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1
Ah, spring…a time when the world rouses itself from its cold slumber and bursts forth life renewed…a time when the birds trilled a welcome-back to the renewed Sun…a time when a young boy can go outside and enjoy the sights and smells and feel of a brand new day and not freeze his bollocks off.
Noah turned his head apprehensively to the house, as if anyone could hear his thoughts. His Mum couldn’t — thank the Makers — but sometimes Noah believed his brother could. They usually finished each other’s sentences…when they weren’t at each other’s throat.
His thoughts turned outward again, towards the dawn, and to the coronation ceremony, next week. The old Dowager Queen Felice had died, and her son Raminas was next in line to the throne. It was Noah and Basch’s first coronation, and they were understandably thrilled by the prospect. When you’re six years old, everything new was grand.
Noah rolled his eyes. It will be fun, he thought, as long as Basch doesn’t go and mess it up. Lately, his twin had gotten them into trouble more times than he could count. Just last week they were sent to their room without supper and with sore bottoms, all because Basch got it into his mind that the two of them could balance all of Mum’s good china on their heads. Just why Noah went along with that crazy idea was beyond him. They were lucky they only got whipped…their Mum was at wit’s end due to their antics, and was ready to kill them both.
Well, at least they got a trip to Bazaar out of it…and he got to see Jenny. Now, normally he thought girls were icky (a feeling both he and his brother shared), but Jenny was…different. She was the daughter of a shopkeeper that owned the only china shop in all of Landis (maybe even all of Valendia), and as their Mum shopped there rather frequently, Noah got to know Jenny and learned to like her. She wasn’t like the other girls. While other girls were squeaky clean and polite and charming, Jenny was…well, she was just like Noah and Basch. She was a master at King of the Hill; she could climb trees; and once she tried to scale the rock wall behind her father’s house like the brothers fon Ronsenburg did, and fell off the top and split her lip open and just laughed at herself. Jenny — despite the fact that she was an icky girl — was just one of the boys.
Noah took a deep breath, and grinned widely. Jenny also did something to him last week that, if Basch ever got wind of it, would never let him forget it. Even when they were as ancient as thirty he’d never let him live it down, that was for sure. Jenny had grabbed him and dragged him behind her father’s shop…and then she had kissed him! At first he was disgusted, but it also sort of made him feel funny at the same time, like that warm fuzzy feeling he got when Mum let them have a rare wee nip of brandy.
But since that last trip into town, Basch had been grouchy and distant. To be blunt, Basch was a master at that, but lately he was even more so…and even though he and Noah sometimes scrapped so violently that they usually emerged screaming at top volume and bleeding from at least three places, Noah kinda missed his brother’s company. He…
…Was suddenly propelled to the ground, where he landed face-first. “Oof! Hey, what gives?” Noah turned his head and beheld Basch as he stood above him, his hands on his slim hips…and was he smirking at him?
“Lout,” said Noah. “Why did’ya do that?”
Basch’s grin widened. “I saw what you did last week.”
Noah groaned and let his forehead thump to the loam. Honestly, Basch really could read his thoughts. “So what? Are you gonna tell on me?”
“I don’t have to, Noah.” He simpered a bit, and looked right pleased with himself.
Oh, but he was going to get walloped, for certain. Noah rose to his feet, and ground his teeth. “And why not?”
Basch spread his hands. “It isn’t gonna happen anymore. Jenny told me she didn’t like it as much.”
Noah’s hands closed into fists. “As much as what, Basch?”
Basch’s eyebrows rose slightly, and he dropped his own hands to his sides. The smirk slipped from his face. “Me. She thinks mine are better.”
“You…” Noah’s mouth dropped open, and he stood staring at his soon-to-be-deceased brother. “She likes me!”
And then Noah did something he had never, ever imagined himself doing in a million billion gazillion years. He cocked his fist back to his own ear, and rocketed it into his brother’s smirking, dirty mouth.
Basch suddenly sat down hard. His hands flew to his mouth, and his eyes were huge and startled and very, very blue in contrast to the freshet of blood that now spouted from his broken mouth…and were those teeth in his lap?
Tears now joined the puddle of blood in Basch’s lap. He tried to say something, but his hands muffled his voice (Noah hoped). Noah shook his head minutely, and Basch drew a deep breath, and dropped his hands. His mouth was an ugly sight. He was indeed missing his front teeth, and blood poured freely from where they once were and from the gash in his bottom lip. “I…I hate you! I don’t wanna be your brother anymore!”
Noah gasped, and was utterly surprised by his own storm of tears. “No! You don’t mean it!”
Basch didn’t answer. He merely stood, turned on his heel and ran, bawling, for the house. Noah felt small and insignificant and all alone in the dooryard. Basch didn’t want to be his brother? The prospect horrified him. Who would help him hide their supper in the potted plant by the front door? Who would comfort him if he fell and skinned his knee? Who would talk to him late at night, and keep him safe when the bogeys came out?
2
Later, Noah lay belly-down on his bed. He had to. His Mum gave him the whipping of his young life, and his backside sang ‘Ave Maria’ for all it was worth. He glanced over at the bed opposite his. Basch mirrored his twin, save the dried blood in the corners of his mouth and his red-rimmed eyes. He lay belly down, his forehead on his crossed arms. His pained sobs had ceased hours ago, but his chest still hitched now and then.
Basch wanted the pain to go away, but more than that, he wanted Noah to stop staring at him. He raised his head, and glared at his twin. “What do you want?” This, of course, came out sounding more like “Wot oo ouu wan?”
He had no idea, really, what he wanted from Basch, so he merely shrugged. Noah grinned at his twin. “Guess we’re not goin’ to Rabanastre, huh?”
Basch rolled his eyes outrageously. “Yeth. I gueth not.” He glanced at Noah, sidelong, and grinned back.
Noah grimaced when he saw the gap in Basch’s teeth. “That looks like it hurts.”
Basch made a moue. “You can thay that. I’m gonna wallop you for thith.”
“Oh, come on! Mum said they were loose to begin with! You’re such a baby.”
Basch sneered. “I don’t care if they were looth! It thtill hurth!” He looked at his hands before he turned back to his brother. “Noah?”
“Yeah?”
Basch looked levelly at Noah for a moment, and then shimmied over to give Noah some room. He inclined his head to beckon him closer. Noah jumped into the vacated spot, and looked at his brother expectantly. Basch stared at his hands again, and gathered his thoughts, and then turned to Noah. “I…I’m thorry I thaid I didn’t want you to be my brother anymore. I didn’t mean it.”
If Noah had been a bit older, he would’ve been able to convey, in words, the feeling of sublime relief that washed over him then. But he was six, after all, and he merely touched his head to his brother’s. “That…that’s okay, Basch. Thanks. And I…umm…I’m sorry I knocked your teeth out.”
“It’s okay, I gueth,” lisped Basch, “My grown-up teef are gonna grow in thoon. Mum thays that there wath no real harm done. Um…Noah?”
“Yeah?”
“I…” Basch looked at Noah, and shrugged uncomfortably. “I fibbed when I told you about Jenny. I wath really jealouth ‘cauth she wath hogging all your time. I jutht wanted to tell you that.”
Noah’s jaw thumped to his chest. “You…fibbed? I knocked your teeth out, and Mum walloped the tar outta me…and you made it all up?”
He grinned again, and raised one shoulder. “Thorry?”
Basch nudged him with one elbow, and Noah snickered. “I’m gonna make you sorry…really, really sorry!” And he would’ve jumped on his brother and pinned him until he cried Uncle, if their Mum didn’t come in the room at that precise moment.
Mum put her hands on her hips, and glared at her two monsters. “And just what are you two up to this time?”
“Nuffink,” said Basch, a statement Noah echoed.
“Nothing, eh?” Mum raised her eyebrow skeptically, and left the room suddenly. The twins exchanged a puzzled glance before Mum returned with their missed supper on a tray. “Here you go, boys. Eat. You need to be strong for the trip.”
Noah blinked. “Trip?”
Mum smiled thinly. “The trip to Rabanastre. To the coronation…you didn’t want to miss that because of a few lost teeth and a sore bottom now, did you?”
The boys shook their heads vigorously. Mum nodded. “Right. Eat up, then, and go to sleep. We have a long trip ahead of us in the morning.”
3
“Do you remember that, Basch?”
He knelt by the broken man, and held his hand as he lay dying. He pressed his lips together and stayed the tears that threatened to fall. “Yes. Yes, I remember, Noah.”
Noah chuckled. “You scared me right and proper that day. I thought I was going to lose my brother forever.”
He squeezed Noah’s hand. “I thought I did, two years ago.”
Basch wanted to look away from the shattered, dying man…he wanted to turn away or at the very least shut his eyes and block out the vision of Noah’s suffering. But if he did that, the burning tears that threatened would spill over his lower lashes, and he didn’t want his keening to be the last thing Noah saw. He couldn’t do that to him, even if he was the author of the suffering of thousands. No matter what he was before this…he would not allow him to be hurt any more.
Noah nodded, and coughed once. A tiny rill of blood ran from the corner of his mouth. “You…you made me realize the error of my ways. You helped me even if I didn’t deserve the help. And you brought me back here. I…I thank you for that.”
Noah closed his eyes. Dying wasn’t as bad as he thought it was going to be…but he was tired. So very tired. He opened his eyes to behold Basch, just as his twin attempted to touch the arcane and try something daft like heal him...Noah squeezed his brother’s hand with strength only the dying seem to have. It had the desired effect. It startled Basch enough so that his magick was interrupted.
Noah shook his head slowly. “No. Let me die.”
“If I let you die,” said Basch, “it’d be like killing myself. I cannot…”
“You can. I’m close…I can feel it happening. And…it’s not so bad…”
Basch wanted to say something…anything…to Noah to ease his suffering, but found he could not. Noah cleared his throat. “You see this as the end of my journey, but…I think it’s just begun.”
“Maybe you’re right.” Basch touched Noah’s hand to his forehead, and sighed deeply. “But where does that leave me?”
Noah’s gaze drifted to the far end of the room as he thought. Thinking was getting more and more difficult as the minutes wound out. “Basch…did you mean it…when you told me you’d defend Her Majesty…to the end?”
Without removing Noah’s hand from his brow, Basch nodded. “I did. Why?”
“Will...will you do something for me…?”
He nodded again. “Anything, Noah.”
Noah took one last deep breath. “Take my place…guard Larsa. He is the best hope for peace. Do this for me, won’t you?”
Basch cradled his brother’s hand in both of his, and nodded. Noah smiled sweetly, and closed his eyes. Perhaps, if he gave in to this weariness…perhaps it would bring true peace.
Basch knelt by Noah’s side for a moment more. Basch squeezed his brother's hand when Noah became still. He called his name, once. He touched his brother’s face.
Nothing.
He was dead.
Basch spent a few precious moments with what was left of Noah. He stroked his head. In his heart, Basch told Noah how angry he was at him, but that he forgave everything Noah had done to him. It was the least he could do for Noah, and maybe for himself. Especially for himself.
A whistling hole opened in Basch's guts. He had never felt so alone.
He bowed his head, said goodbye, and made his way to the chamber door. He stepped outside, and shut the door firmly behind him, and suddenly couldn’t feel his legs any more. He tottered backwards and hit the wall beside the door. He slid to the floor, and buried his head in his hands.