Soldier at the Door (47 page)

“The sword has to stay at the fort, men,” she announced. “Please remo
ve it, Aims.”

Aim
s looked at the major for confirmation.

“I don’t think any of you will run into any problems out there,” Shin said reluctantly.

Grandpy cocked his gray head in surprise.

“And actually, sir,” added Karna, “I think the sword may
cause
problems. How many of you would have loved to get your hands on one of those when you were fifteen?”

Many of the soldiers had g
uilty grins on their faces. Aims removed the sword and handed it to the major.

Mahrree ignored Perrin’s steely glare. “The sheath a
nd belt should go as well, Aims,” she said. “No good without the sword.”

He halfheartedly undid the buckle and handed the belt to the major. Grandpy’s expression hardened, but Perrin ignored him.

“Still too . . . formal.” Mahrree decided as she turned to her husband. “What about them unbuttoning the top few buttons? A more relaxed look?”

The major’s raised eyebrows told her it was unthinkable.

A daring voice from the back of the room thought otherwise. “We’d be most grateful, ma’am!” The outburst of laughter sufficiently hid the guilty man.

Neeks guffawed at the insubordination, but Karna had a small, traitorous smile forming.

Mahrree couldn’t help but smile, too. “One button?” She gave the major her best pleading eyes.

He softened ever so slightly and held up one finger.

Grandpy Neeks, at the back of the room, threw his hands in the air and turned to glare at the wood planked wall.

Private Aim
s eagerly undid the top button at his throat. Several of the men whistled and whooped their approval as they quickly followed suit. Private Aims couldn’t have turned any redder.

“Now—” Mahrree began again.

“They are
ready!
” Major Shin insisted.

Grandpy gave a firm agreeing nod and cleared his throat so loudly it echoed in the room.

“Please, just one more thing?” Mahrree bravely asked. When she saw the severe expression on her husband’s face she added, “Nothing with the uniform—I promise.”

Grandpy, at the back of the room, folded his arms more noisily than should be possible, and Major Shin nodded almost impercept
ibly.

Mahrree turned back to the soldiers. “The thing is,” she started haltingly, “the thing is . . . Edgers know you only as soldiers. But if they could see you as something
more
, then all of these plans to secure Edge will happen much more smoothly. They need to see you as sons, grandsons, brothers—”

She couldn’t help but glance at Shem, and he was beaming back at her.

“—and as nephews, then . . . then all of this will be much better.”

Not very articulate, she knew, but the stares of all those soldiers were starting to get to her, just as she knew they would get to the vi
llagers.

Corporal Zenos raised his hand.

Relieved to make eye contact with a friendly face, Mahrree nodded at him. “Corporal?”

“Mrs. Shin, what are you suggesting that we do today?” His easy smile told her that while he understood what she was trying to say, no one else would.

“Well, do what you see needing done. If someone’s gathering wood, take half a minute to fill up the bucket and bring it into the house for them. Maybe someone’s calf won’t go into a pasture, so go over and help . . . herd it.” She assumed that was the proper term, not really knowing much about cattle except how to cook them.

She didn’t dare look at Perrin, but she did catch Grandpy’s glare, and noticed that he wasn’t as angry as he had been a couple of minutes ago.

“Just let Edgers see you as something more than young men who . . .
beat up people
.”

A few soldiers sniggered proudly at that.

And Mahrree knew she had to use that.

“Exactly,” she grinned. “Prove to them that while you’re ce
rtainly skilled fighters, you’re also
better
than the Guarders, in every way. Guarders only destroy. But
you
—you men assist, serve, protect, build.”

She scanned the crowd of faces and saw a mixture of responses. Some were skeptical and bored, but more were understanding, inte
rested, and—increasingly—proud.

A deep voice rumbled next to her. “Mrs. Shin has a point, men,” Major Shin told them. “We need to demonstrate that we’re the better men. So do what you can, but don’t be all day about it.”

Mahrree realized that was her signal to move off the platform, and she did so as quickly as possible while her husband continued to address the soldiers.

“You may remove your swords and leave them on the table in the back by Neeks as you go out. Keep the handles of your long knives concealed, and remember, unbutton only one button.”

“And smile!” added Captain Karna with a full faced demonstration.

Even though Mahrree was now at the side of the room again, she could hear Major Shin growling quietly. He glanced over at her, and she gave him a look of gratitude. A smirk crept to the edges of his mouth.

That was about as easy as he was going to get that day.

---

Ten minutes later Perrin mounted his horse for the morning—someday he’d have to find a creature with enough strength and speed to last him all day—and sat by the gate observing fifty pairs of soldiers leave the fort to head in different directions towards Edge, paper in their hands, and no swords on their bodies.

If Mahrree thought that would make him more “easy” she was very much mistaken.

The forest was quiet, as it had been for weeks, but things could change in an instant. This was a very risky move. Most of the soldiers were now armed only with a long knife secreted somewhere on their bodies, making them merely equal in strength to the Guarders. Only Perrin, Karna, Neeks and Gizzada, all mounted on horses to supervise the day’s activities, still wore their swords.

Perrin wasn’t going to leave the compound until he was sure his wife was on her way home. He wondered again why he deferred to her in front of his entire army, but deep down he already knew.

It wasn’t because she kept kissing his neck this morning, which nearly drove him to distraction and, for the first time in five weeks, momentarily put him in an entirely different frame of mind. Maybe it was because today he felt like he was finally accomplishing something, and depending on how everything went, he may have to start an
argument
with her later tonight.

And they had
plenty
to argue about.

It wasn’t because he thought her exceptionally brave to stand in front of those soldiers, most of who were nearly twice her size, and try to turn them back into boys. That small woman had no idea just how determined and powerful her voice was, and he found that even more endearing.

It wasn’t even because of those piercing gray-green-brown eyes that looked at him so fearfully yet confidently when he accosted her in the hallway. She certainly still had an effect on him, one that he hoped he never got over.

It
may
have been
somewhat
because her pink lips did that little pursing thing since she was anxious, and then she bit her lower lip, which always had the effect of turning his brain into something like hot oatmeal—

No, he knew why he took her advice. He hoped to his soldiers it looked like he was deferring to an Edge native, but it was something much more.

No, he deferred to her because when the most dangerous woman in the world recommends something, even the snarling commander of the fort better follow that advice.

He spotted her walking behind the soldiers approaching the gate. She gave him a flirty, apologetic smile.

Oh yes. There’d be
arguing
tonight.

He winked back. She meant well; she always did. Even when she was trying to get him to ‘PEA’ on all of it. She grinned at him and he nudged the horse to approach her.

“Would you like a ride back to the house?”

She scoffed at the horse, the only animal she hated more than poor Barker. “Would you like to experience childbirth?”

That did it.

He couldn’t help but chuckle, probably for the first time since the raid.

“You need to get back before the first soldiers reach the house,” he reminded her. “What kind of an example are you setting for our neighbors if you’re not there obeying the edicts of Major Shin?”

“I’ll be there in five minutes,” she promised. “Bring me a report tonight, all right?”

“Since when do I report to you, Mrs. Shin?” he frowned, but knew she saw right through it. She always saw through everything, which—in quiet moments when he thought about it—made him slightly worried.

“Since the day we married, Mr. Shin. Admit it: I’m more fea
rsome than the High General.” She tried to raise a menacing eyebrow and failed amusingly.

Perrin winked at her again. “I’ll probably be late for dinner.”

Mahrree nodded. “Just promise me you’ll remember the advice of Captain Karna—smile!” She batted her eyelashes.

He chuckled again.

“And Perrin?” she said quietly. “Thank you.”

He smiled at her in a way that hinted at a future argument, then kicked his horse out the gates towards Edge.

-
--

“Poe?” Mahrree called as she neared her home, seeing the boy jogging alongside Barker. “My goodness, Poe—you’re up early this morning! And with Barker?”

“Hi, Mrs. Shin,” he said cheerily. “He was sleeping in my front garden this morning!”

Mahrree blinked rapidly. “All the way on the other side of Edge?”

Barker gave her only a fleeting glance and sat down by the front gate.

“What in the world were you doing so far south?” Mahrree demanded of him.

He didn’t even turn his drooping eyes to look at her.

“Well, I was thinking,” Poe said scratching his chin and sounding very grown up, “that there’s that fluffy white dog down the road from us. I guess to a dog, she’d be rather attractive.”

“Ugh,” Mahrree sneered. “Not again, Barker.”

“So he gets around, I take it?” Poe said maturely. “You know, any rancher would have a solution to that
problem
.”

Mahrree looked at him. “Poe, the things that come out of your mouth sometimes! I’ve missed you.” She chuckled, ruffled up his black hair, and gave him a quick hug. “Want to stay for breakfast? You’ve come so far, I’d hate to send you home already.”

Poe grinned at the offer.

“But first,” Mahrree held up a finger, “a question.”

Poe groaned.

Mahrree chuckled. “Tell me, Mr. Hili—what color do you think the sky will be today?”

Poe’s mouth automatically opened, then he shut it and looked up at the sky.

Mahrree beamed in approval. He wasn’t the Administrators just yet.

“I don’t see any clouds . . . You know, today the sky might actually be blue!”

“I agree,” Mahrree said. “Sometimes, the sky really
is
blue.”

---

Mahrree had called it “Get To Know Your Friendly Soldiers Day,” but that’s not the way it started. Perrin could see the curtains twitching anxiously in the windows as citizens waited for the soldiers to reach their front doors. Then those doors opened cautiously, and people spoke through the cracks.

Mahrree had been right, Perrin was reluctant to concede as he rode along the first northern neighborhood. The villagers
were
nervous about the soldiers coming to their houses.

“But we’re the
good
men,” he whispered to himself as he saw another door open only far enough to carry on a conversation. “Why are they afraid of us? Ah, Hogal–what would you do? If only you were still here . . .”

He sighed and tried to ignore the ragged hole in his chest left by his great aunt and uncle. In the past five weeks it hadn’t gotten any smaller. Despite his knowledge that they were fine and happy, he couldn’t get his heart to accept it. He didn’t need comfort; he needed
them
. He couldn’t do this by himself. True, he had Mahrree, but he’d come to rely on Hogal to be his ‘guide,’ and Tabbit to be his ‘conscience.’ Without them, he felt as if two ropes of the three holding him in line had snapped. If Hogal had been there, he likely would have said something such as,
The Creator knows you’re capable of going on without us. That’s why we were allowed to go home.

But Perrin had far less faith in himself than Hogal Densal did. And he still couldn’t help but feel their loss was partially his fault.