Opera in Underland

21. Costly Errors

Long it was. Brutal, the match was even more so.

Once the match had begun in earnest, Junior had watched as piece by piece was smashed. It had now been dozens of moves since the first pawn went down. Rosalind had tried her best to keep him, his father, and his new friend out of the fray.

But now, he was locked in a particularly fierce battle against the stone bishop Mandy had sent after him. Who knew that staff could be such a troublesome melee weapon?

Junior, panting, scratched and bruised, finally managed to catch the opposing piece in a few of his tentacles. He grit his teeth and, with a considerable amount of force, have a twisting pull. He must have hit a weak spot, because the piece crumbled as he did.

The crowd's cheers weren't too enthusiastic. He was all too aware that came from whose side he was fighting on. But through the mandatory cheering, he heard a concerned call.

"Junior? Son! Are you alright?"

Wobbling slightly, he turned. "I'm okay," he said, not quite loud enough to be heard from a distance. But the smile and thumbs up he gave his dad calmed Senior's worried expression.

To his slight surprise, someone else calmed down at his assertion too. Opera - or, Ophelia, he supposed - gave a visible sigh of relief from across the board. She threw a smile his way, and he couldn't help but smile back. They hardly knew each other, but already he wished they had grown up as siblings. It would have been nice to have her around.

Meanwhile, the game was resuming, and he was forced to take the other piece's space. He threw Mandy a look, as if to challenge her.

But she didn't look worried. In fact, she was smirking.

Junior's stomach lurched. If Mandy was happy, something was very wrong. What was going on? What could she see from her elevated position that was invisible to him?

He figured it out as she commanded her next piece to move. Her queen.

Eris sauntered across the board and stopped two spaces in front of Junior. She gave him a wicked grin. "So sorry for what will happen next, darling. But you know how these things are." She laughed and took out a small object, a golden apple, which she twirled on her finger.

Junior stood, paralyzed with anxiety. Eris was no pushover, and he was already tired from his last fight. She was perfectly positioned to eliminate him on the next turn. Judging by the way she was taunting him, she had no intention of eliminating him gently. He glanced around hurriedly, looking for open spaces, and then looked to Rosalind for help.

The girl had a slightly pained expression on her face as she looked back at him. She quickly glanced away, refusing to make eye contact.

He knew that look, and what it meant. There was nothing she could do.

He was a mouse, and the cat had trapped him.

..........

Ophelia watched the whole scenario unfold with a slight horror. It dawned on her at about the same time it did Junior that the boy was doomed.

Nobody looked more upset about that than Nergal, who had his fists clenched and looked on the verge of running over there. But he couldn't. The king was confined to moving one space at a time. And anyway, without Rosalind's permission to move, it was illegal, and an illegal move meant a forfeit. He could pull his son away, but doing so meant he would doom two other people.

Ophelia was free to move much further than he, but she couldn't directly take out Eris. Even if she could, that meant she'd have to fight. And considering she had absolutely no chance of winning without her magical lightning powers, she'd really rather not.

Now she was searching the board as well, looking for anything she could use in her favor. She looked back to where Billy had gotten thoroughly whipped by one of Rosalind's stone pawns, and found what she was looking for. Just ahead of that spot, there was a hole in Grim's defense.

A hole that she could take advantage of to check him.

It would be a risky gamble. It would definitely draw Eris away from Junior, because Mandy had to protect her king piece, but the other stone pieces were blocking her view, and she couldn't tell if Eris had direct access to her intended destination or not.

But then, if she didn't go forward, there was no way to preserve Junior. All the other remaining pieces were otherwise engaged. And Eris would move on the next turn, so it really was now or never.

Somewhere above and behind her, she heard Rosalind start her move. "Knight to-"

"Wait!"

She yelled over her shoulder and got her sister's attention. She'd made her decision. She knew Rosalind wouldn't approve if she explained, so she intentionally left it vague.

"Do you trust me?"

Rosalind looked confused. "Well... I mean yeah, but what..."

That was all Ophelia needed. She'd been given verbal permission to move, as far as the game was concerned. She gave only a brief nod before dashing forward, making her move.

From behind her, she heard a shout of "No!" It came from two overlapping voices; one male, and one female, one calling her Opera, the other Ophelia. Nergal and Rosalind both were trying to stop her.

But it was too late. She'd already gotten to her square, and barked out "Check."

Grim looked surprised, and Mandy looked amused. That was not a good omen. Slowly, afraid of what she would see, she turned her head.

Eris had a direct path to where she was standing. She's walked right into a trap.

She swore internally, using all the vulgarities she could dream up, while trying to swallow the lump in her throat. She never heard Mandy utter the command; she was far too panicked for that.

Eris crept over slowly, like a predator stalking her prey. When she was in the next square, her eyes positively gleamed.

"Well, well, well... the electric freak is altruistic," Eris chuckled. "It's a shame your little boyfriend won't get to thank you. When I'm through with you, there won't be enough left for that."

The barrier went up around them as the battlefield formed.