The Falcon in the Barn (Book 4 Forest at the Edge series) (85 page)

Perrin grunted, still focused on his crumpled
jacket that he never set down unless it was properly. “A part of me
can’t believe I resigned either,” he said. “But it was the right
thing to do,” he added.

He turned to Mahrree. “You’re a little pale,”
he said, concerned.

She hadn’t dare look at him yet, worried
about what she might see in his eyes. Still watching his jacket as
if it would jump to life at any moment, she exclaimed, “Why
shouldn’t I be! After everything that just happened, and—” Her chin
waggled.

He took her gently by the arm, and she
finally looked up into his eyes. His dark brown eyes that
still—
still
—had the effect of disrupting her breathing.
Something in them smoldered in the old familiar way, but his eyes
were ringed with worry.

“
Mahrree, Mahrree, what did
you
think
was going to happen?”

She opened her mouth to speak but nothing
came out. When she finally formed words, they hardly made sense.
“You just stood there, and didn’t say anything . . . and then you
were forcing me off the platform, and the mountain lion pin, and
‘general’ and . . .” The tears started. “I didn’t know what to
think!”

Perrin, never quite sure to do with her on
the rare occasions that she cried, pulled her into him, which was
an appropriate move. “Did you really think I could go along with
any
of this?”

“
But you were!” Her voice
was muffled against his chest. The same chest that just minutes ago
wore a uniform that designated him as General Shin. Who was now
gone . . .

It was going to take awhile to sort it all
out in her head.

“
You didn’t tell me
anything, or look at me about anything.”

He surprised her by chuckling sadly. “What
look is there that I could possibly give you that says, ‘By the
way, our entire way of life is now completely undone’?”

She almost chuckled back. “Why didn’t you
give us a hint?”

“
When? It’s been a rather
full day, Mahrree!” He sighed. “The messenger that came up this
morning handed me the mountain lion pin, said that Chairman Mal
insisted I put it on immediately, and then announced that Cush had
died yesterday, and that I was to report for Idumea as soon as
possible. I’d barely received that information when the coaches
arrived with their ‘findings.’ Mahrree, even you have to admit that
all of that was a little much for just one look. I had no idea what
to tell Shem, except that you shouldn’t come to the fort until I
had everything sorted out.”

“
Doesn’t seem like it
sorted out very well,” she whimpered.

“
Actually, I think the
general thing sorted out quite well.” He sounded genuinely
cheerful. “Except for you and me. What happened to you at the
amphitheater?”

“
To me?” she pulled away to
look at him, and noticed his expression was still anxious despite
his effort to appear confident. “What happened to you? You turned
into a
general!
I thought my husband was gone forever and .
. .” The stupid tears started again.

“
Didn’t we work this out in
Idumea?” Perrin whispered, taking her face in his hands and
brushing away a tear with his thumb. “When you start spouting off,
I need to shut off. With as angry as you became tonight, one of us
had to stay calm. If I agreed with you up there in front of
everyone, Thorne would have killed us both, I’m sure of it. Or we
would have been incarcerated by Genev’s assistant. But fortunately
for this family
I’ve
learned some self-control.” He smiled
drearily. “You silly woman. I remembered my vows. All of
them—including the one to not kill you,” he chuckled. “That’s what
you thought was going to happen here, isn’t it?”

Mahrree felt utterly foolish. Yes, she
thought he had abandoned them. Instead he abandoned the army and
everything he’d known and lived for his entire life.

Now he was only Perrin Shin.

No general could have been greater than
Perrin Shin.

“
I did,” she confessed,
“and I’ve never been happier to admit that I was wrong.”

He grinned. “I definitely want
that
in
writing!” He leaned in to kiss her, but stopped just as his lips
brushed hers. “Wait a minute. I just remembered.” He pulled away
from her. “You called me a
son of a sow?
”

“
But I didn’t mean it!” she
insisted. “The general—
he
was the son of a sow!” There she
was, saying it again, and all she could do was slap her hand over
her mouth.

But her husband was already grinning. “I
didn’t realize you even
knew
that phrase.”

“
I teach teenage boys,
remember? I know all kinds of things.”

“
I’m learning all kinds of
things as well,” said Peto cautiously, standing up behind his
father.

Perrin kissed Mahrree before turning to his
son. “I don’t know whether to praise you or punish you for what you
tried to do today.”

Peto bobbled his head back and forth. “I
could say the same thing about you, you know.”

Mahrree wondered when her son had become so
brave.

Perrin cracked a smile. “Agreed. But Peto,
what did you
think
you were going to do with my old
sword?”

His son squirmed. “I, uh . . . was hoping to
stop you . . . from whatever it was I thought
you
were about
to do.”

Perrin released a low whistle. “I don’t
really want to think on any of that.”

“
Neither do I!” Peto said.
“Sorry, about everything. I just wasn’t sure, and Deck and I were
worried, and—”

Before Peto could finish his rambling
apology, Perrin caught him in a brief but fierce hug.

“
Just don’t ever do
something like that again,” Perrin said as he released his son.
“However, I’m proud of you for trying to defend your mother against
my resignation.” He picked up his old sword and examined it. “Needs
a bit of polishing, but still sharp. I’ll put it away in a better
hiding spot later.”

“
Father?” Peto cleared his
throat nervously, “when I charged you . . . you dropped
Grandfather’s sword on the table.”

Perrin continued to examine the tarnished
blade. “I did.”

Peto swallowed before saying, “You didn’t
mean to, did you?”

Mahrree had been wondering that herself. It
was almost as if Relf’s sword had slid itself out of Perrin’s
gloved grip. Maybe the gloves hadn’t been such a bad idea after
all.

Perrin was silent, pretending to rub at a
smudge. Eventually he said, “No, I didn’t.” He shifted his gaze to
his now-pale son. “I was acting on instinct. For twenty-five years
I’ve been conditioned how to respond when I see someone coming at
me with a blade. I don’t even think; I just react. For that reason
alone I should never take up another sword.” He threw it on the
table. “I’m sorry, Peto. The gloves are stupid, but tonight they
saved your life.

“
But I don’t think that was
entirely everything,” he said as the three of them watched his old
sword slow its vibration. “As ridiculous as this may sound, I don’t
think my father’s sword would have tolerated its use in taking an
innocent life. I know it’s an inanimate object, but I think somehow
it would exact revenge for someone using it wrongly. It’s as if it
slipped out of my gloves to avoid harming you.”

“
Perhaps it still carries
part of Relf Shin’s spirit?” Peto said.

Perrin looked up from the table, nodded at
his son, and blinked away the wetness in his eyes. “Maybe it was
Relf himself.”

Mahrree sniffed and put an arm around her
husband’s waist, realizing it was safe again to touch him.

Peto nodded once, the color slowly coming
back to his face. “I’m just glad I didn’t have to knock any sense
into you,
Mr.
Shin. I never thought I would be so upset
about you becoming a general.”

Perrin turned to him. “That struck me as odd,
too. Care to explain?”

“
No.”

Perrin studied his son, as if he could find
more of an answer in him somewhere, but instead called out, “Deck?
How’s my daughter?”

“
Jaytsy!” Mahrree cried as
she remembered she had another child, and rushed to the kitchen
with Perrin behind her.

They found their daughter on the floor, still
weeping.

Deck was cradling her and rocking. “She’s all
right. She’s just a little emotional again,” he said, visibly
concerned. He looked up at Mahrree. “You know, cows just don’t
behave this way when they’re expecting. A little extra mooing
maybe, but not like this . . .”

“
I
do
know,” Perrin
said. “Remember, we talked about ‘the condition?’” He winked at
Deck.

“
I can’t tell you how good
it is to see you back, Perrin!” Deck said. “Sorry about the whole
long knife thing. I see why pitchforks are better,
though.”

Perrin chuckled and crouched next to him. “I
never intended to run you through, by the way. Peto, yes. But you?
Never.”

Perrin put his hand under Jaytsy’s chin and
lifted it. “And I’m sorry I worried all of you today.”

Jaytsy sniffled and giggled. “I’m all right,
really. I’m just more relieved than anything, Father. And I still
get to call you Father!” She reached up to hug him. “And
Grandpy!”

“
How could I possibly leave
my grandbaby?” he said as he embraced her and sat on the floor by
her. “Just . . . just not
Grandpy
, all right? We’ll find
another name.”

Mahrree sat down on the floor by Jaytsy,
which left Peto standing all by himself.

“
Well that was an exciting
evening,” he said. “Now what?”

Mahrree exhaled. “Good question . . . now
what?”

Perrin’s brow furrowed. “We’ve just started a
high stakes game of dices with Idumea, I’m afraid.”

“
What’s dices?” Deckett
asked.

“
A dumb game where soldiers
throw dice, pretend they know what numbers will come up, and bet
against each other,” Peto said, sitting down on the wood floor
across from his brother-in-law. “You know, we
do
have a sofa
and stuffed chairs out in the gathering room,” he pointed out as he
leaned against a cabinet and a knob caught him on the back of the
head.

Mahrree shuddered. “A few too many raw and
recent memories out there right now. They’ll fade by morning,
though. This is nice, all of us together in a circle on the floor.”
Realizing how odd that sounded, she added, “Glad I swept thoroughly
before we left for the amphitheater,” and recognized, as Jaytsy
giggled, that sounded even more ridiculous.

Everything about the evening had been
ridiculous.

Perrin smiled at his family. “Yes, this is
just fine. Deck, Peto’s version of dices is a bit abbreviated, but
accurate enough. We just threw a set of dice, then declared what we
think the next roll will be. Now we have to wait for Idumea to see
if, and how, it will bet against us.”

Deck frowned. “Sounds like a mere game of
chance.”

“
It is,” Perrin agreed.
“But fortunately that’s really not what we’re playing right now.
We’ve created a very complicated situation that will take Idumea
several weeks to unravel, if they don’t get frustrated and give up
all together.”

Mahrree twisted to look at him. “Exactly what
have we done?” she asked, worriedly. She hadn’t yet stopped to
think of long term consequences to any of this. A few minutes ago
she was just trying to get through the night alive.

Perrin tried to put on The Dinner smile,
which told Mahrree the situation was indeed bleak. “The initial
plan was for you to accompany me to Idumea
tomorrow
to be
questioned about your protests by the Administrator of Loyalty.
Genev’s assistant was on the platform and insisted that you be
reined in for your behavior.”

Mahrree went paler than milk, and Peto
whispered, “Reined in? Oh my.”

“
I took a quick walk around
the green to come up with a plan,” Perrin told them. “You see, it’s
one thing for a regular citizen to speak out as you did, but as the
wife of the new High General—”

Mahrree gasped. “Were you to be the High
General?”

Peto didn’t have a smart comment for that as
Jaytsy whimpered and Deck swallowed so hard all of them could hear
it.

But Perrin merely shrugged. “That’s what
Mal’s message implied,” he said off-handedly. “And that was another
thing I was trying to figure out: how to get out of the appointment
safely. Qayin Thorne would be furious he wasn’t getting the
position. I’m not even sure we would have arrived in Idumea alive.”
He rubbed his forehead. “Ah, Mahrree—so much was happening so
quickly that I could hardly think!”

She grabbed his arm and hugged it, the only
belated comfort she could offer.

“
By the time I came back
from my walk to ask Genev’s assistant some questions,” Perrin
continued, “he already had a new understanding. It seems Rector
Yung had spent a few minutes with him explaining how we are
‘cornerstones of the community’ and how anything that happened to
Mahrree would most likely generate a great deal of ill-will toward
the Administrators. Yung told the assistant that the last thing the
Administrators needed, after the disappointing news about the
ruins, was an all out riot. And,” Perrin smiled, shaking his head,
“he reminded the assistant that I was still considered a hero. Even
though the play finally ended last year, the Administrators
certainly wouldn’t want a new play surfacing about the untimely
downfall of everyone’s favorite colonel’s
wife!
That
Yung—he’s something else, isn’t he? I need to thank him—” He
stopped when he noticed Mahrree was horror-stricken.