The Falcon in the Barn (Book 4 Forest at the Edge series) (29 page)

Beneff shook his head. “Edge? Ho! That’s a
laugh. Edge for Weaves. He’s too popular to have ever been here.
But then again, I imagine they’d try to bring the production
up—”

“
No, no, no!” Perrin shook
his head. “Definitely not.”

Shem snorted into his sleeve and tried to
pretend it was a sneeze.

“
Oh, I don’t know,
Colonel,” Beneff said slowly. “Quite the thing it would be,
hum-hum. Eh? Now, while we all know that spiders have different
opinions about the cat,
I’d
be interested to see how they
make that handsome young buck look as old as you. Ho, he’s only in
his late twenties, if that.”

Shem’s next snort was so loud that Brillen
slapped him on the back as a warning. He started coughing in a
meager attempt to cover his laugh.

The majors and lieutenant colonel pressed
their lips together firmly and stared at anything else but the
colonel. Their assistants sitting next to them followed suit.

Because Perrin’s glare at Beneff had become
deadly.

But the old coot didn’t notice. “You see,” he
said turning to Karna’s lieutenant, “I’ve seen how they transform
someone into another. Quite clever, really. They have these squishy
cushions,” he gestured a bit aggressively, “that they put under the
clothing to make someone appear bigger and fatter—”

Perrin felt himself sucking in his gut ever
so subtly. His trouser size had increased only two, maybe three
inches since he was a lieutenant, but still. He glanced at Shem to
see if he noticed, but Master Sergeant Zenos was staring at his
lap, his shoulders spasming every few seconds.

“—
then,” Beneff continued
enthusiastically, now looking at Major Yordin’s master sergeant who
held his face surprisingly well, except for the twitching near the
corners of his mouth, “they put this powder in the hair to make it
all gray—”

“
I’m only
starting
to go gray,” said Perrin quietly.

There were indefinable noises that emanated
from nearly every soldier, mostly from their mouths and noses.

Except for Thorne who remained sat completely
still.

“
Well,
of course
,
sir. But for dramatic effect, you see,” Beneff explained. He
focused all of his attention on poor, struggling Zenos. Shem’s
shoulders kept shaking, and he refused to look up.

“
Then they take this
special charcoal, ho-ho, and draw the lines around the eyes and
mouth to emphasize all the wrinkles—”

A violent outbreak of coughing and snorting
and back slapping struck the officers and their assistants.

Perrin had finally had enough. “Sergeant
Beneff!” Some of the men had deadlines to keep, after all. “We can
discuss this later.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Perrin noticed
that Shem was now hiding his face in both of his hands and shaking
uncontrollably. Only Thorne, of all the men in the room, maintained
his complete composure. Apparently, Perrin decided, there was a
benefit to having no natural sense of humor.

“
Well, of course, sir,”
said Beneff innocently. “You’re correct, and with cake on the side,
ho-hum. We
should
be getting to your business,
sir.”

“
Thank you
, Beneff,”
said Perrin generously, and he surveyed the condition of the men in
the room.

Some were bravely looking directly at him and
practicing their serious faces, while the others cleared their
throats, coughed, wiped their eyes, or repositioned themselves in
their seats.

After a few moments the only one not near any
semblance of attention was Shem, who was still vibrating. Something
painful happened to him under the table, either from Karna on his
left or Yordin on his right—by their demeanors, it may have been
both—which made him jump in his seat. Finally Master Sergeant Zenos
looked up with tears of suppressed laughter, and now pain, welling
in his eyes.

Colonel Shin gave him a few seconds before
saying, “Do you need to be excused for a while, Master
Sergeant?”

Zenos’s mouth moved in a variety of ways
before he eventually muttered a pained, “No, sir!”

The smallest hint of a satisfied smile crept
around Perrin’s eyes. Shem was probably the only man who recognized
it. “Then may we get to the situation at hand, Zenos?”

Shem nodded and put a hand to his mouth, just
in case.

Perrin exhaled and leaned forward in his
chair. With the entertainment portion of the meeting concluded, it
was time for business.

“
You all know by now that
Guarders have taken over some of the houses in Moorland. The longer
we let them be comfortable there, the more brazen they’ll be when
they attack. With the weather warming, I doubt it will be long
before they come to Edge, or Mountseen, or Rivers, or even Quake.”
Without pausing to let the commanders add comments to their nodding
in agreement, he hit them with: “Gentlemen, I’ve asked you here to
propose that we join together and go after them
first.
”

Perrin fully expected the outburst of
responses, and hoped that Thorne noted he was now seeing his first
officers argument—the way an officers meeting should be
conducted.

“
An offensive
hit?”

“
We strike
first?”

“
That’s never been done
before!”

“
What does the High General
think of this?”

“
What kind of precedent
will that set?”

Perrin waited for the surprise to die down
before he continued. “I know this is uncharacteristic of the way
this army has acted in the past. We’ve always been organized for
purely defensive reasons. But I fail to see how sitting and waiting
like a
young buck
in hunting season—” he glanced at Beneff,
“—is going to preserve our villages. We know where they are for the
first time, and we have people who know the area. A farmer working
the fields across the road here used to live in Moorland. Mr.
Briter has helped me create a detailed map of the area, and marked
the houses which remained intact after the land tremor. Those are
the most likely structures sheltering Guarders. If we combine the
forces of our four forts and hit them with one major strike, we
could wipe them out. Men, it’s our turn to go hunting!”

The soldiers sat quietly stunned at the
table, considering the idea, and Perrin worked his shoulders deeper
into the chair, waiting. They would see it, he was sure. The
obvious solution—

Fadh was the first to slowly begin nodding.
“It could work. We could scout out the area again and see how many
there are—”

“
No,” said Perrin firmly.
“They always seem to see us before we see them. Sending scouts
would alarm them to our presence, and maybe even to our intentions.
We need to catch them unaware. We make a full force strike with
everything we have. One thousand armed men ought to eliminate
whoever’s hiding there.”

Someone at the table let out a low
whistle.

“
And what does the High
General think of this?” Thorne’s voice was thin.

Perrin had known it was his captain who had
asked that earlier, and he’d been waiting to hear it again. He
interlocked his fingers in front of him and leaned to his side. “I
don’t
know
, Captain. I haven’t bothered to ask him. I
suppose you could have discussed it when you were at The Dinner,
but I didn’t have my plans completed then. High General Cush never
seems to respond to my messages anyway. Do you know why that
is?”

Actually, Perrin had sent only two
unimportant messages about how many forms he was supposed to keep
on hand at all times, or if he could burn the fort down instead,
just to see if anyone was paying attention at the garrison. No one
was.

Captain Thorne shifted restlessly in his
chair and looked around the table. Every eye was on him, and none
of them friendly, Perrin noticed with no small sense of
satisfaction.

“
No, sir. I don’t,” Thorne
said. “But I’ll send General Thorne a message directly after this
meeting if you wish.”

“
I’ll take care of the
messages to the Advisor myself, Captain Thorne,” Perrin informed
him. Turning to the rest of the officers he said, “Here’s the first
problem of several. While I have a plan of attack drafted and
ready, I’d not able to lead the attack myself since I can’t go
beyond the borders of the furthest farm, still three miles from
Moorland. The owner of that farm has already agreed to postpone
planting his crops so we can use the land as a staging area. The
fort at Edge can keep us supplied, and I can direct from that
point, but others will have to lead the attack should you agree to
the plan.”

“
Agree to this plan, agree
to everything, sir!” Major Yordin said with a broad grin. “And if
no one here minds, I’d be honored to lead the attack. Perhaps if we
have an officer from each fort leading different sections, it will
help unify the men under one commander. For example, if young
Thorne here would represent Edge—”

Zenos cleared his throat loudly. “Uh, Major,
excuse me, but
Colonel?
”

“
Yes, Zenos?”

Perrin could see exactly what Shem was
thinking: the captain couldn’t be trusted further than he could be
thrown. Zenos looked around the table and caught Thorne’s gaze.

Thorne’s face remained stony but a definite
spark of fear was in his eyes.

Shem noticed it, too, and he leaned back, a
little less worried. “I’m sorry, sir. Never mind. Please go on,
Major Yordin.”

Yordin sent Zenos half a smile. “As I was
saying, Captain Thorne could lead the Edge contingency, under
my
guidance
of course,” he nodded to Zenos next to him, “and
really earn those patches on his uniform!”

Fadh smiled. “This idea’s getting better and
better. And I would be honored to join Colonel Shin at the staging
area and let my captain have the opportunity to earn his patches as
well.” Fadh gripped his captain’s shoulder and shook it.

Fadh’s captain sat taller and nodded at Major
Yordin. “Absolutely, sir! Quake will proudly serve next to
Mountseen to eliminate the Guarders in Moorland. I welcome the
opportunity. I’ve served for six years and look forward to some
real action.” He shot a quick look to Thorne intended to stab
him.

Thorne’s shoulder twitched.

Karna smiled. “Sounds like there’s going to
be quite the party, and Rivers would hate to miss out on it. As
many of you know, Shin and I have had our share of chasing
Guarders. I was just a lieutenant the first time we engaged
them.”

Perrin smiled at the memory of dragging a
young, nervous Brillen through the forests for days and nights
trying to flush the Guarders like pheasants. They killed their
first Guarder together, promoting them from mere officers to real
soldiers. Karna was definitely no longer that hesitant officer, and
probably had more experience with Guarders than anyone except
Perrin.

Karna continued, “But it’s time to let
someone else get some experience, so I think I’ll let Captain
Rigoff battle it out with my lieutenant here for the honor of
leading the Rivers contingency.”

Karna’s lieutenant smiled back at him. “He
may be older, sir, but remember,
I’m faster
. Major Yordin,
it would be an honor!”

Brillen chuckled and winked at Perrin.

Perrin took a deep, contented breath. He
thought getting the commanders to agree to an offensive would be
far more difficult than this. But apparently sitting and waiting to
be hit had become as tiresome to them as it was for him. Enough
playing the wounded falcon. This bird may not have been able to fly
out of his barn in Edge, but he still had talons and a sharp beak
and lots of fight. And now he had hunters—

“
Are
ALL
of you
mad?”

Twelve pairs of eyes stared at the youngest
officer in the room whose face revealed that he regretted opening
his mouth. Even the sergeants keeping notes looked up from their
pages. But there was no going back now for Captain Thorne. His
words hung in the air, more obviously than Beneff’s.

Perrin folded his arms. Well, he
had
told him that officers’ meeting usually included a bit of
shouting—

Captain Thorne looked at each of them, his
eyes finally resting on Perrin. “Colonel, with all due respect,
since when is being the aggressor the prescribed method of defense?
They never taught this in Command School!”

Before Perrin could respond, Roarin’ Yordin
did.

“
You’re right, Thorne,”
said Yordin. “But the field is far different than what you’ve been
taught in the classroom. We do an injustice to students letting
them believe that we’ve prepared them for life when they graduate.
The university doesn’t do that. Only experience does. That’s why
you’re here, young man. To
get
that experience, not to tell
us what some old men behind desks think was accurate a decade ago.”
He slapped the table.

“
Hear, hear!” said
Karna.

Fadh smiled in agreement.

“
But, but . . .” Thorne
gestured in exasperation, “you’re not supposed to go contrary to
the prescribed methods without the explicit consent of the
hierarchy!”

“
Sounds like you recited
that straight out of the book, Thorne,” said Perrin
easily.

The other soldiers chuckled.

“
Well I did!” he defended.
“Considering who wrote it, I thought it was important to remember.
You know who wrote that book, Colonel?”

“
Yes, I do, Thorne. My
father. When he was first made the High General. And that was a few
decades ago. It no longer applies.” Perrin’s voice grew husky.
“Much of what he wrote and believed no longer applies.”