Soldier at the Door(163)
The soldiers applauded, gave him his verifying note, and Zenos turned to run back to Edge with the soldiers following and shouting support.
Several minutes later, two men in green and brown mottled clothing crept up to the edge of the forest. They were confident no one else had seen the small rock that Zenos threw into the shrubs as he tripped and fell. And they were also confident the rock was intended for them. They lay on the ground inspecting the foliage and patting the dried leaves that fell off the trees and covered the forest’s floor.
After almost ten minutes of searching, one of the men discovered the rock. Then they crept to the seclusion of a large boulder, unwrapped the small paper tied around the rock, and read the small handwriting.
One out. F.S.
“He’s certainly become concise in his messages,” one man observed.
The other man nodded. “But it would’ve been helpful to include a time. We best get to the fresh spring.”
---
Zenos paused when he arrived at the tower waving the second red banner so he could shake out a cramp in his leg. This one was painfully real. One of the soldiers gave him a flask of water and a note with a location.
Zenos groaned. “I just ran past that family’s house! I think Karna’s made my route longer than the major’s.”
The soldier smiled. “Nope, they’re the same. The captain had two different groups measure the distances to be sure. You each have ten miles.”
Zenos bent over to massage his calf. “I’ve gone east to west to east again!”
“But the major was sent all the way to the far south tower,” Neeks pointed out. “He’s already hit his second yellow banner coming back north. It just went down.”
“No!” Zenos moaned, looked at the note again, ignored his cramp and took off in a sprint back in the direction he came.
---
Major Shin reached the last ‘tower on fire’ to the whoops and cheers of dozens of villagers who were waiting, with Gizzada still riding behind him. The sergeant’s horse was looking as exhausted as Perrin. Despite the cool temperatures of Harvest Season, the major was sweating as if it was the middle of Weeding. A severe pain in his side refused to let him stand up straight. His lungs burned so badly that he couldn’t imagine going another step.
He’d been hoping someone would have the news that Zenos had quit and was being carted away by the surgeon. Then Perrin could drop to the ground in honor and not move again for two days.
But there was no message about Zenos.
He grabbed the note offered by a sergeant and called up to the tower. “Where’s the white finish banner? Can’t see it from here,” he panted. “View’s obscured.”
One of the soldiers, cringing, yelled down to him. “Sir, there’s not a white banner, but there is a pink striped one. At the village green.”
The major slapped his forehead and forgot all about his pain.
“KARNA!” he roared and took off in a lumbering jog to the center of Edge.
---
At the forward office at the fort, Lieutenant Walickiah watched the banners go up and down. He timed how long the intervals were between each, signaling that the runner had reached his destination. He watched as the last of the yellow and red banners came down, and saw the final one rise up in the middle of the village. He squinted and looked at it again. Then he took the spyglass to verify . . .
Yes. It was pink stripes.
This was the most unusual fort.
He picked up the banner code sheet the major had left, but didn’t see anything coded for pink. Then Walickiah noticed a different handwriting at the bottom of the page. He remembered that as the major and corporal were taking off their uniforms, Captain Karna had added something to the paper. He waved it to the major, asking if he wanted to review it, but the major was too preoccupied in insulting the corporal. The captain only grinned, nodded at Walickiah, put down the paper, and went downstairs to take his position.
Walickiah glanced around before allowing himself to respond to the last code.
“Pink stripes: mother-in-law sighted, bringing cake.”
He chuckled.
Too bad she was on his list. Walickiah loved cake.
---
Corporal Zenos, having ‘saved’ three citizens in different areas from Guarder attacks, was now sprinting towards the middle of Edge and smirking at the pink striped banner. The major was going to love that, he was sure. Shem almost forgave Karna for his first kissing stop.
The crowd at the village green was even larger than when he and the major had left it a couple of hours ago. Shem was still weaving through the nearly abandoned marketplace when he was spotted by people on the perimeter of the green. A huge cheer erupted. Shem would’ve grinned, but he didn’t want to risk unnecessarily expending any energy. He had a major to beat.