Lynn Flewelling - The Bone Doll's Twin

Tobin stared at the cloud, trying to puzzle out the sense of this new exploit. “What’s a bastard?”

“You know, a baby that comes when the man and woman haven’t made contract together.”

“Oh.” That didn’t really tell him anything. “How did it get in that girl’s belly?”

Ki reared up on one elbow and stared at him in disbelief. “You don’t know? Haven’t you ever watched animals at it?”

“At what?”

“Why, fucking , of course! Like when a stallion climbs a mare’s back, or a rooster treads a hen? Bilairy’s balls, Tobin, you must have seen dogs fuck, at least?”

“Oh, that!” Tobin knew what Ki meant now, though he’d never heard anyone call it that. Suspecting it to be another of those words Nari and Arkoniel didn’t approve of, he stored it away with delight. “You mean people do it, too?”

“Of course!”

Tobin sat up and wrapped his arms around his knees. The thought was intriguing and unsettling all at once. “But—how? Wouldn’t they fall over?”

Ki fell back, whooping with laughter. “Not hardly! You never have seen anyone at it, have you?”

“Have you?” Tobin challenged, wondering if Ki was making fun of him.

“At our house?” Ki snorted. “Gods, all the time! Father’s always on top of someone, and the older boys are at the maids or men, even, sometimes. It’s a wonder any of us sleeps nights! Like I told you, in most houses everyone sleeps all in the same room. ’Least the ones I’ve been in.”

When Tobin remained baffled as to the actual act, Ki found a couple of forked weed stalks and used them to illustrate a more detailed explanation.

“You mean it gets bigger?” Tobin asked, wide-eyed. “Doesn’t it hurt the girl?”

Ki stuck one of the stalks in the corner of his mouth and gave Tobin a wink. “From the sounds they make, I don’t hardly think so.”

He cocked an eye at the sun’s height. “I’m cold. Come on, let’s go riding before Nari decides it’s too late. Maybe we’ll find that witch of yours today!”

Tobin wasn’t sure whether or not he’d done wrong in telling Ki about Lhel. He couldn’t even remember exactly if she’d told him not to, but he had the guilty feeling that she had.

Ki had been spinning some yarn about a witch in his village one night as they lay in bed and Tobin blurted out that he knew one, too. Of course, Ki demanded details since his own story was only a made-up one he’d heard from a bard. In the end Tobin had told him about the dreams. He told him about getting lost, too, and about the hollow oak tree Lhel lived in, but he was careful to leave out any mention of the doll.

Since then it had been a secret quest between them to find her so Ki could meet her, too.

They went out riding nearly every day, but so far they’d found no sign of her. Tobin always came back from these searches with mixed feelings. As much as he wanted to see her again and find out what it was she meant to teach him, he was also relieved, in case she was angry with him for telling Ki.

Despite weeks of fruitless searching, Ki’s faith remained unshakable and he delighted in sharing Tobin’s secret.

That almost made up for those Tobin couldn’t share.

The boys kept an eye on the sun’s progress as they spurred their mounts up the road. The days were short now and storms blew down off the mountains fast.

Brother kept just ahead of them, moving with his usual stiff, unnatural walk that should have been too slow to keep up but wasn’t. No matter how fast they rode, he stayed ahead of them.

Ki had other concerns. “How is this witch of yours going to live in a tree all winter?”

“She had a fire,” Tobin reminded him.

“Yes, but the snow will cover the doorway, won’t it? She must have to burrow out like a rabbit. And what will she eat?”

Pondering this, they left their mounts tied by the road and set off on foot to explore an untried game trail Tobin had spotted a few days earlier. Following it to a dead end used up their last margin of daylight. The sun was almost touching the peaks when they finally gave up and headed back; they’d have to lather their mounts to get back before Nari began to fret.

Ki had just mounted and Tobin had one foot in the stirrup when their horses shied. Gosi reared, throwing Tobin backward off his feet, then galloped away down the road. Tobin came down hard on his back with a grunt of surprise. Raising his head, he saw Ki trying to rein in Dragon as he careened away after Gosi. Both horses disappeared around a bend in the road, taking Ki with them.

“Damn!” he wheezed. He was halfway to his feet when a thunderous growl froze him in a crouch. Looking slowly to his right, he found himself facing a catamount that crouched at the edge of the trees across the road.

The great cat’s tawny coat blended well with the winter cover, but its yellow eyes looked as big as the lids of nail kegs and they were fixed on him. It watched him, belly low to the ground, tail stirring the dead leaves and snow as it twitched this way and that. Then, like a nightmare, it glided out a step toward him, then two, muscles bunching and rippling across its shoulders.

It was stalking him.

There was no point in running. Tobin was too scared to even close his eyes.

The catamount took another step then stopped, ears pressed flat to its blunt head as Brother appeared between them.

The cat could see him. It crouched lower and snarled, showing cruel curved fangs as long as Tobin’s thumbs. Beyond fear now, Tobin couldn’t move.

The catamount screamed and lashed out at the ghost. The huge paw raked the air less than a yard from Tobin’s chest, close enough for him to feel the air move and see the hooked claws rake through Brother’s belly. Brother didn’t move. The beast snarled again and gathered itself to spring.

Tobin heard someone running toward them. It was Ki, charging back on foot with his long hair flying around his head. He let out a fierce yell and ran straight at the catamount, brandishing nothing but a long, knobby stick.

“No!” Tobin screamed, but it was too late. The cat sprang and struck Ki full in the chest. Together they tumbled across the road and came to rest with the catamount on top.

For one awful moment Tobin felt time stop, just like it had when his mother was falling away from him down the side of the tower. Ki was on his back beneath the catamount; all Tobin could see were his friend’s splayed legs and the catamount’s hind foot braced against his belly, poised to gut him like a squirrel.

But neither Ki nor the cat moved, and now Brother was standing over them. Tobin was hardly aware that he was running until he threw himself on the catamount’s back and grappled the huge head away from Ki’s throat. The beast was limp, dead weight in his hands.

“Ki! Ki, are you dead?” Tobin cried, trying to wrestle the heavy carcass off his friend.

“I don’t think so,” came the faint reply. Ki began to struggle, and between the two of them they managed to heave the catamount aside. Ki emerged pale and shaking but unquestionably alive. The front of his tunic had several jagged tears and blood trickled down onto the lacings from a long scratch on his neck. Tobin dropped to his knees and stared at him, hardly able to believe what had just happened. Without a word, they turned to look at the huge she-cat lying beside them. The yellow eyes stared sightlessly into the ditch. Dark blood stained the snow under her gaping jaws.

Ki found his voice first. “Bilairy’s hairy bag!” he croaked, his voice a full octave higher than normal. “What happened?”

“I think Brother killed her!” Tobin stared in wonder at the ghost crouching now over the dead cat. “He got between me and her and stopped her charge. But then you came running in with … What were you thinking , running at her with—with a stick ?”