Canes of Divergence (15 page)

Rosewood Castle, Eirentheos

“W
HAT’S GOING ON
, Thomas?” Quinn shouted as she and William followed him down the hall, nearly at a run. “What’s wrong?” she could hear the fear in her own voice.

Thomas stopped long enough to turn and look at her. “Nothing is
wrong
, settle down, just
come
.”

“Settle down?” William muttered, taking her hand. “He’s the one racing down the hallway.”

Quinn giggled, though she was trying to keep her mind from racing to unwelcome possibilities. Thomas had said there was nothing wrong, but his behavior wasn’t exactly convincing.

They’d j
ust turned the last corner before they would reach Stephen’s private office when Quinn stopped in her tracks. There, in the middle of the hallway was a small figure. It wasn’t possible – it didn’t make any sense that she would see him here, but she’d have recognized him anywhere.

“Owen!” She didn’t care that she’d screamed, or that anyone was watching. She took the remaining distance at a flat-out run, scooping the little boy into her arms while she was still moving, continuing to run with him several more steps, pulling him tight to her chest.

If she’d been convinced a few minutes ago that she didn’t have any tears left in her, she’d been wrong. Oh, but these were different. She buried her face in his neck, holding him, rocking him, smelling his sweet scent.

“What are you
doing
here?” she screeched, when she could finally speak.

“I came to see you.”

“But how? The gate’s closed.”

“I opened it.”

There were so many problems with that statement, but she couldn’t think about them right now. She didn’t even care how he’d gotten here, or why. She just held him closer.

“Who brought you?” she asked, after several more hugs and kisses. “Is Mom…?”

“No, Quinn. Don’t. Mom and Dad and Annie are not here. I’m sorry. Just don’t get excited about it.”

“Okay.” She took a deep breath. “Did you come here all by yourself?”

“No he didn’t, Quinn. You need to come here,” Thomas said, from the doorway of Stephen’s office.

*          *          *

If Zander had thought this whole thing was surreal when Owen first disappeared on top of that broken bridge, it was nothing compared to
arriving at an honest-to-goodness medieval castle.

Worse, he’d managed to convince himself that he really wasn’t dreaming.

Owen, sitting excitedly atop the soldier’s horse on the way here, had given him no helpful information at all. And Ben, while he seemed like someone Zander might like in different circumstances, wouldn’t answer any of his questions, telling him several times that he needed to wait and speak to the king or the queen when he arrived.

Finally deciding that it probably wasn’t a great idea to annoy a big guy with a real sword, Zander had just been quiet for the rest of the walk.

All …
something
… had broken loose when they’d arrived at the castle gates.

The one in purple – Zander had finally figured out that his name was Luke – had ridden ahead and talked to the soldiers at the guardhouse. He noticed quickly that all of the soldiers near the castle were wearing the purple
uniforms, and he wondered what that was about – why only Marcus and Ben were in green.

As soon as the rest of them neared the castle, there was a wild flurry of activity; the horses were led away, and they were ushered quickly inside.

Just inside the entrance they were led through, they ran into three young men – all of them were younger than Zander. These weren’t soldiers, or guards, or whatever. They just looked like boys, coming back from some activity. All of them were sweating.

“Thomas!” Ben called, as soon as they saw the boys.

One of them, the oldest, stopped and looked at them. Zander had no idea why, but he looked vaguely familiar – even though he couldn’t have possibly met him before. This Thomas seemed to know Owen, though. His eyes flicked to the little boy immediately.

“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.