Excerpt from "The Queen of All Light"

The hair on the back of King Frebar's neck bristled. He turned to confront his pursuer but saw no one. He started down the hall again but the feeling of being watched would not go away. His hand strayed to the dagger at his belt. He was almost to the archway between the hall and the royal apartments when a shiver as cold as death slithered down his spine. Frebar was no coward. He squared his shoulders, set his jaw with a determined clench of his teeth and returned to the library foyer where he first felt the intruder.

Everything was quiet. Most of the royal family had already retired. A few voices floated up from beside the fireplace in the great hall. There was nothing amiss in the oblong-shaped foyer. The candles burned steadily. The two sets of footprints recently crushed into the carpet Frebar knew were his own. He was almost ready to resume his walk back to his apartments when a flicker of movement caught his eye. He looked in the direction he had seen it but there was nothing. The door to the library was closed as it usually was. Frebar could not remember when he had last been inside. It had been years and years he was sure. He had never liked the long stifling sessions with his tutors as a child. As for Tobar his brother the opposite had been true. He had practically lived in the library until he married Princess Analinne.

Another flicker. The large ornately-carved wooden door glowed, or was it only the candlelight? Frebar glanced at the sconce on the wall beside him. The candle burned tall and straight. He felt his hand reaching for the door latch. Why did he want to go in there? There was no answer to his question, yet his hand lifted the latch and pulled open the door. It was dark inside. He took the candle from the sconce and entered the room. The air was musty and stale. Dust was everywhere. Frebar wandered through the shelves of rotting, unused books. He now felt as if he were the intruder. His thoughts turned to his brother. They had been so different, almost as if they had lived in separate worlds. There had often been times he forgot he had had a brother.

At the far end of the room he came to a little alcove. There a desk was untidily piled with books, papers and spider-web encased dirty dishes. There was a stub of a candle in a wax-filled

goblet. The essence of Tobar, his twin, lingered so strong that he could almost smell it. Again something flickered. He spun around to confront the darkness behind him. His spine was like ice. His knees shook. Gentle laughter echoed behind him. Frebar turned back to face the alcove.

Seated at the desk was the pale gray outline of a figure. He knew that line of slumping shoulders, that tangled mat of hair. The figure laughed again.

"I never thought to find you here, brother," said a thin frail voice.

"Tobar!"

"I used to be."

"But you're...
"Dead? Yes, that I am. Soon you will be too. Two years is a long time for twins to be apart even ones as different as we are."

Frebar stood dumbstruck.

"Are you afraid of you own brother, or is it the thought of joining me in this ephemeral state that makes your knees quake and your dinner turn over in your stomach?"

Before Frebar could think of a reply a blue flame leaped up from the candle stub in the goblet. The one in his hand sputtered and went out. The blue flame danced high in the glass. It expanded until the room was filled with light like the blue of the midday sky. He was out of doors! First he was on the castle wall. He heard a disembodied voice give a command to hold. Then he was lying on his back looking up into the well of sky, idly watching carrion birds circling overhead. All around him black thunder clouds rumbled. In a brilliant flash a child's face shone like a golden beacon above him. Then the clouds rolled over him and he sank into the darkness.

Frebar hastily retreated along the dusty shelves toward the crack of light from the doorway. Once he was back in the foyer he took a deep gulp of clean, fresh air and bolted the library door behind him.