The Falcon in the Barn (Book 4 Forest at the Edge series) (80 page)

She trudged over to the canal and turned the
handle to flood another section of farm—she was quite certain young
Mrs. Briter had told her to water that area—when she heard yet
another horse racing up the cobblestones. She almost didn’t bother
to look up because it was early enough in the morning that the
shifts were changing, and horses were traveling—

The rider on this one, however, was wearing
red.

An Administrative messenger, in a hurry.

With her fists clenched by her face in
excitement, she glanced at the tower by her house and saw a blue
banner. Usually the banners came down once the messengers reached
the fort road, but this one stayed up.

Mahrree began to bounce, partly to keep warm
in the cool air, partly to see if anyone else would be coming. The
thundering noise alone told Mahrree that what was rambling up the
road was big, important, and from Idumea.

She wasn’t disappointed. Only a few moments
later two large black coaches sped up the road and into the
compound of the fort.

“
Yes!” Mahrree cried and
threw her fists in the air. “FINALLY!”

A couple of soldiers walking along the road
looked over and offered her uncomfortable smiles.

Mahrree bit her lip and said, “
Yes
,
it’s
finally
a beautiful day, isn’t boys?”

They nodded obligingly and gave her the
casual salute that the soldiers frequently sent the wife of their
commander.

Mahrree giggled, picked up her skirt, and
went running to the barn. The 6
^th
Day of Planting
Season, 338 would be unforgettable!

As she made her way to the barn she even
composed her first song, a rather tuneless ditty that she sang
under her breath and went something like, “Terryp, Terryp, Terryp!
We’re coming, coming, coming! Tee-hee, tee-hee, tee-hee!”

She burst through the barn doors, sending a
handful of chickens squawking and flapping, and startling her
children and son-in-law who were busy with the morning chores.

“
A messenger and two
coaches! Just went up the road!”

Her three children stopped and looked at each
other.

“
Yes?” Deck asked Mahrree,
leaning on his pitchfork.

“
You silly boy, don’t you
know what that means?”

“
Another proclamation, law,
or tax?” Peto suggested, matching Deck’s pose on his own
pitchfork.

“
No!”

“
Oh, I know,” Jaytsy said
with a twinkle in her eye as she covered a crate full of butter
with a cloth. “It means that Father has been promoted and you’re
all moving to Idumea tomorrow.”

“
Now, stop it!” Mahrree
stomped her foot.

“
Oooh, you got a foot
stomp, Jayts. Good job!” Peto nodded.

“
You have to know just how
far to push her, Peto,” Jaytsy told him instructively. “Next I’m
going for an arm-folding.”

“
And you got it, Jayts,”
Deck nudged her. “Without even trying.”

“
Deckett,” Mahrree said
impatiently, “don’t let them drag you into this. I still like
you
, but that can change.”

Peto shook his head. “I’m feeling left out.
Deck got a threat. I’ve got nothing right now. I must be losing my
touch. Mother, can I go out stealing chickens tonight? I’ll bring
them right over here, I promise.”

“
Will the three of you be
serious for once!” Mahrree nearly shouted.

“
Ah, well done, Peto,”
Jaytsy said. “You got her yelling,
and
at all three of us.
No, little brother, you haven’t lost your touch.”

Peto stood straighter to remind Jaytsy he was
now a full two inches taller than her.

Mahrree finally shook her head, trying not to
smile.

Deck pointed at her. “I see it. Around the
edges. Just can’t stay mad at us, can you?”

“
Do NONE of you care about
the expedition’s findings?!”

“
Apparently not as much as
you, Mother,” Jaytsy laughed. “I’m interested but not
maniacal
.”

“
I am NOT maniacal!”
Mahrree insisted.

“
And I’m not emotional!”
Jaytsy countered.

“
And I’ve never stolen a
cow!” Peto added.

Everyone looked at him.

He put on a ponderous face. “Wait—did I miss
what we’re doing? Hmm, let me think . . .”

Mahrree threw her hands up in the air.
“Enough of you! I’m going to see your father. He’ll care—”

“
No, you’re not,” a voice
said behind her in the doorway.

Mahrree spun around to face Shem.

“
Not that he doesn’t care,
but there’s a great deal of information pouring into the fort right
now. Perrin sent me down to tell you not to come up.” Then,
noticing that Mahrree was eyeing the gap in the doorway, Shem
closed it behind him. “When he saw the coaches arriving, he wanted
to make sure you stayed put.”

Mahrree gripped Shem’s arms. “What’s going on
up there?”

“
Calm down, calm down. For
a non-maniacal woman you’re a little crazy right now. I know what’s
still hiding in bottom drawer of your dresser,” he whispered loudly
in her ear with a wink to her children. “Don’t make me pull out
that bottle of sedation and use it on you.”

Mahrree held up her hands in surrender, took
a few deep breaths, and produced The Dinner smile. “Shem,” she said
in her best sing-song voice. “What is going on up there?”

“
I honestly don’t know.
It’s highly top secret, for the commander’s eyes only. The
Administrators’ messenger even booted out Captain Thorne,” Shem
said with no small satisfaction. “But I
do
know there will
be a presentation tonight, mandatory for the entire village, about
the findings. Soldiers are putting up the notices right now. All
entertainments for the evening are cancelled.”

“
That is serious,” Deck
nodded.

“
May cause a riot,” Peto
agreed.

“
Shem, what did he look
like, when he sent you here?” Mahrree asked.

“
Who, Perrin?”

“
Of course, Perrin!” she
shouted. She held up her hands and tried her compose herself again.
“I mean, what kind of
look
did he give you? Any
clues?”

Shem shook his head. “No clues. No look.”

“
Oh, come now! There’s
always a ‘look.’”

“
Not today.”

“
How can that
be?”

“
Because he had nothing to
give me yet!”

“
Are you sure?”

“
Yes!” Shem was growing
exasperated. “He gave me the ‘I don’t have anything to give you’
look,”

“
So he
did
give you
a look!”

Shem grumbled. “Peto, go get the sedation . .
.”

Chapter 30
~
“Mother! Sit DOWN!”

M
ahrree had endured
long days before: the first Guarder attack when Perrin didn’t come
home for days; when Perrin left for Idumea after his parents’ death
without a word to anyone . . .

She started to see a pattern. The longest
days were when her husband was away and she didn’t know what he
knew.

Just like today.

Shem was only joking about the bottle—mostly.
Her family tried to keep her occupied, and Shem promised he’d send
word as soon as he knew something, but no more information came
that morning or that tedious afternoon when she pretended to mend
socks for the Briters. Mahrree wolfed down dinner and washed the
dishes, some even twice just for good measure, waiting until it was
finally time for them to go to the amphitheater.

Jaytsy, Deckett, Peto and Mahrree left with
time to spare and planned to get a spot on the front row, but the
amphitheater was almost filled when they arrived half an hour
early. Apparently everyone was eager for the news.

The talk about moving to new lands in the
west had accelerated in the last few days once word reached Edge
that the expedition had returned. Mahrree had no desire to leave
her house, but her twentieth wedding anniversary was in a little
over a year, and she and her husband had their own expedition to
plan.

Mahrree sat down with Peto, Jaytsy and
Deckett on a bench in the middle of the amphitheater, much to
Mahrree’s disappointment, and listened to the excited conversation
around them.

“
I’m already looking for
buyers for my house . . .”

“
I wonder when we can
officially go. I won’t bother with planting this season if I won’t
be here to harvest it . . .”

“
Will everyone get maps, or
just those leaving?”

“
Does anyone know how long
it will take to get there?”

“
I’ll bet the ruins are
gone.”

“
I heard they saw new
animals. I wonder what kind?”

Mahrree watched the raised platform most of
the time, waiting to see when the empty chairs up there would be
filled, and by whom. A table was also erected, and several soldiers
placed large bags on it. When they laid down the bags Mahrree could
see they were filled with paper.

Enough for each family, Mahrree considered.
They had to be maps! Idumea would’ve had enough time to make
woodcuts of the region and stamp out enough for every household.
She was tempted to sneak up there and take a few, as if none of the
several thousand people seated around her would have noticed, when
a movement to the right caught her eye.

The crowd hushed as several men approach the
podium. She didn’t recognize any of them except for Perrin. The
colonel followed behind the men in the official red uniforms of the
Administrators’ assistants and aides.

Mahrree tried to read his mood by his step,
but because the men in front of him walked slowly, Mahrree couldn’t
pick up anything from his gait.

Look at me
, she thought. Look at me!
Perrin! Over here!

But he only stared blankly ahead, waiting for
the other men to take their seats. Finally he sat down in the last
chair, crossed his legs, and folded his arms. His eyes searched the
audience until he found his family.

Then he focused on Mahrree.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

She gave him her best pleading face.

Nothing.

Peto nudged her. “So what’s he saying?”

“
Nothing!” Mahrree wailed
softly.

Jaytsy giggled. “He’s better at this game
than you are, Mother. His face is like stone.”

“
I’ve seen him sit that way
before, Mahrree. It’s his, ‘Nope, you’re getting nothing out of me’
position.” Deck grinned. “He sat like that when I asked him what he
got me for my birthday.”

Mahrree growled under her breath and stared
back at her husband. She gave him a flirty wink, just to see if she
could break his concentration. He gazed at her for another moment
with no reaction before looking away to the audience.

Oh
, Mahrree thought with a pout,
he
is good.

The audience murmured as a thin man with a
pointy nose and pinprick eyes got up, moved around papers on the
table, then turned back to his seat for an additional stack of
notes. It seemed to Mahrree that he was deliberately slow.

Growing agitated, Mahrree repositioned
herself.

Perrin still refused to look at her.

Finally the man stood up at the table and
cleared his voice.

“
Good evening citizens of
Edge. My name is Mr. Kori. I am an aide to the Administrator of
Science, and I come this evening to bring you the findings of the
recent expedition to the western lands as revealed by a map
recently uncovered and supposedly belonging to the historian
Terryp.”

“
We know this already,”
Mahrree grumbled.

Peto and Jaytsy, sitting on either side of
her, simultaneously elbowed their mother.

Perrin saw the movement and shifted his gaze
to them, remaining completely stony faced.

Mahrree waggled her eyebrows suggestively at
him.

He looked away.

Mr. Kori pulled out his notes and began in a
loud and official tone. “We have, thanks to the expedition and its
findings, puzzled out the origin of our life.”

“
Origin of life?” Mahrree
blurted. Only her family noticed because the same refrain was being
repeated all over the amphitheater. “What about Terryp’s lands?”
Mahrree demanded with the rest of the crowd. “When did origin of
life suddenly become an issue?”

“
Mother, shhh!” Jaytsy
said. She should have shushed everyone. The entire amphitheater was
spouting like an impatient steam vent.

Mr. Kori’s voice rose above them. “We proudly
present here today the findings of the last excursion to the Cursed
Lands. We are calling the ruins this new name because it is what
they are: Cursed.” He didn’t pause to listen to any response but
continued reading from his notes.

But Mahrree’s mind had stuck on
cursed
.

No . . . no, that wasn’t right.

Oddly, a feeling—or rather a memory—was
rising in her mind and filling it. She couldn’t quite define it,
but she would very soon.

It was something about trees—

Shouts of protests woke Mahrree out of her
momentary stupor, and Kori’s unrelenting voice droned on
loudly.

“
We have concluded that the
Cursed Lands were indeed once populated, but not by a peoples
foreign to us as we have always believed. They were, in fact,
peopled by our ancestors.”