Thorns of Decision (Dusk Gate Chronicles)

by Breeana Puttroff

  Next to Quinn on the couch, William had gone rigid; his breathing was shallow as he waited to see how his brother was going to react to this news.

  She didn’t know how many minutes passed before Thomas looked up again, but it felt like a long time. When he finally spoke, though, it wasn’t about Dorian and James – not exactly anyway.

  “Why were you included in all of this Quinn?” he asked. “It’s not because the two of you are courting that you were allowed in that room,” his eyes darted between William and Quinn. “If anything, he was included because of you. Why?”

  A cold sensation rippled through her body, sliding from the top of her head, all the way to her toes, enough to make her shiver. Her still-damp hair now felt like a hundred icicles. She looked up at William, pleading in her eyes as she struggled to decide what to do.

  The look he gave her in return told her that he understood what she decided either way, but that the choice was up to her.

  She wasn’t even quite sure why it was so hard for her to tell them ­­– why it had been hard to tell William. It wasn’t as if she liked keeping secrets. And she loved and trusted all of them. As she’d thought about it during the past several days, the only explanation she could come up with was that telling them made it real – made it something she couldn’t just walk away from and pretend it never happened.

  But hadn’t she just decided last night that she couldn’t do that, anyway? This was real, and regardless of what she decided in the end, these people she cared about – who cared about her – deserved to know.

  “Quinn? Are you all right?” Thomas finally asked, and she wondered just how long she’d been sitting there, staring into space.

  Nodding, she closed her eyes for a moment, and held up one finger. Then she stood and crossed the room to her night table, and pulled open the little drawer where she’d stowed the cloth pouch before she went to sleep last night. It hadn’t yet made it into her pocket today.

  Linnea’s gasp when Quinn held up her pendant was audible. “Bole splick!” she spluttered.

  “Linnea!” William said sternly.

  Quinn frowned, confused.

  “It’s impolite. Trust me,” he said, though a grin teased at the corners of his mouth.

  “And entirely appropriate for the occasion,” Linnea countered, taking the pendant into her hand to examine it more closely. “How long have you been keeping this from us?” she narrowed her eyes.

  Quinn swallowed hard, and tried to keep her voice from shaking, hoping desperately that Linnea wasn’t going to be extremely mad at her over this.

  “She found out when she went back to Bristlecone this last time,” William answered for her. “And Nay, I know you love Quinn, so think for a minute before you decide what you’re going to say next.”

  Linnea nodded, her eyes on the pendant as she turned it over in her hand, examining every detail closely. “Wow,” she breathed, when she finally looked back up at Quinn. “This changes everything, doesn’t it?”

  Quinn closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “You’re the second person who’s said something like that to me – and I still don’t know whether it does or not.”

  She felt William’s arms around her waist, and when she finally opened her eyes, the look on Linnea’s face had changed from one of shock to one of sympathy.

  “Yeah, I can see where that would be difficult,” Linnea said. She was trying, and it made Quinn smile.

  “It’s still a secret,” William said. “Quinn still doesn’t know exactly what she’s going to do now that she knows, and it’s not exactly something that needs to be advertised to everyone.”

  “Not to mention the incredible danger she would be in if this became public knowledge.”

  They all turned to look at Thomas, who was still sitting in the armchair across the room – they’d almost forgotten he was there, too.

  His face was pale, but he didn’t look quite as shocked as Linnea. Something about his expression made Quinn feel cold again, like a block of ice had formed in the pit of her stomach. “Did you know something about this, Thomas?”

  He sighed. “Not exactly, no. But I had some suspicions … wondered...”

  Quinn frowned, remembering her conversation with Mia, wanting to know exactly what Thomas’ suspicions were ... “Wondered what?”

  “Whether Nathaniel was actually King Jonathan’s son – and whether you were that Samuel’s child.”

  A noise somewhere between a cough and a choke exploded from William’s throat? “What? You didn’t tell me you suspected that, Thomas – only that you thought maybe Nathaniel and Quinn’s father were Philothean. Why would you have even thought Samuel had a child? He was supposed to have died when he was a teenager. Nobody knew he was still alive!”

  The shadows underneath Thomas’ eyes grew darker. “There are people who know, William. And there are even more who believe that it’s possible. Samuel’s body was never recovered, at least not enough of it to convince everyone. Tolliver fears that the man his father hired to follow Samuel into the woods that day and murder him wasn’t completely trustworthy – if you can imagine. After the funeral, that guard was executed.” Thomas paused while the rest of them absorbed the impact of that statement.

  “He’s been afraid for many cycles now, actually, that Samuel is still alive and will show up to challenge his claim to the throne.”

  When all three of them stared at him in stunned silence, Thomas shrugged, answering their silent question. “No. I don’t think Tolliver ever expected me to make it back here alive. Not once I was injured – he knew what sending me back in this condition would do. He wanted to get as much information out of me as he could, and then make it look like an accident – like I’d done something stupid while I was in Philotheum and gotten myself killed. I’d probably have been dead before Dorian and James got to me if he hadn’t wanted to investigate rumors that people might have known I’d been captured.”

  “Those weren’t rumors,” William said. “People did know.”

  “Yeah – and I wonder how many of them have been arrested, besides Dorian and James?”

  “Why haven’t you shared any of this, Thomas? Don’t you think some of this information would be helpful to have?”

  “I’ve shared some of it Will. And … I am sorry I haven’t shared it with you. It’s just – you all have had so many things on your minds lately, and you were all so upset about what happened to me, anyway…”

  “Have you told Father?”

  Thomas closed his eyes. “I’ve told him some of it. But, I don’t know … I can’t explain why I haven’t shared everything. It’s just … a feeling I’ve had.”

  “Yeah, Thomas,” Quinn said, irritation rising in her voice. “Keep following those feelings. Look where it got you last time.”

  His eyes met hers, one eyebrow pointed up in a v-shape. “Was I wrong, Quinn? Unaware of the danger, yes, I’ll give you. But wrong? Was there really nothing going on with Lily to be concerned about?”

  A loud knock on the door startled them all, and the door opened before Quinn could even catch her breath to say, “Come in.”

  King Stephen strode purposefully into the room, followed closely by Nathaniel, who closed the door behind himself. “I had a feeling I would find you all in here,” Stephen said. As he walked toward them, his eyes fell on Quinn’s small coffee table, where the pendants now sat. “Have you told them everything?” he asked, cocking his head toward Thomas and Linnea.

  “Depends on what you mean by everything,” she answered warily. “I told them everything I know.”

  Stephen smiled, though it didn’t reach all the way to his eyes. “I’m not keeping secrets from you any more, Quinn. There isn’t any reason to. Did you tell him them what we learned last night?”

  “Yes.”

  Nodding – Quinn wasn’t sure if the look on his face was relief over not having been the one to share that information – Stephen looked over at Thomas now; they could all see in the
paleness of his face, his stoic expression, how much the news of James and Dorian’s arrest really had impacted him. “I’m sorry, Son. The news we’ve just received isn’t much more promising.”

  Quinn and William both looked up at him in alarm. There were dark circles underneath Stephen’s eyes; she wondered if he’d slept at all last night. Just thinking the question felt like swallowing a rock. His position right now was the same one she contemplated putting herself in every time she looked at that pendant and considered what it really meant.

  “What’s going on now?” she asked.

  “We’ve just received another message from Ellen,” Nathaniel said, with darkness in his voice that made Quinn shiver. William’s hand found hers again. They discovered yesterday afternoon that Tolliver planned to send soldiers to raid her house, looking for ‘fugitives’. Ellen, Henry, their guard, Ryan, and two couples who were staying with them all managed – barely – to get across the border safely late last night.”

  “Would Tolliver have actually done something to Ellen? His own sister?”

  “I’m sure he would have no problem having her killed, Quinn, if he could get away with it. Right now, I think he still has a public image to maintain, and I don’t know that he would actually have had her arrested, but the rest of them – Ryan, Natalie and Andrew Gramble and their new baby...”

  She clutched William’s hand tightly at that image, remembering the sweet young couple whose baby girl William had delivered while they were all hiding together in Ellen’s basement with Tolliver upstairs. He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb in a way that was probably supposed to be reassuring, but since his palm was sweating as badly as hers, it had the opposite effect.

  “They’re safe now,” Stephen said. “They’re in Anwin with Charles and Thea. “It does mean, though, that we’ve lost our most important contact with the Friends of Philip inside Philotheum. Ellen and Henry are planning on traveling here to the castle in the next couple of days.”

  “And what else?” Quinn asked. She could tell from Stephen’s expression that there was more.

  He sighed. Nathaniel pulled one of the chairs from the table under Quinn’s window over near the couch, and Stephen sat down in it, looking like he had no idea where to start. Finally, he cleared his throat. “We heard some things this morning that give us reason to believe that sensitive information has been passed to Tolliver.”

  “What kind of information?”

  “Information about you, Quinn.”

  The room suddenly started spinning. “What kind of information about me?”

  A dark shadow passed across Stephen’s face. “It’s my fault, really. I should have seen it, should have been more careful, I just thought my own family, my own sister’s son would never cross such a dangerous line ...”

  “Gavin.” Thomas said, acid coloring his voice to a tone that in different circumstances would have shocked Quinn. It wasn’t a question.

  “Yes,” Stephen said, his own voice low. “If we hadn’t have been watching so closely for birds, trying so desperately to keep any communications from Ellen secure, he would probably have never been caught. He’s been messaging Tolliver directly.”

  “Why?” William exploded off the couch, fury in his voice. “He’s always been kind of a jerk, yes, but this? What’s in it for him?”

  “I don’t know, William. I don’t understand it myself. I haven’t spoken to him yet – haven’t even told his parents anything. I need some time to think, to figure out what I am going to do.”

  “What has he told Tolliver?”

  “I don’t know. The message he was trying to send this morning was about the two of you making your courtship public last night. I don’t know what else he knows, or what kinds of things he and Tolliver have been looking for. That’s what I’ll be trying to find out.”

  “So why are you in here telling us all of this now?” Quinn wondered.

  Stephen’s expression was pained. “I hadn’t intended on it, not until I had at least gotten a handle on the situation myself, but then a little while ago I heard some of the children chattering, saying you’d decided to go on your trip after all, William.”

  “I ... I had decided that, yes.”

  “It’s far too dangerous,” Nathaniel said. “We don’t know everything that Tolliver knows, but if he has any suspicions about who Quinn really is – or about the connection that’s now public between the two of you ...”

  “I am going to be making a decision today about whether the time has come to close the border,” Stephen said. “Regardless, for now – and for the foreseeable future – all of you will be staying close to home.”

  26. A Walk

  “I think a walk might be good,” Thomas said.

  Quinn nodded slowly. Out of the corner of her eye she saw William and Linnea do the same. They’d all been sitting in stunned silence in Quinn’s room ever since Stephen had left to go discuss the situation with Simon and Nathaniel had gone to check on Clara Halpern. The pendants still sat in the middle of the low table. They all avoided looking directly at them, although their very presence was a force that hung thick in the room.

  “We should go see the birds – let Quinn and Raeyan get to know each other, and start training.” Linnea was already up and halfway to the door. The rest of them were slower. For the first time, Quinn thought the fact that Linnea had been kept back from being directly involved in some of the things that had happened might be to her advantage.

  Although she knew that it hadn’t been easy on Thomas’ twin, Linnea’s scars didn’t run quite as deep as the rest of theirs. Ever since last night, Quinn had been unable to shake the image of the first time she’d met James and Dorian Blackwelder, when they’d shown up at Ellen’s doorstep in Philotheum, first scaring her, William, and Nathaniel half to death in their uniforms, and then taking them to Thomas, who’d been so broken ...

  The memory had replayed itself even in her dreams last night – not her usual strange dreams, but a nightmare that hadn’t ended when she’d awakened this morning. Dark shadows underneath William’s eyes told her that his night might have been similar. And Thomas ... she couldn’t imagine what this news must be doing to him.

  Outside, the sun was shining, and there was a hint of a breeze, making the temperature perfect. In almost any other circumstances, the weather would have brightened her mood immediately. Trying to compose herself, she took several deep breaths, inhaling the sweet scents that drifted from the gardens. As they stepped onto the gravel path that would lead them around to the south side of the castle and then the woods, William ran his finger down the inside of her arm before taking her hand in his. She shivered at the sensation, and suddenly an entirely different memory from last night flashed across her mind.

  Heat flooded her cheeks – not the nervous, uncertain kind she was so used to, but something more. She looked up at William, meeting his half-smile with one of her own. He glanced at Thomas and Linnea, who were both ahead of them, neither one paying attention, and then he leaned down, touching his lips to hers.

  “Are you okay?” he asked quietly against her ear.

  She nodded. “It was a good idea to come out here. I’m actually excited to see Raeyan again.” The mixed feelings she’d had about accepting the gift of the bird had disappeared. She didn’t know when it had happened, but sometime in the last couple of days she’d come to terms with the fact that this world belonged to her every bit as much as the one she’d grown up in.

  She still had no idea what she was going to do, what part either world was going to play in her life going forward. There were still huge decisions to make, and plenty of outside forces that would try to make those decisions for her. But she’d accepted that it was true – what she’d told William last night – that she was never going to be able to just walk away from this world, or deny the part of herself that belonged here.

  It was too deep now – her feelings about everything, the anger that resounded in her chest over Tolliver
’s actions, her worry over the Blackwelders; she had the first stirrings of understanding about who she really was, and what that might mean.

  Whatever else she was, she was a Philothean princess. And she could have a bird. She thought about the fledgling as they walked, remembering his bright, black eyes. Raeyan – trusted guardian. Well, she could use one of those.

  They were just rounding the corner to the southwestern gatehouse when, up ahead of them, Thomas slowed, looking around and then turning to the rest of them.

  Quinn frowned; something was wrong. “What’s going on?”

  “There’s no guard,” Thomas said.

  Even before they reached him, she could see that he was right. The gatehouse was empty, the door closed. Nobody was anywhere around.

  “That’s not supposed to happen, is it?” She frowned. This entrance to the castle wasn’t used much by anyone outside of the family; it wasn’t convenient to much of anything besides the woods and a trail that eventually connected to the one they took to the gate.

  “No. Not ever.”

  “Could whoever’s supposed to be here maybe just taking a break?”

  “No.” William shook his head. “Someone – an apprentice, usually – comes around every two hours to give each guard a short break, and a longer one every four. If there was an emergency in the meantime, they’re all equipped with really loud whistles. We’d have heard something like that.”

  “So what do we do?”

  Thomas sighed. “I guess we go back and tell someone that nobody is here.”

  “Not all of us,” Quinn said, an ominous feeling building inside her. “We can’t just leave it open.”

  “Nobody ever comes back here, Quinn,” Linnea said. “I’m sure it’s just something small, and it will be fine for a few minutes.”

  “Is it worth taking that chance, Linnea? On the same morning they found Gavin sending messages to Tolliver?”

  Linnea swallowed hard; the seriousness of the situation suddenly registering in her expression. “Are we really at that point?” she asked. “Where someone would do that?”