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

  The Falcon in the Barn

  By Trish Mercer

  Smashwords Version

  Copyright © 2015 Patricia Strebel Mercer

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  All characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental but would be totally awesome.

  Cover art and design by the daughter of Rudolf Strebel, who taught her to love clouds of all shapes and sizes, and placed in her (and her children now too) the obsession to take pictures of all clouds, even ones produced by raging forest fires in Yellowstone. She’s grateful she found a place to publish two of the photos from 2013, and to carry on Rudy’s hobby since Alzheimer’s has taken away his ability to do so. (Rudy died a month after this book was published.)

  Clouds are sacred.

  Contact author via website: http://forestedgebooks.com

  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. This book is also available in print.

  Please remember to leave a review for my book at your favorite retailer.

  Because the more you know

  about the ways of the world,

  the more you want to get away from it.

  MAPS: visit http://forestedgebooks.com/maps/

  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

  Shem Zenos—Shem ZEE-noss

  Qualipoe Hili—KWAL-ee-poe HEE-lee

  Hegek—HEG-ik

  Kuman—KOO-min

  Kindiri—kin-DEER-ee

  Giyak—GUY-ak

  Fadh—FOD

  Jothan—JOH-thun

  Asrar—AZ-rar

  For background information on all character names and derivations, visit http://forestedgebooks.com/characters

  Contents

  Chapter 1 ~ “They’ve ruined him.”

  Chapter 2 ~ “I know everything that goes on here in Edge.”

  Chapter 3 ~ “May I have five minutes—”

  Chapter 4 ~ “This is the worst Raining Season ever.”

  Chapter 5 ~ “What did I almost do?”

  Chapter 6 ~ “I’m an object of pity.”

  Chapter 7 ~ “Is that my daughter out there?”

  Chapter 8 ~ “It was a good night. All is well.”

  Chapter 9 ~ “We are here to remember.”

  Chapter 10 ~ “Tell me everything you know about Moorland.”

  Chapter 11 ~ “Men, it’s our turn to go hunting!”

  Chapter 12 ~ “Do you think I’m ready?”

  Chapter 13 ~ “And then by tomorrow, we’ll have some very fascinating results.”

  Chapter 14 ~ “You’re in a lot of trouble, Colonel Shin.”

  Chapter 15 ~ “Seeing as how some people weren’t where they were supposed to be . . .”

  Chapter 16 ~ “Who gives gifts like THIS?”

  Chapter 17 ~ “He’s gone fishing, Thorne! He returns tomorrow!”

  Chapter 18 ~ “Please, Mahrree, please. Stay for me.”

  Chapter 19 ~ “Who will go next?!”

  Chapter 20 ~ “Tell me about cow eyes.”

  Chapter 21 ~ “It was an ambush! Look at us!”

  Chapter 22 ~ “You aren’t people, you’re vultures!”

  Chapter 23 ~ “The most harmful sentences begin with, ‘I deserve . . .’ ”

  Chapter 24 ~ “We will accept no less than a two week stay.”

  Chapter 25 ~ “Like everyone else, I fell for the stories.”

  Chapter 26 ~ “But what do you know how to use, a pitchfork?”

  Chapter 27 ~ “How many women—girls—had an old historian as their childhood hero?”

  Chapter 28 ~ “It’s not that simple, Yung!”

  Chapter 29 ~ “They’re back! The expedition!”

  Chapter 30 ~ “Mother! Sit DOWN!”

  Chapter 31 ~ “It’s time that front garden was tended to!”

  Chapter 32 ~ “And next is . . . ?”

  Chapter 33 ~ “The quieter you both are, the faster all of this will just . . . go away.”

  Chapter 34 ~ “This has always been such a nice village—”

  Chapter 35 ~ “I have an idea, a plan!”

  Chapter 36 ~ “I intend for this to be the most enlightening day of my life.”

  Chapter 37 ~ “Who in the world would be brave enough to visit us?”

  Chapter 38 ~ “My name is Shem Zenos. And . . .”

  Acknowledgements

  About the author, Other titles and Contact me

  Chapter 1 ~ “They’ve ruined him.”

  Eight weeks after the land tremor that shook the world, Jaytsy sat on her bed late at night with her knees pulled up to her chest. She rocked slowly, not daring to sleep. There was a chance tonight would be quiet, but she’d had her sleep disturbed too many times to believe that.

  She knew it was self-centered to think so, but she suspected that the shaking she had wished for everyone else—just to “wake them up a little”—had been focused on her. While the world was returning slowly to normal, nothing in Jaytsy’s world was the same.

  Her grandparents were gone. And now, so was her father.

  Perrin Shin’s body came home from his enraged ride to Idumea, but not his mind. Where it was, no one really knew. As soon as he put General Relf Shin’s sword into his sheath, everything changed.

  It was the day after the crate had come from Idumea, the 55th Day of Planting, that he replaced his sword with his father’s. That night he tried to use it.

  Jaytsy had been sleeping when she heard the shouting. Panicked, she opened her door at the same time Peto opened his. They stared at each other across the dark gathering room until Perrin ran down the stairs with Relf’s sword drawn.

  “Upstairs! Now! My bedroom! The only place you’ll be safe!”

  Mahrree had padded after him. “Perrin, there’s no danger—”

  “Yes there is! It’s everywhere!”

  Jaytsy and Peto searched the darkness until Perrin’s shout of “NOW!” made them jump.

  “Just go,” their mother whispered, “I’ll deal with him.”

  They ran up the stairs and sat on the edge of their parents’ bed, listening to their mother trying to reason with their father.

  “What’s wrong with him?” Peto whispered.

  “I don’t know,” Jaytsy whispered back, hugging her knees. “Maybe he saw something?”

  Peto crawled alo
ng the bed to look outside the new window, wide and clear. “It’s really quiet out there, the alley’s empty, and the tower isn’t lit. I don’t think there’s anything.”

  He crawled back to sit next to his sister, but not too close. “I don’t hear him anymore.”

  “Me neither.”

  “What does that mean?” Peto whispered.

  Jaytsy shrugged. “It’s really . . .” She couldn’t think of a word. She’d never seen her father like that before.

  “Creepy,” Peto supplied, and wrapped his arms around himself.

  A moment later their mother came into the dark bedroom. “Just a nightmare!” she said in an overly merry tone. “He’s asleep on the sofa, and was probably never fully awake. You can go to bed now.”

  Jaytsy didn’t dare move.

  Neither did Peto. “Does he still have the sword?”

  A heavy clank came from their mother. “No, I took it after he fell on the sofa. We don’t need him mistaking any of us for someone we’re not, do we?” She laughed softly, but shakily.

  In the morning when Jaytsy passed her waking father on the sofa, he looked baffled. “Why am I here? Did I have a fight with your mother that I slept through?”

  “Uh,” Jaytsy was unsure of how to explain. He seemed completely normal, just a little tired. “Sort of?”

  Jaytsy rushed to the washing room and shut the door behind her. She heard her mother come down the stairs and waited until their conversation ended with Perrin shouting, “I’d never do that!”

  When she snuck out, her father was sitting at the table, holding his head. He smiled feebly, and so did she.

  Peto just nodded at his father as he sat down to breakfast.

  By dinner everyone was easier again, smiling and laughing as if nothing had happened, and they slept well that night. Jaytsy thought nothing more about her father’s unusual nighttime activity, especially since the night after was also calm and quiet.

  But in the fourth night Jaytsy woke up, feeling a presence next to her bed. The light from the two moons coming through the window bounced off the sword held over her.

  “They’re after you.”

  Jaytsy froze, terrified, as her father loomed over her. A movement by the door caused her to yelp, and Perrin spun to see what startled her. He aimed the sword at the figure.

  Peto trembled there, horrified.

  A voice shouted from the gathering room, “Colonel Shin, put away your sword! That’s an order!” Mahrree pushed Peto out of the way and stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips.

  Perrin lowered the sword and looked around blankly. Jaytsy slipped out of her bed and rushed over to Peto’s side. She didn’t know which of them was shaking more.

  “That was close!” she whispered to her brother.

  Peto could make only a strangled noise in response.

  Their father staggered to the sofa, sat, and stared at the floor.

  Mahrree tiptoed over to him and cautiously laid a hand on his shoulder. “Perrin? Are you all right?”

  He looked up. “What am I doing down here?”

  Peto and Jaytsy exhaled as he stared at the sword in his hand.

  “You’ve been walking in your sleep,” Mahrree told him. “I think you had another nightmare.”

  “Did I scare you?” he asked his children, almost timidly.

  “Yes?” they squeaked.

  “I’m sorry,” he breathed, got up, and trudged back upstairs.

  Mahrree kissed each of them quickly. “Everything’s fine!” she said too happily. “Back to bed, now!” She followed their father up the stairs. “Perrin, give me the sword.”

  Jaytsy had never before realized how brave her mother was.

  The next morning she and Peto got their own breakfast and ate before their parents got up. Neither of them said it, but they both seemed to think it was just safer that way.

  Two days later Jaytsy found her father asleep on the floor by the back kitchen door, curled into a ball, with General Shin’s sword by his side. She rushed upstairs to get her mother, then waited on their bed until the shouting downstairs stopped.

  Everything was not fine, but no one was talking about it. Peto looked at her that morning with a mixture of understanding and dread. She returned it. At least, for once, they had something in common.

  The next night he did it again—ran around the house shouting until he collapsed onto Peto’s bed. And again at breakfast, no one spoke. Mealtime had never been so silent before at the Shins.

  Two nights later, Jaytsy sat terrified on her bed, too frightened to fall asleep. When her father wasn’t rampaging around the house, she had nightmares that he was.

  Quiet footsteps coming through the eating room made her tense in worry. Cautiously she crept to her door and peeked through the crack. Candle light illuminated enough gathering room for her to see her mother embracing Uncle Shem.

  “Thank you for coming, Shem!” said Mahrree. “I’ve never seen him like this before. I don’t think he’s even fully awake.”

  “Does he wake up when you stop him?” Shem asked as he stepped out of her hug.

  “Sometimes. I think he can’t get over how his parents died. He’s all right with their passing. We’ve all felt great comfort about it. In fact, all of Edge is benefiting; Karna sold Joriana’s jewelry for so much in Rivers that everyone here will be well compensated—”

  Jaytsy stopped hearing after that. She’d suspected that her parents had something to do with helping get payments to the villagers, but she’d thought that her parents “disposing” of Grandmother’s jewelry was because they didn’t need such finery in the house.

  Just days ago Lieutenant Offra had come to the house, a stack of pages and sharpened charcoal in hand, and a nervous but eager smile on his face. Behind him, two assisting soldiers sniggered.

  “Good afternoon, Miss!” Offra said brightly, if not a bit unsteadily. It’s never easy being the newest soldier; it’s even worse to be the newest young officer. “Is your mother or father at home?”

  Jaytsy sent a withering glare to the soldiers behind him who let him walk up to the door without telling him whose it was.

  “They’re out right now.”

  “Could you tell them that Lieutenant Offra from the fort was by—” he squinted a little and cocked his head, as if something was vaguely familiar about the situation “—and that I’ll come by again later? We’ve been given a generous donation to help in the rebuilding of Edge, and each household can claim a part—”

  “We won’t be needing any of that donation, Offra,” Jaytsy said.

  He blinked. “But . . . it’s to help cover costs, losses—”

  “We’re fine, Lieutenant,” she said firmly. “My mother and my father—Colonel Shin—both agree.”

  Offra’s jaw dropped, then wobbled about. “I thought I knew this house . . . Sorry. New village, everything looks the same.”

  Jaytsy glared at the soldiers snickering behind him. She used to play along with the jokes on the new men. But in the past few weeks, she and Edge and even the whole world had changed.

  Except for these inane soldiers who still thought it good fun to set up their greenest officer.

  Jaytsy had no more patience for silliness. How could the soldiers still be so childish? Hadn’t they discovered corpses? Seen women wail in distress? Children sob in fear? Mature men weep quietly behind their houses? Hadn’t they lost their High General and his wife to the very Guarders they were to be defending the world against? And now even their own commander was—

  Something in Jaytsy’s throat swelled that day, squeezing away all lightness and joy. These ludicrous boys—the world was already a hard place; why make it harder?

  “Thank you anyway, Lieutenant Offra,” she had said. “You represent yourself, the fort, and the army honorably. My grandfather would be proud of you.”

  The soldiers behind Offra shuffled their boots and glared at each other to transfer blame.

  Offra nodded to Jaytsy. “T
hank you, Miss Shin. Sorry to have bothered you.” And, to his great credit, he didn’t even glance at the penitent soldiers behind him as he headed to the next house.

  As Jaytsy stood at her bedroom door, listening in to her mother and Uncle Shem, she smiled dimly. The Shins were rebuilding Edge. All of the Shins. She knew her parents stored gold and silver in the cellar, and she suspected that behind the secret concealing panel was now nothing but an empty dirt dugout.

  For a moment, her heart was lighter again—until she heard her mother sniffing and noticed Shem putting a hand on her shoulder.

  “Shem, something’s going on with Perrin. It’s as if he blames himself for how Relf and Joriana passed.”

  “I know,” Shem said. “Even Gadiman blamed him, in front of all the Administrators. That’s when he lost his temper. Well, what was left of it. It’s as if there’s a part of him none of us can reach. He’s exhausted and snapping at everyone in the fort. This afternoon he fell asleep at his desk. When I heard him snoring, I told Thorne and Offra to let him sleep. He woke up screaming a few minutes later, and I thought for sure our brave Captain Thorne was going to fall down the stairs in fright,” he chuckled sadly.

  “What are we going to do with him?” Mahrree sighed.

  “I don’t know. But I think I had better stay hidden if he starts up again. He may not recognize me.”

  That night was quiet. It took another hour for Jaytsy to fall asleep, but knowing Uncle Shem was on the sofa made her feel safer. It reminded her of the time he stayed by her bedside when she was little and her father was gone for weeks training other fort commanders. A terrible thunderstorm was raging outside one night, but Uncle Shem was strong enough to keep the thunder from “getting” to her.

  She never thought that someday the thunder would be her own father.

  The next night, the thunder awoke. Shortly after Jaytsy heard Shem sneak into the house again, Colonel Shin went on a rampage.

  “They’re everywhere!” he yelled upstairs in the bedroom. “They’re coming to get us!”

  Jaytsy flung open her door to see Shem standing at the foot of the stairs, waiting for his friend to come running down.