by Trish Mercer
“Almost. That’s what I was dispatched for. We were short on scouts because several ran to help the families calm down the children. Three different groups of four Guarders each were headed in their direction. Our men were able to take care of two groups, but my contact at the fresh spring told me to lure the last group to a trap of nets and ropes we had established, just in case of a situation like this. So . . . I found them, killed one of them, which made the other three follow me, and I led them straight to the trap.”
Shem took it as a good sign that Perrin’s arm holding his knife had been dropping. Still, Shem wasn’t about to move.
“How did you kill him, Shem?”
“Long knife. Heart.”
Perrin let out another low whistle. “I remember you saying you lost it, and never wanted to own another one again. You said it was too deadly a weapon.”
Shem sighed. “It was. I never carried another one until Thorne.”
“Amazing,” Perrin whispered. “So the families got away?”
Shem smiled. “Yep! They went into the forest with thirteen, came out with fourteen. That baby’s a strapping teenager now who wants to be a scout when he’s old enough. His parents named him Woodson: son born in the woods.”
“I feel like I hardly know you, Shem,” Perrin said, his tone full of astonishment. “So much you’ve been doing, had been doing . . . my whole image of you has changed.”
“I’m sorry,” Shem whispered.
“Not entirely for the worse, I promise,” Perrin assured him. “In fact, you have me just a little wary of you. And all this time I thought Moorland was your first deaths.”
“There were a few others in the forests, over the years,” Shem winced. “Sorry again. Four more. And Perrin? That night the baby was born in the forest was also the night Mahrree ran into Mrs. Yung who scared her back again.”
Perrin sighed. “She told me about that. And that she also ran into Barker . . . Oh, I see. You sent Barker to her, didn’t you? I just . . . I just . . .”
He exhaled loudly.
“You know, Shem, you’ve had seventeen years to tell me everything. Anything. Something! And yet you didn’t. Why’d I have to hear it all from strangers? So many times you could have told me who you really were and why you were really here. When we sat in those stupid trees spying on Guarders years ago. When we went to Idumea and slept in that barn. When we spent all those long nights at my table when I didn’t know what was real and what was nightmare. The truth could have made a difference. But not once. Why?”
Anguished, Shem said, “Perrin, so often I wanted to tell you what I knew, what I thought you should know. But usually the time never seemed right. There were moments where I could see an opportunity to give you a few hints, but I was afraid. Then again, had I told you what I knew, you may have become even more unstable.”
“Unstable?!”
“Think about it, Perrin,” Shem said patiently, “a couple of years ago you were so paranoid you even thought Deckett’s parents were spies. And more than once I saw you looking under the desk before you sat behind it. You really think I should have told you then that I was a plant for a people you didn’t even know existed?”
Perrin was silent for a full minute before he said, “You may have a point.”
“That kind of news would have also made you vulnerable to the real Guarders. Honestly, Perrin, how would you have responded to learning there were two groups in the forest?”
Perrin exhaled heavily in response.
“Each time I wanted to open my mouth, the Creator shut it. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust you, Perrin. It was that you wouldn’t have been able to continue what you were doing knowing all that we know. I am sorry. I’d been planning for years to be the one to visit you tonight. But I couldn’t get out of the fort until now. We were running out of time, and when my contacts didn’t hear from me, they decided to reach you first. I practiced my speech to you and Mahrree for years, now. Guess I’ll have to save it for another day.”
Perrin’s shoulders sagged and he let the knife drop to his side, still clenched. In resignation he released his grip on Shem, and Shem turned to face Perrin in the darkness.
“I don’t know what to believe or trust anymore,” Perrin admitted. “My wife’s ready to follow anyone into the forest, and in the morning we’re to tell Jaytsy, Deckett and Peto. Tell them what? Shem, do I really know who you are now?”
“Yes, you do!” Shem said earnestly. “I haven’t changed. I’ve always been your brother. Now with a few more details,” he admitted.
Perrin slowly put the knife back into his waistband, to Shem’s great relief. “Yes, you’ve been my brother. A deceitful, sneaky, lying brother, but I suppose that’s the way most brothers are.”
Shem chuckled, and could just make out Perrin’s smile in the dimness. “Something else you should know. My contact said he told you I was the only Salemite you ever knew, along with Rector Yung, but that wasn’t correct.”
Perrin sighed and motioned with this hand. “Let me have it.”
“Besides me, Rector Yung, and Mrs. Braxhicks the midwife, there was Beneff.”
“Sergeant Major Beneff?” Perrin nearly forgot to keep his voice down.
Shem nodded. “He went to Idumea when he was in his early twenties, just like me. He was to join with the garrison and learn about the army.”
Perrin nodded. “He was always around, transferring from fort to fort. My grandfather even knew him. You must have been happy to see him come to Edge, then.”
“No, no I wasn’t!” Shem exclaimed. “Beneff didn’t do so well out on his own. He soon got caught up with the wrong people. After the first year he was no longer sending messages back to Salem. A couple years later one of our scouts found him. Perrin, Beneff joined the Guarders. He was one of the first insiders.”
“What?” Perrin blurted. “Oh, come on! Beneff? Doddering, theater-going, never-shut-up Beneff?”
Shem smiled at his friend’s consternation. “He was never very effective, ho-ho. Fortunately he didn’t really help their side or ours. He just kind of was.”
“Wait a minute. No, he wasn’t from Salem,” Perrin remembered. “He said he had family. What was it? A brother and sister-in-law that dragged him to the theater?”
Shem shrugged. “I tell people I have a brother and sister-in-law in Edge.”
Perrin sighed. “I’m assuming you know what happened to him? At the offensive?”
“Some of our men found him on his way to Moorland, but he got lost in the woods. In his pocket was a note telling them to expect an attack at dawn.”
“Stupid old man!” Perrin hissed.
“He never made it to Moorland. He paid for his treachery with his life, Perrin. I was lost in those woods looking for him when you called for the early beginning of the offensive. You could have told me, you know! I nearly missed it.”
“I thought you were answering the call of nature somewhere. I wasn’t about to hold up everything just for you!” Perrin snapped, but Shem heard a hint of Perrin’s humor returning. “That’s what I had called that meeting for—the one you left prematurely—to announce the early strike.”
Shem smiled apologetically. “It turned out well in the end, didn’t it?”
“Show me what’s in the bag,” Perrin said.
They took Shem’s leather bag into an inner stall where no lantern light would escape through the cracks, after Shem led out the nervous cow first. Shem pulled out detailed records with names and dates of people who left via Shem’s route over the years.
“I don’t usually keep these records in my quarters. I made a box some years ago, with a stone cover, and buried it in the forest. Salemites know where it is, but Guarders just pass it thinking it’s a regular rock on the ground. I brought the records out for you to see, thinking you might want some evidence. This quiet period here,” he gestured to a page of notes, “that’s when we shifted the route to Moorland. It was easier for a time because the ground wasn’t as
active. The land in the forests here seems to cycle every few years. Steam vents and gases become very active for about five seasons, then quiet again. But after the land tremor, nothing was predictable. We still run into surprises in the forests.”
Perrin shook his head as he gazed at page after page of Shem’s neat writing, augmented occasionally by others leaving messages and updates. “How’d you do it? How’d you get people out without any of our soldiers noticing?”
“Who’s scheduled all the training for the past fifteen years?”
Perrin smiled faintly. “I wondered why you were so eager to do the scheduling job no one else wanted. And why you didn’t want Thorne taking it over.”
“Exactly. We used Barker the Distractor at the beginning, but once I was put in charge of scheduling, I knew when groups were leaving so I scheduled training, drills, and everything else as far away as possible.”
Perrin studied the pages. “Where’s the route, Shem?” he tossed out casually, but Shem heard the old undertones of paranoia.
“I can’t tell you.”
“Come on, Shem. It’s me!”
“That’s exactly why.” Shem sighed. “Perrin, we haven’t always been successful. A few times we’ve been caught. Not everyone in the army follows the guidelines.”
Perrin looked up from the pages. “What do you mean?”
“A few years ago one group was captured by the army outside of Pools. The mother was very large with her third and she was struggling. They were taken to Idumea and questioned.” Shem hesitated.
“Yes?” Perrin said intently. “Go on.”
Shem sighed. “The father didn’t survive the questioning. Neither did our two escorts. A grandfather was released when it was finally believed he really didn’t know where they were going. He found one of our scouts and told him what happened. The less you know, the easier it may be if we aren’t successful. We never knew what happened to the mother and her two children.”
Perrin leaned forward, furious. “We don’t question to death, Shem! Who did it?”
“You need only one guess.”
Perrin sagged into the straw. “Qayin Thorne!”
“Perrin, he’s one of them.”
Closing his eyes, Perrin whispered, “Lemuel?”
“Oddly, not quite,” Shem shrugged. “I don’t know the details, but he’s not old enough, or advanced enough or something like that. But we know there are certain tests he has to pass and goals he has to achieve. He has to earn the position of being a Guarder of command like Qayin. All he knows so far is that his father is part of a secret organization. I don’t think he even realizes that it’s the Guarders, or that his father has a hand in directing some of their activities. We’re not sure even General Thorne knows everything.”
Perrin groaned quietly, massaging his eyes.
“Only one man seems to hold all the knowledge,” Shem continued, “and despite all the scouts we have serving in forts, in Idumea, and hiding in trees listening to passing Guarder conversations, we’ve never been able to pinpoint who that is. But because of the way he’s been able to influence activity all these years, we’re fairly confident it’s an Administrator.”
Perrin sighed. “I’m willing to bet it is Mal.”
“That’s my guess as well. And Perrin,” Shem added, “Lemuel thinks I’m part of it too. It’s the only reason he’s tolerated me.”
“He thinks you’re a Guarder?” Perrin rocked back.
“Remember when we went to Idumea, the carriage ride we took to the hospital? Thorne and Cush questioned me.”
Perrin scowled. “I heard it. I don’t recall you saying, ‘Hey, by the way, I’m a Guarder.’”
“I didn’t have to. I knew the code words.”
“Code words?”
Shem nodded. “Remember back about thirteen years ago when we were sitting in the trees and rocks all night practicing our facial codes and watching Guarders spy on the fort? Remember that one who was alone and disoriented, and thought I was his contact?”
“Yes. Fortunate time for you to have to answer the call of nature, again. That’s the one I took care of, right?”
Shem winced and nodded. “Yeah. You dropped down out of the tree, slashed his throat—that was a real mess.”
Perrin rolled his hand. “Get to your point.”
“When he was talking to me, he suddenly became nervous. He said, ‘I’ve always found the north appealing.’ I didn’t know what to do with that, so I said, ‘Really? Interesting.’ Then he said it again, more urgently. ‘I’ve always found the north appealing!’ That’s when I realized the phrase meant something. He seemed to be waiting for a response, but all I could think to say was, ‘But it’s cold up here.’ Well, that was the wrong thing to say. That’s when he got nervous, and that’s when you put stains on my jacket.”
“And saved your life. You’re welcome.”
Shem chuckled. “Only later did I remember those two lieutenants, Sonoforen and the other one, who came as your father’s guard after the raid on Edge. One asked if I found the north appealing. I was so surprised by the oddness of the question that I didn’t respond for a minute. Then years later, in Idumea, I remembered that again when Thorne and Cush were asking me about my background in the coach. I assumed that’s what they were trying to find out, if I might not be a Guarder, and one that they had been wondering about.”
Perrin cocked his head. “Wondering about? Shem,” he said slowly, “exactly what else have you been doing all these years?”
Shem squirmed. “In the early years a couple of our scouts contacted the real Guarders and sent them messages that the fort in Edge had a ‘quiet Guarder’ serving in your fort to keep you ‘in the game.’ To keep from blowing his cover, the Quiet Man would never make contact with the body of Guarders unless necessary.”
“So you’re the ‘Quiet Man’?” Perrin guessed.
“That’s me. The hope was that if the Guarders suspected a man was already on the inside, they wouldn’t send anyone else to annoy you. I don’t know if you remember but right after I signed on officially there was another soldier who signed up, too. Nervous, skittish slip of a boy?”
Perrin frowned, trying to remember. “He didn’t stay, right?”
“That’s right. I took him to the forest where several Salem scouts abducted him.”
Perrin’s eyebrows shot upwards.
“Perrin, he was a Guarder, sent to get close to you so he could feed information back to the Guarders. You were to take him under your wing, help him along, become his best buddy—”
“But you already took that role, didn’t you?” Perrin smirked.
Shem grinned. “Yep! There were a few more men sent by the Guarders over the years to infiltrate the fort. Our scouts in the forests would recognize increased activity in the trees when someone was to be sent. It seems the Guarders watched for several days after a new arrival to make sure their inside man didn’t need any assistance. So the Salemite scouts would send me word to watch for a new soldier who might be more than just a soldier. I’d watch who came in and wait until I got a feeling about someone. Then I lured them out to the trees where they would inevitably confess their identity and earn themselves an unexpected trip to Salem. We didn’t want anyone to get close to you. Besides me.”
“Amazing!” Perrin sat back and stared at his friend.
“You’ve used that word a lot tonight. So, when you and I got to Idumea,” Shem picked up the story again, “and I found myself in a coach with Qayin Thorne, who we already suspected was high up in the Guarder leadership, I realized he might try to figure out who I was. It would also allow me to verify our suspicions about him. If he knew the codes, it’d only be because he was a Guarder. If he thought you were already under the watch of a Guarder, they might leave you alone.”
Perrin smiled slightly. “And they did, with you by my side.”
“See?” Shem beamed. “It worked! When Thorne and Cush suggested that most people don’t like the north, I
knew what to answer: ‘I find the north appealing.’ The correct response to that phrase, it seems, is no verbal response but a smile. Both of them smiled at me. Just like the two lieutenants smiled at me years ago after I paused for a few moments before answering them.”
Perrin leaned back against the wall in dismay. “Cush? Cush was one of them! My father trusted him with everything!”
Shem shook his head. “Cush wasn’t one of them, but he knew about them. As far as we could tell, he tried to play to both sides. He was devoted to your father, Perrin, but he was also frightened of his son-in-law. I suspect the only reason Qayin married Versula was to have access to the High General position, and I’m convinced Lemuel was sent here to secure Jaytsy for the same reason. If he married her, there’d always be a Thorne in the side of the High General. For many years it was assumed you’d have that position.”
“Thorne’s getting it anyway, isn’t he?” Perrin sounded only slightly bothered by that.
“Qayin’s going to be officially installed as High General next week. They’re planning a huge ceremony—bigger than The Dinner,” but he waved that off. “There’s talk, though, that Cush’s death wasn’t by heart failure, but that he was slowly poisoned by Qayin.”
Perrin leaned against the wall. “Why doesn’t any of that surprise me?”
Shem gripped his shoulder. “Can you see why you’re in a very dangerous position right now? They’re not going to just let you fade away, Perrin. They’re coming after your family.”
Perrin slumped. “So the world really is out to get us?” he murmured. “How do you know all of this?”
“Because for the past three weeks I’ve been in Idumea.”
Despite his astonishment, Perrin couldn’t help but smirk. “Really? All by yourself?”
Shem smirked back. “I knew the way this time.”
“What were you doing? Didn’t anyone recognize you?”
“There’s a great deal to be learned by being a stable hand at the Administrators’ Headquarters,” Shem winked. “Such as what Qayin Thorne’s doing to his father-in-law. Everyone in the stables assumed I was merely a man down on my luck cleaning stalls. People say all kinds of things in front of laborers who don’t matter. One of the stable boys who had something going on with one of the mansion’s maids mentioned that she had spied Qayin sprinkling something into Cush’s soup each week.”