Doubleborn Read Online Free Page B

he died. Not soon enough.”
    Tamrin moved away from Winny. She dipped the scarf in the pool to rinse it out. The blood swirled red around it.
    “I must have moved too quickly,” said Winny. “Trying to get away. To get further out of danger. They heard me and chased me. You know what happened next.”
    Tamrin was cold now. Even in the sun. Her face and limbs damp from washing.
    Winny stood up.
    “Thank you for saving me,” she said. “I have to go. You can keep the scarf.”
    She strode away, sturdy boots beneath a long green skirt, upright and slender.
    “I’m Tamrin,” she called. “Please don’t go.”
    Winny stopped.
    “Are you sure?”
    “People call me Tam,” she said.
    Winny came back and sat down.
    “Nice to meet you, Tam. What are you doing out here? And how do you make mists?” ||

S medge looked at the tailor
    and the tailor looked at Smedge and they understood something about each other. Dark knows dark when it sees it.
    “I want her back,” said Shoddle.
    “She’s trouble,” said Smedge. “Always will be. You’ll be better off without her.”
    “She’s got magic,” said Shoddle. “That’s why I sent her to the college. To learn how to use it properly.”
    Smedge pretended to eat the stew that Shoddle had bought for them.
    “Why?”
    “Why do you think? Magic’s useful.”
    “For a tailor?” asked Smedge.
    Shoddle rapped his thimbled finger on the table.
    “For anyone. There’s no business won’t do better with some magic behind it.”
    “What if she won’t work for you? You can’t make her.”
    The tailor tapped his cheek.
    “Yes, I can,” he said. “I’ve got something she wants.”
    “Have you? What’s that?”
    “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
    There was a single red rose in a clay vase on the table. In his annoyance, Smedge touched it and it turned black. The tailor shifted in his seat and eyed Smedge.
    “You’re a sharp boy,” he said.
    Smedge looked at the rose.
    “Turn it back,” said the tailor.
    “I don’t want to.”
    The tailor’s grin wasn’t pleasant and Smedge knew he had discovered a weakness and would prod at it. The tailor feared magic.
    “You can’t,” he said.
    “Tamrin’s trouble,” said Smedge. “She’s always in trouble at the college.”
    “I’ll soon sort that out.”
    “What good is she to you?”
    “She can make me money. And there’s always other things you can get with magic.”
    Smedge wanted to hear more so he said nothing.
    “Besides,” added the tailor, “I found her, so she’s mine and no one else can use her.”
    “You found her?”
    The tailor cast a look around the room. Other diners had looked at them when he rapped the table, but only briefly. No one was listening.
    “She was extra,” he whispered.
    Smedge stopped pretending to eat and listened, wanting to hear what the tailor could tell him about where Tamrin was from, who she was.
    “I want her back,” the tailor said. “And if I can find her, I can make her come back and work for me, can’t I?”
    “Yes,” said Smedge. “I think you can. If you can find her. Perhaps if you told me where she came from?”
    The tailor sniggered and shook his head.
    “Will you help me?”
    “Go home,” said Smedge. “I’ll look for her.”
    The tailor shook his hand. He paid the bill and walked off. Smedge watched him flex his fingers and rub his hand on his jacket as he walked away.
    “I’ll look for her,” he said to himself. “But I won’t bring her to you.”
    He ducked round the corner and into an alley. Sidled up along the wall with slow, deliberate steps. The cobbles were slippery where people emptied their chamber pots. He didn’t bother stepping aside to avoid anything. Round another corner, into a small courtyard with a pile of bones and meat scraps from a butcher. Three crows were pecking at the offal. Smedge, on silent feet, drew closer. He pounced. The crows cawed and flapped. He seized one by the wing and dragged it back. In a single