by Trish Mercer
Mahrree gasped, and Joriana whispered, “Oh no!” Jaytsy and Peto just stared at Poe. Relf remained unmoved, and Perrin turned whiter than the snow.
“When I left Edge before sunrise,” Private Hili continued formally, “there was already six inches of snow on the ground, with more still falling. We assume that the weight of the heavy snow weakened the roof. Two soldiers on guard were still trapped by the debris when I was dispatched to come to Idumea. Sir, we retrieved some reserves, but have food left for only about five more days. Neeks and Zenos predict freezing temperatures tonight. We don’t know what to do next. Many of the livestock has been butchered—” his voice began to quaver, “—and many more will be slaughtered over the next few days. But the people of Edge are beginning to panic, sir. We need your advice.”
Mahrree couldn’t help herself. She rushed over to Poe, wrapped her arms around his scrawny body, and hugged him.
Poe broke his formal stance and hugged her back. He closed his eyes and sighed. “I could use something to eat now, Miss Mahrree—I mean, Mrs. Shin.”
She kissed him quickly on the cheek. “Of course! You look terrible, Poe. Sit down.”
“It’s been a long night. And day.” He sat in a chair at the writing desk and sagged as Mahrree hurried off to the kitchen.
Perrin pulled up a chair to sit down across from Poe, and the general motioned to Peto to get him a chair, too.
Instead of responding to the news, Perrin leaned over and shook Poe’s overly large and ill-fitting jacket. “This isn’t yours, Private.”
“No, sir,” he smiled weakly in apology. “But mine’s on underneath, so I’m not actually out of uniform. This was Master Sergeant Zenos’s idea. He thought I could get further in his jacket than in mine.”
Jaytsy touched the sleeve of the jacket. “I miss Uncle Shem. Is he all right?”
“Yes, and he wanted me to tell Mrs. Shin that we finished the roof two days ago. No snow is in your bedroom, sir,” he said to Perrin.
Perrin smiled faintly. “Good old Shem,” he said, still avoiding talking about Edge. “So Private, why send you?”
Private Hili looked over at the High General of Idumea again, obviously worried about what his answer may do to him.
The general nodded once. “Go on, son. I’m interested in hearing this as well. Don’t worry; you were only following orders, right?”
Private Hili cleared his throat. “Major Karna wanted to be sure you got the message as soon as possible, from someone at the fort. He and Zenos thought I would be the best to send, considering the hour and the way I may need to travel, my experience and everything.”
“Your experience in stealing things like horses to hasten your progress?” Perrin suggested.
Poe nodded guiltily. “The messenger system doesn’t like to lend out their horses to non-messengers, nor did Zenos or Karna think the messengers would relay our urgency as well. They thought that someone with my background and ability could get here better than anyone else. I’m sorry, sirs.” He tossed a pleading glance to General Shin.
“You won’t be thrown into incarceration for horse theft or impersonating a superior, so don’t worry,” the general assured him. “I have a little clout here, Private.”
“Even though I volunteered, sir?”
High General Shin smiled slyly. “Now why would a mere private volunteer for such a risky task?”
“To begin to repay a debt?” Poe whispered.
Perrin just stared at him, his eyes growing wet.
“And sir,” Poe turned to Perrin, “Zenos didn’t want Karna’s name mentioned, but Karna insisted his name be attached to this too. I haven’t been serving long enough to know who I’m supposed to obey—”
Perrin smiled. “I’ll take care of it all, Hili.”
Mahrree, who had come into the room a few moments before, cocked her head at Poe’s unusual words. She put down a plate full of food from The Dinner in front of the private. “I hope you find something there you like, Poe,” she said.
“Yes ma’am!” Poe grinned at the options. He took a large bite of a pheasant leg and garbled with his mouth full. “Maybe Neeks was right. Grandpy said you might not want to come home after experiencing all of this.” Poe took in his elegant surroundings for the first time and shook his head. “I wouldn’t blame you, either. You live like kings here!” He took another aggressive bite and Perrin leaned over to pat him on the shoulder.
“No Poe, we’re going home.” He looked at his wife, then his father. “I’ve decided: we’re leaving tomorrow, with the wagons. I want twenty now, Father—a ton of grain in each. The situation has changed.”
“Oh, Perrin,” the general started and shook his head. “I’m not sure how we’re going to do that.”
“It’s the right thing to do! You’re the High General of Idumea!” Perrin reminded him. “Doesn’t that mean something? You have clout, remember?”
“Perrin!” Joriana snapped. “How dare you speak to him like that?”
“Because Mother, five thousand citizens are going to starve soon,” said Perrin sharply. “And I refuse to just sit by and wait while a group of men bicker about if a bad law should change, and how, while people suffer. I want the general to do something about this!”
General Shin looked at his son, holding is gaze for a moment. “And I will.”
---
“But General,” Chairman Mal simpered in a sickly sweet tone, “the reserves are not for the citizens. You know that as well as I do.”
Mal leaned back on the sofa in his grand gathering room and evaluated the High General seated across from him in a stuffed chair. For someone so frail, the general sat tall and commanding. He had a fire in his eyes the Chairman hadn’t seen for some time.
“As much as I feel for the people of Edge, it’s just a tragedy, Relf. I’m sorry. We already let Moorland die. Perhaps we need to let Edge die, too.” Mal leaned forward. “We’ll send a messenger to tell the fort to start evacuation immediately. Within the next few days everyone can be housed in new villages—”
General Shin shook his head. “That’s not an option, and you know that as well as I do. Many of the displaced citizens of Moorland moved to Edge! They probably just arrived. And with this snow, all of the other villages in the north will be suffering food shortages as well. According to the reports of the other commanders, the surrounding areas have just enough to get them through until the first crops come in. None of them can take an extra five thousand people! Thieves are looting all of the northern villages, and with this storm, who knows what kind of condition everyone’s crops are in!”
Now the Chairman shook his head. “Relf, my friend, I know this is difficult. But it’s like—well, remember that calf, born a year or two ago, with the two heads? It just wasn’t meant to be. After a day it died. Nature’s way of taking care of what should not be. Relf, the land tremor, the snow, the ruined food stores—this is Nature’s way. Be grateful your family is here. We’ll put Perrin to good use at the garrison. Let those in Edge who are strong enough leave, and those who aren’t shouldn’t be reproducing anyway. Nature chooses who survives and who dies, and it’s choosing now.”
“Nicko,” Shin’s voice was low and livid, “I never would’ve imagined such words from you. From King Querul the Third, yes. But from you?” He threw his hands up in exasperation. “Comparing the people of Edge to a deformed calf? Nature’s way? No! I refuse to accept that explanation! This isn’t Nature destroying a useless creature. This is an opportunity to help those in need. You want the citizens of the world to be loyal? Take care of them!”
“Relf, Relf,” Mal held up his hands in a soothing manner which he knew would only further enrage the old soldier, “Brisack already has a way to provide aid. He has a coffer of gold precisely for this situation—”
“They don’t need gold, Nicko! They need grain! There’s no food to buy anywhere, but there are barnfuls just sitting at the garrison doing nothing.”
“But the reserves ar
e different, Relf.”
“Because it’s for us, Nicko?” General Shin asked pointedly.
Mal sighed. “Consider: if we release even a fraction of the stores for Edge, we may have to do it for everyone. We simply can’t do that. How disastrous would it be if every village expected us to feed them? There’d be nothing left for us—”
“This is a crisis!” Shin smacked the armrest. “It’s just to get them through! There’ll still be plenty left, and even to share with other northern villages if they need it. Edge will grow extra this year to repay what they took. Tax them higher if you must, but Brisack and Windrow are already in agreement to release the stores. You can push this through tonight.”
“The Administrator of Taxation will not agree,” the Chairman said simply.
“But if I put pressure on him, he will!”
“Relf, just wait,” Nicko said smoothly, noticing how it only further ruffled Relf. “In three more days everyone will be back from their holidays, rested and happy and willing to help. Then we can discuss the need in Edge.”
“And how long after you finish discussing will you release the food?” asked General Shin warily.
Mal bobbed his head back and forth, considering. “We most likely will form a subcommittee to investigate the amounts needed, then have a decision in no more than . . . a week, I’d guess.”
The general’s eyebrows shot up. “Perrin’s already figured out the amount! Did so this morning in conjunction with the keeper of the reserves. But no—you want to wait three days for everyone’s return, then another week to decide a number already figured out, then two more days for them to travel to Edge? That’s nearly two weeks! Half of the children could be dead by then!”
The Chairman shook his head. “I don’t like the way Nature works either, Relf. But then again,” he tilted his head thoughtfully, “they wouldn’t need as much grain.”
Shin smacked the armrest again. “It’s not Nature that’s killing them, it’s you!”
Mal bristled. “General Shin, I don’t appreciate your accusations!”
“And I don’t appreciate your willingness to let a whole village die!” Shin would have been on his feet if he had enough strength. “And for what? Food you’ll never eat? No one will ever eat? You want it just because you think it’s yours. But you didn’t plant it and you didn’t harvest it. You just took it. You don’t even need it. We never have. In eighteen years no one’s ever needed that surplus, until today. And now you’re demonstrating the same conceit as the kings. I didn’t help you get to power for this, Nicko!”
Now the old wolf was going too far. “General Shin,” the Chairman’s voice was barely controlled, “I must inform you that you are bordering on traitorous speech.”
Relf didn’t care. “Do you even remember why you wanted to be the leader? Why you formed this Administration? Or have you forgotten all those ideals you used to spout about at the university? ‘Here for the people!’ That’s what you proclaimed in the throne room the moment before I sent the execution squad to kill that idiot King Oren on his throne.”
General Shin shook his head and looked down at his hands that he clasped in front of him.
“Just an hour ago,” began Relf quietly, “I was accused by an innocent young man of living like a king. And you know what? I do. We all do. I sat there wondering when that happened. When did we become what we destroyed?” He looked up. “Nicko, this is a way to reverse some of that.”
The Chairman looked at his High General. He clasped his hands together in front of him too and spoke calmly. “Relf, we just need a little time. I promise you the first day everyone’s back, the crisis in Edge will be the first item of business. Maybe the subcommittee can be pushed forward a bit. Send me Perrin’s calculations, and I’ll do my best.”
Shin stared at him for an entire minute before finally saying to the man squirming under his glare, “Nicko, it doesn’t sound like your best will be good enough.”
---
Nicko Mal watched as General Shin was helped into his carriage by his lieutenant. It wasn’t until the carriage pulled away and was heading down the long drive that Mal waved over one of his guards.
“Find Brisack and bring him here immediately. We have a problem that’s about to get a lot worse.”
---
General Shin limped through his front doors shortly before dinner time.
“He’s back!” called Joriana to the gathering room. The family rushed to meet the general in the Great Hall.
General Shin waved to his lieutenant accompanying him from the trip to the Chairman’s mansion. “Riplak, in here. Perrin, Joriana, Mahrree, you too. Peto, get that private. I realize he hasn’t slept long, but we have business before us. Jaytsy, get me something to drink.”
His grandchildren looked disappointed, but he smiled at them. “I promise you won’t miss anything.”
He hobbled slowly to his study as those he called for followed him in. Without another word he sat at his desk, pulled out a piece of paper, and began to write.
Perrin, Mahrree, and Joriana exchanged questioning glances while Riplak stood at attention and tried to surreptitiously see what the general wrote.
A moment later Peto and Private Hili arrived, Poe trying to force his sleepy eyes open while standing at attention. Jaytsy darted in a moment later with a mug of juice she sat on the desk next to her grandfather.
And then everyone stood as patiently as possible, the only sound in the room the small and rapid scritching of Relf’s quill.
Perrin and Mahrree tried to trade some facial communication as to what this was all about, but Mahrree wasn’t as good at it as Perrin, and after a minute they both had confused scowls on their faces. Private Hili’s eyes kept closing and he swayed gently back and forth. Peto shifted his weight from one foot to the other, while Jaytsy worriedly studied her grandmother. Joriana pursed her lips as she watched her husband.
Finally General Shin glanced up.
“Close the door, please, Jaytsy. I’m writing something for you, Riplak.” He looked back down to continue writing as Jaytsy shut the door. “You’ll be a messenger tonight, Riplak. You get to ride all of the way to Edge, in fact.” He gave Riplak a small smile while the rest of his family watched, open mouthed. “I’m sure you’ve always wanted to see it. The mountains really are quite something up close. No one here appreciates them, but they’re impressive in the right light. You should be there to see the dawn.”
He reached into his desk and pulled out his official mark to stamp the bottom of the message.
“You’ll not delegate this assignment to anyone, Riplak, nor will you reveal the nature of your assignment to anyone. Kindiri will just have to hear about it later.”
Then he lifted the paper.
“It reads, ‘To the forts and messenger stations of the Administrators. Arriving shortly after this messenger will be an emergency caravan of twenty large wagons’—”
Joriana clapped her hands happily and Mahrree and Perrin burst into big smiles, which they aimed at Poe, who closed his eyes in relief.
The general cleared his throat. “You will have twenty teams of horses ready to relieve the horses coming, as well as four additional horses for riders. You will do all in your power to conscript these teams, using force if necessary. Officers and soldiers from Edge will see to it personally that the horses are returned within three days to their proper owners. You will do nothing to impede this messenger from his progress, and will provide him with whatever means of travel he requires. Also be prepared to avoid being deceived. There is increased Guarder activity at this time, and later messengers may try to convince you that the caravan is illegal—’”
Mahrree was tempted to gasp but felt strongly that she should make no sound. No one did, but she noticed her children shifting anxiously.
“‘Counterfeit messengers may even claim they are from the Administrators. But be assured that the stamp below from the High General of Idumea guarantees the legality of this caravan.
Do all in your power to detain any counterfeit messengers until soldiers can retrieve them.’”
The general looked at the stunned faces in front of him.
“Riplak, you’ll present this message at each fort and changing post, take a new horse—I don’t care if the messenger servers complain; they answer to me as well as the Administrators—then move on to the next until you reach the fort in Edge. But try to use fort horses as much as possible, beginning with Pools. Many of the messenger posts recently experienced horse thefts and are likely a bit jittery.”
Poe remained stoic and immovable, but Perrin smirked.
“Present this message to those in the command tower in Edge,” Relf continued to Riplak, “to let them know that aid is on the way, and that they should be prepared for any kind of eventuality. Any questions?”
“Just one, sir,” he said taking the message from the general’s hand. “May I start with the new bay from the Stables at Pools? He’s the fastest horse.”
“Of course,” the general smiled. “Thank you, Riplak. And please be careful. Not a word to anyone. I don’t want you hurt.”
“I appreciate that, sir.” Riplak folded the message quickly, shoved it in his shirt pocket under his jacket, then bounded out of the study.
“Father—”
Relf held up his hand to stop Perrin, listening for Riplak’s progress. Perrin stared hard at his father, but he wouldn’t look at his son. Instead he pretended to read the calculations Perrin had made on another piece of paper. Joriana wrung her hands, and Poe kept his eyes closed, most likely asleep on his feet.
They heard the lieutenant exit through the front doors, and a moment later his horse left at a fast gallop.
“Father, would you now mind explaining that bit about the Guarder activity?” Perrin said quietly.