Son and Shadow

Killer-Kate and Luke Lackland: 820 words.  The Young Duke takes counsel, and Lord Evil tries to nudge everybody in his way into cancelling each other out at once.  It's a good nudge.  I'm getting a right feeling for him, these past couple of chapters: he's outlasted a lot of far better chess-players, by cajoling the rest of the party into a jolly game of blind man's buff instead, before sloping off and eating all the pies.

The Duke is a romantic young man hemmed in from every direction, and needs to do something spectacularly decisive before his head explodes.  That can't possibly go wrong in any way.

- Sorry, comrade Kate?  Did you say something?