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

king.
    “What have you done?” Ariani gasped, staring up at Rhius.
    “Later, my love, when you’re rested—Give that one back to Nari and take your son. See how strong he is? And he has your blue eyes—”
    “Son? That is no son!” Ariani cut him off with a venomous glare. No amount of reasoning prevailed. When Rhius tried to take the dead child from her, she lurchedfrom the bed and fled to the far corner of the room, clutching the tiny corpse against her stained nightdress.
    “This is too much!” Arkoniel whispered. Going to the frantic woman, he knelt before her.
    She looked up at him in surprise. “Arkoniel? Look, I have a son. Isn’t he pretty?”
    Arkoniel tried to smile. “Yes, Your Highness, he’s-he’s perfect.” He touched her brow gently, clouding her mind and sending her once more into a deep sleep. “Forgive me.”
    He reached for the little body, then froze in fear.
    The dead child’s eyes were open. Blue as a kitten’s one moment, the irises went black as Arkoniel watched and fixed accusingly on him. An unmistakable chill radiated from the little body, slowly spreading to envelop the wizard.
    This was the cost of that first breath. The spirit of the murdered child had been drawn into its body just long enough to take hold and become a ghost, or worse.
    “By the Four, what’s happening?” Rhius rasped, leaning over him.
    “There’s nothing to fear,” Arkoniel said quickly, though in truth this tiny unnatural creature struck fear to the core of his heart.
    Nari knelt beside him and whispered, “The witch said to take it away quickly. She said you must put it in the ground under a large tree. There’s a great chestnut in the rear courtyard by the summer kitchen. The roots will hold the demon down. Hurry! The longer it stays here, the stronger it will grow!”
    It took every bit of courage Arkoniel possessed to touch the dead child. Taking it from Ariani’s arms, he covered its face with a corner of the wrappings and hurried out. Nari was right; the waves of icy coldness pouring from the lifeless body grew stronger by the moment. They made his joints ache as he bore it downstairs and out through the back passage of the house.
    The moon watched like an accusing eye as Arkoniel placed his cursed burden at the foot of the chestnut tree and mouthed,
forgive me
once more. But he expected no forgiveness for this night’s work and wept as he wove his spell. His tears fell on the little bundle as he bent to watch it sink down into the earth’s cold embrace between the gnarled roots.
    The faint wail of an infant came to him on the cold night air and he shuddered, not knowing if it came from the living child or the dead one.

Chapter 3
    F or all their power, these Orëska wizards are very stupid. And arrogant
, Lhel thought as Iya urged her down a back stair and away from the cursed house.
    The witch spat thrice to the left, hoping to cut the bad luck that had bound them together all these weeks. A real storm crow, this wizard. Why hadn’t she seen it sooner?
    Lhel had scarely had time to finish the last stitch on the living child before the elder wizard was urging her away. “I’m not finished! The spirit—”
    “The king is downstairs!” Iya hissed, as if this should mean something to her. “If he finds you here, we’ll all be spirits. I will force you if I must.”
    What choice did she have? So Lhel had followed, thinking,
Be it on your head, then.
    But the further they got from that house, the more it weighed on her heart. To treat the dead so brutally was a dangerous affront to the Mother, and to Lhel’s craft. This wizard woman had no honor, to abandon a child’s spirit like that. Arkoniel might have been made to listen, but Lhel had long since realized that he had no voice in the matter. Their god had spoken to Iya and Iya would listen to no other.
    Lhel spat again, just for good measure.
    L hel had dreamed the coming of the two wizards for a full month before they’d appeared in