I should have known. He hadn’t bothered to glance at me once in his gleeful approach of the inn. But as soon as he had dismounted, his enthusiasm had faded in the light of the many scratches, bruises, and blood that mottled my skin.
And then he noticed my hand. One giant, swelling blister of a palm that had only grown worse in the hours since I had last looked at it. Angry burn marks dotted my fingers like unsightly patches, and the pain was just as bad.
“It was more important to get to safety first!”
“Safety?” Alex snapped. “Don’t use that Combat nonsense with me, Ryiah. ‘Safety’ would have been letting me heal you. And what happened? I thought you said—”
“I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to make you upset!”
Alex made a face. “I believe I have a right to know what happened to my sister!”
“Alex, please,” I begged. The last thing I needed was him raging about after he heard the tale. “Not here. Not now… tomorrow, when we are both feeling better.”
Alex glowered. “Fine. One day of rest. And then you will tell me what happened.”
I put my hands on my hips. “Careful, if you keep acting like that, people will start to say you are the hotheaded one.”
His cheeks reddened, embarrassed. “Sorry ‘bout that,” he mumbled. He looked anywhere but my face. “It’s just, well, you are my sister.”
The two of us entered the inn, and while I began to count our coin, Alex went ahead and found its keeper. He set to work ordering our room and a bath. Eyeing a loitering maidservant nearby, he added on a list of common salves to be brought to us at once. Then he winked.
The flustered girl scurried off, seemingly torn between confusion and intrigue. I knew what she was thinking.
Women all took to my brother the same.
While Alex and I were the same age, that was where the similarities began and ended for us. I was somewhat gangly and awkward whereas he was assured and confident.
He was also a good three inches taller, and with broad shoulders I envied. No matter how hard I trained, my build remained stubbornly slim. Alex, on the other hand, gained muscle at the slightest effort. He also had our parents’ soft brown locks and easy blue eyes that girls, including many of my friends back home, found “handsome.”
And it was those eyes that had won him many an admirer. Well, that and his humor. My eyes were blue too, but they were so light it was more common to think of them as gray than anything else. Take into account my quick temper, and it was no wonder people did not take to me the same.
In a lot of ways I was more like my younger brother Derrick than my twin.
The second Alex had finished cleansing my wounds, he gave me a wry smile. “You are not going to like this next part,” he warned.
I nodded absentmindedly.
My twin pressed two fingers to my burnt palm. The added pressure stung sharply, and my pain flared. It seemed to go on for ages. I bit my tongue. A mage of Combat would not cry out and so neither would I.
The ache continued to build for another minute, almost unbearably, and then it suddenly ebbed, a trickle of coolness seeping out and enveloping my hand.
Alex kept the pressure steady until my pain had completely subsided, and then got up to grab the tray the serving maid had left behind.
My brother filled a warm glass with water and mixed it with salt. He poured the mixture over my skin. It wasn’t a pleasant sensation, but more tolerable than before. He dabbed the inflamed flesh with a cold poultice a few seconds longer, and then spread a bit of honey over the top, wrapping my hand in a thin cloth when he was satisfied.
“Now I’ve taken the heat out of the burn,” Alex said, “so you should not feel quite as much hurt.”
“Thank you.”
Alex shook his head. “It’s a shame this couldn’t have happened after we started the Academy. If it had, I’d be able to do a lot more than this. You are still going to have to let the rest of those cuts heal naturally.”
I waved his apology away. “Just be lucky you have magic, brother. In two days’ time I am going to be made the biggest fool in the history of that school when I walk in without the slightest whiff of magic.”
Alex sighed at the familiar argument. “You have magic, Ry. You just haven’t found it. Everyone knows twins always share it.”
“But who is to say the Council’s scrolls were talking about us?” For all we knew, they could have been referring to identical twins.” I fingered my red locks, a sharp contrast to the muted brown of my brother.
We couldn’t be more different there.
Alex gave my knee a reassuring pat. “Gods help us, Ry. Even if you did have magic, it isn’t as if we have a real shot at the apprenticeships. We are just two lowborn kids without any formal training. Mark my words, this time next year we’ll be applying to the Cavalry.”
The next morning came much too soon. I had barely shut my eyes before Alex was back, shaking me awake with the reminder that we still had sixty miles of riding left, and two days to do it.
“And if we fall behind now, we’ll miss the admission period,” he joked.