title: Carlsen's Assault on the Throne
author: Vassilios Kotronias
description: <DIV></DIV><P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal align=left>Vassilios Kotronias is a chess grandmaster and nine-time Greek Champion. He is a key member of the Greek team as both a player and coach.</P><P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal align=left>Sotiris Logothetis is a computer expert and highly-regarded arbiter and organizer.
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  # Pillar of Night
  
  ## Cenotaph Road - 06
  
  ## Robert E. Vardeman
  
    
  
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  ### _CHAPTER ONE_
  
  
  
  "Claybore has baited a trap and waits for you," Kiska k'Adesina told Lan
  Martak. "You will die if you try to recover the legs."
  
  "How do you know?" Lan demanded. The young mage tried to shake his oddly
  tender feelings toward the woman and failed. Claybore had laid a geas on him
  too potent to fight, too subtle to work around. Kiska k'Adesina was his mortal
  enemy, the commander of Claybore's grey-clad soldiers, a vicious foe—and he
  felt protective toward her. And more.
  
  Sweat beaded on his forehead as he realized how much he loved—was forced to
  love!—the woman who had repeatedly tried to kill him.
  
  "It's all part of Claybore's master plan. He wants you incapacitated. If you
  rush in foolishly, without planning, without taking enough precautions, then
  you will be… no more."
  
  "What do you care?" Lan raged, more at his own impotence in dealing with Kiska
  than at the