Dormin panted anxiously as Shem Zenos held him immobile. “Are you taking a third tonight, then?”
“I’m praying not to, but then again, the night’s only begun.”
“Why are you out here?”
“I was about to ask you that,” Shem said. “You’re supposed to be long gone! This forest is no place for you, last son of King Oren.”
“There’ve been complications.” Dormin gasped and swallowed against the cold blade on his throat. “Let me go, will you?”
“Only after you promise you’re not going to avenge your brother’s death.”
Dormin sighed, almost in embarrassment. “I’m not even armed, Zenos.”
“That’s right, he’s not!” a woman’s voice snapped. She bounded out of a clump of trees, shaking her head in dismay. Her long blonde and gray streaked hair, pulled into a serviceable ponytail, whipped angrily but she moved as silently as the moons. “Dormin, how in the world did you get here?”
“Sorry, Mrs. Yung,” he whispered. “I got disoriented.”
“Yes, obviously!” she whispered back. “You’re almost as aimless as my husband. We’ll have to find him next. Zenos, let go of him already!”
Shem shrugged apologetically, sheathed his knife and released Dormin’s arm. Dormin scampered away from him and glowered.
“What you boys get up to in the forests here, I just don’t know,” Mrs. Yung fumed. “This entire night is going completely wrong!”
“Sorry, Mrs. Yung,” Shem said, withering under her glare which didn’t even need full light to be fully effective. “We just, uh . . . needed to talk things through.”
Dormin folded his arms.
“Well, I hope it’s resolved because we have far greater problems right now! Zenos, the upper northeastern route along the ridge has been compromised. We had to stop at the ravine because of an emergency, but we’re ready to move again. But we don’t know where the last four are. We split up to confuse them, and confused Dormin instead, I see.” All she had to do was put her hands on her hips and face him.
Now it was Dormin’s turn to shrug contritely, and Shem’s shoulders sagged in additional remorse, even though he hadn’t been the cause of any of those problems.
Mrs. Yung was used to that. Rector’s wives were supposed to be their husbands’ equals in acting as the Creator’s hands to provide heartfelt concern and loving guidance.
But Mrs. Yung had an additional trait which manifested itself in opportune moments. With a determinedly pointed finger, a quick tongue, and a sharp kick to one’s conscious, no one could reduce a full-grown man to shamed penitence quicker than Mrs. Yung. When her ire was up, even innocent people who had never met her before felt the need to apologize repeatedly. Her ability to reduce any ego into scrambled egg with simply a well-honed glare was why she was chosen to keep order in the forests. Her husband tagged along at this point, after his work was done, just for the entertainment.
Satisfied that the boys were no longer squabbling, she nodded once in acknowledgement of their apologies. “Now, there’s yet another wrinkle tonight, and Shem, you have to fix that one as well.”
Shem briefly rolled his eyes. “Oh, what is it now!?”
“A friend of yours has found herself on the wrong side of the trees. Now, I suggest you find her lost dog, then—”
“Wait a minute,” Shem grabbed Mrs. Yung’s arm. “Mahrree?!”
“What’s a marr-ee?” Dormin asked.
“A most determined, naïve, and dangerous woman, that’s what!” Mrs. Yung declared. “She wanted to know the truth, or so she claims, and I accidentally grabbed her thinking she was you, Dormin!”
“Where’s she now?” Shem asked, alarmed.
“Likely at the edge of the forest, sobbing because I intimidated her for her own good. She and her family need to stay out of here. It’s not their time yet. Hifadhi’s said that a few times.”
Still Zenos looked down in the direction Mrs. Yung had come running from.
She grabbed his jaw and turned his face abruptly to look at her.
“Shem, focus here! First priority is to find and misdirect the last four. Then you can see about your friend. And Shem,” her glare turned so severe that only a man as strong as Shem could have withstood it, and even then his knees began to buckle, “since when do you call an older married woman by her first name?”
Zenos swallowed. “Didn’t want to reveal her identity in front of Dormin. The less he knows, the better.”
“Yes, of course,” Mrs. Yung said slowly, not at all convinced by his explanation as she released his face. But fortunately for the young corporal there were more important matters at hand and no time for a lecture. “I’ve secured Dormin, so you get out there and do your duty tonight, whatever that means. Understand?”