The Mansions of Idumea (Book 3 Forest at the Edge series) (75 page)

That last question made all of the
Administrators change positions. Some sat up, some slunk down in
their chairs, and others leaned forward.

“We have yet to finish discussing the issue
of
your caravan
,” Chairman Mal said coolly.

“You mean the theft!” a man snapped. Shem
could just make out the title on the wooden plaque in front of him.
Administrator of Loyalty.

“You mean the rescue effort!” countered the
Administrator of Security. “Which has brought messages of praise
from several villages.”

“A brilliant public relations move, if I do
say so myself,” added the Administrator of Culture.

“But a serious violation!” argued
another.

The Chairman stood up.

Judging by the stunned looks on the other
men’s faces, he never did that. “This discussion will continue
another time,” he said loudly.

“Where were the guards, Nicko?” Colonel Shin
demanded.

Colonel Thorne came up to the table. “Riplak
was, we believe, in the house, and the other four normally
stationed around the mansion were there as well,” he reported
tonelessly. “Three were killed. One—a corporal—was critically
injured. Riplak’s missing.”

Shin squinted. “Missing?”

“Found his jacket.”

“Where?”

Thorne hesitated for the briefest of moments.
“In the cook’s bedroom.”

Shin squinted more severely, as if he could
see it all if he focused hard enough.

“No one’s seen him since the night before,”
said Thorne in a slightly bored tone. “The grounds were thoroughly
searched. The cook was seriously injured as well. She’s at the
garrison hospital being tended to.”

Cush tried to take Perrin’s arm again, but he
flinched at his touch. “Perrin, your parents are there, too.
Burial’s not scheduled until this evening. Let me take you
there.”

“How’d they get in?” a furious Colonel Shin
asked Thorne. “Busy roads, crowded neighborhoods all the way there,
and no one saw them? How is that?”

Thorne matched his cold gaze. “They came in
the early hours, maybe up to eight of them. From what we can tell
they weren’t dressed in their version of uniforms. They looked like
farmers. Nothing suspicious about that, is there?”

“In the early morning hours?” Shin
challenged.

“Dairy farmers!” Thorne shouted.

“Who saw them? How do you know?”

“The cook gave the description. Ask her
yourself!”

“Four Guarders were also captured and brought
to Pools,” Shin bellowed at Thorne. “I was told you brought them to
the garrison. So what have you learned?”

“Nothing.” Thorne matched Shin’s glare and
raised it by several degrees.

“And why not?”

“Because they’re dead!”

Shin threw his hands in the air, ignoring the
stunned expressions exchanged between the Administrators. “Oh, now
that’s
convenient. Come on, Thorne—don’t you know how to
deal with Guarders? You’re supposed to check them all over for
blades. Didn’t they teach you that in Command School?”

Thorne’s glare was so severe that Shem felt
it cutting straight through Perrin and into his own flesh. It was a
good thing there was a large table between the two colonels.

That’s when Shem realized
he
hadn’t
taken all of Perrin’s blades, either. While his sword was on the
table, he didn’t know where Perrin’s long knife was. Not on his
hip, Shem was reasonably sure, but probably in his boot. As long as
Perrin didn’t suddenly bend down—

Shem gulped in dread over his own
carelessness.

“I took all their blades personally, Shin,”
Thorne seethed. “It seems they had a
friend
who was rather
disappointed they allowed themselves to be captured. Sometime
during the last evening he entered the garrison prison and killed
each one of them.”

Several of the Administrators gasped at the
news, but Colonel Shin just slowly shook his head. “What a
surprise. How’d you let
that
happen, Thorne?” He ignored the
colonel’s growing sneer. “Thousands of soldiers, and no one notices
a Guarder coming in to destroy his associates?”

“Guarders live among us, Colonel,” Thorne
said in a dangerous tone, his hand on the hilt of his sword.
“That’s quite obvious now. It’s very difficult to know who to
trust.”

Shin matched his sneer. “Oh, it
most
certainly is
!”

“Boys, boys!” General Cush said loudly, as if
merely breaking up a tussle between two privates. “Everyone’s a bit
on edge right now—”

Colonel Shin leaned aggressively on the
table, aiming himself at Thorne. “None of this makes sense. Why my
father? My mother? Why were your guards so ineffective, Thorne? And
why now?”

“Perrin!” Cush said sternly. “We know you’re
grieving, but don’t say something you’ll later regret. Come on, let
me take you to the mansion—”

“NO!” Perrin shouted, pushing Cush away.
“This didn’t have to happen! I know it!”

“Perhaps if you hadn’t left so
hastily
, Colonel Shin,” the Administrator of Loyalty began
in such a smug manner that Shem firmed his grip on his hilt, “you
would’ve been there to protect your father and mother.” His tone
was like an excited mosquito buzzing around a bleeding gash,
delighted to see an easy meal. “Is
that
what’s bothering
you?”

Shem should have anticipated it, but he
didn’t.

Colonel Shin exploded onto the table and
lunged for his sword. Perhaps that was why the table was so highly
polished: it proved to be nearly impossible for him to get traction
on his first scrambling attempt.

“NO!” Shem yelled and leaped on the table,
tackling the flailing Perrin just as he reached his sword. Shem
dropped his own weapon but pinned the colonel to the table.

“Colonel, NO!” Zenos yelled again, wrapping
his arm tightly around his throat, his knee firmly in Perrin’s back
where he knew there was a growing bruise from their fight hours
before.

Colonel Shin, gasping in pain and fury,
gripped his sword’s hilt and, despite Shem immobilizing him,
managed to aim the tip of the blade just inches away from the
Administrator of Loyalty. The terrified man, who was a nauseating
shade of gray, didn’t think to push his chair away from the table
and out of range.

But two blades were on Shin.

One was Shem’s, who held Grandpy’s long knife
to Perrin’s throat with his free hand while keeping him in a choke
hold.

The other blade belonged to the sword of
Colonel Thorne, who now stood between two ashen Administrators and
trained his point just inches away from Perrin’s temple.

“Colonel,
please!
” Shem whispered into
his ear. “Don’t make me do this—”

“How dare you, Gadiman?” Perrin rasped at the
Administrator with his last breaths. “Makes me wonder . . . if you
didn’t . . . plan this whole thing . . . yourself—”

“Perrin!” Shem snapped.

Gadiman shook as if he would pass out from
terror.

Colonel Shin turned purple as the sergeant’s
grip tightened. He had only seconds left as his throat gurgled—

“Enough!” Cush cried. “Enough! Off of him!
Get his sword, Master Sergeant. Perrin, come on.” The general was
doing his best to push his girth between stunned two administrators
to reach him. “Enough of this!”

Shem was more than happy to obey the order to
release his best friend, and had planned to choke Perrin only until
he lost consciousness, which would have happened in another second
or two. Gingerly he pulled the sword out of the colonel’s weakened
grip and slid off the table as Perrin began to gasp for air.

Cush had a hand on his arm, trying to drag
him off the table. “Let’s go to the garrison, Perrin. You need to
cool off.”

Colonel Shin’s eyes were glazed and unfocused
as he crawled off the table and let General Cush put a supporting
arm around him. He was a completely different man, Shem could tell,
disconnected from everything around him. It’d been too much, all of
it: the news, the long ride, the lack of food and sleep. Perrin
could hardly stand as he coughed to refill his lungs.

Another Administrator jumped to his feet.
“Let me come with you. I have something—”

“No, Brisack!” the Chairman said abruptly.
“Not yet!”

The rest of the Administrators, still stunned
by the outburst of Colonel Shin, now turned to look quizzically at
either Brisack or Mal.

Brisack raised an inquiring eyebrow
himself.

Mal, feeling the stares, swallowed. “I mean
that . . . Doctor Brisack, I need a few words with you first, in
private. Meet them at the hospital in a little while.”

Doctor Brisack slowly sat down.

Shem, now on the other side of Perrin with an
arm around his waist to steady him, remembered the name of Doctor
Brisack. He was the one Perrin and Mahrree liked. He might just be
their only ally right now.

“Thorne,” Chairman Mal turned to the colonel
who still held his sword at the ready, “go with them for now.”

“Yes, sir!” Colonel Thorne said, a little too
eagerly, Shem thought.

Thorne quickly moved around the table and
unlatched the door. Several men on the other side opened it and
fell back quickly as they saw the four soldiers leaving the room:
one supported on each side by two others, and the fourth with his
sword drawn and trained at the middle man’s neck.

The crowds parted even more rapidly than
before as the four men strode—or more precisely, three men strode
while one was dragged—through the halls and to the general’s
carriage waiting at the back entrance.

Cush carefully pushed Perrin up and into the
open carriage where he stared, unseeing and glassy-eyed, at the
floor. Shem took the seat next to him as Cush sat across from him.
Thorne had a word with the driver, and, with his sword still in
hand, sat across from Shem, his focus solely on Colonel Shin.

Shem looked nervously at General Cush, who
watched Perrin with fatherly concern. Perrin now stared blankly at
the scenery as it passed, not seeing any of it.

Shem cleared his throat politely and Cush
shifted his gaze to him.

“I’m sorry, sir,” the master sergeant said.
“I should’ve moved faster.” He sent a fleeting look to Colonel
Thorne. “I really didn’t think he’d do that.”

General Cush smiled at him kindly. “You did
very well, Master Sergeant. I think all of us were surprised. But
Perrin’s going to be all right,” he said a bit loudly, as if Perrin
had gone deaf. “Aren’t you, son? Just need a little rest, a little
time to think. We’ll take care of you.”

Perrin didn’t even blink, but stared
vacantly.

Colonel Thorne turned to the sergeant. “It
was an impressive move, flattening him like that. You took his
breath nearly instantly.”

Shem wasn’t sure how to take that, but the
sandy-haired colonel had admiration in his cold blue eyes. “Yes,
sir,” seemed to be the safest response. “Thank you.”

Cush leaned over. “Are you by any chance
Uncle Shem?”

Shem’s eyes widened. “Uh, yes sir. Master
Sergeant Shem Zenos.”

Cush sat back and smiled. “I had a feeling.
Heard a lot about you from the Shins. You’re quite the favorite,
aren’t you? Ran a few races against our Perrin here? Was even the
children’s baby tender when they were younger?”

Shem searched for an appropriate response,
and settled on the tried and true, “Yes, sir.”

“The family has a lot of trust in you. So
does Perrin, I see,” Cush said. “You’re a good man to have around,
Master Sergeant Shem Zenos. You may have preserved a family
today.”

The carriage swayed to a halt.

“Oh, what now?” said Thorne crossly. He
turned behind him to see an Idumean jam ahead.

“That’s all right.” Cush said. “We’re in no
rush, now, are we? Gives us some time to get to know the master
sergeant here, and let Perrin have some fresh air. Tell me,
Uncle Shem
, how long have you been in Edge?”

“Nearly fourteen years, sir. I arrived at the
same time as Peto Shin.”

“Are you married?”

“No, sir.”

“Raised near Edge?”

“No, sir. I come from between Flax and Waves.
My father owns some land there.”

“So you left home for the other side of the
world, did you?” said Cush, surprised.

“Yes, sir. I like the mountains more than I
like the sea.”

“That makes you an unusual man, then,”
interjected Thorne. “Usually everyone tries to go south.”

Shem looked Colonel Thorne in the eyes and
knew what he had to say. He’d been waiting years for the
opportunity. “I guess I find the north more appealing, sir.”

Thorne and Cush both smiled at Zenos.

After a silent moment, Thorne said, “Many of
us do. Chase many Guarders, Shem Zenos?”

“Yes, sir. More than I care to remember.
Sirs, may I ask a question?”

Cush glanced at Perrin, who still stared
blankly at the road. “Of course, son.”

“Why are Guarders now living in the city in
disguise? Why change the tactics now?”

Thorne cleared his throat slightly, and his
father-in-law gave him a brief look. “Go ahead. We have time. And
I’m not listening.”

It was times like this that Shem was grateful
for his training. While his ears fairly burned at General Cush’s
words—and what it seemed he knew and tried to ignore—Shem kept his
face completely placid as Thorne began to speak.

“When one strategy is no longer
satisfying
,” Thorne said meaningfully, his gaze focused
solely on Shem, “another must be employed, Master Sergeant.”

Shem sighed. “Yes but, why? After all these
years, why not make one unified attack—take out the Administrators
all at once and set up their own leadership? It certainly seems
possible.”

“Yes, but is that what the Guarders
want
, Zenos?” Thorne said. “Control of the world?”

Shem swallowed. “I’m afraid that right now I
don’t know what the Guarders want, sirs.”