The Falcon in the Barn (Book 4 Forest at the Edge series) (44 page)

Perrin shook his head. “It says only that he
was heading north for a holiday four weeks ago and hadn’t been
heard from since.”

Mahrree went pale and she grabbed her
husband’s arm. “Perrin, I just remembered—at The Dinner last year,
didn’t he say they were experimenting with sulfur? I thought he
also mentioned something about Moorland, about wanting to get new
samples.”

“
What are you
suggesting?”

“
Something awful. Perrin,
what if Brisack was in Moorland? During your attack? What if it was
him
experimenting with that black powdery substance? You
said it smelled sulfur-based.”

Perrin scoffed. “Mahrree! We’re talking about
Dr. Brisack. The man wasn’t perfect, but you liked him,
remember?”

Mahrree didn’t answer that. How much could
she approve of a man who wanted reports on how her husband was
responding to secret testing?

Perrin broke into her thoughts with, “Why
would Brisack be experimenting with Guarders anyway?”

Mahrree shrugged. While she didn’t approve of
Brisack’s meddling, she did have to acknowledge that he’d been most
helpful in sending the sedation, and seemed earnest in his frequent
messages to know how Mahrree was doing although she never answered
the nosy old man’s queries.

“
I don’t know what I was
thinking,” she said dismissively. “It just seems that . . . well,
would you have been able to recognize any of the bodies at the
crater?”

“
No,” he told her gruffly.
“Burned beyond recognition.”

Mahrree winced and nodded. “Sorry. I
shouldn’t have asked. Do you know anything about this new
Administrator of Loyalty, Mr. Genev? Is he as paranoid as Gadiman
was?”

“
Evaluating paranoia is
such a subjective thing,” Perrin sighed with more experience than
he wanted to admit. “Genev was his assistant for quite some time,
so things should be about the same for the Office of
Loyalty.”

Mahrree bit her lip. “Is that good or
bad?”

“
As long as there
is
an office,” Perrin said, instinctively glancing around him for a
red coat and white ruffles that might be peering into their
gathering room windows, “it’s bad.”

Mahrree fidgeted with worry. “Then what about
Brisack’s replacement?”

Perrin shook his head. “I don’t know anything
about him. Worked in Brisack’s office for a while, but I don’t
remember meeting him.”

“
Hmm,” Mahrree pondered.
“Perhaps all of these changes are why we haven’t heard any response
from the Administrators about your attack on Moorland.”

“
Or maybe they’ve forgotten
all about me,” Perrin smiled.

---

“
You CANNOT be serious!”
General Thorne bellowed at the Chairman.

Nicko merely raised his eyebrows and looked
over at the High General to see if he would rein in his hound.

“
Qayin,” his father-in-law
said consolingly, “think about it. What else can be done? Besides,
all of the Administrators have agreed.”

“
You could—” Qayin
faltered, gesturing madly. “Or, or, or . . . you could, could—” His
hands continued to flap uselessly as if somehow they would smack
randomly into a different solution.

Mal clasped his hands calmly in front of him.
He had drained the entire bottled heart concoction he acquired from
an associate of Brisack’s that morning, just in anticipation of
this meeting. “You see the problem, don’t you? He’s been nothing
but loyal. So loyal that he even violated his probation to save
your son
. How exactly are we to punish loyalty, General
Thorne?”

Qayin scoffed, gestured, started and stopped
and foamed in exasperation, but he had no response. Eventually he
slumped in his chair. “So he just gets off?”

Mal rolled his eyes very slowly, to make sure
General Thorne got the message. “It’s an excellent strategy until
we get a new one.”

High General Cush cleared his throat. “I’m
not hearing this, you understand. I’m just here to give my
approval, and to also tell General Thorne that he’ll deliver this
news personally.” Cush absent-mindedly rubbed his chest.

Mal wondered if the High General had his own
supply of heart tonic. He was pale enough to need some.

Thorne glared at his father-in-law. “Me? Why
me?”

Cush chuckled in his normal way, which today
sounded as natural as an ox laughing. “Because I’m simply not up to
it.” A bead of sweat formed on his broad forehead. “And because
your going there will demonstrate to the world the honor and
veneration the army has for the colonel, just as the rest of the
world feels for him. And you’re also to check on my grandson.
Thirty stitches? Make sure they sewed him up correctly. Nothing . .
. dangling out.”

Thorne pursed his lips in thought. “Lemuel’s
been exceptionally slow in a few things. I do want to see what’s
happening, especially with the Shin girl. Maybe if I can get
her
alone—”

“
Even I don’t think that’s
a good idea,” Mal said with a squint. He knew very little about
teenage girls, but even he could tell that Thorne’s idea was worse
than saddling a skunk. “Lemuel has to win the Shin girl over
himself when the time is right. Something like that,” he waved
vaguely.

Thorne grumbled. “Says Versula as well. So,”
he exhaled moodily, “I get to go to the Edge of the World,
then.”

The Chairman shook his head. “I don’t
understand you, Qayin. You have everything: second in command of
the army, and at a relatively young age. Possession of the third
largest home in Idumea. Rank of general, which is one higher than
him
. A son who’s the youngest captain in the army.
And
you have the ear of the most powerful man in the
world—me. What more could you want?”

Thorne glared. “
Him
. Dead.”

“
No you don’t,” Mal smiled
narrowly. “What you want is him,
tormented.”

Cush stood up abruptly, quite the feat for a
man of his diameter, and huffed to catch his breath from the
exertion. “I’m not listening anymore, you know that. Qayin, you’re
going to Edge, and you’re going to put on a face fitting for a man
whose
subordinate
has just handed him a most welcome
victory. I’ll see you at the garrison.” Cush wheezed and left the
office, slamming the door behind him.

“
It’s about time he left,”
Mal said, watching the door. “If he keeps up this interference,
he’ll have to take the oaths. I don’t understand why he’s so
opposed to that. Misplaced loyalties to a dead friend, I
suppose.”

He shifted his earnest gaze to General
Thorne. “Qayin, if Shin’s dead, he’s no fun, and we’ll need to find
a new falcon. But there simply isn’t one as complex and intriguing
as him. To be honest, I rather miss Relf. I miss his exasperation
and his cluelessness, and the fact that I knew exactly what was
causing his trouble but he never could figure it out. There was
great pleasure in watching his frustration. You really don’t want
that to end so soon with Perrin. I certainly don’t. We’re laying a
new foundation to test him with, and while I don’t entirely know
what kind of structure will come of it, I promise you that it will
be most magnificent and worth the wait. And you, Qayin Thorne, will
have a front row seat to it all. You will watch Perrin Shin squirm
and shrivel.”

Thorne slowly nodded his head. “I hadn’t seen
it in that way,” he said thoughtfully. “The reports from Lemuel
last year had been most entertaining about the colonel and his
madness. Rather miss hearing about his rants.”

“
Give me some time, Qayin.
You’ll be entertained again,” Mal assured. “When a man has fallen
to such depths, it takes very little to push him back into it
again. We just have to prepare the right hole. In the meantime,
you’ll go to Edge, and you’ll smile at the colonel because you’re
on top of the world, and you know that soon he’ll be in yet another
pit.”

“
One where I stand above
him and spit on his head?” Thorne asked.

“
Bucketfuls,” Mal
promised.

---

Knock-knock . . . knock-knock-knock.

Wonderful
, Perrin sighed to himself.
He’s mobile.

He stretched his fingers before saying, a bit
drearily, “Come in.”

The door opened not too slowly, not too
quickly, and there stood a pale Captain Thorne.

“
Should you be up and in
uniform?” Perrin asked, hoping against hope the captain was
disobeying the surgeon’s orders. But on his desk was the report of
which men were fit to return to duty that day, and Thorne was on
the top. Apparently Stitch was as eager to release him as Perrin
was that he should stay in the hospital wing.

“
I am, sir!” Thorne said
proudly. “I need to take it easy still, but I promise it won’t
affect any of my performance, sir.”

Which performance? Perrin nearly said out
loud. The one where you pretend to be an obedient and diligent
officer? Or the one where you try to find ways to undermine me?

“
I’m sure you won’t,
Captain,” he said, turning again to the work on his
desk.

“
Sir?” Thorne ventured,
“May I say something?”

Perrin gritted his teeth and looked up. “Of
course, Captain.”

“
About
Moorland—”

Don’t say it,
Perrin thought to
himself. Don’t you dare thank me for saving you from that Guarder.
Don’t you dare remind me—

“
I think you made the
correct decision, sir,” Thorne said. “Breaking your probation. Your
presence secured our victory. The world is safer because of
you.”

Oh, the little manipulator was clever. Now
Perrin was going to have to say the words. There was no other
response he could offer that would be appropriate.

“
Thank you, Captain,”
Perrin nearly choked.

“
I’m certain, sir, that
when the garrison responds to our success, they’ll be cognizant of
the fact that you had no other alternative but to behave in the
manner that the situation demanded,” said Thorne in fluent army
speak. “I even wrote to my father and grandfather affirming that,
sir.”

Oh, the words had to be said
again
!

“
Thank you,” Perrin said as
dully as he dared. “Dismissed.”

---

Later that day a decision from Idumea came in
the form of a little man in a red messenger suit. He brought the
news that General Qayin Thorne was on his way to
personally
congratulate the Fort at Edge on the success of the offensive.

Everyone in the forward command office had
stood in silent terror at the news.

Five seconds later every man except Colonel
Shin was running frantically down the stairs to deliver to the word
that the fort needed to be prepared for an official visit the next
day.

Perrin merely nodded at the message and
folded it again. “Well, then. Soon we’ll see, won’t we,” he
murmured to himself. “Will I be a general, a lieutenant, or a guard
at the Edge of Idumea estates? It’ll only be for a year, until we
have proof that all of the Guarders are gone, and the forts are
irrelevant. Maybe.”

Over dinner Perrin broke the news to his
family.

“
Time to get a new jacket,
Father?” Peto said with a grin.

Mahrree sighed. “Maybe one with a single
lieutenant’s braid?”

“
They wouldn’t do that to
him!” Peto declared. “How could they? And why else would General
Thorne come all this way?”

“
To check on his son, I
think,” Perrin said. “Make sure he’s healing well, that
everything else
is progressing as he thinks it should.” He
glanced at his daughter who had stopped eating.

“
Well,” Mahrree said
decisively. “We just won’t fret about it! Nothing we can do. We’ll
just accept what happens, and trust in the Creator. Yes. Fine. Will
be a pleasant visit. No doubt.”

“
Very convincing,
Mahrree.”

---

Colonel Shin was ready the next day for the
arrival of General Thorne.
Everyone
was ready. The fort was
spotless. Even the dirt on the stable floors had been smartly
raked. The men were nervous, which made them each stand a little
taller. Captain Thorne was so agitated in the command tower that
when Zenos accidentally dropped the long knife he used to pry open
a stuck window, Lemuel drew his sword in readiness.

Perrin rather enjoyed it all.

He’d never been on this side before. He
didn’t really care about what would happen that day, and found that
thought surprisingly freeing. He’d waited before for the worst the
hierarchy could dish out. And the worst was—well, while the past
year
had
been bad, it
was
only temporary. He realized
he could handle anything temporarily.

He sat serenely at his desk reviewing
reports, not even looking out the window like the tense corporal
who was filing the papers. Perrin was sure the young man would
alert him when someone was coming, and he was right. He hardly
recognized the high-pitched squeak as human until he looked up at
the scared soldier.

“
Blue banner, sir! Far
south tower. He’s been sighted approaching Edge!”

Perrin nodded sedately. “Good. Now gather up
all the papers you dropped and re-file them please. We still have a
bit of time.”

With another squeak of compliance the soldier
was on the floor.

A few moments later Captain Thorne stood at
the door. “Sir?”