The Falcon in the Barn (Book 4 Forest at the Edge series) (21 page)

Now, he realized, she
was
his
life.

She laughed lightly and wrapped her arms
around him. “If only there was time, but you know we can’t. I have
school tomorrow.
This
is the only day. You declared it a Day
of Remembrance, let’s remember
this.
Your holiday, your
rules.”

He groaned, only slightly irritated. “For the
last time, I did NOT declare it a holiday! Rector Yung and the
magistrate did.”

She giggled into his chest. “Ooh, so we’re
going to argue
now?
I suppose if we skip breakfast we’ll
have time . . .”

He chuckled with her, enjoying the sound of
their voices together. “Silly woman,” he kissed her again. “By the
way, I’m going to start going to the fort in the mornings
again.”

“
Are you sure?” She sounded
slightly hesitant. “Will you have enough time to prepare yourself
each morning?”

“
Yes, I’ll have time,” he
assured her. “I need to be home for dinner, with you and the
children.”

Mahrree sighed. She’d be foolish to try to
change his mind. So she’d accept his decisions, albeit
conditionally. “We can try it for a week or two, see how things go.
I guess this holiday idea of yours is just the thing to get you
going. You just shouldn’t have made it for so early in the morning,
though,” she gently teased.

“
That was the magistrate’s
idea,” he reminded her. “To have it at the same time the land
tremor hit.”

Mahrree sighed. “Just an hour later would
have been good enough.”

“
Oh, please. You’d be
getting up right now for school anyway,” he pointed out. “At least
this way you don’t have any school at all. You should be thanking
me for that.”

“
Of course I do. Thank you,
by the way.” She was quiet for a moment, then asked, “Do you know
what you’re going to say at the ceremony?”

“
I’ve got it pretty much
worked out.”

“
That means you’ll plan
when you’re on the platform, right?”

“
I used to do very well
that way during our debates, if you remember.”

“
I remember that’s how I
frequently beat you.” She sighed, putting her cheek against his
chest again. “It will be strange and wonderful to see you up there
again.”

“
Want to join
me?”

She scoffed. “No, thank you! No one wants to
see me, they all want to see the Saver of Edge.”

Perrin groaned and rolled on to his back.
“Don’t say that. Seriously, you really think people are coming for
that?”

She propped herself up on her arm. “I didn’t
want to tell you last night, but my mother said that all the inns
are full with your
admirers
. Many had been asking about you.
She was wise enough, for once, to not tell them that she knew
you.”

Perrin groaned again. “Mahrree, you better
stand up there with me just so they know I’m married!”

“
No way. I want to be in
the audience watching!” She laughed. But she added, with
considerable worry, “Are you
sure
you’re ready? From what
Shem read, something this public and exposed could set you back. We
can still do something else,” she suggested. “Or let Brillen handle
it. He told me when he arrived last night that he can step in for
you. You just give me the signal, and we’re on it.”

He rolled over and kissed her again—properly,
on the lips. “I can do it,” he promised. “I really think I need
to.”

Mahrree kissed him back, then pulled away to
give him a look. He knew that look. It was a slightly squinty,
mouth munching, eyebrow raising look, full of anxiety and mischief.
She was about to test the waters to see how he
really
was.

“
All right,” she said
slowly. “As long as you’re sure . . . Colonel Cuddly.” She leaped
out of bed, giggling in nervousness.

Perrin roared and jumped out of bed, chased
her down the stairs, and tackled her on the sofa.

“
Take it back, woman! I
told you, don’t ever say that again!” He picked her up and sat down
on the sofa, keeping her easily trapped in his arms. But she wasn’t
fighting him. She was laughing too hard.

Peto groggily opened his door. “Ah, come on
you two. It’s too early for that!”

That made Mahrree laugh even harder.

Perrin held her firmly. This morning he was
solid. Absolutely, fantastically, rock solid. He tried to put on a
serious face but he couldn’t completely hide his grin from his
son.

Jaytsy came out from the washroom and smiled
when she saw them. “What did she say this time, Father?” She had
the same look as her mother had. One more test. “Did she call you
our future Genial Gentle Generous General again?”

Peto started laughing. “That one’s my
favorite! Those poets in Midplain know how to make a title.”

Perrin glared, but mischievously. The teasing
was significant. The more there was, the better he was. Laughter
rooted him.

“
Just don’t fight it,
Father,” said Jaytsy as she came over to rescue her mother. She
evaluated their knot, then tried to tickle her father despite the
fact he had no ticklish spots. At least, that’s what he told her.
He could just keep a straight face. But this morning he thought
Jaytsy was right. Why fight it?

He released his wife and suddenly grabbed his
daughter, tickling her instead. “I said last week, girl,” he tried
to be stern as she squirmed and giggled, “to never use those names
again!” He dropped her unceremoniously and she collapsed on the
floor gasping and laughing.

She looked at him with her mother’s
expression again. “All right . . .
Shin the
Magnificent!
”

Perrin growled.

For as much as the fort and Edge were
hesitant around him the past year, the rest of the world had rushed
to embrace him. He knew what caused it; that first letter he
responded to, for Roak at the Stables at Pools. Then he answered
another to Gizzada, and another. All thirty-two of them.

He thought that would be the end of it, but
those who received his responses must have said something to their
families. And their friends. And their neighbors. Perrin heard from
Brillen that Gizzada had displayed Perrin’s response on the wall of
his back restaurant.

Soon more letters arrived at the fort. Then
more. Not just from enlisted men in Pools, but from citizens all
over the world writing to him that they thought he should be the
next High General in honor of his father and his deeds for
Edge.

Then one day the fort received an odd
announcement from the Administrators detailing the promotion
procedures, and ordered that the notice to be put up on all the
village message boards. Perrin wrote to Brillen asking if he knew
why any villagers would care about that dreariness.

Brillen explained that he’d heard citizens
were also writing to the Administrators, flooding them with
insistences that Perrin be promoted to general. Instead of
responding to the letters, Idumea showered villagers back with dull
notices.

And it didn’t work.

Because next the fort began to receive
letters from people saying that if they could choose the High
General the way they could choose the local magistrates, Perrin
would win. Three weeks ago the mail wagon brought a large bag
packed with messages all for the colonel. He hadn’t dared look into
the bag when he dropped it on the table late one night after
returning from the fort.

“
What is
that?
”
Mahrree asked, surprised to see the lump sitting on the papers she
was grading.

“
My letters,” he said
miserably. “Anyone want to read them?”

“
Yes!” Jaytsy cried, and
she and Peto started snatching and opening letters.

“
I just don’t have time for
this.” Perrin sat on a chair and regarded the pile with
dread.

“
We can help answer them,”
Jaytsy volunteered.

Peto grinned. “Yes, but Father, I may need
some help. This is from a group of ladies in Marsh.” He waved a
folded parchment.

“
Oh
really?
” Mahrree
said with a glint in her eye.

Perrin sighed.

“
Yes, and they want to
know,” Peto cleared his throat and assumed an official tone,
“Colonel Shin, what is your favorite color?”

“
Favorite color?” Perrin
sneered. “People have favorite colors? Who wants to
know?”

Peto looked down and chuckled. “The
Association of Woolen Weavers for Perrin Shin for General, Marsh
Chapter.”

Mahrree smirked. “That’s quite a
mouthful.”

“
So, what is it?” Peto
asked solemnly. “There may be a scarf involved.”

“
I don’t know,” Perrin
shrugged. “Anything but pink, I guess.”

“
Hmm,” Peto said, shaking
his head. “Too vague an answer. Need something more specific. I
think rocks. That’s a good color.”

“
Rocks?” Mahrree exclaimed.
“That’s not a color!”

But Perrin smiled as he looked at their
walls. “Rocks is good. Lots of different shades. Tell them that,”
he nodded to the message. “Make them think I’m a little crazy.”

Peto patted his hand. “But we all know you’re
a
lot
crazy.”

Perrin had smiled at that. It was Peto’s way
of bringing his father along. Mahrree talked, Shem hovered, Jaytsy
hugged, and Peto ridiculed. The more he teased, the better Perrin
knew he was that day. It was the days when Peto said nothing to him
that Perrin realized he was standing at the edge of the pit
again.

“
Ooh, Father, here’s a good
one,” Jaytsy glanced at her brother. “These girls at Upper School
#6 in Pools want to know what your son is like.”

“
I want that one!” said
Peto, lunging for it and throwing Jaytsy the letter he was holding.
“You can have the old weaving ladies.”

“
No, I’ll take that one.”
Perrin grinned as he reached for Jaytsy’s letter. “I’ll tell them
he’s annoying, disrespectful, and skinnier than a rail.”

“
Mmm,” Mahrree said. “Words
to make any fourteen-year-old girl go,
Eww
!”

Peto stood up, put his hands on his thin
waist, tried to puff up his scrawny frame, and said with mock
seriousness, “I don’t appreciate your attitudes. I’m exactly what
some woman out there wants. Paint a portrait of me. Send it to
them. No one will ever remember my father, only me!” and he struck
a regal pose.

His sister rolled her eyes while his parents
laughed.

The stack of letters, which Peto assured his
father many of the most popular ball players received, kept them
amused well into the night. Mahrree had tears in her eyes when she
finished one from a woman in Scrub that went on about the supposed
merits of Colonel Shin. She had closed it by saying, “I’m sure such
a wonderful man like you must also be cuddly as well.”

Mahrree had tears of laughter, that is. It
was immediately her new nickname for him: Colonel Cuddly.

They had answered the letters, sending out
three hundred responses over the past few weeks, but more kept
pouring in. Perrin suggested having a woodcut made of a message:
Thanks for the sentiment. Please don’t write anymore. Perrin
Shin.

Mahrree said that was rude. There were only a
few hundred more to still answer. But she didn’t know about the
second full bag that arrived at the office yesterday. Shem just
chuckled when he set it down in the corner.

Now Colonel Cuddly looked at his daughter on
the floor on this significant morning. She was trying hard not to
smirk at his feeble attempt at austerity for having been called
Shin the Magnificent, a title bestowed upon him by cobblers in
Winds.

“
Your punishment, for
saying those names again, is to get me my breakfast.
Now!”

She leaped to her feet, saluted sloppily, and
ran to the kitchen.

To Peto in his doorway, Perrin said, “We
leave in an hour.”

“
Then wake me in fifty
minutes,” Peto said and shut his door.

Mahrree started up the stairs, “I’ll make
sure your dress uniform ready, Your Highness.”

Perrin grumbled at her, but winked.

And then he was looking out the front
windows, all alone on the sofa. The sun would soon be rising. He
leaned back and released a sigh that had been building all
night.

It was coming. He felt it a couple of weeks
ago, but didn’t know how to tell Mahrree. She would’ve thought his
paranoia was returning, and occasionally he wondered if that might
not be true. It wasn’t as if he was
perfectly
cured; he knew
that he’d never be. A couple of times each week he sat up gasping,
but he could deal with it now. He breathed and prayed and
concentrated to send it away again. After about only an hour he’d
fall back asleep. Those interruptions felt were mild compared to
what he used to experience.

But he knew this feeling was different. It
was as if he was being warned by Someone else.

Brillen’s visit last night had been what he
needed to validate his suspicions. Lieutenant Colonel and Mrs.
Karna had come by the house to see the family since they’d be
attending the Remembrance Ceremony this morning. While Mahrree and
Brillen’s wife got acquainted in the gathering room, Perrin walked
Brillen out to the back garden so they could talk.

“
Colonel
Shin—
Perrin
,” he corrected himself when his former commander
scowled good-naturedly at him. “You look good. Better than good!”
Brillen smiled at him, but only briefly.

Perrin knew his knitted brow expression all
too well. “What is it, Brillen? You know I’ll get it out of you
eventually, so let’s just make this easier for both of us. Let’s
pretend I’ve already cajoled, teased, and even threatened you to
the point that you break down and give me the bad news you’re
dreading to say.”