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CHAPTER XVII - A PLAY TO THE DEATH
Clear and sweet a trumpet spoke across The Fields of Jetan. From The High
Tower its cool voice floated across the city of Manator and above the babel of
human discords rising from the crowded mass that filled the seats of the stadium
below. It called the players for the first game, and simultaneously there fluttered
to the peaks of a thousand staffs on tower and battlement and the great wall of
the stadium the rich, gay pennons of the fighting chiefs of Manator. Thus was
marked the opening of The Jeddak's Games, the most important of the year and
second only to the Grand Decennial Games.
Gahan of Gathol watched every play with eagle eye. The match was an
unimportant one, being but to settle some petty dispute between two chiefs, and
was played with professional jetan players for points only. No one was killed and
there was but little blood spilled. It lasted about an hour and was terminated by
the chief of the losing side deliberately permitting himself to be out-pointed, that
the game might be called a draw.
Again the trumpet sounded, this time announcing the second and last game of
the afternoon. While this was not considered an important match, those being
reserved for the fourth and fifth days of the games, it promised to afford sufficient
excitement since it was a game to the death. The vital difference between the
game played with living men and that in which inanimate pieces are used, lies in
the fact that while in the latter the mere placing of a piece upon a square
occupied by an opponent piece terminates the move, in the former the two pieces
thus brought together engage in a duel for possession of the square. Therefore
there enters into the former game not only the strategy of jetan but the personal
prowess and bravery of each individual piece, so that a knowledge not only of
one's own men but of each player upon the opposing side is of vast value to a
chief.
In this respect was Gahan handicapped, though the loyalty of his players did
much to offset his ignorance of them, since they aided him in arranging the board
to the best advantage and told him honestly the faults and virtues of each. One
fought best in a losing game; another was too slow; another too impetuous; this
one had fire and a heart of steel, but lacked endurance. Of the opponents,
though, they knew little or nothing, and now as the two sides took their places
upon the black and orange squares of the great jetan board Gahan obtained, for
the first time, a close view of those who opposed him. The Orange Chief had not
yet entered the field, but his men were all in place. Val Dor turned to Gahan.
"
They are all criminals from the pits of Manator," he said. "There is no slave
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