The Forest at the Edge of the World (Book One, Forest at the Edge series)

by Trish Mercer

  Chapter 11 ~ "So I've actually rendered you speechless?!"

  "It feels like a year since we've last spoken." Captain Shin's voice was low and earnest. "I never thought two and a half weeks could feel so long. I thought maybe the custom here was to bring more flowers to renew an acquaintance?"

  Mahrree blinked, then blinked again to make sure she saw everything properly. Yes, that was him standing in the doorway. And that was her still holding the door open, strangely paralyzed.

  The captain leaned toward her, waiting for a response.

  She recovered just enough to stiffly answer, "Yes, hello. Yes, it has been some time."

  She simply couldn't think of what to do next. It wasn't every day a man stood at her door. Actually, a man was never at her door unless he was there to clear a clog in her water pumps or scrub out her chimney.

  They both stood there uneasily for a moment until he slowly presented her the flowers. "Am I doing this right?"

  Mahrree felt a slight knock to her mind and said, "Oh! Of course. Yes, thank you. I'll take those." She did, thinking they could replace the dried stems still in her tall mug, but continued to hold open the door dumbly.

  "So . . . I suppose I'll leave you now. Unless you'd like to talk? I have 'some time' tonight," he hinted.

  Mahrree rolled her eyes. "Please Captain, do you have a jug you can hit me with? I can't seem to think straight right now."

  He grinned in such a way that Mahrree finally understood the meaning of the phrase feeling faint and fancied. He held up his other hand. "Actually, I do. New berry juice to share with you, not the Densals. And it's Perrin, remember?"

  She smiled back. "I'm trying. Really. Please come in."

  "You are trying," he teased. "And now I see it's berry juice that gets me in the door, not flowers. I thought maybe mead was more appropriate," he explained as he entered the gathering room, the area shrinking in relation to his height, "but one's never sure of the strength, and in case I brought the wrong thing I didn't want you to think I was trying . . . um, uh . . . " He rubbed his forehead, looking for a graceful exit.

  Mahrree squinted, trying to figure out where the rest of the sentence may have been headed. When he didn't say anything, she decided a polite host should help. "I don't enjoy mead. I saw enough students at the university in Mountseen drinking the wrong distillations. I couldn't understand why they'd voluntarily give up their ability to think clearly."

  Perrin smiled. "Exactly! I was always the odd man out when everyone else enjoyed their days off in a stupor. But I wanted to be ready when the call came. As they say in the army, you don't want to be caught with your trous-" He stopped, searching her face to see if she knew the phrase he nearly uttered.

  Her curious and innocent look must have told him she didn't know his meaning.

  He wasn't about to explain. "Caught off guard," he salvaged. He sighed and looked around him for the first time, staring at the number of bookshelves in the room.

  "Really, I'm sorry about not letting you in right away," Mahrree explained as she set the flowers down on the eating room table. She should have put them in the mug in her kitchen, but she didn't dare leave, just in case the captain vanished while she was gone for two minutes. Besides, she wasn't ready to replace the dried up stems he gave her three weeks ago. "I was just so surprised to see you there. I wasn't expecting . . . but I am glad you've come. Please, sit down." She gestured to a stuffed chair her mother bought for her when she moved into her small home.

  But he didn't move. Instead he cocked his head to look at the shelves, reading the titles carefully burned into the leather spine bindings. "How did you get so many books? They must have cost a small fortune!"

  "It cost my father a small fortune," Mahrree told him. "I inherited them when he passed away. Mother didn't want them, except for the one about embellishments through the ages. I must confess, I haven't read all of them yet, but I plan to."

  "May I borrow some? So many of these titles are old. All I could find in Idumea were new writings and ideas. But I find there's more truth in most of the old writings. Don't you agree?" He turned to Mahrree with the eagerness of a young student.

  Something in her chest burned again. "Of course. Borrow whatever you want. Take home an armful before you leave."

  "Trying to get me out the door already?" Perrin asked.

  She didn't notice the twinkle in his eye. "No! Stay as long as you wish tonight."

  His eyebrows rose in astonishment at her insinuation.

  She still missed the teasing in his eyes. "No, that's not what I meant!" Mahrree backtracked in a panic. She knew this was why she usually didn't talk to men. "I'm not implying any impropriety-"

  As soon as she said the words she was even more mortified.

  "Oh, no, no-what I mean is . . ."

  "Stop!" Perrin laughed. "Stop!"

  He actually laughed, and it cleared Mahrree's mind completely. It sounded like bells.

  "I know what you mean, don't worry." He extended his hand as if to take her arm, but pulled it clumsily back instead. "Ah, but you're so easy to tease and fluster! I can't help but wonder, why? When we were on the platform I found it very difficult to shake your confidence. You gave me the greatest challenge I've had in many years, and that was in front of thousands of people. But when we're alone," his voice quieted, "you can't seem to string a coherent thought together."

  "That's not exactly a compliment, is it?" Mahrree said, pursing her lips.

  "You're doing better now, recovering some of your intelligence."

  She saw the teasing twinkle in his eye that time. "I'm just better able to deceive you now. I'm still incoherent, but I can mask it when I have a few moments to prepare," she confessed.

  He sighed. "I don't think you could ever deceive me. But I'll confess I've deceived you." He looked around for the stuffed chair. He gestured to Mahrree to sit in its match across from it, and he sat down after she did.

  "How have you deceived me?" Mahrree dreaded to hear. She wondered if her father would still like him. She felt a warm touch just above her heart again and she braced to hear just about anything.

  As long as it wasn't about a wife in Idumea . . .

  He placed his elbows on his knees and leaned forward, putting his hands together. "I've deceived you by not being completely honest. I've been testing you, I guess."

  "Testing? Why?"

  "I came to the village because I requested this assignment. You see," he leaned forward in his chair closer to Mahrree.

  She could almost smell him, but she didn't dare get closer, especially if what he was about to say would make her hate him.

  "You see," he repeated hesitantly, looking into her eyes, "I worried about the ideas I saw emerging in Idumea. I wanted to find a place that would reinforce my belief in The Writings. Yes, I do believe in The Writings despite what I said at that second debate. I hope I proved that in the fourth. In many ways, your mind is the same as mine. But The Writings and beliefs are dying in Idumea, and new suggestions are spreading. The 'suggestions' will be 'mandates' soon enough, I'm sure." His tone hardened as he looked down at his hands. "You see, the Administrators-"

  He stopped abruptly again and looked up into her face, as if fearing he'd just revealed a secret.

  Mahrree held her breath as a fantastic idea filled her. Suddenly everything in the last half hour-the last several weeks!-was making sense. He's skeptical too! Just like Father! She waited in eager anticipation to hear his evaluation of the Administrators.

  She wasn't about to get it.

  "I looked for a village as far away as I could," he instead continued on a safer path, "hoping to find a place where I could continue believing. My great-uncle has written me a lot about Edge. When the need arose for the new fort, I had my reason to leave and the general approved my request. I guess I've been testing to see just what the people here think. What you think." He looked down at his hands for a moment. "My mother says I have a tendency to 'stir the po
t'," he said with a small chuckle. "She's always warning me about behaving." He looked up at her again. "I realize I haven't always been honest, and I certainly wasn't fair with you. I'm sorry about that. Can you forgive me?"

  Mahrree was stunned by even more than his apparent skepticism of the Administrators.

  "I never imagined . . . you actually want to be here? That was all you at the fourth debate? Stir the pot?" Then she remembered something else. "Who's your great-uncle?"

  "You don't know? Our one-time matchmaker: Hogal Densal. He's married to my mother's aunt."

  "Of course!" No wonder Rector Densal puffed with pride whenever he saw the captain.

  Perrin's dark eyes softened. He seemed so different this evening, but also familiar somehow. "He likes you, you know. I'm sure that was obvious a few weeks ago. In fact, he's the one who suggested I debate you the first night. He said he'd make my time here interesting." He chuckled again. "I actually thought the teacher would be an old spinster."

  "So, I'm not old?" Mahrree ventured with a small smile.

  "No!" he exclaimed. Then more calmly he said, "No, no, no. Not at all. I was quite surprised to see someone so, so-" He turned a little red.

  Mahrree grinned to herself. She flustered him!

  "-so, so . . . young and capable," Perrin finally finished.

  Mahrree tried not to look disappointed. She was hoping for something a little more than that, maybe even something bordering on romantic, but "young and capable" would have to suffice.

  Perrin appeared frustrated with his words as well. "I've missed our debates," he continued. "Much more than I expected. These past few weeks have been the longest I've experienced since initial training for the army. I've worked my new soldiers, mapped the region, planned patrols for the forest borders, and," he looked down at his hands again, "ruined more than one report because your name keeps cropping up in my writing. Not exactly efficient-"

  "Wait," Mahrree stopped him.

  He looked at her expectantly.

  "Wait, how many patrols can a few soldiers on horseback watching the forest have?" she asked.

  Perrin looked disappointed, then surprised. "What do you mean, a few soldiers? The full one hundred arrived last week."

  "One hundred?" Mahrree was shocked. "The most we ever had in Edge was five! I thought maybe a dozen, but what do you need with one hundred men?"

  "You didn't see them come in?" He sat back in his chair and gestured disbelievingly with his hand. "It was a great parade. One hundred men in uniform, twenty-five of them on matched horses-I thought all of Edge came out."

  He was like a ten-year-old who just figured out how to do a back flip but no one saw him.

  "I, I was, uh, at the head of it all," his voice quieted. "Really quite something to see." He looked at his hands which didn't know what to do but slap gently against each other.

  "I heard the children in school mention something about a parade, but I didn't pay much attention to it," she admitted. "I heard some noise out in the road last week, but I just thought it was the musicians marching as they practiced or something. But why one hundred men? And where are they staying?"

  He frowned at her. "The fort is quite large. We took over the old farm and orchard area to the north. Completed the barracks and mess hall just last week. You really didn't notice one hundred new soldiers?" he persisted. "We marched up the road just one house away from here."

  "I've been busy at home," she said dismissively. "Why so big? What are the Administrators expecting?"

  "Guarders," he said solemnly.

  Of course he'd say that. Mahrree saw her chance. He wasn't in uniform so she could ask him about the real threat of Guarders, and there really wasn't anything he could do-officially-about her doubts. "If I may ask you something, in confidence, Perrin?"

  His eyes brightened. "Anything, Mahrree."

  "Honestly, is there really that big of a Guarder threat? After all these years? Especially here in Edge? It just seems so . . . so convenient sometimes."

  All the light dimmed from his eyes. "Guarders. You're asking me about Guarders."

  "Yes, Guarders," she repeated, not understanding his reticence. "I've lived here all my life and have heard of only two people who supposedly ever saw Guarders, and one of the witnesses had been drinking old grape juice. Guarder activity hasn't been close to Edge since Querul the First's soldiers chased them to the forest. Perhaps they're still there, but they never come into the village. I've even walked along the forest edge to see the bubbling mud and have never seen anyone."

  "You also didn't notice when one hundred men plus twenty-five complement, a dozen full wagons, and twenty-five horses moved in less than a quarter mile away from your home," Perrin countered.

  Mahrree paused. "You make a good argument," she murmured. Mahrree was never one to look too far beyond her books. She was a woman of the word, not of the world.

  "Still," she continued, "doesn't one hundred soldiers, or rather, one hundred-twenty-five seem excessive?"

  The previous brightness in his eyes still didn't returned. "If you knew what I knew . . . but I can't tell you all of it." He sat up straight and looked like a soldier at attention.

  Mahrree assumed it was an instinctive stance.

  "The Administrators, when they came to power, initially attempted to send out scouts to look for new lands to settle." Perrin's voice was careful and calculated. "They were headed to the ruins King Querul's soldiers had visited many years ago, hoping to discover if the area was still poisoned-"

  Mahrree sat up eagerly at the mention of Terryp's ruins, but had the wisdom to not interrupt.

  "Their findings were most disappointing. They never reached the ruins. All of the forests surrounding the world on the north and west show evidence of increased Guarder activity. One of their spies was apprehended and brought to the High General for questioning. There's no doubt: they are moving closer to the smaller villages. We have every reason to believe they're planning to raid places even like Edge, thus we've implemented a presence to discourage such activity."

  Mahrree sat at attention, trying not to show her disappointment that the scouts never reached Terryp's land, or that he provided an army-issued explanation that sounded rather rehearsed. In her most official voice she said, "I thank you for your report, Captain."

  Perrin's lips parted in surprise but he quickly closed them. "Uh, old soldier's habit, to make reports. Sorry."

  "And how old a soldier are you?" Mahrree prodded with a smile, even though she already knew from that one interesting fact in the back of the history book.

  "As old as you," he smiled.

  Mahrree wondered how he knew her age.

  He leaned back in his chair and studied her, resting his head on his fingers.

  But Mahrree didn't notice. She had to try one more time now that the official report was out of the way. "Do you really think these mysterious peoples of violent tendencies, whom we've heard very little from for one hundred nineteen years, are suddenly coming to invade us here in Edge?"

  His studied look vanished and he shrugged. "Sounds a little far-fetched when you put it that way, but yes, I suspect they may."

  "'Suspect' and 'may,'" Mahrree jumped on his hesitation. "Yes, you really are convinced. Is there not any other reason those men, I mean your men, are here?"

  He leaned forward. "For what other reason could there be?"

  "I really don't know," Mahrree admitted, suddenly feeling chilled, "but as you spoke even the air seemed to change. Didn't you feel it?"

  Perrin sighed. "Conflict always brings an odd feeling. Even preparing for a conflict that never comes changes the air around it. I don't like it, Mahrree, but I like even less what a full battle would mean to this village. Or to you."

  Mahrree swallowed. Something in the way he said her name, then said "you," felt very intimate.

  Then she remembered something. "Ruins! You mentioned something about ruins, Captain. Will they be sending another scouting m
ission? Once the Guarder threat is put down again?"

  Perrin looked a little annoyed and Mahrree didn't know why. "The ruins. That's what you want to talk about now? The ruins."

  "Oh, yes! I've always been fascinated by those who lived here before we did. Just imagine-they've already gone through and completed The Test! Terryp had spent so much time-"

  "Terryp?" he interrupted her and squinted in surprise. "I remember you mentioned him at the fourth debate, but just how much do you know about Terryp?"

  Mahrree rolled her eyes. "The greatest historian of the Middle Age? The one who studied the great ruins beyond the deserts west of Sands? I think I know all there is to know about Terryp. More than just his stories, his discoveries! When I was a girl I used to fantasize about his expedition after the Great War. My father and I would hypothesize about what he discovered, what might have been on his map, and why Querul didn't want that information known-"

  She stopped in worry, realizing she was saying too much in front of a man who swore to serve the king until the regime change just two years ago.

  The corner of Perrin's mouth went up. "As a girl you fantasized about a historian who's been dead for a hundred years?" He chuckled. "You're just full of surprises, aren't you?"

  Mahrree relaxed at his changed demeanor. "I found Terryp far more interesting than the stories of girls in distress awaiting rescue. Where's the adventure in that? Sitting around in a tree hoping some dashing soldier would look up and see her cowering in fear from Guarders?" She scoffed. "But ruins-ah! Now there's something worthwhile-"

  "Mahrree!" he said abruptly and pressed his lips together.

  She stared at him, startled by his outburst. "What?"

  "Can we discuss ruins at another time?"

  "I suppose so, but what would we discuss instead?" She was mystified, and a bit put off.

  "I have been thinking about the debates-"

  "So have I!" Mahrree grinned. "I was thinking, when we have time maybe we can start them again. I have some new arguments for Mrs. Arky to counter Mr. Arky with about eating anywhere in the house. The number one reason has to do with ants. Oh, but I shouldn't tell you that. Don't want to give away-"

  "Mahrree!"

  The solemnity in his voice startled her. He looked at her with such intensity that he clearly wasn't thinking about the Arkys.

  Or ants.

  "Just . . . let me say this, all right? No more interruptions?"

  By the way his jaw clenched, she decided she best just listen. She gave him a brief nod to continue.

  He took a deep breath. "I haven't been able to get the debates out of my mind. Or you out of my mind."

  Mahrree bit her lower lip.

  "I didn't know what I would find in Edge, but I was really hoping to find . . ." He paused, stared at his hands, and shook his head.

  Mahrree was completely bewildered by his behavior. She really didn't know men.

  "Honestly, Mahrree, it was only a little ways into that very first debate that I thought to myself, 'I could, I could . . .'"

  He could what?

  "Icouldloveawomanlikeyou," he rushed. He slowly looked up into her face with something like anguish.

  Mahrree sat stunned as she ran the words, or rather word, over in her head to break apart the syllables. I think he said it, she mused. It was too much to hope for, but she hoped anyway. She smiled encouragingly. "So you could, could you?"

  "Mahrree, what are you doing to me?" He stood up abruptly but then sat back down again.

  She'd never seen him like this. The confident captain was nowhere to be found. Instead sat, stood, then sat yet again an agitated-and now almost pathetic-man.

  "I'm sorry, what am I doing?" she asked sweetly, but not innocently. She thought briefly that her teenage students would be proud of her composed reaction to this most unexpected conversation.

  He put his hands together and rested his elbows on knees. One leg began to bounce nervously. "I feel like I can no longer create a coherent sentence. Maybe we need an audience." He stood again, walked around the chair, and used it as a buffer to stand behind. He put on a look of resolution and blurted, "Mahrree, I don't want to get married-"

  Definitely unexpected.

  Her heart dropped through the floor.

  "-to a woman who cannot think or take a challenge. The only kind of woman I could ever marry-"

  Her heart lifted back up to just above her belly.

  "-is a thoughtful woman who can hold her own in a conflict. I need someone who believes just as strongly as I do."

  Her heart hovered. He meant her, right? He was talking about marrying . . . and suggesting her . . . in the same sentences?

  How did they get here!?

  But another thought struck her and she knew what she had to say, yet couldn't believe she'd utter the words until she did. "But Perrin, I don't think I believe the same as you," she said miserably. "So many things we debated, we were on opposite sides, except for the fourth debate. Rector Densal gave you my position. Otherwise-"

  "No, no, no!" he cried and came around the chair to sit back down to face Mahrree. He leaned forward earnestly and was so close she could breathe in his earthy sweet scent.

  She struggled to concentrate.

  "Don't you remember?" he pleaded. "I've told you twice now, your mind is closer to mine that you realize. We're so alike. You defended every argument the way I would. I argued ideas, but not always my ideas. I've never believed the sky is only blue. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that it truly is black, and that the blue is an illusion. And that fourth debate, that's when you finally heard how I really feel. I told Hogal I wanted that position so that I could try to prove to you that I do believe in The Writings. I agree with you on everything. Except dogs. Dogs are far better than cats."

  Sometime during his speech Mahrree's heart leaped to her throat making it very difficult for her to breathe. So she just hoped for what might come next. And hoped she wouldn't lose consciousness waiting.

  Perrin gathered her small soft hands into his large rough ones.

  The effect caused Mahrree to lose all ability to speak, had she been able to breathe.

  "Mahrree, what I want to say is," he began, staring at their hands together, "why I am here is . . ." He looked up into her face. "You can see the direction all of this is going, right?"

  Mahrree was sure she could, but she didn't feel it was her place to make this any easier. She smiled and shook her head. Besides, her lungs still couldn't function and everything was starting to go gray.

  He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and said, "Mahrree, may we continue our debates forever as husband and wife?" He peeked to gauge her response.

  At least, she thought he did. Her eyes were too full of astonished tears to see him clearly. She nodded vigorously.

  "Really?" Perrin asked, immense relief in his voice. "You don't want to have time to think about it?"

  She thought briefly. She didn't want to think about it? Inexplicably, she felt no reservations-none at all. Instead she felt a great surge of peace and thought of how her father would approve. Somehow he was behind all of this, she was sure. Mahrree shook her head just as vigorously as she had nodded it.

  "So I've actually rendered you speechless?!" Perrin grinned.

  "Yes! Yes, you have!" Mahrree shouted.

  "No, no, I haven't, I see," Perrin laughed. "But I think I know a way to keep you from speaking." He stood up and pulled her up too. He released her hands and moved his up to hold her face.

  Mahrree panicked. She'd never kissed a man before, besides her father. And judging by the spark she saw in Perrin's eyes, she was fairly confident he was not expecting a quick peck on the cheek. As he bent closer to her, she trembled.

  "WAIT!" she exclaimed. "Wait, I don't know what I'm doing."

  Perrin stopped just inches from her face. "What?"

  She squirmed. "I really don't know how to do this. I've never kissed a man
before." Mahrree suspected this conversation wasn't going right.

  Perrin relaxed, probably expecting to hear something worse. "Well, neither have I." He smiled and cocked his head. "Understand," he began patiently, but she took a nervous step back anyway as he kept his hold on her, "I haven't exactly spent the last few years doing this every day either. But I do know a few things," he continued. "And, well, I'm trying to kiss you for the first time, and, and . . . you begin with a warning?" Frustration grew in his eyes, dimming the spark.

  "I thought you should know!" she whimpered.

  He narrowed his eyes and spoke slowly. "I am trying to make you stop talking, for just . . . one . . . moment."

  "I know!" Mahrree bellowed and bit her lip nervously. The longer she looked at him the worse she felt. She was going to lose him-she could feel it.

  Perrin released her face and stepped back to study her. "This . . . this is . . . unexpected."

  Mahrree cringed and wrung her hands. A first kiss was supposed to be instinctive and genuine-not, not this. She looked up at Perrin and realized he was as nervous as she was. How long had he been preparing for this moment, and she had knocked him off his course? She had no preparation at all!

  He pressed his lips together and continued to analyze her.

  Mahrree knew then that she'd ruined it all. Just as she had a most wonderful future in her grasp she was losing it because . . . because she was afraid that she didn't know how to do something? Stupid, she told herself. What was she-

  She didn't get to the end of her mental chastisement.

  Perrin stepped forward suddenly and wrapped his arms around her before she realized what he was doing. He mashed his mouth against hers before she could think about how to do it. She could think of nothing clearly, but in the stunned confusion of her mind was a sense of surprised bliss.

  A few seconds later he pulled away. Keeping her in his grasp, he whispered, "Now, was that so difficult?"

  "I'm not sure," she admitted. "It happened so fast. Can we try that again?"

  "For my future wife, anything!" He grinned. "I have a feeling life with you will mean anticipating the unexpected, then finding my expectations exceeded in every possible way."

  "That wasn't entirely coherent," she gently pointed out.

  He sighed. "That's just what you do to me. As long as it's only you who knows what power you have over me, I should still be able to maintain my reputation."

  Sometime during their long second attempt Mahrree decided that kissing him wasn't going to be difficult at all.

  The rest of the evening they sat huddled together on the small sofa planning, discussing, and laughing. It felt surprisingly natural, as if they had always been this way. They decided that after such a public courtship, their marriage ceremony should be small and private with just Mahrree's mother, Rector Densal who would perform the ceremony, Tabbit Densal, and Perrin's parents, since the High General was planning to be in the area in about three moons to inspect the fort. To make up for the small ceremony, they decided to have a large celebration afterwards as was tradition in Edge, where everyone came with a dish of food to share along with a piece of useless advice.

  Perrin left Mahrree's home that evening-to be his home as well in a season, they decided, since it was relatively close to the new fort-at an appropriate hour and with a stack of books.

  Noticing the neighbors across the road sitting on their front porch to enjoy the surprisingly warm night air, he announced loudly, "Thank you for your information and time, Miss Mahrree. I'll enjoy reading these books."

  Mahrree's neighbors, a middle-aged couple she'd known since she was a child, just smiled and nodded at him.

  Then they grinned at each other.

  ---

  Lieutenant Karna was in the forward command office going over the next day's work assignments awaiting the return of the captain. Frequently the old sergeant major trotted up the stairs and raised his eyebrows in questioning.

  "No third hole in the office . . . yet."

  Wiles would chuckle all the way down the stairs.

  The fourth time Wiles came up the stairs, looking a bit tired from his journeys, he plopped down on one of the chairs by the large work desk. "Whew! Now I know why I never married and had children." He took off his cap to smooth his thin, gray hair."Waiting up for them is exhausting."

  Karna grinned. "Wiles, I can just let you know when he comes in."

  Wiles smiled slyly at him. "Getting rather late now, Lieutenant. My guess is, it's been a successful evening, and he's not coming in until morning."

  Karna shook his head. "The captain's not that kind of man, Sergeant Major. I know him. And he'll be back up here before he retires for the night to brief the night shift."

  Wiles sniggered and put a boot casually on the corner of the desk. "You haven't been in the army as long as I have, Lieutenant. I see now why Chairman Mal himself said my wisdom was needed up here." He puffed up his narrow chest. "I suppose if I weren't so wise, I'd have been given a position somewhere warmer. But, the High General agreed with Mal, and so I'm here to teach all of you boys a thing or two. Here's your first lesson: no man is exactly as he presents himself. There's the public man, and then there's the private man. Shin puts up an excellent public front. I've heard he handled himself quite well at those debates, and so far the village seems completely enamored with him. So likely is that lovely young woman. But privately, Shin's a man with needs, Lieutenant. And when an animal feels a need . . ." He raised his eyebrows and leered. "Now, you just run along to your quarters. I'll brief the night shift. Shin will be back in the morning-"

  "Shin's back right now!"

  The voice booming up from the stairs made both of the soldiers jump in their seats. Wiles put his foot back properly on the ground before Captain Shin strode up to the office. He was wearing a black tunic, trousers, a leather jacket, and a small smile that refused to be suppressed.

  Karna shot Wiles a look of, I told you so.

  Shin casually picked up a piece of paper from the desk and glanced at it. "Thought I wouldn't be back to do my duty for the night shift, Wiles?"

  "No, sir!" the sergeant major said. "It's just that . . . I, uh . . ."

  Shin looked up him. "Leave the two holes in the wall, for now. Rather like them. They're only through the first layer of wall anyway, and not the second. And no, there won't be a third hole. Karna," he turned to his lieutenant who had a cautious smile on his face. "If you wish, in about three moons you can move into my quarters. They're a little larger."

  Karna grinned. "And why won't you be sleeping there anymore, sir?"

  Shin tried to keep his smile down, but failed. "I think my wife will prefer that I spend my nights at our home instead."

  Wiles clapped his hands loudly and stood up. "Knew it! Well done, Captain." He shook Shin's hand and slapped him on the shoulder.

  Karna chuckled. "Sir, that's . . . that's good news. Rather sudden, don't you think?"

  Shin's smile faded a little. "Uh, well, perhaps. That's why the three moons' time, Brillen."

  "I can't wait to hear what the village will say," Karna said. "Marrying one of their own? That's certainly a way to win hearts and minds."

  Karna and Wiles laughed together as Shin reddened.

  "Well, the High General will certainly be impressed," Wiles hinted.

  Shin went a deeper shade of burgundy. "The High General . . ." He stared at the floor.

  Wiles and Karna shared a look of concern.

  "When do you plan to tell him?" Wiles asked quietly.

  Shin blinked and looked up. "Soon, soon. Listen, we'd really like to keep this quiet for a while. I told only the two of you so that you can . . . understand. But please, let us reveal it when the time is right."

  "Of course, sir," Karna answered.

  Wiles nodded slowly. "Captain, I'm glad you told us. Now that she's someone important to you, she may become someone important to the Guarders."

  Shin let out a low whis
tle. "Hadn't considered that either."

  Wiles patted him on the back. "We can take care of that, Captain. Soldiers need to start patrolling in the village, too. We'll simply put your future home on the routes. In fact, as an early wedding gift, show me right now where she lives." He pulled out a clean sheet of paper and a piece of sharpened charcoal. "We can put her road on the routes. Don't worry, I won't say anything to the soldiers until you want us to. But we'll keep her safe."

  Shin smiled. "Thank you, Wiles. That'll make me feel better, until I'm living there." He started sketching out a rough map of the northern village. "She's on the second ring of houses, just off the main fort road. Barely a quarter mile away from the fort."

  "That's convenient." Karna nodded at the map.

  "And she hasn't even seen the fort, yet," Shin said, shaking his head and chuckling. "And didn't even know the soldiers came in! Have to give her a tour sometime, I suppose." He made a notation for her house.

  "Doesn't she have a mother, Captain?" Wiles gestured to the map.

  Shin nodded. "I've only heard about her, but yes. I better put her mother's on here, too. Just so Mahrree feels she's protected. Good idea, Wiles. Now, according to the Densals, Mrs. Peto is on the third ring, on the other side of the fort road . . . one of these two houses. Both have elaborate gardens, so I'm not sure which." He paused, wondering which house to mark.

  "You're not sure which house is your future mother-in-law's, Captain?" Wiles scowled good-naturedly.

  Shin paled at the phrase mother-in-law.

  Karna covered his grin with his hand, while Wiles chortled. "We'll just put that entire road on the routes and mark both houses. Now that I think about it, isn't that aunt and uncle of yours along the same area?"

  Shin eagerly made some more notations on the map, further west. "Densals, right there. Again, good idea, Wiles. Thank you."

  Wiles smiled as he took up the map. "Just doing my duty, sir. And again, congratulations. You're going to make many people happy. Now I'm glad I'm all the way in the north. I'm beginning to see the appeal."

  Karna laughed as Shin glared affably at the old sergeant major.