The Crown’s Game

For Reese—

You are the reason I believe in magic.

T
he Crown’s Game is an old one, older than the tsardom itself. It began long ago, in the age of Rurik, Prince of Novgorod, when Russia was still a cluster of tribes, wild and lawless and young. As the country matured over the centuries, so, too, did the game. But always, always it retained its untamed fierceness.

For the winner of the game, there would be unimaginable power.

For the defeated,
desolate oblivion.

The Crown’s Game was not one to lose.