"Then what are you going to do?" Mianna asked, hands on her hips. "I mean, obviously you know more about magic than you've been letting on, but still, there are a couple of hundred of them."
Those lies just kept getting her into trouble. She was tired of it. "They can't use their magic inside the barrier."
"What barrier?"
Brianna sighed. All these explanations were getting a little tedious. "They can't use magic here in the village, some magical barrier prevents them. The gem we found allows the person holding it to not be affected somehow."
"So you can do magic and they can't?" A smile lifted Mianna's lips. "Now that makes me feel a whole lot better."
"Until the thought occurs to you that the trolls have one of those gems too." Terion spoke up for the first time.
As his words sunk in, Mianna's face transformed from satisfied to horrified.
"But only one of them at a time," Brianna countered. "We've fought the trolls before, and we're still on even footing. This is no different." Somehow, her earlier fear of the trolls attacking had paled beside King Balen's appearance.
"And if the mages attack us at the same time?" Terion asked. "That's what I'd do in their place. Even without their magic, they could still do a lot of damage."
Brianna turned on him. "What do you suggest we do then? Do you want to just run away?"
"I don't know," Terion said, throwing his hands up helplessly.
A tap on the door interrupted their argument. Mianna and Terion stared at her. As though she had any idea who it was!
She shouldn't have been surprised to see Lyall standing on the doorstep, but she was. Especially since he was alone.
"Can I come in?" he asked quietly.
As Brianna hesitated, Mianna came up behind her. "No, you can't. Why do you think you have any rights in our house? You're just like all those men growing up, you see a set of twins, and think you can get two for the price of one. Well it isn't going to happen!"
Despite the fact that she agreed with her twin in principle, something in the way she said it irritated her. She rounded on her sister. "Why do you think you're the only one who gets a say in it? I've done my best to make things right for you and Terion all this time, living here with you, not telling anyone that things aren't the way they seem. Yet you can't even listen to Lyall and hear what he has to say before deciding that he's a problem. Why is the man I love worth any less than the one you do?"
Mianna checked. She stared at her sister for a long moment. Then she swallowed. "I'm sorry, Bri. I didn't think … " She turned to Lyall and Brianna's heart warmed when she held out her hand to him. "I don't think we've been properly introduced. I hear you and my sister love each other?"
Lyall stared at her for a moment as though he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. Then he nodded and put his hand into hers, clasping it and shaking it. "We do." He looked over at Brianna and gave her a look that would have melted a heart far stronger than hers. "And I'm looking forward to getting to know her family."
Terion was still scowling, but Brianna was satisfied. It was a start. Of what, she wasn't sure, since she still couldn't see any way they could make this work. But at least there were no more lies, no more hiding things from her sister. That alone was worth it.
The four of them went into the living room and sat around the dining table. It was awkward, and no one seemed ready to start talking, but at least they were in the same room.
"My father is going to cause issues." Lyall's voice sounded loud in the silence. He cleared his throat. "He is a firm believer in the twin law and, perhaps more so, in our family maintaining a strong rule."
"What do you think he will do?" Brianna asked.
Lyall gave a lopsided grin. "I don't know. I think he's a little afraid of you, after your display back there." His voice sobered. "But that won't stop him for long. He thinks I should insist on my rights and marry both of you."
"That's not going to happen," Mianna said firmly, but her voice wavered.
"I have no wish for an unwilling wife," Lyall said softly. "So we need to present my father with another option."
"What?" Brianna asked.
No one said anything. There were more heavy sighs.
"Maybe we need to focus on the immediate problems?" Brianna suggested. "If we can defeat the trolls, the other mages your father is so worried about, perhaps he will be willing to accept an unconventional solution?"
She could think of no real solutions that they hadn't already considered and discarded, but the suggestion of action seemed to perk Lyall up. "Yes, we need to deal with the trolls first," he agreed. "I was thinking on the way over here, we need to get an idea of what sort of force we're up against."
"How can we do that?" Mianna wrinkled her nose. "No one has ever returned from over the ridge to bring back that kind of information. There could be thousands of them for all we know."
Lyall smiled. "I highly doubt there are thousands of them. Maybe a few hundred, I would guess. But we don't need to go physically to find out, we can travel there magically."
"How can you do that, if you can't do magic within the village?" Mianna asked suspiciously.
Lyall glanced at Brianna, one eyebrow raised, and she shrugged. "I was explaining everything else, it seemed pointless to leave that fact out."
Lyall nodded, and turned back to Mianna. "I would need to use the gem, of course."
Mianna's suspicious stare didn't change. But she did turn to Brianna and ask, "Do you trust him?"
"With my life," Brianna said simply. There was no doubt in her heart.
Mianna searched her face for a moment, then nodded. "Right then, that will give us a much needed advantage," she said to Lyall.
He nodded, and held his hand out to Brianna. "Will you come?"
She stared at him for a moment, torn. She wanted to see what really was over the ridge for herself, but she was also afraid of what she might see. "I don't know how," she hedged.
"I think you do." Lyall caught her eyes and held them, waiting.
Brianna hesitated. She knew this must be what she had done when she visited Mianna on her wedding night, but she wasn't really sure exactly how she had done it or how to do it again. "There's no real need for me to be there," she said instead. "You'll probably be faster on your own."
"We'll be more powerful together," Lyall said solemnly. "And since the trolls have a stone as well, we may not be able to sneak up on them without them noticing."
"They can hurt you, even if you're not actually there?" Mianna asked in alarm. "Maybe it's best to stay home then."
"The two of us together are more than a match for any mage I've ever met," Lyall said firmly. "I doubt there is any troll that is more powerful."
"Are you willing to risk Brianna's life on that certainty?" Terion asked.
"Are you willing to risk the destruction of this village on the possibility that we're not?" Lyall countered. "If we're to have any hope of protecting this village, we need to know what we're up against." He turned to her. "Brianna?"
Everyone looked at her expectantly. Mianna and Terion's expressions were worried, Lyall's quietly encouraging. She bit her lip, then nodded. "Lyall's right. We need to know what we're up against. We can come back quickly if we're noticed." She ignored the uncertainty digging at the side of her belly. It wasn't as if she'd be going on her own. Lyall was perfectly capable of defending them if necessary.
Mianna and Terion still didn't look too sure, but they didn't object any further, so she sat down next to Lyall and pulled out the stone and stared at it until Lyall's hand closed over hers. His eyes met hers and any doubts she felt disintegrated.
He turned to look at Mianna. "We need to both remain in contact with the gem at all times. If that contact is broken, we would lose our ability to use magic, and I don't know what that would mean if it happened while our consciousness was elsewhere.
Mianna's eyes widened. "Could you die?"
"Possibly," Lyall said. "But it won't be an issue so long as we both keep our hands on the gem."
He stared at her for a long minute, and Mianna stared back. It occurred to Brianna that he was taking quite a chance, telling Mianna this and trusting her to care for both of them while he was gone. Her sister gave a small nod and gave Brianna a smile. They were twins again, trusting and respecting each other completely. Mianna would take care of Lyall just as she would her twin.
"Let's go," Lyall said.
Brianna closed her eyes and searched for the swirling colours she usually saw, but all she could see was black. She felt a slight tugging at her left hand, the one connected to Lyall and worried. They needed to stay connected. She pulled back, but the tugging continued.