Canes of Divergence (Dusk Gate Chronicles)

by Puttroff, Breeana

  William introduced him to Jacob’s wife, Essie, and then he followed William and Thomas into the kitchen.

  There were people seated around the table – a young couple and two young children; a boy who was maybe eight or so, and a little girl who was probably four. The mother was visibly pregnant, but she and her husband both stood when William and Thomas entered the room.

  Although he seemed content as he ate a sandwich at the table, the little boy’s eyes were a bit puffy and red. Zander was sure he knew why, and he felt even worse about the dog.

  “This is Carrie and Raymond Ragland,” Essie said, “and their children, Bryce and Clare.”

  “King William,” Raymond said, bowing his head, “it’s truly an honor. And Prince Thomas, as well.”

  For a moment, Zander wondered if that was how he was supposed to be reacting every time he saw William – King William – but after shaking the man’s hand, William smiled and said, “I’m not going to be able to be very helpful today if you’re treating me like a king, so for now, I’m just William – or Doctor Rose if you really must. All right?”

  The couple didn’t look too sure, but they relaxed a little. Thomas stepped behind Carrie’s chair and held it for her until she sat back down. Raymond waited until William pulled out a chair for himself, but then he sat, too.

  “So tell me what happened with your dog this morning,” William said.

  The little boy’s lip started trembling again. Zander took a seat on the other side of him and smiled at him. “Is your lunch good?”

  Bryce nodded, calming a bit and taking another bite.

  Raymond sighed. “After breakfast, Bryce went out to feed Digger our leftovers and fill up his water bucket.”

  “He’s our dog,” little Clare said.

  “Yes. It’s Bryce’s job to feed him.”

  “He doesn’t hunt for himself?” Zander asked, frowning, then suddenly feeling bad for interrupting.

  “No,” Raymond smiled, though his expression was sad. “He catches rabbits and other small things every once in a while if they wander into the yard, but otherwise, I’m afraid he’s spoiled. Three meals of leftovers every day, and whatever else the kids happen to drop on the floor.”

  This was only getting worse.

  “We have a fenced in yard around the house that he never leaves. We have been keeping him inside at night, but he knows how to open the latch on the back door, and we forgot to tie it down last night so he couldn’t.”

  “Did he get out?” William asked.

  “I don’t think so. All of the gates were secure, and there aren’t any problems with the fence. But almost as soon as Bryce went out there this morning, we heard him scream. By the time we got to him, his hands were all covered in blood from a bite on Digger’s front leg. I don’t know what got him, but we knew that there’d been some cases of water disease in the kingdom. We made Bryce wash up outside and brought him right here.”

  “Where is Digger now?”

  “Still in the yard, I guess – I hope. I set a fresh bucket of water out on the porch before we left, and he’s got the food Bryce took out there.”

  “Nobody else touched him?”

  “No. We haven’t even touched Bryce. I gave him a washcloth and water outside before we brought him here. It was awful, but we knew… Jacob finished cleaning him up when we got here.”

  Zander could see it now – a few spatters of watered-down blood on the edge of Bryce’s shirt – how his mother had also been crying at some point. The only one who seemed unaffected by it all was Clare.

  “All right.” William’s voice was calm as he turned and smiled at Bryce. “Pretty scary morning, huh?”

  “Is my dog going to be all right?”

  “I don’t know, Bryce. I don’t know what happened to him. In a little while, we’re going to go out to your house and have a look at him and see what we can do. Or, Prince Thomas and Sir Marcus are going to, for sure. I might stay here with you and make sure you’re okay.”

  “I’m fine.” Bryce finished drinking the last bit of milk in his glass just as Essie came over to collect his dishes.

  “I know. Will you let me take you into the clinic and check you out, though?”

  “Should we come?” Raymond asked.

  William held his hand toward the door, but Bryce was shaking his head. “I’m okay, Father,” Bryce said. “Right, William?”

  Zander followed William and the little boy through a door that led to the other side of the building where he discovered a clinic area much like the one in the castle, only it was new.

  Nathaniel and Marcus were already in there – Zander hadn’t even noticed them disappear. It looked like Nathaniel was doing something with all of the supplies they’d brought.

  “Just one dose, I think,” William said to him. “Nobody else was anywhere near the dog.”

  Nathaniel nodded. “That’s what Jacob said. I have it ready for you, and the other dose for Zander as well. I was just getting ready to give one to Marcus.”

  Zander looked at Marcus in surprise. “Are you testing it for them, too?”

  “Someone has to,” Marcus said. “It might as well be an old guy.”

  “I haven’t seen any of those around here.”

  Marcus smiled. “Then I guess it will just have to be me.”

  “Marcus, Jacob, and I are all testing it,” Nathaniel said. “Marcus and Jacob have never had any of the vaccine, so we’ll get a chance to see how it works for building an initial immune response, while you and I are the test cases for booster doses – so long as you’re sure you’re willing to do it.”

  “Yeah, I’m game.” He definitely wasn’t going to back out on it now. He might not have what it took to compete with any of them on the bravery front, but he wasn’t going to be a coward in comparison.

  “All right. Can you take this over to William for me?” Nathaniel asked, holding out a small wooden box with a lid, along with a brown bottle filled with some kind of liquid.

  William was already as far from them as he could get, helping Bryce up onto a cot on the other side of the room.

  “You can tell me the truth,” Bryce was saying as Zander approached them. “Now that my parents aren’t listening. Digger’s going to die and now that I touched him, so will I.”

  The little boy didn’t start crying again, but Zander had to swallow back a lump in his throat as he set the supplies on the bed.

  “No,” William said firmly. “You are not going to die. You’re going to be fine. I will be completely honest with you and tell you that I don’t know about Digger. I hope he’ll be okay, but yes, he might die.”

  Now Bryce’s lower lip grew wobbly again.

  “Nothing bad is going to happen to you. I have a special medicine I’m going to give you that will make sure you’re safe.”

  “What kind of medicine?” The boy frowned, but his expression was one of curiosity.

  “It’s just a little shot,” Zander said. “If it hurts, it will only be for a second.”

  Bryce’s eyes grew very wide, and the look William directed at him made him want to crawl under the bed. Trying to insert himself into situations where he wasn’t needed was not always a good habit.

  “Why would it hurt?” the boy asked. “What are you going to do to me, William?”

  “It’s not going to hurt,” Zander said, trying to redeem himself. “It’s really easy. William is actually going to give me one, too. I got too close to an animal that had water disease, too.”

  “Did it die?”

  “Yes. But it wasn’t anyone’s pet. It was a capiya.”

  “Oh, I hate those.”

  “Me too.”

  “And now you have to have the medicine, too?”

  “Yes. And it isn’t my first time. It’s not a very big deal. Do you want to watch William do it to me, first?”

  William shot him another look, but it was too late, Bryce was nodding vigorously.

  “Have a seat.” William ordere
d, pointing at the cot across from where Bryce was sitting. He was annoyed, but Zander wasn’t exactly sure why. It seemed like he’d solved the problem he created.

  “My arm?” Zander asked.

  William nodded, so he rolled up his sleeve.

  “Keep eye contact with the child, please,” William said, close to Zander’s ear as he cleaned his upper arm with the harsh-smelling liquid from the brown bottle.

  So Zander did. He looked right at Bryce and smiled. “See? He’s only touching my arm.”

  “I’m cleaning it,” William said, though he didn’t turn around. “It probably feels a little cold.” He was using his body to block everything he was doing. Zander started to see his technique now, and he realized that even his solution was probably interfering with William’s much better plan.

  “Now, Zander might feel a pinch on his arm.”

  Yes, Zander did. He kept his smile as he looked at Bryce, though. “It’s really easy, buddy.”

  Except it wasn’t exactly. He’d forgotten that William had told him this might be worse than the shots in his world, and it was. The medicine stung all the way down his arm and up into his shoulder. He used his free hand to grip the edge of the mattress tightly and breathed through his teeth, working to keep the smile on his face.

  William was finished and had turned back around to take care of Bryce when Thomas came out. Zander still had his grip on the mattress.

  “Is everything all right, Bryce?” Thomas asked. “Your mother and father wanted to come and see you.”

  The little boy nodded. “You can tell them I’m going to be okay.”

  “How about you go tell them yourself? I’m all done,” William said.

  “That didn’t hurt,” the boy said.

  “Good. It wasn’t supposed to. Go talk to them.” He helped the little boy jump down from the bed. “Thomas, will you see if Essie can get him a bath and find some clean clothes for him?”

  Once they were gone, William turned back to Zander. “Are you okay?”

  He nodded.

  “Kind of rough?”

  “Kind of. I’m glad you gave Bryce the good stuff. You don’t think he could tell, do you?”

  “No. You hid it well. I’m pretty impressed, actually. I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t had my hand around your arm when your pulse shot up.”

  “You didn’t do that on purpose, did you?”

  William chuckled. “You really think highly of me, don’t you?”

  “I mostly think I probably deserved it. Sorry for opening my big mouth.”

  “It’s all right. I’m kind of a control freak about certain things. It’s not really your fault. Besides, you did your best to fix it and it turned out okay. And no. I wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose – not even you. Is it feeling better now?”

  “Not really, no. I think it might be getting worse.”

  “You are going to run away from this world as fast as you can, aren’t you?”

  Zander started to shrug – that was a mistake – “I don’t know. I might miss the horses. I’m actually starting to learn how to ride them.”

  William laughed out loud; his annoyance was gone. “Well, do you want to go riding again now? I think Thomas and Marcus are going to go out to the Raglands’ place and see about the dog.”

  “Digger. The dog’s name is Digger.”

  William nodded, looking right in his eyes. “Don’t go if you can’t let Marcus do what he needs to do, Zander.”

  “If he needs to.”

  “If he needs to, it’s going to be hard enough without you causing a problem over it. Do not go with them if you can’t handle that.”

  “I’ll handle it.”

  * * *

  Zander really was getting better at horses. Even though his arm was killing him, and he was on a different horse – a black mare named Chancey – he had no problem riding the fifteen minutes to the Raglands’ home. His legs weren’t even wobbly when he dismounted just outside the wooden picket fence.

  Marcus rubbed his arm one last time before pulling his sword out of its sheath.

  He’d told William he could handle this, and he was going to, but the sight of Marcus’ sword made bile rise in Zander’s throat. Thomas, too, had his hand at his hilt.

  “The dog isn’t rabid yet, even if it was bitten,” he said. “It’s not dangerous. Let me go.”

  Marcus was clearly unsure, but Thomas nodded at him, and he held his hand out toward the fence. “At the first sign of trouble, Zander…”

  “I know.”

  Before he was even to the gate, he found the dog – or, rather, it found him. Digger came running up to the fence, wagging his tail excitedly as he waited for Zander to open the gate.

  “What good are you, Digger?” he asked, letting himself in and kneeling down beside the dog. “They have to feed you, and you obviously don’t guard them against anyone.” Digger was smaller than he’d expected, maybe the size of a cocker spaniel, though he didn’t recognize the breed. He was dark gray all over, with short hair that curled to his sides.

  And the fur on his left front leg was all matted together with blood. Another thick, sticky mess stretched across his muzzle.

  “Can I see?” he asked, reaching for Digger’s leg.

  The dog whined, but allowed him to take his paw. Zander looked at it as best he could, but he couldn’t see anything around the dried blood.

  “You are going to be devastated if you get attached to that dog.” Thomas’ voice was suddenly beside him as he lifted Digger into his arms.

  “I can’t help it. You should stay away, though, Thomas.”

  “He’s not contagious. Besides, I’m going to ask William or Nathaniel to try out their new concoction on me, too.”

  “Good luck with that.” He spotted what he was looking for – the bucket of water on the porch – and carried the dog up to it, setting him down and then coaxing him to let him dip the injured leg into the water. Washing out the cuts really made Digger whimper, but he didn’t pull away or get aggressive with Zander. He wouldn’t let Zander near the blood on his face, though – and Zander decided it wasn’t worth the fight that close to the dog’s teeth.

  Thomas – apparently disregarding caution – gently patted the animal’s back while Zander carefully scrubbed out the blood with his fingers until Digger’s leg was clean and he could get a look at the wound.

  His heart sank a little lower when he saw that it definitely was a bite; he hadn’t realized just how much he’d been hoping that Bryce had been wrong about that and that Digger had injured himself in a different way.

  The wounds were small, though, whatever had bitten him had been smaller than him – the teeth marks were close together and formed the impression of a small jaw – the puncture wounds spoke to little teeth. There was so much blood only because Digger had been bitten multiple times. “What do you think did this?” he asked Thomas. “It’s too small to be a fox or a capiya.”

  “Could be a raccoon,” Thomas said. “Or maybe something even smaller.” Washing the wounds had made them start bleeding again. Thomas pulled a handkerchief out of his back pocket and handed it to Zander.

  As carefully as he could, Zander tied the white cloth snugly around the dog’s leg. Digger let out a single whimper, but again was patient.

  When Zander stood to look around, though, Digger began whining in earnest, pushing his head against Zander’s leg.

  “It’s still bad news, Zander,” Thomas said. “This is getting harder every second. Marcus will make it quick and painless.”

  He knew. He knew what the possible consequences were, how bad it was, how important it was to stop every single case of rabies they possibly could, but still…

  “What if it was one of the animals that’s too small to get rabies?”

  “Those teeth marks weren’t that small, Zander. And look around. Do you see any dead squirrels? Digger might be tame, but he wouldn’t let something do that to him without inflicting some serious damage of hi
s own.” Zander heard it – the way Thomas’ voice changed when he actually said the dog’s name.

  “I’m going to look around.”

  Three times around the house, though, revealed nothing. No small dead animals, or even injured ones. Just a missing piece in one of the pickets large enough for something to squeeze through – probably where the culprit had made its entrance and subsequent exit.

  Sighing, trying to resign himself to the awful inevitable, he made one last loop around the house.

  And that was when he spotted it. A tiny tuft of black, up under the edge of the wooden porch at the back of the house. A tuft of fur matted in blood.

  “Thomas!” he called as he approached the porch, kneeling down next to the steps and looking at the little bit of fur, then shifting his gaze underneath it. He could barely make it out through the small open spaces between the stairs, but there was something moving under there.

  He heard Thomas’ footsteps behind him, and then his voice – “I wouldn’t do that if I were you” – as he stuck his hand back there, trying to reach whatever it was.

  The animal hissed only a fraction of a second before its teeth clamped into Zander’s wrist and wouldn’t let go.

  “It’s a cat!”

  A chorus of soft mewling sounds corrected him immediately. “It’s cats. A mama cat and her kittens, I think.” He had to put his other hand down there to finally wrestle the cat’s jaw off his wrist, succeeding in loosening its teeth, but also in getting long scratches down both his forearms.

  “Kittens? At this time of the cycle? That’s not normal.”

  “Well, I don’t know if it’s normal or not, Thomas, but they’re here.” Blood was dripping down his arm now. He used the bottom of his shirt to wipe some of it off. “I think they’re feral.”

  “The family said they don’t have any pets besides Digger. The only other animals they have are their horses.”

  “Well, this is what got Digger,” he said, examining the bite marks on his wrist. “I’ll bet the blood on his nose is from a scratch.” He held up his arms, showing off his own injuries.