The Falcon in the Barn (Book 4 Forest at the Edge series) (62 page)

Perrin nodded. “Tonight I decided the most
harmful sentences begin with, ‘I deserve.’ The other day I was
reading The Writings and came across the passage that describes the
Last Day. You know the part, where it talks about the destroyer
taking out those who come against the people of the Creator?”

“
I do.”

“
Well, I sat thinking about
that, wondering what the destroyer would be—”

Shem smiled slightly. “Yes,
you
would.”

Perrin ignored that. “Would it be an animal,
or a person, or maybe even an illness, like the pox? But today I
had another thought. Maybe it’s all of
us
. Maybe the true
destroyer will be jealousy, because we kill each other over little
things we think we deserve, destroying ourselves.”

“
Interesting theory,” Shem
said. “So how do we avoid being among the jealous ones who destroy
each other?”

Perrin exhaled. “That’s the other thing I’ve
been wondering about. How do I not get sucked into the same
attitude?”

Shem didn’t answer him but smiled, almost
knowingly.

They sat in silence for a few moments, until
Perrin broke it with, “Did you ever read Terryp’s stories when you
were a boy?”

Shem frowned briefly, wondering why the
sudden change in topic. “Yes. I think my father still has my copy
in his attic.”

“
Ever wonder what a wapiti
looks like? For real?”

Shem smiled, bemused. “For real?”

“
They’re real, Shem. They
have to be,” Perrin whispered longingly. “Why would someone take
all that time to carve them at the ruins if they weren’t
real?”

Shem shrugged. “I don’t know. But I highly
doubt people rode them. Those long antlers would knock them off. I
think Terryp made that part up, for the story. And who ever tried
to ride a large deer around here?”

“
For steering,” Perrin
said, staring off into a corner, but seeing much further away. He
had an odd, faint smile on his face as he held up his hands and
guided something unseen. “Figured it out when I was young. The
antlers were for steering the wapiti.”

Shem sat back, realizing that tonight Perrin
wanted to be as far away from Edge as possible. Terryp’s western
ruins was about as far as he could get.

“
Did I ever tell you they
named neighborhoods in Idumea after those animals?” Perrin said,
still with an airy tone. “Wapiti Way—as if anyone would even
recognize that a wapiti was in their way—and Elephant Elms,
although those elms would never get as big as an
elephant—”

“
Those
you could
ride, I’d bet,” Shem said. “If they were real . . . which you also
seem to believe.”

Perrin nodded slowly. “And Zebra Eztates,
with a z in estates.” He scoffed lightly. “Such magnificent animals
zebras must be, yet have only too-big houses named after them and
with bad spelling to boot.”

“
You sound like you believe
they’re all alive and out there somewhere, Perrin.”

“
They are,” Perrin
breathed. “They have to be. Zebras.” He finally met Shem’s eyes in
the glow of the single candle. “I’ve never told anyone this before,
but I was looking for zebras.”

Shem blinked. “Recently?”

“
No, when I first came to
Edge and went into the forests. This may sound silly but I thought,
what better animal for the Guarders to ride than a striped horse?
It would blend in perfectly with the shadows.”

“
Did you see
any?”

Perrin shook his head. “Knew I probably
wouldn’t.” He gazed out the dark window. “Just . . . hoping, you
know? That all of the stories might be real? Just some
evidence.”

“
What color of stripes
should zebras have?”

“
Black and white,” Perrin
declared. “Mahrree thinks brown, but she had no appreciation for
horses,” he chuckled sadly. “Black and white, Shem. Out there.
Somewhere. There
has
to be more than just this, isn’t
there?”

Again Shem smiled, almost knowingly. “Likely
very far away, but of course, Perrin,” he said in the tones of a
man telling his dying best friend that sure, he’d retrieve for him
one of the moons. “Of course there is.”

---

Mahrree sat at the eating table with six
candles in front of her, because on a night like tonight she
hungered for light as she waited for Perrin to come home.

Jaytsy and Peto had gone to sleep some time
ago, but Mahrree was reading the words of Guide Hierum, recorded
before he was attacked and killed by the founders of Idumea.
Tonight his reminder of how they spent their first six years of
existence on that world was even more poignant and timely.

I warn you now that we cannot continue in
the ways we are now. Our lives and existence on this world are not
forever. An end will come.

In the arguing among our people I see the
seeds of antipathy and apathy that will grow to destroy the world
we are striving so hard to create. We’re drifting from the
structure the Creator left us, and if we continue on this path our
descendants will not be found faithful at the Last Day when the
test ends. What we do today affects our children and their
children. For their sakes, we can’t continue down this way you are
planning. I know your secrets, and they will destroy us all. I beg
you to abandon this!

You know as well as I do that the Last Day
will find each one of us either facing the reward of Paradise to
enjoy the company of our family and friends for the next one
thousand years and beyond, or the misery of the Dark Deserts to
endure the torture of knowing we failed to do His will.

When that Last Day comes, no one knows but
our Creator, and its arrival will surprise those that fight against
the Creator’s people.

On that day, do not be one of those
surprised to find yourself on the wrong side.

On that day, do not find yourself with a
blade in hand ready to charge your brother or sister.

On that day, be one of the many standing
with the guide, having seen the signs, and recognizing what is
coming.

Before the Last Day will be a land tremor
more powerful than any ever experienced. It will awaken the largest
mountain and change all that we know in the world. Those changes
will bring famine, death, and desperation to the world. And that
desperation will cause the world’s army to seek to destroy the
faithful of the Creator.

Be among those faithful to the Creator!

Be among those standing firm for what you
know, having not so quickly forgotten His words to us!

Be among those who see the marvelous
deliverance from the enemy the Creator will send us! For He will
send deliverance before He sends destruction to those who fight
Him!

Don’t destroy His structure for our
survival. What you’re planning to do will ruin—

And there it ended, his words and his life,
as he tried to tell them they had to live as one big family or
they’d destroy each other.

Just as they were tonight.

“
We’ve forgotten,” Mahrree
whispered miserably. “The world is just too loud, and The Writings
too still and quiet. The world forces its way; the Creator never
forces His will.” She rested her chin on her hand in defeat. “You
saw how they responded to Perrin’s suggestion of giving the surplus
to those in need,” Mahrree said to the dark. “Suddenly everyone
became ‘needy’! Are we ever satisfied?”

She reread the words of the next guide,
Clewus.

The entire world was given to us freely from
the Creator. He doesn’t want us to horde and sell His gifts; He
wants us to share all things freely, with whomever has a need.
There will always be enough, and even more to spare. No one should
be in want. This compulsion to take and then force others to hand
over shiny bits of metal—that’s the power of the Refuser, his
method of putting all of us in bondage to each other. Can’t you
see?

It was truly ludicrous.

“
No one will be lastingly
happy with yet another plow, or an additional bale of hay,
especially if it cost a friendship or a life. Why do friends come
to blows over an ugly hat?”

She felt the cosmos shrug along with her.

“
Is there anyone in the
world that’s sane?” she whispered. “Shem, certainly. And Rector
Yung. But anyone else in the world who realizes we’ve been doing it
all wrong?”

There were times the cosmos seemed to wink at
her with the notion that there was nothing else for her to know. At
least, not
yet.

Mahrree looked out the dark window. “They’re
just like animals,” she decided. “No.
Worse
than animals. We
may no longer debate but we’ve retained our ability to rationalize
away logic and compassion. We can be so great, or be so terrible.
It seems we’re content to just be terrible.”

---

A few nights later Perrin was up again past
midnight, but not because of another bad dream. This time it was
because of a good one, of his own making.

The idea had been growing in him for over a
year now, but since Edge’s temper tantrum three days ago—where more
than forty properties changed hands, two dozen more were burned to
the ground, five people died, and Edge had divided itself into too
many factions of former friends and neighbors who now hated each
other that he lost count—he was nearly jumping out of his skin at
the thought of what he could do next. An hour each night for a few
weeks ought to do it.

So, once he was sure Mahrree was dozing
deeply—she didn’t think she snored, and he’d never tell her that
she did because it was always a reliable signal for him—he slipped
out of bed and crept down the stairs. He made his way to his study
and shut the door noiselessly. Before he lit a candle, he made sure
the curtains were closed completely. He didn’t want any light
leaking out, or any worried soldier or nosy neighbor peeking
in.

Once he lit the candle, it dimly illuminated
his shelf of books and ignored awards. Nearly vibrating with
excitement, he carefully pulled from the top shelf a roll of
parchments.

He set them on his desk and grinned.

Chapter 24
~
“We will accept no less than a two week
stay.”

H
arvest Festival was
uncomfortable that year.

Even though six weeks had passed since the
riot that divided the village, Mahrree noticed that the market
which was normally crammed with happy people preparing for the
feast was now uncommonly quiet. People still shopped, but they
snatched up items and headed away before accidentally bumping into
someone they now hated. While the usual games and events were
planned, they were sparsely attended since no one wanted to risk
coming face to face with an enemy.

Some people were still upset with Magistrate
Wibble and Chief Barnie, a few with Trum, and even a couple with
Colonel Shin. There was enough antagonism to throw around
liberally, with no one taking blame for their own behaviors.

The Strongest Soldier Race was run without
any notice to the village, so only soldiers and the Shins witnessed
it. Even though Perrin lost to Shem by a couple of seconds, it was
still his victory because he took an unscheduled detour through
Trum’s new cattle pen.

Trum had his laborers had hastily put it
together, connecting two properties that he now claimed and
spanning a road that had been there for a hundred years. Mahrree
had never seen Lieutenant Offra laugh before, but he did so almost
uncontrollably as he told her about Colonel Shin leaping over the
fence which terrified three hundred head of cattle. Within moments
the stampede began, easily tearing through the makeshift pen.
Mahrree had been waiting along the route to cheer on her husband,
but she had to first see the mess he created. She arrived at the
empty fields to watch a cloud of dust making its way to Moorland.
Trum shouted and wailed and begged his neighbors and workers to
round up his cattle running west, but no one was too eager to help.
Many of his neighbors had been hoping to claim those animals and
lands themselves, and when his laborers heard they weren’t going to
be paid extra, they dawdled in saddling up their horses.

The glare Trum shot at Mahrree only made her
grin, and she and Offra laughed all the way back to the village
green to see the end of the race. Even Shem had to admit that had
Perrin not taken that quarter mile detour off of Brillen’s route he
would have easily won.

However, Perrin feigned surprise to hear that
he had strayed from the route Karna had set, and blinked in
believable innocence when Chief Barnie told him Trum wanted to
press charges.

“
But all I did was run
along a road that’s been there longer than I have. How about this:
tell Trum I’ll personally go round up his cattle.”

Trum didn’t take him up on the offer, nor was
there any law in the books that he could throw at Perrin about
running on roads.

Trum never did recover all of his lost
cattle, but Perrin told Mahrree he’d noticed some of the herds west
of Edge seemingly a bit fuller than they had been. Apparently there
was no deadline on appropriating the goods of the dead.

When the Raining Season rolled around that
year, Mahrree hoped that the cold would bring down the heated
lingering resentment in Edge. Some tensions
were
beginning
to ease. Some people even smiled back at her at the market. But
most Edgers were keeping to their homes now that the snows had
come. In what condition they would emerge in the new year was a
mystery, like planting an unfamiliar seed and hoping that whatever
blooms later was worth the space and water given it.