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a bottle of beer, pour us out a little klee, draw deeply on my thazis and make my standard opening, sending my Foot Soldiers up the flanks. Makri responds, as she generally does, by sending out her Mounted Lancers to harry them but I notice that she is also surreptitiously preparing to bring her Plague Carrier up the board early. I advance my Archers to support my Foot Soldiers and make sure my Sorcerer and my Healer are ready to react.
    Makri, generally an impetuous player, tries to force an early engagement by suddenly sending out the rest of her Heavy Cavalry, followed by her Elephants. I withdraw slightly and, in a new variation, send my Harper, protected by my Hero, to play to the Elephants. The Harper’s music has the power of entrancement and it sends Makri’s Elephants to sleep. She can only watch in frustration as my Trolls advance among the immobile beasts and finish them off.
    My solid phalanx of Hoplites and Archers is meanwhile holding off her cavalry and I start to send my Siege Tower lumbering up the board. Makri’s cavalry are causing casualties among my Hoplites but I’ve already got my Healer on hand to alleviate the situation. My Sorcerer is meanwhile holding her Hero at bay.
    Due to her imprudent attack Makri’s Sorcerer is out of position and when battle is thickest in the centre I am able to send my Hero up the right flank with a horde of Elephants and I start to break through. My forces have an awkward moment when Makri suddenly and unexpectedly backtracks with her Plague Carrier and I lose a few Elephants to the plague before my Hero engages the Plague Carrier and puts him to flight. Meanwhile my own Plague Carrier is sneaking up the left flank, weakening Makri’s forces. Suddenly I break through on both sides. My Trolls and Heavy Mounted Knights surround and kill her Sorcerer and her Hero. My Hoplites break her cavalry in two and march up the board, followed by my Siege Tower. She tries to muster her forces but her last resistance is broken when my Plague Carrier kills her Harper before getting in amongst her Trolls and decimating them. Soon I’m swarming over her forces and I move my Siege Tower right up to her Castle.
    In niarit it’s possible to come back from a poor position but not when playing against a master like me. Makri’s remaining forces are hemmed in and gradually whittled down as I prepare my final assault. My Hero leads a horde of infantry up the Siege Tower and into her Castle. Victory to Thraxas.
    “Damn,” says Makri, and looks extremely annoyed. She’s not a good loser. Neither am I. Fortunately I always win.
    “I’ll beat you next time,” states Makri.
    “No way. I’m still number one chariot around here.”
    Makri grins, drinks the rest of her klee in a gulp and departs to her room along the corridor. I struggle into my bedroom, blow out the candle and settle down to sleep. My slumbers are badly interrupted when Hanama, deadliest member of the extremely deadly Assassins Guild, pricks my throat with her dagger. It’s a poor way for a man to be woken up after a hard day’s work.

Chapter Eight

A night candle casts the merest glimmer of light in my room. Barely enough to illuminate the knife at my throat, or the figure of the Assassin looming over me. I’m pinned to my bed, unable to move. A bad awakening indeed. I’ve encountered Hanama before. She’s number three in the Assassins Guild, a ruthless killer. And yet, as my senses clear, I realise I’m not about to be immediately assassinated. If I was I’d be dead already. The Assassins don’t worry about formalities like waking up their victims.
    “Where is it?” she hisses.
    “What?” I croak in reply.
    “The Red Elvish Cloth,” says Hanama, plunging me into further confusion.
    “What are you talking about?”
    She presses the knife a fraction further.
    “Hand it over or die,” says Hanama, her eyes as cold as an Orc’s heart.
    The door to the next room swings open. Light from a lantern floods in.