Doubleborn by Toby Forward Page A

a long lifetime.”
    “You said I couldn’t use magic in here.”
    “Nor you can. Nor did she. Her magic was fire. Yours isn’t. That’s all there is to it. She wasn’t using magic, it was using her. Ah, here we are.”
    He handed her a pair of scissors. She slipped her fingers into the handle and flexed them.
    “Careful. They’re sharp.”
    “Did she make these?”
    “Mostly. She didn’t have time to finish them. She made the two halves. I sharpened the blade and I riveted them in the centre. You can have them.”
    “I’d rather have the bird.”
    “I know you would, but you can’t. You’ll have these or nothing.”
    Tamrin handed them back.
    “No, thanks.”
    Winny laid her hand on Tamrin’s shoulder.
    “Take them,” she said. “You’re on a journey and they’re a gift. Take them.”
    Tamrin reached out her hand, took them without thanks and pushed them into her pocket. Smith edged the bird to the back of the shelf and led her away.
    They stepped from the forge into the yard. It was growing dark. Tamrin shut her eyes in disbelief and opened them again.
    “What’s happened?” she asked.
    “You must be hungry,” said Winny. “Let’s go and eat.”
    “But it’s nearly night,” said Tamrin. “We were only in there about an hour.”
    Solder came out of the forge last and closed the door behind him, checking it was locked. Smith took Tamrin’s elbow and escorted her back to the house. There were four places laid at the table.
    “You can stay for dinner,” he said. “It’s too late to set off now.”
    “You’re keeping me prisoner,” said Tamrin. “You’ll lock me in again.”
    “Not tonight,” said Smith.
    He stirred the fire.
    “How could we have been in there so long?” she asked.
    “You’re a wizard and you don’t know that time goes differently in different places? I don’t believe it.”
    Tamrin didn’t know that and thought some very bad thoughts about Vengeabil for not teaching her.
    “There’s one time for the outside,” said Smith. “And another time for the storeroom, and another time for the forge,” he explained, without explaining anything.
    “And the room of mirrors?” she said. “What’s the time for there?”
    Smith gave Solder a stern look and the roffle grinned back, unconcerned.
    “You weren’t supposed to go in there,” said Smith. “Not today.”
    “Why not? What’s so secret about there?”
    “Let’s eat,” he said.
    “It strikes me,” said Solder, when he had eaten more beef stew than Tamrin thought anyone could manage, “that you’d want to run away from this tailor, rather than run after him.”
    “Roffles like their food,” said Winny, noticing Tamrin’s amazement at the way he’d cleared his dish. Tamrin blushed.
    “I wouldn’t want to get closer to someone who seemed to want to harm me,” the roffle continued.
    “If there was a wolf circling the village,” said Smith, “attacking at night, picking out small children in their beds, killing for sport as well as hunger, what would you do? You wouldn’t run away, would you?”
    “I would,” he said.
    “No, you wouldn’t. You’d arm yourself, go out and hunt the wolf. You’d take the battle to the enemy, not just bar the doors and hope you’d be safe. Not just run away. Wolves run fast and they can scent their prey.”
    Tamrin laid down her spoon and listened. Nothing seemed to upset Solder. No rebuke or scorn or teasing. He took it all in his stride, grinning back.
    “You do right,” said Smith to Tamrin. “You need to hunt the tailor down. Or he’ll be more dangerous when you do meet.”
    Solder wasn’t easily put off.
    “But why do they need to meet at all?” he said. “She could just stay away from him.”
    “He came to the college to find her and she ran away,” said Smith. “He won’t give up. He may have gone home now, but he’s still looking.”
    “He’s got something I want,” said Tamrin.
    She had held on to this secret for so long that it