Song of the Siberian Tiger
By Falling_Ashz
Chapter One: Twins
"That is my decision. We need not discuss it," said the man at the desk. He was already looking at a book. His two children left the room, closing the door behind them.
"He doesn't want us around," one boy muttered. "He doesn't care what /we/ want."
"We /know/ that," was the other boy's answer. "He doesn't care about anything, except his books and scrolls."
The first boy hit the wall. "I don't /want/ to be a knight! I want to be a great sorcerer! I want to slay demons and walk with the gods-"
"Do you think I want to be a monk?" his younger brother asked. ""Be quiet, Ken,"" he said harshly. ""Prey harder, Ken. Head down, Ken.' As if that's all I can do with myself!" He paced the floor. "There has to be another way."
The older boy watched the younger boy. Thom and Ken of Hidaka were twins, with both chocolate brown hair and unusual silver-grey eyes. The only difference between them-as far as most people could tell-was the length of their hair and Ken had a more feminine/cute look to him, courtesy of his Selphin blood. Even though they were twins, Thom was one hundred percent human and Ken was half Selphin. He got it from his mother. Selphins were cat-like creatures with a mixture of human and cat feature, but mostly cat. They also tended to be small and short.
"Face it," Thom told Ken, "Tomorrow /you/ leave for the convent, and /I/ go to the palace. That's it."
"Why do you get all the fun?" Ken complained. "I'll have to learn to prey and chant. You'll study tilting, fencing-"
"D'you think I /like/ that stuff?" Thom yelled. "I /hate/ falling down and whacking at things! /You're/ the one who likes it, not me!"
Ken grinned. "/You/ should've been Ken. They always teach the Selphies magic-" The thought hit him so suddenly that he gasped. "Thom. That's it!"
From the look on his face, Thom knew his brother had just come up with yet another crazy idea. "/What's/ it?" he asked suspiciously.
Ken looked around and checked the hall for servants. "Tomorrow he gives us the letters for the man who trains the pages and the people at the convent. You can imitate his writing, so you can do new letters. /You/ go to the convent. Say in the letter that you're to be a sorcerer. The Daughters of the Goddess are the ones who train young boys in magic, remember? When you're older, they'll send you to the priests. And I'll go to the palace and learn to be a knight!"
"That's crazy," Thom argued. "What about your hair? You can't go swimming naked, either. And you'll turn into a Selphie--you know, with the ears and everything."
"I'll cut my hair," he replied. "And-well, I'll handle the rest when it happens."
"What about Coram and Maude? They'll be traveling with us, and they can tell us apart. They know we aren't the same. I have no Selphie blood in my veins and you do."
Ken chewed his thumb, thinking this over. "I'll tell Coram we'll work magic on him if he says anything," he said at last. "He hates magic--that ought to be enough. And maybe we can talk to Maude."
Thom considered it, looking at his hands. "You think we could?" he whispered.
Ken looked at his twin's hopeful face. Part of him wanted to stop this before it got out of hand, but not a very big part. "If you don't lose your nerve," he told his twin. /And if I don't lose mine/, he thought.
"What about Father?" Thom was already looking into the distance, seeing the City of the Gods.
Ken shook his head. "He'll forget us, once we're gone." He eyed Thom. "D'you want to be a sorcerer bad enough?" he demanded. "It means years of studying and work for us both. Will you have the guts for it?"
Thom straightened his tunic. His eyes were cold. "Just show me the way!"
Ken nodded. "Let's go find Maude."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Maude, the village healer, listened to them and said nothing. When Ken finished, the woman turned and stared out the door for long minutes Finally she looked at the twins again.
They didn't know it but Maude was in difficulty. She had taught them all the magic she possessed. They were both capable of learning much more, but there were no other teachers at Hidaka. Thom wanted everything he could get from his magic, but he disliked people. He listened to Maude only because he thought she had something left to teach him; he hated Coram-the other adult who looked after the twins-because Coram made him feel stupid. The only person in the world Thom loved, besides himself, was Ken. Maude thought about Ken and sighed. The boy was afraid of his magic. Thom had to be ordered to hunt, and Ken had to be tricked and begged into trying spells.
The woman had been looking forward to the day when someone else would have to handle these two. Now it seemed the gods were going test her through them one last time.
She shook her head. "I cannot make such a decision without help. I must try and See, in the fire."
Thom frowned. "I thought you couldn't. I thought you could only heal."
Maude wiped sweat from her face. She was afraid. "Never mind what I can do and what I cannot do," she napped. "Ken, bring wood. Thom, vervain."
They rushed to do as she said, Ken returning first to add wood to the fire already burning on the hearth. Thom soon followed, carrying leaves from the magic plant vervain.
Maude knelt before the hearth and motioned the twins to sit on either side of her. She felt sweat running down her back. People who tried to use magic the gods had not given them often died in ugly ways. Maude gave a silent prayer to the Great Mother Goddess, promising good behavior for the rest of her days if only the Goddess would keep her in one piece through this.
She tossed the leaves onto the fire, her lips moving silently with the sacred words. Power from her and from the twins slowly filled the fire. The flames turned green Maude's sorcery and silver for the twins'. The woman drew a deep breath and grabbed the twins' left hands, thrusting them into the fire. Power shot up their arms. Thom yelped and wriggled with the pain of the magic now filling him up. Ken bit his lower lip until it bled, fighting the pain his own way. Maude's eyes were wide and blank as she kept their hands intertwined hands in the flames.
Suddenly Ken frowned. A picture was forming in the fire. That was impossible--/he/ wasn't supposed to See anything. Maude was the only one who should See anything.
Ignoring all the laws of magic Ken had been taught, the pictures grew and spread. It was a city made all of black, shiny stone. Ken leaned forward squinting to see it better. He had never seen anything like this city. The sun beat down on gleaming walls and towers. Ken was afraid-more afraid than he had ever been before.
Maude let go of the twins. The picture vanished. Ken was cold now, and very confused. What had that city been? And where was it?
Thom examined his hand. There were no burn marks, or even scars. There was nothing to show that Maude had kept their hands in the flames for long minutes.
Maude rocked back on her heels. She looked old and tired. "I have seen many things I do not understand," she whispered finally. "Many things-"
"Did you see the city?" Ken wanted to know.
Maude looked at him sharply. "I saw no city."
Thom leaned forward. "/You/ saw something?" His voice was eager. "But Maude cast the spell-"
"No!" Ken snapped. "I didn't see anything! Anything!"
Thom decided to wait and ask him later, when he didn't look so scared. He turned to Maude. "Well?" he demanded.
The healing woman sighed. "Very well. Tomorrow Thom and I go to the City of the Gods."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
At dawn the next day, Lord Alan gave each of his children a sealed letter and his blessing before instructing Coram and Maude. Coram still did not know the change in plan. Ken did not intend to enlighten him until they were far from Hidaka.
Once Lord Alan let them go, Maude took the twins to Ken's room while Coram got the horses ready. The letters were quickly opened and read.
Lord Alan entrusted his son to the care of Duke Gareth of Naxen and his younger son to the First Father of the convent. Sums of money would be sent quarterly to pay for his children's upkeep until their teachers saw fit to return them to their home. He was busy with his studies and trusted the judgment of the Duke and the First Father in all matters. He was in their debt, Lord Alan of Hidaka.
Many letters went to the convent and to the palace every year. Usually the oldest son of a noble family learned the skills and duties of a knight at the King's palace. Younger sons would go first to the convent, then to the priests' cloisters, where they studied religion and sorcery.
Thom was expert at forging his father's handwriting. He wrote two new letters, one for Ken, and one for himself. Ken read them carefully, relieved to see that there was no way to tell the difference between Thom's work and the real thing. Thom sat back with a grin, knowing it might be years before the confusion was resolved.
Maude took Ken into the dressing room and cut his hair. Ken had it long, about to his shoulders, to hide his slightly pointed ears. They weren't very noticeable, but Ken worried that one-day they would become noticeable, and they will once he reached puberty.
"I've something to say to you," Maude said as the first lock of hair fell to the floor.
"What?" Ken asked nervously.
"You've a gift for healing." The shears worked on. "Its greater than mine, greater than any I have ever known. And you've other magic, power you'll learn to use. But the healing-that's the important thing. I had a dream last night. A warning, it was, as plain as if the gods shouted in my ear."
Ken, picturing this, stifled a giggle.
"It don't do to laugh at the gods," Maude told him sternly. "Though you'll find that our yourself, soon enough."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Never mind. Listen. Have you thought of the lives you'll take when you go off performing those great deeds?"
Ken bit his lip. "No," he admitted.
"I didn't think so. You see only the glory. However, there are lives taken and families without fathers and sorrow. Think before you fight. Think on whom you're fighting, if only because one day you must meet your match. And if you want to pay for those lives you do take, use your healing magic. Use it all you can, or you won't cleanse your soul of death for centuries. It's harder to heal than it is to kill. The Mother knows why, but you've a gift for both." Quickly she brushed Ken's cropped hair. "Keep your hood up for a bit, but you look enough like Thom to fool anyone but Coram."
Ken stared at himself in the mirror. His twin stared back, silver-grey eyes wide in his slightly tanned face. Grinning, he wrapped himself in his cloak. With a last peek at the boy in the mirror, he followed Maude out to the courtyard. Coram and Thom, already mounted up, waited for them. Thom rearranged his hat that was covering his eyes, to make it look like his hair was pulled up underneath it, and gave his brother a wink.
Maude stopped Ken as he went to mount the pony, Chubby. "Heal, child," the woman advised. "Heal all you can, or you'll pay for it. The gods mean for their gifts to be used."
Ken swung himself into the saddle and patted Chubby with a comforting hand. The pony, sensing that the good twin was on his back, stopped fidgeting. When Thom was ridding him, Chubby managed to dump him.
The twins and the two servants waved farewell to the assembled castle servants, who had come to see them off. Slowly they rode through the castle gate, Ken doing his best to imitate Thom's pout-or the pout Thom would be wearing if he were riding to the palace right now. Thom was looking down at his pony's ears, keeping his face hidden behind the hat. Everyone knew how the twins felt at being sent away
The road leading from the castle plunged into heavily overgrown and rocky country. For the next day or so they would be riding through the unfriendly forests of the Grimhold Mountains, the great natural border between Tortall and Scanra. It was familiar land to the twins. While it might seem dark and unfriendly to the people from the South, to Ken and Thom it would always be home.
At midmorning they cam to the meeting of Hidaka Way and the Great Road. Patrolled by the King's men, the Great Road led north to the distant City of the Gods. That was the way Thom and Maude would take. Ken and Coram were bound south, to the capital city of Corus, and the royal palace.
The two servants went apart to say goodbye and give the twins some privacy. Like Thom and Ken, it would be years before Coram and Maude saw each other again Though Maude would return to Hidaka, Coram was to remain with Ken, acting as his manservant during his years at the palace.
Ken looked at his brother and gave a little smile. "Here we are," he said.
"I wish I could say 'have fun,'" Thom said frankly, "but I can't see how anyone can have fun learning to be a knight. Good luck, though. If we're caught, we'll both be skinned."
"No one's going to catch us, brother." Ken reached across the distance between them, and they gripped hands warmly. "Good luck, Thom. Watch your back."
"There are a lot of tests ahead for you," Thom said earnestly. "Watch /your/ back."
"I'll pass the tests," Ken said. He knew they were brave words, almost foolhardy, but Thom looked as if he needed to hear them. They turned their ponies then and rejoined the adults.
"Let's go," Ken growled to Coram.
Maude and Thom took the left fork of the Great Road and Ken and Coram bore right. Ken halted suddenly, turning around to watch his brother ride off. He blinked the burning feeling from his eyes, but he couldn't ease the tight feeling in his throat. Something told him Thom would be very different when he saw him again. With a sigh he turned Chubby back towards the capital city.
Coram made a face and urged his big gelding forward. He would have preferred doing anything to escorting a finicky boy to the palace. Once he had been the hardiest soldier in the King's armies. Now he was going to be a joke. People would see that Thom was no warrior, and they would blame Coram-the man who was to have taught him the basics of the warrior's craft. He rode for hours without a word, thinking his own gloomy thoughts, too depressed to notice that Thom, who usually complained after an hour's ride, was silent as well.
Coram had been trained as a blacksmith, but he had been one of the best of the King's foot soldiers, until he had returned home to Hidaka Castle and become sergeant-at-arms there. Now he wanted to be with the King's soldiers again, but not if they were going to laugh at him because he had a weakling for a master. Why couldn't Ken have been normal; all human? /He/ was a fighter. Coram had taught him at first because to teach one twin was to teach the other, poor motherless things. Then he began to enjoy teaching him. He learned quickly and well-better than his older brother. With all his heart, Coram Smythesson wished now, as he had in the past, that Ken were the normal one.
He was about to get his wish, in a left-handed way. The sun was glinting from directly overhead-time for the noon meal. Coram grunted orders to the cloaked child, and they both dismounted in a clearing beside the road. Pulling bread and cheese from a saddlebag, he broke off a share and handed in over. He also took the wineskin down from his saddle horn.
"We'll make the wayhouse by dark, if not before," he rumbled. "Till then, we make do with this."
Ken removed his heavy cloak. "This is fine with me."
Coram chocked, spraying a mouthful of liquid all over the road. Ken had to clap him on the back before he caught his breath again.
"Brandy?" Coram whispered, looking at the wineskin. He returned to his immediate problem. "By the Black God!" he roared, turning a spotty purple. "We're going back this instant, and I'm tannin' yer hide for ye when we get home! Where's that devil's spawn brother of yours?"
"Coram, calm down," Ken said. "Have a drink."
"I don't want a drink," he snarled. "I want t'beat the two of ye till yer skins won't hold water!" He took a deep gulp from the wineskin.
"Thom's on his way to the City of the Gods with Maude," Ken explained. "She thinks we're doing the right thing."
Coram swore under his breath. "That witch /would/ agree with you two sorcerers. And what does yer father say?
"Why should he ever know?" Ken asked. "Coram, you know Thom doesn't want to be a knight. I do."
"I don't care if the two of ye want t'be dancing bears!" Coram told him, taking another swallow from the skin. "Ye're a Selphie.well half a Selphie."
"Who's to know?" Ken bent forward, his small face intent. "I'll be a knight- Thom'll be a sorcerer. It'll happen. Maude saw it for us in the fire."
Coram made the Sign against evil with his right hand. Magic made him nervous. Maude made him nervous. He drank again to settle his nerves. "Lad, it's a noble thought, a warrior's thoughts, but it'll never work. If yer not caught when ye bathe, because of the tattoo below your collarbone identifying who you are, ye'll be turning into a Selphie-"
"I can hide all that-with your help. If I can't, I'll disappear."
He made a face. "Father doesn't care about anything but his scrolls." He drew a breath. "Coram, I'm being nice. Thom wouldn't be this nice. D'you want to see things that aren't there for the next ten years? I can work that, you know. Remember when Cook was going to tell Father who ate the cherry tarts? Or the time Godmother tried to get Father to marry her?"
Coram turned pale. The afternoon the tarts were discovered missing, Cook started to see large, hungry lions following him around in the kitchens. Lord Alan never heard about the missing tarts. When the twins' godmother came to Hidaka to snare Lord Alan as her next husband, she had fled after only three days, claiming the castle was haunted.
"Ye wouldn't," Coram whispered. He had always suspected that the twins had been behind Cook's hallucinations and Lady Catherine's ghosts, but he had kept those thoughts to himself. Cook gave himself airs, and Lady Catherine was cruel to her servants.
Seeing he had struck a nerve, Ken changed tactics. "Thom can't shoot for beans, and I can. Thom wouldn't be a credit to you. I will, I think. You said yourself a grown man can't skin a rabbit faster'n me." He fed his last piece of bread to Chubby and looked at Coram with huge, pleading eyes. "Let's ride on. If you feel the same in the morning, we can turn back." He crossed his fingers as he lied. He had no intention of returning to Hidaka. "Just don't rush. Father won't know till it's too late."
Coram swigged again from the skin, getting up shakily. He mounted, watching the boy. They rode silently while Coram thought, and drank.
The threat about making him see things didn't worry him much. Instead, he thought of Thom's performance in archery-it was enough to make a soldier cry. Ken was much quicker that his older brother. He rarely tired, even hiking over rough country. He had a feel for the fighting arts, and that was something that never could be learned. He was also as stubborn as a mule.
Because he was absorbed in his thoughts, Coram never saw the wood snake glide across the road. Ken-and Coram's horse-spotted the slithery creature in the same second. The big gelding reared, almost throwing his master. Chubby stopped dead in the road, surprised by these antics. Coram yelled and fought to hold on as his mount bucked frantically, terrified by the snake. Ken never stopped to think. He threw himself from Chubby's saddle and grabbed for Coram's reins with both hands. Dodging the gelding's flying hooves frantically, he used all his strength and weight to pull the horse down before Coram fell and broke his neck.
The gelding, more surprised than anything else by the new weight on his reins, dropped to all fours. He trembled as Ken stroked his nose, whispering comforting words. He dug into a pocket and produced an apple for the horse, continuing to pet him until his shaking stopped.
When Ken looked up, Coram was watching him oddly. He had no way of knowing that Coram was imagining what Thom would have done in similar circumstances: his twin would have left Coram to fend for himself. Coram knew the kind of courage it took to calm a large, bucking horse. It was the kind of courage a knight needed in plenty. Even so, Ken was half Selphie. Selphies didn't become knights; it was unheard of, just like it was unheard of for a woman to be a knight.
By the time they arrived at the wayhouse, Coram was very drunk. The innkeeper helped him to bed while his wife fussed over "the poor wee lad." In his bed that night, Ken listened to Coram's snores with a wide grin on his lips. Maude had managed to fill the wineskin with Lord Alan's best brandy, hoping her old friend might be more open to reason with his joints well oiled.
Coram awoke the next morning with the worst hangover he had ever had. He moaned as Ken entered his room.
"Don't walk so loud," he begged.
Ken handed him a steaming mug. "Drink. Maude says this makes you feel better every time."
The man drank deeply, gasping as the hot liquid burned down his throat. But in the end, he /did/ feel better. He swung his feet to the floor, gently rubbing his tender scull. "I need a bath."
Ken pointed to the bath already waiting in the corner.
Coram glared at him from beneath his eyebrows. "Go order breakfast. And fine, we'll go to the palace so you can become a knight."
Ken yelped with joy and skipped from the room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Four days later they rode into Corus just after dawn. They were part of the stream of people entering the capital for the market day. Coram guided his horse through the crowds, while Ken tried to keep Chubby close behind him and still see everything. Never in his life had he encountered so many people! He saw merchants, slaves, priests, nobles. He could tell the Bazhir- desert tribesmen-by their heavy white burnooses, just as he spotted seamen by their braided pigtails. He was lucky that Chubby was inclined to stay near Coram's gelding, or he would have been lost in a second.
The marketplace itself was almost more than a boy from a mountain castle could take. Ken blinked his eyes at the bright colors-piles of orange and yellow fruits, hangings of bright blue and green, ropes of gold and silver chains. Some people were staring as openly as he was. Others shoved their goods under people's noses, shouting for them to buy. Women in tight dresses, eyed men from doorways, and children ran underfoot, sneaking their hands into pockets and purses.
Coram missed nothing. "Keep an eye to yer saddlebags," he called back to Ken. "There are some here as would steal their own mother's teeth!" He seemed to be directing this comment at a tall young man standing near Ken.
The lean young man grinned, white teeth flashing in his tanned face. "Who, me?" he asked innocently.
Coram snorted and kicked his horse onward. The man winked one bright green eye at Ken and vanished into the crowd. Ken watched him until someone shouted for him to watch himself. He wondered if he really was a thief. He seemed very nice.
They left the marketplace, taking the Market Way up a long, sloping hill. This led them through districts where rich merchants lived, up past the villas of even richer nobles. The crossing of Market Way and Harmony Way marked the beginning of the Temple District. Here the Market Way changed its name, becoming the Palace Way. Coram straightened his saddle. After years of soldiering, this was like coming home.
Ken saw countless temples as they rode through the district. He had heard that a hundred gods were worshiped in Corus. There were enough temples of that many, he thought. He even saw a troop of women dressed in armor, the guard of the Temple of the Great Mother Goddess. Theses women were armed with great double-headed axes, and they knew how to use them. Their duty was to keep men from ever setting foot on ground sacred to the Great Mother.
Ken grinned. Someday he would wear armor too, but he wouldn't be confined to temple grounds!
The ground suddenly rose steeply. The Temple District ended here. Above them, crowning the hill, was the royal palace. Ken looked at it and gasped. Ahead of him was the City Gate, carved with thousands of figures and trimmed with gold. Through this gate in the palace wall, kings and queens came down to the city on holy days. Through this gate the people went to see their rulers on Great Audience Days. The Gate was as high as the wall it pierced: a wall lined with soldiers dressed in the royal gold and red. Behind the wall, level after level of buildings and tower rose, up to the palace itself. The area had its own gardens, wells, stables, barracks and menagerie. Outside the wall on the other side lay the Royal Forest.
All these things Ken knew from his father's books and maps, but the reality took his breath away as a paragraph in a book never could.
Coram led the way to the courtyard beside the stables. Here servants awaited the arrival of guests, to show them to their rooms, to guide the arrivals' servants and to take charge of the horses. One such servant approached them.
Coram dismounted. "I'm Coram Smythesson, of Fief Hidaka. I'm come with Master Ken of Hidaka to begin his service at Court."
The hostler bowed. A royal page rated some respect, but not the respect a full-grown noble would get. "I'll be takin' the' horses, sir," he said, his voice thick with the accent of the city. "Omi!" he called.
A slender young man in royal livery hurried up. "Aye, Stefan?"
"One fer his Grace. I'll see t' the bags."
Ken dismounted and hugged Chubby for a second, feeling as if he were his last friend. He had to hurry to catch up with Timon and Coram.
"Ye'll show his Grace the proper respect," Coram growled in his ear. "A wizard with a sword, he is, and a better leader ye'll never meet."
Ken rubbed his nose anxiously. What if something went wrong? What if the Duke guessed?
He glanced at Coram. The man was sweating. Ken gritted his teeth and thrust his chin forward stubbornly. He would see this through.
By Falling_Ashz
Chapter One: Twins
"That is my decision. We need not discuss it," said the man at the desk. He was already looking at a book. His two children left the room, closing the door behind them.
"He doesn't want us around," one boy muttered. "He doesn't care what /we/ want."
"We /know/ that," was the other boy's answer. "He doesn't care about anything, except his books and scrolls."
The first boy hit the wall. "I don't /want/ to be a knight! I want to be a great sorcerer! I want to slay demons and walk with the gods-"
"Do you think I want to be a monk?" his younger brother asked. ""Be quiet, Ken,"" he said harshly. ""Prey harder, Ken. Head down, Ken.' As if that's all I can do with myself!" He paced the floor. "There has to be another way."
The older boy watched the younger boy. Thom and Ken of Hidaka were twins, with both chocolate brown hair and unusual silver-grey eyes. The only difference between them-as far as most people could tell-was the length of their hair and Ken had a more feminine/cute look to him, courtesy of his Selphin blood. Even though they were twins, Thom was one hundred percent human and Ken was half Selphin. He got it from his mother. Selphins were cat-like creatures with a mixture of human and cat feature, but mostly cat. They also tended to be small and short.
"Face it," Thom told Ken, "Tomorrow /you/ leave for the convent, and /I/ go to the palace. That's it."
"Why do you get all the fun?" Ken complained. "I'll have to learn to prey and chant. You'll study tilting, fencing-"
"D'you think I /like/ that stuff?" Thom yelled. "I /hate/ falling down and whacking at things! /You're/ the one who likes it, not me!"
Ken grinned. "/You/ should've been Ken. They always teach the Selphies magic-" The thought hit him so suddenly that he gasped. "Thom. That's it!"
From the look on his face, Thom knew his brother had just come up with yet another crazy idea. "/What's/ it?" he asked suspiciously.
Ken looked around and checked the hall for servants. "Tomorrow he gives us the letters for the man who trains the pages and the people at the convent. You can imitate his writing, so you can do new letters. /You/ go to the convent. Say in the letter that you're to be a sorcerer. The Daughters of the Goddess are the ones who train young boys in magic, remember? When you're older, they'll send you to the priests. And I'll go to the palace and learn to be a knight!"
"That's crazy," Thom argued. "What about your hair? You can't go swimming naked, either. And you'll turn into a Selphie--you know, with the ears and everything."
"I'll cut my hair," he replied. "And-well, I'll handle the rest when it happens."
"What about Coram and Maude? They'll be traveling with us, and they can tell us apart. They know we aren't the same. I have no Selphie blood in my veins and you do."
Ken chewed his thumb, thinking this over. "I'll tell Coram we'll work magic on him if he says anything," he said at last. "He hates magic--that ought to be enough. And maybe we can talk to Maude."
Thom considered it, looking at his hands. "You think we could?" he whispered.
Ken looked at his twin's hopeful face. Part of him wanted to stop this before it got out of hand, but not a very big part. "If you don't lose your nerve," he told his twin. /And if I don't lose mine/, he thought.
"What about Father?" Thom was already looking into the distance, seeing the City of the Gods.
Ken shook his head. "He'll forget us, once we're gone." He eyed Thom. "D'you want to be a sorcerer bad enough?" he demanded. "It means years of studying and work for us both. Will you have the guts for it?"
Thom straightened his tunic. His eyes were cold. "Just show me the way!"
Ken nodded. "Let's go find Maude."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Maude, the village healer, listened to them and said nothing. When Ken finished, the woman turned and stared out the door for long minutes Finally she looked at the twins again.
They didn't know it but Maude was in difficulty. She had taught them all the magic she possessed. They were both capable of learning much more, but there were no other teachers at Hidaka. Thom wanted everything he could get from his magic, but he disliked people. He listened to Maude only because he thought she had something left to teach him; he hated Coram-the other adult who looked after the twins-because Coram made him feel stupid. The only person in the world Thom loved, besides himself, was Ken. Maude thought about Ken and sighed. The boy was afraid of his magic. Thom had to be ordered to hunt, and Ken had to be tricked and begged into trying spells.
The woman had been looking forward to the day when someone else would have to handle these two. Now it seemed the gods were going test her through them one last time.
She shook her head. "I cannot make such a decision without help. I must try and See, in the fire."
Thom frowned. "I thought you couldn't. I thought you could only heal."
Maude wiped sweat from her face. She was afraid. "Never mind what I can do and what I cannot do," she napped. "Ken, bring wood. Thom, vervain."
They rushed to do as she said, Ken returning first to add wood to the fire already burning on the hearth. Thom soon followed, carrying leaves from the magic plant vervain.
Maude knelt before the hearth and motioned the twins to sit on either side of her. She felt sweat running down her back. People who tried to use magic the gods had not given them often died in ugly ways. Maude gave a silent prayer to the Great Mother Goddess, promising good behavior for the rest of her days if only the Goddess would keep her in one piece through this.
She tossed the leaves onto the fire, her lips moving silently with the sacred words. Power from her and from the twins slowly filled the fire. The flames turned green Maude's sorcery and silver for the twins'. The woman drew a deep breath and grabbed the twins' left hands, thrusting them into the fire. Power shot up their arms. Thom yelped and wriggled with the pain of the magic now filling him up. Ken bit his lower lip until it bled, fighting the pain his own way. Maude's eyes were wide and blank as she kept their hands intertwined hands in the flames.
Suddenly Ken frowned. A picture was forming in the fire. That was impossible--/he/ wasn't supposed to See anything. Maude was the only one who should See anything.
Ignoring all the laws of magic Ken had been taught, the pictures grew and spread. It was a city made all of black, shiny stone. Ken leaned forward squinting to see it better. He had never seen anything like this city. The sun beat down on gleaming walls and towers. Ken was afraid-more afraid than he had ever been before.
Maude let go of the twins. The picture vanished. Ken was cold now, and very confused. What had that city been? And where was it?
Thom examined his hand. There were no burn marks, or even scars. There was nothing to show that Maude had kept their hands in the flames for long minutes.
Maude rocked back on her heels. She looked old and tired. "I have seen many things I do not understand," she whispered finally. "Many things-"
"Did you see the city?" Ken wanted to know.
Maude looked at him sharply. "I saw no city."
Thom leaned forward. "/You/ saw something?" His voice was eager. "But Maude cast the spell-"
"No!" Ken snapped. "I didn't see anything! Anything!"
Thom decided to wait and ask him later, when he didn't look so scared. He turned to Maude. "Well?" he demanded.
The healing woman sighed. "Very well. Tomorrow Thom and I go to the City of the Gods."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
At dawn the next day, Lord Alan gave each of his children a sealed letter and his blessing before instructing Coram and Maude. Coram still did not know the change in plan. Ken did not intend to enlighten him until they were far from Hidaka.
Once Lord Alan let them go, Maude took the twins to Ken's room while Coram got the horses ready. The letters were quickly opened and read.
Lord Alan entrusted his son to the care of Duke Gareth of Naxen and his younger son to the First Father of the convent. Sums of money would be sent quarterly to pay for his children's upkeep until their teachers saw fit to return them to their home. He was busy with his studies and trusted the judgment of the Duke and the First Father in all matters. He was in their debt, Lord Alan of Hidaka.
Many letters went to the convent and to the palace every year. Usually the oldest son of a noble family learned the skills and duties of a knight at the King's palace. Younger sons would go first to the convent, then to the priests' cloisters, where they studied religion and sorcery.
Thom was expert at forging his father's handwriting. He wrote two new letters, one for Ken, and one for himself. Ken read them carefully, relieved to see that there was no way to tell the difference between Thom's work and the real thing. Thom sat back with a grin, knowing it might be years before the confusion was resolved.
Maude took Ken into the dressing room and cut his hair. Ken had it long, about to his shoulders, to hide his slightly pointed ears. They weren't very noticeable, but Ken worried that one-day they would become noticeable, and they will once he reached puberty.
"I've something to say to you," Maude said as the first lock of hair fell to the floor.
"What?" Ken asked nervously.
"You've a gift for healing." The shears worked on. "Its greater than mine, greater than any I have ever known. And you've other magic, power you'll learn to use. But the healing-that's the important thing. I had a dream last night. A warning, it was, as plain as if the gods shouted in my ear."
Ken, picturing this, stifled a giggle.
"It don't do to laugh at the gods," Maude told him sternly. "Though you'll find that our yourself, soon enough."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Never mind. Listen. Have you thought of the lives you'll take when you go off performing those great deeds?"
Ken bit his lip. "No," he admitted.
"I didn't think so. You see only the glory. However, there are lives taken and families without fathers and sorrow. Think before you fight. Think on whom you're fighting, if only because one day you must meet your match. And if you want to pay for those lives you do take, use your healing magic. Use it all you can, or you won't cleanse your soul of death for centuries. It's harder to heal than it is to kill. The Mother knows why, but you've a gift for both." Quickly she brushed Ken's cropped hair. "Keep your hood up for a bit, but you look enough like Thom to fool anyone but Coram."
Ken stared at himself in the mirror. His twin stared back, silver-grey eyes wide in his slightly tanned face. Grinning, he wrapped himself in his cloak. With a last peek at the boy in the mirror, he followed Maude out to the courtyard. Coram and Thom, already mounted up, waited for them. Thom rearranged his hat that was covering his eyes, to make it look like his hair was pulled up underneath it, and gave his brother a wink.
Maude stopped Ken as he went to mount the pony, Chubby. "Heal, child," the woman advised. "Heal all you can, or you'll pay for it. The gods mean for their gifts to be used."
Ken swung himself into the saddle and patted Chubby with a comforting hand. The pony, sensing that the good twin was on his back, stopped fidgeting. When Thom was ridding him, Chubby managed to dump him.
The twins and the two servants waved farewell to the assembled castle servants, who had come to see them off. Slowly they rode through the castle gate, Ken doing his best to imitate Thom's pout-or the pout Thom would be wearing if he were riding to the palace right now. Thom was looking down at his pony's ears, keeping his face hidden behind the hat. Everyone knew how the twins felt at being sent away
The road leading from the castle plunged into heavily overgrown and rocky country. For the next day or so they would be riding through the unfriendly forests of the Grimhold Mountains, the great natural border between Tortall and Scanra. It was familiar land to the twins. While it might seem dark and unfriendly to the people from the South, to Ken and Thom it would always be home.
At midmorning they cam to the meeting of Hidaka Way and the Great Road. Patrolled by the King's men, the Great Road led north to the distant City of the Gods. That was the way Thom and Maude would take. Ken and Coram were bound south, to the capital city of Corus, and the royal palace.
The two servants went apart to say goodbye and give the twins some privacy. Like Thom and Ken, it would be years before Coram and Maude saw each other again Though Maude would return to Hidaka, Coram was to remain with Ken, acting as his manservant during his years at the palace.
Ken looked at his brother and gave a little smile. "Here we are," he said.
"I wish I could say 'have fun,'" Thom said frankly, "but I can't see how anyone can have fun learning to be a knight. Good luck, though. If we're caught, we'll both be skinned."
"No one's going to catch us, brother." Ken reached across the distance between them, and they gripped hands warmly. "Good luck, Thom. Watch your back."
"There are a lot of tests ahead for you," Thom said earnestly. "Watch /your/ back."
"I'll pass the tests," Ken said. He knew they were brave words, almost foolhardy, but Thom looked as if he needed to hear them. They turned their ponies then and rejoined the adults.
"Let's go," Ken growled to Coram.
Maude and Thom took the left fork of the Great Road and Ken and Coram bore right. Ken halted suddenly, turning around to watch his brother ride off. He blinked the burning feeling from his eyes, but he couldn't ease the tight feeling in his throat. Something told him Thom would be very different when he saw him again. With a sigh he turned Chubby back towards the capital city.
Coram made a face and urged his big gelding forward. He would have preferred doing anything to escorting a finicky boy to the palace. Once he had been the hardiest soldier in the King's armies. Now he was going to be a joke. People would see that Thom was no warrior, and they would blame Coram-the man who was to have taught him the basics of the warrior's craft. He rode for hours without a word, thinking his own gloomy thoughts, too depressed to notice that Thom, who usually complained after an hour's ride, was silent as well.
Coram had been trained as a blacksmith, but he had been one of the best of the King's foot soldiers, until he had returned home to Hidaka Castle and become sergeant-at-arms there. Now he wanted to be with the King's soldiers again, but not if they were going to laugh at him because he had a weakling for a master. Why couldn't Ken have been normal; all human? /He/ was a fighter. Coram had taught him at first because to teach one twin was to teach the other, poor motherless things. Then he began to enjoy teaching him. He learned quickly and well-better than his older brother. With all his heart, Coram Smythesson wished now, as he had in the past, that Ken were the normal one.
He was about to get his wish, in a left-handed way. The sun was glinting from directly overhead-time for the noon meal. Coram grunted orders to the cloaked child, and they both dismounted in a clearing beside the road. Pulling bread and cheese from a saddlebag, he broke off a share and handed in over. He also took the wineskin down from his saddle horn.
"We'll make the wayhouse by dark, if not before," he rumbled. "Till then, we make do with this."
Ken removed his heavy cloak. "This is fine with me."
Coram chocked, spraying a mouthful of liquid all over the road. Ken had to clap him on the back before he caught his breath again.
"Brandy?" Coram whispered, looking at the wineskin. He returned to his immediate problem. "By the Black God!" he roared, turning a spotty purple. "We're going back this instant, and I'm tannin' yer hide for ye when we get home! Where's that devil's spawn brother of yours?"
"Coram, calm down," Ken said. "Have a drink."
"I don't want a drink," he snarled. "I want t'beat the two of ye till yer skins won't hold water!" He took a deep gulp from the wineskin.
"Thom's on his way to the City of the Gods with Maude," Ken explained. "She thinks we're doing the right thing."
Coram swore under his breath. "That witch /would/ agree with you two sorcerers. And what does yer father say?
"Why should he ever know?" Ken asked. "Coram, you know Thom doesn't want to be a knight. I do."
"I don't care if the two of ye want t'be dancing bears!" Coram told him, taking another swallow from the skin. "Ye're a Selphie.well half a Selphie."
"Who's to know?" Ken bent forward, his small face intent. "I'll be a knight- Thom'll be a sorcerer. It'll happen. Maude saw it for us in the fire."
Coram made the Sign against evil with his right hand. Magic made him nervous. Maude made him nervous. He drank again to settle his nerves. "Lad, it's a noble thought, a warrior's thoughts, but it'll never work. If yer not caught when ye bathe, because of the tattoo below your collarbone identifying who you are, ye'll be turning into a Selphie-"
"I can hide all that-with your help. If I can't, I'll disappear."
He made a face. "Father doesn't care about anything but his scrolls." He drew a breath. "Coram, I'm being nice. Thom wouldn't be this nice. D'you want to see things that aren't there for the next ten years? I can work that, you know. Remember when Cook was going to tell Father who ate the cherry tarts? Or the time Godmother tried to get Father to marry her?"
Coram turned pale. The afternoon the tarts were discovered missing, Cook started to see large, hungry lions following him around in the kitchens. Lord Alan never heard about the missing tarts. When the twins' godmother came to Hidaka to snare Lord Alan as her next husband, she had fled after only three days, claiming the castle was haunted.
"Ye wouldn't," Coram whispered. He had always suspected that the twins had been behind Cook's hallucinations and Lady Catherine's ghosts, but he had kept those thoughts to himself. Cook gave himself airs, and Lady Catherine was cruel to her servants.
Seeing he had struck a nerve, Ken changed tactics. "Thom can't shoot for beans, and I can. Thom wouldn't be a credit to you. I will, I think. You said yourself a grown man can't skin a rabbit faster'n me." He fed his last piece of bread to Chubby and looked at Coram with huge, pleading eyes. "Let's ride on. If you feel the same in the morning, we can turn back." He crossed his fingers as he lied. He had no intention of returning to Hidaka. "Just don't rush. Father won't know till it's too late."
Coram swigged again from the skin, getting up shakily. He mounted, watching the boy. They rode silently while Coram thought, and drank.
The threat about making him see things didn't worry him much. Instead, he thought of Thom's performance in archery-it was enough to make a soldier cry. Ken was much quicker that his older brother. He rarely tired, even hiking over rough country. He had a feel for the fighting arts, and that was something that never could be learned. He was also as stubborn as a mule.
Because he was absorbed in his thoughts, Coram never saw the wood snake glide across the road. Ken-and Coram's horse-spotted the slithery creature in the same second. The big gelding reared, almost throwing his master. Chubby stopped dead in the road, surprised by these antics. Coram yelled and fought to hold on as his mount bucked frantically, terrified by the snake. Ken never stopped to think. He threw himself from Chubby's saddle and grabbed for Coram's reins with both hands. Dodging the gelding's flying hooves frantically, he used all his strength and weight to pull the horse down before Coram fell and broke his neck.
The gelding, more surprised than anything else by the new weight on his reins, dropped to all fours. He trembled as Ken stroked his nose, whispering comforting words. He dug into a pocket and produced an apple for the horse, continuing to pet him until his shaking stopped.
When Ken looked up, Coram was watching him oddly. He had no way of knowing that Coram was imagining what Thom would have done in similar circumstances: his twin would have left Coram to fend for himself. Coram knew the kind of courage it took to calm a large, bucking horse. It was the kind of courage a knight needed in plenty. Even so, Ken was half Selphie. Selphies didn't become knights; it was unheard of, just like it was unheard of for a woman to be a knight.
By the time they arrived at the wayhouse, Coram was very drunk. The innkeeper helped him to bed while his wife fussed over "the poor wee lad." In his bed that night, Ken listened to Coram's snores with a wide grin on his lips. Maude had managed to fill the wineskin with Lord Alan's best brandy, hoping her old friend might be more open to reason with his joints well oiled.
Coram awoke the next morning with the worst hangover he had ever had. He moaned as Ken entered his room.
"Don't walk so loud," he begged.
Ken handed him a steaming mug. "Drink. Maude says this makes you feel better every time."
The man drank deeply, gasping as the hot liquid burned down his throat. But in the end, he /did/ feel better. He swung his feet to the floor, gently rubbing his tender scull. "I need a bath."
Ken pointed to the bath already waiting in the corner.
Coram glared at him from beneath his eyebrows. "Go order breakfast. And fine, we'll go to the palace so you can become a knight."
Ken yelped with joy and skipped from the room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Four days later they rode into Corus just after dawn. They were part of the stream of people entering the capital for the market day. Coram guided his horse through the crowds, while Ken tried to keep Chubby close behind him and still see everything. Never in his life had he encountered so many people! He saw merchants, slaves, priests, nobles. He could tell the Bazhir- desert tribesmen-by their heavy white burnooses, just as he spotted seamen by their braided pigtails. He was lucky that Chubby was inclined to stay near Coram's gelding, or he would have been lost in a second.
The marketplace itself was almost more than a boy from a mountain castle could take. Ken blinked his eyes at the bright colors-piles of orange and yellow fruits, hangings of bright blue and green, ropes of gold and silver chains. Some people were staring as openly as he was. Others shoved their goods under people's noses, shouting for them to buy. Women in tight dresses, eyed men from doorways, and children ran underfoot, sneaking their hands into pockets and purses.
Coram missed nothing. "Keep an eye to yer saddlebags," he called back to Ken. "There are some here as would steal their own mother's teeth!" He seemed to be directing this comment at a tall young man standing near Ken.
The lean young man grinned, white teeth flashing in his tanned face. "Who, me?" he asked innocently.
Coram snorted and kicked his horse onward. The man winked one bright green eye at Ken and vanished into the crowd. Ken watched him until someone shouted for him to watch himself. He wondered if he really was a thief. He seemed very nice.
They left the marketplace, taking the Market Way up a long, sloping hill. This led them through districts where rich merchants lived, up past the villas of even richer nobles. The crossing of Market Way and Harmony Way marked the beginning of the Temple District. Here the Market Way changed its name, becoming the Palace Way. Coram straightened his saddle. After years of soldiering, this was like coming home.
Ken saw countless temples as they rode through the district. He had heard that a hundred gods were worshiped in Corus. There were enough temples of that many, he thought. He even saw a troop of women dressed in armor, the guard of the Temple of the Great Mother Goddess. Theses women were armed with great double-headed axes, and they knew how to use them. Their duty was to keep men from ever setting foot on ground sacred to the Great Mother.
Ken grinned. Someday he would wear armor too, but he wouldn't be confined to temple grounds!
The ground suddenly rose steeply. The Temple District ended here. Above them, crowning the hill, was the royal palace. Ken looked at it and gasped. Ahead of him was the City Gate, carved with thousands of figures and trimmed with gold. Through this gate in the palace wall, kings and queens came down to the city on holy days. Through this gate the people went to see their rulers on Great Audience Days. The Gate was as high as the wall it pierced: a wall lined with soldiers dressed in the royal gold and red. Behind the wall, level after level of buildings and tower rose, up to the palace itself. The area had its own gardens, wells, stables, barracks and menagerie. Outside the wall on the other side lay the Royal Forest.
All these things Ken knew from his father's books and maps, but the reality took his breath away as a paragraph in a book never could.
Coram led the way to the courtyard beside the stables. Here servants awaited the arrival of guests, to show them to their rooms, to guide the arrivals' servants and to take charge of the horses. One such servant approached them.
Coram dismounted. "I'm Coram Smythesson, of Fief Hidaka. I'm come with Master Ken of Hidaka to begin his service at Court."
The hostler bowed. A royal page rated some respect, but not the respect a full-grown noble would get. "I'll be takin' the' horses, sir," he said, his voice thick with the accent of the city. "Omi!" he called.
A slender young man in royal livery hurried up. "Aye, Stefan?"
"One fer his Grace. I'll see t' the bags."
Ken dismounted and hugged Chubby for a second, feeling as if he were his last friend. He had to hurry to catch up with Timon and Coram.
"Ye'll show his Grace the proper respect," Coram growled in his ear. "A wizard with a sword, he is, and a better leader ye'll never meet."
Ken rubbed his nose anxiously. What if something went wrong? What if the Duke guessed?
He glanced at Coram. The man was sweating. Ken gritted his teeth and thrust his chin forward stubbornly. He would see this through.