Lynn Flewelling - The Bone Doll's Twin

“That’s a nice one, too.” Ki touched his thumb to the scar on Tobin’s chin. “It looks just like Illior’s moon. Bet that makes it lucky. How’d you get it?”

Tobin jerked back. “I—I fell.”

He wished that Ki was right about the scar being lucky, but he was certain it wasn’t. Just thinking about it made him feel bad.

“Well, don’t fret yourself,” said Ki. “You’re just not used to my way of fighting. I’ll learn—ah, teach you, if you like. I’ll go slow, too. Promise.” He touched his sword to his brow and gave Tobin a bucktoothed grin. “Shall we go again, my prince?”

The bad feeling quickly passed as he and Ki began again. This boy was different than anyone he’d ever met, except maybe Tharin. Even though he was older and obviously knew more of the world than Tobin, there was nothing behind his eyes or smile that didn’t match what he said. Tobin felt all strange inside when Ki grinned at him, but it was a good feeling, like the way he’d felt in his dream where Brother was alive.

Ki kept his word, too. He went more slowly this time, and tried to explain what he was doing and how Tobin could defend himself. In this way, Tobin saw that he was using the same thrusts and guards that Tharin had taught him.

They started slow, stepping through the positions, but soon Tobin found himself having to work to keep his guard up. Their wooden blades clacked together like a heron’s beak, and their shadows jumped and darted like moths in the moonlight.

Ki was the more aggressive fighter, but he didn’t have the control that Tharin had instilled in Tobin. Ducking a wild swing, Tobin lunged forward and struck Ki across the ribs. The older boy dropped his sword and collapsed in an ungainly heap at his feet.

“I’m slain, Your Highness!” he gasped, pretending to hold his guts in. “Send my ashes home to my father!”

Tobin had never seen anything like this, either. It was so absurd that he laughed, hesitantly at first out of surprise, then louder because it felt so good when Ki joined in.

“Damn your ashes!” Tobin giggled, feeling giddy and wicked.

This started Ki laughing again and their voices echoed together off the courtyard walls. Ki made faces, screwing up his eyes and hanging his tongue out of the side of his mouth. Tobin laughed so hard his sides hurt and his eyes watered.

“By the Four, what a racket!”

Tobin turned to find Nari and Tharin watching them from the gateway.

“You haven’t hurt him, have you, Tobin?” Nari demanded.

Tharin chuckled. “What do you say, Ki? Will you live?”

Ki scrambled to his feet and bowed. “Yes, Sir Tharin.”

“Come along, you two,” Nari said, shooing them toward the door. “Ki’s had a long ride and you’ve been feeling ill, Tobin. It’s time you were both off to bed.”

Tobin stifled the sudden urge to shout, “Damn your bed!” settling instead for an exchanged smirk with Ki. As they headed back into the house, he heard Tharin chuckle again and whisper to Nari, “You have been exiled too long, girl, if you don’t recognize play when you see it!”

It wasn’t until they reached Tobin’s door that he realized Ki was to share both his chamber and his bed. Ki’s small traveling bundle lay on the disused chest where Tobin had the doll hidden, and an unfamiliar bow and quiver leaned in the corner next to his own.

“But, he can’t!” Tobin whispered, tugging Nari back out into the corridor. What would Brother do? And what if Ki found the doll or saw him with it?

“Now, now. You’re too old for a nurse,” Nari murmured. “A boy your age should have been sharing a room with a companion long since.” She rubbed at her eyes, and Tobin saw she was trying not to cry. “I should have told you, I know, pet, but I didn’t think he’d get here so soon and—Well, this is the way it must be.” She was using her firm voice now, the one that warned there was no use in arguing. “I’ll sleep down in the hall now, with the others. Just call down if you need me, like you always do when you’re in bed before me.”

Ki must have heard them. When Tobin and Nari came back in, he was standing in the middle of the room looking uncertain again. Nari bustled over to the bed and went to put his bundle away in the chest. “We’ll just stow your things in here. Tobin doesn’t—”

“No!” Tobin cried. “No, you can’t put that in there.”

“Tobin, shame on you!”

Ki had his head down now, looking as if he wanted to sink into the floor.

“No, it’s just—I have ink jars in there,” he explained hastily. The words came easily, being true. The doll was hidden in the flour sack under a heap of parchments and his drawing tools. “There’s ink and pens and wax and things. They’d soil his clothes. There’s lots of room in the wardrobe, though. Put your things in with mine, Ki. We can share. Like—like brothers!”

He felt his face go hot. Where had those last words come from? But Ki was smiling again and Nari looked pleased.

Nari put Ki’s few belongings into the wardrobe and made them wash their teeth and faces. Tobin stripped down to his shirt and climbed into bed, but Ki seemed hesitant again.

“Go on, lad,” Nari urged. “Strip off and get in. I put a warm brick down the end to take the chill off.”

“I don’t strip off to sleep,” Ki told her.

“That’s all well and good for country folk, but you’re in a noble house now, so the sooner you learn our ways, the better for you.”

Ki mumbled something else as his cheeks flamed.

“What’s the matter, boy?”

“I don’t have a shirt,” Ki told her.

“No shirt?” Nari clucked her tongue. “Well now, I’ll go find you one. But see that you skin out of those dusty things before I get back. I don’t want your road dirt in the clean linens.”

She lit the night lamp and blew out the others. Then she kissed Tobin soundly on the cheek, and Ki, too, making him blush again.

He waited until the door had closed behind her, then pulled off his tunic and trousers and hurried under the covers to keep warm. As he got in, Tobin saw that Ki’s slender body was almost as brown as his face, except for a band of pale skin around his hips and privates.

“How come you’re only white there?” asked Tobin, whose own body was fair as new butter summer and winter.

Shivering, Ki snuggled in next to him. “We wear clouts, swimming. There’s snapper turtles in the river and you don’t want them biting off your diddler!”

Tobin giggled again, though more at the oddness of having a stranger in Nari’s place than what Ki had said. Nari returned with one of Tharin’s old shirts and Ki struggled into it under the covers.

Nari kissed them both again and went out, shutting the door softly behind her.

Both boys lay quiet for a while, watching the play of lamplight on the carved beams overhead. Ki was still shivering.

“Are you cold?” asked Tobin, shifting away from a sharp elbow.

“You’re not?” Ki said through chattering teeth. “Well, I guess you’re used to it.” “Used to what?”

“Sleeping bare, or almost, with just one person for warmth. Like I told you before, my brothers and me sleep all together in our clothes. It’s nice, mostly, especially in winter.” He sighed. “’Course, Amin gets the farts, which makes it that much warmer.”

Both boys dissolved into laughter again, shaking the bed.

“I’ve never heard anyone talk like you!” Tobin gasped, wiping his eyes on the edge of the sheet.

“Oh, I’m a bad character. Ask anyone. Hey, what’s that?” He pushed back Tobin’s left sleeve to inspect the birthmark. “Did you burn yourself?”

“No, I’ve always had it. Father says it’s a sign I’m wise.”