The Pawn Cohort — Pawn Patrol, Sienna and Bran, Trotter and Trundle, Gable and Garrett

Both of them speak with the careful gruffness of people who have stood guard in cold weather for a long time. They are, in the chess kingdom's military hierarchy, the most disciplined of the pawn cohort. Captain Castle introduces them with respect.

Their job on the board is to hold the line. They are usually the centre pawns — the d-pawn and the e-pawn — and they advance only when ordered. They do not improvise.

Sienna and Bran

Sienna and Bran are siblings — fraternal twins, born on the same hour of the same evening — from a farming village called Wheatsetter in the kingdom's southern plain.

(You may notice the wheat reference. King Sable, who is from the same southern region, would say "the wheat came in" about these two if asked. He would not elaborate. He never does.)

Sienna is the elder by twenty-three minutes. She is patient. She has the patience of someone who has watched grain grow, which is a particular kind of patience that cannot be hurried. She is, in fact, slow on purpose. Children watching her on the chessboard sometimes find her almost too quiet. Castle, who has played enough games to know better, simply waits. Sienna's quiet is the kind that always pays off in the long run.

Bran is the younger. He is, in his calm way, cheerful. He does not sing while working, but he hums sometimes. He has the cheerfulness of someone who has been to the same harvest festival every year of his life. He believes — and has said so, on the board, more than once — that pawns are the backbone of any army. He is right. He is also not loud about being right.

The siblings dreamed, when they were small, of becoming queens. This is the dream of most pawns, and most pawns do not get it. Sienna and Bran did not. (Two of their cousins did. The siblings are not bitter. They are proud of their cousins. They write letters.)

Their job on the board is to be reliable. They are usually the c-pawn and f-pawn — the supporting wing pawns — and they hold their squares stubbornly. They are the pawn-pair Captain Castle most often points to when teaching children that holding ground is, in itself, a kind of victory.

Trotter and Trundle

Trotter and Trundle are roadside merchants from the kingdom's western highway, a road that runs from the capital out to the trading towns near the western border. They have, in their pre-board lives, sold leather goods (Trotter) and small woodcraft (Trundle) from a cart they pulled together up and down the highway for nearly a decade.

They are the jokesters of the pawn cohort.

This may seem unusual for pawns, who are otherwise the most-serious pieces on the board, but Trotter and Trundle have a particular reason for it: they have heard, over their decade on the road, every customer's joke in the kingdom. You cannot stand at a market stall for that long and not develop a kind of patient humour about how people behave. They are, by their own admission, professionally amused.

Trotter is taller and louder. (Loud by pawn standards. Captain Crossfire would call him "merely audible.") Trundle is shorter and more dry. Their jokes are usually structured as a setup-and-payoff, alternating between them — the way the Twin Knights of Fork Hill finish each other's sentences, but with worse rhythm and better punchlines.

A typical Trotter-Trundle exchange: - Trotter: "Two squares! On our first move!" - Trundle: "And nobody noticed!" - Both, together: "Don't tell the bishop."

The chess academy was, at first, slightly uncertain about hiring them. They worried the children would get distracted. Captain Castle pointed out, mildly, that distraction is a teaching tool when handled correctly. The academy hired them.

Their job on the board is to be a- and h-pawns — the outer wing pawns. They are the pawns who, in many games, get the first chance to push two squares forward unnoticed because everyone is watching the centre. They love this. They tell jokes about it.

Gable and Garrett

Gable and Garrett are from the town-rooftop wanderer tradition of the kingdom's northern hill towns. This requires explanation.

In the northern hills, the towns are old, and the houses are tall, and the roofs are connected. If you grow up in a northern hill town, you grow up climbing onto your neighbour's roof. You grow up walking across roof-tiles instead of streets. There is even a kind of unofficial profession in those towns: the wanderer, who walks the rooftops to deliver small messages, retrieve cats from chimneys, and notice things that ground-walking people don't notice.

Gable and Garrett are wanderers.

They are not siblings. They met when they were eleven, both walking the rooftops of the same town on the same morning, and they have walked rooftops together ever since. (They are not, in case you are wondering, twins disguised as friends. They are friends. It is allowed.)

Gable is the more thoughtful of the two. He looks down from rooftops and notices the shape of streets. He has, in his head, a perfect map of every town he has ever wandered. He is the quiet pawn of the cohort.

Garrett is the dreamer. He looks up from rooftops, mostly. He notices clouds. He notices birds. He notices the way the kingdom's banners change colour in different light. He is the pawn most likely to forget which square he's on. Gable always reminds him. Garrett always thanks Gable.

Both wanderers believe that the world looks smaller from above — which is a useful belief to have when you are a pawn on the eighth rank looking back at the long walk you've made.

Their job on the board is to be the promotion pawns. When a game reaches the endgame and a pawn looks like it might reach the far rank, it is usually Gable or Garrett. They are the dreamers. They are the ones who imagine becoming queens. Their cousins from Wheatsetter did. They might, too.