“Whoa! Ben! Owen! What is going on?”
“I need Her Majesty. And your father.”
“I’ll be right back,” Thomas said. “Are you taking them to my father’s chambers?”
“Yes.”
And then Thomas had disappeared.
Owen was waltzing around the castle like he owned the place. Zander didn’t think the kid was usually this comfortable in his own house.
Ben, Marcus, and Luke led them through several hallways, finally stopping in front of a massive set of wooden double doors.
Luke opened one of the doors and held out his hand, gesturing for them to step inside.
Zander did, but Owen didn’t follow. “I want to wait for her out here,” he said.
Nobody objected to the little boy at all, but the three soldiers followed Zander into the room. And here he’d thought he wasn’t being detained.
He’d had some time to think about things while they were walking down the strange dirt road, and into the weird city, and an idea was starting to dawn on him that he wasn’t quite ready to accept – mostly because none of the details made sense together.
He didn’t have much more time to think about it in here – this room that so very much belonged inside a castle with its rich wood paneling, marble floors, massive wooden desk, and plush couches and chairs.
Just as Ben was offering him one of those armchairs, though, another man walked into the room.
All three guards immediately stood at attention as the man entered, though none of them seemed intimidated by him. Really, the man wasn’t intimidating at all – he looked … friendly, Zander decided, maybe because the man smiled at him right away, his dark gray eyes sweeping up and down over Zander’s features.
The three guards remained close to him, keeping themselves between him and Zander. He had to wonder what kind of threat they thought he might be to the man. They were the ones with swords.
“So, I hear you’ve accompanied our dear friend Owen here on his journey to us.”
“Uh … I guess so.”
“Zander, is it?”
He nodded.
“Well, Zander, I’m Stephen. Welcome to my home.”
His home … did that make him …?
He didn’t get an answer to the question he was forming, nor even a chance to respond to the man, because at that moment there was a huge commotion in the hallway just outside the room. First, there was the sound of several people running along the stone floors, and then he heard a shout – only a single word – “Owen!” – but he would have recognized the voice anywhere. He froze in place.
At the sound of her voice, the two guards in green both disappeared through the door, in a synchronized motion Zander couldn’t quite understand. Luke, however, moved closer to Stephen, coming to stand right at his side, the lone guard protecting him.
“Am I correct in assuming you know Quinn, Zander?”
He nodded, unable to make himself speak. She was here. That was her voice in the hallway with Owen. What was she doing here? How did these people know her?
It was the piece he hadn’t been able to wrap his head around. Owen had told them they were going to “help” Quinn. If she was trapped in a castle in Wonderland, she certainly would need help – but ever since the soldiers had found them, Owen hadn’t exactly been behaving like they were somewhere anyone needed rescued from.
The boy they’d met in the hallway a few minutes ago – Thomas – appeared in the doorway. With a little more context now, Zander was starting to vaguely remember where he’d seen him before. If his memory was right, this boy had once been in the hallway at Bristlecone High School, hugging…
“No he didn’t, Quinn,” Thomas was saying. “You need to come here.”
Zander’s whole body tensed as Thomas moved out of the way for someone to come through the door. But it wasn’t Quinn who came through first. It was Marcus again, though this time when he came through, his hand hovered much closer to his sword, and he was scrutinizing Zander much more closely.
Right behind Marcus, though … it was her. Owen was in her arms, his legs wrapped around the top of her long skirt as he hugged her close.
Zander had to remind himself to breathe as she entered. How was this even possible? She was followed by another person he recognized instantly. William Rose. Given the way William walked right at her shoulder, his hand resting on the small of her back, Zander was suddenly very sure that he was not her cousin.
Behind the whole little group was Ben, and when they were all inside, just a few feet from where Zander was standing, the two guards flanked them so closely that they nearly blocked his view. For a few short seconds, Zander tried to reconcile this behavior with the scenario he’d been building in is head – that Quinn was being held here as some kind of prisoner and needed rescued – but it just didn’t fit. She didn’t look scared of the soldiers; if anything, she appreciated their presence.
At first, she looked around in a confused kind of way, but he saw the exact second she recognized him. Her eyes widened in disbelief, and her grip on Owen loosened – so much so that the little boy decided then to climb out of her arms.
William recognized him at almost the same time Quinn did. He could see it. As soon as Owen was safely on the floor, William took hold of her hand in a gesture that was impossible to misunderstand.
“Zander! What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same question. What is this place, Quinn?”
“It’s …” She frowned. “Seriously, Zander how did you even get here?”
“I don’t know. I just … one minute I was following Owen, who said we had to get this stuff to you,” he nodded toward their things that someone had brought in and set over close to the door, “and the next, I’m on some weird bridge and we’re being captured by soldiers.”
“Captured?” Quinn raised an eyebrow, and looked over at Marcus.
“Prince Owen asked to be brought to the castle, Your Majesty. We brought his companion along.”
Your Majesty? What in the…
“We did briefly consider honoring his request and leaving him there at the bridge,” Ben said, “but the sun had already set, and it didn’t seem like the best idea.”
Zander was looking back and forth between all of them, unable to comprehend any of what was going on. William had disappeared from Quinn’s side, and he was over by the door, kneeling down to see the things Zander and Owen had brought. Maybe he’d recognized the cooler and the backpack from his house in Bristlecone.
“No,” Stephen said, from the other side of the room. “You were right in bringing him here. Where else would he have gone? We can’t have him loose in the kingdom.”
Zander didn’t like being talked about like he wasn’t even here. “So are you going to keep me here then?” he demanded. “Am I under arrest or something? Because I want to go home.”
“Well, you can’t go home,” Quinn said. “The gate’s closed. You’re not under arrest, but, really, Zander, there’s nowhere else for you to go.”
“What gate? And what do you mean that it’s closed? Owen said he opened it. He needs to just open it again.”
Quinn looked at Owen. “Will the gate open again?”
Owen nodded. “Probably. I put the magnet back where it goes. It worked like it was supposed to.”
“Then, how do we open it?” Zander asked him. “I did what you wanted, Owen. I brought you here so we could help Quinn. Now, can we just take her and get going home?”
“Excuse me?” Quinn’s voice had turned icy. “Take me somewhere? What in the world do you think you’re doing here, Zander?” She looked at Owen. “Did you tell him you were coming here to get me or something?”
“No.” Owen shook his head. “I told him you needed help.”
“What do you mean, buddy?” She knelt down next to him. “What kind of help? Why did you open that gate? You know it’s dangerous, right? I thought that’s why you closed it, because you knew how bad it
was. What’s going on?”
That was exactly what Zander wanted to know.
“I know how dangerous it is,” Owen said quietly. “I didn’t know if I should do it, but then I had a dream about William, and I had to try … Quinn, I just had to try.”
“Try what?”
“To bring you the medicine.”
All of the color went out of Quinn’s face – Zander literally watched it flow downward from her temples, all the way down, until she was pale white from the collar of her blouse up. He almost took a step toward her, to hold out his hand and steady her so she wouldn’t fall, but Ben was too fast; he had his hands under her arms in an instant, keeping her firmly on her feet.
“What medicine?” she whispered.
“The rabies medicine,” Owen answered, frowning as he looked over to where the cooler was.
Or had been, anyway.
“Where did it go?” Owen asked. Sometime in the last couple of minutes, the cooler and the backpack had disappeared. The duffel bag was still there, though.
“Was it a backpack?” Thomas asked. Zander had forgotten he was still standing there.
“It was a cooler,” Owen answered.
“Oh, William said something about needing to get something put in the refrigerator right away. He grabbed all that stuff and left.”
“I’m going to go find him,” Quinn said.
“What about…” Thomas tilted his head toward Zander.
“Right…” Quinn rubbed at her temples with her fingers. She was obviously distressed, but Zander couldn’t figure out why. Was this her reaction to his coming here? She looked at him.
“Look, Zander … I don’t know how you got here, and I don’t know why or … I can’t think straight right now. Thomas, Stephen, can I impose on you…?”
“Of course, Quinn,” Thomas said. “Just go.”
“Can I come?” Owen asked, already following her to the door.
“No, buddy.” Thomas reached for Owen’s arm. “Why don’t you hang out with me for a little while, and let your sister deal with William, okay?” He picked Owen up and whispered something to him, to which the little boy nodded.
The fact that Owen was so comfortable with these people – allowing them to touch him and hold him – spoke volumes to Zander. He wasn’t sure what to make of it, but he didn’t think he liked it much. Could Megan Robbins possibly know about all of this?
He also noticed that Ben and Marcus didn’t follow Quinn – solidifying his growing belief that the two guards weren’t restraining her at all. In some bizarre way, they were serving her.
The mood in the room had changed completely, in a way Zander didn’t quite understand. Quinn’s reaction had been the most extreme, but everyone had responded when Owen had told them he’d brought the medicine. Ben and Marcus were exchanging odd looks with each other, and Thomas seemed edgy now, too.
Until that moment, Zander hadn’t known that what they’d brought was rabies medicine – that was serious stuff.
Stephen cleared his throat, bringing Zander’s attention back to him. Even his demeanor had changed.
“You’ll have to forgive us,” he said. “It’s been a very challenging few days for everyone around here. Ordinarily we wouldn’t welcome a guest in such an awkward fashion. Although, I must admit, your arrival here is a very unexpected event. We were under the impression that the gate was sealed shut.”
“It was,” Owen said, rather solemnly, still perched in Thomas’ arms.
“So I gathered from what you told Quinn. But you were able to open it again?”
He nodded.
“How did you know how to do it? Was it you who closed it in the first place?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Owen closed his eyes for several seconds. “I had a dream … a man with a beard was coming through the gate.”
“Yes, his name was Hector.”
“I didn’t know his name. I didn’t know why it was bad; I just knew – after the dream – why Alvin had told me where to find the magnet.”
“It could have been very bad indeed, Owen. You did exactly the right thing. We were all searching, here on this side, for a way to close it, but we couldn’t find one.”
“You can’t do it from this side, I don’t think. Only on my side.”
“Can you close it again once you go home?”
“Yes. I have to, don’t I?”
“We’re afraid it’s still really dangerous, Owen. For us, here, and if the wrong people use the gate, it could be dangerous for you on your side, too.”
Owen nodded, looking extremely serious for an eight-year-old boy.
“Look, this is all very interesting,” and it was – or at least it would have been, if Zander had the first clue as to what they were talking about, “but all I really want to know is how you get the gate open now so we can go home.”
“That I have no control over. If the gate is operating normally right now, it will be open again in ten days, and you’ll be able to go home again then.”
It was suddenly very difficult to breathe. “Are you telling me I can’t go home for ten days?”
Stephen’s eyes were sympathetic as he nodded, but his expression also told Zander that this was far from his biggest concern right now. “Yes. The gate is closed, and it won’t open for ten days.”
While Zander was still standing there open-mouthed, Stephen looked back at Owen. “Did you say you brought the rabies medicine here with you?”
“Yes. I brought everything that was in the refrigerator at Nathaniel’s house. Most of it came in a shipment a couple of weeks ago.”
Zander cringed at the confession that they’d broken into Doctor Rose’s house, but Stephen didn’t seem bothered – quite the opposite, actually. He leaned against the massive wooden desk in what looked like relief.
“You and your mother have been taking care of things there?”
“Yes.”
Stephen nodded. “She doesn’t know you’re here, though, does she?”
“No. She was out of town when I had the dream. That’s why I asked Zander to help me.”
Stephen’s eyes flicked to Zander’s and then back to Owen. “But you didn’t tell him what he was getting into, did you?”
“I kind of tried. I warned him that he might regret it.”
Zander supposed that was true. Owen had offered him several warnings, and he’d ignored all of them. Still – how could he have anticipated something like this?
“Was he right, Zander? Are you regretting this yet?”
“So far, I haven’t actually managed to convince myself that this is real.”
Stephen chuckled and so did Thomas. The guards somehow managed to remain stoic.
“You know Quinn well, I take it?”
“You could say that.”
“If Zander is who I think he is,” Thomas interrupted, “then he and Quinn were courting before she came here the first time.”
“Ah,” Stephen raised an eyebrow. “Is that true, Zander?”
“I don’t know what you mean by courting, but she was my girlfriend.”
Stephen smiled at him. “Well that complicates things, doesn’t it?”
“I don’t know. Does it?”
“I have seven sons, Zander – four of whom have entered the treacherous world of girls. It’s always complicated.”
Seven sons? Was he kidding?
“Are you hungry?” Stephen asked.
“Excuse me?”
“You and Owen must have had a long walk and I’d imagine discovering all of this would be a little taxing. You’re probably hungry.”
“Food isn’t the biggest thing on my mind right now.”
Stephen didn’t even seem to acknowledge him. “What about you, Owen?”
“I’m hungry.”
Stephen smiled. “We’ve got plenty of time to sort out some of this other stuff, Zander. If you’ll excuse me, though, I have a lot of other business I need to attend to this even
ing. Thomas, would you please take these two upstairs and find some help in getting them settled?”
“So you’re just going to keep me here, like a prisoner.”
Stephen met his gaze levelly. “I’m sorry if it looks that way to you, Zander. The truth is that there is nowhere else for you to go, and while it is not usually my policy to detain anyone against their will when they haven’t committed a crime, the fact remains that if I allowed you out of the castle, you would pose a very serious security risk to my kingdom. Aside from which, I do feel a duty of care for you, given that you are a friend of Quinn’s and Owen’s. I’m not going to allow you to starve in the forest for ten days.”
“Is that why Quinn is being kept here, too? Because she’s a security risk to your kingdom?”
Stephen sighed. “No. Quinn is not being held here in any way. While I think we’ll all be better off to leave some discussions between you and her, I will tell you that she and I are on equal footing here, and – outside of what I believe to be reciprocal love and concern between us – I have no authority over her.”
“Aren’t you the king or something?”
“You’re very astute, Zander. It’s a quality that will serve you well, I should think. Yes. I am King Stephen of the kingdom of Eirentheos. Welcome to my home. I hope your stay is more pleasant than you’re worried it will be. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really do have some things I need to attend to. Please allow my son Thomas to escort you upstairs.
“Thomas,” he continued, “you should discuss this with your mother and the staff, but I’m thinking Owen might enjoy Quinn’s old room – and that Zander would be comfortable in one of the empty suites close to Ben’s and Marcus’.”
He wasn’t a prisoner – they were just going to keep him in between the guards. Fantastic.
“I’ll take care of it, Father.”
“Thank you.”
Stephen stopped near the door to speak quietly to all three guards, and then they followed him out of the room, leaving Zander with Thomas and Owen.
“Hi,” Thomas said, grinning. “I don’t think we’ve had a chance to be properly introduced. I’m Thomas.” He extended his hand.
~ 16 ~
The Clinic
Canes of Divergence (Dusk Gate Chronicles) Page 13