The Mansions of Idumea (Book 3 Forest at the Edge series) (68 page)

Shem had rebuilt the entire level at least
three feet higher. The roof line stood at an impressive peak on top
of the house, exactly as she had imagined it could, but somehow
better.

Mahrree was still staring, dumbfounded, when
Shem and Perrin dismounted and walked over to her.

“Zenos, you missed your calling,” Perrin
declared. “That’s amazing! Where’d you learn to build houses?”

Shem grinned. “I had help, you know.”

“Yes, I supervised,” Hycymum announced.

“She sure did,” Shem said sweetly. “Poe Hili
and I spent all of our spare time up there working and talking,
ever since you left. He confessed a lot, Perrin, and still has a
lot to fix. But I have confidence in him. He’s a changed man, and
he’s going to be a good soldier. Karna and I felt terrible about
making him the messenger, but I don’t think that will lead to any
backsliding.”

Perrin nodded. “I could tell he’s changed.
You’re the perfect man to talk to, Shem. I can’t imagine how a
rector could have done him more good.”

Mahrree sniffed. “I can’t stand it,” she
whispered.

Her family looked at her, confused. “Can’t
stand what?” Perrin asked gently. He glanced at the house that
looked perfect to him.

Hycymum sighed. “Well, Shem didn’t take
all
my advice.”

“No, it’s just too much. These past weeks,”
she began to weep again. “How can so many miracles be packed into
such a small time frame? I thought I’d seen it all. But now to hear
Poe Hili is changed because he could talk to Shem Zenos while
rebuilding my bedroom because of the land tremor?” She started to
sob.

Hycymum blinked in surprise. Shem and Perrin
exchanged startled expressions. Perrin shrugged at his family and
put his arm around his wife.

“No, it’s good! It’s all just
too
good. The house I mean, but other things . . .” Mahrree tried to
assure them as she blubbered. It’d been such a terrible night, and
leaving the Shins so suddenly, and then everything in the past few
weeks, and so much was good and bad and worrying, and miraculously
she was home again, and the house was fine when so much still
wasn’t, and now all of that was insisting on piling on top of her
right then—

She couldn’t explain it, so it just came out
in tears.

Shem cringed. He leaned over to Perrin and
whispered, “Maybe we should wait until she’s calmed down before I
show her the built-in wardrobe. I took part of that attic you don’t
seem to use, and converted it so you can walk right in and hang up
the clothes—”

Mahrree burst out into loud sobs.

---

The house was small. Compared to the mansion,
it was tiny. Shed-size, and added on to in odd ways.

The garden was pathetic: lifeless, with two
spits, tree stumps for stools and a bench, and a big rock in the
middle of it.

The upstairs bedroom, while far taller and
with a walk-in wardrobe that it didn’t have before, was still more
confining than the maids’ upstairs bedrooms in the Shin
mansion.

But nothing was better than being home.

For the first time in weeks Mahrree and
Perrin lay down tentatively on their bed and looked up at the
ceiling that was more solid than even the oaks that gave their
lives for it. They were fully aware of the pairs of eyes that
watched them.

“Well?” Hycymum asked eagerly.

Mahrree pushed down on the plush blankets and
bounced her head experimentally on the new feather pillow.

Perrin rubbed the cotton under his hand. “The
curtains match the blankets that match the pillows that match the
rug, correct?”

Mrs. Peto stood a little taller and looked
proudly at her granddaughter who grinned back.

“I like the blue,” Perrin said. “Sets off the
red and white nicely. You said it’s called plaid? I must admit, I .
. . I kind of like it.” He sat up and nodded at his
mother-in-law.

She beamed.

Mahrree chuckled from her prone position.
“Jaytsy thought we needed new blankets in here. I told her it was
just an excuse to go shopping.”

“But everything was so dirty and starting to
mold, Mahrree! I couldn’t get it clean,” Hycymum explained. “The
mattress was salvageable, fortunately, but there was nothing left
to do but get new bedding.”

Mahrree sat up. “But how did you get it? So
much in the markets burned—” She narrowed her eyes at her mother.
“You already had it, didn’t you? You probably weakened the ceiling
just hoping it would collapse so that we’d have to use what you had
ready, right?” She smiled through her scowl.

“Oh, I didn’t do that. I wouldn’t know how
to,” Hycymum chuckled. “But yes, I already had it. I was going to
redo your bedroom for your anniversary next season as a surprise,
and Jaytsy was going to help get you out of the house for me. I
thought Perrin would approve of the plaid.”

He nodded and looked around. “Makes me feel
rather woodsy, somehow.”

His wife looked at him as if she smelled
something foul. “Woodsy?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m new to this,
all right?”

Hycymum smiled a bit apologetically. “I
realize it’s not exactly a mansion in Idumea—”

“Mother, I’ve had enough of the mansions in
Idumea,” Mahrree promised her.

Hycymum’s eyes grew big. “Did you see
one?”

Mahrree pursed her lips as her children
snorted.

Perrin rubbed his forehead. “I’ll let you
break it to her while I’m gone to the fort. I’m not sure if I could
handle her reaction right now.”

“My reaction?” Hycymum frowned. “To
what?”

Perrin let her question slide, got off the
bed, stood on his tiptoes to show his head still had plenty of
room, and winked at Shem who, smiling, leaned in the doorway with
his arms folded.

Perrin stepped over to his mother-in-law and
gave her an unexpected kiss on the cheek. “It’s wonderful to come
home to a beautiful bedroom. Thank you.”

Hycymum turned pink.

Perrin turned to his wife. “I want to check
on the fort, and then I’ll be back for a late dinner and a good
night’s sleep.”

“Leave your jacket, Perrin,” Hycymum reminded
him. “I’ll soak it with your riding coat to get out that mud.”

“It’s not mud, Grandmother,” Peto started,
“it’s bl—”

“—a real mess. Thank you, Mother Peto.”
Perrin unbuttoned his jacket and sent a calculated look to his son.
“I’ll wear one of my old ones to the fort.”

“Real brass buttons,” she whispered in awe as
she took the jacket from Perrin.

Mahrree shook her head sadly. If her mother
swooned over the brass on his new jacket, she’d tip over lifeless
at the news they actually lived in a mansion.

Perrin glanced sympathetically at his wife,
then punched Shem good-naturedly on the shoulder. “Don’t hang
around here too long unloading, Zenos. I’ll need your eyes at the
fort soon,” he told his master sergeant before he headed down the
stairs.

Mahrree got off the bed and hugged her
mother. “It’s even better than silk sheets which, I assure you,
aren’t nearly as comfortable as they sound.”

“Silk sheets? They make sheets out of silk?
Where’d you see that?”

“Uh, later Mother. Let’s finish unloading the
coach so Shem can bring it back to the fort.”

“Absolutely,” Shem said. “It’s had enough
airing out.”

---

After inspecting the fort for an hour, making
sure nothing was out of place—and blessedly it wasn’t—Perrin walked
into his office and sighed in satisfaction. The fort and his office
were exactly as they should be, which was immensely comforting
since everything else in his life had been upended the past few
weeks. He sat easily in the big chair at his desk, his shoulders
relaxing before he heard a familiar gait come up the stairs.

“I found him on my way in,” Shem said, poking
his head in the door. “He’s on his way.”

Perrin nodded. “Good. Stick around, all
right?”

Shem twitched his acknowledgement and stepped
back to give room for Lieutenant Riplak as he came up the
stairs.

“Colonel Shin, sir!” he stood at attention at
the door. “Reporting as ordered, sir.”

“At ease and sit down, Riplak. Sleep
well?”

“Yes sir,” he said as he took a chair. “But I
should be leaving for Idumea soon, sir.”

Colonel Shin shook his head. “Not until dawn.
You’ll accompany the rest of the garrison soldiers headed south to
help return the horses.”

The lieutenant shifted nervously. “But your
father will be expecting me. I’m his—”

“His what, Riplak?” Colonel Shin interrupted.
“Betrayer?”

Riplak’s chin dropped. “Sir?”

The colonel stood up, walked around his desk,
and yanked the stunned young man out of his chair. “Who’d you speak
to? How’d they know we were coming?”

Riplak stammered, “N-n-n-o one, sir! I left
from the mansion and went straight to the stables. I don’t know how
the Guarders knew you were coming. Maybe it was just a coincidence.
I’m very sorry, sir. I was shocked when I heard about the attack. I
wasn’t expecting
that
. Honestly!”

Perrin breathed heavily as he stared into the
frightened young man’s eyes, looking for deceit. He remembered
glaring at Shem like this, years ago, trying to discern if he was a
Guarder. Riplak’s face blanched the same way Shem’s had, and his
lower jaw began to tremble.

“I’d do nothing to betray your father, sir.
Please
.
I’m committed to serving the world.”

Perrin released his grip on the young man’s
uniform and Riplak slumped helplessly back into his chair.

“Can you prove it?” Colonel Shin
demanded.

“I-I-I-I rode all night to deliver his
message, sir.” Now the tremble in his lower jaw spread to his
entire body. “I’ve never been north of Pools, sir. To be honest, I
was a bit uneasy. Not exactly my kind of thing, riding in the dark
to unfamiliar destinations, all alone.” His breathing quickened.
“Was never more happy than to see the sun rise over the marshes!
Please, sir, can I just go back Idumea?” He was scared.

Perrin had never known Guarders to be scared
of anything. Agitated, shifty, irrational, and impulsive, yes. But
not scared.

Perrin stared at the quaking lieutenant and
tried to clear his mind to feel for any kind of impression that he
shouldn’t let Riplak leave. Nothing came.

Perhaps it
was
a coincidence that the
Guarders happened upon them. Perhaps someone in the stables was a
contact. If what his father told him was true—that Guarders lived
among them—Perrin could think of dozens of men that could have
revealed their plans.

“If you leave now,” Perrin said, “you’ll be
riding in the dark all the way back. Alone.”

Riplak gulped at the thought.

“But if you wait until morning, you’ll have
light and dozens of men and horses accompanying you.”

Riplak nodded. “Sir, I am sorry. Truly,” he
said as he got to his feet. “But you were uninjured, right sir? The
future High General’s fine?”

Perrin’s brows furrowed at that reference to
the future High General, but he said only, “Be careful on the way
home, all right, Lieutenant? My father would be disappointed if
anything happened to you.”

“Yes, sir. My life’s purpose is to attend to
the High General, sir.”

---

“Think we’re finally back to the same old
routine?” Mahrree asked Perrin in the dark of their bedroom late
that night.

Perrin snored back.

Mahrree laughed softly and sank into the new
sheets. They were cotton and nubby and perfect.

Even though poor Hycymum had nearly
hyperventilated to hear that even her grandchildren had slept in
silk sheets—and lived for two weeks in a mansion in Idumea—Mahrree
wouldn’t have wanted anything else but a plaid bedroom.

That night she dreamed again of a gray,
wooden-planked house, filled with children and laughter, but
without a stitch of silk in it anywhere.

---

Two men sat in the dark office of an unlit
building.

Neither of them spoke for several minutes,
still trying to absorb it all.

“And
still
he succeeded.” It was
Brisack. He breathed the words partly in awe, partly in rage. “How
the
slag
did he pull that off?”

The only thing to drag Nicko Mal out of his
stunned reverie was to hear the good doctor using such profanity.
While slag was the refuse of smelted metals, it also referred to
the filthiest elements of society, worthy only of being cast off. A
refined doctor wouldn’t use such language unless—

“You’re angry about this?”

“Of course I’m angry!” Brisack snapped. “We
had an arrangement! Then we revised that arrangement, and
still
he went off and did precisely what he wanted!”

As furious as Mal was about the loss of the
reserves—the Shins were now nothing more than thieving rogue
Guarders in his mind—he was more fascinated that Perrin’s biggest
admirer was turning on him. “You’re taking this personally, aren’t
you?”

Brisack’s hand clenched into a fist. “With
provisions
, I told him. Provided he’d create a complete
report of the conditions in Edge. Provided he’d give me a week to
work on the Administrators. Provided he’d allow me to oversee the
loading of the wagons! But what did he do? After all these years of
defending him, preserving him, speculating for him, he just, just,
just—”

Nicko Mal couldn’t help but smile as Brisack
frothed.

“—just,
did what he wanted
! What an
infuriating son of a sow!”

Mal burst into a grin. Observing the
breakdown of Dr. Brisack was the greatest entertainment he’d had in
years. Two profanities in two minutes? The Shins’ betrayal was
nearly worth it to witness this.