The Falcon in the Barn (Book 4 Forest at the Edge series) (84 page)

Deck escorted Jaytsy to the kitchen and
ordered her to stay behind the door.

Mahrree gripped the armrests of her chair.
How could Perrin do this to them? His family, running and hiding
from him? How did everything go so wrong, so suddenly?

Peto rushed into the kitchen as well, and
when Mahrree heard the clang of steel a moment later, she spun
around and stared at her son.

He stood at the base of the staircase and
regarded her with a mixture of sorrow and determination. Perrin’s
old sword was in Peto’s hand, pointed down, but ready. Mahrree was
sure he’d aged another half a dozen years in the last few
minutes.

She clenched her teeth. Peto had never wanted
to be an officer, yet tonight he held an officer’s weapon. It
didn’t look right in his grip as he stood his ground a few feet in
front of the kitchen door, which was opened a crack so that Jaytsy
could peek through.

Mahrree nodded curtly at them. Had it really
come to this? She remembered younger versions of her and Perrin
sitting across from each other at that table, almost nineteen years
ago. They had jokingly vowed to never kill each other.

She turned back around and realized that Deck
had taken position by the fireplace a few feet from her. He stared
intently at the front door and steadied his hold on Perrin’s long
knife that he’d retrieved from the secret drawer in the table.

“
Whatever happens, Deckett
Briter,” she said to him, “you care for Jaytsy and Peto. Keep
yourself out of this mess as much as possible so you can take care
of them. Promise me!”

“
Of course, Mahrree. Of
course!” But his hand trembled.

The door swung open without a knock and
Perrin—the
General
—strode in, followed by Captain Thorne and
four more soldiers, including Sergeant Major Zenos, leaving the
rest outside.

Shem’s eyes said nothing as he blankly gazed
at Mahrree, his face as wooden as the general’s.

Mahrree nearly whimpered. Even Shem?

Oh how she detested those uniforms! They
changed the wearers into soulless puppets, and that dark blue was
like the sky just before a violent thunderstorm. One was brewing
around her, and she was going to be the one who released it in her
house—no one else.

Mahrree stood up with hatred so hot she
thought she’d ignite as she faced the general. He better not assume
he was sleeping here tonight!

“
Mahrree Peto Shin—”
General Shin began in that unfamiliar voice. He even wore those
ludicrous black gloves General Thorne added to the generals’
uniforms. Last year Perrin had made fun of the skin-tight gloves.
Now, he was just as ridiculous as all of them.

“
Get out of my house, you
son of a sow!
” Mahrree shouted at the large blue
body.

Captain Thorne flinched as if he’d been
slapped.

The general merely raised one eyebrow at her
use of the coarse phrase and repeated, “Mahrree Peto Shin—”

“
I answer only Mahrree
Peto!”

“
Mahrree!” the general said
abruptly and took a threatening step toward her.

Peto wielded the old sword and held it at the
ready with surprising steadiness.

General Shin flicked him a glance before
turning back to his wife. “I’m here to ask if you intend to
continue to demand the resolutions of this evening be debated. I am
here to ascertain if you will continue to refuse to accept the
findings of this Administration.”

Mahrree nearly rolled her eyes. Now he even
sounded
like the Administrators, with their inability to say
anything without a jumble of jargon. Try as she might, Mahrree
couldn’t control her shaking. She thought she heard her daughter
whimper and was aware that her son-in-law had stepped closer. There
was only one response her conscience would allow her to speak.

“
Yes! With my dying
breath!”

Jaytsy clearly whimpered that time, but
Mahrree couldn’t stop to think about her.

“
I will defend the right
for
any
one to question
any
thing. Each person has
the right to find her own answers and believe as she
wishes!”

The general’s gaze was so sharp she felt as
if he was cutting straight through her, while the soldiers behind
him fidgeted.

“
General,” Captain Thorne
said cagily. “You
now
know her mind—”

“
Yes, I do. Thank you,
Captain,” he intoned, not taking his eyes off of
Mahrree.

“
General!” Thorne said
louder. “This is
precisely
the moment I’ve been trying to
prepare you for—”

Shin’s hard glare turned abruptly to the
captain.

Thorne’s mouth remained open, but no more
words came out.

Shin shifted his stare back to his wife.

“
And why are you now
suddenly a general?” Mahrree demanded.

The general didn’t even blink. “Cush is dead.
Messenger came this morning with the promotion, effective
immediately. I’m to leave for Idumea as soon as possible. The
Administrators have requested my presence to announce the new High
General. And,” his dull cadence continued, “according to the aide
of Administrator Genev, you, Mrs. Shin, are to join me. The Office
of Loyalty
demands
your attendance.”

Deck gasped and he took another step closer
to hold her arm, for which she was grateful, even though a minute
before she told him to stay out of this.

So this
was
the end.

The end of everything. Of Edge, of her
family.
Everything.

“
Captain, you and the
others will wait outside,” the new general said icily, still
focused on Mahrree. “I’ll handle this alone.”

“
But—” Thorne started, but
clamped his mouth shut when General Shin raised a hand, all the
more intimidating sheathed in black.

Thorne turned to the door, and the soldiers
filed out to leave the Shins’ staring match undisturbed.

“
Now that I’m sure of your
mind—” General Shin began, and with a swift movement that no one
anticipated, he drew Relf’s sword.

Mahrree stiffened in shock as Jaytsy
screamed.

“
No!” Peto cried. “Not like
this!” He charged his father.

General Shin threw Relf’s sword on the table,
sidestepped Peto’s rush, caught his neck from behind with one hand,
and deftly grabbed the blade his old sword with his other, without
even nicking his gloves.

Peto fell to his knees gasping in pain from
the powerful pinch his father delivered to his nerve, and released
the hilt. With one smooth motion, the general flipped the sword in
the air and caught it by the hilt.

Mahrree finally found her voice, and with it
she screamed. The general had brandished the sword right across her
chest, the point just inches away from Deck’s heart.

Deck froze in his rush to help Peto. The long
knife was in his outstretched hand aimed at the general, several
inches too short. A pitchfork would have been better tonight.

Jaytsy’s panicked sobs carried throughout the
house as the family remained motionless in their positions.

When Mahrree thought of the incident later,
she considered how impressed with Perrin’s power, speed, and skill
she would’ve been had he not been simultaneously threatening to
break her son’s neck and run through her daughter’s husband.

“
Stand down, boy,” the
general rumbled at Deck. He stared past the dull silver blade at
his son-in-law, who trembled and knew he was clearly at a
disadvantage.

“
Deck, drop it!” Mahrree
cried.

Reluctantly, he dropped the knife.

The general immediately dropped his old sword
on top of it.

Mahrree stared at the blades, clattering on
top of each other.

Wait a minute—

The general released Peto who, also
perplexed, crumpled in a heap in front of his mother.

The general, with complete composure, removed
his cap, placed it upside down on the table next to Relf’s gleaming
sword which still vibrated, and began to peel off the dark dress
gloves.

“
As I was saying before I
was interrupted,” the general began and glanced at his son who
remained on the floor rubbing his neck, “now that I know your mind,
Mahrree, the decision is obvious.”

He dropped the gloves into the cap and
unbuttoned his jacket.

His family could only gape.

The general wrenched off his jacket and
retrieved the long knife from the floor. “Captain!” he shouted.
“Get in here.”

Mahrree stared in bewilderment as the general
held up his jacket. The door flung open and Thorne rushed in,
followed by Zenos and three other soldiers with their hands on the
hilts of their swords.

“
You are my witness,
Captain Thorne,” said General Shin.

Mahrree finally found something to say. “What
are you doing?”

Already he’d slipped the knife under the
patch of the Administrators’ official mark and sliced cleanly
through the stitching. It fell neatly on top of the gloves in the
cap.

“
General?” questioned the
captain as he came up and stood next to Mahrree. His astonishment
matched hers.

With two more quick slices the general
released two more insignias.

Mahrree stared at one of the patches, with
the sword imposed on top of a pine tree. For some inexplicable
reason, it looked completely different to her, as if seeing it
sideways in the cap suddenly gave it new meaning. The tiny sword
was pointed to the mountains behind her.

Perrin yanked the new mountain lion pin from
its position above his name badge, leaving a small tear in the
woolen jacket, and dropped it into his cap. After tossing the knife
on the table, where it clanked against Relf’s sword, he picked up
the cap.

“
You may inform General
Thorne, Chairman Mal, and the Administrators that today, the
6
^th
Day of Planting Season, I officially
resigned
from the army. This is the end . . . of my career.”

For Mahrree, the room seemed to have been
turned abruptly on its side. She gripped the chair back to brace
herself.

Peto put his head in his hands.

Deck sat down hard in Mahrree’s empty
chair.

Jaytsy sobbed anew in the kitchen.

But Shem grinned.

The general had simply vanished and left Mr.
Shin in his place.

Perrin handed his cap to the startled
captain, nudging his hand to take it. “This will go down, no doubt,
as the shortest tenure of a general in our history,” he smiled
casually. “For your information, I’m keeping the jacket. My parents
paid for that, and I earned those ribbons and medals. But the cap,
well, I never liked it. As for the black dress gloves? Those are
the worst idea after brass buttons and pins that look like mountain
lions. Be sure to tell your father that. And gloves make it
difficult to keep a secure hold of one’s sword. The insignias in
the cap belong to the Administrators, as well as this sword. It’s a
general’s sword, after all.” Perrin turned to retrieve it from the
table and glanced at Peto before saying, “And it was the
first
thing I wanted to rid myself of.”

Peto offered an apologetic wince.

Thorne’s mouth was wide open as he
automatically took the sword in his other hand. His jaw worked up
and down before it remembered how to form words. “General, you can
not
be serious. When we accompanied you here tonight I
thought it was because you were finally ready to . . . to . . .” He
looked at Mahrree and stopped in mid-gesture with the sword.

Mahrree gave Thorne a worried sidelong glance
and sidled away.

“
My mind has always been
the same as hers,” Perrin stated firmly. “And my name is Perrin
Shin, not general. You and your men are free to leave. Including
the ones hiding behind my woodshed.”

Thorne, realizing there was nothing left to
say or do, stumbled out the door, his arms filled with the former
general’s effects, and was followed by the other stunned
soldiers.

Except for Sergeant Major Zenos who stood
straighter than he ever had and saluted, with a tear sliding down
his face.

Perrin cleared his throat roughly and gave
him a look only the two of them understood.

Shem dropped his arm, nodded at the
family—his eyes brimming with what seemed oddly like joy—then left
the house, shutting the door behind him.

Outside, Shem noticed the other soldiers were
back in formation, but bewilderedly. Captain Thorne stood at the
head of them, staring blankly at the cap and insignias in one hand
and the sword in his other, as if he’d never before seen such
things.

“
Time to go home, Captain
Thorne!” Shem ordered.

Thorne looked up at him as if coming out of a
dream, and nodded dumbly. He started for the fort, the soldiers
following reluctantly.

Zenos paused before bringing up the rear, a
small smile forming on his face that no one in the dark could
see.

“
The wait is
finally
over, Shin family,” he whispered. “Time to go home!”

---

Inside, Deck rushed to the kitchen to check
on Jaytsy.

Peto still sat on the floor, staring at his
father who tossed his army jacket sloppily on the table and seemed
chagrined that he did so.

“
I can’t believe you did
that,” Mahrree whispered, holding on to the table for support, but
not quite yet daring to hold on to Perrin. Just a moment ago he was
a general she hated. Her emotions were having a difficult time
catching up to the events of evening, and something about him still
seemed so distant.