Seeds of Discovery (22 page)

“I’ll be fine, William. Stop overreacting. Ow! What are you doing?” Thomas pulled his hand away.

William sighed, and took Thomas’ hand again. “You’re the one who rode over two hours on horseback with this blister. Now it’s getting infected – like just letting
yourself
get sick wasn’t bad enough.” William’s tone carried only irritation, but Quinn could see the worry in his eyes.

Thomas made the rest of the ride to Mistle Valley, but it was clear that he wasn’t feeling well at all by the time they arrived. Sweat dripped from his forehead, and his complexion was gray. William had done what he could to patch up the burst blister on Thomas’ hand, and then Thomas had worn gloves to protect it for the rest of the ride, but it was obvious from the way he favored the hand that he was in pain.

Jacob and Essie both dashed outside to meet them as soon as they rode into the yard. William had sent Aelwyn with a message about what was going on before they had started traveling again.

“How is he?” Jacob asked, as William tried to help Thomas dismount.

 “I can talk, Jacob,” Thomas answered, “and walk.” He looked pointedly at William, waving away the help. “I’m fine.”

Jacob eyed him critically, “I’m not sure you and I have the same definition of fine, Thomas.”

Quinn had to agree; she watched as Thomas’ gray pallor developed a green undertone. He swayed a little, and then asked to be excused for a moment, and walked over behind several trees. The rest of the group eyed each other warily before William went to retrieve his brother.

When they took Thomas inside the clinic, Quinn was pleased to see
Alyia
, sitting up on her bed and playing some kind of a game with her mother. A single IV line still trailed from the little girl’s left arm up to the bottle hanging beside her bed, which was now filled with a clear yellow liquid, but her color was much better. Her rash had faded significantly.

Alyia
turned to watch as William and Jacob led Thomas to the only unoccupied bed in the room, right near
Alyia’s
. There were several children in the clinic that Quinn didn’t recognize. Fortunately, none of them appeared to be terribly sick. She figured that they must be children who had already recovered and been brought back for the shadeweed treatment.

“Hello,
Alyia
,” Quinn greeted her.

“Hi Quinn.”
Alyia’s
grin, which showed her missing her two front teeth, was like a breath of fresh air to Quinn. “Did Thomas get sick, too?”

“Yeah, he did.”

“How?”

Quinn shrugged; she wasn’t going to be the one to explain her theory right now.

Jacob and William were quietly discussing whether to start Thomas on the oral medication or the IV treatment.

“I vote for IV, if I get a say,” Thomas called out, interrupting them. “I don’t think there’s any way I could keep that liquid stuff down long enough for it to help. Just put a needle in my arm and be done with it.” He did look awfully pale again. She was afraid that Thomas wasn’t telling them how sick he really was.

Quinn noticed that
Alyia’s
eyes were as wide as her own were as she overheard the same conversation.

“It really hurts, Thomas,” the little girl warned him. “You won’t like it.”
Alyia
stood and walked over to his bedside, careful of her own IV tube.

Thomas turned to the
Alyia
, a soft expression in his eyes, and he smiled at her.

“I know, sweetheart. Do you think I could be brave like you were?”

Alyia
nodded solemnly, brushing a strand of Thomas’ hair back from his forehead, mirroring the way he had comforted her when she was so sick. Quinn felt tears sting the corners of her eyes. It was the single sweetest scene she had ever watched.

As all of the children were doing well enough to be up and around a bit, Jacob and Essie decided to take everyone outside on the porch for lunch and fresh air, while William tended to Thomas. Quinn stayed inside to help, pulling up a chair next to Thomas while William left the room to prepare some supplies.

“Hey, Quinn,” Thomas’ voice was soft, and the sparkling kindness she was used to had returned to his eyes. “I really am sorry if I’ve been hurting your feelings. I can’t imagine what you could do to make me mad at you.”

Quinn shrugged.

“No. It is a big deal. It was wrong of me. I know it’s hard enough on you to be away from home like this without people treating you badly. And you’ve already had that happen to you here. You can’t know how badly I feel that I’ve hurt you, too. That isn’t something I ever want. I’m so sorry.”

Quinn smiled. “You really are ‘Thomas the Charming,’ aren’t you?”

Thomas flashed his most charming smile, and Quinn couldn’t help but laugh, though she could see the effort it was taking him to be so gregarious. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and his breathing was rough. His eyelids were heavy; and there were dark circles under his eyes.

William returned then, carrying a tray of supplies, and Thomas stiffened a little.

“Are you sure about this, Thomas? We can try the oral medication first.” William looked uncomfortable; although of course she never would, she felt a sudden impulse to hug him.

She watched the greenish
tinge
spread down Thomas’ forehead just at William’s words. Quinn couldn’t blame him; she’d had a chance to smell the liquid medication the day before in Cloud Valley. Besides, as Thomas had already argued, he was sick enough now that if they started with the drink, there was a strong chance he’d end up having to take both. She was undecided about which treatment was worse, but she’d never opt for having a firsthand chance to compare.

He nodded. “I’m sure.”

“All right, then.” William began wrapping a tourniquet around his brother’s arm. She had never seen him look so forlorn.

“Quinn, you don’t have to stay for this,” Thomas told her.

“You were there for me,” she answered. “I’ll stay unless you want me to leave.”

Thomas studied her eyes; she could tell he was struggling with the choice, and then shook his head. Quinn took his hand in both of hers. “Take a deep breath and try to focus on something else,” she told him.

Thomas smiled. “Good advice. Where did you get that one?”  He locked his eyes on to hers as William cleaned a spot on the side of his forearm. Even though it wasn’t her, her pulse accelerated.

“Okay, Thomas, big pinch now. It’ll be quick – this is just the IV needle.” William said.

Quinn cringed, but Thomas only inhaled deeply and kept his eyes on hers. The only visible sign that anything happened was a slight tightening of his eyes. Then he relaxed and smiled reassuringly at Quinn. She gripped his hand more firmly.

“First, I’m going to give you some of the anti-nausea stuff. It might feel a little cold, or you might not feel it at all.” Again, she was impressed at how William could be both matter-of-fact and comforting in the same breath.

Thomas nodded, and then he just kept breathing and looking at her. William’s calm, step-by-step explanation even relaxed Quinn a little. She heard the clink of the small glass syringe against the metal tray a moment later. Her eyes accidentally wandered over to William, and she was relieved when she didn’t see any needles – the syringes just attached to the small IV port that he had already put in place.

Thomas caught her gaze again. “I’m okay, Quinn. This is not the worst thing that has ever happened to me, I promise. I’ve told you, William is awesome at this. It hasn’t even hurt.”

Quinn’s face flushed red. “I should have gone outside,” she said. “Now you’re taking care of me.”

Thomas squeezed her hand, “Which helps me more than anything. Please don’t feel badly. I’m glad you’re here.”

William didn’t speak again until he had the last syringe hooked in place. “Okay, Thomas, time for the worst one. Sorry. This stuff has a pretty good bite to it, I’m afraid.”

He had already begun pushing in the medicine as he spoke. Thomas’ hand gripped Quinn’s tightly, almost painfully, and she squeezed back as hard as she could. He kept up with the reassuring half-smile toward her for a moment, but finally he looked away and shut his eyes tightly; his jaw clenched.

“Deep breaths, Thomas, just a little bit more,” William’s voice was strained. She felt tears in the corners of her eyes again. A couple of drops betrayed her and fell after Thomas released her hand. He didn’t open his eyes; she could see him concentrating on taking steady breaths as the medicine traveled up his vein. William saw the moisture on her cheeks, and she saw her own emotion mirrored in his expression.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, white square of cloth, and handed it to her. Quinn realized it was his handkerchief, and her tears fell more freely. William walked over to her, and brushed her hair back from her neck before placing his hand on her shoulder. She was a little surprised at how natural the gesture felt. He left his hand there until she was calm.

It wasn’t long before Thomas was asleep; William had given him a dose of a painkiller to take the edge off of the stinging effect of the shadeweed remedy that also made him drowsy. Quinn and William were sitting in Jacob’s office, discussing her theory about the history books.

“That is impossible,” had been Jacob’s initial reaction.

“We all know it is,” answered William. “But we have to investigate it.”

So Jacob had gone to
Alyia’s
mother, and borrowed the History workbook. The three of them sat now at Jacob’s desk, with the book and a microscope between them.

William donned a pair of black nitrile gloves, and opened the book. He flipped through the pages, running his index finger down the center of each. After a moment, he lifted his finger to show Jacob and Quinn. The thin layer of white powder showed up perfectly against the dark glove.

Although it was unnecessary, William wiped his finger on a glass slide, covered it, and slid it under the microscope. Jacob looked through the lens, and then sat back, hard, in his chair.

“How?” The harshness of Jacob’s voice startled her.

“I don’t know, Jacob. I can’t imagine a single way.”

The room was silent for several minutes before Quinn summoned up the courage to speak. “Could someone be poisoning them on purpose?”

William and Jacob both stared at her, uncomprehendingly.

“Who would do something like that? And why?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know anything about it.  I just keep saying the stupid things that pop into my head out loud.”

William chortled, although the tension in the room was thick. “Well, so far that’s been a good thing.”

Jacob and Essie both left almost immediately, hoping to travel to as many homes as possible in search of more contaminated History books. William spent the next couple of hours meeting with the parents of the children who had come in for one dose of the treatment. He was able to discharge all of them, sending them off with warnings about the books and instructions to return to the clinic at the first sign of any kind of symptoms in the family. By the time it was fully dark, only Thomas and
Alyia
remained in the clinic.

They both kept drifting to Thomas’ bedside to check on him. He slept off and on, clearly uncomfortable from the fever that kept climbing, and the itchy rash. He refused any more pain medication, which was scarce in Eirentheos – he didn’t want to waste any. Quinn lost track of how many times William offered it to him, and more than once she found herself wishing Thomas would accept.

William and Quinn were the only ones awake when Jacob and Essie returned. They stumbled in looking exhausted; Essie’s eyes were red and shiny.

“We’re going to go to bed,” Jacob told William. “I’ll take a look at the books tomorrow. Both of you need to get to sleep as well, everything looks like it will be okay for the night.”

William made up one of the empty cots with clean sheets and blankets for himself, wanting to sleep where he could be close to Thomas. Quinn stood in the doorway for a long time, watching him.

“You really should go to bed, Quinn,” William finally told her. “It’s another couple of hours on horseback back to the gate tomorrow afternoon.”

“It’s the same distance for you,” she answered pointedly.

“I will rest.”

“Will you?” Quinn looked over to where Thomas had finally been able to fall back into a restless sleep, and then back at William.

He nodded, “I promise.”

Quinn didn’t understand the emotion that hung thick in her throat, the overwhelming jumble of thoughts in her head. She was unable to move from the doorway for so long that William finally walked over to her.

“Are you okay?”

She shrugged. “I think so.”

Thomas would have laughed at her, if he were awake. He might even have hugged her. She would have known how to respond to that. The empathetic expression in William’s eyes caught her completely off-guard, and she nearly started crying again. They stood there together in silence, his soft, gray eyes on hers in wordless conversation. Finally, William nodded. “Yeah, I get it.”