The Mansions of Idumea (Book 3 Forest at the Edge series) (64 page)

Chapter 19
~
“Mother, who’s driving the coach?”

C
hairman Nicko Mal
stood at his front door impatiently waiting for Brisack to make his
way up the thirty grand steps that lead to the mansion.

“Well?” Mal hissed as the doctor jogged up to
him. “Where is he?”

Brisack reached the top and took a deep
breath to refill his lungs. “I don’t know!”

Mal squinted. “What do you mean, you don’t
know?”

Brisack panted as he followed Mal into the
mansion and to the library that used to be a throne room for five
previous kings. “He wasn’t in his house, he wasn’t in his office,
and he wasn’t at the inn where he takes all his meals. Those are
the only three places I’ve ever seen Gadiman. He didn’t go on
holiday, did he?”

The severe scowl of Mal told Brisack he
should know that answer.

The doctor collapsed in his usual chair. “I
can’t imagine where he’s off to.”

Mal sat across from him and grumbled. “Well,
it’s his own stupid fault. The first time we’re going to let him in
on our planning session, and he disappears. He can’t complain,
then, when we don’t include him again.”

Brisack nodded, and ran his hand over his
balding head to smooth down the last hairs. “So, tell me what
happened with Relf this evening. Before we can speculate what they
might do, I need to know exactly what he said.”

“Agreed,” Mal said, taking a piece of
parchment and handing it over. “I’ve already made some notes.
First, Relf barged in here as if this were
his
house . .
.”

---

If Mahrree and the children thought the trip
to Idumea was uncomfortable, going back to Edge was even worse.
Every spare inch of the coach was taken up by leftover dinner and
dried goods from the Shins’ pantries and cellar.

But it was a good kind of uncomfortable; no
one would complain. At least it smelled pleasant. Altogether there
was a sweetly savory scent that Mahrree wished she could have
bagged and hung around her house. The mixture of apples, bread,
dried beef and apricots would always remind her of this night, one
she hoped she’d never forget.

What could have been more satisfying than
rushing home to Edge with much needed relief after saying such a
poignant goodbye to Relf and Joriana? Mahrree felt they had been
granted so many miracles in such a short time that it seemed as if
the tender mercies of the Creator were focused entirely on her
family. It didn’t seem fair to be the recipients of so much.

They had suffered some too, but in the
balancing of the Creator the miracles always outweighed the
tragedies. They just needed to wait long enough, as her father
Cephas frequently told her, for a happy ending.

Mahrree sat with each child leaning against
her. Jaytsy wept quietly and Peto stared out the dark window.

“He’s an old wolf,” Peto whispered. “He’ll be
all right.”

“Of course he will,” Mahrree said, kissing
his light brown hair. “And so will she,” she patted Jaytsy’s thigh.
“It’s been an amazing trip, hasn’t it?” she said brightly. “When we
get home we’ll have to write down everything.”

Peto sneered. “Sounds like school work.”

“
That’s
what we’ve been missing!”
Mahrree snapped her fingers. “School work! Well, as soon as we’re
home, we’ll begin on our own. No sense in us not keeping up.”

“Oh, Mother!” Jaytsy sniffed. “What would the
Administrator of Education say? Teaching your children at
home?”

Mahrree smiled at her children’s attempted
chuckling. “I don’t really know. He was the only Administrator I
didn’t talk to last night.”

“I’m sure Father had that Administrator
seated far, far away from you at dinner so you couldn’t debate
him,” Peto said. “You’d definitely be written up by that
gad-awful-man for sure if you did.”

Mahrree and Jaytsy chuckled as Peto
continued. “I can see the Administrator of Loyalty now in his
little office somewhere, writing ‘Mahrree Peto Shin’ in big bold
letters on some ugly file, then sneering at it. ‘You’re in trouble
now, lady!’”

Peto’s old man voice was so funny Mahrree
laughed out loud.

“You know, he was there last night,” she told
her children. “At least for the dancing.”

Jaytsy frowned. “Was he that tall, gangling
man in black? Looked like a constipated weasel?”

“Yes, I didn’t realize you noticed anything
else,” Mahrree said with a hint of suggestion, “but the young men
you danced with.”

“Oh, I noticed him,” Jaytsy shuddered. “He
kept watching me. And Father, too.”

Mahrree fidgeted. “Really? I didn’t
notice.”

“Then it’s probably good,” Jaytsy murmured,
“that you didn’t notice him watching
you
, as well.”

Peto snickered as Mahrree exclaimed,
“What?!”

They heard a knock on the side of the coach,
and Peto put his head out the window.

“Hey, I heard laughing. Don’t have so much
fun without me, now,” Perrin said from his horse.

“Well, you’re where all the action is,
Father,” Peto said. “I have to keep the women entertained all by
myself.”

Perrin grinned and nodded as Peto sat
back.

Mahrree decided not to say anything more
about Gadiman. Each member of her family was trying hard to keep up
a cheerful attitude, but it was a precariously balanced mood. The
slightest knock would send it all crashing down.

“I swore last time I was going to bring
something to read,” Jaytsy sighed. “I wished I would’ve grabbed
something from the study.”

“Well, it’s too dark to read and the
selection of books was too dull. I tried a few of them,” Mahrree
told her.

“Oh, I don’t know. There was one titled
‘Physical Characteristics of Soldiering’ that could’ve been
interesting,” Jaytsy hedged.

Mahrree laughed. “I’m pretty sure it wasn’t
full of details of handsome young men, Jayts! Ah, it’s a good thing
we’re leaving. Seeing all those young men around you last night . .
.” Mahrree waited for Jaytsy to finish.

“They were all right,” she said as she played
with the hem on her cloak.

When another pause went by with no further
details, Mahrree decided to try again. “I noticed Lieutenant Thorne
danced a lot with you.”

“Yes, but . . . I don’t know. He was so
serious
. Handsome, I’ll admit that,” she said analytically
as if evaluating a new dessert, “but so army-ish. Much worse than
Father. He kept wanting to talk about tactics and horses.
Blah!”

Mahrree breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s
all I wanted to know.”

“Why, did his grandmother say anything to
you?”

Mahrree turned to her daughter. “Did she say
anything to
you?
”

“Yes!” Jaytsy exclaimed. “Mrs. Cush stopped
me between dances to tell me how
young
her daughter was when
she got married, how
darling
Father looked holding that
baby, how
I
could make a lot of people happy—It was
disturbing! I don’t want to be a mother in two years. I have to see
the world first.”

“And so you shall, Jaytsy,” Mahrree declared.
“All of it, before any Thornes can come prick you again.”

They chuckled and Peto rolled his eyes.

“By the way,” Mahrree said, trying to sound
nonchalant, “I also noticed Lieutenant Thorne whispered something
to you as they were leaving. Uh . . . what was it?”

Jaytsy shrugged. “Something odd like, if I
ever wanted to know all the secrets of the garrison, he could give
me a private tour and show me things I’d never imagined.”

“And you giggled at that?”

Jaytsy sighed in exasperation. “Mother, I
know what you’re going to say next, and I agree: it was well after
midnight, I was very tired, and everything for some dumb reason
seemed giggle-worthy. Just . . . dumb.”

Once again Mahrree was taken aback by how
mature her daughter could suddenly be, even if she wasn’t very
articulate.

“There was a lot that was dumb last night,
when you think about it,” Jaytsy continued. “Did you see that old
lady with the bag that was covered in colored stones? I mean, just
how much did that thing weigh before she put anything in it?”

The trip was easier once they, by unspoken
agreement, focused on everything “dumb” they were leaving behind in
Idumea. The jams. The crowds. The constant stream of people to and
from the Shin mansion. Sometimes it felt more like the garrison
than a home, with the number of uniforms that tramped in and out.
They carefully avoided any topics that would remind them of who
they left behind, and what they might find ahead.

When they arrived at the first changing
station between Idumea and Pools, Perrin rode over to check on
them.

“Spirits holding up?” he whispered to
Mahrree.

“Yes, very well. We’re all being careful.
How’s the caravan?”

“So far the wagons seem secure, and the teams
held out pretty well at this pace,” Perrin told her. “I hope the
replacements are just as steady, but we may be getting some mixed
qualities coming up. I’ve spoken to a few owners and they
understand the need for their horses. They think the Administrators
have organized all of this, and I’ve heard nothing but praise for
their ‘generous action’ for Edge.” His tone developed an irritated
quality.

“Maybe word will get back to Idumea about the
citizens’ perceptions,” Mahrree pointed out, “and by the time the
Administrators find out, they’ll take all the praise themselves and
go easy on your father."

Perrin sighed. “That would be the best
solution, wouldn’t it? Looks like the last of the horses are
changed. It’s about fifteen miles to the next stop between Pools
and Vines. We won’t have any reason to stop in Pools. Gizzada’s is
closed for the night, even though a wagonful of his sandwiches
could feed the village for a week.”

Mahrree and Jaytsy spent the next leg of the
trip thoroughly criticizing each dress from the night before, while
Peto sighed loudly about his boredom. But he stopped when they
heard the shouting.

And they realized it was Perrin.

“Behind! Behind! HILI!”

Mahrree gripped the window frame and peered
outside. In the dark she couldn’t discern anything, but thought she
recognized Poe on horseback whipping past the coach to follow
Perrin, along with the two lieutenants.

“Mother, what’s going on?” Peto asked.

“I don’t know. Something’s wrong,” she said,
straining to hear anything above the clattering of the coach. There
seemed to be more riders behind them than just four.

Then she heard a distant sound that churned
her stomach.

Swords clanging.

Then there was more shouting, and a horse
quickly overtook the coach.

Instinctively Mahrree drew back. The man on
the horse passing the coach wasn’t in a uniform, but wore dark
clothing and his face was blackened.

Mahrree sat back, breathing heavily.

“What is it?” Jaytsy asked.

The driver of the coach answered her as he
shouted to the teams ahead of him. “Attack! Under attack!”

“Down, on the floor, now!” Mahrree
ordered.

As her whimpering children slid off their
seats and huddled together on the floor, Mahrree put her head
cautiously out the window, only later to realize that wasn’t at all
cautious.

The dark rider was now overtaking the wagon
ahead of them. He leaped from his horse onto the wagon and out of
Mahrree’s view. She sank back down, trying to think and trying not
to panic.

“What do they want?” Peto wondered.

“I think they want the food,” Mahrree said,
struggling to keep her voice steady.

“Who is it?”

She didn’t want to say it, but there was no
other possibility. “Guarders.”

Jaytsy whimpered.

Another yell made them all flinch. It was
Perrin, and he was overtaking the coach.

“Father!” Jaytsy cried out.

Mahrree muffled her with her hand, although
she doubted Perrin would have heard her over the noise of the coach
and the horses. “What do you expect him to do, come in here and
hold you? He needs to do his duty. You do yours. Sit low and
safe!”

Mahrree sat back up and tried to see what was
happening in front of them, if nothing else but to gauge if she
should feel panicked or brave.

She spied Perrin leaning toward the wagon
with the Guarder on it, and a body flew off the side. Mahrree tried
not to gasp, but she couldn’t help it. As they passed the body
flopped by the side of the road, Mahrree saw in the quick moment
that she could focus on it that it was dressed in soldier blue.

Yes, she should feel panicked.

Only one soldier was left on the wagon ahead
with the Guarder, and Perrin was riding next to them on horseback.
She tried to look ahead in the dark, but saw instead a leg start to
come down off the top of their coach. The soldier sitting in relief
driver position was making his way down the side.

The soldier looked behind, and Mahrree turned
to see Poe riding hard up to them holding the reins of another
horse, presumably from the enemy. He came up alongside the coach
and the soldier made a clumsy but safe landing on the spare horse.
Together they rode up to the wagon and out of Mahrree’s view.

She sat back, frustrated. “I have to know
what’s happening! There’s an empty seat now up there,” she mused to
herself and looked up as if she could see through the black
siding.

“Mother, you can NOT go up there!” Peto
declared.

“She’d never do that, Peto!” Jaytsy said.

But Mahrree was already putting her head out
the window trying to see the footholds the soldier used. She sat
down again. “You’re right,” she said, partially disappointed but
more relieved. “If I were wearing trousers I might be able to do
it, and if the horses weren’t galloping. And if it wasn’t dark. And
if I wasn’t terrified of the whole situation—”