Arawn rolled his eyes as he reached into his pocket and gruffly passed him something small and round. A stone. He lifted his own hand, where he had a second one. “You hold it, see? And then...”
Kinlear’s stone warmed, and suddenly his brother’s voice spoke as clear as day, in his mind.
“And then we’ll have a way to speak to each other while we’re apart.”
Kinlear grinned.
“You’re just giving this to menow?” He thought back.“Imagine, Arawn, the things we could have done with these, all these years!”
Arawn frowned. “That’s exactly why I didn’t give it to you until now.”
The stone cooled as Arawn placed his own into his cloak pocket, and his voice left Kinlear’s mind.
“Noteveryset can stretch kingdom-wide, and of course they won’t last forever, but...” he shrugged. “These will do for a while. Mother won’t be able to intercept our ravens.”
“How much did this cost?” Kinlear asked, eyes wide.
Arawn shrugged. “A few diamonds.”
“You don’t have any diamonds.”
“You do,” Arawn said.
At that, Kinlear laughed, and placed his own stone in his pocket. “You’ll be untouchable with the runes I learn to create, in Touvre. Then someday, when we’re older...you and me, the Knight and the Scribe? We’ll be the greatest prince team Lordach has ever---”
Something shifted inside of him.
A tickle in his throat...a littlehiccuppinggasp that came on without warning. It felt like the illness inside of him suddenly slashed a claw against his lungs. Gods, it ached, and when it started, he never knew when it would quit.
He held up a hand as he tried to cough through it.
“It’s....fine...” Kinlear gasped.
He could feel his lungs quivering. With each breath, it was as if someone had filled them with shards of glass.
Not fine, then.
It would be another bad fit.
“Kinlear?” Arawn asked. His blue eyes went wide as Kinlear kept coughing.
As the illness deep within his bones attacked.
It wanted him to die; it wanted him to drown.
“W-water,” Kinlear gasped, bending over as he heaved.
Arawn rushed for the water pitcher that the servants always left at his bedside. But he’d barely gotten a glass to Kinlear’s lips when the world grew fuzzy at the edges. He slumped forward over his knees, gasping for breath that would not come as he tumbled from his chair and hit the floor.
“Kinlear!” Arawn shouted.
His face grew in and out of focus. Kinlear felt blood on his lips, tasted it on his tongue.
He swore he could feel it sloshing in his lungs.
“HELP!SOMEONE HELP!”Arawn screamed.
He turned and ran from the room.
