Canes of Divergence (17 page)

Rosewood Castle, Eirentheos
 

Z
ANDER RAISED AN
eyebrow, but accepted Thomas’ handshake. “I’m Zander,” he said. “Though it seems like you already knew that.”

“Yeah, well, when you randomly pop into our kingdom from another world – word gets around.”

“Another
world
– that’s really what this is?”

“Yes,” Owen said.

Thomas only shrugged. “As far as we can tell, anyway. Is this all you have – this bag here?” he asked, reaching for the strap of the duffel bag.

“That’s all we have, and Owen brought that. I don’t even know what’s in there. He didn’t tell me I needed to pack for a long trip. I suppose I’m going to be wearing these clothes for ten days.”

“Oh, we can take care of that. I have three older brothers. I’m sure between them we can keep you in clean clothes until we can get some new things made for you.”

Zander didn’t really want to wear someone else’s clothes – especially … “William’s your brother, right? Or was that a lie too?”

“Will’s my brother.”

“And he and Quinn … how long have they…?”

“I am not getting involved in that one, Zander.” Thomas started walking, leading them out into the hallway.

“So that’s what the issue was? She was cheating on me with a
prince
from another world? You and William are princes, right, if your father is the king?”

“I’m a prince. William is no longer a prince, at least that’s not his official title. And, really – I enjoy gossip as much
as anyone, but as far as I’m getting into this with you is to tell you that, no – Quinn was not cheating on you with William. She was here for a while before the two of them started courting, and it was after she broke up with you.”

“She
told
you she broke up with me?”

“Quinn and I are friends. We were fri
ends while you were still courting her.”

Courting was such a weird word for it.
“Well, she never told me about you.”

“Yes, she did. I know she did. She just didn’t tell you that she’d met me
here
. I’ll bet you can guess why.”

“She’s been here before this time?”

“Yes. A couple of times.”

Zander didn’t u
nderstand how that was possible – he didn’t remember Quinn ever going anywhere for ten days – but at the moment, he was still preoccupied with the interaction he’d seen between Quinn and William Rose in that office. “She only broke up with me a month and a half ago. What I just saw of the two of them in there looked like it had been going on for a lot longer than that, Thomas.”

They were at the bottom of a staircase now, and Thomas stopped and turned to look at him.

“That’s the other part you don’t know, Zander. Although I’m a bit surprised you’re not freaking out more about being stuck here for ten days than you are – the first time Quinn came here and realized she was stuck for ten days, she was definitely not as calm about it as you are.”

“Maybe I’m just not ready to think about the fact that when I get home, I’m probably going to be
arrested
for kidnapping Owen.”

“No you won’t,” Owen said. “I left a note for my mom.”

“As nice as that is, I don’t think a
note
is going to cover you disappearing for ten days, buddy.”

“We’re only going to be gone from home for one day.”

“What do you mean? I thought everyone just said the gate can’t open for ten days.”

“Ten days in this world,” Owen said. “One day in ours.”

“
Excuse me
?”

“
Time doesn’t work the same in our two worlds. In ten days, when the gate opens again, and you and Owen are able to go home, only one day will have passed in your world. It will be the evening after you left.”

“That’s not possible.”

“Possible or not, it’s true.”

He quickly did the math in his head. Ten times…
“So, if Quinn has been here this whole time, then – in your time she’s been here for…?”

“Over eleven moons, now. Roughly equivalent to your months.”

“A
year
?” Zander was startled when Owen’s took his hand in one of his little ones, rubbing the back of it with his other hand – possibly to try and calm him.

“If our time were measured the same as yours, it would be about that long, I think, yes.”
Thomas’ explanation of this was absentminded – a topic he’d grown bored with.

Zander didn’t get to go any further in his questioning of
that
insane revelation, though, because at that moment, they heard footsteps, and he looked up in time to see a girl coming down the stairs.

“Thomas! What is going on?
I heard …
Owen!
” As soon as she saw the little boy she ran the rest of the way down and grabbed him, scooping him into her arms. Owen hugged her back. “Hi Linnea!”

She was very pretty, with long, dark curls that reached to the middle of her back, a
nd the same gray eyes as Thomas. Her features were fine and delicate, her eyelashes so long and dark that she’d never need mascara – did they have makeup in this world? Realizing he was staring, he looked back at Owen.

“Ben just told me I would want to get down here to see this, but I didn’t expect you!” she said to Owen. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s a long story,” Owen said.

Thomas patted Owen on the back. “He’s told it a lot tonight, Nay. I’ll fill you in on the details later.”

“And who are you?” the girl asked, looking at Zander.

“This is Zander,” Thomas said, patting him on the back. Zander stepped to the side, just out of his reach. These people were awfully touchy-feely.

“
Zander
?
That
Zander?” Linnea asked, eyes wide.

“That would be the one.” Thomas chuckled. “Zander, this is my twin sister, Linnea. Also, Ben’s wife,” he added pointedly.
Touchy-feely and telepathic. Great.
It wasn’t like he’d been thinking about asking her out.

She didn’t look old enough to be married. Every time he thought this day couldn’t get any stranger, it turned out he was wrong.

“It’s, er, nice to meet you,” he said to her.

“It’s interesting, anyway,” Linnea said, holding out her hand. “Does Quinn know about this?”

“Yes. She went to go find William. Zander and Owen brought back the rabies medicine.”

Linnea’s reaction to that statement was a lot like Quinn’s had been. She went slightly gray, and her eyes got very wide. “For real?”
she demanded of Zander.

He shrugged. “Apparently. I didn’t know what Owen was putting in that cooler until just a few minutes ago. Why? Is somebody dying of rabies or something?”

“Not yet,” Thomas said quietly, “but we were cutting it close there for a few days. A rabid fox got into the castle yard and bit both William and my little sister, Alice.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.” He wasn’t quite sure what else to say. “But don’t you have the vaccine here? Isn’t Doctor Rose here?”

“You mean Nathaniel?” Thomas asked.

“Yeah.”

“Yes, he is – well, he’s not in the castle tonight, but yes, he’s here in our world. But no, we didn’t have any more of the vaccine here. Our world is a little … less developed than yours is, Zander. We don’t have everything here that you have, and enough vaccine to deal with this issue right now was more than we had.”

Zander looked at Owen. “Is this what you meant when you said Quinn needed help?”

He nodded.

“But Quinn’s okay?” Zander asked suddenly, looking back at Thomas and Linnea. “I mean – she’s had rabies vaccine before.”

“Quinn is healthy. It’s been a very upsetting few days for her, but physically, she’s well.”

Zander nodded, staring down at the marble floor. This was all too much information for him. He needed to sit down, to have a few minutes to process all of this.

“Let’s get Zander upstairs,” Linnea said. “I’m guessing he could maybe use a few minutes, and he could stand to get some food into him.”

He looked over at her gratefully, but despite her considerate words, her expression was still wary and
suspicious. He wondered exactly what these people had heard about him.

By the time he followed them up the stairs, he had to watch his feet carefully on the steps, just to make sure he wasn’t going to miss one and trip over himself.

He didn’t even pay attention to where they were taking him, but somehow he ended up sitting on a couch in the very back in what seemed like some kind of really large family room with a kitchen in it. There were a lot of people in and out – mostly kids and teenagers, and some lady with a baby left after he’d been there for a few minutes.

Owen was
more excited than he’d ever seen him; all of the kids shrieked when they saw him, and they fawned over him, pulling him in and out of the room. After a while, Zander mostly gave up trying to keep track of him.

Linnea had disappeared as soon as they got upstairs, but Thomas only left for a few minutes, and when he returned, he was carrying a silver tray with a lid, which he set o
n the table in front of Zander before uncovering it to reveal a plate full of food.

“Owen’s probably hungry, too,” Zander said.

Thomas held the plate out toward him. “He’s eating already.”

“I don’t even need to take care of him here, do I?”

“Not really. My brothers and sisters are all excited to see him, and my parents will be more than happy to see to all of his needs.”

Zander nodded. He was sort of hungry, but nothing on the plate looked familiar to him. There was some sort of meat covered in creamy gravy, and mixed vegetables – but he could only recognize carrots in there. He did
find himself picking at the meat a little. It wasn’t terrible. The vegetables scared him, though.

“So you have six brothers?”
Never had he imagined William Rose with siblings – let alone that many of them.

“Yes.”

“And how many sisters?” He wondered if it was just the one.

“Six.”

He nearly choked on the bite he’d taken. “
Thirteen
?”

“That always surprises people. It is a lot, I suppose – even for my world.”

“Are these them?” he asked, gesturing at a couple of the children who’d just run back into the room to retrieve something.

“Some of them, yes. That’s Emma, there, who just ran out the door.”

“I won’t remember that.” He took another bite of the meat.

And then, there she was again. Quinn had just appeared in the doorway. Again, she was with William. He had his hand in hers, and he appeared to be looking for something –
someone
? in the room, but he didn’t seem to find whatever it was. Zander found himself unable to look away as William bent down and kissed Quinn – not on the lips, he noticed, but on the cheek, and then he left.

Zander
sat up straight as Quinn headed right for the corner where they were sitting. He felt awkward as Thomas stood to greet her. They stayed close enough that Zander could hear everything they were saying. He concentrated on his food.

“You okay?” Thomas asked.

“Yeah. Will’s going to track down Alice, and then Emma and Ben.”

Thomas nodded. “Are you hungry?”

“Starving.”

“I’ll go and get you a plate – unless you want me to stay.” He glanced at Zander.

She shook her head. “That’s okay. Mia hasn’t come looking for me, has she?”

“No. I just talked to her a few minutes ago actually. Everything is fine. You’ve got a little more time, I think.”

“Okay, good. Thank you.”

Zander set his plate back down on the tray as Quinn sank into an armchair across from him. He
didn’t think he was going to be able to eat any more right then.

Quinn, on the other hand, was eyeing his dinner. “You didn’t even touch those,” she said, looking at the vegetables.

“I barely eat vegetables I can identify at home. I’m not quite brave enough for those. You want them?”

“If they’re going to go to waste anyway…” she said, and she reached
to grab the little bowl and one of the extra forks off Zander’s tray.

“Help yourself,” he muttered.

“Where are my parents?” she asked. “How do you have Owen?”

“Your parents are in Atlanta for the weekend, looking for a house there. Owen was staying
with us.”

“So Jeff did take that job.”

“Yes. Have you not been in contact with them at all, Quinn?”

“Yeah, I Skype them every weekend.” She held up her hand, gesturing around the room, at a wood-burning stove behind a long counter, and the fireplace at the other end. “Really, we barely have enough electricity here to keep the lights on. And most parts of this world don’t even have that much. Where I live, we don’t have electricity at all.”