“If it’s all the same to you, I’d prefer to discuss it with Qu—with Her Majesty.”
“And if it’s not all the same to me? You’ve intrigued me now, Sir Zander. Tell me what you’ve figured out.”
Zander didn’t know Jonathan well at all. He didn’t know whether Quinn’s youngest uncle was trustworthy or not, and right now, with the revelation he’d just had, he wasn’t feeling trusting toward anyone. He wasn’t entirely sure it mattered … Jonathan’s hand hovered dangerously near his hilt, and Zander was sure he wouldn’t have been a match for the man even if he had been armed.
Besides, Jonathan was here, in the castle, wanting to talk to Quinn, instead of several hours away with Sophia – a fact which only made Zander more confident about his suspicions.
He swallowed hard but took a chance. “I realized that this is a very … interesting time for Sophia to be so far away from the castle.”
“And now I see why Her Majesty was so quick to circumvent the normal process for assigning a guard in training to such a high position within the castle. Let’s go, Sir Zander. We haven’t got much time.” He said the last part with his back already to Zander as he hurried down the hall.
“It’s an emergency, James,” he called when they were still several yards from the door. “Wake both Quinn and William, please. Is your father asleep?”
“Yes.”
“You’ll need to wake him.”
“I’ll wait and see what Their Majesties have to say.”
“Yes, all right. Just wake them.”
William answered the door so quickly that Zander was fairly certain he hadn’t been sleeping. When he followed Jonathan into their sitting room, he saw why: Quinn stood in the doorway to the bedroom holding a bright-eyed baby.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Quinn…” Jonathan’s voice was still rough – from more than just exercise, Zander realized. “I don’t have time to explain everything – we have hardly any time at all. You – all of you – are in danger, and we need to get you out of the castle now.”
“What do you mean? What kind of danger?”
“An attack on the castle – before dawn.”
Quinn closed her eyes. “Tolliver?”
“Yes.”
“Can we mount a counter-attack?” Zander asked. “Kill him now?”
“He won’t actually be here. I don’t know where he is, but they don’t plan on sending him until the castle is secure. Dovelnia has dedicated several hundred troops – they’ve been in the kingdom for weeks. Some of them for moons. It’s incredibly organized, Quinn. I can’t believe we didn’t see any of it.”
“It’s three in the morning now,” William said.
“Yes. Get dressed.”
Quinn took several steps toward Jonathan, handing the baby to William as she walked. She looked into his eyes, scrutinizing his face before asking the question Zander was so desperate to know the answer to. “Can I trust you, Jonathan?”
He steepled his fingers, placing them against his lips. “I can’t make that decision for you, Your Majesty. My only answer is that right now, tonight, even in this castle, there are very few people you should trust, but if you don’t count me as one of them, you’re unlikely to survive until tomorrow, at least not outside of a cell.”
She nodded, looking at James. “Can you please get Thomas and Linnea, Nathaniel, and Mia, Marcus, and your father? Who else can I trust, Jonathan?”
He shook his head. “There are several you can, Quinn. It was wise to assign those you knew were Friends of Philip to the most sensitive tasks. I think we can trust the guards in the stables and at the entrances tonight – at least the entrance I used. But we need to get out of here while drawing as little attention as possible, even amongst those you trust. If we travel with too large a group tonight…”
“I can’t leave them here! Many of them are Friends of Philip! It won’t be safe.”
“They’ll manage, Your Majesty,” James said, stepping back through the door. “This is what we’ve dealt with – the kind of situation we’re prepared for. We can get a message back to them once you and the prince are safe.”
~ Nine ~
Flight
LESS THAN AN HOUR later, Quinn was standing in the stables. She had the baby tucked inside a cloth that wrapped around her body, securing him close to her chest. She rocked and bounced to keep him calm as Marcus helped her slip into a long, thick leather cloak to keep both of them warm, though she was as far from calm as possible.
Jonathan led them over to a large carriage she’d never seen before, already hitched to horses. Black and plain, similar to the kind she saw throughout the city, it carried no markings of the Philothean crown. “I borrowed it,” he said. “Sort of, anyway. I thought we’d need something less identifiable.”
Behind the lead horses, she was relieved to see her own horse, Dusk, hitched next to William’s mare, Skittles. Behind them were Thomas’ and Linnea’s horses, Storm and Snow. None of their horses were overly fond of hauling vehicles, but they’d be all right with such a large team, and she preferred they have their own mounts.
Though she rarely prayed, Quinn sent up silent hope that she was truly making the right decision – that she wasn’t trusting her uncle to take them right into the kind of trap he claimed they were avoiding. Her gut said he wasn’t lying, though. Something wasn’t quite right, but it wasn’t because of a lie.
Samuel moved against her, settling his head against her chest, renewing her resolve to get him to safety.
She hoped especially that she could trust the four guards surrounding the carriage now, who were working to load the few things they’d carried down with them. She knew all of them – they were all Friends of Philip, which made her feel better, but she was nervous about everything right then.
Thomas was already helping Linnea climb inside.
“Where do you want me?” Zander asked. “I can ride if that works better.” Like everyone tonight, Zander was dressed in plain clothes rather than his new uniform, though his cloak concealed his sword.
“No. We need as many swords as we can get inside the carriage.”
“Thomas is still better with his sword than I am with mine. You just don’t think I’m good enough on horseback yet.” His tone was teasing – he was trying to inject some levity into the situation, which she might have appreciated at another time.
“Please, Zander.”
“Okay. I’m sorry. What can I help with?”
She looked around. “Where is William?”
“Um… he and Nathaniel said something about getting some things out of the clinic. I haven’t seen them come in here yet.”
This time her silent exclamation probably wouldn’t have been considered a prayer. “What?”
“Your Majesty, we need you in the carriage. I don’t know how much time we have,” Jonathan said. “We’re not in a position to defend ourselves here in the stables.”
Inside her coat, Samuel began to fuss – he always reacted instantly whenever she was too stressed. “Shh, baby, it’s okay,” she whispered, kissing his head. She took several deep breaths and rocked him.
“I’ll find them,” Zander said, heading for the door.
“Quinn!” Jonathan had dropped the formalities – clearly he was getting upset, but his tone struck a nerve in her.
“Enough. I’m not leaving here without everyone. I don’t know where William and Nathaniel are. And we might be in danger here, but if I’m trusting you to protect me as the queen, then you had best treat me like one. Do not order me around.”
To her surprise he looked at her with interest, raising an eyebrow. “Interesting time to finally start acting like a queen, Your Majesty.”
She didn’t know what he meant by that, but right now, so long as he wasn’t hissing at her, she didn’t care. “Zander just went to the clinic to find William and Nathaniel.”
“If I send another guard to go and retrieve them right now, will you get
yourself and the baby into the carriage with Marcus?”
“Send James or Dorian.”
“I’ll go,” James said – she hadn’t even noticed how close he was.
Samuel was in a full-on cry by the time she headed for the carriage, although it was reassuring to see Marcus standing there right by the steps at the end. He took her hand and helped her up.
The carriage was different than the kind she normally rode in. This one was long, with the entrance at the end, and long benches along the sides under the windows. The trunks they’d packed in such a hurry were stowed under the benches already. She looked around, calculating. Each bench could easily seat four people; five would be a little tight.
Well, that was good – because it might be a little tight. Thomas, Linnea and Mia were already huddled together on one of the benches.
Mia looked up and pointed at the baby with a questioning look.
She shook her head – she needed to be holding him right now, needed his solid little weight against her, even if he was fussing. “Thank you, though,” she mouthed before turning back to Marcus. “Zander and James aren’t back yet?”
“It’s been less than two minutes.”
“How many minutes do we have? We’re already on borrowed time. I’m going to murder them.”
“Are you sure about this, Quinn?” Marcus’ voice was low and close to her ear – he, too, had dispensed with all formalities, although she was certain his reasons for doing so were different. His tone was fatherly.
“Do you think I have any reason to mistrust Jonathan?” she whispered.
“No. Too much of it fits with the other information that has come to light.”
She took a deep breath – there hadn’t been time to talk this decision through, to even think about anything except moving quickly. “Do we have the ability to safely defend the castle?”
“Safely? Almost certainly not. There would probably be loss of life. If we were ultimately unsuccessful, you most likely either wouldn’t survive, or would be imprisoned, depending on what their plan is – the same goes for everyone here in this carriage.”
“And what are our chances of being successful?”
“I don’t know. Not zero, not one hundred percent.”
She looked over at the seats where Linnea and Mia were huddled together, watching Thomas start a fire in the small grate, then back to Marcus, her eyes landing on the medal he’d earned in the surprise battle that had claimed his son.
Outside of the carriage there was a sudden commotion – Jonathan shouting, “Did anyone see you? Any guards? Anyone?” followed by the most reassuring sound in the world, William’s voice. “No. We didn’t even use lanterns.”
“The guard who should have been patrolling the south yard wasn’t,” Nathaniel’s voice added. “James checked for him but nobody was there.”
Jonathan uttered a dark expletive. “Do you know who was supposed to be there? Never mind. It doesn’t matter right now. We have to get out of here. Get in the carriage.”
Just as William, Nathaniel, and Zander appeared in the open doorway, all three of them straining under the weight of huge crates filled with medical supplies, Quinn nodded to Marcus.
After he’d figured out how to store the crates mostly under the seats, William faced her. “I know. I’m sorry,” he whispered, taking her hands.
She squeezed his hands tightly, with maybe just a little too much involvement of her fingernails.
“I’m really sorry.” He pressed his forehead gently to hers for a few seconds before leaning in closer to kiss the baby’s head. Samuel’s writhing and fussing was slowly calming.
Behind them, Jonathan closed the door.
“He’s not riding in here with us?” Zander asked, suspicion coloring every syllable. Quinn shrugged, squinting through the window to watch as Jonathan and James extinguished the few lanterns lighting the stable. At almost the same time, Marcus twisted the dial on the one in the carriage, plunging them into darkness.
Samuel whined again as her heart picked up pace, threatening to burst its way out of her chest.
William grabbed her around the waist just as the carriage started moving, guiding her down on the bench next to Mia.
Nobody breathed as the carriage left the confines of the large barn. In the moonlight outside, Quinn could see Jonathan riding alongside the guards. William kept one arm around her back, the other on Samuel, rubbing the infant’s back. At least the baby seemed to like the motion.
The horses moved slowly, as silently as possible, creeping toward a far back gatehouse.
Though he didn’t make any noise, William’s lips were moving as they grew closer to the exit, as they waited to either be caught or make it out safely. Except for Quinn and William, who curled tighter and tighter around the prince, every person in the carriage had one hand on the handle of a weapon.
“Did anyone ever think to keep a gun?” Zander muttered under his breath.
For once, Quinn had trouble disagreeing with the idea.
For all the stress, when they reached the gate, nobody was there; the two guards who had been on duty there tonight were now in their traveling party. She watched out the window as they dismounted their horses and went inside the guardhouse to release the latch that would allow them to lift the heavy metal grate. Once the carriage was safely through, they closed it again though there was no choice but to leave it unlocked. Not that it probably mattered.
Still, nobody spoke. Breaths were shallow and fingers held tight to knives and swords until long after the silhouette of the castle had disappeared from the horizon.
Finally, somewhere far outside the city, on a bumpy dirt road in the middle of a forest, the horses came to a stop.
By the time Jonathan opened the door and Marcus extended a hand to help him in, Quinn was sure the same question was burning in everyone’s mind. “Where are we going?”
Even in the dim moonlight streaming through the windows, she could see Jonathan’s frown. “How am I supposed to know? That’s what I was coming in here to ask you.”
“Excuse me?”
“I came in here to ask you what direction we should be traveling, now that we’re clear of the castle and hopefully away from the paths of any incoming troops.”
“I don’t know! I thought you had some kind of plan!”
“I did. I got you out of the castle before you were arrested or killed. I expected, Your Majesty, that once that goal was accomplished, you would have made some decisions about what we should do from here.”
Her head was actually going to explode – for real, bone fragments flying everywhere. She pinched the bridge of her nose, careful not to bump Samuel who had finally fallen asleep. “How are the horses?”
Jonathan sighed. “They’re good. We’ve been quiet more than fast, but they will need water soon. There is a stream nearby.”
“Can you have some water brought up for them, please?”
“Of course.”
The carriage was silent for several seconds after Jonathan exited.
“Well, at least he’s probably not kidnapping us,” Zander said.
Quinn, who’d finally had some time to think, – although not about where they should be going – shook her head. “Probably not. Unless he’s trying to see where we’d lead him.”
“Which is where, exactly?” Zander asked. “Back to Eirentheos?”
“No,” she said, even though at the moment that was the only place she wanted to go – besides Bristlecone, maybe. “I don’t know where this situation is heading politically, but I’m pretty sure that running away from the kingdom is the worst decision I could make.”
“It’s also where they’ll be expecting you to go,” Marcus said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Tolliver or whoever this is already has spies at the Eirenthean border crossings.”
Zander coughed. “You wouldn’t be surprised? What tipped you off? Hector and Tolliver using the gate? Or the two incidents of biological warfare?”
&
nbsp; Quinn’s head snapped toward him.
“Poisoning children through their school books, intentionally infecting animals with rabies… I think it’s safe to say that Eirentheos has a little bit more of a problem than a few spies at border crossings. I don’t know who all is involved, but they’ve clearly been targeting Stephen and his kingdom for a long time.”
She frowned. “Do you think it’s the same people?”
“You’d better hope it’s the same people. Does Eirentheos have any other enemies?”
“No,” Nathaniel said. “Eirentheos is very isolated geographically. It borders only Philotheum. The next closest kingdom is across the Southern Channel, but there’s always been peace and respect between them.”
“Well, then you – we – likely have the same people interfering with both Eirentheos and Quinn’s throne. Probably for the same reasons – they want to weaken the link between the two kingdoms, distracting Eirentheos and reduce their ability to interfere with their agenda in Philotheum.”
Marcus cleared his throat. “That’s quite an astute observation, Zander. Especially for a newcomer.”
She couldn’t fully see the expression on Zander’s face in the dim light, but she could hear it in his response.
“I know nobody’s asked – but in case anyone is silently wondering, it feels fantastic when you underestimate my ability to understand what’s going on.”
Marcus was the only one in the carriage who didn’t even try to stifle his chuckle. “Fair enough, Zander. I apologize. You’ve shown an incredible ability to assess situations quickly and accurately. You might consider being more careful in the demonstration of that ability if you don’t want us to come to rely on your input.”
“Well, I sort of question whether you’ll actually ask for it when I tell you what I don’t understand.”
Quinn was intrigued. So far he seemed to be nailing everything – including pieces she hadn’t completely put together. “What don’t you understand?”
He looked down at his feet, his next words – strong and defiant as they were – slightly muffled in the thick wool of his cloak. “I don’t understand why I’m the first one voicing these conclusions. Is everyone really so naïve that they don’t see the consistent, undermining attacks that have been going on – or are those conversations happening somewhere else, and you’re all just smiling and nodding while you let Quinn play princess but keep her from really ruling?”
Leaves of Revolution Page 8
