The Falcon in the Barn (Book 4 Forest at the Edge series) (59 page)

“
Nature has its own ways of
being selective,” Perrin insisted when Trum didn’t respond. “It
doesn’t need you to accelerate the process. The Creator
allows
Nature’s Laws to unfold. But many of those laws are
intended for animals to follow, not people! We are to rise above
the basic laws and live a higher law. Yes, the world’s unfair,
Nature’s unfair, because the Creator is allowing us the opportunity
to resolve that, as part of our Test. We can
choose
to bring
balance. We can choose to fix those inequalities.

“
I’m not here to force
anyone—” he didn’t realize he was gesturing with his sword until
Mahrree told him later, “—but I am here to ask you to think of the
needs of others. I believe the Creator intends for us to use our
surplus to help those in need. He’s giving us an opportunity to do
something good for others, not take a reward just for
surviving.”

He pivoted to address the entire crowd
surrounding him. “All of you received others’ surplus last year. I
have the records to prove it. All of you have been beggars waiting
in line for the emergency stores from Idumea. Now
you
have
the surplus, so give it to those who need it.”

“
Who is to say how much is
surplus, Shin?” Trum demanded, causing Perrin to spin around to
face his section of the amphitheater again. “If we have another
year like last, I’ll need all my resources to make it through! I
decide for myself what my family doesn’t need. So far, I don’t
think we have enough.”

A few brave voices chorused, “Hear,
hear!”

Someone else called out, “Well if Trum
doesn’t think he has enough, I certainly don’t either.”

A louder chorus of “Hear, hear!” rippled
among the villagers.

“
How much did you
need
to survive last year?” Perrin called over the
din.

The people quieted.

“
We lived for weeks off of
dry bread, shriveled apples, and bits of meat I chose not to
identify. But we survived.”

“
And I never want to live
like that again!” someone shouted.

“
I’m not saying you will,”
Perrin said. “We have far more than that, but some still don’t.
Already your lives are better, so choose to make others’ lives
better as well.”

“
To a vote!” someone near
the back began the chant. “To a vote!”

Trum sneered in challenge at the colonel and
punched the air above him. “To a vote! To a vote!”

By the fifth cry, the entire amphitheater was
demanding a vote.

Perrin sighed.

It was now beyond his influence. He motioned
to the magistrate with his sword. With irritated emphasis, he
sheathed his weapon and marched over to his seat to stand by it,
his arms folded.

Wibble tried to clear his throat over the
noise, but the call for a vote echoed even louder. Wibble looked to
the colonel who merely held up his hands and sat down in his chair,
shaking his head.

Local votes were to be overseen by the
magistrates. Only if the voting ran contrary to Administrators’
decrees could he intervene.

But Perrin didn’t want to. In fact, he wanted
nothing more to do with Edgers. He regretted ever wielding his
sword in defense of any of them. For seventeen years he sacrificed
his life for their safety, on too many occasions. Because of these
people he lost sleep, lost time with his wife and children, lost
his savings to pay off their expenses, lost his parents and, for a
time, even lost his mind.

All for
them
.

Yet when presented with the possibility of an
extra hog, or another bushel of corn, or someone’s abandoned shop,
they couldn’t imagine sacrificing anything at all, for anyone.

They were as bad as Idumea.

Perrin hated Idumea.

He looked dully over at Mahrree on the front
bench, and she stared back at him, shaking her head in
disbelief.

He nodded at her once in agreement.

His children on either side of her looked
around dumbfounded.

Finally the crowd began to silence
itself.

“
We have a call for a
vote,” Wibble tried to sound as loud as the colonel. “Do we have a
spokesman to articulate the nature of the vote?”

“
Let Trum speak!” called
someone. Several voices seconded.

Trum waved in acknowledgement and made his
way up to the platform with a small grin on his face as others
patted him on the back. He was wheezing as he reached the top stair
and wisely didn’t look at the colonel. If he had, he most likely
would have withered to the size of a regular man under the
glare.

Trum gestured with his thick hands clubbing
the air. “I propose we vote on the ownership of the properties left
by those who died,” he announced. “All property currently in
possession of others stays in that possession. All other properties
not yet claimed will be done so by those living in closest
proximity to the deceased.”

The people cheered in agreement.

Perrin leaped from his chair, ran toward the
back of the platform and jumped off, taking the stairs in two large
steps. He landed right in front of a very startled Chief Barnie and
grabbed his arms.

“
Get your men out there,
now
! To all the abandoned homes not yet claimed.”

“
Why?” Barnie asked, his
eyes hazy as he tried to catch up to the conclusion the colonel had
already reached. For a chief of enforcement, he wasn’t very swift
on his feet and was even slower in his brain. “They haven’t even
voted on anything yet—”

“
But they
will
,”
Perrin shook his arms to jostle some sense into him, “and when they
do, what’s going to happen next?”

The chief tried to puzzle it out, but two of
his officers nodded as their faces went pale, a bit quicker on the
uptake.

They heard the call for a vote come from the
magistrate. “All in favor?”

“
Chief, NOW! To the
abandoned properties!”

Barnie nodded obediently and turned to his
six men that were behind him, already heading out the back
doors.

A loud chorus of “Favor!” cried out over
their heads.

Perrin sat down in resignation on the steps
of the platform.

“
Any opposed?” shouted
Wibble.

Perrin leaned forward and held his head in
his hands.

A few timid voices called, “Opposed!”

“
Then those in favor
have—”

But the magistrate’s voice was drowned in the
thunder of thousands of Edgers in a mad dash to be the first to
leave the amphitheater by any exit. A few screams suggested someone
had been hurt, but the flurry of people didn’t slow. A few even
came over the platform and raced down the back stairs past the form
of the colonel still hunched on the steps.

Perrin began to rock slowly back and forth.
“Animals,” he whispered. “Just a bunch of
stupid
animals.”
He noticed a blue uniform rush up to him, and he looked up at the
owner of it.

“
Sir,” Lieutenant Offra
panted, “what do you want us to do? Head out to the properties as
well?”

Perrin shook his head and stood up. “Jon, I
don’t want any of my men mixed up in this mess. Tell your soldiers
to patrol the roads, protect those who are innocent—especially
children and those from Moorland—but do
not
get involved.
We’re done sacrificing for this village.”

---

Mahrree gripped the arms of her children, not
worried that they’d join the stampede but to make sure they didn’t
get accidentally swept up in the current.

“
This is madness! At least
we already gave my mother’s house to that family from
Moorland.”

Peto turned. “Wow—I’ve never seen this place
empty so fast.”

“
We need to get out of
here,” Jaytsy said, wringing her hands.

“
I want you two to head
straight home,” Mahrree told them, “and secure the doors and
windows with the iron rods.”

“
Why?” Jaytsy asked
worriedly.

“
Precautionary,” Mahrree
assured them. “But if someone doesn’t get a piece of property they
think is owed to them, they just may come seeking revenge on the
colonel’s house.”

“
What about you?” Peto
said.

“
I’m going up to the fort
to watch what’s going on from the tower, then I’ll get me an escort
home. I’m going to find your father so you two head
home!”

Jaytsy and Peto nodded and jogged to an
exit.

“
Peto,” Jaytsy panted as
they reached the village green where they could break into a run.
Well, as much of a run as Jaytsy’s skirt would allow. “We’re not
going home. We’re heading to Deckett’s.”

“
Why?”

“
Did you hear what they
were saying? About those from Moorland?”

“
I heard a bit,” Peto said
as he cleared a small bush his sister had to go around. He slowed
to let her catch up. “Something about them not deserving—oh. I
see.”

“
Exactly. Stupid skirts,”
she muttered as she tried to find a better way to hold them up.
“Deck doesn’t know about any of this, especially that those from
Moorland may be targeted. Augh!” she cried as her hem caught on a
sticky shrub. “Peto, warn him! I’ll catch up.”

“
Are you sure?” he called
as he jogged backward. “We’re supposed to stay
together—”

She yanked until her hem ripped. It was
another Joriana-Kuman-Idumea dress, so it didn’t matter. “Just go!
Warn him!”

By the time she made it to the Briter-fort
farm, Deckett and Peto were securing the last of Deckett’s milk
cows in the barn, so Jaytsy rounded up the stray chickens.
Eventually all of the animals were locked up—except for the
stubborn bull who was destined for the butchers and the soldiers’
table next week anyway. Deckett reluctantly picked up a pitchfork,
sighed, and placed himself in front of the latched barn doors.

Peto retrieved a hatchet from the wood pile
and took his position next to Deckett, while Jaytsy gaped at
them.

“
You’re not seriously going
to use those, are you?”

“
Of course not!” said Peto,
insulted. “But as I’ve heard Uncle Shem tell the soldiers before,
it’s the appearance of things. If you look threatening, danger
often won’t give you a second glance.”

“
I hope that’s true,”
Deckett said, a bit unsteadily.

Jaytsy looked around for a makeshift weapon
and decided on a fallen tree branch, which she swung
experimentally.

Deckett’s eyes bulged. “And what do you
intend to do?”

“
Help you,” she said. “I’ve
learned a few things over the years,” and she thrust and swiped
with the branch.

Deckett shuddered and firmed his grip on his
pitchfork. “No one would really attack all the way up here, would
they? I mean, I’m right across from the fort! They’d have to be
stupid—”

“
Most of Edge is stupid
right now,” Peto told him. “Trust me.”

Jaytsy nodded and was about to add her
opinion, but voices coming up the road clamped her mouth shut.

Peto’s eyes grew large when he heard them
too. Even though the barn was well off the main road, some voices
just carry.

Peto held out his arm to push Deckett back
against the wide barn doors, and he and Jaytsy also pressed
themselves against the wood, trying to blend in to the faded
gray.

“—
and Offra,” they heard
Colonel Shin say as he strode briskly to the fort, “I want four
guards over here at the Briter farm. This is, after all, our farm,
our cattle, our chickens, our produce, and our farmer in charge of
it all. No one’s to touch him or anything else.”

Between Peto and Jaytsy, Deckett sagged in
relief.

“
Of course, sir,” Offra
said. “I’ll get some men down here within the next few
minutes.

Colonel Shin, flanked by half a dozen
soldiers and now in view of his frozen children, pulled his wife
alongside who struggled gamely to keep up with their rapid
pace.

“
And send down two more
soldiers as well,” Shin said as they hurried up the road, “to
escort my children home and to stay posted at my house.”

Jaytsy’s mouth dropped open, and Peto,
scoffing loudly, broke formation. Swinging his hatchet in dismay,
he called, “All right—how’d you know we were here?”

Their father stopped and turned to the three
poorly-hidden defenders.

Mahrree stared in surprise. “What in the
world are you doing up here? I told you to go home and bar the
windows and doors!”

While the other soldiers tried not to
chortle, Perrin nodded for them to continue on to the fort, and
Offra broke into a jog to get the six soldiers.

The Shins ducked between the railings of the
fence that ran the perimeter of the farm and picked their way
through the cucumbers.

“
For starters, none of you
would make very good Guarders,” Perrin told them as he gingerly
tried not to step on anything green. “You’re supposed to blend into
your surroundings. Against that gray, the three of you stick out
like weeds in dirty snow.”

Jaytsy frowned at her yellow and green dress
while Peto and Deckett nodded feebly at each other’s tan
shirts.

“
And second,” Perrin
continued, his voice gentler as he came to the barn, “I would have
been disappointed if you
hadn’t
come here. Proper help is on
the way, Mr. Briter.”

“
Thank you, sir,” Deckett
sighed, loosening his grip on the pitchfork.