“How did she do that?” she asked Thomas, once Mia and Samuel were both safely out of earshot.
“Magic. It’s the only explanation. She’s going to take him, and he’s going to sleep for hours. She’ll be able to lay him down in a cradle somewhere and everything. When she brings him back, he’ll be happy, and he’ll stay that way for the rest of the night. I’ve seen it a thousand times.”
Quinn raised an eyebrow.
“Seriously. How do you think she became my mother’s baby nurse at sixteen?”
“I thought it was because her mother had the job first.”
“She did. She still does, but Mia was allowed to work part-time as her mother’s assistant from the time she was thirteen, and then full-time with the babies and helping the rest of us when she was sixteen. Her mother is magic like that, too. My parents would have probably stopped having children after Alex and Emma if they didn’t have those two.”
“If they’d have made it past you and Linnea.”
“Yeah, that too.”
“I’m starting to wonder if I should quit while I’m ahead with this one,” Quinn said, chuckling, “or at least while I’m only this far behind.”
Thomas rubbed her back. “Two weeks old is hard. He’s probably stressed because he can tell you’re scared, too. You’ll be missing him long before he finishes his nap with her.”
She nodded, remembering why she’d come looking for someone else to begin with. “Where is everyone?”
“Um … my father brought Emma back up a little while ago, and I think he’s still with her. She’s really upset; she thinks it’s all her fault, plus she got a few really bad scratches from those thorns. My mother is still down in the clinic with Nathaniel and Alice. Will and Nathaniel ended up putting her out before they treated her bite and her scratches. They didn’t want to traumatize her.”
“Will said they think the fox had rabies?”
Thomas nodded. “There’s almost no chance it didn’t. It’s so stupid … we haven’t had that – we’ve always called it water disease here – anywhere near the castle for many cycles. The younger children have never even been warned about it. But there have been a few reported incidents lately.”
For the first time, she realized how upset Thomas looked; how pale he was, how he wouldn’t directly meet her gaze.
It occurred to her, then, that she might have slipped and forgotten about the differences between this world and the one she’d been born in. Her stomach twisted into horrible knots and her voice shook as she asked her next question. “Do you … not … have the treatment for it here?” The last part came out in a rush.
He still wasn’t making eye contact with her. His avoidance was starting to make her a little nauseous. “Didn’t William tell you?”
She shook her head. “The baby was screaming, and … I don’t know. It almost felt like he was ignoring me, blowing me off.”
Thomas sighed and nodded. “Sounds like Will. The answer to your question is yes and no. Nathaniel has brought the medicine back from your world for … I don’t know, as long as he’s been traveling there, I guess. They know how to make a kind of the medicine here, but it’s difficult, and apparently something went wrong with the last batch of the medicine they tried to make. And, apparently they can’t make the other kind they also use in your world. Jacob’s working on it, but in the meantime, we were down to having only one of the medicines in the clinic – in the kingdom, really – and only enough of that kind for one person.”
Quinn’s arms went limp at her sides, and she felt cold, as if a sudden blast of frozen air had filled the hallway. “And he’s giving it to Alice.”
“Yes.”
It was the same choice Quinn would have made, if she was in the same position, but she knew enough about rabies exposure to know what it meant. The cure, if given in time, was one hundred percent effective, but if not…
“You said Jacob was working on making more?”
“Yes. Nathaniel is going to ride out to him later, once Alice is awake. There’s still a chance that at least some of the medicine will be ready in time.”
“Okay.” She didn’t know what else to say.
“I’m sorry, Quinn. I don’t think I was supposed to tell you about this.”
A million sarcastic responses ran through her head, but she couldn’t hold on to any of them. There wasn’t an appropriate answer here, and the inappropriate ones were only going to make this harder. Worse, acknowledging this much at all was going to make it feel real. And she wasn’t ready for that. So she just nodded. “It’s okay, Thomas, I would rather know.”
“I know you would.”
“Ben and Emma are okay, though?”
“Yes. Scratched up, both of them – Emma’s the worst. And if we had enough medicine – if we could get more – Nathaniel would want to treat them both, just in case, but chances are slim they were exposed to anything.”
Something wasn’t quite right with his voice when he told her that, though, and she frowned. “The truth, please, Thomas.”
“Okay. Ben has one scratch that Nathaniel is worried might have come from the fox or gotten exposed to its saliva or something. Ben doesn’t want to tell Linnea though, because it could still be nothing.”
Quinn closed her eyes and took a long, deep breath before looking at him again. “A few years ago, my family went camping – well, we stayed in this cabin in the mountains with some friends for a week. It was Zander’s family, actually. And my friend Abigail and her brother came up for the weekend, too. Anyway, one night, Abigail and I were asleep in one of the bedrooms, and this thunk noise woke me up. I sat up, and immediately I knew there was something in the room. I was freaked out, and I woke Abigail up. We both heard another thunk, and we turned on the light. There was a bat flying around in the room.”
“A what?”
“A bat.”
“Is that some kind of bird in your world?” Thomas looked confused.
“No. It’s a tiny mammal that can fly. Like a mouse with wings.”
“Creepy.”
Quinn chuckled in spite of herself. “They’re very creepy, especially when you wake up with one in your bedroom in the middle of the night. Abigail and I both screamed our heads off. My dad came running. As soon as he opened the door, the bat flew out, and then it flew around the rest of the cabin. All of these adults were running after it, yelling, trying to catch it or get it to go outside, or something.”
Thomas was laughing now. “That must have been hilarious.”
“Not at the time. The next day it probably would have been.”
“Except what? … Oh, did it bite someone?”
Quinn shook her head. “Not that we know of. My dad was trying to get it to fly out the door, but Zander’s dad stopped him, said we needed to catch it, just in case. Abigail’s brother finally smacked it with a tennis racket and killed it.”
“Well that was good.”
“Nope. That turned out to be really bad. Bats have small brains, and Louis had smashed it to pieces. They couldn’t test it to see if it had rabies or not.”
“But it didn’t bite anyone.”
“That’s what we thought. But Zander’s dad was insistent that we call the doctor anyway – Nathaniel, you know.”
“Right.”
“Yeah, well, Nathaniel flipped his lid. Insisted that they bring me and Abigail to him right then. Apparently, bats have really tiny, sharp teeth, and they can bite you without you even feeling it, especially if you’re asleep.”
“Okay, that’s even creepier.”
“Yeah. I’m not fond of them. Louis teased us the whole time we were getting ready to go and see Nathaniel, about how we were going to have to get twenty shots with big needles in our stomachs.”
Thomas bit his lip, clearly trying not to laugh again.
“Be nice. We believed him. Apparently, it used to be true, when they first invented rabies shots. By the time we got to Nathaniel’s office, I was so scared my dad pr
actically had to drag me inside. Fine, laugh.”
“I’m sorry. What happened?”
“We did have to get shots. Not twenty, and not in our stomachs, just three.”
“So not so terrible?”
“The first two hurt, and you know me – at least back then – I’m pretty sure there were tears involved. But Nathaniel promised I’d never have to have those ones again, even if I found another bat in my bedroom. The last one wasn’t quite as bad, but we had to come back four more times after that to have more of those.”
“Did you ever get back at Abigail’s brother?”
“We didn’t have to.” She chuckled. “Nathaniel was so paranoid about rabies that he said everyone who was in the house had to get the shots. Louis was older and bigger than us, so he had to get more of the ones that hurt than we did.”
“He deserved it.”
“Yeah.” Quinn’s lightheartedness over it had disappeared again, though.
“So what you’re telling me with your little story is that we can’t wash this up for you?”
“No. For once, we’re dealing with a situation that I actually know something about.” After Nathaniel’s extreme reaction to the bat, she’d done her research on rabies. At the time, it had probably been to try and convince her parents that she didn’t need the rest of the shots. But what she’d read had changed even her mind. The shots always worked, but without them, rabies was fatal. Always.
She tried to shake that thought out of her mind, but failed. “I know that if we were in my world, he’d be giving those shots to Emma and Ben. Maybe the rest of us, too. Who knows?”
“Don’t tell this to Emma, but I’m pretty sure that if Jacob and Nathaniel manage to get more made, that’s exactly what will happen.” He brushed her hair back from her shoulder. “There’s still a chance we’ll have some medicine in time. And there’s also a chance that Nathaniel treated the wound quickly enough, and got it clean enough that he wouldn’t get sick, anyway. He practically did surgery on William’s arm down there. It’s so clean you could probably eat off of it.”
“I don’t really need that mental image, Thomas.”
“I’m trying here, okay?”
“I know. Thank you. I feel really bad now that I wasn’t down there in the clinic with him.”
“Hey, Quinn, you were upstairs taking care of his son. You can’t do everything. I think he was glad you didn’t have to be there when they realized, you know…”
“Yeah.” She swallowed. “I should go and see if he’s out of the bath now.”
Thomas’ brow furrowed. “It’s William, Quinn. You might want to give him a few minutes. When’s the last time you ate?”
She shrugged. “It was before we went outside.”
“Tsk. Tsk. You can’t be doing that anymore. You have to take care of my nephew’s mother, you know. Let’s go and get some food into you, and then you can come back and deal with Will.”
“I’m a queen. You can’t boss me around.”
“Try that one on someone else, Your Majesty,” he said, beginning to pull her down the hallway toward the common room. “I don’t care what kingdom you’re the ruler of; you’re still my little sister.”
“I’m not your little sister. I’m older than you.”
“That is a technicality. I have thousands of days on you.”
“I was born first.”
“I see it how I see it.”
~ 9 ~
Owen’s Dream
Bristlecone, Colorado
AFTER THE CONVERSATION with his father, Zander knew there was no chance he would be sleeping that night. He wasn’t sure he’d ever been angrier or more confused. Had his father been serious? Was this the deal now? It was either major in business and do exactly what his father wanted him to do or … was there even an or?
It was because he was still awake at two in the morning, stewing in his room, that he was the first one to hear Owen cry out. He quickly closed the browser window where he’d been looking at military recruitment websites – any way to escape sounded good right now – and dashed across the hall to the guest room where Annie and Owen were sleeping.
“Hey, Owen,” he called softly, flicking on a low lamp, and crossing the room to kneel by the bed.
Both children were still asleep, although Owen was thrashing and whimpering, sending the covers everywhere. Zander didn’t know how Annie was sleeping through it.
“Owen,” he called again, laying his hand on the little boy’s back and rubbing gently. “Hey, wake up, buddy. I think you’re having a bad dream.”
For a second he thought it had worked; Owen’s kicking feet grew still, and he turned over, facing him now.
“Have to go,” he said. “She needs help.”
“No, it’s okay, Owen, you were just dreaming.”
Owen didn’t respond, and that was when Zander realized his eyes were still closed.
He stayed there, perfectly still, watching him. His little body relaxed, and his breathing became deep and even. Maybe the nightmare, or whatever it had been, was over.
Just as he reached for the blanket, to cover both children back up for the night, Owen’s eyes opened, and he sat up so quickly that it startled Zander and he jumped back.
Owen looked around for a moment, his eyes wide, like he didn’t recognize anything, and he couldn’t figure out where he was. Finally, though, his eyes settled on Zander. “I need to go home,” he said, “now.”
“Owen, honey, it’s the middle of the night,” Zander’s mother called from the doorway. “Nobody is at your house.”
The look of panic on Owen’s face was gut-wrenching. His whole little body began shaking, and all of the color drained from his face.
Maggie rushed over to him and sat down on the edge of the bed. “It’s only for a couple of days, Owen, your mom and dad will be back on Monday. We’re going to go stay in a hotel tomorrow night. Won’t that be fun?”
Zander was sure Owen couldn’t hear her. He was still staring at Zander, his little fists winding over and over again in his pajama shirt. “I need to go home. I need to go home right now.”
He looked at his mom. “Maybe I could take him over to his house? He might sleep better if he was in his own bed.”
Owen’s hands stopped twisting.
“We’re leaving in like six hours, Zander.”
The hands started going again, and now Owen’s body began rocking back and forth. How was Annie sleeping through this?
Zander looked at Owen. “Do you want to go to the hotel tomorrow, Owen? And go swimming with Annie and Ashley and Sophia?”
“No.” Owen shook his head emphatically. “I need to go home. I don’t want to go to Colorado Springs. I need to go home right now.”
“Sweetheart, your parents aren’t there.”
“Zander said he would take me. I need to go home.”
His mom looked at him helplessly. Owen had never spent the night here before. Maybe this was why.
“I could watch him, Mom. Tonight, and tomorrow, too. It’s not like I have anything else going on.”
Owen grew very still now and looked at both of them. “Please, Zander?”
“Can I talk to Zander for a minute, Owen?”
Owen nodded, though his hands were twisting again. “Can I read or something?”
“You don’t want to rest?”
“I’m not going to fall asleep, Maggie. I need to go home.”
“Okay, we’ll be back in a minute, bud,” Zander said.
“Are you sure about this, Zander?” his mom asked as they slipped back down the hall toward the kitchen. “It’s kind of a big responsibility. I don’t even know if it’s a good idea.”
“I’ve watched the kids lots of times before, Mom. I’ve even watched Ashley overnight.”
“This is someone else’s child, Zander. And it would be for tomorrow night, too. What if he gets upset again?”
“I’ll be at his house, like he wants. I can always call Megan and Jeff an
d ask for help.”
“Maybe we should just call them now.”
Zander glanced at the clock on the stove. “It’s two thirty in the morning. That’s what? Four thirty in Atlanta? Do we really need to wake them up for this?”
“They would want to know.”
“They want to know he’s okay. If I take him home and he’s fine, I’ll call them first thing in the morning. If I take him home and he’s still upset, then I’ll call tonight.”
“What are you going to do if he’s still upset?”
“What would you do?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why don’t his grandparents have him this weekend?”
“They’re on vacation.”
“Well, then there’s really no choice, is there? Megan and Jeff can’t just come home from Atlanta in the middle of the night. We know he’s going to be upset here. He’ll probably be fine if I take him to his house. Anyway, he’s a great kid. I can hang out with him until Sunday. We’ll be fine.”
“We might not be home until late Sunday evening.”
Zander shrugged. “Stay until Monday if you want. There’s no school that day. I really don’t mind.”
“Well, Megan and Jeff will be back Sunday night.”
“Whatever, Mom. Seriously. Just let me take him.”
“All right.” She started to nod, but then she frowned. “Why are you still dressed at two thirty in the morning?”
“I just … hadn’t gone to bed yet.”
“What time did you get home?” she asked suspiciously.
“Don’t worry, it was before curfew. You can ask Dad.” He couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of his voice.
“Uh-oh. Zander, what’s wrong?”
He told her everything his father had said earlier.
“Oh, Zander, I’m so sorry. He and I have been arguing about that. I thought I’d talked him into changing his mind, but I guess not.”
“Is he serious?”
“I think he thinks he’s doing what’s best for you, Zander.”
“Isn’t there something you can do?”
She opened the dishwasher and started stacking the clean plastic cups from the top rack. Zander’s chest tightened.
Canes of Divergence (Dusk Gate Chronicles) Page 7