The Falcon in the Barn (Book 4 Forest at the Edge series) (66 page)

Mal regretted that it took him so long to
recognize the potential.

“
I’ve admired your work for
years, Chairman, yet never knew whose work it was. I suspected the
directions originated in the hierarchy, but I never dared believe
it was so high. You are to be commended, sir.”

Mal nodded at the acceptable response. “I’ve
worked hard over the years to keep my involvement unknown. Your
predecessor said it was
interference
, but because of his
poorly executed ‘interference’ he’s no longer here to criticize. I
certainly can’t leave everything to chance. There must be control
in every situation.”

The second man nodded. “Of course, sir.”

The Chairman smiled, satisfied that his new
partner was already seeing things his way. “A suitable and
contributing colleague is most important to this work. I’ve been
watching you for some time, and I was quite pleased with how your
office handled that ridiculous ‘Midnight Ride of Perrin Shin’ play
that ran for too long.”

“
Why, thank you, sir,”
Administrator Genev simpered. “Sometimes people simply need to
understand the facts
more correctly
. It’s unfortunate that
so much of the world labored under the impression that the rescue
mission was the idea of General and Colonel Shin. My alterations to
the play remedied that, and now the world understands that the
Shins were working directly under the Administrators’ orders. The
rescue of Edge was not their idea; it was yours.”

Mal nodded. “Yes, very well done. Nearly as
clever as your recommendations on how to deal with the Moorland
incident.”

Genev offered what he thought was a demur
smile. “Again, I thank you, Chairman. Truly, had the garrison
suspected what was happening in Moorland, they would have
originated the plan that Colonel Shin implemented. He simply
anticipated their desires, but the influencing factors of the raid
itself, along with its immense success, came directly from the
garrison and Idumea. However, for Shin’s small part in carrying out
his orders well, the fort was renamed for him and he was released
from his probation.”

Mal chuckled. “Brilliant. Absolutely
brilliant.”

“
We need the world to
believe that Shin is acting—and always has been acting—in the
Administrators’ behalf.” Genev blinked obsequiously. “To let the
citizens believe there is any discordance is to allow them to lend
their loyalties to him instead of the Administrators.”

“
And a division of loyalty
is not what we need,” Mal said.

Genev emitted a noise that barely fit the
definition of chuckle. “You don’t need to tell me that, Chairman.
That’s my department, after all. I’ve already added dozens of files
to what Gadiman left, and I’m sure you’ve seen the reports on those
I’ve had brought into Idumea for sedition. Granted, it’s not as
many as Gadiman brought in, but it seems the world has become less
. . . feisty over the years.” He sounded disappointed by that. “In
almost every account they’ve accepted your rule and control quite
thoroughly.”

Mal smiled faintly. Genev was bored as well.
The perfect companion.

“
Except,” Mal said slowly,
“
someone
in the world has chosen to suddenly throw the past
into our faces again.”

Genev sat up eagerly. “Oh, yes!” he snarled
in glee. “If only we knew
who
—”

“
I assume that in time your
office will figure that out, and you can deal with their
disloyalty,” Mal assured him. “In the meantime, we need a strategy
for dealing with this development.”

Genev nodded thoughtfully. “First we need to
ascertain if the map truly is Terryp’s lost map.”

“
It’s not,” Mal said. “It’s
a forgery. A copy.”

Genev squinted. “Are you sure?”

“
Almost completely. I had
some historians look at it and they say the ink is too fresh and
dark, and the parchment doesn’t appear to be old
enough.”

Genev shrugged. “Well, then. That’s that.
Nothing more needs to be done—”

Mal held up his finger. “Oh, but there does.
Think about this: whoever makes one copy can make
several
copies.”

“
Yes,” slowly said the
Administrator of Loyalty as if following the logic, but the blank
look in his eyes indicated he was lost.

Mall took a patient breath. “This copy was
sent to me. More copies may be sent elsewhere to others who may be
curious or quietly rebellious. The entire world has been gripped
with land lust, Administrator. We’ve had reports for several moons
now about citizens stealing the land of the dead, and in many
cases, the land of those still living. It’s whetted their appetite
for even more. This map in the hands of the wrong people? We could
have a major loss of containment. If people go searching for
Terryp’s western lands on their own, there go all of our test
subjects.”

Genev nodded, a bit slower than Brisack would
have. “Naturally, sir. This means, of course, that we need to be in
control of what happens next with the map. How many know of its
existence?”

“
Besides you and me, a few
other Administrators at best. But as I said, I don’t know if other
copies have already been sent out. We need to make the first move,
and quickly.”

“
Yes, we do,” Genev said,
his eyes shifting in thought.

Brisack never appeared so overtly worried,
Mal thought to himself. But it’s better to have such a transparent
companion.

“
How many people in the
world even remember Terryp?” Genev wondered. “The schools stopped
teaching him and his findings over 15 years ago. That’s nearly a
generation.”

Mal nodded. “And how many of their parents
and grandparents remember him? Or his travels with King Querul the
First’s soldiers past the western deserts? Or his fantastical
stories about the origins of the world? I suspect their memories
are fuzzy and incomplete. We can manipulate that.”

Genev raised an eyebrow. “I saw the
Administrator of Culture leaving your office earlier this evening.
Was he there because—”

“
Because the world is going
to want to remember who Terryp was, once this business of his
discovered map gets out,” Mal said. “The Administrator and his
staff will provide that ‘memory,’ as well as a
more correct
evaluation of Terryp, his mental stability, and his
findings.”

“
Crafted just right,” Genev
began to smile, “Terryp can be completely discredited.”

“
But that won’t work with
the entire population,” Mal sighed. “There are many in my
generation who still think of him fondly. We can easily sway the
younger who have no lingering memories and never played ‘Find
missing Terryp’ in their schoolyards. But the older generation,
with its propensity to remember everything far better than it ever
was, will be a harder sell.”

“
I also saw the
Administrator of Science leaving your office?” Genev
hinted.

“
Yes,” Mal sighed more
dismally. “We have to send out an expedition. We’re going to prove,
once and for all, the truth about Terryp’s western lands beyond the
desert.”

Genev’s jaw dropped. “You can’t be serious!
Who would volunteer for such a dangerous mission and subject
themselves to the same torments that affected Terryp so that he
went insane—”

Genev stopped when he saw the slight smile on
Mal’s face.

“
I fell for it,” Genev
whispered. “Like everyone else, I fell for the stories.”

Mal’s smile began to widen. “It won’t be that
difficult, you see. Even you still believe what you were told.
Genev,” the Chairman sat back in his chair, “did you know that the
first three Queruls kept servants?”

Genev shrugged. “Every king needs
servants—”

“
No, not like that. I mean,
kept servants
. For years. They never left the
compound.”

Genev’s raised eyebrows told Mal this was
news to him.

“
When I first took over
this mansion 20 years ago I made a thorough inspection of it. I
knew the first Queruls were ruthless but brilliant in their own
ways. They also would have been arrogant enough to keep records of
their triumphs. And they did.” Mal smiled smugly. “I found crates
of documents hidden behind a false wall dating back to Querul the
First. I had never before realized he was such a skilled researcher
in his own right; he began his experiment on containment at the
beginning of the Great War in 195. He started with eight servants
and kept them confined to this compound. Ever wonder why the
grounds are surrounded by a stone wall twice as tall as a
man?”

“
Not to keep the enemies
out?”

“
No—to keep his servants
in.
Oh, he told them he had it constructed for safety, but
his personal writings said it was to test a theory. He told his
servants that they were like family to him, and he’d hate for them
to be witness to the devastation that was occurring in Idumea with
raids from outlying villages. They believed him. Every horror
imaginable, he imagined and shared with them. Soon they were too
terrified to even consider approaching the walls, sure that a stray
arrow would come over the top and hit them. They found arrows many
mornings in the compound, evidence of battles that raged around the
mansion. Or so they surmised.”

Genev was breathless.

Mal smiled at his stunned response. “After
five years Querul’s servants had no desire to leave the mansion
grounds. Only their small corner of the world was safe,
obviously.

“
But whenever Querul
thought his servants’ belief was waning, he’d drop more evidence
over the stone walls, usually in the form of dead bodies desecrated
in torturous ways. Even a few children’s corpses were tossed over,
to demonstrate that no one was immune from the fighting surrounding
the Idumea. He traumatized them into believing nowhere was
safe.”

“
But,” Genev finally spoke,
“fighting never reached the heart of Idumea. The edges, yes, but
the army always kept it out of the center of the city.”

“
Now, how would Querul’s
servants ever know about that?”

Genev blinked. “They wouldn’t! If their only
source of information was Querul the First, then—”

“
Precisely. He even had
some of his soldiers run around the compound a couple of times a
year, screeching and shouting. He achieved complete control over
the knowledge and thoughts of his servants. So widely successful
was he that he took the next step: he began to use the same methods
over the world. First he controlled what they knew and eliminated
that which was counter to his agenda. That was when he established
neighborhood schools, an idea which we’ve expanded. Querul also
gathered all of the family lines and with them, much of the history
concerning the first families. Telling everyone he was to compile
it all in one shared book, to be distributed freely throughout the
world, was what convinced everyone to give up their most prized
documents.

“
He also found and
collected records written by the first families, the guides, and
even the one who claimed he was the Creator. And Querul discovered
documents containing descriptions of terrain and the geography of
this entire sphere, details about the stars, movements of the sea,
descriptions of phenomena such as storm patterns and even what
happens when a volcano erupts.

“
It became clear to Querul
that much of this information had been passed down orally from
parent to child, since parchment was so expensive and rarely used
for any writings except the most important details, as those
document represented. Without that knowledge being recorded, it
would eventually be forgotten.

“
But Querul had worried
that if somehow all of those bits and pieces were ever compiled
together, it would represent a vast wealth of knowledge. And if the
populace had all that knowledge, nothing could restrain them from
leaving Idumea and its surroundings. They would know enough to
break free.”

Genev slowly shook his head in amazement. “So
the fire . . . the fire that consumed all those writings in the
stone vault . . . Querul did that intentionally, didn’t he?”

“
Oh, yes,” Mal nodded in
appreciation. “Of course he played it up as if it were a great
tragedy, but it was all part of his design. He had many plans for
the world and for his own wealth. But if a people aren’t contained,
their skills, knowledge, and labor can’t be capitalized upon by the
most powerful in the world.

“
So Querul traumatized the
world, similarly as he had done to his servants. He embarked on
controlling their knowledge and terrifying them from ever leaving.
He sent out Terryp to gather information about the western lands,
fully intending to discredit him when he returned. Terryp lent him
a hand in that. So inspired and enthused about what he discovered,
he came back quite mad. Terryp found all kinds of ruins, etchings
in stone in other forms of writings, carved illustrations of
animals no one had ever seen—it was quite simple to demonstrate the
western lands were poisoned and empty for a reason. Look how
maddened Terryp was once he returned!”

“
Genius!” Genev
breathed.

“
Querul was,” Mal sighed,
almost in envy. “But someone saw through his tactic: the last
guide, Pax. He confronted Querul, told him it was all lies, and
that he would expose his deceit to the world. That’s when Querul
sent him out to discover new lands for himself. He gave Pax
supplies and even his own personal guards, with explicit directions
for those guards to kill the meddling old man who claimed he was
inspired by the Creator. A few weeks later Querul’s guards returned
to him with blood on their hands and a promise that Guide Pax was
no longer a threat.”