The Bone Doll's Twin by Lynn Flewelling Read Free Book Online Page A

son’s future companion.”
    “Indeed it is,” the king said. “Yes, you have my leave, brother, and my blessing. And I’ve brought a priest to make an offering for our little warrior.”
    “You have my thanks, brother,” said Rhius.
    The priest went to the hearth and began his droning prayers, casting resins and little wax offerings into the flames.
    “By the Flame, he’ll make a great playfellow for my Korin in a few years’ time,” the king went on. “Just think of the two of them, hunting and learning the sword together when your Tobin comes to join the Companions. Just like you and I were, eh? But there was a twin, too, I believe?”
    Yes, thought Arkoniel, the king’s spies had been thorough, after all.
    Nari bent down and lifted another tiny bundle from behind the bed. Keeping her back to the princess, she brought it around to the king. “A poor little girl child, my king. Never drew breath.”
    Erius and the others examined the dead child just as closely, moving its flaccid limbs about, verifying the gender, and feeling its chest and neck for signs of life. Watching from the corner of his eye, Arkoniel saw the king cast a quick, questioning look at his wizard.
    They know something. They’re seeking something
, Arkoniel thought dizzily. Niryn’s question about dreams suddenly took on a dire resonance. Had the man had a vision of his own, a vision of this child? If so, then Lhel’s magic did its work again, for the older wizard replied with a quick shake of his head. Whatever they were looking for, they hadn’t found it here. Arkoniel glanced away before any expression of relief could betray him.
    The king handed the body back to Nari and clasped Rhius by the shoulders. “It’s a hard thing, losing a child. Sakor knows I still grieve for my lost ones and their dear mother. It’s cold comfort for you, I know, but it’s best this way, before you’d both gotten attached.”
    “As you say,” Rhius replied softly.
    Giving Rhius a last brotherly thump on the shoulder, Erius went to the bed and kissed his sister gently on the forehead.
    The sight made the blood pound in Arkoniel’s head as he thought of the swordsmen in the hall below. This usurper, this killer of girls and women, might love his little sister enough to spare her life, but as the Lightbearer had shown, that forbearance did not extend to her children. He kept his gaze fixed on the floor as the king and his councilors swept out, imagining how differently this little drama would have played out if Erius had found a living girl child here.
    As soon as the door closed behind them, Arkoniel’s knees turned to water and he sank into a chair.
    But the ordeal was not yet over. Ariani opened her eyes and saw the dead child Nari held. Pulling herself up against the bolsters, she held out her arms for it. “Thank the Light! I knew I heard a second cry, but I had the most awful dream—”
    The nurse exchanged a look with Rhius and Ariani’s smile faltered. “What is it? Give me my child.”
    “It was stillborn, my love,” Rhius said. “Let it be. Look, here’s our fine son.”
    “No, I heard it cry!” Ariani insisted.
    Rhius brought little Tobin to her, but she ignored him, staring instead at the child the nurse held. “Give him to me, woman! I command it!”
    There was no dissuading her. Ignoring the soft cry of the living child, she took the dead one in her arms and her face went whiter still.
    Arkoniel knew in that instant that Lhel’s magic could not deceive the child’s mother the way that it had the others. Twisting his mind to see through her eyes, he caught a glimpse of the strips of skin Lhel had cut from each child’s breast and sewn with spider-fine stitches into the wound left on its twin, just over the heart. With this exchange of flesh, the transformation had been sealed. The girl child would retain the semblance of male form for as long as Iya deemed necessary, just as her dead brother had taken her form to deceive the