Aegon paused, glanced at the sky outside the window, and added, "I really have to go to swordsmanship practice today. Any later, and my fencing instructor, Ser Criston Cole, will come drag me out!"
Whether reminded by Aegon or shaken from the competitiveness of his trance, a waking Corlys slowly returned to reality.
He looked down at the chessboard. His king had once again been driven to the very edge of the corner, surrounded on all sides by white pieces.
This game was an even more thorough defeat than the previous ones. He took a deep breath, and instead of knocking over the pieces as before, he slowly leaned back into his chair, his grey eyes gazing at the boy opposite him.
The momentary impulse of a moment ago-that madness driven by a desire to win-had made him play this child game after game almost by instinct, forgetting his initial purpose entirely.
Yet now, as he calmed down, he finally caught hold of the question that had been hovering in his mind without ever taking shape.
Why so eager to break away and leave? What are you off to do? Thinking of Aegon beating up Harlan at the banquet last night, of the servants reporting this morning that his own precious cabbage and this boy had a midnight "chance encounter" on the beach, and of his daughter Laena's unusual tone of delight when mentioning the boy alongside that public kiss at yesterday's feast-Corlys suddenly understood everything.
"Are you that worried about that wastrel?" Corlys gently placed the obsidian chess piece back into the box and spoke up abruptly, his voice not loud, yet clear enough to freeze Aegon's motion of standing up halfway. "Wouldn't it be easier if I, your father-in-law, solved it for you? If it really comes to