"Coming up."
Tlingel drained it and moved the King to B1.
Martin leaned forward immediately and pushed the Rook to R3.
Tlingel looked up, stared at him.
"Not bad."
Martin wanted to squirm. He was struck by the nobility of the creature. He wanted so badly to play and beat the unicorn on his own, fairly. Not this way.
Tlingel looked back at the board, then almost carelessly moved the Knight to K4.
"Go ahead. Or will it take you another month?"
Martin growled softly, advanced the Rook and captured the Knight.
"Of course."
Tlingel captured the Rook with the Pawn. This was not the way that the last variation with Grend had run. Still ...
He moved his Rook to KB3. As he did, the wind seemed to commence a peculiar shrieking above, amid, the ruined buildings.
"Check," he announced.
The hell with it! he decided. I'm good enough to manage my own end game. Let's play this out.
He watched and waited and finally saw Tlingel move the King to N1.
He moved his Bishop to R6. Tlingel moved the Queen to K2. The shrieking came again, sounding nearer now. Martin took the Pawn with the Bishop.
The unicorn's head came up and it seemed to listen for a moment. Then Tlingel lowered it and captured the Bishop with the King.
Martin moved his Rook to KN3.
"Check."
Tlingel returned the King to B1.
Martin moved the Rook to KB3.
"Check."
Tlingel pushed the King to N2.
Martin moved the Rook back to KN3.
"Check."
Tlingel returned the King to B1, looked up and stared at him, showing teeth.
"Looks as if we've got a drawn game," the unicorn stated. "Care for another one?"
"Yes, but not for the fate of humanity."
"Forget it. I'd given up on that long ago. I decided that I wouldn't care to live here after all. I'm a little more discriminating than that."
"Except for this bar." Tlingel turned away as another shriek sounded just beyond the door, followed by strange voices. "What is that?"
"I don't know," Martin answered, rising.
The doors opened and a golden griffin entered.
"Martin!" it cried. "Beer! Beer!"
"Uh—Tlingel, this is Rael, and, and—"
Three more griffins followed it in. Then came Grend, and three others of his own kind.
"—and that one's Grend," Martin said lamely. "I don't know the others."
"They all halted when they beheld the unicorn.
"Tlingel," one of the sasquatches said, "I thought you were still in the morning land."
"I still am, in a way. Martin, how is it that you are acquainted with my former countrymen?"
"Well—uh—Grend here is my chess coach."
"Aha! I begin to understand."
"I am not sure that you really do. But let me get everyone a drink first."
Martin turned on the piano and set everyone up.
"How did you find this place?" he asked Grend as he was doing it. "And how did you get here?"
"Well ..." Grend looked embarrassed. "Rael followed you back."
"Followed a jet?"
"Griffins are supernaturally fast."
"Oh."
"Anyway, he told his relatives and some of my folks about it. When we saw that the griffins were determined to visit you, we decided that we had better come along to keep them out of trouble. They brought us."