Soldier at the Door(50)

Perrin stopped trying to button Jaytsy’s sleeping gown, since she had gone uncooperatively limp over them, and asked, “What do you mean, ‘released from this duty’?”

Zenos hesitated. “Why, released from watching over your children. When they’re grown, I guess then I’ll have to get some of my own, sir.” He grinned broadly, and somewhere a garden of flowers unexpectedly bloomed in the night.

Perrin shook his head slowly. “Shem Zenos, you are an unusual young man. I need to keep an eye on you.”

“Sir, I certainly hope you will.”

It wasn’t until Zenos was replacing his cap and heading out the door, after involving Jaytsy in an introductory game of Tie up Your Uncle, that Perrin remembered. “Private, why did you come here tonight anyway?”

Zenos stepped back into the house and noiselessly closed the door behind him. He glanced towards Jaytsy’s room where Mahrree had just taken the children after Peto’s bath. When he was assured all was secure he spoke. “You wanted to know when my Guarder contact finally returned. He’s back, hiding in the forest. I spoke with him then came straight over here.”

“Zenos!” the captain snapped. “Why’d you wait so long to tell me?”

“I’m sorry, sir,” Zenos winced. “He left quickly back up into the woods. I couldn’t imagine that we’d see in what direction, especially after dark. I thought at first not even telling you until morning. I realize now I should have acted more hastily in speaking up. I actually forgot, sir, with the children and all.” He bit his lower lip. “I am sorry.”

Perrin sighed. “It’s all right. I need to develop protocols for such scenarios. The Guarder, I mean, not the children.” He gave him a forgiving smile. “The army has never encountered a situation like this before. So, are our suspicions correct?”

Zenos nodded. “Yes, he claims he’s a spy, but he wants out. He says he’s been in new training for the past few weeks. They’re trying to teach them to lie without blinking, but he doesn’t understand why. Nor would he tell me where this training is occurring. I think we need to treat him carefully. He started getting edgy when I was asking him questions, and he says they’re watching him.”

“A half-hearted defecting spy,” the captain shook his head. “We’ll see what we can do with him. Keep feeding him and getting him to talk. Did he tell you anything we should be watching for?”

Zenos’s expression turned pained, as if he’d been told to kiss a pimply cousin. He’d been dreading this moment, and, when Perrin heard the report, understood why the young soldier was initially hesitant.

“He said the woods were quiet tonight, but he has ‘existed’ in them for only moments. The forest is not ‘speaking’ to him right now, but it has been ‘singing’, so he promised to listen to it.”

Captain Shin didn’t respond to the odd message—he’d heard weirder from soldiers sogged by a bad batch of illegally brewed barrack mead—but instead stared at the ground, deep in thought. “I’m sure there’s a pattern in the chaos of his scared mind. We may find all we need in there if we can just organize it into something we can understand . . .”

He pulled out of his contemplation and looked decisively at Zenos who still wore an apologetic wince.

“Tomorrow morning have Karna block out some time from my schedule. The three of us are going to plot how to work this Guarder. We’ll also draft some guidelines on how to treat spies and send it to the High General and his advisors. We’re going to need their approval. Thank you, Zenos,” he said, returning the private’s salute.

Then he gripped the soldier’s shoulder and smiled. “And I expect you on these steps again, out of uniform, in two days’ time, Shem.”



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That night Perrin lay in bed, worrying.

Why was it that when Zenos was around, Perrin felt completely at ease with him, but when he left, Perrin found his thoughts full of cold, dark doubts?

Can he really be trusted?

Those words would come to his mind in solitary moments, which struck Perrin as odd. He believed he was a good judge of character. Whenever he met someone that didn’t feel right, a tightness in his chest warned, Keep an eye out for this one. And he was never wrong.

But he never felt that way about Shem Zenos when he was around.

And so now you’re leaving your children with him? Your most prized possessions? Your own lambs?

It was only at times like this, usually in the dark, when a coldness whispered in his mind,The boy doesn’t deserve your trust.