Thorns of Decision (Dusk Gate Chronicles) (24 page)

“Speaking of which,” Jacob said. “Sorry, Will. I figured I’d get as far as I could with that while you were distracted.”

“I guess that’s one way to do it,” Linnea said, putting her hand on William’s shoulder until they both felt him relax again. “You okay, Will?”

He nodded as Quinn heard the clink of the syringe being set down on the table. “Yeah,” he said, as Jacob turned his hand over so he could get to the wound on the other side, “I think I’m just going to go with hating needles because they suck.”

“Quinn! Over here, I’m open!” Linnea called. Quinn spun around and in the same motion threw the crumple ball neatly into Linnea’s waiting hands before Simon could get in front of her.

Linnea, in turn, passed the ball to Joshua, and he managed to toss it into the two-point goal just before Thomas blew the whistle from the bleachers. From the other end of the field, where he was guarding the opposite goal, William cheered.

“You’re tied up!” Thomas yelled. “Half-time!”

Max’s team, which included Quinn, William, Linnea, and Joshua, all headed up into the bleachers surrounding Thomas, who was keeping score and trying his best to referee from where he sat. Now thirty days past his surgery, he was doing much better. He got around really well now, but William wasn’t anywhere near clearing him to play a contact sport like crumple.

Before allowing their opponents to break, though, Simon gathered them at the edge of the field. Today’s game was a re-match from one yesterday, where Max’s team had beaten Simon’s thoroughly. As she filled a glass of water from a pitcher, Quinn could see Rebecca and Evelyn down in the huddle, rolling their eyes at each other. She giggled.

“What’s so funny?” William asked, right in her ear, startling her.

She whirled around to face him. “Nothing. You boys just take your crumple a little more seriously than we girls do,” she said, nodding to Simon’s group.

“Says the girl who nearly knocked over my little brother a few minutes ago trying to intercept the ball.”

She shrugged. “I got it, didn’t I? And Daniel’s fine. He knows there’s tackling – he likes that part of it.” At twelve cycles, Daniel was always chomping at the bit whenever he got the chance to participate in something with his older brothers. He had, actually, snagged a pass that had been headed for Quinn in the early part of the game. His grin had been too much fun to watch for Quinn to be bothered – but she hadn’t passed up the opportunity later to steal one from him.

William grinned, then took the glass from her hand, and drained it. “Thanks.”

She rolled her eyes, and he leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.

She pulled back, stunned, and looked around at the small group in the bleachers. Nobody seemed to be paying any attention to them. “Are we doing this in public now?” she asked quietly.

Over the last couple of weeks, their relationship had definitely grown. They were nearly inseparable – when William wasn’t off checking on a clinic, or working in his lab, although he’d even invited her in there a few times lately. But they’d kept their relationship quiet and low-key, mostly stolen kisses here and there, and one afternoon they’d managed to slip off for a long horseback ride and picnic with just the two of them.

“Officially? I don’t know. But these are my siblings, and Linnea and Thomas have known for quite a while now. It’s a pretend secret here, if it’s a secret at all.” He grinned again, and picked up the pitcher to refill her glass.

“You’re in an awfully good mood,” she said, smiling.

He closed his eyes and took a deep, relaxed breath before opening them again. “It’s a beautiful day out. It’s not so miserably hot now that we’re getting closer to autumn, and we’re all out here together having fun. In a little while, everyone will come out for picnic dinner. What’s not to be happy about?” He handed her the glass, and picked up another one to fill.

“Quite true. It’s important to bask in the good days when the Maker grants them.”

William and Quinn both jumped, startled at the new voice behind them, they both whirled around quickly to investigate its source.

“Alvin!” William said, his eyes wide at the sudden appearance of the older man.

“Still good with names I see, Prince William. And you, Lady Quinn, are you enjoying this lovely day as much as your companion here?”

“I ... uh ... Yes, I am. Thank you, Alvin.”

“We weren’t expecting to see you here today, Alvin. It’s a pleasant surprise,” William said.

Alvin smiled, his blue eyes sparkling underneath his white eyebrows. “I usually surprise myself. Never do know where the day will find me. Today I was drawn to find the pleasure of your company, maybe take in some crumple.”

Quinn frowned; she was learning to associate the appearance of Alvin with significant events here in Eirentheos. The last time she had seen him was when they’d first realized that Thomas was missing. She had a feeling that his visit today wasn’t coincidental.

“Well you’re always welcome here, Alvin. Would you like a glass of water?” William asked, his hand reaching for the handle of the pitcher.

“Maybe in a little while, thank you. Actually, I thought I’d come to check in on Thomas and see how his recovery was coming along ... and I thought also that I might could have a short conversation with the Lady Quinn.”

William looked as shocked as she felt, but he nodded. “I’ll take this glass up to Thomas,” he said. “He is doing much better, he’ll be happy to see you, Alvin.” Then he walked away.

Quinn turned back to face Alvin, wondering what he wanted. It wasn’t the first time she had ever talked to him alone. In fact, she realized now that he’d somehow managed to get in a few private words with her every time she’d ever been to Eirentheos. And perhaps even more often than that; lately she’d begun to wonder...

“Yes, milady, it is me you encounter sometimes as you dream.”

“What? How ...”

Alvin’s expression was warm and gentle as always, belying the nervous feeling his words were causing in her stomach. “Some questions are asked before we’re really ready to know the answers,” he said. “And you, Beloved, have choices to make before you’re ready for the answers to some of your questions.”

Her mouth dropped open. “That doesn’t make any sense. How am I supposed to make any choices before I have the answers to my questions?”

“Ah ... you have it backwards my dear. You must make your choices first, and the answers will follow. I’m surprised, after discovering a world such as this one connected to your own, that you would still be under the impression that you were promised things would make sense.”

She blinked. “No, you’re right about that one, Alvin. Things will never again make sense to me the way they once did.”

He smiled kindly at her, and she was struck, once again at how young he could look, when he so clearly
wasn’t
. “The first choice you must make, Beloved, is when you are going to stop pretending that you’re not going to have to have a very important discussion with your mother.”

Her heart caught in her throat. That one wasn’t her fault – was it? “I tried talking to her. She was the one who wouldn’t talk to
me!”

“Even so, you’re hiding from her now.” His expression didn’t change; they might as well have been talking about the weather.

“I’m not hiding from her, she knows where I am.”

For the first time, she pulled a small reaction from him. Alvin raised an eyebrow, and Quinn felt the weight of the situation on her shoulders. It was true that she wasn’t actually hiding, but she had certainly run away from any possibility of talking to her mom about this. Still ... “She lied to me!”

“As you lied to her.”

A wild rush of indignation tore through her, and she had to take a deep breath to compose herself again. “I wasn’t trying to
lie
to her. It was a secret I didn’t think I could share!”

“It was a secret you chose not to share.”

“What was I supposed to do, Alvin, just blurt out that I accidentally walked off a broken bridge and wound up in an
alternate world?
”

“I said nothing about what you were, or were not supposed to do, milady. I merely commented on what you already chose to do. I would also hardly call climbing up a broken bridge, closing your eyes, and stepping forward an
accident
.”

She swallowed hard. “I wasn’t trying to hurt her.”

“Do you think her intentions have been to hurt you?”

Were they? Quinn and her mother had always been close. Until recently, she couldn’t even imagine her mother doing something to hurt her. No, she really
couldn’t
believe that her mother had intended to hurt her with by keeping the secret.

“I ... I never really thought about it that way.”

“No, I’m sure you haven’t. It’s an interesting question to consider, though.”

“But why? Why would she lie to me all of these years about my dad, and then still not tell me?”

“Ah ... the choice to answer those questions is not mine to make, Lady Quinn. Should you desire to find out, you must ask the one whose choice it was.”

“So what am I supposed to do, Alvin?”

“I can’t answer that for you. It’s still your choice.”

“But...” frustration welled inside her chest, but the expression on Alvin’s face had changed. No longer at all serious, he looked out across the field in delight.

“It appears as though half-time is over, milady. Surely you’re not going to allow Simon’s team to tarnish your winning record.”

*          *          *

For a while, Quinn was able to keep Alvin’s words at bay. Playing the second half of the crumple game helped. Knowing that Alvin was up in the bleachers next to Thomas gave her a push and she single-handedly scored two ten-point goals in the first five minutes back in the game. Sweat dripped from her forehead as she ran up and down the length of the field, fiercely determined to keep control of the ball.

  When they took another water break a little while, William came up to her, looking pleased but also concerned. He soaked a towel in the cool water and put it around her neck, asking if she wanted to trade places with him, and tend goal for a few minutes.

She didn’t. Right now she didn’t want to slow down for long enough to think, and tending goal would mean more standing and watching than she was ready to do.

Linnea caught the panicked look in her eyes before Quinn had to explain that to William though, and she quickly complained that nobody had offered to let her tend the goal for several games now.

William’s eyes swept discerningly between the two girls as they made their way back onto the field, and Quinn saw the moment he caught on. His expression changed instantly to one of understanding, and she knew then that he wouldn’t press the issue until she was ready to talk about it. Her heart swelled in gratitude for this boy – this man – who had come to know her so quickly and so well.

For the rest of the game, she and William were an unstoppable force as he shadowed her, anticipating her every move, clearing the path of opponents as she moved toward the goal, or leading the ball back to her hands.

Thomas called the game five minutes early because there was no chance of Simon’s team catching up. Quinn could hear him grumbling as they walked back toward the bleachers.

“I get Quinn next time,” Simon called to Max.

“Not a chance.”

Quinn ignored their squabbling as she glanced up at Alvin. He caught her gaze for only a second, and his eyes twinkled in amusement.