Leaves of Revolution (30 page)

DECIDING TO TRUST JONATHAN wasn’t easy. Quinn stalled for two days of intense debate and discussion. Now that she finally had a location, she was able to send messages directly to Charles, and he mostly confirmed what Jonathan was telling her, but something still didn’t feel right. In the end, though, two events made the decision for her.

The first was the worst outbreak of pimaeum they’d had yet – exactly where Jonathan had told her it would happen – the easternmost town they’d occupied. The second was when her guards caught two different groups of spies much too close to Tobias’ house for comfort.

Whether Jonathan was being fully truthful didn’t matter. They weren’t safe any longer – and neither were her people.

She’d known it all along, really. Even during the days she insisted she hadn’t made up her mind, they’d planned for traveling, for troop movement, and for battle.

The hardest conversation was with Tobias.

“You’re sure you want to stay here? I’m sure Tolliver knows this location now.”

“Plenty of the militiamen from Valderwood will be here, Your Majesty.”

“I worry that it won’t be enough.”

“Nothing has been ‘enough’ for a generation now. There’s no such place as safe until we make it that way for everyone.”

“I know that, but I can’t help feeling that I want to protect you especially,
Uncle
Tobias.”

He smiled. “You have the weight of an entire kingdom on your shoulders, my sweet niece. The least I can do is provide you with an elder who worries with the task of taking care of
you.
You can’t worry about me. Whatever happens, I’ll be all right.”

She swallowed hard, daring to reveal one of her worst fears. “But what if you’re not?”

Though he never had before, Tobias put his hands on her shoulders and leaned forward to kiss her forehead. “I’ll be all right. Either in the way you define it, or in the way the Maker does. Just remember that I love you and you’ll always have this place to call home. You might like Wellham, anyway. I lived there once.”

In some ways, the actual travel away from Tobias’ house didn’t seem all that different than traveling to it had been.

They traveled in the dark again, though this time they left closer to dusk than dawn. The people in the carriage were nearly the same, only this time Max was with them as well.

Outside the carriage was different – they felt the absence of James profoundly, but they were surrounded by so many more guards this time that Marcus commented they might be safer now than they’d ever be again.

William wrapped his arms around both her and Samuel and held them tight.

Although Linnea didn’t say anything, Quinn knew she had to be uncomfortable. Her pregnancy was close to full term, and in the last weeks, it had been difficult for her to get around sometimes. Watching her now in the carriage brought back unpleasant memories for Quinn, and she stretched her hand to take hold of Linnea’s.

Light snow fell as they traveled, but it was nothing like the many violent storms they’d had. It didn’t make their trip any more difficult. Part of her believed it was the reason their trip seemed to go quickly and smoothly; despite all of the tension and weaponry around her, the watchful guards encountered no soldiers hiding in the trees. She didn’t know if the snow was a hidden blessing, but she decided to be grateful anyway.

Between her own nerves and Samuel’s understandable restlessness, she didn’t think any kind of rest was possible in the carriage, but she must have dozed off at some point, because she was startled awake when they came to an abrupt halt.

Across from her, Zander and Marcus stood immediately. William moved when she did, whisking Samuel from her arms so she could investigate.

Thomas and Max were alert and watching, too.

So many guards on horseback surrounded the carriage that she couldn’t really see anything out the windows except capes and a streak of pinkish light in the sky, but she heard the rumble of conversation. Her traveling party was no longer alone.

She found herself moved to the back of the carriage next to Linnea and William as the rest of the men blocked them and readied their weapons.

They made nearly no noise. Even the movement hadn’t woken Samuel, and Linnea slept on, curled up on Nathaniel’s coat all the way at the end of one of the benches. Someone had covered her with another heavy cloak – it looked suspiciously like Zander’s.

Though she was fully prepared, her hand curled around the hilt of her own dagger and an awareness of everything and everyone inside the carriage, her whole body still jolted off the bench when the carriage door swung open.

Even when she saw who it was – maybe even
because
of who it was – her heart pounded so heavily it was hard to hear.

“Charles!”

“Your Majesty!”

The greeting was less formal than it sounded, because a second later he was through her extensive guardians (after being divested of his weapons, she noticed; Marcus didn’t trust
anyone
) and he had his arms around her in a tight embrace.

“You’re all right?” he asked, when he pulled away.

“I told you I was.”

“You’ll forgive me for needing to see it myself? And the prince?” He looked around until his eyes landed on Samuel, who was awake now, sitting up on William’s lap and blinking at his great uncle with enormous gray eyes. “Thank goodness you’re all safe.”

“Safe enough, anyway,” Max said, causing Charles to turn and look at him.

“As if we didn’t owe your kingdom enough already.” Charles sighed.

“We’ve never made a great distinction between the two, and we’ve no plans to start now.”

“Yes.” Charles nodded. “I wish I’d taken that more seriously in the past and avoided some of the situation we have now.”

“Well, I’m for working on solutions now, Charles, not regrets,” Quinn said. “How did you find us here?”

“Because you’ve arrived at Wellham.”

That the town of Wellham was “secured” was an understatement. A massive wooden fence surrounded the entire town, and in many places the wood had already been reinforced by walls of stone.

There were guards everywhere, lining the streets as the carriage passed through, all of them with their swords drawn, especially until the gate was securely closed behind all of her guards.

The soldiers who would continue to arrive in Wellham from their respective bases would be joining the soldiers already established in the massive camp that encircled the town.

When the carriage came to a stop again, they were in the yard of a house that was likely large by Wellham standards, but much more modest than Tobias’.

Ellen was waiting on the porch. “Interesting ruling, running away from the castle in the middle of the night,” she said after she’d hugged Quinn.

“Did anyone ever tell you that you take after your mother sometimes?”

William coughed once, close to her ear, and tightened his hand around her waist.

“I’ve been told.” Ellen cleared her throat, unfazed. “I wasn’t sure
you’d
ever pick up on some of the family traits, though. I’m pleased to see I was wrong.”

Behind her, she could practically hear both William’s and Zander’s faces turning shades of red and purple at the remark – though for entirely different reasons, she knew.

Not for the first time, something inside of her swelled in gratefulness that she was going through this with both of them.

The house where Charles and Ellen were staying had long been an important location for the Friends of Philip, Nathaniel had told her. It had once been owned by an original member of the Friends, but nobody had lived there for a long time. Instead, it had been maintained as a safe house by various Friends.

Both Marcus and Nathaniel admitted to having thoughts that they should have checked into Wellham as a possible location for Ellen and Charles, but it was so close to the capital city that they’d thought it too dangerous for anyone to attempt.

Despite the massive security of the town, they were far from safe here. Once word reached Tolliver that Quinn and Samuel were here, they would be inviting all-out attack. And it was surely only a matter of time until word reached the castle.

FROM THE FIRST DISCUSSIONS of this plan, Zander hadn’t liked it any more than Quinn had.

This was too close to the castle. Although the last couple of moons at Tobias’ had yielded Quinn a significant army, he just couldn’t help believing that risking putting the queen herself this close to the center of the inevitable battle was a bad idea.

But there wasn’t a better one.

He didn’t trust any of these people as much as he wanted to. He didn’t trust this house, this town, or Charles – or especially Jonathan.

Though it surprised him, he did sort of trust Ellen. She was brash and fierce, but honest. Sometimes brutally so, which he couldn’t help respecting.

If William had been the punching type, he might have taken Ellen out for the comment she’d made to Quinn about her grandmother. Zander, though, was grateful when he didn’t spew snot everywhere from trying to hold in his laughter.

Quinn had picked up a thicker skin over the past few moons, and a much stronger ability to delegate responsibility to those who served her.

And she’d needed those. Desperately.

He wished it relieved him that they’d made it to Wellham – all the way to this “safe house” without incident – but it didn’t. Every minute they spent pretending things were normal, that they were just setting up living quarters in a new, temporary location, that Quinn engaged in idle, catching-up chitchat with her aunt and uncles in the front room of the house made his stomach churn and his hands twitch.

He tried to ignore it as he helped unload the last of the supplies from the carriage and carried them to the back bedrooms of the house.

There would be no private rooms here.

Mia was working diligently to set up a pallet on the floor of one of the rooms for Linnea, though right now Linnea was curled up on the bed that would be Quinn’s and William’s. She wasn’t feeling well after the long carriage ride, and Zander couldn’t blame her.

Samuel was asleep next to her, despite the noise of things being carried in and out and William and Nathaniel loading supplies into a large closet as Zander hovered nearby wearing his sword.

The closet surprised Zander – there weren’t many of those in this world. Even in the castle belongings were stored in armoires and dressers rather than the separate little built-in rooms familiar on Earth.

He’d actually been investigating whether it would be big enough to use as a little room for himself, even with all of William and Nathaniel’s medical supplies inside.

He thought it would. The storage space seemed to take up the entire wall between two rooms. Of course, Linnea might appreciate a small room to herself even more. Maybe he’d talk to Mia about moving the pallet in here in a few minutes.

The whole process of moving in to the new house should have been a rare moment of peace, but Zander just couldn’t convince himself that it was.

Sometimes he hated being right.

He didn’t know what the shouts and stomping and pounding coming from the front of the house meant. He only knew that it wasn’t good and that the baby was back here and so he scooped the infant into his arms.

Samuel was surprised, and Zander was instantly terrified that he might cry, but apparently he was now familiar enough with Zander to be easily soothed by him.

He felt someone grab his arm by the elbow and he whirled around to face Nathaniel, who was frantically waving with his other hand for Zander – and everyone else – to follow him.

The next few seconds made no sense to him, as Nathaniel shooed everyone into the closet. Mia was helping a disoriented Linnea.

William didn’t freak out until Nathaniel closed the closet door with all of them inside.

“Quinn!” he whispered frantically, and Zander heard William’s hand on the inside doorknob.

“No.” Nathaniel’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was far more commanding than Zander had ever guessed him capable of. “The baby is in here.”

Knowing that even Nathaniel’s words wouldn’t be enough for William, whose body was nearly shaking the whole enclosed space, Zander carefully fitted Samuel into his father’s arms.

The shaking stopped.

Zander strained to hear whatever was going on in the rest of the house – he thought he could hear the distant clang of metal, but the sounds were drowned out by whatever Nathaniel was doing, moving objects around in the small room.

No part of Zander could even begin to understand why Nathaniel would be worried about those things right now, let alone to risk making noise to move them, until the soft scraping and footstep noises began moving farther away – like they were falling.

Then there was the distinct sound of something small scraping against stone, and a tiny light flickered to life.

Zander put his hand over his mouth to keep from gasping out loud.

Nathaniel’s face was below them, looking up from a dark, black hole, illuminated now by the tiny flickering light of a white candle. “Come on,” he whispered.

William balked again, backing up toward the closet door. “Not without Quinn.”

Zander would never be able to express how much he agreed with William, but he was possessed of a slightly larger piece of sanity, bolstered by his moons of guard training and war planning.

So he moved behind William and literally pushed him toward the hole.

Mia, who was perhaps the sanest of all of them, reached for the baby, but Zander blocked her hand. He needed William to need to keep Samuel safe himself.

The opening in the floor turned out to be a set of stone stairs, making him wonder just how elaborate this whole Friends of Philip safe house was. A part in the back of his mind wondered who else knew about this little hiding spot, but he couldn’t worry about it.

Once they were all on the stairs, below the level of the floor, Nathaniel lowered the trap door over them.

“We can’t do this. I need to know what’s happening,” William whispered.

The stress in his voice made Samuel whine, which, thank the Maker, or whoever it was they thanked here, got William to shut up and follow Nathaniel.

Zander grabbed one of the crates that Nathaniel had set on the steps and followed behind everyone, making sure William couldn’t turn around and make a run for it.

William started shaking again when they reached the bottom of the stairs and the black space widened out into a larger area.

Now Zander moved the baby from his arms to Mia’s and grabbed William’s wrist, dragging him away from everyone, but especially from the stairs.

“You have to get it together, Will,” he whispered.

William looked up, twisting his ear toward the ceiling as if he was trying to listen.

Zander sighed. He now remembered the story of Quinn and William under the floorboards in someone’s – Ellen’s? – house. “This isn’t the basement,” he said. “The stairs took us in the direction of the outside wall.” He wasn’t sure how he’d had the presence of mind to notice that, but he knew it was true. He reached up, easily pressing his hand against the low ceiling. “Yep. That’s dirt. We’re not under the house.”

It probably wasn’t a helpful thing to say. He was risking spooking William even more, but everyone needed to be on the same page with the truth. “We can’t
leave
her! Or Thomas…”

Yeah. Freaking out.

“They have guards, William. They might be fine. What we
cannot
do is run into the middle of a bad situation with this child.
If
there even is a bad situation. Keep it together for a little while.”

He looked over at Nathaniel, who was reaching the bottom of the stairs for a second time with another crate. “Will they be able to find us if everything is okay?”

“Marcus will. I don’t know about anyone else.” He walked over to William. “Marcus will take care of her.”

“If he can.”

Nathaniel put his hand on William’s shoulder. Linnea came up on the other side of him and wrapped her arms around one of his. “If something is so wrong up there that Marcus can’t take care of her, then it’s even more important you’re not there. She can’t keep herself safe if she’s worrying about you. The Maker forbid someone uses you against her to get what they want. And Samuel needs one of you. I’d sacrifice myself this instant to go help her if I thought it would, William, but we need to find out what’s going on before we take any risks with her at all.”

William nodded. Even in the dim light Zander could see the flash of understanding form. “She’s the one who can keep me calm in a dark basement, you know.”

“Yeah, well, just remember not to kiss anybody this time, o…kay?”

The remark would probably have had them all laughing, if Linnea’s voice hadn’t sounded so …
not right
on the last word. Now Zander noticed she was breathing a little heavily, too.

“Ow, Nay!” William’s voice was a bit louder than the whisper they’d all been using. “You’re about to take my arm off. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“You’d better be. I am not replaying the whole dark-basement scenario again, with or without kissing.”

Good.
William was sane again.

“Well,” Nathaniel whispered, “as Zander figured out, we’re not in a basement. We should be under the barn in the back of the house. But we’re not staying here.” “We’re going back up now?” Zander asked. He didn’t think that was a good idea at all.

“No. Mia has Samuel, so can the rest of you grab crates?”

“Okay,” Linnea said. Her voice still didn’t sound normal, “I don’t think I can do a crate, but give me the baby.”

Zander hoped they weren’t going far. He didn’t know where to find one of the long cloths they often used to tie Samuel to someone so he wouldn’t fall. Of course, he couldn’t understand how they could be going anywhere at all.

Crates in hand, they all followed Nathaniel across the space, which was larger than Zander would have expected. When they finally reached the farthest wall, the candle’s light no longer stretched far enough to illuminate the stairs they’d come down.

There was nothing here, though, nowhere else to go.

Or perhaps he was wrong. He heard a faint rustle of something soft, and then the distinct click of a door.
A door?

Yes, there was a door here. It had been hidden behind a black cloth, undetectable in the dark underground room unless you knew where it was or brought a
lot
of light with you.

“Are you ever going to tell Quinn everything you know?” he asked Nathaniel once they were through the door and inside what looked like another black passageway.

“Do you wish anyone up there right now knew about this? Perhaps it would have been great if Thomas had come running back and followed us with someone on his tail?”

He closed his eyes. “I guess I just don’t know how you managed it.”

“Oh, you could become an expert at revealing limited information from people in two different worlds without too much trouble, I think, Zander.”

“I couldn’t,” Linnea said, her voice sort of normal again.

“No.” Nathaniel chuckled as he led them down the – long – whatever it was. “You couldn’t. It’s yet another reason I might not have told everything to
Quinn
. And anyway, I’d never anticipated having to use this place as a safe house ever again. I’d rather had hopes of using the property for a clinic in Wellham – all of this might have been turned into excellent laboratory and storage space.”

William’s shoulders were beginning to tense up again, so Zander decided to interrupt. “Wellham is going to need a clinic after we finish killing Tolliver. That bedroom is the perfect size for an operating room.”