Canes of Divergence (Dusk Gate Chronicles)

by Puttroff, Breeana

  William lost it. His sister’s words gutted him completely. When he turned to hide the sudden torrent coming down his own cheeks she grabbed his shoulder and wouldn’t let him go, instead wrapping her arms around him despite his protests – even in his anguish he was afraid to get his tears on her – but she didn’t care, and wouldn’t be convinced otherwise.

  When it was all over, Ben handed him a handkerchief and patted him on the back. It should have felt awkward, but it didn’t at all. Ben hugged him then, an unspoken understanding passing between them.

  William excused himself for a moment to go and wash his face. When he returned, everyone had re-collected themselves, and it was like nothing had happened, but everything had changed.

  “Where are you planning on riding your horse to tonight, anyway?” he asked, as he turned his attention back to cleaning Ben’s wound.

  “Today is the day the gate would have been opening. Even though it doesn’t open anymore, Luke likes to ride around the area, just to check things out. We still wonder how Hector knew about it, and we just … like to make sure it’s secure, Your Majesty. My father and I were going to go with him, if that’s all right.”

  “Of course it’s fine. Luke has never seen anything, has he?”

  “Nothing substantial. A couple of moons ago, he found someone wandering near the bridge alone. He questioned him, but of course, there was no cause to detain him. The gate was still closed. It’s all just precautionary.”

  William nodded. “I would be tempted to join you – if I wasn’t quite sure that I very much need to remain here at the castle this evening.”

  “I have to say I believe that’s a good choice, Your Majesty.”

  ~ 13 ~

  The River

  Bristlecone, Colorado

  WHEN ZANDER SAW where Owen was leading him, he knew for sure that he was losing his mind.

  Outside of Doctor Rose’s house, Zander had headed for the truck, but when they reached it, Owen had pulled out the large duffel bag, and motioned for Zander to follow him.

  “Leave the truck here; it’s better this way.”

  “How far are we planning on going like this?”

  “I can carry the backpack.” Owen turned and tried to lift the heavy frame over his tiny shoulders.

  “How about you carry the cooler?” Zander picked up the backpack and put it on his own shoulders, clipping the belt around his waist before he reached for the duffel bag.

  “Okay,” Owen agreed, though even the cooler was going to get heavy for him after a while.

  “We’re not going to be crossing any state lines like this, right?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Owen, this is starting to feel like a really bad idea. Where are you taking me?”

  “Just follow me.”

  Zander sighed as Owen took off down the sidewalk. He supposed they’d already gone this far – already broken into Doctor Rose’s house and taken all of this stuff. Although he was starting to worry that all of this was some strange fantasy on Owen’s part, he figured he might as well humor him for a little while longer. No more than fifteen minutes, though. They wouldn’t be able to carry this stuff for more than half an hour, round trip.

  Less than five minutes later, though, they emerged from one of the hiking trails in a spot that made Zander’s head spin – because it was so familiar. He’d been here just a couple of days ago.

  There was the tree with the muddy, dug-up hole underneath it. Zander stopped and watched in shock as Owen headed right for it. And all of a sudden his weird theories about bodies came bouncing back.

  It wasn’t just his head spinning now – the entire ground felt wobbly underneath him.

  “Come on, Zander. I need that bag.”

  Terrifying thoughts raced through Zander’s mind as Owen unzipped the bag, put his hand inside, and withdrew…a rock? That’s what had been making the bag so unusually heavy and lopsided? Owen was kneeling on the ground, perched over the hole, holding a huge, jagged chunk of shiny dark gray rock.

  “What are you doing, Owen?” He was calming a little – he’d already investigated that hole, after all, and it was much too small for a body.

  Owen looked up at him, a very serious expression in his eyes. “I suppose I should tell you now that I’m not one hundred percent sure this will work.”

  “You’re not sure what will work?”

  “Putting this back. I had to break it a little to get it out of here, and I don’t know if I damaged it enough to make it not work.”

  “And what will happen if it doesn’t ‘work’?”

  “We’ll have to go and put all of this stuff back and go home.”

  Zander sighed in relief, finally seeing a light at the end of what had been turning into a very dark tunnel. Maybe Owen had just needed this – needed Zander to play along, to follow his little story. Now he’d done it, and they could just take this stuff back, un-steal it, and go home. Put all of this behind them, and go back to normal.

  He still wouldn’t have any real answers about Quinn, but at that moment, it seemed like something he could work on letting go.

  He was actually relaxed as he let Owen carry out the rest of whatever he was doing. He picked up the duffel bag and zipped it up – it was much lighter without that rock. He’d be able to carry it and the cooler back the few minutes to Doctor Rose’s house. Holding on to them both, he followed Owen.

  The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon. Hopefully they’d at least make it back to his truck before it got dark.

  “Okay,” Owen said. “Let’s try it.”

  “After you.”

  Owen walked away from the tree and over to the river, stopping right next to the broken-off bridge. Zander watched as he knelt down, picked up a rock – a smaller one, fortunately, than the one he’d put in the ground – and lobbed it into the air.

  This gesture, at least, felt normal. Throwing rocks into the river was something Zander liked to do when he was upset or frustrated, too. He waited for the satisfying splash of the rock landing in the water.

  Hmmm… He must have missed it. Maybe the rock hadn’t been big enough to be noticeable in the current? That didn’t seem quite right.

  Zander walked closer as Owen picked up another rock – this one was definitely big enough to see – and he threw it.

  It didn’t land.

  Owen turned around, grinning now.

  What in the…

  Owen grabbed the duffel bag and another rock and scrambled up the steps of the broken bridge. Zander had no idea what he was doing.

  Once he was on the little platform at the top of the stairs, Owen stopped, looking over the water. Then, very deliberately, he tossed the rock forward. Again, there was no resulting splash in the water below.

  It wasn’t until Owen had the duffel bag all the way in front of him that Zander realized what it was about to do.

  “Owen, don’t do…” But he already had. He’d tossed the duffel bag forward.

  But the bag didn’t fall into the water, either. It was just…gone.

  “Give me the cooler,” Owen said, reaching his hand back.

  “Owen, there’s probably hundreds of dollars of drugs in here…”

  “Thousands,” Owen answered. “Maybe more.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m not going to let you throw them into a river.”

  “I wasn’t going to throw the cooler. There’s glass in there. I was going to carry it. But if you want to, that’s fine.”

  “I’ll hang onto it.”

  Owen shrugged, and, before Zander could stop him, the little boy stepped forward, off the platform over the river.

  Zander panicked. He didn’t know what to do. He looked around frantically, but Owen wasn’t anywhere. No little boy fell from the bridge or into the water. Like the duffel bag, Owen was gone.

  After several seconds of worrying his heart was literally going to explode, he heard Owen’s voice. “Come on, Zander. We don’t have much time. Follow me.”<
br />
  He looked up at the top of the bridge and saw Owen’s head. Just his head, no body underneath it.

  And then it disappeared.

  Without even thinking about what he was doing, Zander dashed up the stairs and reached for the spot where he’d seen Owen. One second, he was staring out over the rushing water below the bridge, and an instant later, his feet were on solid ground, and Owen was standing there, several feet ahead of him.

  “Come on,” Owen cajoled, taking a few more steps backwards.

  Zander was too stunned to do anything but follow. Somehow, the bridge was no longer broken. The stone continued in a smooth arc all the way across the river. It didn’t even look like the same bridge.

  Come to think of it – it didn’t look like the same river. The water here wasn’t rushing below them; it flowed lazily in the semi-darkness. It didn’t sound right, either.

  He spun around.

  Nothing was familiar in that direction, either. The same bridge, whole and complete, stretched to the other side of the river and then down, into a vast forest of trees that looked nothing like the ones he’d just been looking at.

  And the mountains were missing.

  He turned back to Owen. The boy was walking now, almost to the bottom of the steps at the end of the bridge.

  “Owen! Where are you going?”

  “Come on, Zander. It’s getting dark and we still have a long way to walk.”

  A long way to walk? He chased the boy down the steps, onto some kind of dirt path that definitely should not have been there. “Owen, I’m not going anywhere. Where are we?”

  “Eirentheos.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “We’re in Eirentheos.”

  “Well, I don’t know what that means, but I think I’ve reached my limit here, Owen. Let’s go put this stuff back and go home.”

  “Come on Zander!” Now Owen took off running and Zander had no choice but to follow him. He ran for several minutes; when he finally slowed to a walk again, Zander could no longer see the bridge.

  “Owen Robbins!”

  “What?”

  “I’m not kidding, Owen. I’ve changed my mind. I want to go home.”

  Owen stared at him for several seconds, and then glanced behind him, up toward the sky. “We can’t go home.”

  “What do you mean, we can’t go home? This isn’t funny anymore Owen.”

  Owen frowned. “Was this funny before?”

  He didn’t have an answer for that. Of course none of this had ever been funny. It had been scary and strange since the very beginning. But not this strange. This was too much. “I’m not kidding. Let’s go.”

  He reached for the boy’s hand, intending to drag him back down the road and up the bridge if he had to, but a sudden noise stopped him. What was that? It sounded like…

  Horses.

  What the…?

  He looked behind him in time to see three horses coming down the path.

  Each horse carried a rider – three men who were dressed in clothing he’d never seen before. Two wore green tunics with a gold circle emblazoned on the chest, while the third wore one in purple with a different symbol in silver.

  All three of them carried swords. And all of them stopped short, just a few yards in front of Zander and Owen. One of them, the one wearing purple, dismounted.

  Zander got the distinct impression they were some kind of soldiers.

  Without hesitating, he scooped Owen into his arms, though his hands were already slippery with sweat. His heart pounded as the man approached.

  “Sorry to bother you,” the man said. The words were kind, but Zander could hear a suspicious undertone in his voice. “We just thought we’d stop and see if the two of you needed any assistance.”

  The hidden question in his words was clear. “What are you doing here?”

  Zander’s arms tightened defensively around Owen. “We’re all right. Thanks.”

  But at that moment, Owen, who had been straining to look around and see what was happening, wriggled loose, dropped to the ground, and ran – not in the direction Zander so desperately wanted him to, but toward the horses.

  “Owen!” Zander yelled.

  “Ben!” Owen shouted.

  The man who had been questioning Zander suddenly turned his attention to the little boy and followed him.

  Zander was sure he was having a heart attack as he took off after Owen again. As soon as Owen got close to the other men, one of them climbed down and approached him, bending down so he could get a better look at him.

  “Prince Owen?” Zander heard the man ask incredulously as he reached them.

  “Yes, Ben. It’s me. What are you doing here?”

  “I could ask you the same question,” the man said, chuckling as he straightened. Zander could see now that he barely qualified as a man – he couldn’t have been more than a year or two older than Zander was.

  The third man had now dismounted his horse. “It’s really you, Owen?”

  “Yes. Hello Marcus.”

  “Hello.” Marcus smiled. He was quite a bit older than the one Owen had called Ben – though they kind of looked alike. “I don’t know how you got here, but I know Her Majesty will be well pleased to see you.”

  “Is she the queen now?”

  “Indeed.”

  “Is she here, then? In Eirentheos? Is that why you and Ben have new uniforms?”

  Zander still had no idea what was going on, or what they were talking about, but he gathered that he’d been right – these were soldiers. Possibly from two different armies. It was not a comforting thought.

  “Yes, she is, and yes, that’s why.”

  “Who’s your friend?” Ben asked. “Did he come here with you?” Being looked at with suspicion by three soldiers was not going on Zander’s list of experiences he wanted to repeat. He squared his shoulders and met the man’s gaze.

  “Yes. This is Zander.”

  “Does he know?” Ben asked, dropping his voice. “About the…” he tilted his head down the road to the place they’d just come from.

  “Not really,” Owen answered. “I just made him follow me. I couldn’t carry all of this stuff by myself.”

  Zander didn’t understand what was going on here at all, but he didn’t like it. Talking to soldiers in some weird world, who kept referring to “Her Majesty”… He’d seen Alice in Wonderland. Even if he was dreaming, he didn’t like playing this game where he was the only one who didn’t know the rules.

  “How did you get through?” Marcus asked. “We haven’t been able to…”

  “Father,” Ben said in a low voice. “Should we really discuss this out here?”

  “No, we shouldn’t,” the third one said. He was looking around warily, Zander noticed, and not just at him and Owen. “We need to get back to the castle and let King Stephen deal with it.”

  Oh, so there was a His Majesty here, too. Even better. Owen had somehow managed to drag the two of them into a strange world where they’d been found by soldiers who wanted to take them to be dealt with by a king. He’d officially transitioned from worrying he was losing his mind to hoping he was going to wake up soon. This was the last time he was going to stay up past four in the morning.

  “Hold up,” Zander said. “I’m not going anywhere with you. I want to go home. Owen, let’s go now.”

  All three soldiers looked at Owen. “Is the gate still … open?” Ben asked, still so quietly that Zander had to strain to hear him.

  Owen shook his head. Whatever he said to Ben in response was entirely too quiet for Zander to hear.

  The one whose name he didn’t know – the lone one dressed in purple – was still looking around like he’d seen or heard something unusual, but he didn’t say anything. Something else was going on here aside from the arrival of him and Owen, but Zander wasn’t sure what.

  Owen looked at him. “Anyway, even if it was open, I’m not going home. I want to go to the castle.”

  Zander’s fists clench
ed in frustration. Here he was trying to keep the two of them from a situation they might not be able to go out of, and Owen was trying to lead them into it. “No, Owen. It’s not a good idea.”

  “I’m sorry, Zander. This is not your decision.” Owen turned back to Ben and Marcus. “Take me to the castle, please.”

  “Owen, I’m serious. This is dangerous. Let’s go home.”

  The little boy nearly growled in his frustration. He walked over to Zander, took his hand, and began pulling him back down the road. He didn’t even stop to pick up the cooler or the duffel bag that they’d set down, but at this point, Zander didn’t care.

  The soldiers followed him, two on horse and one on foot, as he allowed Owen to take him the whole way back down the road, and march him up the steps of the bridge, back to the spot they’d come from. But when they passed it, and walked all the way to the other end of the bridge, then turned around and came back, reality began to sink in.

  Standing there, at the end of the bridge, still staring into the eyes of the three strange soldiers, Zander realized that wherever they were, they were stuck.

  “Let’s go,” Owen said, walking toward the road.

  “I’ve got your things, Owen,” Ben said, holding up the cooler and the bags. Zander hadn’t even seen him pick them up. “Would you like to ride on my horse? I can lead him and walk with Zander. I’m sure your friend would rather walk than be stuck sharing a saddle with one of us.”

  Yes, Zander thought, Owen’s friend would much rather that, thank you very much.

  Owen’s eyes lit up like it was Christmas. “Are you sure you don’t want to ride?”

  “No, I could use the walk, actually.” Zander noticed that Ben was absentmindedly rubbing his hip with his free hand.

  “Do I get a choice here?” Zander asked, in a last desperate plea.

  The purple one looked him up and down. “The fact that you came here the way you did is probably enough to justify at least bringing you in for questioning – by force if I had to.”

  “And Owen, too?”

  “I’m only a guard. Prince Owen’s status in our kingdom ranks him far above me. He’s clearly expressed his desire to be taken to the castle, and I’ll get him there safely – even if I have to defend him against you.”