Canes of Divergence (29 page)

That got a smile. “There’s a critical flaw in your plan, though.”

“What’s that?”

“If it doesn’t work, and your levels are too low, there’s no way I’m going to be able to tell you that once you’re in Bristlecone.”

“Oh.” It was true. He hadn’t thought about that.

“I’ll go start getting the doses ready,” Doctor Rose said, disappearing from the room before Zander could think of a better answer.

“We’re going to be cutting it close as it is,” William said. “When you do the boosters, it’s supposed to be two doses a week apart, and we’ll be just at that
, if I give you one right now. You’ll be going home with a bandage on your arm. That’s the other thing, too. There’s not time to give you both the doses of the other vaccine that you’d need, since it’s not ready yet.”

“I’m not worried about that. I’m worried that someone here in this world is going to die because I took two doses that I didn’t need.”

“Well, we don’t want even a slim chance of you dying. We have a pretty strict policy about not killing our guests. We wouldn’t have had that medicine without you in the first place. I’d say you’re entitled to two doses of it.”

Zander sighed, resigning himself.
He still didn’t like it. He’d overheard William lamenting that
he
was using up the safe stuff. It wasn’t right. Zander understood now exactly how over-privileged he was, just by virtue of the world he came from. He’d never had to make decisions like the ones William was making. It wasn’t right for him to take from what little they had here.

Then, another idea came to him. “What if I didn’t need to know what those numbers were before I went home?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, if I go home, and I drive down to the emergency room in Pine Spar, and I tell them that I woke up with a bat in my bedroom, but it escaped, they’ll give me the booster doses. It won’t matter if the vaccine here worked or not. You could still test me, of course. You need a guinea pig.”

“How are you going to explain that to your parents?”

“I’m eighteen. I don’t have to explain anything.”

“The vaccine we’re making here is also not as safe, Zander. It will probably be more uncomfortable than the shots from your world, and the chance of side effects is higher.”

It didn’t matter to him. He knew he could afford the chances more than anyone here, bu
t he decided to let William say his piece. “What kind of side effects?”

“Headaches, sore muscles, fever, nausea, I don’t really know.”

“Then I’m definitely not stealing even one dose that might go to a kid, William. Seriously. It’s not going to happen.”

“You’d
take that chance? Why?”

He sighed.
“I don’t know, William. It just feels like the right thing to do. You need to not waste the good vaccine – especially if that guy was infecting animals on purpose and there are more of them around somewhere. You need someone to test your new vaccine on, and I’m a good candidate for that. If it hurts more, or it makes me a little sick – I can handle that. Worst case, I go home and check myself into a hospital that has a
lot
more resources than you have here. I just think I should.”

William nodded halfway – he was hesitant, but Zander could tell he was considering it now. “It’s ridiculously expensive in your world, especially if you wouldn’t be using your parents’ insurance. You’d have to let us give you the money for it.”

Relief started to wash through him – not because of the money. He didn’t care about that, but because William was relenting.

“That part i
s not optional,” Nathaniel said, setting a tray of supplies down on the cot. Zander hadn’t even seen him return. “I’m willing to allow that, if you’re sure. But I’ll give you enough money, and the name of a good hospital to go to, so I know you’re taken care of. And you’d have to promise me that you would do it right away. No taking chances. Within twenty-four hours of the minute you step through that gate.”

“Agreed.
I’ll drop Owen off and drive to the hospital.”

And just like that, it was settled.
Nathaniel nodded at William, and Zander felt a million times better.

“Okay, then I guess it’s just you
and Ben for this stuff, Will. Take your arm out of your sleeve for me.”

He
saw William go just a little pale around his temples and cheekbones as he shrugged out of one sleeve of his knitted sweater. He chuckled to himself – apparently Quinn had managed to find a guy who didn’t like needles either. Whether he liked it or not, he had to admit they were kind of a matching pair.

“Quinn’s better at this than I am now,” William said – maybe Zander’s chuckle hadn’t been quite as silent as he’d thought.

“Whoa,” he said, as William’s chest came into view. “If you don’t like needles, that is one heck of a wicked tattoo.”

“It’s a symbol,” William said. “Actually two. It’s the emblem of Eirentheos together with the emblem of Philotheum.
” He ran his finger over first one of the circles in the design and then the other. “It represents the joining of our kingdoms as two parts of a whole – something we were fighting for before Quinn took the throne and our marriage made it permanent. And you’re right, it hurt like … well, you can guess. I hated every second of it.”

“Did you have that before you got together with Quinn?”

“No. She and I both got the tattoos at the same time, the day we joined the resistance that was fighting to restore the throne to its proper occupant.”

“Quinn has a tattoo.”
Surely at some point they were going to run out of ways to surprise him. She’d only been here the equivalent of a year. How much more history could she possibly have?

“Yes. As I said, she’s braver than me. Having it done was enough to get her over her fear of needles. I still don’t like them much.”
He sighed and looked away as Nathaniel cleaned his upper arm with a cotton ball.

“You’re a doctor.”

He shrugged. “Nobody’s perfect.”

“Well, those ones aren’t
that bad,” he said, trying to sound sympathetic.

“I know.”

Doctor Rose was fast. A few seconds later, William’s shirt was back on; he was rubbing his shoulder, but otherwise no worse for the wear.

“All right,” Doctor Rose said. “I’ll do Ben’s, and then I think the three of you should go on upstairs.” William nodded, and Doctor Rose turned to Zander and smiled. “It is really nice to see you again. I’m sure it’s been a very unexpected and challenging experience for you,
and I know you’ll be happy to get back home as quickly as you can, but I’m glad to see you’re doing well.”

It occurred to him that this was the first time today that the thought of going home had even crossed his mind. Weird. Two days ago, it was all he could think about.
“It’s good to see you too, Doctor Rose.”

“I apologize for being so tied up at the moment. I would love to talk more, and hear how your parents and sisters are doing.”

“I understand,” Zander said, glancing at the back room. “They’re good.”

“You might be able to catch up more at dinner,” William said, with a strange sound in his voice. “I meant to tell you that Quinn just heard from Jonathan
. He’s coming here.

“
Tonight?
”

“Apparently. Marcus was going to let my parents know to make plans.”

“Why? What’s going on?”

“That’s all I know.”

“Well, then I guess I’d better get things settled here. Jacob is on his way to help as well. He should be here within the hour.”

William nodded, beginning to dig in the drawers of the supply cart as Nathaniel headed back to the other room. “So, you don’t have a problem with needles?”

“No, not especially.”

“Good, because
I’m going to get some blood from you so we can see where your antibody levels are now. We won’t have the results for days, though.”

Zander held out his arm.
“You know, if we were in my world, I might be pretty freaked out to have a guy my age doing this,” he said, as William tied a tourniquet above his elbow.

“If we were in your world, I’d never let someone our age near me with a needle,” William agreed, chuckling.

“Did you always know you wanted to be a doctor?”

“Yes. I started following Nathaniel around and trying to do the stuff he did when I was about two. For my fourth birthday, he brought me a real stethoscope from your world as a gift. Looking back, I feel bad for Thomas and Linnea. They were my captive practice patients.”

“You didn’t draw blood did you?”

William laughed. “Oh, definitely not.”

“Then I doubt Thomas minded.”

“That’s probably true. Thomas would let me do anything. He has more patience with me than anyone, except maybe Quinn. I don’t know how they put up with me sometimes.”

“They’re crazy,” Zander teased. He didn’t know how it had happened, but he really did like William. Not as much as he liked Ben and Thomas maybe, but still … he wasn’t nearly as difficult to deal with as he made himself out to be.

“Certifiable, probably. But I love them anyway,” William said, grinning.

“I sort of envy you that.”

“What? Having a crazy family?”

“Well, that, yes, but also knowing what you want to do. Growing up just training for it and walking right into it.”

“Walking right
away
from it, more like. All those cycles of training, and now I spend more than half my time on my duties as a king, which I in no way prepared for.”

“Still, though, you never had to be undecided. And you still get to practice medicine, obviously.”

“I do. And you’re right. I’ve always thought that part of living in your world must be hard – all those choices, and all that time you spend waiting to be allowed to be useful.”

Zander had
never
thought about it that way. He’d done a lot of things, had a lot of opportunities, and a lot of fun … but William was right. None of the things he’d done were actually
useful
.

“Are you
finished
?” Zander asked, startled as William taped a piece of cotton to his arm.

William held up three glass tubes of blood. “All done.”

“I didn’t even feel you do anything.”

“I’m good.”

“And modest, too.”

William’s shoulders shook with laughter.

“It’s not bragging if you really are the best at something.” They both turned at the sound of Ben’s voice. He was smiling. “Are you feeling better, Zander?”

“I’m fine, now that I’m away from that smell.
You?”

“Much better, too. Although I could use five or six showers.”

“Well, we’ll all need to get cleaned up before dinner,” William said. “Jonathan is on his way here.”

Ben’s reaction was much like Nathaniel’s had been. Zander was beginning to feel really out of the loop. “Okay, who is this Jonathan everyone’
s all up in arms about? Should I be worried?”

“There’s no reason for
you
to be worried about anything,” William said.

Zander wasn’t sure why that bothered him. William was right, of course, nothing that happened here really affected him, but still having it pointed out somehow rubbed him the wrong way. “So who is he?”

“He’s Quinn’s uncle. Nathaniel’s youngest brother. And we’re not worried about him coming here, exactly. It’s more that it’s surprising that he’s coming.”

“
So it’s
Prince
Jonathan, then.”

“Yes.”

“Maybe he just wants to meet the baby.”

“That would be a likely explanation – it would just be less disconcerting if he’d sent the message that he was coming a couple of
days
ago when he had to have started traveling, instead of only hours ago.”

“Oh.” Zander frowned. “Any chance he wanted to surprise you?”

William sighed. “Actually, I wouldn’t put that past Jonathan. He can be a little … unexpected at times. Come on, let’s go and take those showers. If we have a visitor coming, it’ll be a semi-formal dinner in the castle tonight.”

Zander stared at him. “That doesn’t sound like something I would be invited to.”

“Oh, why not? You’re here, in a castle in another world for seven more days. You might as well get the full experience while you’re here. You’re not going to get a lot more chances.”

“Or any,” Zander said, laughing.

“Exactly.”

“But I thought you were keeping me hidden.”

“I think we can trust you to keep quiet about your origins, can’t we?” Ben asked. “It’s not like someone’s going to ask you if you’re from a different world.”

Rosewood Castle, Eirentheos

A
ND SO, THREE
hours later, Zander found himself standing in the hallway with Thomas waiting for William, Quinn, Ben, and Linnea.

He’d taken a very long bath – the first bath he’d had in years, but the warm, soapy water had felt ridiculously good on his aching legs and backside.
Relaxing had felt so good, in fact, that he’d gone almost straight from the tub to his bed and fallen asleep.

Sleeping had felt even better.
He could have stayed there all night if Ben hadn’t knocked on his door. When he did, Zander limped over to answer it, bleary eyed. His legs did
not
feel better after the nap – he was paying the full price of his time in the saddle and on the wooden seat of the wagon. “I think I’ll skip the dinner tonight.”

“Oh, no, not a chance,” Ben said, holding out two hangers full of clothes. “You’ve been invited by the king himself.”

Zander groaned. It was not entirely amusing that William was a king.

“
Besides, you’ll need to stretch and move some more tonight or you’ll be
really
sorry tomorrow.”

Now here he was, decked out in black dress pants and a nice, white button-down shirt that was only a little too big for him, standing next to a prince.

“Where’s your girlfriend tonight?” he asked Thomas.

“She’s tending the baby upstairs during the meal, so that Quinn can do the whole queen thing.”

“So you have to go it alone?”

Thomas shrugged. “It’s her job
. It’s an honor, you know, to care for the heir to the throne. Not too many people will even have the privilege of
meeting
him while he’s still so young.”

“You don’t mind?”

“No. She has to put up with me attending boring functions or traveling around the kingdom or any number of things, really.”

And then, there they were. William and Ben were dressed si
milarly to Zander and Thomas. Slacks and nice shirts. Both William and Thomas were wearing some kind of silver chains around their necks, with silver pendants hanging from them. They looked a little dressy, he supposed, but mostly they looked pretty normal.

But the girls… For a moment, Zander felt like he was in a movie again. He’d been assured that the dinner was only “semi-formal”, and wasn’t a particularly fancy occasion, but the dresses Quinn and Linnea wore would have put anything at prom in his world to shame.

Linnea was in a long, flowing purple dress that gathered just at her waist. Her long, dark curls fell down her back, framing her pale face, and those gray eyes … well, it would be better for everyone if he just avoided looking at Ben’s wife altogether.

And
Quinn – he’d never seen her look anything close to this. Someone had done her hair, sweeping the auburn curls up off her neck, but leaving perfectly formed ringlets framing her face. She wore a necklace much like William’s and Thomas’, only hers was gold.

She came down the hall with William, smiling as she approached.

It hurt to watch – hurt to even think about – but as the two of them came closer, he could
really
see it.

They walked with their hands linked, his steps keeping perfect time with hers, even in her heels.
Had she stumbled, he would have caught her before she even knew she’d lost her balance. But of course she didn’t stumble. Somehow, in the short time since she’d been in Bristlecone, she’d transformed. Whatever her physical age, she wasn’t a young girl anymore.

For the first time, he almost believed she was a queen.

When they came to a stop, she let go of William, but his hand slipped around to rest at the small of her back.

He wasn’t showing off for Zander. The two of them were so comfortable together
that the motion was automatic; no thought went into it at all. When she talked, his whole body responded, turning toward her just a little, giving his full attention to her, and when he talked, hers did the same.

Despite Quinn’s smile and her relaxed conversation with everyone, though, something was off.

She wasn’t wearing makeup, so it would have been impossible to hide the paleness in her face. Her hands moved too much when she spoke – far more than they usually did, even in an animated discussion. Enough so, that when William caught Zander watching her, he took one of her hands in his, holding it close to him, rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb.

The gesture made her look up at him, and she nodded after some sort of wordless communication between the two of them.

She turned to Zander then. “So who talked you into attending the excitement that is dinner with the king and queen?”

“That would be your husband. And your … uh …
bodyguard
.
”

She giggled.

William grinned and held up his free hand. “I figured why not. It’ll be a fun story he can … well, never tell anyone.”

“Yeah. Everybody needs at least ten of those,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“I suppose I can always talk to Owen. He might just be my new best friend after all of this.”

“Well, at least he’ll make a good one,” William said. The affection in his voice was obvious, and it pained Zander again to realize how very far Owen would be from these people who loved him so much once this little adventure was over.

“Where is he, anyway? I thought he’d be glued to your side right now.”

“He’s glued to Alice’s right now, I think,” Quinn said. “The children are going down to dinner together, and Owen’s going to hang with them for a while.”

“She’s so much littler than him,” Zander said. “I’d think he’d spend more time with Emma and Alex.” He was impressed with himself that he was finally starting to get at least some of William’s siblings straight.

“He plays with them a lot,” William said. “He’s been sleeping in Alex’s room instead of his own, but he and Alice are just … they’re each other’s speed, I think.
Her arm is still bothering her quite a bit, and he’s protective.”

“Right.” Owen always kind of had been that way – he took care of his own sisters like that, too – even Quinn who was so much older than him. “How’s
your
arm?” It was an awkward change of subject, but thinking about taking Owen away from here was suddenly just too hard.

“It’s healing. It would be better if I learned to keep it out of the path of the baby’s feet, and I will definitely have some scars, but I’ll be fine, because of you. Thanks for asking.”

“Uh, sure.” He was glad that it looked like they were getting ready to head downstairs.

*          *          *

Dinner wasn’t as awful as Zander had imagined it would be. Maybe a “formal” one would have been worse than semi-formal.

There were all kinds of weird formalities in the beginning – he and Thomas, Linnea, and Ben were escorted into the dining room by a servant before Quinn and William and then King Stephen and Queen Charlotte were announced – yes,
announced
, at
dinner
in their own home – and then seated.

Zander sat next to Thomas, across from Linnea and Ben, and close to a couple of William’s younger brothers – Josh and Daniel – and he actually enjoyed the conversation. Linnea was still clearly unsure how she felt about him, but she was friendlier tonight than she had been, and Thomas and Ben both made an effort to include him and ask him questions. There was a lot of talking about crumple and horses, and he was surprised when he actually had some things to contribute.

He was getting braver about the food in this world, as well, and that bravery was rewarded with an extraordinary meal of some kind of succulent, juicy meat with gravy and roasted vegetables that he was surprised to discover were delicious. Maybe it was only because he was starving after the exertion of the day, but he actually took a second helping of the vegetables.

The honored guest, Quinn’s uncle, wasn’t sitting close enough for Zander to really hear, but from what he could see, he wasn’t sure what the fuss had been about. The man seemed friendly and
funny – and considerate, too. More than once, he refilled someone’s glass before a servant could get to it, and he was especially attentive to Quinn and Queen Charlotte.

After the meal was finished, the atmosphere was much more relaxed.

The dishes were cleared, and the servants pulled away all of the smaller tables that had been pushed together to make one very long one. Zander was close enough to overhear Jonathan.

“I didn’t come all this way to have to still wait to meet the prince,
milady.”

Mia was summoned immediately and she brought in the baby. It was clear the introduction to Jonathan had actually been planned – the infant was dressed in a long green gown, embroidered with a gold design that looked sort of like William’s tattoo.

Once Quinn had taken him in her arms, Jonathan actually knelt down in front of them, bowing his head in respect.

The baby, for his grand entrance, remained soundly asleep.

After that, the atmosphere grew much more relaxed. Everyone wandered around talking and chatting. Joshua and Maxwell invited Zander to join them in a card game at one of the new, smaller tables. It was interesting for a while, and he actually won a hand, but then he had to get up and walk around – too much sitting was not going well for him.

Thinking that the chocolate cake he’d just seen someone eating looked too good to pass up, he headed over to the buffet table that had been set out with desserts and drinks.

Once he got there, he was a little stymied by the choices. The table was beautiful, draped in a dark purple cloth, everything on silver dishes surrounded by glowing candles. It was every bit as fancy as the dinner table itself had been. And the desserts… cookies and pies and several kinds of cake, as well as some other foods he didn’t recognize, but looked like they might be worth the risk.

“Just take one of everything,” a voice beside him said.

He turned to face Quinn a little too quickly – his sore legs were not getting better as the evening progressed – and he winced.

Quinn giggled. “Monkey butt?”

“Excuse me?”

“You know, spending a couple of hours in the saddle when you’re not at
all used to it? Makes your butt look like a baboon’s?”

He stared at her. “I haven’t actually looked, but considering how it
feels
right now…” and then he couldn’t help but start laughing. His laughter made her laugh – hysterically – and neither one of them could stop until tears were rolling down her cheeks, and his stomach hurt. “If we keep this up, I’m barely going to be able to make it back up the stairs,” he finally choked out.

“William could give you something to help, you know.”

He snorted. “Yeah, Quinn, I’m going to ask your husband for something to put on my sore butt.”

“Your choice.”

“Where is he, anyway?”

She pointed to the other side of the room. William was holding the baby, and surrounded by several members of his family, many of whom were carrying other babies.

“How come you’re not over there with them?”

“There’s glasberry pie.” She
nodded toward the table as she picked up a shiny silver plate.

He rolled his eyes. “There aren’t ten people falling all over themselves to get it for you, Queen Quinn?”

She shot him a dirty look. “There probably would be, if I’d
asked
anyone. However, I think I’m still capable of dishing myself up a slice of pie.” With that, she unceremoniously scooped up a piece of the pie and dumped it on her plate – upside down – the green filling oozing everywhere.

“You were saying?”

“I like it this way.”

Maybe the friendship thing wouldn’t be so hard if they could still laugh.
“It gets to you, doesn’t it?” he asked, finally deciding on the chocolate cake he’d come over for in the first place, and grabbing his own plate. “The whole servants and guards and ‘Your Majesty’ and all of that.”

“Sometimes,” she agreed. “I’m honored, of course, and extremely grateful for most of the people I do have. But it makes me feel … I don’t know …
like why should someone else have to stop their conversation or get up from what they’re doing to get me something I can get for myself?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “From what I can see, they like doing it – I think it makes some of them feel uncomfortable, like they’re not doing their job if you have to do it.”

“Now you sound like William.”

He shrugged. “Nobody can be wrong all the time.”

“You’re managing it all right.”

“Hey, now! What did I do to deserve that?”

She grinned. “Nothing. Sorry, that was mean of me. You’ve gotten plenty right lately – starting with saving my husband’s life. I don’t know how to repay you for that.”