The Falcon in the Barn (Book 4 Forest at the Edge series) (86 page)

Worse than that—she was paralyzed, unable to
breathe or think.

Her children eyed her worriedly.

“
Mahrree, it’s all right!”
Perrin took her shoulders and gently shook her, causing her to
remember how to breathe again. “We’ve got time, and now we’re
regular citizens. The law is a little easier on citizens than for
officers. The worst that can happen is that Genev’s assistant will
start a file on you. And probably me, now, as well. But they need
pages
of evidence before they can take us to trial for
sedition. There will be only one entry so far.”

Mahrree melted on the kitchen floor.

Perrin put a bracing arm around her to prop
her up again. “We’ve created a good and complicated problem here.
You spoke as the general’s wife, but I wasn’t
officially
a
general yet—not until I swore the oath in front of Nicko Mal and
the garrison. You were still the colonel’s wife, but with my
resignation occurring the same day, we’re now both regular
citizens, and the law takes into account what you were at
the
end
of the day. And as much as the Administrators like to
argue, they’ll take weeks before they come to any consensus about
us, if at all. No one would be able to claim that what you and Kori
engaged in on the platform was anything like a reasoned debate.
And, last but not least, Yung was right—the Administrators can’t
risk doing anything to us because I’m loved too much.” He batted
his eyelids and Mahrree somehow found the strength to chuckle.

“
Besides, now that I am no
longer in the army—” he stumbled on the words, which panged
Mahrree’s heart, “—the road is wide open for the Thornes. This
should make Qayin and Lemuel very happy. I really don’t think
anyone will care about me or you, or anything we say or do, ever
again. We can now fade away and become as anonymous as everyone
else.”

“
And as unprotected as
well,” Mahrree reminded him.

Perrin sighed. “Well, I’m not so sure about
that. I still know a few things, I still have my old sword and long
knife. We still have Shem. And a few friends in forts . . .” His
voice faltered as he began to wonder about the veracity of that
statement. He shook his head and put on a determined smile. “But
it’s best we prepare for anything, right? That means training you
two—” Perrin pointed at Peto and Deckett “in how to do a thing or
two.”

“
What do you mean?” Deck
asked nervously.

“
I may be as old as the
both of you put together, but you would have never stood a chance
against me,” Perrin said. “Deck, you gripped that knife like it was
an udder!”

Deck blushed. “It’s all I know!”

“
Considering the
circumstances, beginning tomorrow both of you should begin some
basic training. I seem to have a surplus of time on my hands now.”
More gravely, Perrin added, “I simply don’t know who the soldiers
are fighting for anymore. We can’t assume it will be
for us
.
And Deckett, maybe starting tomorrow you can teach me how to hold
an udder. I understand that since your wife has been slowing down,
you’ve been looking for another farmhand?”

Chapter 32
~
“And next is . . . ?”

T
horne’s gait had
flagged a few times on the way back to the fort, and as he stared
at Shin’s career in his hands he felt Zenos come up beside him.

For the first time ever Lemuel let his guard
down in front of a mere enlisted man and spoke to Zenos as if he
were nearly an equal. “How could he do this? There’s no other life
for him—”

“
Pick up the pace there,
Captain. No other life? Thorne, there are always options.” He
sounded far too cheerful.

That put Lemuel on edge as he scoffed. “The
only options are general or . . . or nothing!”

Zenos actually chuckled at that. “There are
always
more options. Always.”

The fort was charged like lightning with
activity when their group arrived, the news of the resignation
spreading so quickly that there was no need to post a notice.

But everyone fell deathly silent in the
command tower when Captain Thorne trudged up to the offices. All
but one soldier ran down the stairs to avoid the inevitable
confrontation.

In disgust, Thorne dropped the ex-general’s
effects on the forward office desk and ordered the staff sergeant
that didn’t escape quickly enough to retrieve a file hidden in the
captain’s quarters.

In the command office Thorne sat down without
hesitation in the forbidden big chair, and pulled out paper and a
quill. He thought for a moment, then began to write. The more he
wrote the more enraged he became, referring frequently to the file
the sergeant brought him. Half an hour later he rolled up the
sheets of paper, hastily sealed them together with sloppy gobs of
wax, and sent for a messenger.

While he waited, Lemuel looked around the
office that Shin would never come to again. The desk he would never
again sit behind, and the chair he would never angrily pull Thorne
out of.

How could he do it? How could he give it all
up, after all these years, after all this work? Just give it all up
for . . . a woman?

That
woman!

Lemuel ran a finger along a report Shin had
completed just yesterday, waiting to be filed. He touched the
signature of Colonel Perrin Shin with pangs of remorse. He felt
worse about losing Colonel Shin than he was about his grandfather
dying.

Then again, General Cush had never saved his
grandson’s life.

Lemuel briskly rubbed his eyes to reduce the
water building in them.
Stupid woman
, he thought angrily.
Stupid, selfish woman. She ruined him.

The messenger appeared at the door.
“Captain?”

Thorne got to his feet, gingerly picked up
the roll of sealed pages, and placed them himself in the
messenger’s bag. “These need to get to General Thorne and the
Chairman, immediately. Take an escort with you.”

“
Yes, sir,” said the
private. “We’ll leave first thing in the morning . . .” his voice
trailed off as he realized that was the wrong thing to
say.

“
Private, I said
immediately.
You’ll leave now for Idumea. The safety of this
fort, and perhaps all of the world, rests in that bag. If it’s too
heavy a burden, I can find someone else!”

The private stood taller. “I am on my way
now, sir!” He saluted and ran down the stairs.

Lemuel glanced back at the colonel’s chair.
During his first year serving in Edge he saw that chair as his sole
goal. But for the past two years he saw it as a representing
everything Colonel Shin was—strong, solid, imposing, reliable.

But tonight the chair had a different
quality.

It seemed
lonely
.

His scanned the broad desk with its several
drawers, meticulously organized, on each side. There was even a
skinny drawer that no one, not even the captain, was to touch. Only
Zenos, and only in the event of the death of the colonel.

Lemuel rubbed his palms together. He was,
after all, the highest ranking officer now at Fort Shin.
The
Fort at Edge.

He made his way around the desk, his finger
dragging along the edge of it longingly, almost sensuously. Behind
the desk he pulled out the chair that desperately desired a body to
fill it.

A smile spread across his face as he sat down
and pulled opened the narrow “death drawer.” He was momentarily
disappointed that all he saw was one parchment envelope, sealed
with wax. It was addressed to Shem Zenos, in Perrin Shin’s
hand.

Intrigued, Thorne picked it up. “And what is
Shem Zenos to do when Perrin Shin is no longer here?”

He broke open the seal.

---

Lieutenant Offra sat down hard on his
bunk.

He was gone. Colonel Shin had quit the army,
and it was over. No more races. No one to ever call him “son”
again. His only real friend in the army was no longer in the
army.

Jon Offra was alone again.

He glanced up to make sure the door was
locked.

Then he held his head and silently wept like
a toddler.

---

When the men are distressed there’s nothing
like a little bit of drilling to get them focused again. That was
why Sergeant Major Zenos lined up his newest recruits for one of
his infamous Know the Forest at Night tours.

“
We don’t have raids in
broad daylight,” he’d remind them. “They come at night. They sit at
the edge of the forest and wait for an opening. You need to know
the edge of that forest in the dark.”

That was the standard speech new recruits
were warned to expect. The call came just as the men were still
talking past lights-out hours about the colonel’s—the
general’s
—resignation, and were pretending to bunk down.

So at a little past midnight, Zenos and a
group of recruits who couldn’t sleep anyway set out on horseback to
let the cool air settle their minds. Once out of the confines of
the compound, several soldiers asked the sergeant major what the
resignation meant.

“
It means his name is now
just Perrin Shin,” Shem told them, slowing his horse to allow all
the soldiers to hear him. Whatever he said that night would be
spread to the rest of the fort by dawn; their attitude would be the
fort’s attitude. “It means we’ll get a new commander, and all will
be well.” He tried to sound convincing.

“
But Sarge, why? Why did
the colonel—
general
—resign? Did it have something to do with
his wife? I heard she really started a commotion at the
amphitheater.”

“
Just comes a time, boys,”
Shem answered breezily. “He’s been at it for over twenty-five
years. Gets a little boring, doing the same work for so long. Maybe
he’ll become a builder.”

“
Sarge, there’s
got
to be more to it than that. Come on, you can tell us. You were
there, weren’t you? So—”

“
Just comes a time, men,”
he cut off the inquiry, his tone turning sharp. “Nothing more,
nothing to worry about. Actually, now you need to worry about the
forest. Fall in!”

Zenos guided the recruits along the edge of
the forest and began his cadence.

“
What is this,
men?”

In unison they responded, “Marshes, sir!”

“
Do we like marshes,
men?”

“
No, sir!”

“
Why do we not like
marshes, men?”

“
They eat horses,
sir!”

“
Do we like our horses,
men?”

“
Yes sir!”

“
So what do we do with
marshes?”

“
Avoid them,
sir!”

A little further down Zenos called again.
“What is this, men?”

“
A sinkhole,
sir!”

“
Do we like sinkholes,
men?”

“
No sir!”

“
Why do we not like
sinkholes, men?”

“
They eat horses,
sir!”

As they drilled about the dangers of the mud
pits, steam vents, and the occasional water spouts they passed,
Shem fretted again about the timing of his upcoming leave.

Three weeks.

He was leaving
tomorrow
for three
weeks to visit his father.

He told Thorne he could rescind it,
considering the situation, but Thorne just gave him his simpering
smile and assured him the fort would be just fine. He shouldn’t
not
leave.

Shem sighed. If the Shins ever needed an
alert set of ears in the fort, it was now. And none would be
available for them.

“
What is this, men?” he
called.

“
A fresh spring,
sir!”

“
Do we like fresh springs,
men?”

“
Yes sir!”

“
Why do we like fresh
springs, men?”

“
They don’t kill the
horses, sir!”

In the dark, none of the soldiers noticed a
fist-sized rock drop to the ground from the sergeant major’s
saddle.

“
What do we do about fresh
springs, men?”

“
Remember where they are,
sir!”

“
What is this,
men?”

“
A gulley, sir!”

“
Do we like gullies,
men?”

“
Depends sir!”

“
Depends on what,
men?”

“
Who’s hiding in the gully,
sir!”

Five minutes later, after the horses and
cadence faded off into the distance, a dark figure dropped from a
tree by the spring. It picked up the rock and noiselessly untied
the string around it that held a dark and sooty piece of paper. The
figure carefully unwrapped the paper and could just make out the
words in the darkness.

“
Five Plus Out.
DTBD.”

He frowned at the writing, pocketed the
message, and jogged noiselessly into the forest. A few minutes
later he reached other men dressed in green and brown mottled
clothing. In the cover of a gully they lit a small lantern and read
the message.

“
Zenos dropped it?” a man
asked, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Unusual. How would he know
of anyone?”

The man who discovered the note shrugged.
“There’s only been a few other times he’s dropped a note like
this.”

“
DTBD,” a third man said
quietly. “Date to be decided. Why? He knows how important it is to
know the date.”