King Geoffrey's funeral took place the next morning, in the royal cemetery behind the palace.
Captain Zachary and fifteen of his royal guardsmen in blue dress uniforms lined the long paved path that led across the grass and wound through the trees of the orchard. The orchard was planted solely with cherry trees. Their short trunks and spreading branches were in full bloom in white and pink as Jessamine led the way slowly along the footpath after the service with Alex, Alice and Ellen beside her. The wind moved the trees very gently. A few Magentan birds sang in the branches.
The orchard was long and the trees, which were not planted in any pattern, ran from oldest to youngest, becoming smaller and shorter as they walked towards the back of the cemetery. Two trees were waiting for them at the end of the footpath, where the paving stones stopped in the middle of the grass. One was young and small, planted fifteen years ago and only slightly taller than Alex, with a thin straight trunk and short branches growing out from around the top. Cherry trees grew slowly on Magenta and the other one next to it was even smaller. Planted five years ago, it was still only a sapling and was only just taller than Alex's knees, but he was pleased to see that it was flowering at last and pink petals were showing among its short branches.
In between the two, a space had been marked out and a square of the grass had been cut away, revealing the dark brown soil. The royal steward and the head gardener were there waiting for them.
They reached the end of the path and Alex looked up at his mother. All of their relatives, the prime minister and all of his cabinet, the heads of all the main political parties, the heads of the army and the navy, all of the Pleiades aristocracy who had been able to make it, lots of King Geoffrey's oldest friends and – to Alex's horror and Ellen's fury – Lord Blackstar, who the royal steward had not been able to find an excuse not to invite, waited in silence behind them.
Jessamine paused for a moment, then nodded. Alex saw the tiny tears in the corners of her eyes. He could feel similar ones in his own and quickly blinked them away. He would not let them affect him. He would get this right.
Alex breathed in, let it out and stepped forward. The head gardener handed him a spade. Alex took it and looked down at the square cut in the grass. He used the corners to judge where the middle was and pushed the spade into the earth, scooping the soil out and placing it to one side on a green plastic sheet laid on the grass. He worried for a minute that he might be making the hole too deep or too shallow, but then he realised it did not matter. If there was a special depth it was meant to be, the royal steward would have told him.
He stopped after three scoops, having made the hole about twelve centimetres deep. He stepped back and rested the spade on the grass. Alice and Ellen stepped forward next. Alice was carrying a small metal cryogenic-storage box. The airtight seal hissed softly as she opened it and swirls of cold mist curled slowly out over the edges. Ellen used a temperature-proof glove to reach inside and drew out a cherry seed. The seeds all came from one tree, which had grown somewhere called Japan on Earth centuries ago. There were only a few dozen left in the box, but all the seeds that had ever grown on all the cherry trees planted in the orchard from these first ones had been collected and stored for use when the originals ran out.
Ellen knelt down on the grass, sniffed back her tears and placed the cherry seed gently in the hole. She stood up and stepped back and Jessamine stepped forward, gently removing the lid of bronze urn she was carrying. Captain Zachary and all the royal guards saluted as Jessamine knelt down and carefully poured the ashes into the hole on top of the seed. She stood up and stepped aside and Alex used the spade again to scoop the soil back up and refill the hole, covering the seed and his grandfather's ashes. He managed to get all of it in three scoops again and patted the soil flat with the spade. Once he'd finished, he handed it back to the head gardener, who in turn handed him a hosepipe with a spray nozzle. Alex took it, sniffed back his own tears, and squeezed the handle, sprinkling water back and forth over the spot, making sure there were no dry patches. The palace gardeners would be doing this for the next few weeks and monitoring very carefully, until the seed started to sprout.
"Another seed is planted," said the royal steward. "Another reign is ended. Another reign commences."
"Another reign commences," repeated the assembled guests.
Alex turned off the hose and handed it back to the gardener. He looked around at the orchard and all the cherry trees. The newest, smallest one, which was just starting to flower, was the one his father's ashes were buried under. The second, fifteen year old one, was his grandmother. Every one of the trees in the cemetery, all in full bloom, was the resting place of one member of the Tarquin family, stretching back all the way through the orchard to King Stephen and his wife and their sons and daughters at the very front.
The orchard blurred as Alex's tears flowed in his eyes. He hugged his mother and his sisters as everyone bowed their heads in silent remembrance. The wind whispered through the trees, making the blossom fall, and the birds sang slowly in the branches.
"Goodbye, Dad," said Prince Max, softly, from the front of the assembled guests.
* * * * * * *
"Please tell me we do not have to invite him in," said Ellen, twenty minutes later, as they walked into the palace's ballroom for the reception.
"No, your highness. Don't worry," said the royal steward. "Lord Blackstar already informed me that he isn't staying. He apparently has several unavoidably urgent matters to attend to this afternoon. I assured him I was certain that we'd be able to manage without him."
"The entire universe could probably manage without him," said Ellen.
"Did he say what the urgent matters were?" said Alice.
"I didn't ask, your highness," said the steward.
"It probably doesn't matter," said Alice. "But it would be nice to know what he's doing."
Alex nodded. While Lord Blackstar was the last person he wanted to see, talk to or even look at right now, having him at the funeral at least meant they knew where he was. If he was not there, he could be almost anywhere else in the capital, doing who knew what to move his plan forward. Lord Blackstar had Jessamine in check. But it felt like they were still playing chess with him and he was five moves ahead, while they were still struggling to make their first move.
"Oh. I'm afraid I didn't think of that, your highness," said the steward. "But on a better note, your majesty, the experts have arrived. They're waiting in the anteroom."
"Oh, good. We'll see them as soon as possible," said Jessamine, as the first group of the funeral guests reached them.
Alex managed to smile and shake hands and speak with everyone who came to offer their condolences for the next hour as they moved around the room. It was nice that so many people had made it and that they all had kind things to say and good stories to tell about his grandfather, but he still had to force himself to focus and hide how impatient he was. He did not touch any of the refreshments and the relief felt like the weight of a whole planet lifting off his shoulders when they had finally spoken to everyone and could leave the guests giving their condolences to Uncle Max and follow the royal steward through one of the ballroom's side doors into the anteroom, where a chessboard was set up on a small table.
It was arranged with the current position of King Stephen's Last Game. It was not the real game and board – which were still upstairs in the royal bedroom, with Captain Zachary's men taking turns guarding it around the clock – but three people were standing around it and arguing. Alex recognised Professor George Equinox, Professor Leonard Shaw and Doctor Jane Thornton from the University of Magenta, all of whom he had met during his school chess club's last visit to the university's chess department. They were well-known as the star cluster's three greatest experts on chess.
"A Sicilian Offensive? Are you out of your mind?" said Professor Equinox. He was a short, middle aged man with wide shoulders, black hair, and a large black beard and bushy eyebrows. "That's way too obvious. There's no way Blackstar won't have thought of it."
"That's precisely my point, you conclusion-jumping imbecile," said Professor Shaw. He was taller than Professor Equinox, with greying red hair, a shorter beard and round glasses. He and Professor Equinox had first met as students at the University of Magenta fifty years ago and had been bitter rivals ever since. "It is obvious. Damon won't have built in defences against something he thinks nobody's going to bother to try. So let's try it and see what happens. It might open up some new paths."
"It's conclusion-jumping-to, you grammatical ignoramus. Conclusion-jumping makes it sound like I'm leaping over them," said Professor Equinox. "But fine. Let's see where it goes."
"Nowhere. It won't work," said Doctor Thornton, who trying it out on her computer pad. She pointed to the chessboard. "His queen's rook is perfectly positioned to block anything we try to do in the middle of the board. He doesn't need build defences. The one's he already has are perfectly adequate."
Doctor Thornton was in her thirties, with thin glasses and brown hair in a long plait. She was the highest-ranked female chess player in the Pleiades and one of the youngest ever to teach at the university, an achievement which annoyed Professor Equinox and Professor Shaw almost as much as how she had had beaten both of them in the last six university chess competitions.
"See? I told you. This is not going to be something with a simple answer," said Professor Equinox, turning around and bowing as they arrived at the table. "Good afternoon, your majesty. Your highnesses. I'm so sorry about King Geoffrey."
"Thank you, Professor," said Jessamine, as Professor Shaw and Doctor Thornton greeted her as well. "And thank you for coming. Though I take it a solution isn't coming as fast as we'd hoped."
"Well, it depends on how you look at it," said Equinox. "We're finding about three new things that won't work every ten minutes. At this rate, we'll find something that will simply by process of elimination."
"That isn't funny," said Professor Shaw. "We are taking this seriously, your majesty, I assure you. We're analysing every possible move you can make with all the pieces you have and what the results of each possibility would be. We've also been looking at Damon's check, studying how it's put together and looking for weak points."
"And we aren't finding many," said Professor Equinox, looking at the board again. "I'll say this much for Blackstar; he's thought this through. This is the closest thing I've ever seen to a triple-checkmate."
"Yes. He must have been studying the board for months," said Doctor Thornton. "Perhaps even longer."
"So can you help or not?" said Ellen. "And can you do it before Sunday?"
"We will keep trying very hard, your highness," said Professor Shaw. "But it is not going to be easy. Damon has always been gifted, but he's truly surpassed himself with this."
"Do you know him?" said Alex.
"Oh, yes. I was at school with his father," said Professor Shaw. "We played chess together at least once a week for thirty years. I helped teach Damon to play."
"Oh, really? And how old was the student when he surpassed his teacher?" said Professor Equinox. "Seven?"
"Certainly not! He was fourteen," said Professor Shaw. "He surpassed you when we was seven."
"How dare you...!"
"Gentlemen, right now, he seems to have surpassed both of you," said Doctor Thornton. "If you want to prove that you're still worthy of your department chairs, you need to show that he hasn't by solving this. So let's get on with it."
"Certainly," said Professor Shaw. "We'll let you know immediately if we find a solution, your majesty. Though – to be perfectly honest – the chances that there are one are looking very..."
"No! Don't even say it," said Professor Equinox. "Remember the words of King Stephen. His most famous quote. "On a chessboard, everything is possible.""
"Well, please keep trying," said Jessamine. She glanced over her shoulder at the ballroom. Inside it, Alex knew, now that the funeral was nearly over, all the Pleiadean politicians and aristocrats who wanted to would be waiting to speak with her about government matters now that she was – almost – the queen. "I've got a great deal to do this afternoon, but I'll come and join you as soon as I can."
* * * * * * *
Several hours later, night had fallen over Magenta. Alex sat alone on a marble bench in the Chess Garden.
The garden was at the back of the palace in the shadow of the east wing. Large statues of chess pieces; rooks, nights, pawns, kings, queens and bishops, nearly six feet tall and carved from white and grey stone, stood on large flagstones like chess squares. Bushes and flowerbeds grew around them, filled at this time of night with Magentan night grasshoppers, large silver insects that clicked softly as they searched among the leaves for food. The sky was a peaceful black again and the stars stretched across it in a glittering canopy. The storm was still twisting and turning at the heart of the nebula.
Alex's own heart felt anything but peaceful. He felt more exhausted than he had after the last school triathlon, even though he had not done anything remotely as strenuous today. Jessamine, the professors and the doctor had worked on the chessboard all afternoon, with the royal steward and the members of the palace staff's chess club coming to help whenever they could. Between them, they had come up with more than two hundred possible solutions to Lord Blackstar's checkmate. None of them had worked. And they were no closer to finding one that would.
Alex rested his hands on his knees. He had not managed to come up with up any of the two hundred possibilities himself. He had been playing chess for years and he had thought he was good at it. He had worked hard to learn the game properly and he usually won more games than he lost, whether he was playing with his friends, his teachers or his family. But, at some point, he had also decided that he was good enough and he had stopped trying to get better. But what was the point of being good enough if that was not enough to help his mother when she really needed it? Alex sighed. His shoulders sank. He had not felt this helpless since the night his father had died.
Alex looked up at the sky again. It had been a clear night then too and he had absently noticed several of the constellations his father had taught him to recognise out of the hospital's windows while they waited desperately in the corridor outside the emergency treatment room, before the doctor had come out and told them that she and her team had done everything they could, but it was not going to be enough. Their father's injuries were too severe. Their grandfather had insisted that Alex, Alice and Ellen wait outside with him while Jessamine went in first, and then their father had passed away before they had a chance to say goodbye. Alex had hoped afterwards that he would never feel so useless again.
The professors and Doctor Thornton had left at dinner time, promising to come back in the morning once they had cancelled all their classes. Professor Equinox had left insisting that everything was possible on a chessboard and that there was an escape from this check. Jessamine had agreed with him and said they would find it. But she was sounding more and more half-heated every time she said it, and Alex was worried that she was trying to convince herself. And even if there was a way out, they only had five days left to find it.
Alex sighed again. He looked around at the chess statues, which were throwing long shadows in the light of all three of Magenta's moons. He was meant to be a descendant of Stephen Tarquin, the greatest chess player in history, the man who had once played a hundred and forty simultaneous games of chess against one hundred and forty intergalactic grandmasters at the Imperial Betelgeuse chess tournament and won all of them. But now it looked as if he, Alice and Ellen were going to be remembered as the generation when the Tarquin family finally lost their winning chess gene. Along with the throne of the Pleiades.
"You too?"
"Hmm?"
Alex looked up as Alice walked down the paved footpath towards him, carrying her computer pad. She had been helping all afternoon too and had come up with five of the two hundred possible solutions. Alex knew she had to be just as tired as he was, even if she was not showing it.
"I can't sleep either," she said, sitting down beside him.
"Welcome to the club," said Ellen, appearing from the other direction. She had at least tried going to bed and was in her dressing gown, pyjamas and slippers. Alex shifted into the middle of the bench to make room and she sat down on his other side.
"I don't suppose either of you have thought of anything?" said Ellen.
"No," said Alex. He had actually come to the chess garden hoping it might give him some ideas, but it was not working. "I have been trying."
"So have I," said Alice. She held up her computer pad which had the chessboard on its screen.
"Me too," said Ellen. "I wish I was better at chess."
Ellen was one of the rare members of the Tarquin family who was not a fanatical chess player. While she had learned to play it, chess was too slow for Ellen's tastes and her real passion was for zero-gravity 3D pinball. She was currently the youngest member of the capital's club and one of her ambitions was to be the Magentan champion.
"It doesn't matter that you're not," said Alex. "Mum and the professors haven't found anything either."
Ellen nodded. She was quiet for a moment. Then she looked up at her brother and sister. "Is... Is he going to be able to do it?"
Alex did not answer. He wanted to say no. He wanted to promise his sister that Lord Blackstar would not, that they would find an escape from the checkmate or some other way to stop him if they could not do that, and make sure he could not get a surgical robot anywhere near Uncle Max. But right now, that would be a lie.
"I don't know," he said, at last.
Ellen nodded and Alex automatically put his arm around her.
"Would..." said Ellen, quietly. "Would it be so bad if he did? We'd have Uncle Max back."
"Yes," said Alice. "But we wouldn't. Not really. It wouldn't properly be him."
"But if he got his mind back," said Ellen, "he might not take the throne. He still might refuse and let Mum do it..."
"No," said Alice, "because Lord Blackstar wouldn't let him. He'd just program him not to think about that. Like a robot."
"I want him back too," said Alex. Now that his grandfather had died as well as his father, and all of his other male relatives were living on other planets in the Pleiades, he had realised during the funeral that his uncle was, in a real sense, all he had left. "But not like that. It wouldn't be worth it."
Ellen nodded.
"I miss him," she said. "Even though he's here. I miss him."
Alex and Alice nodded, both knowing what she meant. They also missed their uncle they way he used to be. But now, the prospect of getting him back was almost as scary as Jessamine losing the throne...
"Aha!"
Alex jumped. Alice and Ellen both started as the voice, and then a scrambling sound, that came from the bushes.
"Yes! Oh. No. No. No. No. Yes! No!"
"Oh, not again," said Ellen.
"Uncle Max?" called Alice, as they all stood up.
"Hmm? Yes? Hello?"
One of the bushes moved and their uncle stuck his head out of it. He was dressed only in his pyjamas and no shoes, but the night was warm enough that he had not noticed, though it was quite possible he would still have wandered out of his bedroom even if he had.
"Aha! Kids! Perfect timing," said Uncle Max, standing up. He was holding a butterfly net and a large glass jar. He lowered his voice to a whisper. "Don't make a sound. I've just seen the night grasshopper I'm looking for around here. He's perfect. This time I'm going to catch him."
"Uncle Max, you already caught him," said Alice, going forward and taking her uncle's hand. "He's back in your room waiting for you to paint his portrait."
"He is?" said Uncle Max.
"Yes, he is," said Alex. The night grasshopper was a particularly fine specimen with almost perfectly symmetrical silver wings that their uncle had become obsessed with catching and painting a picture of after it had landed on the table one night when they were all having dinner in the gardens. The only problem was that he had caught it, painted it and released it again three years ago.
"He's been there a while," said Ellen, taking her uncle's other arm. "You really shouldn't keep him waiting any longer. He's probably got things to do."
"Oh, yes. I didn't think of that," said Uncle Max. "You're right. He's an insect. His schedule's probably packed. You're quite right. Let's go back there right now."
He turned around and let Alice and Ellen lead him back through the gardens towards his rooms. They had done this before this year already, but by the time they got back to their uncle's rooms, his mind would usually have moved onto other things.
"I really must do some more sculpture," said Uncle Max, touching one of the giant chess pieces as they passed it. "I've been spending too much time painting recently. I've got to get back to it."
"Yes," said Alex. He wished again that he had done the same thing already with his chess skills.
"Quite right," said Uncle Max. "Oh, and by the way. I heard Marie and Lillian talking earlier. Is Jess stuck on a chess game?"
"Who are Marie and Lillian?" whispered Ellen.
"Probably Mary and Linda," whispered Alice.
Alex nodded. Their uncle often mixed up the names of the palace staff, but it was not surprising that he had remembered their conversation. While Uncle Max had a terrible short term memory, he was often surprisingly good at remembering things he had overheard rather than things he had been told directly.
"Yes. Mum's stuck," he said. "She's in check and... she's not sure if she can get out of it."
"Oh, dear. It is annoying when that happens," said Uncle Max. "And she's never been all that imaginative a player anyway. Not like Mum. Tell her to come and see me once I've finished painting the grasshopper. Maybe I can help."
"We will," said Alex.
"Good. It's a shame King Stephen isn't here," said Uncle Max. "Whatever it is, no matter how bad it looks, he'd probably solve it in a heartbeat."
"Yes," said Alice. "It would be nice if he was."
"Yes. That'd wipe the smile off Lord Blackstar's face," said Ellen.
"Ah, yes. Damon's always been too good at chess for his own good," said Uncle Max. "He needs to lose more. Winning all the time just makes him overconfident. And it's such a pity his notebook's lost as well. That would probably be enough on its own."
Alex blinked. He looked up at his uncle, who was admiring one of the moons.
"His notebook?" said Ellen. "Lord Blackstar's?"
"No, King Stephen's," said their uncle. "Have I really never told you about it? I must be getting forgetful."
"What is it?" said Alex.
"King Stephen's Notebook? Oh, it's exactly what it sounds like. It's King Stephen's notebook," said Uncle Max. "It's a notebook King Stephen had for years and wrote all his notes about chess in. He put everything in it. Strategies, tactics, secrets, favourite moves, problem solving methods, progress logs on his long-running games, everything he learnt from playing Jennifer of Sirius. It's all in there."
"Really?" said Alice, raising her eyebrow.
"Yes. It's such a shame it's been lost for centuries," said Uncle Max. "If we still had it, there'd probably be no chess game we couldn't win."
They rounded the corner of the palace and came to the back of the southern drawing room. The lights were on inside and the window doors were open. Two of the medical staff and the guards, looking rather anxious, were waiting around them, as they always did whenever Prince Max gave them the slip and went for a walk in the grounds in the middle of the night, even though he normally made his way back perfectly safely by himself if no one found him.
"Ah. This is me," said Prince Quentin. "Well, goodnight, Aled. Alicia. Eleanor. See you all in the morning."
He strode away towards the doors, leaving Alex, Alice and Ellen watching behind him.