Robert asked as Kensey moved her knight. The two siblings sat at a table in the solar, playing a new game that Kensey had brought with her from France. It was a strategic game that Kensey liked to play with the boy, to develop his approach and thought. The tiny, carved pieces were a gift from a Persian noble that her grandfather had met in his youth, in the Holy Land. When he taught Kensey to play, she fell in love with the game, and its little round carved pieces. So when she left France, her grandfather gifted her the shatranj set, contained in an ornate box made of exotic wood. Robert had taken to it as easily as she herself had, and it seemed to pass the time as they continued to wait for the strange man to wake. “I have you,” she said. “Is he awake?” “I’ve just ended the game, Robert.” Kensey narrowed her eyes on her brother. Robert sat at the table with her, but his attention was on the injured man, who lay in the bed on the other side of the room.
