The Twins of Tintarfell

by James O'Loghlin

  Dani put one foot in front of the other, each step bringing her closer to Randling. From the table next to him, Randling picked up the spiked end of a tube. As Dani passed Edward, the Prince grabbed her firmly by the upper arm and moved close to her.

  ‘This is your chance, Dani,’ said Edward. As he spoke, Dani felt Edward’s other hand find her belt in the middle of her back and push something into it. Then he tapped her back three times. What had he put in her belt? Whatever it was, it had been hidden from Randling.

  Why the three taps? Then she remembered. It was the sign she had devised when they were about to climb onto the soarers’ ledge: If I tap you once, that means stop. Two taps means run fast. Three taps means attack. If I tap you three times, don’t hesitate. Just attack.

  Edward stepped back so he was standing between Dani and the guards, blocking their view of her back.

  ‘Now, my dear,’ continued Randling, ‘a little closer.’ Dani stepped forward and Randling brought the spiked tube up towards her neck.

  Dani knew this was her last chance. But what if Edward had tricked her? What if he had slipped a stick into her belt just to make her look ridiculous?

  ‘Now, Dani,’ yelled Edward.

  Dani reached behind her, pulled the object from her belt and thrust it at Randling’s stomach, still not knowing what it was. As she thrust, she realised she was holding a handle. She pushed it as hard as she could into Randling’s stomach as she grabbed his shoulder and pulled him towards her.

  She saw Wanda bring up her bow, and twisted so that Randling was between them. Gambon rushed past, launched himself at Wanda, and crashed her to the ground.

  Randling’s eyes bulged and his mouth fell open. Dani pushed harder, and then turned her hand left and then right. Randling gurgled. His eyes looked like they were about to explode, and he began to collapse. Dani pulled back and saw she was holding a knife, its blade red with Randling’s blood. Randling reached out a hand and Dani quickly stepped back. Randling reached after her, overbalanced and fell onto his face.

  Gambon hit Wanda on the head and she crumpled to the ground. Dani took two more wobbly steps backwards. Edward was beside her. Gambon untied Sophia and Sam while the guards stood watching, uncertain what to do.

  Randling gurgled again, his upper body heaved, and then he was still.

  Bart stumbled forward to Dani and Edward.

  ‘Is he dead?’ asked Dani.

  ‘Well, he’s not about to go for a run, that’s for sure,’ said Gambon. He crouched over Randling and felt his neck. ‘Dead.’

  Dani dropped the knife and then, realising what Edward had done, turned to him. ‘You tricked him,’ she said.

  ‘Yes,’ said Edward softly.

  She looked at him in wonder. ‘You came good, Edward.’

  ‘I guess I did,’ he said unsteadily.

  ‘Is it true?’ asked Bart, turning to Dani. ‘About the three years?’

  Dani looked at him. ‘Yes.’

  ‘And that only an act of self-sacrifice will give you your life back? Is that true too?’

  ‘Yes,’ began Dani, ‘but . . .’

  Bart started walking towards the castle wall.

  ‘Bart?’ called Dani.

  Bart kept moving. He was stunned that Dani had sacrificed almost all her life for him. She had always looked after him, and now she had given up nearly everything for him, all because she thought he was her brother. But he wasn’t.

  Now he had a chance to repay her.

  He stepped up onto the low stone wall that ran around the edge of the roof. From there he could see over the castle wall that had kept him prisoner most of his life to the city and beyond it to the forest. And far below was the ground.

  ‘Bart. What are you doing?’ cried Dani.

  He turned to face her. ‘An act of self-sacrifice to restore your life. You don’t deserve to have only three years left, D. You took care of me, you rescued me, you got me fixed, and then you rescued me again, all because you thought I was your brother. But I’m not. I owe you, D, and I’m going to pay. I’m going to give you back your life.’

  ‘No, Bart,’ cried Dani, her voice trembling. ‘Come down.’

  Bart shook his head. If he didn’t do it, how would he be able to live with himself, knowing that he had been saved by Dani, but had been too much of a coward to return the favour?

  ‘Bart,’ cried Dani. ‘Please stop.’

  ‘It’s the right thing to do,’ continued Bart. ‘Take care of her, Edward. And of the orphans. I know you will, now.’

  Bart spread his arms wide. Edward started to run towards him. With one last look at Dani, Bart let himself fall backwards.

  Edward had watched events unfold with mounting horror. He knew Bart didn’t deserve to die. When Bart spread his arms, Edward broke into a run. As Bart began to fall Edward leapt onto the wall and grabbed his right wrist. Quickly, he leant back. At first it seemed that Bart’s weight would be too much and they would both topple off the roof, but Edward leant further back, bent his knees and pushed as hard as he could with his legs. For a moment they hung there, perfectly balanced in a V shape, moving neither forward nor back and then, with a grunt, Edward pulled Bart towards him, managing to close the gap between them and bring Bart back up onto the wall. Edward grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him off the wall back to the safety of the castle roof.

  Edward now stood alone on the wall. He realised he had just saved Bart’s life. He had now done two good things, but there was so much he was ashamed of. All his life he had used and manipulated people, and tried to wriggle out of doing anything difficult. He had wanted to kill both Bart and Dani, he had tricked them into giving up their freedom and returning to the castle and he had done everything Randling had told him to, even when he had known it was wrong. What sort of a person was he?

  Suddenly, he knew what he had to do. He looked down at Bart and Dani. ‘Melindarah said Dani can only be saved by an act of self-sacrifice that involves Bart,’ he said. ‘But it doesn’t have to be Bart who does it. She said that if Bart intended to sacrifice himself for Dani, but then someone else took his place, that would also work.’ Edward’s voice shook. ‘I’m . . . I’m taking his place.’

  His hands were trembling, but that was all right. He was allowed to be scared. ‘I tricked you both into returning to Cranlon,’ he said shakily, ‘and by helping Randling I betrayed my people.’ He hesitated. ‘I want to give you back what you’ve lost, Dani. You deserve a long life far more than I do. I . . . I want to make up for what I’ve done.’

  ‘Edward,’ gasped Bart. ‘You’re not all bad.’

  ‘I know,’ said Edward, ‘and I’m about to prove it. Do you remember what you said in the forest, Bart? That the most important thing is to do what you think is right. And that no one wants to get to the end of their life and realise that they’ve lived it wrong. Well, I have lived my life wrong. But I know what the right thing to do now is.’ He took a deep breath. ‘This is who I want to be.’

  Still looking at them, he let himself fall backwards.

  Everyone on the roof screamed.

  Chapter 29

  Hard Truths

  Dani awoke in a room in the servants’ quarters. She automatically looked around for Bart, as she had done every morning for as long as she could remember, and then recalled that he was upstairs in the room that they used to share. Now that they knew they weren’t related, it had seemed strange to keep sharing a room, so she had moved into a spare one downstairs. However, for Dani, it was even stranger not to be sharing a room. Without Bart’s bubbly presence, it was so quiet.

  It was three days since Edward had fallen from the roof, and Dani could still hardly believe what he had done. Edward had tricked Randling, armed her with a knife and given her the opportunity to get close enough to kill him. Then he had saved Bart and, most extraordinarily of all, sacrific
ed himself for her.

  As Edward had fallen, Dani, even as she screamed, had felt a huge weight lift from her. She had known at once that Edward’s act of self-sacrifice had been successful. He had given her back her life.

  She had spent much of the time since trying to figure out how someone who had always seemed so selfish could have done something so selfless.

  After Edward hit the ground, she, Bart, Gambon and the guards had rushed down the stairs and outside. The castle roof was four storeys high and if Edward had landed on flat ground, he would surely have been killed. However, at the foot of the wall was a grassy bank that sloped down at quite a steep angle to the path that ran around the inside of the castle wall. It was a hill that Bart and Dani had often rolled down for fun. Edward had thudded into it and bounced down the slope.

  When they had reached him, he was unconscious, his legs bent at odd angles and blood gushing from his nose and mouth. Doctor Sturpen was summoned and Edward was carried to his chambers. There he remained, hovering somewhere between life and death; still breathing, but unconscious.

  By the time they returned to the roof, Wanda had vanished.

  The guards who had been on the rooftop had spread the word that Edward, Bart and Dani had combined to kill Randling and free the kingdom of his influence, and the three of them were now heroes. However, Dani and Bart were still officially orphan servants, and would remain so, unable to leave the castle grounds, until the ruler of ­Tintarfell freed them.

  Who that ruler would be was unclear. When Randling died, his hold on King Corolius was released and the King had fallen unconscious, a state in which he remained. If neither he nor Edward awoke soon, Edward’s younger brother Vincent would be crowned. Until then, no significant decisions were able to be made. As a result, those in the dungeons, including the orphans, remained there.

  As Dani dressed she thought about her broth– no, not my brother. Bart. She found it so hard to get used to. Things had been awkward between them ever since that day on the roof. Each knew that the other had kept secrets from them, and that had never happened before. For their entire lives they had been siblings, and now they weren’t. Their relationship had changed, and Dani didn’t quite know how it worked anymore. She had always looked after Bart because he was her brother, but now that he wasn’t, she didn’t quite know how to treat him. He seemed equally awkward. After fourteen years of being able to talk about anything, suddenly neither of them was quite sure what to say.

  Dani dressed, had breakfast in the kitchen, and then walked to Edward’s room, where she found Bart. They greeted each other stiffly, and then, just as they had done the previous day and the day before that, sat in silence by Edward’s bed, staring at his broken body and hoping for a sign that he would recover.

  Dani remembered how much she had hated Edward. Now, there was nothing she wanted more than for him to survive.

  She wasn’t sure how long they had been there when he stirred. He moved his head from side to side and then his eyes flickered open, closed for a few moments, and then opened again. He looked around uncertainly, and then seemed to realise where he was.

  ‘Edward?’ prompted Bart gently. ‘How do you feel?’

  ‘Terrible,’ he murmured weakly. ‘Sore everything.’ He looked at Dani. ‘Did it work?’

  Dani smiled. ‘It worked. I don’t know how to thank you.’

  Edward tried to move into a more comfortable position, and then stared at his right arm. ‘There’s something wrong with my arm,’ he said. ‘I can’t move it.’ He prodded it with his other hand. ‘It’s numb.’ He reached under the blankets with his good arm. ‘So are my legs. Touch my leg.’

  Bart put his hand on Edward’s thigh.

  ‘I . . . I can’t feel it,’ said Edward anxiously.

  They summoned the doctor, but all he could do was to confirm what Edward already knew; that he had no feeling or movement in his right arm or legs.

  Edward was devastated by the news and, once the doctor left, stared vacantly at the wall for some time. Eventually, however, he took a deep breath, pulled himself up into a sitting position with his good arm and asked for food and water. Once he had eaten and drunk, he called for his advisers and the chief of the guards.

  ‘Until my father recovers, I’m in charge,’ he said. There was a determined expression on his face that Dani had never seen before. ‘And I’m going to make the most of it.’

  His first order was for the orphans to be freed.

  ‘Henceforth,’ he announced to the King’s advisers, ‘we will take care of orphans, but we will not force them to work. They will be schooled in the castle, and when they are old enough, allowed to come and go as they please.’

  His second order was for Jonas, who had been drained by Randling, to be given the best medical care and kept in as much comfort as possible in a spacious room in the castle.

  His third order was for Miss Bertha to be arrested and interrogated. The chief of the guards hurried off to do so, and soon reported back that, with Randling dead, it had not been difficult to persuade her to talk. It turned out that Miss Bertha had been Randling’s – Timeon’s – nanny when he grew up in the castle, and had remained loyal to him after he fled. She had fed him information over the years and, several months ago, on his orders, had begun to poison the King. The chief guard shared one further piece of information. When Miss Bertha was told of Randling’s death, her eyes misted with tears, and she kept repeating, ‘He was a good boy. A lovely boy.’

  Dani wondered if it was true. Edward had told them Randling’s history. Could the violent deaths of Timeon’s parents and brother have changed him from a pleasant young man into someone who was evil enough to drain innocent minds? Just as Edward had come good, had Randling gone bad? Or had he always been like that, with the capacity for evil within him? Dani wondered if, given the right – or wrong – circumstances, anyone could go bad. She glanced at Bart. She was pretty sure he didn’t have much capacity for evil within him.

  Edward’s next order was for the castle carpenter to design and build him a chair with wheels.

  Bart and Dani remained with Edward as various people visited to enquire about his health, request his decision on various matters and generally attempt to ingratiate themselves with the new ruler.

  When the last one had left, Edward turned to Dani. ‘Up on the roof, when you walked towards Randling, before I gave you the knife, did you know I was trying to trick him? Were you going to attack him yourself? I mean, you weren’t just going to let him drain you, were you?’

  Dani shook her head. ‘I thought you were on Randling’s side. I don’t know what I was thinking. I was just . . . tired of it all.’

  An awkward silence followed, broken by a knock at the door. A guard entered. ‘Sire, your father the King has awoken. The doctor says he is ready to see you, if you wish.’

  ‘I see,’ said Edward, and for a few moments he stared silently down at his useless legs beneath the sheets. Then he took a deep breath and looked up. ‘Fetch Gambon. He can carry me.’ The guard bowed and left.

  Soon, Gambon arrived. ‘I didn’t bring my sack,’ he said, ‘but I don’t suppose you want to travel that way.’ He bent and scooped Edward up.

  ‘Bart,’ said Edward, ‘I’m sure you have some questions for my father about the identity of your real parents. Do you want to come?’

  ‘Gosh. Um, yes.’

  ‘And you’d better come too, Dani.’

  As he approached the royal chambers, Edward tried to stay calm. Randling had told him that his father had killed his own sister so that he could become king himself, and Edward needed to find out if it was true. But what would he do if it was?

  He took a deep breath and opened the door. The King sat, looking out the window, in the same chair he had been in when he had sent Edward off to search for Bart. Doctor Sturpen hovered. ‘He insisted on getting out of bed, your H
ighness,’ he said to Edward. ‘He appears recovered from his, er, state, but is still unwell.’

  ‘Thank you,’ said Edward. ‘Please leave us.’

  Edward motioned for Gambon to set him down in the chair next to his father, and Dani and Bart sat in chairs next to him. Gambon retreated to stand by the door.

  When the King saw Bart and Dani, his eyes narrowed. He addressed his son. ‘I’m sorry about your legs and arm, Edward, but they say you deliberately jumped from the roof. Surely that cannot be true.’

  ‘It’s a long story, Father,’ said Edward. ‘Perhaps I will tell it later but, as you can see, I have returned with Bart, and fulfilled the mission that you gave me.’

  The King nodded. ‘Indeed. I am pleased. My memory of the last few days is incomplete, but I have been informed that a traitor by the name of Randling seized power, and that he is now dead. But why are these servants here?’

  ‘It was Dani who killed Randling, Father.’

  The King peered at her. ‘You have my thanks.’ He turned to Edward. ‘It should have been a task for a prince.’

  ‘Your son helped, your Majesty,’ said Dani.

  ‘Did he?’ said the King in a tone that suggested that he didn’t quite believe her.

  Edward felt himself tense and decided to change the subject. Randling had said that Bart was the son of the Queen of Pirainia, but was that the truth?

  ‘Bart wants to know who his parents are, Father,’ he said.

  The King looked at him sharply. ‘I do not know. He is an orphan.’ He gestured at Bart and Dani. ‘They are twins, I believe. In any event, I will make sure the girl is rewarded. You are excused.’

  ‘They are not twins,’ replied Edward as firmly as he could. ‘They have lived their lives believing they are, but they are not.’

  The King opened his hands. ‘I do not know. I have a kingdom to run. So if you will excuse me –’

  Edward slammed his fist down on the arm of the chair. ‘We will have the truth.’