The Falcon in the Barn (Book 4 Forest at the Edge series) (82 page)

“
The barn!” she
gasped.

Only Kori and the others on the podium could
hear her.

“
This world . . . our whole
world . . . this is the
barn
, and you won’t let anyone out,”
she murmured.

Kori slowly shook his head at what he clearly
believed was an insane woman.

“
Perrin wasn’t the only
injured falcon,” Mahrree’s chest began to heave. “It’s
all
of us, isn’t it? Just like Queruls’ servants, kept confined, all to
be tormented by the cat . . .” Her voice grew louder. “It’s all of
us. HERE! The truth is, if you let us leave the world, we leave the
barn
. But you can’t let us do that, because then there’ll be
nothing left for the cats to torment—”

Kori’s face paled and his eyes showed genuine
worry. “Sir, will you do something about this woman?” he said
loudly to his side.

Mahrree barely registered what he said, her
mind spinning and reeling. “No! You can’t keep us all trapped!”

All of Edge was around her, and they deserved
to know. The whole world had to be told the truth she’d finally
found!

“
It’s all a lie!
”
Mahrree bellowed as she spun.

But she found herself staring into a blue
chest covered in medals and ribbons. It effectively muffled her
words and stopped her cold.

“
General, it’s about time!”
Kori exclaimed. “Will you escort this woman off the
platform—immediately!”

“
Sit down,” said the
uniform’s voice, thick and cold as a blizzard.

Mahrree stood rooted in place, stunned to be
looking directly at the general’s name patch.

It didn’t say THORNE.

It said SHIN.

There was a pin—an outline of a prowling
mountain lion—above the name patch that wasn’t there this morning
when Perrin kissed her goodbye.

The new symbol of the generals.

General Perrin Shin.

Had she been able to focus anywhere beyond
the body in front of her, she would have thousands of gasps of
“
General
Shin?”

She might have heard her daughter whimpering,
“Father, no! Deck, do something!”

She may have even heard her son, as he shook
his head, mumbling, “No. No, this isn’t right. No . . . Shem, where
are you? This isn’t right . . .”

But all she heard was, “Say no more and sit
down,
NOW!
” The general ordered in a tone she’d never heard
before.

“
Per—” she started, but she
couldn’t finish. This wasn’t her husband. This man . . . who was
he? Rage filled her, and she wasn’t about to move for him or
anyone—

The general put a firm hand on her shoulder,
pivoted her bodily by pinching a nerve, and pushed her toward the
stairs.

The audience watched breathlessly.

Mahrree fumed, angrily shrugged off his
painful grip and marched back down the stairs, with the blizzard
following her.

This is wrong, this is wrong, this is
wrong—

She halted halfway down the steps, her breath
catching.

Captain Thorne stood at the bottom of the
stairs with his sword drawn and ready.

She couldn’t even think a prayer.

“
Mrs. Shin,” Thorne
sneered. “I’ll see you to your seat.”

“
That won’t be necessary,”
said the cold voice behind her.

Momentarily Mahrree was trapped, but quickly
decided that she wanted to get away from the uniform behind her
more than she wanted to avoid the one before her. She marched
defiantly down the stairs, pushed past Captain Thorne and walked to
her row, the captain following close behind.

Every Edger watched her in shocked silence,
and this time no one impeded her progress to her spot in the middle
of the row.

Captain Thorne remained in the center aisle,
his sword still drawn and his glare focused on Mahrree, while
General Shin strode back up the podium stairs to stand by Kori.

This is wrong, this is wrong!
Mahrree’s mind screamed as she sat down hard, her eyes shooting
daggers at the general who didn’t defend her but instead ordered
her to sit down.

Jaytsy and Peto each gripped her arms to keep
her in place.

General Shin stood slightly in front of Kori,
as if to shield him, and Mahrree felt a wave of nausea to accompany
her anger.

She’d seen him do that before once, years
ago. It was their fifth debate, and he stood in front of her to
shield her from the rowdy crowd.

Now he shielded the Administrators.

Perrin was gone, nowhere in that large body,
those dark empty eyes, or that emotionless face at the front of the
podium. The general was fully in command.

Kori, with a tight and triumphant smile,
addressed the astonished audience. “Documents detailing the
findings of the expedition, our understanding of the origins of the
ruins, and an explanation about the so-called ‘Creator’ will be
available for each family to review. We’ll be distributing them
outside the amphitheater.”

Several soldiers retrieved the bags of papers
from the platform that were obviously not maps, and headed for the
exits.

Mahrree continued to stare at the general,
oblivious to her daughter’s silent weeping or her son’s head
shaking. Her son-in-law, with his arm around his wife, looked at
each member of the family trying to sort out what he could do.

And the general stared out at the crowd.

Kori continued. “We’re still looking at
alternatives to expanding our lands to accommodate the desire for
increased living space. But no one will ever be going to Terryp’s
land. This is all. You may now return home.”

It wasn’t a suggestion, but no one seemed to
be able to move.

Until General Shin shifted his stance
slightly, and that was all that was needed.

As one body, the crowd nervously came to
their feet and obediently began to file out. But the air was thick
with heated tension and unspoken frustration.

Mahrree refused to budge, even though her
children had released her. All she could do was stare at the
platform where all thought had died. And her marriage.

Earlier that day she had decided that the
6
^th
Day of Planting Season would be a significant date.
But, she remembered now, it already was. It was nineteen years ago
that she’d first stepped on to the platform to take on the new
captain to debate the color of the sky. That sky was now completely
black.

And tonight, that same man whom she thought
had only improved in stature, rank, and the amount of gray
speckling his black hair, forced her off the platform.

She was really beginning to hate Planting
Season.

Mahrree heard the quiet sobbing next to her.
She barely had enough control to look askance.

Jaytsy was shaking as Deck held her. Down the
row at the center aisle Captain Thorne still stood about twenty
paces away, sword at the ready, and studying Jaytsy intently. Peto
got up, walked past Jaytsy and Deckett, and stood in front of them
to block Thorne’s view.

Thorne glared at him.

Peto firmed his stance and folded his
arms.

Mahrree blinked back the first tears that
stung her eyes. Peto stood in the same way his father had. He was
now the shield, the very best of the men Mahrree loved most.

Had
loved.

“
What’s wrong with him?”
Jaytsy whimpered. “Did you see his face? Deck, he can’t be general
now! He’s supposed to be here and be the grandpy! They can’t go to
Idumea!”

Deck kissed her forehead as he cradled her.
“Just don’t worry about it right now. We’ll figure all of this out
later. This was just . . . don’t worry, Jayts.”

Peto turned slightly to his family. “It’s
not
right,” he whispered fiercely. “This isn’t the way it’s
supposed to happen. I can feel it. Don’t worry Jayts. It’s not
going to happen!”

“
It already has,” Mahrree
said dully. “Everything we believe and cherish has just been
declared to be a made-up story. And the defender of the so-called
truth is General Perrin Shin. Dear Creator—who I still believe
in—how did we get here?”

None of her children knew how to answer
her.

Peto, still facing Thorne who was now
motioning for another soldier to join him, searched the quickly
exiting crowd. “Where’s Shem? He always shows up . . .”

Deck looked around as well. “I think we could
all use a little Shem right now.”

“
He won’t be here,” Jaytsy
whimpered. “If Thorne’s here—” she whispered his name, “—then Shem
would be left in charge of the fort. He doesn’t know anything
that’s happened!”

Deck spied a dozen soldiers gradually
converging around them. “Mahrree, I think you’ve made a few people
uncomfortable.”

“
That’s why the Creator
gave me this mouth and put me in this world!” Mahrree fumed.
“Making people comfortable is the work of the Refuser!”

Peto pivoted again to place himself directly
between Thorne and his family.

The captain, finished with the soldier who
rushed off, turned back to Peto with an ugly smile.

But Mahrree gazed only on the platform and
sat defiant and firm. General Shin was speaking to a man in a red
suit who gestured toward Mahrree. The general nodded, then, without
even so much as a glance to his family, strode to the back of the
platform.

Mahrree felt the need to hit someone.
Preferably someone in a uniform.

---

General Shin trotted down the stairs, doing
his best to ignore the oak tree. The one she kicked nineteen years
ago. The one he tried to remove. The one he recently promised to
sneak her back to some evening and . . .

But the oak loomed in front of him, refusing
to be ignored. Still, he gave it only passing notice.

He marched behind the amphitheater,
scattering the citizens who were dutifully waiting in line for
their documents. The general was like an inverse tornado, creating
a large perimeter around him no one wanted to be near.

The same words ran through his mind, over and
over, as he plowed through the green. Genev’s assistant had been
very clear, telling him what needed to be done with someone like
Mrs. Shin.

Years ago Hogal Densal had cautioned his
nephew about her, that she had the potential to become something
quite menacing. For years he’d ignored the warning, or chuckled
about that evaluation.

But there was nothing funny about her
outburst tonight. She’d fulfilled her destiny.

General Shin felt the words in every step he
took.

Most dangerous woman in the world?

This is the end.

Chapter 31
~
“It’s time that front garden was tended
to!”

T
he middle-aged
woman sat stunned on the front row. She could hardly bring herself
to move, but that’s not how she felt initially.

Just fifteen minutes before she’d been
anxiously squirming, eager to bolt out of the amphitheater and tell
everyone what they were saying.

But she couldn’t, because then she would have
missed everything
else
. She had a duty to perform.

Her main obligation had been to be a midwife
for the colonel’s daughter, and she’d met the young mother-to-be
last week. But she also had another duty should the opportunity
arise: be a reporter.

Oh they had trained her and all, certainly
not anticipating she’d ever actually
use
that training. They
expected her to be in Edge for three moons at the most, until all
seemed well with Mrs. Briter and her baby. But things come up, and
just in case something interesting occurred, she could report a few
things back to them as well.

But Mrs. Braxhicks was sure no one expected
anything like this!

She certainly didn’t when she heard the buzz
in the village about the mandatory meeting and the rumor that there
was news about Terryp’s land. Mrs. Braxhicks knew she had to be
there, front and center, to make a report later to her husband and
the others in the woods, in case Shem Zenos couldn’t.

But even though she got there an hour early
front and center was already taken, and she had to be satisfied
with front and behind the speakers a bit on the backward curve of
the amphitheater. At first she was quite put out with that
arrangement, until she realized it put her—
providentially
,
as that boorish Idumean had sneered—in a position to watch Mrs.
Shin. She knew her ability to read lips would come in handy,
although she could still hear Mrs. Shin’s murmuring at the end.

At first she didn’t know who this remarkably
brave yet stupid woman was who leaped to her feet. Before she could
ask anyone around her, the audience was tittering, “Mrs. Shin?
What’s Mrs. Shin doing?”

That’s when Mrs. Braxhicks sat up even
taller, trying to see over the platform to watch the small woman’s
attempted debate. When Mrs. Shin began up the stairs, Mrs.
Braxhicks found her fists clenched by her face in dread and worry,
but also in pride for the woman. Then, as she faced Mr. Kori,
something astonishing rushed across Mrs. Shin’s face. Mrs.
Braxhicks noticed, probably as well as General Shin did: the sudden
change of expression, the widening of the eyes as she began to
murmur, and then she said the words that made Mrs. Braxhicks’s
mouth drop open.

“
Just like Queruls’
servants . . .”

How in the world did Mrs. Shin know about
Queruls’ servants?!

A moment later she realized, of course, how
ridiculous to not remember, that her grandfather-in-law was the man
who freed them. But wasn’t all of that meant to be kept secret?

Then Mrs. Shin started on about the barn, and
falcons, and everyone being trapped . . . and that’s when Mrs.
Braxhicks knew everything was about to change.