her clock ticked into the third minute, Ksenia threw her hands up and slumped back in her seat."Checkmate. Bastard."
An attendant came by to review their board and clock, and Dmitri couldn't help but feel a little bit of pride seeing his ranking go up. It was a meaningless number in the grand scheme of things, but it was the first time he had ever beaten Ksenia at anything one-on-one.
Especially after she bruised his kidney.
He was less smiling when he was paired with Sabina afterwards, who had just defeated Annika. Sabina just smiled at him, completely at ease, as he sat down opposite her. "It's been a long time since I've seen you this happy, Dmitri."
"I do?" Dmitri shifted on his seat uncertainly, flushing despite himself. "Sorry, I just got really excited. Didn't want to rub it in Ksenia's face."
"She'd take offense even if you didn't," Sabina replied, making her first move with a pawn and tapping the clock. "Ksenia would hate to think you were trying to spare her feelings."
"Right," Dmitri said, studying the board. As was his usual first move, he took his knight, hopped over his line of pawns, and put it on the playing field. "Just hoping her good graces don't run out on me."
"They won't," Sabina replied, shifting her bishop diagonally after she had created an opening. "Ksenia's rough around the edges, but she's one of us, through and through. It was just a little hard, after you came back, I think. Every time you leave, it was like having to remember you were different. But not anymore."
"Not anymore," Dmitri intoned. He hadn't left this winter, as he had before in years past. There was no second life to maintain, no mother he had to appease, to keep in the dark. This was perhaps the longest amount of time he had spent in the Red Room, consecutively. Uninterrupted. Fully ingrained. There was no leaving now.
Sabina said something, but he didn't catch it. When Dmitri lifted his head, confused, she repeated herself. "How are you feeling? You look better. Do you think you're up for the big survival test?"
"I think so," Dmitri said, rolling his right shoulder. It still pulled, but not as bad as before, and he almost completed movement out of it. Enough that only a keen eye would notice it was a little weaker than his left. "As long as it's more walking than climbing, I'll probably be fine."
Sabina laughed a little, shaking her head. "Who knows what's out there. They drop each class in a different place each year, so we can't try to cheat and ask the last year's class what they did or how they got home. One time, I heard some got stuck in a ravine."
"A ravine?" Dmitri swallowed, his throat dry. Maybe the sparring classes weren't so great after all. Getting deposited in the middle of nowhere with a bruised body did not sound ideal. "I don't suppose they'll give us any tips or tricks before dumping us out there."
"I think we get some basic tools, but the rest is on us," Sabina replied. Her moves continued without hesitation, only a few seconds on the clock before moving forward. That's usually how it went at the start of games, before slowing down in the last quarter. But with Sabina, it would be a much quicker game. "We won't have guns, so we'll have to find other ways to hunt our food. Gather our own wood and make our own shelters. It's easier to do it as a team, but that's only if we find each other first."
"I'll make that a priority, then," Dmitri said, and Sabina beamed at him.
"Caveman is definitely your style, Dmitri," She joked. "Chasing after wild rabbits with a sharpened stick."
He laughed, which softened the blow when Sabina took his queen shortly after. Hadn't even taken one of her pieces yet. "I'm sure your little jokes will keep us warm at night."
"They should," Sabina said, watching Dmitri move his knight with no expression to give away her opinion. An excellent poker face. "Because I'm terrible at starting fires. Oksana's pretty good, though."
"Didn't she burn half the kitchen down with an oil fire?" Dmitri asked, recalling one cooking class that ended in black smoke and alarms.
"Yes, which will make it all the easier for everyone else to find her, at least." Sabina said, ignoring the tiny pencil thrown her way from two tables over. "Oops, guess she heard that."
Dmitri glanced over at Oksana, who stuck her tongue out at him and whisper-yelled, "I'm not sharing my berries with you!"
It was difficult to keep his composure during what was supposed to be a serious game between him and Sabina. She kicked him beneath the table with a smothered giggle and a comment to focus. Very hypocritical. "If the three of us can get together, then we won't be out there any longer than a week."
"I like your optimism," Dmitri said, while turning those words over in his head. A whole week, on their own — and that's if they're lucky — in the great cold wilderness. Every Red Room agent had to learn how to survive on his or her own, but still. Dmitri hoped they'd at least get a compass, if not a map.
"We'll do just fine, Dmitri, I promise," Sabina assured him, before moving her rook. "Check."
Dmitri's jaw dropped. "It's not even been ten moves yet!"
"I know," Sabina framed her face with her hands, smiling sweetly. "I'm just that good."