“Oh, yes, and the renegade. The Rebel’s rebel son. I
wonder…what are you calling yourself this time? Cage? Rage? I wonder
what these children will think when they learn who you really are?”
“It won’t matter who he is,” Bonnie cried. “We know that. We
know that he’s a vampire, but that he can be gentle and kind and he’s
saved us over and over again.” She shut her eyes, but held her ground
against the gale of Shinichi’s laughter.
“So ‘Madame,’” Shinichi mocked, “you think you have gained
‘Sage.’ But I wonder if you know what in chess we call a ‘gambit’ is?
No? Well, I’m sure your intellectual friend will be glad to inform you.”
There was a pause. Then Meredith said, with no expression at all,
“A gambit is when a chess player sacrifices something—for instance, a
pawn—deliberately—just to get something else. A position on the
chessboard that they want, for instance.”
“I knew you’d be able to tell them. What do you think of our first
gambit?”
Another silence, then Meredith said: “I presume you mean you’ve
given us back Stefan to achieve something better.”
“Oh, if you only had golden hair—as your friend Elena has so
generously displayed.”
There were various exclamations on the theme of “Huh?”—most
of them directed at Shinichi, but some at Elena.