Lynn Flewelling - The Bone Doll's Twin

He left the town behind and rode on along the familiar road between autumn-colored trees. It had looked much the same the first time his father took him to Alestun nearly half his life ago. He was glad to be here again, even if it did prove to be for the last time. Better to die here than in the city. He hoped they’d leave his body somewhere in the forest. He didn’t want to be on one of those stone shelves under the stone queens. He belonged here.

He’d just caught a glimpse of the tower roof over the treetops when Lhel stepped out of the trees ahead of him. Tears of relief burned his eyes.

“Keesa, you come,” she said, walking out into the road to meet him.

“I saw the blood, Lhel.” His voice was as faint as Brother’s. “I’m sick. I’ve brought plague.”

She grasped his ankle and squinted up into his face, then gave his foot a reassuring pat. “No, keesa. No plague.”

Pulling his foot out of the stirrup, she climbed up behind him and took the reins.

He remembered little of the ride that followed except for the warmth of her body against his back. It felt good.

The next thing he knew she was helping him down out of the saddle with hands as cool as river water. There was the house oak, with its baskets and racks, and the round shining pool of the spring glimmering like a green and gold mirror just beyond.

A cheerful fire crackled in front of the door. She guided him to a log seat beside it, pulled a fur robe around him, and placed a wooden cup of boiled herb tea in his hands. Tobin sipped it, grateful for the warmth. The soft fur of the robe was tawny cream and brown—catamount fur. Ki’s catamount, he thought, wishing his friend was here.

“What’s wrong with me?” he rasped.

“Show blood.”

Tobin pulled down the neck of his tunic to show her the seeping patch on his chest. “You say I’m not sick, but look! What else would do this?”

Lhel touched the damp flesh and sighed. “We asked much of the Mother. Too much, I think.”

“My mother?”

“Her, yes, but Goddess mother is the one I speak. You have pains there?”

“Some, but mostly in my belly.”

Lhel nodded. “Blood other place?”

Embarrassed, Tobin pulled up his jerkin and showed her where the first stain had soaked through his trousers.

Lhel placed her hands on his head and spoke softly in words he didn’t understand.

“Ah, too soon, keesa. Too soon,” she said, sounding sad. “Perhaps I did wrong, making Brother’s hekkamari keeping you so close. I must bring Arkoniel. You eat while I go.”

“Can’t I go with you? I want to see Nari!” Tobin begged. “Later, keesa.”

She brought him warm porridge, berries, and bread, then strode away through the trees.

Tobin huddled deeper into the robe and took a bite of the bread. Stolen from Cook’s kitchen, no doubt. The taste of it made him even more homesick. He longed to run after Lhel and sit by the kitchen fire with Cook and Nari. Being so close, dressed in his old clothes, it was easy to pretend that he’d never left home at all.

Except that Ki wasn’t here. Tobin ran his fingers along the edge of the catamount skin, wondering what he was going to say to him when he went back. What must Ki and Tharin and the others be thinking by now?

He pushed that worry away for later and touched the blood on his chest again. He wasn’t a plague carrier after all, but something was wrong. Maybe something even worse.

It was almost daylight when Ki reached the turning of the road for Alestun, but he missed it all the same, only having been this way once before. He was clear past it when Brother suddenly appeared in the road in front of him, startling his horse.

“So there you are!” Ki muttered, snubbing the reins to calm Dragon as he shied.

The ghost pointed back the way he’d come. Ki turned and saw the marker he’d missed at the crossroads behind him. “Many thanks, Brother.”

He was almost used to the ghost by now. Or maybe he was just too tired and hungry and worried about what he was going to find at the end of this night’s long ride to have any fear to spare. Whatever the case, he was glad enough when Brother stayed with him and led the way to Alestun.

It was a warm morning for mid-Erasin. A mist rose off the dripping trees, ghostly in the thin light of the false dawn.

“Is Tobin well?” he asked, assuming Brother would know something of his twin’s condition. But Brother neither turned nor spoke, just moved on ahead of him in that odd, not-walking way of his. Watching him for a while, Ki began to think he’d been more comfortable alone after all.

Arkoniel looked up from his washbasin to find Lhel’s face floating before him.

“You come now,” she said, and there was no mistaking the urgency in her voice. “Tobin is with me. Magic has broken.”

Arkoniel hastily dried his face and ran out to the stable. He didn’t bother with a saddle, just grasped the bridle and clung on to his gelding’s back as he rode up the mountain road to meet the witch.

She was waiting for him at the forest’s edge, as always. He left the horse and followed her on foot through the trees by what felt like a shorter route than usual. For over two years he’d been her pupil, her lover, yet she had still not entrusted him with the way to her home.

At the clearing he found Tobin sitting by the fire wrapped in a catamount skin. The child’s face was drawn and sallow, and there were dark circles under his eyes. He’d been dozing, but looked up sharply at their approach.

“Tobin, how are you feeling?” Arkoniel asked, kneeling in front of him. Was it his imagination, or had the familiar planes of that face shifted already, ever so slightly?

“A little better,” Tobin replied, looking scared. “Lhel says I don’t have plague.”

“No, of course you don’t!”

“But tell me what is happening to me!” Tobin showed him a bloody smear on his flat, smooth chest. “It just keeps leaking out and it’s starting to hurt again. It must be the Red and Black Death. What else would do this?”

“Magic,” said Arkoniel. “A magic worked on you long ago that’s coming undone before its time. I’m so sorry. You were never meant to find out this way.”

As he’d feared, Tobin only looked more frightened at this. “Magic? On me?”

“Yes. Lhel’s magic.”

Tobin cast a betrayed look at the witch. “But why? When did you do it? When you put my blood on the doll?”

“No, keesa. Much older time ago. When you is born. Iya and Arkoniel came to me, ask for it. Say your moon god want it. Your father want it. Part of your warrior path. Come, it’s better to show than to tell you.”

Ki had planned to go straight to the keep and fetch Arkoniel, but Brother would have none of it.

Follow , the spirit demanded in his hoarse whispery voice. Ki didn’t dare disobey.

Brother guided him to a game track that skirted the meadow and crossed the river at a ford further upstream.

Ki peeked into the bag at the worn old doll as he rode, wondering how such a thing could matter to a ghost. But clearly it did, for Brother was suddenly at his stirrup and Ki felt cold all over.

Not for you! hissed Brother, gripping his leg with icy fingers.

“I don’t want it!” Ki snugged the bag shut and stuffed it between his leg and the saddle.

The way quickly became steep on the other side of the ford and began to look familiar. Ki recognized a large stone that they’d used for a table one summer day, picnicking with Arkoniel and Lhel. It couldn’t be much farther now.

Tired as he was, and uneasy with Brother, Ki couldn’t help smiling as he thought how surprised everyone would be to see him.

Tobin shivered as he bent over the spring’s smooth surface. Lhel had made him take off his tunic and shirt. Looking down, he could see his face and the red smear on his chest. He wondered if he should wash it away, but didn’t dare. Lhel and Arkoniel were still looking at him so strangely.