The Quill and the Quest Read online

  “No, as far as I know he hasn’t made any gates. But he did discover the last known woman to enter our world through a strange gate.”

  The king was clearly intrigued, and listened patiently while I told him what Philip had said.

  “So there’s another girl like Sarah out there. And she’s in Cyanica?” he mused.

  “Aye.”

  The king nodded. “Yes, good. You have done what several dozen villagers and all my army has failed to do. You have provided us with a lead.”

  It was strange—as much as the man irritated me, I wasn’t immune to his royal compliment. I was feeling a bit pleased with myself, when the doors swung open and Sarah barged into the library.

  “Well, this is a pleasant surprise,” the king smiled as she stomped over to where we sat.

  “What is the meaning of this?” she asked, holding up a dainty leather bridle adorned with shining gold.

  The king shrugged. “It’s a gift. Don’t they have those in your world?”

  Sarah glared at him. “First you drag me out here last night to give me that ridiculous necklace, and now this? You can’t just go around giving people horses as presents.”

  I gazed from Sarah to the king. He had gifted her a horse? And what was that about a necklace? I wracked my brain, trying to remember anything I’d given her. And I came up empty.

  “My lady, I’ve offered you chocolates, flowers, and jewelry. All of which you’ve refused, and rightly so. I came to realize a woman of your quality deserves something as uniquely stunning as you are,” he said, then shrugged again. “But, if you don’t like her….”

  “I love her,” Sarah said, not a hint of affection evident in her tone. “She’s the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen in my life. But that doesn’t give you the right to go around making grand gestures like that.”

  “I’m a king,” King Ash said, waving his hand. “Everything I do is a grand gesture. Think nothing of it. If you like her, she’s yours. Accepting her does not mean you have to accept any of my other offers.”

  She seemed to take his meaning as she furrowed her brow.

  “Would it help if I threatened to have her slaughtered, should you reject her?” he asked, with a playful smile.

  “No,” Sarah yelped. “You wouldn’t.”

  “Would you like to find out?”

  Sarah frowned at him, her arms folded in front of her chest. A shiver of unease trickled down my spine. There they were again, fighting like cats and dogs and making it look like sport. The king was clearly enjoying their exchange, but was Sarah?

  “What were you two talking about?” she asked, turning her gaze to me.

  “Before you so rudely interrupted?” the king asked.

  She made a peevish face at him, like a child would, but he just laughed as though he’d won a prize.

  “Oren was telling me what the blacksmith told him about the gate. It seems there is a woman like you in Cyanica.”

  “You mean she came through the gate, like I did? And she’s still here?” Sarah asked, turning all of her attention to me.

  “Aye,” I said. “At least, we think so. Philip hasn’t heard from her in years, but she married a man from Cyanica, which means there’s a good chance she’s still there.”

  “Are you sure she was from my world?” Sarah asked.

  The king and I exchanged a surprised look. “Where else?” I asked.

  Sarah shrugged. “I don’t know. But I used to think there was only one world and now I know there are at least two. Doesn’t that mean there could be others?”

  I’d accepted the possibility of Sarah’s world easily enough, maybe because I’d seen her in the flesh and knew for certain that she was like no woman I’d ever met. But the possibility that it didn’t end there, that there could be an infinite number of worlds unknown to Verdinia, made my head hurt.

  “I think that’s all the more reason to visit her and find out,” the king said. “Besides, I have business with King Meoden of Cyanica and wish you to deliver a message for me. Oren, can you leave tomorrow?”

  I tore my gaze away from Sarah to look at him. That wasn’t much time to prepare for the journey, but I supposed with the spring festival out of the way and no major events coming up at the castle, there wouldn’t be anything too strenuous to do in the gardens. My da could handle the day to day maintenance for a little.

  I nodded.

  “Hold on,” Sarah said. “You’re going to Cyanica to visit the other gate girl?”

  “Aye, it appears I am.”

  “Well, then,” she said. “I’m going with you.”

  My stomach sank. Normally I’d be over the moon to make the journey with Sarah at my side. But I hadn’t been able to shift since right after the festival. What if something happened along the way and I couldn’t protect her?

  “You can’t,” I said, sending her an apologetic smile. “It’ll be too dangerous. And it takes long enough to get to Cyanica as it is. It’ll only take longer—”

  “Don’t give me that crap about danger,” she said, looking hurt and confused. “I’ve got every right to meet the only other person I know of who’s like me. Hell, I might even be useful.”

  “I’m sure you would be,” I assured her. “But it’s not worth the risk. Maybe I could bring this other girl back with me. Then she could talk to both of you directly.” I glanced back at King Ash for confirmation.

  But instead, he asked her, “Do you feel up to taking a long journey?”

  “Well,” Sarah started, looking a little less confident. “I can’t say I know exactly what a long journey in Verdinia entails. But I do have a beautiful new horse that I need some practice with. And I’d love to see more of the world I’m calling home.”

  The king nodded. “Very well. Be ready to leave at sunrise. I will have my servants prepare your provisions.”

  “That’s it?” I asked, panic rising in my chest. “You’re just going to let her go? What if something happens on the road? What if she’s hurt, or kidnapped? It’s too dangerous.”

  Sarah looked ready to protest, but the king raised a hand to stop her. “I watched this woman spear a dragon in mid-air. I am confident she can handle herself on the road, especially with a protective companion like you to look after her.”

  I glared at him. Was he challenging me to admit my shortcomings? Or was he really so confident in my abilities? There was a reason women didn’t usually travel much, unless they were part of a large convoy. Most of our route would be through allied territory, but you never knew what could happen on the open road. There were tales of women going missing, their husbands left for dead. And without a horn to protect her….

  “And besides,” the king went on. “I never said the two of you would be going alone.”

  4

  I tried to talk to Sarah after my meeting with the king, but before I could, the king’s steward whisked me away to get measured for a proper traveling cloak. I told them I needed no such thing and my normal wares would do just fine, but by that point, other servants had already come and led Sarah away in the opposite direction.

  When I was able to get away, I went in search of her. But the castle was like a maze. I knew my way through the outside grounds, and all the formal dining halls and ballrooms. But I had no idea where to find a woman who’d been spirited away by overenthusiastic seamstresses. Gods only knew what strange outfit the king would send her off in.

  I thought about waiting outside the castle gates, but I didn’t have that kind of time. Instead, I headed for home and prepared everything I could for my departure. I weeded, fertilized, patched up a bit of fencing in the king’s garden—anything I didn’t want my da to have to do on his own. I kept myself busy, preferring the sweat and aching muscles to the knot of worry coiling in my gut.

  But by the time I’d finished, I couldn’t ignore it any longer. It was near dark and I had to know if my failure to shift the past two days was permanent. I didn’t have time to visit the western woods, an
d I’d already failed in my home, so I packed away my tools in the shed by the king’s garden and then trekked over to the eastern forest, closer to my house. I walked for several minutes, my ears perked and straining for any sound of other humans. But I heard none.

  When I reached a semi-secluded spot under the leafy branches of an old, great tree, I undressed as I usually did. Except this time, instead of the thrill of anticipation that usually accompanied my shift, I felt nervous and uncomfortable. Standing in the forest, naked to all the critters and vegetation, was usually invigorating. But today I felt vulnerable. Ill-prepared.

  I tried to shake the feeling. I’d been shifting on command for the better part of two years. Hell, I could even make others, like King Ash and Queen Maeri, transform back into their true forms. Why would that suddenly stop? I hadn’t done anything wrong. I hadn’t changed in any way. There was no reason to think it wouldn’t work.

  Except it didn’t.

  I stood there, naked and starting to shiver in the shade of the forest, concentrating all my thoughts and feelings on becoming the beast. I pictured my flowing mane, my shimmering horn. Felt the soft squish of the damp forest floor on the bottoms of my hooves.

  And none of it worked. I tried until well after dark, but I couldn’t transform a single finger or toe. In fact, it felt like the harder I tried, the more human I remained. Eventually I was so exhausted with the effort that I gave up in frustration and dressed. I walked home on shaky legs, trudging through the grass of the fields, which was already wet with evening dew. I barely bothered to undress before dropping face-first into bed.

  I awoke with a start the following morning, hearing a series of knocks on my front door.

  I’d had the palace dream again. I’d been having variations of the same dream for two years, ever since I began shifting into the unicorn. I was in a beautiful garden, unknown to me in my waking hours. Tranquil, glittering pools of impossibly blue water lined the garden path, while exotic blooms I couldn’t name floated gently on the water’s surface. I remember feeling utterly relaxed, until the pools caught flame. Then I was running down stone stairways, following a woman with light brown hair as we fled something as fast as we could. We took different stairs and different paths each night. Each time, it felt like we could really make it. But the end was always the same. I ran out into the night, and then the woman turned to face me. She was beautiful, with pink cheeks and bright blue eyes. I always felt so happy to see her, but then her expression would turn to horror and she would scream something, maybe my name, before a heavy feeling of dread and despair hit me. And then I would wake up.

  The knock sounded again, and suddenly I remembered where I was and what I was supposed to be doing. I jumped out of bed and rushed down the stairs to find Sarah at my front door, a large bag slung across her body.

  “That’s an interesting look,” she said, seeing my disheveled hair and then lowering her gaze to my shirtless torso. I cursed myself for not taking an extra couple of seconds to do some pushups before answering the door. “Am I doing it wrong? Is this how you’re supposed to travel in Verdinia?”

  “I overslept,” I said, lowering my voice and running a hand through my hair as I leaned against the doorframe.

  Sarah cracked a smile and then pushed past me and climbed up the stairs to the loft. My heart leapt, thinking maybe my sultry affectations had worked. But then I heard her open my wardrobe and start pulling clothes out of it. “I figured as much. That’s why I came to get you. You should get cleaned up while I pack your clothes.”

  With her help, I was more or less put together and we were on the road to the castle within minutes.

  “Sarah,” I said after several minutes of silent walking. “About what I said yesterday—”

  “Don’t start with that again,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I know you think I’m just some helpless maiden and I’ll slow you down on your man quest or whatever. But I don’t care if you don’t want me to come. I have just as much right to meet the other—”

  “But that’s just it,” I said. “I do want you to come, believe me. I hate it when we’re apart.”

  I was just about to kick myself for blurting out those words and sounding like a sop. But then she looked at me with those big eyes of hers, and her expression made me think maybe I’d said the right thing after all.

  “You do?” she asked, her tone far gentler than it had been a moment before.

  “Aye,” I said, then smirked and gave her a nudge with my elbow. “I like having you around. You’re just so…refreshing, you know? I like your refreshing eyes and your refreshing hair and your refreshing nose….”

  Sarah nudged me back, giggling so hard she snorted. “Stop,” she gasped. “Making fun of the king has gotta be frowned upon.”

  “Well, if he gets mad I’ll just have my refreshing lady refresh him with a tale of—”

  “Your refreshing lady?” She raised a hand to her chest as though she were surprised.

  “Aye,” I said, grinning despite the manic rushing of blood in my ears. I forced myself to shrug. “If she wants to be.”

  For a moment, neither of us spoke and I stuck my hands in my pockets to stop myself from grabbing her by the arms and kissing her until she was flush-faced and panting, promising to be mine and only mine for the rest of our days.

  That’s when my fingers closed around the folded bit of paper I’d been trying to give her for days.

  “I almost forgot, I’ve been—”

  “Well, I suppose if you—”

  We spoke, and then stopped, in unison. Sarah laughed nervously, and I smiled back at her.

  “You go on—”

  “Why don’t you—”

  I bit my tongue, willing myself to stay quiet long enough to find out what she’d been about to say. I made a motion with my hand for her to continue, not trusting myself not to interrupt her again. But then her eyes narrowed in on the paper in my hand and she seemed to forget all about my roundabout attempt at making things between us a little more official.

  “What’s that?” she asked, pointing to the note.

  “Oh, right,” I said, offering her the paper as my heart sank. “I found this in the gardens the other day, near the bushes behind the fountain, where you came through. I’ve been meaning to give it to you for days.”

  We’d stopped walking momentarily, and she took the note from my hand, unfolding it carefully. She stared at the white paper with the little blue lines on it for what seemed like ages before she brought her hand to her mouth and made a loud gasping sound.

  “Sarah, are you—” I started to ask before she whipped her head up, her hazel eyes gleaming with excitement.

  “It’s from Kelly,” she squealed.

  “That’s your friend, right? From the Land of Office?” My head pounded with the possibility.

  “Uh huh,” she said, her attention already turned back to the paper. “She says she knows it’s crazy to try, but she’s going to push this note through the bars of the gate and see if I get it. She couldn’t stop thinking about me ever since I left two days…oh right. Time works differently over there, so I’ve only been gone a few days to them. She says she wants to make sure I’m okay, but she’s pretty sure I am, and that I’m being taken care of by the hottest—” She abruptly stopped reading and stuffed the paper into her bosom, the way my ma had when my sister and I were kids and she had something we weren’t supposed to see. “Well, the rest is sort of private, but you get the gist.”

  “That’s unbelievable,” I said, now wanting to see the paper even more.

  Her eyes burned with excitement. “I know, right? Maybe this means I can keep in touch with people in my world. I can tell my dad I’m okay and I can find out if Kelly and Jason ever end up together. It’s like…it’s the best of both worlds. Literally!”

  I couldn’t help sharing her enthusiasm. “We should ask the king’s servants for a quill when we get to the castle. So you can try writing her back,” I said, adding the las
t part when she looked confused.

  “What’s a quill? Do you mean one of those feather things?” she asked.

  “Aye,” I said, beginning to walk again. “What else would you write with, besides a quill and ink?” I tried not to stare at her breasts, wondering what secrets—both written and unwritten—lay within them.

  “Well, back home we just use pens. They’re sort of like a quill, I guess, except the ink is already inside them,” she said, then frowned. “I had one in my purse when I came over the first time, but I didn’t think to pack it for this journey. Do you think the king would give us one?”

  “I think the king would give you whatever you asked for,” I answered without even thinking.

  Sarah raised her eyebrows and then nodded slowly.

  “Maybe Winnie, the other…what did you call her?” I asked, eager to change the subject.

  “Gate girl,” Sarah said.

  “Aye,” I said, shooting Sarah my most dashing smile. “I like that term for it. Maybe she knows something about writing letters back and forth.”

  Sarah nodded again, seemingly lost in thought. When eventually she spoke, she asked, “So if you enjoy my company, and you agree I should meet the other gate girl, then why’d you try to stop me from joining you?”

  A flash of panic zipped through me. Should I tell her? Surely the girl needed to know that I couldn’t protect her, not like I had as the unicorn. But then I thought of the king, and his smug little face when I told him she’d changed her mind. Or—even worse—the satisfaction he would feel if she insisted upon coming anyway, and I had to ask for extra help. Because I couldn’t protect her on my own. Because I wasn’t enough.

  “I just…when we’re traveling…the open road…it’s dangerous,” I sputtered. She frowned at me, having obviously expected a better explanation. “I don’t know if I can protect you,” I said, getting as close to the truth as I dared.