The Twins of Tintarfell

by James O'Loghlin

  As they entered the sitting room Edward rose from a chair by the window. ‘Is he . . .?’ he began.

  Bart smiled. ‘I am.’

  ‘You are?’

  ‘I am. In fact, I’m even better than I was before. Now I can speak to animals, and even control them.’

  ‘You must excuse me,’ said Melindarah. ‘The procedure has exhausted me. I must rest.’ She left the room.

  Edward studied Bart. ‘Do you feel all right?’

  ‘I think so.’

  ‘That’s great,’ said Edward.

  ‘Thanks. In fact, everything that happened may even have been for the best.’

  ‘Oh?’ prompted Edward.

  Dani frowned. She would have liked to have picked her own time to tell Edward their plans. ‘I’m sorry, Edward,’ she said. ‘We’re not going back.’

  Edward bit his lip.

  ‘We don’t want to be servants anymore,’ continued Dani. ‘We’ve never been allowed to leave the castle before, and now we’re free. I guess you can try to take us back by force, but I don’t like your chances.’

  Edward spread his hands. ‘I guessed this was coming. And you’re right. I can’t force you to return. I’ll explain it to my father as best I can.’

  Dani was taken aback. She had expected anger, cursing, even a drawn sword, but not meek acceptance.

  ‘I’ll have to leave soon,’ continued Edward. ‘A pigeon has come from my father.’

  ‘A pigeon found you here?’ said Bart.

  ‘We have a few specially trained ones that can home in on a person. I don’t know how they do it, but they do. It brought a note from my father. The city is under siege from the Northerners.’

  ‘The Northerners?’ said Dani. ‘Why?’

  ‘Read it yourself.’ He unrolled a small, crumpled piece of paper and handed it to Dani.

  My son, the city is surrounded by Northerners. They have us outnumbered and I fear they will soon be within the walls. We will hold them off as long as we can, but if they get in we will be massacred. They have said they will burn the city and kill everyone. There is nothing you can do. Stay away and save yourself. Do not return.

  King Corolius the Fifth

  Dani had never seen the King’s handwriting before but under his signature was the King’s seal, an eagle holding a fish in its claws, pressed into candle wax. Dani knew that there was only one copy of the seal, and that it was never out of the King’s possession. The letter was genuine. She handed it back to Edward.

  ‘Goodness,’ said Bart. ‘What are you going to do?’

  ‘I should go back,’ replied Edward. ‘I don’t want to, but I should. I don’t know what I’ll be able to do. Probably nothing. But all those people. Father says the Northerners will kill everyone.’

  Dani looked at the floor. There really had been much too much happening recently. As soon as she started to recover from one surprise, there was another.

  ‘Who are the Northerners?’ asked Bart.

  ‘They live on the outskirts of the desert to the north,’ explained Edward. ‘They’re a poor, desperate, fierce people who have long envied the wealth of our city and surrounding farmlands. For many years my father’s army has kept them at bay. In fact, for the last few years they have been so quiet that we thought they had become more peaceful, but clearly they were planning something. Previously they’ve always been a disorganised rabble, and the different tribes hated each other as much as they hated us. But it sounds like they have united and marched against us.’

  Bart was thinking about the other orphan servants: Sophia, Jonas, and the rest. ‘They won’t hurt everyone, though, will they? I mean, they wouldn’t kill normal people, surely. Even if the Northerners win, they’ll just take over from the King. For most people things will be much the same, don’t you think?’

  Edward shook his head. ‘I’ve heard stories about them. They’re brutal. A couple of years ago they attacked one of our villages and killed everyone in it, even children and animals. They hate us. If they get into the city, no one will be safe.’

  ‘What can we do?’ Bart asked shakily. He looked at Dani, who didn’t meet his eye.

  Edward shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’

  A silence hung over them. To Dani it all seemed a long way away. All she could think about was that in less than three years she would die.

  ‘If only I could borrow your animal powers,’ muttered Edward at last.

  ‘What do you mean?’ asked Bart.

  ‘I don’t know. Maybe I could use them somehow to help.’

  ‘How?’

  Edward shook his head. ‘It was a silly idea.’ He started to get up. ‘I’d better get ready.’

  ‘Wait,’ said Bart. ‘Did you say the Northerners are outside the city?’

  ‘That’s what the note says.’

  ‘Animals could chase them off.’

  ‘How do you mean?’ asked Edward.

  ‘Imagine a pack of big, wild animals charging out of the forest at the Northerners,’ said Bart excitedly. ‘What would they do?’

  ‘They’d run away,’ said Edward slowly. ‘Even the Northerners wouldn’t be silly enough to try and fight lions and tigers. But I don’t understand. How –?’

  ‘I can’t lend you my powers,’ said Bart. ‘But I can lend you me. What if I could use my powers to gather a big pack of wild animals and make them attack the Northerners? That would scare them off, right?’ He looked at Dani. ‘D?’

  Dani was staring out the window, not really listening. She had thought having Bart back would fill her with joy, but she just felt tired.

  When she didn’t respond, Bart continued. ‘Let’s find out if I really can control animals. There’s a cockroach over here.’ Bart approached it, a look of concentration on his face. The cockroach turned towards him.

  ‘See if you can make it walk in a circle,’ suggested Edward.

  Bart focused on the cockroach, and soon it walked around in a loop.

  ‘You did it,’ said Edward.

  Bart smiled. ‘The way back to Cranlon is through the forest, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Do many big animals live there?’

  ‘Lots,’ replied Edward. ‘Tigers, lions, warthogs . . .’

  ‘I could gather them on the way back, and if the Northerners are still outside the city, I could make the animals charge at them and they’d flee.’

  Edward rubbed his chin. ‘It could work. It really could. You’re brilliant, Bart.’

  ‘I am a bit,’ said Bart, looking pleased with himself. ‘And the best thing would be that no one would get killed. The animals would chase the Northerners away, but they needn’t kill any, unless they were attacked themselves. But surely the Northerners would just run. Only an idiot would try to fight lions.’ Bart turned to Dani. ‘We have to try, D, don’t we? I mean, our friends are there and I just promised Melindarah I’d use these powers to do good.’

  Dani tried to make herself think about Bart’s idea, but everything had become such a huge effort. She didn’t want to return to the city and confront a bunch of violent Northerners. She wanted to go somewhere peaceful and rest for a long time. ‘We need to take care of ourselves, Bart.’

  ‘We might be able to save the city, D,’ urged Bart. ‘Think of our friends.’

  ‘If you did help,’ said Edward, ‘you’d be heroes. I promise you that you’ll have your freedom, and as much gold as you can carry. Enough so you’ll never have to work again.’

  Dani sighed. That last bit sounded attractive.

  ‘D, Edward says the Northerners will kill everyone,’ pleaded Bart. ‘Even children.’

  Dani remembered what Melindarah had said: You must make sure Bart uses his powers to do good and help others. Will you do that?

  And she had promised. She looked wearily at Edw
ard. ‘If we do this – if – we don’t set foot inside the city walls. If the Northerners have entered the city by the time we get there, then it’s too late, and we leave. Agreed?’

  ‘All right,’ said Edward.

  ‘If Bart can get the animals to follow him,’ Dani continued, ‘we’ll help. But if anyone tries to get us inside the city, Bart will turn the animals on them.’

  ‘Understood,’ said Edward. ‘And you will be rewarded, I promise. If you and Bart save the city, you won’t be servants, you’ll have servants.’

  ‘I need to rest,’ said Dani. ‘Then we’ll go. Bart, why don’t you go outside and find some animals to test your powers on? See what you can and can’t get them to do, but be careful crossing the rock bridge and keep an eye out for soarers.’

  ‘Great idea. We’re doing the right thing, D.’

  A part of Dani hoped that Bart would find that his powers were limited and that he was unable to put his plan into action, but then she thought of the other orphans and felt guilty.

  Bart walked out the castle door and scanned the sky for soarers. Not seeing any, he carefully made his way across the rock bridge and into the forest. He stopped under a tree and closed his eyes. Without seeing or hearing them, he detected three squirrels and four birds in nearby trees, much more clearly than he had when he had been in the wagon. There was also a male warthog close by, exactly the type of animal he would need to recruit if his plan was to work. He tried to tune in to him and found that he could hear his thoughts:

  Hungry. Real hungry. Wanta rat or a mouse or a rabbit. Smell squirrels, but them squirrels get too high. Why can’t I fly? Then I’d get ’em. No fair. Hungry. Need a wee. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. That’s better. Still hungry, though.

  Bart tried to send a command to the warthog. ‘Come.’

  Soon he heard footsteps and opened his eyes. He had never seen a warthog in the flesh before. He was like a pig with big tusks that curved up from his mouth. His right ear stood up while the left one drooped.

  ‘Yo,’ said the warthog inside Bart’s head. Again, it was much clearer than it had been before.

  ‘Hi,’ thought Bart. ‘Want to come with me to save a city full of people from getting killed?’

  There was a short pause. ‘Not really,’ replied the warthog. ‘I wanta stay here and eat and drink.’ The warthog stepped closer and sniffed him. ‘Do you taste nice?’

  ‘No,’ thought Bart hurriedly. Maybe he needed to be more forceful. He tried again. ‘You should come with me to save a city full of people. You really should.’

  The warthog cocked his head. ‘Should I?’

  ‘Yes,’ thought Bart. ‘In fact, you will. Won’t you?’

  ‘Um . . . yes?’ thought the warthog.

  Bart smiled. He stepped forward and patted the warthog on the head, and then scratched it under its snout.

  ‘That’s lovely,’ thought the warthog.

  ‘What’s your name?’ thought Bart.

  ‘Flango,’ replied the warthog.

  ‘I’m Bart.’

  ‘That’s a weird name,’ thought Flango.

  Bart smiled. ‘I’m going in there,’ he thought, pointing through the trees to the castle. ‘You go and get some food and then come back and soon we’ll leave.’

  ‘Sure thing,’ thought the warthog. ‘Might do another wee, too.’ He trotted off.

  Bart looked after him, happy at how well it had gone. He started walking back towards the rock bridge and then stopped. More of what had happened at Randling’s cottage was coming back to him. Randling had told him that his power over animals had been blocked by a spell, and that he could unblock the spell and then he had said . . .

  Bart gasped and leant back against a tree. Randling had told him that Dani was not his sister! He had said that he had inherited his animal powers from his father, and that if Dani was his sister, she would have inherited them too. But she hadn’t, so she wasn’t.

  Was it true? He knew that Randling had tricked him and lied to him. Maybe this, too, had been a lie to throw him off balance. How could he discover the truth? Perhaps Melindarah would know. He hurried back to the castle.

  Chapter 20

  Melindarah

  After Bart had left the sitting room, Edward also excused himself. Dani sat, listless, in a big chair looking out the window. She knew she should go and lie down, but couldn’t summon the energy to move. She heard someone enter the room and then Melindarah sat next to her.

  ‘I know how you feel, Dani.’

  ‘How could you?’

  ‘Shall I tell you?’

  Something in Melindarah’s tone made Dani curious. ‘If you like.’

  ‘I came here when I was a young girl to learn the secrets of healing and sorcery from my aunt,’ said Melindarah. ‘For many years I was her apprentice and, when she died, the castle became mine. I lived here just with a servant. Sick or injured animals would come to me and I would heal them. Then people began to come, and I helped them too.’

  ‘What sort of people?’ asked Dani.

  ‘All sorts. The parents of a blind child, a farmer whose crops would not grow, a woman who could not get pregnant, a man with a growth on his neck. Most, I could help. More and more came, from near and far.

  ‘My niece Gildarin came to be my apprentice. She was here for many years, and was an excellent student, but eventually she decided she wanted to live more simply and work only with animals, not people. After she left, I missed her a great deal.

  ‘About two years later – thirteen years ago now – I was on the balcony and saw a man halfway up the cliff.

  I watched him for hours as he climbed, wondering why he would attempt something so dangerous. Several times he nearly fell. Eventually he reached the top and stood at the edge, looking down. I could tell he was going to jump. I ran across the stone bridge but before I could reach him, he leapt. I reached out to him with my mind and was able to pull him back up.

  ‘I took him into the castle and cared for him. At first he would not talk, but slowly he recovered his spirits. He told me that, in his home town, his father and brother had been murdered and that he and his mother had fled into the forest. There, a tiger attacked them, and his mother had thrown herself in front of it to save her son. Having lost his entire family, he fell into despair and decided his last act would be to climb the cliff. If he fell, he didn’t care. If he reached the top, he would jump.

  ‘To try to get him interested in something, I began to teach him the art of healing: how to create potions, and how to reach out with the mind to heal people. He had some natural ability, worked hard and became a good student. As for me, I was glad to have a new apprentice.

  ‘And so it went, for many years. We worked well together, although sometimes I sensed a . . . darkness about him. But I had been lonely after Gildarin left and I became very fond of him, and so I persuaded myself that it was natural for someone who had been through the things that he had to have anger, and even hatred, within them.

  ‘One day, four years ago, he was wandering in the forest and ate some berries. They looked like blackberries, but were poisonous. He fell ill and such was the strength of the poison, I could not cure him. He was going to die. There was only one way to save him and that was for someone to do for him what you did for Bart. So, I did.’

  ‘You sacrificed part of your life for him?’

  ‘I did. Because his illness affected only his body and not his mind, I did not have to give up quite as much

  as you.’

  ‘How many years did you keep?’

  ‘Five.’

  ‘And that was four years ago? So . . .’

  ‘I will die next year, much earlier than I should. I already look old, even though I’m not.’

  ‘I gave my life because Bart is my brother, but . . . why did you?’

  ‘I cared dee
ply for my apprentice. He wasn’t my son but . . . sometimes family is not just those to whom you have blood ties.’

  ‘What happened to him?’

  ‘He recovered and, a few months later, left.’

  ‘He left? After what you did for him? Does he visit?’

  ‘No.’ Melindarah took a breath. ‘He used me. He learnt all that I had to teach, and then he left. He didn’t care about helping others. He just wanted to help himself. After he left, I wondered if perhaps everyone who came to me for help was trying to take advantage of me, just as he had done. I lost confidence in my own judgement. So I retired.’

  There was a silence and then Dani spoke. ‘Knowing you will die soon . . . how do you go on?’

  ‘A good question. After he left, I fell into despair. I no longer cared about anything. Now I can see how foolish that was.’ Melindarah took Dani’s hand. ‘My dear, life is all we have. Every day is precious. It is even more precious when you do not have many days left.’

  Dani considered this. Life didn’t feel very precious to her at the moment. ‘This man you gave your life for. Do you hate him?’

  ‘For a long time I did, but now . . . I’m trying to move beyond hate. He is actually the reason I agreed to help Bart. Did you not wonder why I changed my mind so quickly?’

  Dani stared at her, confused.

  ‘My apprentice’s name was Jasper. Lord Jasper Randling,’ said Melindarah.

  Dani stared at her. ‘The man who drained Bart’s mind.’

  ‘Indeed. From the description you gave of him when you arrived, I knew it could only be him. Ultimately, I am responsible for what happened to your brother, because I taught Jasper, even though I sensed something was not right within him. I . . . I allowed my loneliness to blind me. Without the knowledge I gave him, he could not have drained Bart. That’s why I agreed to help.’

  ‘What will Randling do now that he has Bart’s powers?’

  ‘I don’t know, but I suspect the worst. I just hope that he does not want even more power. If he does, he may be tempted to drain other minds.’

  Dani tried to digest it all. Up until a few days ago her life had been so simple. At Tintarfell Castle her days were boring and repetitive, but at least they were predictable. Ever since she had left, she’d been bombarded by a series of unexpected and dangerous events that had left her exhausted. And now, whilst Bart had recovered, and that coward Edward was going to go home and one day become King, she was going to wither and die. It wasn’t fair.