The Bone Doll’s Twin
The first volume of a thrilling fantasy adventure trilogy filled with necromancy and bone-chilling magic from the bestselling US author of the Nightrunner series.Long ago, during the dark days of the Great War with Pleinmar, King Thelatimos journeyed to the Oracle of the God Illior at Afra to save his warn-torn kingdom. Here he was presented with a prophecy ‘So long as a daughter of Thelatimos’s line defends and rules, Skala shall never be subjugated.’ And that is how the line of queens ruling over Skala was established…However, as generations went by the male heirs to the throne became intensely resentful of the prophecy that emasculated their claim to power. Finally Queen Agnalain took the throne and the people of Skala suffered under her erratic and selfish command. Prompted by the people’s outcry over this mad queen, her son Prince Erius claimed primogeniture, and seized the throne.Erius’s ascent may have pleased the people of Skala, but a faction of the population, one who had not forgotten the prophecy, were worried. Plague, drought and famine spread throughout the kingdom weakening it’s defences and offering easy pickings to Skala’s old enemy and neighbour, Plenimar.As people start to recall the Oracle’s prophecy, Erius begins to quietly kill of his female relatives who pose the only threat to his monarchy. Constantly in fear for her life, Princess Ariani the King’s sister, gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. But Ariani is married to Lord Rhius, the patron of the powerful wizard Iya, and Iya has sinister plans for the babes…
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THE BONE DOLLâS TWIN
Book One of the TamÃr Triad
Lynn Flewelling
Voyager An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by Voyager 2001
Copyright © Lynn Flewelling 2001
The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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Source ISBN: 9780007354412
Ebook Edition © MARCH 2016 ISBN: 9780007392261 Version: 2016-03-14
for l.e. and the knapp kids up the magic staircase a long time ago
CONTENTS
I. Winter Solstice â Mourning Night and Festival of Sakor; observance of the longest night and celebration of the lengthening of days to come.
1. Sarisin Calving.
2. Dostin Hedges and ditches seen to. Peas and beans sown for cattle food.
3. Klesin Sowing of oats, wheat, barley (for malting), rye. Beginning of fishing season. Open water sailing resumes.
II. Vernal Equinox â Festival of the Flowers in Mycena. Preparation for planting, celebration of fertility.
4. Lithion Butter and cheese making (sheepâs milk pref.) Hemp and flax sown.
5. Nythin Fallow ground ploughed.
6. Gorathin Corn weeded. Sheep washed and sheared.
III. Summer Solstice
7. Shemin Beginning of the month â hay mowing. End of the month and into Lenthin â grain harvest in full swing.
8. Lenthin Grain harvest.
9. Rhythin Harvest brought in. Fields plowed and planted with winter wheat or rye.
IV. Harvest Home â finish of harvest, time of thankfulness.
10. Erasin Pigs turned out into the woods to forage for acorns and beechnuts.
11. Kemmin More plowing for spring. Oxen and other meat animals slaughtered and cured. End of the fishing season. Storms make open water sailing dangerous.
12. Cinrin Indoor work, including threshing.
>* A 360-day year with four 3-day seasonal festivals.
Document Fragment Discovered in the East Tower of the Orëska House
An old man looks back at me from my mirror now. Even among the other wizards here in RhÃminee, Iâm a relic of forgotten times.
My new apprentice, little Nysander, cannot imagine what it was like to be a free wizard of the Second Orëska. At Nysanderâs birth this beautiful city had already stood for two centuries above her deep harbour. Yet to me it shall always and forever be âthe new capitalâ.
In the days of my youth, a whoreâs cast-off like Nysander would have gone unschooled. If he were lucky he might have ended up as a village weather-caller or soothsayer. More likely, he would have unwittingly killed someone and been stoned as a witch. Only the Lightbearer knows how many god-touched children were lost before the advent of the Third Orëska.
Before this city was built, before this great House of learning was gifted to us by its great founder, we wizards of the second Orëska made our own way and lived by our own laws.
Now, in return for service to the Crown we have this House, with its libraries, archives, and its common history. I am the only one still living who knows how dear a price was paid for that.
Two centuries. Three or four lifetimes for most people; a mere season for those of us touched by the Lightbearerâs gift. âWe wizards stand apart, Arkoniel,â my own teacher, Iya, told me when I was scarcely older than Nysander is now. âWe are stones in a riverâs course, watching the rush of life whirl past.â
