Hidden Warrior Read Free

beside the bed, even though Tobin hadn’t spoken the summoning words. The ghost’s chill presence rolled over him in waves.
    “No!” Tobin covered his ears. “I know who I am.”
    “I’m the boy!” Brother hissed. Then, with a mean leer, “Sister.”
    “No!” Tobin shuddered and buried his face in the pillow.
“No no no no!”
    Gentle hands lifted him. Nari held him tight, stroking his head. “What is it, pet? What’s wrong?” She was still dressed for the day, but her brown hair was unbound over her shoulders. Brother was still there, but she didn’t seem to notice him.
    Tobin clung to her for a moment, hiding his face against her shoulder the way he used to, before pride made him pull back.
    “You knew,” he whispered, remembering. “Lhel told me. You always knew! Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “Because I told her not to.” Iya stepped partway into the little circle of light. It left half her square, wrinkled face in shadow, but he knew her by her worn traveling gown and the thin, iron-grey braid that hung over one shoulder to her waist.
    Brother knew her, too. He disappeared, but an instant later the doll flew off the chest and struck the old woman in the face. The wooden swords followed, clacking like a crane’s bill as she fended them off with an upraised hand.Then the heavy wardrobe began to shake ominously, grating across the floor in Iya’s direction.
    “Stop it!” cried Tobin.
    The wardrobe stopped moving and Brother reappeared by the bed, hatred crackling in the air around him as he glared at the old wizard. Iya flinched, but did not back away.
    “You can see him?” asked Tobin.
    “Yes. He’s been with you ever since Lhel completed the new binding.”
    “Can you see him, Nari?”
    She shivered. “No, thank the Light. But I can feel him.”
    Tobin turned back to the wizard. “Lhel said
you
told her to do it! She said you wanted me to look like my brother.”
    “I did what Illior required of me.” Iya settled at the foot of the bed. The light struck her full on now. She looked tired and old, yet there was hardness in her eyes that made him glad Nari was still beside him.
    “It was Illior’s will,” Iya said again. “What was done was done for Skala’s sake, as much as for you. The day is coming when you must rule, Tobin, as your mother should have ruled.”
    “I don’t want to!”
    “I shouldn’t wonder, child.” Iya sighed and some of the hardness left her face. “You were never meant to find out the truth so young. It must have been a terrible shock, especially the way you found out.”
    Tobin looked away, mortified. He’d thought the blood seeping between his legs had been the first sign of the plague. The truth had been worse.
    “Even Lhel was taken by surprise. Arkoniel tells me she showed you your true face before she wove the new magic.”
    “This is my true face!”
    “My face!”
Brother snarled.
    Nari jumped and Tobin guessed even she’d heard that.He took a closer look at Brother; the ghost looked more solid than he had for a long time, almost real. It occurred to Tobin that he’d been hearing his twin’s voice out loud, too, not just a whisper in his mind like before.
    “He’s rather distracting,” said Iya. “Could you send him away, please? And ask him not to make a fuss around the place this time?”
    Tobin was tempted to refuse, but for Nari’s sake he whispered the words Lhel had taught him. “Blood, my blood. Flesh, my flesh. Bone, my bone.” Brother vanished like a snuffed candle and the room felt warmer.
    “That’s better!” Taking up the bowl, Nari went to the brazier and dipped up the broth she had warming in a pot on the coals. “Here, get some of this into you. You’ve hardly eaten in days.”
    Ignoring the spoon, Tobin took the bowl and drank from it. This was Cook’s special sickroom broth, rich with beef marrow, parsley, wine, and milk, along with the healing herbs.
    He drained the bowl and Nari refilled it. Iya leaned over and