The Falcon in the Barn (Book 4 Forest at the Edge series) (97 page)

Deck looked around the kitchen, searching for
the right words as if his mother-in-law had left a short speech for
him somewhere. Finding nothing, he did the best he could on his
own.

“
You know as well as I do
that an apple picked before its time is sour,” he said. Feeling
empowered by the wisdom of the metaphor, he continued, realizing
that he had a whole farm he could use as examples. “While peppers
are all right to pick when they’re still green, wheat that isn’t
ripe is of no use, and lettuce picked before its prime is
bitter—”

Jaytsy gripped the front of shirt, yanked him
closer and said, “If you keep going, you best not compare me to a
cow, unless you’re ready to be compared to an
ox!
” She
released his shirt and went back to attacking her dinner.

Deck swallowed, straightened up, and took a
wary step back.

Jaytsy was truly the most thoughtful,
intelligent, and beautiful woman he’d ever met. He fell in love
with her so easily and knew there was no one else in the world that
could compare.

But there were moments, such as this one,
when he recalled with gut-punching clarity that she carried the
blood of several army officers—the deadliest men in the world.

And it wasn’t as if any of that was tempered
on her mother’s side; Deck had seen Mahrree’s kindness turn into
rabid ferocity on enough occasions to be a bit leery around her as
well.

So naturally it was moments like this that
made Deck wonder what kind of children they may have, and if they
would terrify him.

As he watched Jaytsy hack at a boiled potato
until it was pulverized, he worried about his own wedding
vegetables being abused so rashly, so he tiptoed out of the
room.

“
Just a little more
mooing,” he assured himself as he headed for the safety of the
barn. “Just a little more mooing.”

Chapter 37
~
“Who in the world would be brave enough to visit
us?”

I
nstead of going
through her back door as she normally did, Mahrree went to her
front garden to inspect her seeds before entering the house. It had
been three weeks since she planted, and she was hoping something
would decide to bravely break through the gravely soil, but it was
too dark for her to see anything. Or maybe Peto had been
right—nothing would know how to grow there.

Disappointed, but not yet discouraged, she
trudged through the front door, went straight to the sofa, and
plopped onto it. She had thought expecting a baby was hardest thing
to do, but watching her daughter expecting was a very close
second.

Noticing that the kitchen door had swung shut
as she came in—Perrin was likely trying to figure out something for
dinner—she called out to him, “So it wasn’t the real thing, as I’m
sure you’ve surmised by now.”

Peto snored loudly in his bedroom.

“
I knew it was far too
early,” she called again. “It’s better this way, but Jaytsy won’t
believe that tonight.”

Her husband said something quietly in the
kitchen.

“
Perrin, are you all right
in there?”

“
Uh, yes,” he called
louder. “Fine.”

“
Want some
help?”

“
No, no, no. I’ve got
it.”

“
Really, I’m not that
tired,” she lied as she closed her eyes and heard the door to the
kitchen slowly open.

“
Since when do you come
home through the front door?” he asked.

“
Since I have a garden to
attend to. Nothing’s up in it yet, as far as I can
tell.”

“
Uh, dinner will be ready
in a while. Got a late start. Just baking some potatoes. We’ve got
cheese, too. Peto made it, so we should be
cautious
.”

“
Sounds fine,” she mumbled
with her eyes still closed, noticing only vaguely that the way he
said cheese suggested additional meanings. But cautious about
cheese?

A moment later his voice was right above her.
“Mahrree? We need to talk.”

She forced her eyes opened to look at him,
hearing something tight and tense in his voice. In the dim
candlelight she noticed apprehension on his face that she’d never
seen before.

Maybe he wasn’t worried only about Peto’s
cheese.

Immediately she sat up straighter. “What’s
wrong?”

He gave her The Dinner smile. “Nothing’s
wrong,
actually . . . it’s just that, uh . . .”

His eyes flickered to the front door, then
back to her again.

“
You came through
that
door?” Despite her questioning expression, he
continued. “Mahrree, when I came home tonight, I found a visitor
waiting for me.”

Mahrree blinked at him, stunned that someone
had been there. “Who in the world would be brave enough to visit
us?”

“
Interesting choice of
words for your question,” he chuckled rigidly. “
Who in the
world?
I haven’t yet heard everything, but we need to hear this
together. Mahrree, it seems that perhaps a solution has found us.”
With his eyes he gestured to the kitchen.

Her shoulders sagged in disappointment. “But
Perrin, Terryp’s land! What happened to your plan? We were
going—”

She stopped as a horrible realization came to
her.

Maybe the visitor in the kitchen was someone
who wouldn’t
let
them leave. Perhaps it was someone from the
garrison, or the Administrators.

And here she was blurting out their secrets,
very
in
cautiously—

“
Mahrree, will you listen
to what the visitor has to say?”

She’d never seen him so hesitant and stiff.
Maybe this was finally Idumea’s response to her outburst.

Feeling herself grow weak, she said, “Perrin,
are you sure—”

“
Mahrree, just . . .” He
glanced to the kitchen. “Just wait here.”

She sat up properly and turned from her
position on the sofa to watch him go to the kitchen, bracing
herself for whatever would come through that door. She had to be
brave; there was no other choice.

A moment later someone came through the door,
initially hard to see in the dim candlelight.

But soon Mahrree noticed enough that she
stiffened and took to her feet. Perrin walked calmly behind the
stranger who wore rough linen or cotton, Mahrree wasn’t sure which,
dyed in mottled colors.

She went into full alarm. “PERRIN! Why is
there a Guarder in my house?”

“
Actually, we’re not always
called Guarders,” the person—female—said as she padded, strangely
tranquil, across the room.

Mahrree glared at Perrin. His face was
unreadable, which made Mahrree feel even more anxious.

A
woman
. A Guarder woman which Perrin
thought didn’t exist, but that Mahrree knew did. She recognized the
clothing—the same as she had seen on the woman years ago in the
forest. But this wasn’t the same person; she was younger, darker,
and more gentle.

Gentle?

Her soft brown eyes complimented her curly
soft black hair which was tied up in a wide ponytail. Everything
about the woman was calm, reassuring, and highly suspicious.

She stopped in front of Mahrree. “Our
ancestors
were
sort of Guarders, for a time, but now we have
taken a new name: Salemites.”

Every inch of Mahrree panicked. “What does
that mean?” She looked frantically to Perrin for answers, who stood
behind the woman. Mahrree fully expected to see him holding his
long knife, prepared to eliminate this threat in their gathering
room, but his hands were empty.

“
Just listen, Mahrree. And
. . . keep an open mind.” He smiled tentatively. “If anyone can,
it’s you.” He pulled out a chair by the table and sat down, nodding
for the woman to continue.

Mahrree knew her mouth was hanging wide open,
but she had no power to close it. She stared at her husband, then
finally back at the woman.

The visitor smiled so beautifully Mahrree
felt her whole body become warm. That was wrong! She hated this
woman and her people who killed her husband’s parents, who took
Perrin away from her so many times, who . . . who—

“
I understand you know the
history of your people very well, Mahrree Shin,” she said kindly.
“Tell me, what happened to the men that were guarding the ninth
Guide?”

Mahrree scoffed. “They killed Pax in 200!
They had spies everywhere, and when Querul the First discovered the
traitors he rooted them out. We’ve been rooting Guarders out ever
since!”

Astonishingly, Perrin slowly shook his
head.

Mahrree’s shoulders fell. “Wha—, Perrin?”

The woman kneeled down in front of Mahrree.
The action was so unexpected that Mahrree quit spluttering and sat
down clumsily on the sofa to see what odd thing the woman would do
next.

“
Mahrree Shin, Guide Pax
wasn’t killed. The men guarding him were not traitors. They were
his assistants, his brothers, and his protectors.”

“
So what happened to him?”
Mahrree snapped. “Tell me that!”

“
I would love to!” she said
with a radiant smile. “It was King Querul and Guide Pax who had
disagreements. It was King Querul’s guards who were told to kill
Pax. And it was those guards who betrayed Querul, not the other way
around. The guards supported the Guide, and told Pax that Querul
wanted him and all other followers of The Writings dead. King
Querul feared that the followers would destroy his kingdom and
power by protesting his changes to the world. Pax recognized much
could be resolved in letting Querul believe he was successful. So
Pax and the guards went into the forest up toward Mt. Deceit, just
as Querul wanted. They found a route past Moorland to a new land.
The guards then left Pax and a few of his men, returned to
Moorland, killed a deer in the forest, bloodied their cloaks and
hands, and allowed themselves to be captured.”

Mahrree sat breathless, unable to believe
what she was hearing, yet desperately hoping it was true.

“
Querul told the world he
executed the guards for their treachery, but in reality he rewarded
them for eliminating his greatest enemy. A few nights later he
released the seven guards to escape from Idumea, their pockets
filled with reward gold. They split up and went to different
villages of the world, bringing word to others who were devoted to
Pax that they’d found a new home. They went to every village to
bring the good news, along with directions of how to get there, and
even a bit of gold to help them leave. Querul’s reward gold became
the means for moving more than two thousand men, women, and
children.”

Mahrree couldn’t move, too stunned to even
blink.

All the history she knew so well was just
Querul’s story.

His
-story.

“
After a few hundred people
disappeared, Querul became suspicious. But after two weeks and more
than two thousand people missing, he began to realize something was
quite wrong. That’s when he fabricated his story about Guarders,
about a people living in a secret society out to betray and destroy
the world.” The light in the woman’s face dimmed and her voice
quieted. “We lost almost four hundred people who tried to join our
ancestors. They were tracked down and killed by Querul’s soldiers.
After that we had to establish secret ways to move them.” Her face
brightened considerably. “
And we did
. We’ve been very
successful ever since. The division of the world
did
happen,
Mahrree Shin!
And it’s still happening!”

The words, as soft and sweetly as the woman
delivered them, hit Mahrree with the force an ice storm. Yet still
she was filled with enormous heat and tears flooded her eyes. So
conflicted and surprised, she didn’t know what to think. It was too
much to believe. It was too good to be true . . .

She looked at Perrin.

He was leaning forward in his chair, arms
resting on his legs, watching her intently. “In a way, Pax was an
explorer.”

The dark woman smiled at Perrin’s
explanation. “We’re not as you’ve been told. Your kings and now
Administrators ignore all evidence of us. To keep your people here
they had to control you with fear of the unknown, just like a
parent tells of dangers of wild beasts to keep a child within arm’s
reach. And it’s worked, very well,” she said with a sad smile. “The
children of the governments have never questioned their leaders.
Even when they were mature enough to realize the truth could be
something entirely different.”

A memory buried deep in the back of Mahrree’s
mind suddenly flared up, filling her again with such heat and light
it nearly knocked her off the sofa.

She gulped as the woman smiled at her. “Mrs.
Shin, a long time ago you were told that ‘someday’ would come for
you. Do you remember that night?”

Oh, yes. All of it rushed back to her,
memories that she tried to forget. The forest. The woman—

Almost sixteen years ago she watched her
husband riding along the forest’s edge trying to discern what was
disturbing the woods. That night she decided that she would
discover the truth about the Guarders. She ran into the forest, was
surprised by a woman, was too cowardly to find the truth . . .

Perrin stared at her, mystified, with his
eyebrows furrowed.

The woman in front of her seemed to read it
all on Mahrree’s face. “Do these words sound familiar to you, Mrs.
Shin? ‘There will be a day when you
will
be ready to leave
it all behind and embrace the truth. Until then, think of this
night never again. Should your mind ever find itself surprised by
this memory, tell yourself it was just a vivid dream, for that’s
all it really is. You can practice looking at the world in
different ways, preparing your mind to realize you know really
nothing at all, looking at the sky and realizing it changes minute
by second, but until that
someday
comes, nothing will ever
quite make sense. That’s all right. But when that day
does
come, everything will hit you with such finality and power you will
never again be able to forget it or deny it. You will find the
truth and
run to it
.’”