Read Doubleborn for Free Online Page B

place?”
    Her anger swept across the room and left a taste in his mouth, like slurry.
    “Please don’t hurt me,” said Smedge again.
    Ash crouched with fury, hunched herself small, and for the first time Smedge saw that she was closer to the beetles than he had ever imagined. The tall, slender grey figure was transformed. She stood, and the illusion broke. She put her hand to her mouth and snapped off three teeth, tearing her gums. The taste of blood and the pain restored her calm.
    “There’s more than one way out of here,” she said. She gave Smedge a broad smile, revealing the gap in her teeth, the blood running down her chin. A new corpse, hacked to death in battle. Smedge felt hungry. “There are more doors than the broad gate.”
    Ash came close to him, gripped his jerkin and put her face right in his. As she spoke, blood spattered from her mouth into his eyes.
    “That boy, Sam. And that girl Tamrin. I want them both. You understand? Both of them. He’s Flaxfield’s, too.”
    Smedge leaned forward and licked the blood from her chin. Her teeth were already growing back, her gums closing over the wound.
    “Go back to the college,” she said. “Find out where she’s gone. Let me know everything.”
    “Yes.”
    “And Frastfil?” she added. “What of him?”
    “That fool,” said Smedge. “He’s ours.”
    “Good. Use him.”
    Smedge hesitated.
    “He’s too stupid,” he said. “Duddle is cleverer and he’ll enjoy working with us. Can I use him more?”
    “If you like,” she said.
    “And when I’ve finished with Frastfil,” said Smedge, “when he’s not any more use, may I eat him?”
    Ash patted his cheek.
    “Of course you may.”
    “What’s this?” asked Tamrin, pulling a jagged, irregular piece of metal from the cart.
    The road was level now, though bumpy. Pushing a handcart looked like fun until you tried to do it. Tamrin felt a little guilty that she had not taken as much of her fair share as she could have done.
    Winny stopped pushing and looked at Tamrin’s find. It was bigger than the woman’s palm, with two straight sides and two broken ones. It glinted in the sun and threw their reflections back at them.
    “It’s nothing. Put it back.”
    Tamrin pulled a face.
    “Can’t I have it?”
    Winny grabbed the handles and pushed the cart faster than before. The big house was close now.
    “Just throw it back,” she repeated.
    “I’ll pay you for it,” Tamrin offered.
    “It’s not for sale.”
    Tamrin tossed it back, making sure to see where it landed.
    “Old iron,” Winny shouted out. “Old iron.”
    It was a big household and they never saw the master or the mistress. The cook gave them some food and a buckled and scarred roasting dish.
    “Anything over there?” asked Winny. She pointed to a large barn.
    “You can have a look,” said the cook, “but Barbaron had better take you.”
    Barbaron, a sort of groom-handyman, wasn’t pleased to leave his comfortable seat in the kitchen. He led them across to the barn in surly silence and as soon as they were through the door he left them and sat in the sun, throwing small pebbles at the geese to make them honk.
    “If you see anything metal and old, let me know,” said Winny.
    “What are we looking for?” asked Tamrin.
    “The usual stuff. Anything. As long as it’s metal. As long as it’s old. Nothing new.”
    Tamrin wandered off and didn’t look very hard. She liked the barn and decided to measure it. The walls were high, rough stone, and crumbly. She paced the width. Thirty-seven. Then the length. Seventy-four. The roof was pointed against wet weather, with oak beams like laced fingers.
    “Found anything?” called Winny.
    Tamrin couldn’t see her. There were piles of old sacks, some hay bales, a farm cart with only one wheel, a harrow and a plough. One corner had a stack of wooden furniture that had been tipped out to make way for better stuff. Tamrin found an elbow chair, set it up on its legs and sat on it,