Twin Curse

by Rinelle Grey

  First, just a couple, then more and more. Brianna drew in a breath. There must be a hundred fires. Just how many trolls were there?

  Just as she was about to panic and flee back to the village, Lyall’s voice whispered into her mind. “Remember, they won’t all have magic. Only one will. They’ll pick their most powerful mage of course, but he still won’t be a match for us.”

  She took a deep breath and nodded. They threaded their way through the camps littering the ground on this side, and Brianna found her reassurance slipping. So many ugly green faces, sharpening their swords, grunting to each other. How could they ever fight this many, even with magic? She should mention her earlier thought of sealing the pass to Lyall. It would be far better if they never reached the village.

  “There,” Lyall said and pointed with his other hand.

  In the middle of the camp stood one tent, larger than the others and pure white. A troll sat outside it on a chair built of sticks and animal furs, and in his hand, he twirled the pair to Brianna’s gem.

  Lyall inched closer, but Brianna held back. This troll was the one they needed to worry about, the one with magic, the only one who could sense them. There was… something familiar about him. Then she saw it. Ethean’s book, sitting in his lap, open.

  Anger flared. “We could take him out now before he even realised we were here,” she whispered.

  “Maybe, but I need to see how powerful he is,” Lyall said back in a normal voice. “We need to get just a little closer…”

  The troll’s head jerked up, and he stared straight at the air where they hovered. Then he gave a guttural yell.

  Brianna’s heart thudded as another troll emerged from the hut behind him, and put her hand on his shoulder. Vibrant colours swirled around both of them.

  “Get out of here,” Lyall hissed, pushing her in front of him.

  Panic flooded her. She had no idea how to even move. Lyall had controlled their journey here, she’d just been along for the ride. Lyall pushed her firmly, and that unlocked something, sending her whizzing forwards.

  Lyall lurched behind her. Once, then again. His hand jerked out of hers, the connection lost. It took her a few moments to manage to slow her movement without the friction of the ground, and she turned around slowly, afraid of what she might see. Did losing the connection here mean they had lost it at home? Was Lyall still connected to the gem?

  The troll reached out, his magic extending far past the reach of his physical arm, and raked his claws across Lyall’s stomach, leaving raw red marks. Brianna sucked in a breath. He was still alive but not for long.

  “Go, Brianna,” Lyall screamed.

  But she couldn’t leave him. She searched deep down inside for every bit of anger she’d ever felt against the trolls. For claiming the life of the father she’d never known, her mother, Kylis, Ethean, and all her friends and family. It swelled through her then blasted out as white hot light.

  The troll stumbled back. Extra power surged through her from somewhere, and she blasted all of them.

  And suddenly, Lyall’s hand was in hers.

  “Go!” he shouted.

  Not stopping to look back, Brianna fled towards the ridge.

  “I can’t believe you trust him.” Terion stood staring at Lyall, his arms crossed.

  “Brianna knows him and trusts him, that’s good enough for me.” Mianna took one more look at their hands, but they were still firmly clasped. So she took a step around the table and wrapped her arms around her husband. “But you’re still the only one I want.”

  “He’s more powerful than I am, and a prince as well. He’d do a much better job of protecting both of you.” Terion’s voice was quiet.

  “I don’t need protecting,” Mianna said. She sounded like Brianna, and suddenly she understood why her twin had always objected to Terion. Brianna had never wanted to be protected, but Mianna had always loved the way Terion wanted to look after her.

  Except when he thought looking after her meant stepping back.

  He stayed stiff, not leaning into her hug. “Yes, you do. The whole village does. And I can’t do anything to help.”

  “We’re helping now, by watching over them,” Mianna said softly.

  “That’s not really helping,” Terion scoffed. “It’s staying out of the way and letting someone else do the work.”

  Mianna looked up at him, searching his face. Terion had always been happy to stay in the background, like she had, and help from there. What had changed?

  He stared at Brianna and Lyall, his face twisted, and she realised what it was. “We don’t have to be apart for them to be together,” she said softly.

  “Don’t we? How do you figure it’s going to happen then? The rest of the village will never accept dissolution of the twin law, you know they won’t. And even if they did, that king isn’t going to let the extra power you can bring his son slip through his hands. So both of you are going to have to choose, him or me—and he’s the better choice. He can protect you and the village in ways I’ll never be able to.”

  Mianna opened her mouth to deny his words when the prince gave a gurgling sound. She turned her head swiftly to see him slump out of the chair, his hand breaking contact with Brianna’s. She pulled out of Terion’s arms and fumbled around the table. Which hand held the gem, his or Brianna’s?

  Lyall’s hand was empty and slack, and a red stain blossomed across his chest, spreading rapidly from three ragged tears. A troll claw. His face was ashen, and his body didn’t so much as twitch. His shallow breathing was ragged and intermittent. Mianna stared in horror, then her gaze raced to her sister who still sat upright, her eyes closed.

  The sight was only partially reassuring. Her sister was out there, alone, with the same troll who had done this to Lyall. And Mianna could do nothing to protect her. The trolls weren’t even here for her to fight, yet apparently they could still wound her sister’s body.

  “Help me get him up! We need to connect him to the gem again.” She pulled at Lyall’s shirt, panic lending her strength, but still not enough to wrestle his unconscious weight back into the chair.

  After a moment of wrestling by herself, she looked up at Terion. Was he going to help her, or leave a man to die? Surely, he wasn’t that jealous.

  Her husband’s hand was at his mouth, staring at the red stain. “Is there any point? Surely, he’s dead.”

  “His heart’s still beating. And Brianna needs him. She’s out there by herself with those trolls!”

  Her words spurred her husband to action and he tugged and pulled with her, until Lyall sat in the chair, his face slumped on the table. Mianna took his hand, and wound it around Brianna’s. His fingers remained slack, and wouldn’t stay where she had wound them, so she knelt between them, holding their hands together. They had to survive. They had to.

  Terion stared at her, his face white. “I didn’t mean…” he broke off. Then tried again. “I would never want him to die, I just… I froze…”

  Mianna tried to give him a reassuring smile, but her face wouldn’t make the expression. “It’s all right,” she said instead. “Either he makes it or he doesn’t. There’s nothing we could have done any differently.”

  She held their hands together, willing them to make it back. And in the back of her mind, making plans for how she could get the other villagers out of here if they didn’t.

  Because she knew without a doubt that she and Terion couldn’t face the trolls on their own. Leave it to the mages , they had far more chance.

  Brianna and Lyall’s hands jerked in hers. Her sister’s eyes flickered, then opened, going straight to Lyall. Her horrified face stared at him as he gasped and straightened up. His eyes opened for one second, staring straight at Brianna, then his mouth twisted in a grimace, and they slid closed. He clutched at his chest, but the blood seeped out around his fingers as he slumped back into the chair.

  For a few moments, no one in the room moved, and the sound of Lyall’s gasping attempts to breath were loud i
n the silence. Then Brianna tumbled out of the chair and onto her knees beside him. She called his name desperately, tearing his shirt open.

  Great gouges ran across his chest. Mianna had seen and tended many battle wounds, and there was no escaping the truth. He couldn’t recover from a wound like that. Her hand flew to her mouth, and Terion retreated across the room.

  Brianna laid her hands on Lyall’s chest and closed her eyes. What was she doing?

  Magic! Of course. Mianna waited, heart in her mouth. Could her sister heal him? She couldn’t see anything happening.

  Brianna swayed a little, and her eyes flew open. “Help me,” she said quietly.

  She had no idea how she could help in any way, but Mianna knelt on the other side of Lyall’s deathly pale body and placed her hands over her sister’s. She stared down at the blood seeping through her fingers and knew it was too late. Surely even magic couldn’t save him now.

  “Maybe I should go get his father?” Terion hovered in the background.

  “There’s no time,” Brianna said through gritted teeth. “Help Mianna.”

  Terion stared at her for a moment, then hesitantly put his hands on Mianna’s shoulders.

  Suddenly, a rainbow of colours burst into the air and danced around Lyall. They ran through Brianna and through Terion to her. Mianna wasn’t too sure what she was supposed to do with them, and she didn’t want to interrupt Brianna, who was frowning in concentration, so she tried to capture the colours and wrap them around the dying mage.

  And he was dying, the fact that his own colours were slowly fading told her that.

  His stomach heaved once then stopped. His eyes stared blankly at the ceiling.

  “NO!” Brianna’s voice echoed around the room.

  Mianna sat back. “I’m so sorry, Bri.”

  Her sister didn’t move. Her hands didn’t leave Lyall’s chest. “No. It’s not over yet. Try again,” she said fiercely.

  It was hopeless, but Mianna couldn’t ignore her sister’s plea. She put her hands back on the mage’s chest and willed him to live. “Come on, don’t desert us now, Brianna needs you,” she said in her mind.

  Terion’s hands gripped her shoulders tightly. Then he released them and knelt beside her, putting his hands over hers and Brianna’s.

  Colours exploded and rained down from the ceiling, filling the entire room in a bright light. Lyall’s body bucked under her hands, and he took a strangled breath, then another. Mianna held her breath. His eyes closed, then flickered open. Then he stared up at her sister, love shining from his eyes.

  Brianna threw herself down on him, hugging him tightly, sobbing wildly, kissing his face all over. “I thought I’d lost you.”

  Mianna watched in disbelief as he raised a hand to her sister’s face and cupped her cheek. “It’s not that easy to get rid of me,” he managed, then was hit with a coughing spasm. When he stopped, still clutching his chest, Mianna said quietly, “We should move him to the couch, he’ll be more comfortable there.”

  With Terion under one shoulder, and Brianna under the other, they managed to help Lyall to the couch. He was still pale and coughing intermittently, but the wounds on his chest had mostly closed over, and miraculously, it looked like he would live.

  She couldn’t believe it. He’d been dead and now he was alive. If that wasn’t reason enough to fear magic and to worship it, then what was? Brianna seemed to have shrugged off what had happened, but it wasn’t so easy for Mianna. She had been a part of that. Brianna couldn’t have done it on her own. The thought was overwhelming.

  “Trolls,” Lyall gasped out. He waved to Brianna, who was already kneeling beside him, to come closer. “Trolls will come soon.” He took a deep breath, then raised himself on one elbow and managed to speak in a more even tone. “Brianna’s blast will buy us some time, maybe until morning while they regroup, but it won’t take them long. And they’re more powerful than I expected. With a bonded pair working together, and a strong one at that, they will keep Brianna and I busy trying to take them out, while the rest of them destroy the village.”

  “Rest,” Brianna insisted, pushing him back on the pillows. “You won’t be any help to us if you can’t even stand.” She handed him a glass of water, and he drank readily.

  “What are we going to do, Bri?” Mianna asked, worry threading through her body. “We can’t fight them by ourselves. Should we ask the mages for help?”

  Lyall handed the empty glass back to Brianna and looked at her seriously. “My father would help you and perhaps the mages he brought can defend the village while we fight the mage couple, but there will be heavy losses, and he is not going to accept us refusing to follow the twin law—not when that will give us a better chance of defeating them.”

  “How about if we leave then? Sneak out of the village, and leave the mages to fight the trolls on their own. We could leave the gem somewhere easy to find?” Terion suggested.

  Shaking his head, Lyall said, “The village is surrounded, I made sure of it. There’s no way out without being noticed.”

  “We make a deal then, we give them the gem so they can fight the trolls, and in return, they let us go,” Brianna said firmly.

  Again, Lyall shook his head. “I’m sorry, Brianna, he’s just not going to accept it. Not while he thinks he can force me to marry both of you and get the gem as well.”

  “He can’t ‘force’ you to do anything,” Brianna insisted. “Especially not sleep with anyone.”

  Lyall nodded. “No, you’re right, he can’t. But me refusing to sleep with your sister is going to be somewhat pointless after he’s already killed Terion.”

  Terion’s face went pale, and Mianna reached for his hand to squeeze it. He pulled away from her, and a shiver went through her. “Perhaps that’s the best option,” Terion said, his voice dull. “If the three of you are more powerful together, perhaps you can beat the trolls. I don’t know. But there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do to help. Perhaps the only thing I can do is get out of the way.”

  “No!” Mianna said immediately and was relieved that her protest was echoed by both Brianna and Lyall.

  “How can you say that when it was your help that brought Lyall back?” Brianna demanded. “I couldn’t have done it without both of you.”

  Lyall stared at Terion for a moment, then at Brianna. “You healed me with magic?” he demanded.

  “I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I couldn’t let you die,” Brianna said. “I tried everything I could, but it wasn’t until both Mianna and Terion helped me that it worked.”

  Lyall’s eyes were wide. As though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “But magical damage can’t be healed with magic!”

  His eyes met Brianna’s and both of them stared at each other.

  Mianna had no idea what they were talking about. “Why can’t it?” she asked.

  Lyall broke contact with her sister to turn towards her. “I don’t know, but it’s never been able to. My own mother can’t walk because she was hurt magically, and the best physicians and mages in the country have all tried. Nothing can be done.”

  What he was saying didn’t make any sense. “Then how did we heal you?”

  “I don’t know.” Lyall looked at each of them in turn, his face thoughtful. “Perhaps it is something about this place? About the magical barrier? Perhaps the reason we can’t heal magical damage with magic is…” His eyes widened. “Perhaps it harks back to the Great War. If the trolls were cursed by my people, it’s entirely possible they put a curse back on us, just a less visible one. Maybe the people here weren’t affected by it, or the barrier prevents it from working. Either way, it’s unbelievable.”

  “I’m just glad it worked,” Brianna said soberly.

  “What if it was the three of us working together?” Terion said. “I mean, it didn’t work until then.”

  Lyall frowned. “Twin magic is something we haven’t studied much on Isla de Magi. No twins have been born there in centuries, perha
ps not since the Great War. So it’s possible it will overcome the curse, or limitation or whatever it is. Except that you don’t have the three way bond. Brianna is bonded to me. That means we have… three bonds in different directions…” He bit his bottom lip.

  “That means four mages sharing their power together, not just three,” Brianna expanded. “What if that’s even more powerful?”

  Right on the heels of her words, Lyall added, “What if the twin law was designed to make mages less powerful, rather than more?”

  It made a strange kind of sense. “Four mages working together would be almost unbeatable,” she said. “Not that three would be easy to beat either.”

  Lyall gave a wry grin. “No, not much. But sometimes it’s the smallest amount that makes the difference. Perhaps the rule was created by a greedy king who was powerful enough but could have been overthrown if his rival had just a little bit more power than he did? We can’t possibly know, but if we can be more powerful if we work together…”

  “Then we can defeat the trolls and prove that we don’t both have to marry you,” Mianna finished for him.

  “Exactly,” Lyall smiled.

  Terion still looked uncertain, but he didn’t voice any objections. And when Mianna reached for his hand and squeezed it, he squeezed back.

  “We should double the guard at the pass, then try to get some sleep,” Brianna said quietly. “Hopefully the trolls will wait until morning to attack.”

  “I think so,” Lyall agreed. “You blasted them pretty well. I think we’re probably safe until morning.” He looked over at Mianna. “I hope you don’t mind me crashing on your couch for the night?”

  Mianna stared at him, her mind in turmoil. Her first reaction was to offer him a bed, but the only one in the house big enough for his frame was the one she shared with Terion. They could sleep in with the girls, there were spare beds there, but only enough for two. Brianna would have to stay with Lyall. For some reason, she still felt uncomfortable about that.