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The Forest at the Edge of the World
Published by Trish Mercer
Copyright © 2014 Patricia Strebel Mercer
3rd Edition, 2016 revised and edited
All rights reserved.
Cover design and photography by David Mercer’s wife, who forced him to dress up and stare “meaningfully into the distance,” which, for the dear sweet life of him, he just couldn’t figure out how to do.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
All characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental, but would be totally awesome.
This book is also available in print.
Please remember to leave a review for my book at your favorite retailer.
For updates about the series, sign up here: When’s the next book being released?
Other titles in the series:
Soldier at the Door, Book 2: Just when the Shins least need it, they’re sent some “help.” Click here to purchase.
The Mansions of Idumea, Book 3: When a major disaster strikes Edge, naturally Idumea pulls them away from their village and insists they return to the city. Click here to purchase.
The Falcon in the Barn, Book 4: His enemies have Perrin trapped, but his friends are gathering. Click here to purchase.
Safety Assured Leaving East of Medicetti, Book 5: When the world is out to get you, sometimes the only option is to run away. Click here to purchase.
Dedicated to my sisters, because Judy and Barbara
knew how to hold their tongues,
but usually wouldn’t.
MAPS visit http://forestedgebooks.com/maps/ to see Edge and the World, in startling 2D.
A pronunciation guide to some of the more unusual names . . .
Nicko Mal— NEE-koh MAL
Querul—KWER-el
Idumea— i-doo-ME-uh
Hogal Densal— HOE-gal DENS-al
Mahrree Peto— MARR-ee PAY-toh
Cephas Peto— SEE-fus PAY-toh
Hycymum Peto— HIE-si-mum PAY-toh
Hierum— HIE-rum
Tuma Hifadhi— TOO-muh hi-FOD-hee
Sonoforen— sun-uv-OR-en
Terryp— TARE-up
Jaytsy— JAYT-see
Brisack— BRIZ-ak
Gizzada— gi-ZAH-duh
For background information on all character names and derivations, visit http://forestedgebooks.com/characters
Contents
Prologue ~ “Words for Weeds?”
Chapter 1 ~ “The chicken thing was just a misunderstanding.”
Chapter 2 ~ “I’m not about to argue who has the prettier hog.”
Chapter 3 ~ “The sky really is blue, and they can count upon that fact.”
Chapter 4 ~ “All science is about proving a bias.”
Chapter 5 ~ “Tell me what you know about Guarders.”
Chapter 6 ~ “Miss Peto, it’s obvious you have very little experience with men.”
Chapter 7 ~ “You’re just afraid of my blob and what it may represent.”
Chapter 8 ~ “Uhhh, sometime I am available should be fine, when we, uh you, can make it.”
Chapter 9 ~ “Debate the merits of Perrin and Mahrree continuing the debates--”
Chapter 10 ~ “Not at all coincidental, is it?”
Chapter 11 ~ “So I’ve actually rendered you speechless?!”
Chapter 12 ~ “We’ve done this kind of backward, haven’t we?”
Chapter 13 ~ “Love is just a cover-up. Always is.”
Chapter 14 ~ “Keep a closer eye on this one.”
Chapter 15 ~ “You have deep dark secrets?”
Chapter 16 ~ “Expectations? I didn’t expect this!”
Chapter 17 ~ “Some rules are meant to be broken by the right men.”
Chapter 18 ~ “Then they did the strangest thing . . .”
Chapter 19 ~ “He’s finished, Shin! Out of the army!”
Chapter 20 ~ “Doorknob, I don’t want to see everything differently.”
Chapter 21 ~ “Something like this shouldn’t happen for quite a while considering . . .”
Chapter 22 ~ “Do I look like I’m about to do something stupid?”
Chapter 23 ~ “And if it is Your will, let me walk out of here again.”
Chapter 24 ~ “Remarkable the kind of damage a mere tree branch can do, isn’t it?”
Acknowledgements . . .
About the author and Visit Me . . .
“So . . . you really destroyed the world?”
The old woman kneeling in the pumpkin patch sat back on her heels and looked up at her accuser. The sunlight illuminated his worried look, betraying his attempt at nonchalance.
The woman smirked. Thirteen-year-olds weren’t known for their subtlety. She tucked a wisp of gray hair behind her ear. “Not exactly.”
But the look in the boy’s eyes suggested he didn’t believe her. She’d seen this happen before, with other thirteen-year-olds. He was now ready for the knowledge, and for many moons he would struggle to regard her as he used to, because the old woman he thought he knew turned today into something much more. There had always been the stories, but today he heard the story.
The old woman noticed a movement behind the boy. His cousin was picking her way through the pumpkins, wearing the same anxious-stunned look. She was thirteen too.
“Now I understand why you didn’t teach the lesson,” she said when she reached them. The girl warily eyed the small woman. “So, Muggah . . . is it all true?”
Muggah positioned herself more comfortably in the dirt—that was why she wore her brown cotton skirt and tunic—and put her hands on her hips. “Depends on who told the story this time.”
“We were told that you are—” the girl swallowed nervously before continuing, “—the most dangerous woman in the world?”
Muggah rolled her eyes dramatically. “Let me guess: a certain general told you that?” Her voice dripped contempt.
The children nodded and, for the first time, began to relax.
“You know how he likes to weave a story,” she reminded them.
Finally the cousins smiled. Muggah was still as they remembered her.
Sort of.
“I can give you the real story, the more accurate version.” She winked at them.
They grinned. “That’s what we were hoping,” the boy said, sounding relieved.
“Ah, but I have so much weeding to do.” Muggah sighed sadly. “So much work . . .”
The cousins exchanged a knowing glance, and then dropped to their knees. Their mothers had purposely sent them out in their work clothes.
“Words for weeds?” the girl asked.
Muggah nodded. “Words for weeds, Hycie. And Vid, it wasn’t exactly destroyed. The world’s still there, right?”
The boy shrugged. “I don’t know, Muggah. Is it?”
She gestured to the garden. The children immediately started pulling unwanted vines and yellow flowers.
Muggah smiled and leaned back to let the sun beat down upon her. The afternoon was going to be easy, just as she expected.
“Now, we’ll begin with Oren, in the year 317. I always like to start with an end, because that’s the way to get a beginning . . .”
Chapter 1 ~ “The chicken thing
was just a misunderstanding.”
It was his Last Day.
For any other person, that would have explained the lost-in-thought expression on his face as he sat alone in the quiet hall. But the thickest ruler of the world had only ever been “lost.” He gave other people slips of gold to do the “thought” part for him.
He also didn’t know it was his Last Day. But that was about to change.
---
“King Oren!” shouted the voice across the empty throne room.
The middle-aged king looked up from his gold and leather throne. He saw the old professor—white-haired and squatty—enter into the long hall filled with windows. He had a way of perpetually trembling, Oren had noticed some time ago, which made his tufty hair quiver like an agitated skunk. Oren always liked skunks.
The afternoon sun illuminated the other professors that Oren employed as his advisors, as well as the High General and about a dozen soldiers in blue woolen uniforms who followed.
Oren didn’t like the High General. Everything about him was too hard and gray, like a rock come to life, and it wasn’t happy about it.
Oren gulped.
“We all are here this day,” the professor gestured to those behind him, “to deliver our judgment and punishment, on the 47th Day of Planting Season, the year 317—”
“I know what day it is,” King Oren offered helpfully.
“—to announce to you that . . . what?” the old professor squinted.
“The date. You don’t need to tell me anymore. I figured out how to read calendars a few years ago, remember?”
“Did you hear that?” the professor announced to the men behind him. “Forty-four years old, and Oren now knows how to tell the date!”
“Right after I hired you, we spent several days going over the dating system,” Oren continued, not recognizing the sarcasm in his advisor’s voice. But Oren did realize that Professor Mal was trembling even more than usual. He usually did that just before he’d start yelling. “We have four seasons, 91 days in each, and each year starts again in Planting Season, although I always thought it was in the middle of Raining, but—”
The professor, incredulous, turned to the High General. “Do you still insist he deserves my carefully prepared speech? Listen to him babbling!”
“—it does make more sense for the year to begin in Planting, since dogs—”
The High General, a hulking man in his fifties, sighed loudly. “Nicko, we went over this.”
“—although I’m sure the cats disagree—” Oren scratched his chin and lost his thought. The High General’s gravelly voice always made him forget what he was talking about.
It was cats, Oren suddenly remembered.
He liked cats—not skunks.
Simple mistake. Both are the same size, same shape, just different coloring. It was easy to confuse a skunk for his cat lost in the mansion’s compound at night.
But do it four times, and the servants begin to complain.
“King Oren deserves to know why this judgment is being handed down to him.” The High General’s face tightened as the king raised his hand to say something.
“Whatever happened to my cat? Mal, I haven’t seen her around for—”
“Oren!” Professor Mal bellowed, his white hair shaking. “Shut up!”
The King of the World clamped shut his mouth and cowered on his throne. Mal never did like his cat.
Or maybe it was the skunk he didn’t like. The smell, Oren—don’t you notice the smell? Mal had yelled that at him once when he wrestled the skittish, terrified cat into the mansion, only to realize he had the wrong animal. It was the smell of worry, Oren had thought. He knew that smell intimately. Surely his cat would feel worry, too—
Mal straightened his woolen jacket. “We’re here to explain to you why you’ll no longer be ruling our world nor occupying that chair.”
“This has to do with the market last week, right?” Oren squeaked, beginning to make his own scent of worry. “The silk cloak?”
“Among other things, yes!”
“Because I have that figured out now,” Oren said, trying to avoid the steady glare of the High General. Normally he enjoyed looking at all the shining medals, counting the stitched patches on his blue uniform, and admiring the silverwork on the hilt of his sword. But today the High General of Idumea’s army had an even harsher expression which refused to let Oren focus on his uniform.
“You see,” Oren started, “you explained to me that even though I possess the world—”
“That’s only what your grandmother claimed,” Mal reminded him.
Oren kept going, because Mal always said that and he didn’t know why. “—I just can’t take from it what I want. People get mad when I raise taxes so that I can make my mansion lovelier. But I can’t get more things if I don’t have more slips of gold or silver, and I have to take those from the people. So when I took that silk cloak last week, I didn’t give any slips of gold because I didn’t have any, and I didn’t want to take any. Instead of taking gold that’s mine but being held by the people, I just took the cloak!” He smiled proudly. It had taken him all night to work that out, but finally he got it. And without any of his advisors’ help.
He never followed what they said anyway.
Mal closed his eyes. “High General, do we really have to continue this? He’s a waste of my breath—”
“Nicko, tell the man. This will be put on the message boards, remember?” he said out of the corner of his mouth. “You know full well that how history is recorded is how it’s understood. The world needs to understand this in the right way.”
Oren heard his low muttering, but just didn’t worry about it. Life was so much easier when you stop worrying about the bits that make no sense.
The High General glanced over at the nervous scribe in the corner who was trying to read his lips. The man immediately hunched back over the stack of parchment on his small desk and returned to his scrawling.
Mal grudgingly opened his eyes. “Your theft in the market place caused a riot,” he resumed his explanation to Oren. “Remember us telling you about that?”
Oren nodded slowly. It had seemed to be a rather good party.
“And that riot spread to nearly each of the seventeen villages surrounding Idumea. We’ve been hearing reports of deaths and chaos, and the army has been dispatched to quell the riots in villages where we didn’t even need forts before. The world has been devastated by your ineptitude!”
Oren silently mouthed in-ep-ti-tude. Mal liked big words. Oren didn’t.
The scribe hurriedly dipped his quill in the ink and scribbled on the parchment.
Mal cleared his throat and resumed his speech. “Since your ancestor Querul the First took control of our world in 190, he didn’t stop the chaos, but added to it. Starting in 195 we suffered from the Great War for five long years. Two hundred thousand were dead at the end of it.”
Oh, another lecture, thought Oren glumly. How many lectures had he sat through, bored to squirming because Mal said he needed an education? He’d done school. Lots of it. It was all the same. Words, writing, reading, staring out the window and waiting for something interesting to happen. As a boy he’d look at his piece of chalk and wish it could turn into a . . . into a stick, or something.
Maybe that wasn’t too interesting. But maybe two sticks—
“Oren?”
The king blinked and sat up straighter to face the snarling voice that said his name.
Mal had his arms folded, his hair so jittery that Oren knew the explosion of temper was coming at any moment. He gritted his teeth and braced himself. “Yes?”
“Where are you?!”
The king blinked twice at that. He looked around and considered that maybe Mal had been wrong to yell at him for years about being stupid. Clearly Mal was the one struggling right now. “We’re in the throne room,” Oren said kindly. Mal was an old man, after all.
“Oren!”
“Yes?”
“Pay attention!” Mal bellowed.
Oren jumped in his throne and nodded. That was the only way to calm Mal—silent obedience.
Professor Mal cleared his throat, shot a furious look at the High General who ignored him, and continued on the same dull lecture.
“The violent faction who prolonged the war—the Guarders—were carelessly allowed by Querul the First to escape their punishments by fleeing to the dangerous forests beyond our borders. We weren’t saved from them. They still attack us and steal our goods!”
Oren knew better than to sigh loudly. His grandmother’s slap always reminded him that she never approved of that, and neither did Mal. Sighs always made the old professor shake more, and right now he was quivering as if he stood on his own land tremor. All Oren could do was focus on the brass buttons on the High General’s uniform, and wonder what they’d look like hanging in the windows where they could catch the sun’s light.
Maybe his cat would come back if he saw them shining . . .
“Querul didn’t bring peace,” Mal droned on. “Neither did his son Querul the Second, a brutal and paranoid king who employed twenty percent of the population to spy on each other looking for evidence of Guarder collaboration and bringing the need for execution squads. Under his rule another twelve thousand perished, according to our best guesses. Many of them simply vanished.”
Too many big words. But something Mal said . . .
Oren’s thoughts shifted away from wondering if skunks liked shiny things, and he looked into Mal’s enraged eyes.
Maybe he should pay attention.
“His son, Querul the Third, was no better, continuing the reign of terror of his father. And his wife—your grandmother, Oren—was the most evil woman to ever stalk this world. Since she died seven years ago we’ve done all we can to undo her influence upon the world and you—”
“She wasn’t that bad,” Oren feebly tried to defend her. He couldn’t help it. Even though she’d been gone for years, somehow she was still in his mind, pinch-lipped and pointing. That finger was gnarled and bony, but somehow it was the scariest finger in the world. And you couldn’t turn your back on it, or it’d get you.
“She disposed of your wife and two daughters, Oren!” Mal shouted. “Do you know what happened to them?”
That was one of those worrying things Oren found it easier to just not worry about. He timidly shook his head.
“Never bothered to ask, did you? Your wife couldn’t produce a son, and you can’t legally have more than two children, so your grandmother cleared the way for you to have more children by various women in the world to finally produce a male! And what about your own mother, Oren? What happened to her?”
Another worrying thing. Mal seemed to be strangely interested in those today. “Umm,” Oren began, although his grandmother also smacked him whenever he began a sentence so inarticulately, “they went for a walk. She just disappeared.”
“Just disappeared,” Mal repeated tonelessly. “The wife of the king, out walking with her mother-in-law, in a city of tens of thousands, and she just disappears. I know you believed that as a boy, but still? Oren, no one would ever have accused your grandmother of kindness. She didn’t want anyone else to influence her two grandsons but her.”
Oren’s mouth dropped open, and he absently rubbed his face where she hit him every day for the thirty-seven years she ruled his life. No—she was mean, certainly, but not . . . She’d never have—
“Then your father, Querul the Fourth, was an idiot! Not as big as you, granted,” Mal conceded, “but—”
“The chicken thing was just a misunderstanding,” Oren insisted. Here was something he did know about. “He didn’t want the pocks to—”
“The chickens were never infested with pocks, Oren!” Mal barked. “Any other thinking man would have asked for a second opinion, instead of taking the word of cattle ranchers that the chickens were ill and advancing disease! Any other man would have asked a scientist before killing off ninety percent of the world’s poultry. It took the world years to recover from your father’s gullibility.”
Oren bit his lip. Without even knowing what all those words were, he was beginning to suspect things weren’t going his way.
“And then there’s you,” Mal spat. “I’ve been tutoring you for years, but to no avail. Perhaps if your older brother Querul the Fifth hadn’t died as a teen, the world may have been in a better state today, but I doubt it. He was more closely knitted to your grandmother and her love of the execution squads than you are. I suppose we have that to be grateful for,” he added. “But the world is tired, Oren. Tired of your family, tired of your abuses, tired of your stupidity—”
“They could take naps,” Oren offered lamely, nothing else coming to his mind. “When they’re tired. I do. Every afternoon . . .”
Mal exhaled loudly. “Nearly half of our history has been dictated by your family, but no more. By nightfall, the world will find itself governed by a body of twenty-three experienced and wise professors from the University of Idumea. Tomorrow, the future of the world will be brighter because there will be no more Queruls or Orens in it!”
“What do you mean?” Now it was Oren’s turn to tremble.
Now he was sure this wasn’t going well, not at all.
The scribe scribbled so frantically that flecks of ink splattered around his desk.
“King Oren, today we are charging you with gross negligence and complete indifference toward the one million people of the world you have pledged to rule. You have done nothing to alleviate suffering, but instead increased it. You have not shielded your people from death, but brought more to them. You have not listened to their cries for help, but ignored them. We have not progressed under your rule, but have stagnated.”
Oren wondered when he had done any of that. All he could remember doing was staying in the mansion and doing what kings do.
Although he’d always been a bit vague as to what exactly that was—
“I am here to inform you that you are not fit to lead this world,” Mal announced, “and that in your stead will be placed a body of administrators and a chairman who will govern and protect this world in the way it was meant to be ruled, supported by the Army of Idumea. We will be here for the people. Oren, if you believe in a creator, now would be the time to begin a conversation with him.”
Oren’s tongue went limp as he watched the soldiers come around from behind the High General. He made a slight motion with his hand, and Oren could do nothing but watch the soldiers draw their swords. The scraping of the metal had always seemed to him a rather pretty noise, but today it seemed to scratch the inside of his ears.
Ten men.
There was a lot he knew he didn’t know. It was as if the rest of the world had an edge up on him. Maybe they had extra eyes, because they always saw more than him. Additional ears, to hear things he never picked up. And maybe even more in the head. Mal always shouted at him, Use your brains, Oren! That always worried him. He knew he had a brain, so did others have more than one?
But there was one thing Oren did understand: the number of men in an execution squad. They used to be called killing squads in his grandparents’ days. The name change was supposed to make people feel better.
As he stared at the ten approaching blades, he realized the change wasn’t helping.
He hoped his cat would be all right. And the skunk—
---
A few moments later Professor Mal—now Chairman of the Administrators Nicko Mal—smiled grimly as the body of their dead king slumped in his throne. Ten sword blades thrust simultaneously was humanely efficient.
“Well,” the High General tilted his head, “that was simple.”
Mal nodded in satisfaction. “Yes, all of this was far simpler than I ever imagined. Could portend of good things,” he muttered to himself, “or it could all prove to be disappointingly easy.”
The High General glanced briefly at Mal’s unusual musings before gesturing to a waiting servant at a side entrance. “Call in someone to clean up this mess. Then you and the others may have whatever you can carry from King Oren’s private rooms, as agreed. But make sure that silk cloak he took is brought to me the moment it’s found. Chairman Mal will be presenting it to the surviving family of that dead silk seller when he announces the change in government this evening. You—”
He pointed to the scribe, who had momentarily forgotten his duty and was staring at the growing pool of blood. He paled as he looked up into the terrible expression of the High General.
“—You will show me that record before it goes out to the copiers. I want to verify every word.”
The scribe whimpered his response, and the servant dashed off to find the cloak.
Chairman Mal nodded. “Excellent, High General. I suppose that’s why I’m keeping you on.”
The High General scoffed. “As if any of this would have happened without my help.”
Mal smiled thinly. “And why you’ll also keep that mansion.”
“You’ve taken care of his former friends?” the general asked, one eyebrow arched.
“Only the two sons of that mistress had any possible claim. And since they were never legitimately his, the claim is weak. So weak that a couple of bags of gold quashed it completely. She left that mansion for good years ago, and neither she nor her sons will be coming back to take it from you.”
“The way seems to be wide open, Nicko,” the general said plainly, “with only one man’s blood shed. Indeed, quite efficient.”
Mal looked around the throne room. “This is too ostentatious for a gathering room, wouldn’t you say?”
The High General didn’t even glance at it. “Perhaps better suited as an eating hall, or a—”
“Library!” Mal whispered, his smile growing. “I own nearly every book ever created in the world. And my personal writings . . . there’s enough room here for those and more.”
The High General sniffed. “Books. Thinking. This room won’t know how to react to such behavior. Never saw it before.”
Chairman Mal’s grin chilled the throne room. “There are going to be all kinds of changes and progress made now, High General. The world will hardly know what to do with it all.”
The High General looked askance at his new ruler, but said nothing.
Mal turned slightly to a slender older sergeant, formerly the head of the king’s guard, who watched from a shadowed alcove.
The sergeant nodded almost imperceptibly back.
Stage One had begun.
Chapter 2 ~ “I’m not about to argue
who has the prettier hog.”
The village school teacher sighed in contentment at how perfect her life was. She enjoyed her students, loved her village, and adored her home.
For a woman as smart as she thought she was, that utter sense of satisfaction should have been a clear signal that things were about to change.
But people usually aren’t as clever as they hope they are.
It was Planting Season, 319, nearly two years after the loss of the king when a small woman left her tiny house on the perimeter of the inconsequential village of Edge. She rarely thought about the twenty-three Administrators who now ruled, and likewise those Administrators thought nothing of her at the northern edge of the world.
Well, except on days like this when they sent an unexpected message to her schoolhouse. All the teachers received it, and she was glad it came too late to read to her morning students. Six to ten-year-olds weren’t old enough to hear about the killing squads during the era of the kings, but her teenage girls in the afternoon were supposed to be reminded that since the Administrators had come to power, the Army of Idumea had not convened one killing squad nor even carried out one execution.
It was a disconcerting announcement to make on such a lovely afternoon, but it did have the effect of immediately quieting her ten gossiping students, so Mahrree Peto felt obligated to send a thought of thanks all the way down to Idumea, eighty long miles away. Those stuffy old men liked to remind the furthermost borders of the world that they were in charge and “here for the people.”
Mahrree didn’t really care. They were too far away to influence—
Wait.
That wasn’t entirely true anymore. As Mahrree wove through the maze of shops and stands at the market, now emptying for the evening, she remembered another announcement that came in the middle of Raining Season. The village of Edge of the World was receiving a fort. In fact, it was being constructed at the northern border of the forests, less than a quarter mile away from her home. She hadn’t bothered to head over to watch its progress, like many of her neighbors had, but when the rector told the audience at the amphitheater two weeks ago that the commander of the fort would be arriving shortly, Mahrree heard the villagers around her grumble the same things she did in her mind: why did the Army of Idumea need a presence in Edge anyway?
“Remember, my beloved daughter—sometimes the world really is out to get you.”
It was at the oddest times that the last words of Mahrree’s father blew into her mind. They scattered her thoughts as if the cold winds that came down from the mountains behind Edge rushed into one ear and out her other.
Mahrree paused to consider the words as was headed to the village green and the outdoor amphitheater for the night’s debate. She smiled sadly at the memory of her last conversation with him.
She was fifteen, thirteen years ago. He was thirty-seven. He had started coughing near the end of Weeding Season, and three moons later it was clear he was dying. His slender, small body was wracked with pain and chesty convulsions.
Mahrree’s mother Hycymum could do nothing more but wring her hands and make yet another creative dish of something that he couldn’t eat. Their rector came over every day to sit with his younger friend, and the village doctors tried every concoction they knew.
Someone even made the long journey to Pools, nearly seventy miles away, to bring the good teacher “healing waters” to cleanse him. Cephas Peto told his daughter he didn’t know how water that smelled like rotten eggs could be healing, and that he was sure people in Pools and Idumea got sick just as often as people in Edge.
The healing waters, the prayers of their congregation, and the dishes of min-a-stroh-nee and fall-ah-fal his wife created didn’t work, so on the 89th Day of Harvest Cephas beckoned to his daughter.
“Remember,” he whispered to avoid another coughing fit, “my beloved daughter—sometimes, the world really is out to get you!”
Mahrree had laughed in spite of her sorrow. She expected something more sentimental or even profound. Her mother just shook her head and dabbed her eyes. She never understood the cutting sense of humor her husband and daughter shared.
Mahrree had gripped her father’s hand and whispered, “So you’re going to let it get you?” That’s when her tears started.
“And remember, every story has a happy ending, if you just wait long enough.” Then he told Mahrree his extensive collection of books was hers.
Half an hour later he was gone.
Thirteen years later Mahrree’s sorrow was tempered because she still heard him. Not just words he said before he passed, but words he said after.
She never told anyone, but Cephas Peto still spoke to her and gave her advice. And as she strolled toward the village green she felt he was walking nearby, still watching out for her.
“The world is out to get me, Father? Doesn’t sound like a happy ending just yet. But send on the world! After such a dreary Raining Season, I’m ready for some excitement.”
She sucked in the surprisingly warm air and thought she could smell the deep brown dirt of the farms that ringed their village, just two roads of houses away from her home. White clouds streaked across the blue sky, and Mahrree predicted they would turn orange-pink with the sunset. The two moons, the Greater as well as the Little Sister which trailed the brighter moon, showed only half of themselves evening.
She was glad she had changed into her lighter tan cotton skirt instead of wearing the heavier woolen black one. She tucked her light brown shoulder-length hair behind her ears. Unlike most of the women in the village, she didn’t wear her hair long only to tie it all up into a bun. Shorter hair was much more practical. And her father had said it looked better that way. But otherwise her features were nothing extraordinary, she thought. Symmetrical, feminine—she never was very good at judging beauty, nor did she see the purpose of it. Her grayish-green eyes were like her mother’s, which her father loved, and her build and frame were as slight as her father’s, which Mahrree loved.
In the common greens before her, where roaming sheep trimmed the new grasses, several groups of children were already playing Get Him!, Smash the Wicket, and Tie Up Your Uncle, which wasn’t as violent as it sounded unless someone’s real uncle participated. Their parents were filing into the amphitheater to listen to a chorus of broad-chested women from the south of the village, but first there would be a debate, and Mahrree was there to support one of her students.
“Miss Peto!” cried a 15-year-old girl who rushed up to her. “I thought you’d never get here!”
Mahrree smiled and calmly patted the girl’s arm. “Sareen, you’re ready for this, remember? You wrote out your argument—”
“But is it good enough?” she giggled nervously. Unfortunately for the girl, everything that came out of her dissolved into a giggle. “I mean, will they agree with me?”
Mahrree shrugged. “I don’t know. Considering that your opponents are your own parents, and Rector Densal has agreed to let the audience decide the outcome . . .” She raised her eyebrows in a manner she hoped would convey that Sareen really didn’t stand a chance at winning tonight’s debate.
Every village in the world held debates before the evening’s performances where people argued, sniped, and shouted, and occasionally reached a consensus. In Edge, one of the three rectors always moderated the discussion, since men who knew the Creator could better quell anger than the local magistrate who instead inflamed it.
While in the bigger, more sophisticated villages surrounding Idumea debates followed a more formal structure as was taught in the universities scattered around the world, Edge’s debates were little more than a sharing-arguing-complaining of ideas, disagreements, and occasionally utter nonsense, as would be the case tonight.
Because tonight Sareen was going to tell the village she wanted to line her eyes with dark charcoal to make them “prettier.”
Her parents thought that was silly.
But somehow Sareen managed to convince Rector Densal to let her debate that in front of everyone.
Then again, Rector Densal was rather mischievous for a teacher of The Writings and a leader of a congregation.
Sareen nodded confidently to Mahrree, let escape the longest, most tense giggle Mahrree had yet to hear erupt from her student, and she trotted into the amphitheater ahead of her teacher.
“I’m quite eager to hear how this will play out,” said a voice behind Mahrree.
She turned around and smiled at the old man who stood there, rubbing his hands together. His white eyebrows bounced happily. “What do you think? Is she ready for her turn on the platform?”
Mahrree chuckled. “I think this will be one of the shortest debates we’ve had in a while. Her main argument is, ‘My eyes look too small.’ What’s with girls these days, eh Rector?”
Densal chuckled back. “I don’t know, Miss Mahrree—but we’re about to find out!”
Mahrree turned to go into the amphitheater, but the small man gently caught her arm with his wrinkled hand. “If you have a moment, Miss Mahrree—I have an idea for another debate later this week, and I think you are precisely the person to handle this. But, on second thought, maybe it’d be too much for you . . .”
Not one to ever turn down a challenge like that, she turned back to him. “Oh, really?”
Mahrree prided herself, although she modestly knew she shouldn’t, on her debating skills. She read everything she could find, listened to each idea, and wrote down any novel concept and the arguments for it and against it, laying out her father’s collection of writings across her eating table in preparation for the debates. And her students, of course. She even ran them through the paces, turning the entire front wall of smoothed stone in the schoolhouse into a mass of words written in white chalk and black charcoal to represent the two sides and found it all great fun.
What students thought of it, that didn’t matter as long as they learned to think. Although what Sareen was thinking when she decided to debate about charcoal and eyes, Mahrree wasn’t too sure. After trying to help the poor girl create a rationed argument about enhancing beauty, Mahrree was ready for something a bit more demanding. “What’s the topic?”
Rector Densal’s eyes twinkled at Mahrree with just a bit too much liveliness, and she knew the old man was plotting something. “Well, if you don’t mind, I thought I’d let the opponent surprise you with that,” he smiled. “You see, there’s a newcomer to the village who needs the opportunity to, shall we say, prove himself?”
Mahrree frowned but with a matching twinkle in her eyes. “And you think I should take him on in a debate? You must not like this person very much, then. You usually take in the lost and lonely, not hold them up for ridicule.”
Rector Densal grinned. “Well, this is a special case. He’s moving in just north of you—”
“Rector, there’s only one ring of houses above mine before the barren lands, and no one’s moved in . . .” Her voice trailed off as a horrible thought struck her. “The only thing moving in the north is the new fort,” she said drearily.
Rector Densal nodded thoughtfully, as if that was the first he’d heard of it. “Why, that’s right!”
“So you’re proposing I debate . . . the officer?”
Densal began to smile as if Mahrree had just come up with a most brilliant idea all on her own, but before he could say anything she paled.
And Densal noticed. “Miss Mahrree,” he said hurriedly, “remember—the army isn’t what it once was. Many improvements have happened over the years, you know.”
Reluctantly, she nodded. “I know, I know. I teach history, remember?”
Densal squeezed her arm kindly. “He just needs a way to introduce himself to the village, so I got to thinking . . .” and he winced at her in pleading.
“I suppose it was only a matter of time before the officer came down among us and did something official,” she grumbled. “And you want me to help with that?”
Densal tilted his head. “Well, I know what Cephas Peto would do.”
Mahrree groaned, but was intrigued that the rector would resort to using guilt as a tactic. Either he was truly devious or really that desperate. “I suppose my father would invite him over for dinner, share a few books with him, then go easy on him in front of the village,” she murmured. “But Rector, that’s not exactly my style, nor would it be appropriate for a strange man to be seen at my house!”
Oddly, Rector Densal chuckled at that. “No, I agree. I just want you to help him find his place here.”
Mahrree smiled slyly. “You mean, help put him in his place at a debate? Ah, well why didn’t you say so? I can do that quite well.”
The rector waggled his eyebrows cheerfully at her and headed into the amphitheater.
Only once was he out of sight did Mahrree sighed loudly. “Debate the officer. From Idumea.”
Her hands began to tremble.
---
It was warm in the afternoon of the next day when Captain Shin stared deep into the forest above Edge. The trees spewed out hot water and stank of sulfur and hid the Guarders. The enemy secreted themselves among the vents of noxious gases where the remains of deer decayed. The dense woods extended from the marshy eastern shore all the way to the western deserts, one hundred miles wide and at least one mile deep, rising up to the base of the jagged mountains.
That’s where the Guarders lived, somehow, in that inhospitable forest. Or maybe they were somehow beyond it in the massive boulder field before the mountains, with rocks as large as feed barns.
Or if they weren’t in the boulder field, they somehow managed an existence in the hostile terrain of the mountains that rose up as a menacing mistake of Nature. Land should be flat, not misshapen into peaks. Everyone knew that.
And at any time, according to the captured spy the High General interrogated, the Guarders would again begin their raids.
Instinctively the captain rested his hand on the hilt of his sword.
Shin glanced behind him to see where the new fort was from his current vantage point. It was across the barren swath of land that was a few hundred paces wide. The natural border lay before the farms and canals that ringed Edge, and on the other side was the forest that served as Nature’s end to civilization.
Decades ago the villagers had been wise enough to not build anything right up against the territory of their enemy. Their foresight left plenty of room now for the fort, perimeter walls, stables, and feed barns the Army of Idumea would need to defend the northernmost border of the world.
The tall command tower, about four hundred paces away from the captain’s position, was built higher than the trees with walls that were more glass than wood. The window panes were blow thin and clear by the glass makers in Sands just for the army. The command tower afforded a perfect view of the area—forest and village—precisely as Captain Shin had planned.
He turned to peer into the trees again, making notes with a sharpened piece of charcoal on a stack of thin papers. So far he had charted nearly two miles of the forest’s border, beginning at the far eastern edge where the impenetrable marshes led to the seas. At times he could see almost one hundred paces into the forest, but other sections were so dense with pines that he couldn’t see anything beyond what his arm could reach.
Today he was surprised to find a seemingly fresh water spring bubbling up from just inside the forest and trickling out to the barren fields in which he stood, the runoff disappearing into a narrow crevice in the ground. The spring’s location would be suitable for watering the horses of the soldiers that soon would be arriving to patrol the forest’s edge. But first he’d watch the deer he observed drinking from it, just to make sure he didn’t find its corpse later.
Captain Shin jotted down another note about a high spray of hot water he saw about thirty paces into the trees. He paused when he heard shuffling footsteps in the grasses behind him.
“So, Captain Shin! Discover anything of interest today?”
“Always,” he said distractedly, continuing to record his findings as the shuffling came to a stop. He glanced over to see a small old man craning to see what the captain was writing. He nodded in approval and looked into the forest himself.
“Can I help you with something, Rector Densal?”
The old man untied his thin leather jacket. His short cropped white beard and mustache framed his ready grin. For a rector, he had an alarming air about him, as if he was about to provide some help.
And help, from such an elderly man, always strained the definition of the word.
“Warming up nicely today, isn’t it Captain? I love Planting Season! It always seems to promise a hot Weeding Season.”
“Rector?” the officer said pointedly, but hoped it sounded patient.
The old man waggled his eyebrows. “I’ve come to help you, Captain.” He crouched, faced the forest, and started to whistle. “Here Guarders, Guarders! Nice Guarders. Come out, and old Hogal will give you something sweet for your surrender.”
The captain raised one eyebrow. “That’s not helping.”
Rector Densal stood back up. “Ah, well. Worth a try, my boy.”
“That’s debatable.” Captain Shin rubbed his forehead. “Look, I don’t mean to be rude, but I am rather busy. Was there anything else—”
“Yes, yes! I told you, I’ve come to help. You see, dear Captain, you’ve been here for about a week and a half now, right?”
“True,” he said slowly, suspecting this line of questioning was to get him into a habit of agreeing before the real issue surfaced.
“And you’ve spent all that time either supervising fort construction, or making notes about the forest, right?”
The captain folded his arms.
“Well, the villagers are beginning to talk,” the rector said more soberly, but still with a spark of plotting in his eyes. “And, my boy, they’re a little worried. The army hasn’t stretched this far north since the Great War. Sure, there was always a contingency in Mountseen, but we’ve never had more than a handful sergeants who sauntered through the markets during the day and drank in the tavern at night. But now we’re getting an entire fort?”
“As directed by the Administrators,” the captain reminded. “Never before has the Guarder threat been so clear.”
The rector waved that away. “It’s been over thirty years since there was even a sighting of Guarders here. Before you were even born, I imagine.”
Captain Shin squinted at the old man. “I told you last week what the High General learned, Densal. You doubt the judgment of the High General?”
Hogal Densal waved that off with his other hand. “Of course not, but what I’m suggesting is, I doubt anything is going to come through those trees in the next few days. Have you seen anything yet?”
“No,” the captain admitted, “but the Guarders are extraordinarily skilled at concealing themselves. The High General wants me to get to know this forest as well as I can.”
Rector Densal smiled in a manner that immediately put the captain on guard. “Now, not having served in the army, I wouldn’t know, but I suspect the High General also wants you to get to know the village. Maybe sent you off with an admonition to win the hearts and minds of the people, become part of the community so they’ll more easily embrace the idea of a fort?” He waggled his eyebrows again.
Captain Shin sighed. “He did.”
“Then that’s how I’m going to help you, my boy!” He patted the captain’s back in a fatherly manner. “I have a proposal: in three days’ time you will come to the amphitheater at the village green after dinner and be the night’s guest debater.”
Captain Shin groaned. “Ah, no, no, no. I’m not going to—”
“Are you scared, Captain?”
“Of course not. It’s just, what kind of debates would a place like Edge have? I’m not about to argue who has the prettier hog.”
Rector Densal glared at him good-naturedly. “We do have other issues, you know. We may not be as sophisticated as Idumea, but we have a few thinkers among us. A few that might even make you think! I can assure you a most interesting time. Tell you what: you can even choose the topic.”
The captain put a large hand on the small rector’s shoulder. “I appreciate the offer, but it just wouldn’t be fair to humiliate the revered rector in front of the entire village.”
Densal shook a wrinkled finger at him. “First of all, it won’t be the entire village. Maybe just five hundred. Everyone else is helping with the planting. Second, I don’t take to the platform anymore. And third, what makes you think you’d win?”
The captain leaned closer. “I always win.”
“Ha! Not in three days’ time you won’t. That is, unless you choose not to come because you’re not up to the challenge . . .” He shrugged in what he likely thought was a casual oh well manner, but the stiffness of his shoulders suggested he hadn’t practiced it enough.
Captain Shin glared, but he wasn’t entirely annoyed. “That’s the oldest trick there is, Densal. Daring me into accepting.”
“Is it working?”
“Maybe.”
Rector Densal grinned again. “I have just the opponent: the old school teacher. She delights in showing up overly-confident young men. She’ll jump at the chance of humiliating an officer of the Army of Idumea. And when you graciously concede—” he ignored the captain’s scoff, “—that she’s the more skilled debater, I promise that Edgers will have a new respect for you. Acknowledge that they’re still superior. They like those kind of reminders, you know.”
The captain raised his menacing eyebrow again. “Concede?”
“After a good show, mind you,” the rector assured him enthusiastically. “Let the villagers see you, hear you, know you, and then pity you. You’ll be one of them by the end of Planting Season.”
The captain took in a deep breath, accentuating his broad chest.
The rector smiled and pointed at the large officer. “Good, good. Try to look handsome. That will help impress them.”
The captain reluctantly smiled back. “Easily done.”
Rector Densal rubbed his bearded chin. “Clean uniform,” he gestured to the captain’s pristine, tightly woven dark blue woolen jacket and trousers. “But maybe not the dress uniform—too intimidating. Clean shaven,” he pointed to the captain’s exceptionally smooth chin and upper lip, as all members of the army were to have, “and . . . don’t wear the cap. Let the many unmarried women we have in Edge see that perfectly trimmed black hair of yours.”
The captain groaned. It must have been a common trait in rectors—a result of the calling—to try to change the condition of every single person they encounter. “I’m not here to find any unmarried women, Rector.”
“Even if they get lost? I think finding them would be your responsibility.” Densal chuckled and rubbed his hands together. “Just let them admire such a cut of a man—that’s a good way to win hearts, Captain Shin! The minds—they might follow later.”