CHICORY

“Damn,” said Guy, his dry eyes looking to the stairs where Albie had just hopped up excitedly, “I was going to play a game with him.”

“Game?” I said from Suzuki’s side in the armchair we were sat in together.

“Yeah,” said Guy, the skin around his lipless mouth pulling tight, “It’s chess. As far as I know it doesn’t exist in this world. I’m not really good at it myself but I know the rules. I finally finished making the board and Albie said he wanted me to teach him how to play.”

“Will you teach me?” said Suzuki before I could ask the same question.

There was a faint papery sound from Guy’s eyebrows as he raised them in surprise.

“Are you sure?”

“I very much enjoy games,” said Suzuki, “I spent long days playing them with my servants.”

“You had servants?” I said, in awe.

“Yes,” said Suzuki, saying no more on the matter.

Guy ventured up to the storage level of the tower and returned with a pouch and two large slabs of wood which when placed together formed two sides of one board. Suzuki and Guy changed the position of their armchairs to face opposite one another a short distance from the fireplace. I watched Guy set up the pieces which he took from the pouch and placed on either side of the board; I was also waiting to be offered by Suzuki to sit next to her again like I had done before they had moved their chairs.

“Come,” said Suzuki from her armchair patting the empty nook beside her.

I hurried to her side and again felt the comfort of my hip touching hers.

The board itself had lots of squares; half scratched, half unscratched. Half the pieces placed on the board were made out of carved wood and the other half stone. When Guy was finished the board looked as if two tiny groups were about to battle. There were pieces that looked like horses and others like the tower we were in and more that were harder to imagine what their use was.

“You will need to bathe today,” said Suzuki beside me, “Your smell is quite strong.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, my body aching from the guilt of doing another bad thing.

“It is fine, after breakfast I will show you where you can bathe.”

“Okay.”

Guy explained how each of the pieces worked and the way the game was meant to be played. It quickly became too much for me to follow but he was able to keep Suzuki’s attention. After Guy’s explanation of the rules they began their first game, I tried to stay interested but I couldn’t help but feel restless and uncomfortable in my seat. I wondered if it might be a good time to sleep again; there was something comforting about the occasional tapping sound of the pieces placed on the board and the continuing heat pressing from the fireplace. Angelica continued to repeat the same weaving pattern with the needle and thread through the fabric on her lap. She let the material drape over her right knee and then I saw she was looking at me and her ears were twitching playfully. Feeling shy I leaned back in my seat and pretended to take an interest in the game again.

Their first game was over in twenty minutes.

“Checkmate,” said Guy, knocking over one of Suzuki’s few remaining pieces with one of his own.

“I would like to play again,” said Suzuki, sat with one leg draped over the other and the palm of her right hand against her chin.

Guy quickly went through the labour of resetting the pieces to their original position and they began their second game.

It struck me then that it was early in the morning. The first thing I would do every morning was wake up wishing for more sleep before plodding down to the river with the other children to bathe. I glanced around the wide circular space and tried to imagine daylight shining brightly outside the tower. Were birds singing their morning song? And was the mountain wind causing a stir in the blue-leaved trees? I began to think about how far Amary and I were from Rootwork again, and that we weren’t going to be able to stay safe in the tower forever; sooner or later Hress, Red, and the others would decide we had overstayed our welcome and send us on our way: a surge of panic rose in me and I stood up from the armchair, drawing the attention of Guy, Suzuki, and Angelica.

“Would you like me to sweep inside the tower?” I said.

“Sweep?” said Guy.

“Or scrub the floors?”

“No,” said Guy, “The tower’s magical if you haven’t already noticed. Dust and dirt don’t really stay in the tower for long. It disappears when we’re not looking.”

“Okay,” I said, “Maybe I can cook your breakfast? I know how to cook meat so it doesn’t burn. Amary showed me once.”

“Thanks but there’s no need,” said Guy, “On the second floor there’s a dining room. The tower magically makes any food we want.”

“R-really?” I said, feeling increasingly more useless and soon to leave the tower, “You mean I can’t clean or cook for you?”

“Actually,” said Suzuki calmly, “We mustn’t eat the food in the tower if we can help it. The food makes us feel full whilst we are inside the tower, but when we step outside we become hungry again. It can be very dangerous if we eat only the food from the tower for too long.”

“So we hunt for food outside,” said Guy, “We set traps for the rabbits and squirrels and what-not.”

It was Guy’s turn to move a piece; his gaze searched the board.

“Guy?” I said.

“Yeah?” he said, looking at me again with a hint of annoyance.

“How long have you lived in the tower?”

“Less than a month,” he said.

The shock of learning this must have been clear to see on my face.

“Yeah,” said Guy, grinning a wide skeletal grin, “We’re all quite new to living here. Do you mind if we go back to our game?”

I shook my head and Guy and Suzuki fixed their attention back to the board.

Their second game was twice as long as the first. Suzuki’s eyes burned as if they were as hot as the fire I could see beyond her. Over the forty minutes the second game lasted she took turns standing and sitting to give a different view of the board so she could plan her next move better. I watched the game continue towards its finish but found myself paying more attention to Guy’s and Suzuki’s intent faces, so much so I had forgotten Angelica again and, when I remembered she was sat in her armchair sewing I looked over my shoulder and saw she was smaller in size, having shrunk like she had yesterday. She was smaller than Guy and Suzuki and about my size; her mouth which sometimes leaked saliva wasn’t doing so.

Guy lightly pounded his closed fist onto the table.

“Checkmate,” he said, offering Suzuki the same hand to shake.

“Another?” said Suzuki whilst she held his hand.

Their next game lasted longer than the previous two combined. The morning drew late and my stomach whined loudly. Suzuki took a lot of care placing one of her few remaining pieces only for Guy to take it immediately after.

“Checkmate,” he said, as if winning was something he wished for Suzuki and not himself.

The loss of the third game made Suzuki drop her head, her long black hair obscuring her face. She took a large intake of air and then brought her head back up and forced a smile.

“Again?” she said.

“Really?” said Guy, “Don’t you want a break?”

“No, I want to play again,” she said.

“Are you sure?”

“Hai,” she said, giving a quick nod of her head.

“Alright…” said Guy, taking back his pieces and putting them in their original positions.

My hope they might have taken a break and offered me something to eat, or at least some water to drink, sank as they began their fourth game.

“Hungry?” said Angelica.

Her voice made me jump because it was so close. Somehow she had scuttled over from the armchair she was sat in before and had reached my side without making the slightest sound. Blood reached my face and I shyly looked away from her chalk-white eyes. Unable to find my voice I gave a timid nod instead. Angelica let the tip of one of her spider-like limbs touch the table Guy and Suzuki were using, drawing their attention.

“I suppose neither of you have any objection to me giving Chicory some tower food to eat?” she said, “We can see he has proper food later.”

“Yeah sure,” said Guy, uncaringly. Suzuki, who had a thumb pressed against her lower lip, didn’t hear Angelica’s question and she didn’t attempt an answer because her attention was focused fully on the board.

“Let’s go,” said Angelica, removing her spider-like limb from the table and turning herself toward the middle stairs. She moved so fast across the room and up the stairs I had to run to keep up whilst a happy giggle escaped from me.

Angelica led the way up the winding black stairs holding her bundled dress because it no longer fit her smaller size.

We passed the first floor and continued up to the second where I caught a glimpse of a huge dining room. There were tall chairs tucked under two long tables which met in the middle in the shape of a cross. Atop the tables there were large silver jugs to pour with, and shiny knives and forks, and bowls and plates.

Just like the floors below, the second had the same stone ceiling, walls, and floor surrounding the room, and no windows. The lanterns in the dining room and up and down the stairway shone bright gold against the hard black.

I could taste the warm wetness in the air as we arrived to the third floor.

Angelica scuttled inside and I followed close behind.

It didn’t surprise me to see more black stone everywhere inside the huge room and even more lantern lights all around the upper walls.

Steamy hot water bubbled frothily within a huge black ring of stone which circled all around the room without any gaps. I hurried to the ring and put my hands atop the warm stone, standing on the balls of my feet to peer over the top to see the water. Putting my hand in, I could feel the water had a current which pushed against my palm.

“Where is the water coming from?” I asked, amazed.

“It’s magic,” said Angelica, “which is another way of saying none of us have a clue.”

She scuttled up onto the bath-ring and then sat down with her back to the water.

“Strip and wash yourself,” she said, “I need to fetch something from downstairs. Will you be okay by yourself for a few minutes?”

“Yes,” I said, softly.

“Good boy,” she said, and placed her hand atop my head, squeezed my hair, and then dropped off the bath-ring and scuttled out of the room, heading back down the stairs.

I stripped out of my threadbare and very stinky top and let it fall to my feet. Before I could slip out of my bottoms; heavy boot-steps neared the doorway. Turning to look I saw Hress moving into view at the door.

His eyes looked heavy from lack of sleep.

“Alright?” He said, offering a half-hearted smile.

I gave a nod.

“Don’t mind me,” he said, “I’m just going down to get something to eat.”

“Is Amary, okay?” I asked.

“She’s doing better now she’s had that liquid stuff,” he said, “Albie said you found it?”

I didn’t want to say anything wrong that might get me into trouble, so I said nothing.

“Erm,” I said, “Where’s Red?”

Hress’s right eye pinched shut.

“She’ll be back,” said Hress, “It’s getting her to stay away that’s the problem. Enjoy your bath, mate.”

Hress continued on his way down the stairs.

The bottoms specked with dirt and mud peeled off me as I stepped out of them, and then my sandals. I climbed up one side of the bath-ring, and then thrust myself into the hot bubbling water.

“Ah!” I sighed, too content to splash about.

I let the current carry me along the ring, round and round, the joy of the water’s heat pressing against me making another happy giggle erupt from my lips.

“All washed?” said Angelica after I had done several laps round the bath-ring over the course of a few minutes.

She had returned to her much larger size in the time she had gone and come back.

I tried setting my feet on the bottom of the bath-ring but found I couldn’t reach, so I grabbed hold of the edge instead, pressing my chest against the inside stone.

“Here,” said Angelica, setting a large piece of grey fabric atop the bath-ring.

She looked over her shoulder as her two upper spider-like limbs lifted shiny-smooth pieces of fabric into view.

It was a shirt with blue frills around the sleeves and collar, as well as bottoms of the same fabric also with frills.

“I made these for you,” she said, “I hope you like them.”

I dried myself with the grey fabric as quickly as I could whilst Angelica turned her back to me to give me some privacy. There was no way to keep the smile from my face as I took the silky shirt and bottoms from Angelica and slipped them on.

“Ready?” said Angelica.

“Y-yes,” I said, sniffling back tears.

By the time she turned round to face me I was already crying as if my body were trying to squeeze all the water I had soaked up in the bath-ring out of me.

“What’s wrong?” said Angelica.

She placed her hands on my shoulders and brought her sharp teeth closer than I would have liked.

“You don’t like them?” she said.

“N-no,” I said, choking back more tears, “I r-really, r-really, l-like them! T-thank y-you!”

“D-don’t cry,” Said Angelica as she brought her hands to the corners of her large white eyes, “Y-you’re going to m-make m-me c-cry!”

We both cried together, unable to hide our joy. The more I cried, the more she cried, and between our tears and sniffles we giggled happily too.

“I’m sorry,” I said once we both calmed down.

“One should never apologise for tears,” said Angelica.

“You must be hungry,” she said, offering me a hand to take, which I did.

I walked side-by-side with Angelica down to the second floor dining room. We took seats by the rear wall. The tall seat was too big for me so I decided to kneel on it instead and looked forward to the shiny plate in front of me, seeing my face in it.

A sudden chewing sound drew our attention to the doorway. Hress, smiling broadly, was stood with a chunky strip of meat in his palm.

“What’s funny?” said Angelica, with an unsettling grumbling sound snarling up from the back of her throat.

“What is he wearing?” said Hress, pointing the dangling strip of meat in my direction for a moment.

“I made it for him,” said Angelica, folding her arms and lifting up her black doggish nose.

“He’s dressed like a girl!”

“No, he’s not! Can’t you see the blue frills? Blue is a masculine colour!”

“It don’t matter what colour the frills are!”

“I’ll have you know it’s very popular among the noble class,” said Angelica, “Not that you would know.”

“Well far be it from me to question the noble class, but he looks like a little jester,” said Hress, taking another bite of the meat, the smell of which had reached my nose and was making me very hungry and, I noticed, had caused Angelica to drool long trails of saliva.

“I like my new clothes!” I said, feeling a little cross with Hress.

“Thank you, Chicory,” said Angelica, her donkey-like ears twitching happily.

“Ay, ay,” said Hress, putting up his hands in defence. “I don’t mean anything by it. I just wouldn’t be caught dead in frills myself.”

“What about Red?” said Angelica, “Wouldn’t she enjoy wearing frills?”

Hress’s good-natured smile vanished.

“Ay,” he said, “There’s no need for that. You don’t see me havin’ a go about your curse.”

“Why?” said Angelica, her spider-like limbs clicking as she unfurled them a little, “Do you have something to say about my curse?”

“No,” said Hress, stretching and popping a joint in his back, his bulky body stretching his red shirt to its limit, “I’m just telling you I don’t appreciate you joking about mine.”

“Then don’t start with your games,” said Angelica.

“What do you mean games?” he said.

“You always want the last comment.”

“And you don’t?”

Angelica let Hress’s question hang in the silence that followed.

“See you both later,” said Hress as he winked and eased out of sight up the tower stairs.

“So,” said Angelica, looking to me and bringing a hand to her chin, “Ready to eat?”