The Falcon in the Barn (Book 4 Forest at the Edge series) (73 page)

Only Captain Thorne’s.

“
Lannard, I can’t tell you
how
glad
I am we met.”

---

That evening a new piece of paper with the
date, 2
^nd
Day of Weeding Season, 337, was placed in a
thick file. For weeks Captain Thorne had been looking for ways to
fulfill the request of Administrator Genev, but nothing had come to
mind. Until now.

Under the date were the words,
“MPS
deliberately ignores Department of Instructions’ mandated lesson
plans. Encouraging students to discover differences in life between
under rule of the kings and under rule of the Administrators.
Information known NOT to be on the end of Yearly Official Uniform
Department of Instruction Exam.”

Lemuel looked at the note for a moment and
snickered. If you took the first letters of each of the words from
the title of the test, it spelled YOU DIE.

Suddenly, everything became very easy in his
life.

---

Knock-knock . . . knock-knock-knock.

Oh, if only he hadn’t got the expedition out
on time, Perrin sighed to himself. But here he was, knocking on the
door in a rhythm that, if Perrin were ever to hear it in a musical
piece, would likely make him want to break the musician’s arm.

“
Come in.”

Thorne opened the door but he wasn’t smiling.
In fact, today there was a determined look that Perrin hadn’t seen
since the captain first arrived at the fort. It was solid and hot
and, for once, honest.

“
Sir, I found a young man
who’ll be exercising my horse Streak.”

“
Fine,” Perrin said. He
didn’t care, but for some odd reason Thorne always felt the need to
tell him every little thing he did. He was a three-year-old, hungry
for assurance that he was perfect and the favorite.

“
I just wanted you to know.
I have everything under control.”

Perrin leaned back in his chair. “That’s
quite a claim, Captain. No one can ever have everything under
control. Control is an illusion.”

Thorne’s piercing gaze sharpened even more.
“Oh, I don’t think so, Colonel. I’ll prove that to you. And you
will be most impressed and astonished, sir. I promise you
that.”

Perrin sighed at the captain’s enigmatic
response. “Thorne, I don’t really enjoy being astonished. Not a lot
of good comes when something is ‘astonishing.’ Just so you
know.”

“
You will this time, sir,”
Thorne said evenly.

There was no sign of the captain’s normal
simpering, but a clear resolve that made the hairs on the back of
Perrin’s neck stand on end.

Captain Thorne had a new strategy, but for
what?

“
I promise you, sir—this
time, you’ll be impressed.”

After he shut the door, Perrin exhaled. “And
I
really
hate being impressed.”

---

Lannard was a few minutes late the next day,
and ran panting to the tackle shed to find Captain Thorne already
taking the saddle off the post.

“
I’m sorry, sir. I was held
back for a time because . . . well, I’m here now.”

Thorne hefted the saddle on Streak’s
blanketed back. “What were you held back for, Lannard? I really
should know.”

Lannard shifted uncomfortably. “For saying
some words that Mrs. Shin finds ‘inappropriate.’”

“
Hmm,” Thorne said slightly
disappointed. “So she kept you after as punishment?”

“
I had to write
alternatives on the board. Safe words that wouldn’t offend ‘nice
young women,’ ” Lannard bobbed his head in irritation.

Thorne smirked as he crouched to tighten the
clasp around Streak’s belly. “Don’t care too much about impressing
nice young women yet?”

“
Show me one, and I’ll have
plenty of ways to impress her.” He waggled his eyebrows and made a
suggestive movement.

Thorne chuckled without any humor. “Doesn’t
always work the way you plan it, Lannard.”

“
Well if she’s isn’t
impressed with me, why would I want her?”

Thorne stood up and put his hand on the
saddle. “That’s an insightful comment, Lannard. With such
intelligence, I don’t understand why you struggle so much in
school.”

Lannard turned pink. He took the reins of
Streak and rubbed his nose. “Where to today, sir?”

“
Take him to the western
edge of the village and let him go at a full run for about a mile
through the farms and back.”

Lannard began to grin. “If I took him a
little farther, I could run him all the way to Moorland and back,
sir.”

“
I want him exercised, not
exhausted!” Thorne snapped. “Besides, Moorland is still off
limits.”

“
I don’t know why,” Lannard
frowned. “It’s dead, isn’t it? If I can’t see the western ruins, I
could at least see the Moorland ruins.”

Thorne shook his head. “The Moorland ruins
are . . . eerie. It’s deathly quiet and empty. When the wind blows,
some men claim to hear shrieks and wails. I’ve never heard that, of
course, but the place
feels
haunted. I’ve seen soldiers
arrive, look down, see a bone with the flesh and muscle burned off,
and turn and run all the way back to the fort. You really don’t
want to see that.”

But Lannard’s eyes lit up when the captain
said ‘burned.’

“
Honestly, sir, I don’t
think I would be spooked.”

“
If you’re serious about
that, then I’ll take you on holiday at the end of this week. I was
going to take a few new recruits over there in the morning, and you
can come along. But I’m riding Streak,” Thorne said. Then he added
with a grimace, “Maybe Colonel Shin’s
Clark
needs
exercising.”

While it was an admirable horse, the Stables
at Pools had been a rival to Thorne’s grandfather’s stables for
years. The presence of an animal from there, and named Clark of all
things, was an added insult.

“
Captain, that would be
great! Thank you!”

“
But first,” Thorne held up
his hand, “first you tell me what you did in school
today.”

Lannard rolled his eyes. “Oh, I get it. This
is one of those ‘mentor moments,’ isn’t it? ‘I’m interested in your
well-being, son. Let’s
talk
.’”

Thorne’s face froze at Lannard’s cadence and
delivery of that line. “You know who you sounded like just
then?”

Lannard beamed. “Yes, I do. I’ve been working
on my Colonel Shin impersonation for a while now. That’s the way he
always started with my older brother when he put him in chains and
walked him to incarceration. I’m sure you hear him a lot more than
I do. Do you have any suggestions?”

“
Yes, don’t do that
anywhere near Colonel Shin. He doesn’t have the same sense of humor
I do. Do you, uh,” Thorne hesitated, “do you impersonate
Mrs.
Shin?”

“
Not yet, but I’m working
on it. I’ve only got the rhythm of a few of her catch phrases down
so far. ‘Details! Give me details!’ and ‘You shouldn’t
care
what’s on the test!’ I’m still trying to figure out how to do her
voice.”

Thorne nodded. “How did your homework
assignment go today—the differences between the time of the kings
and now?” he said as casually as he dared.

Lannard sighed. “Actually, it was pretty
interesting, I hate to admit it. When I asked my grandfather about
the differences, he had to think about it. Usually he rambles on
for hours, but it took him a while to come with something. He said
taxes now were more stable, but a bit higher, but Guarder activity
has been a lot worse during the past twenty years as if the
Guarders weren’t as afraid of the Administrators. Of course there’s
been nothing for the past year since Moorland, but you know that.
The entertainments are better now, though. But he didn’t know if
education was any better. He thought that maybe it had gotten
worse. And the Administrators have just as many laws and rules as
the kings.”

Thorne sifted through the information. “So
what conclusions did the class come to?”

“
Well, we’re not allowed to
debate,”
Lannard raised his eyebrows at the captain, “but we
do all the time anyway. Of course Mrs. Shin says its mostly
bickering rather than debating, but we decided that things were
different
under the Administrators but not better. Mrs. Shin
told us what school used to be like, just before we all started
schooling. Can you imagine being in school for only
three
hours
a day? I could
like
school that way! That’s when I
said life had definitely NOT improved under the Administrators!”
Lannard started to laugh but suddenly remembered who he was talking
to. He choked on the words that he had already let
escape.

The captain stared at him.

Lannard swallowed hard. “Um, I didn’t mean
that . . . what I
mean
is, uh—”

Captain Thorne shook his head. “Don’t worry,
I’m not the eyes and ears of the Administrators. And I don’t talk
to them unless I have to, so calm down. What did Mrs. Shin say when
you declared that the Administrators were no better than the
kings?” The captain put on his best friendly face while his mind
prepared to take the most extensive and careful mental notes
ever.

Lannard shifted nervously, having expected
some kind of reprimand. He seemed a little off balance, but saw the
captain’s thin smile and hesitantly gave him one back. “She said
something like I was obviously capable of independent thought, and
she wanted me to do more of that kind of thinking.”

A grin spread across Thorne’s face that
wasn’t entirely pleasant. He clapped a hand on teen’s shoulder.
“And I agree with her. You nurture that ‘independent thinking.’ It
sounds like you have just the right teacher to help you do
that.”

Lannard relaxed a little, still uneasy. “If
you say so, sir.” He took the reins. “I’ll be back in an hour.”

“
Make it two, Lannard.
You’ve earned some fun.”

---

3
^rd
Day of
Weeding Season, 337.

When student declared life under the
Administrators is no better than life under the kings, MPS
encouraged him to keep up his independent thinking. Did nothing to
dissuade student to think otherwise, nor reinforced a sense of
loyalty to the Administrators.

Lemuel smiled. It was too easy. Just too
easy.

---

The next day Lannard stood at attention, or
at least a relatively close approximation of it, as Captain Thorne
walked from the main gates of the fort to the adjoining pasture.
Thorne noticed the boy trying to watch him without appearing to be
watching him. He definitely needed more practice.

“
Lannard, you look . . .
uncomfortable,” the captain said as he approached him. “Something
wrong?”

“
No, sir!”

Thorne paused. “That’s all you have to say
today?”

“
Yes, sir!”

Thorne scratched his chin. “Lannard, what do
you know?”

“
Explanation,
sir?”

“
The only time a talkative
man stops talking is when he finally has something interesting to
share. Out with it, boy.”

Lannard squirmed. “I don’t want to offend,
sir!”

Thorne scoffed. “I’m not easily offended,
Lannard. Come on, what’s with you today? You were far easier
yesterday.”

“
I didn’t know who you were
yesterday, sir!”

“
Who I am . . . ? Oh. You
mean, who my father is?”

“
And your grandfather,
sir!”

Thorne nodded. It was only a matter of time
before Lannard put it together. “Who told you?”

“
My grandfather, sir! When
I told him who I was working for, he said you were the grandson of
the High General, sir, and, um, that’s a little . . .um,” Lannard’s
voice started getting higher.

Thorne smiled thinly. “It’s not
anything
, Lannard.”

“
But what I say, sir, may
get back to the High General and to the Chairman and the
Administrators,” his voice croaked, “who are celebrating twenty
glorious years in power, sir! Almost twenty-one!”

Thorne barked half a laugh. “You really think
I write letters to my father and grandfather about the
conversations I have with my hired hand? You think they care about
the opinions of a sixteen-year-old boy
in Edge
of all
places? Lannard, you give yourself too much credit. And too much
worry. And stop with that ridiculous stance already!”

Lannard tried to relax to a more normal
posture, appearing instead like a caught fish flopping in different
ways to achieve a “casual” position.

“
That’s sort of better.”
Feeling some sympathy, he took Lannard by the shoulders and shook
him a little. “It’s just
me
, remember?” He practiced his
best smile.

It was almost good enough.

“
Yes, sir,” Lannard said, a
little more comfortably.

“
Hey,” Thorne shook him
again. “We’re . . . friends,” he stumbled momentarily on the word
as if it were one that rarely crossed his lips. “Right? Right? Who
else but a friend would sneak you over to Moorland when you’re not
a soldier?”

Lannard finally smiled. “Yes, sir.”

“
Good. Now don’t let the
thought that someday
I’m
going to be High General distress
you in any way.”

Lannard’s eyes flared in alarm.