The Forest at the Edge of the World(128)

“Yes. Ridiculous,” he answered in a monotone. “But what if?”

“Then . . . then . . . it’s all over!” she whimpered. “We have no hope! They know everything about us, they can destroy us in an instant—”

“But they haven’t,” he reminded her. “If they really have infiltrated the army—the world—then why haven’t they taken us over? Why haven’t they destroyed us?”

Mahrree sighed in frustration. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

“It never has, remember? No, the more I think about it, the more I’m sure—Wiles wasn’t one of them. None of them are among us. It was just a stray thought that I gave too much attention. Wiles was just a regular old man who met an unfortunate end. That’s all. Sorry to bother you with the idea. Good night, my darling wife.”

Mahrree lay awake for hours listening to her husband softly snoring. Finally she decided that if he wasn’t worried, she shouldn’t be either.

It was one of the worst nights she ever endured, and she wasn’t even nauseated.





Chapter 20 ~ “Doorknob, I don’t want to see everything differently.”





“I can’t stand it anymore,” Mahrree announced to Perrin over breakfast.

He sighed and said, as he did each morning for the past four weeks. “Yes, my darling wife, you can. And you must.”

“But why?” she whined.

He put down his fork. “To be sure, remember? Just in case it’s not what we think?”

She nibbled on her bread, the only thing she could tolerate in the mornings. “But what else could it be?”

“I really don’t know.” He smiled. “For now it’s just our little secret. Rather fun to keep between just the two of us, isn’t it? Besides, you’d be heartbroken if you told everyone and suddenly it wasn’t going to happen, right?”

“You’re right, you’re right.”

“Love it when you have to admit that.” He chuckled as he took a big bite of potatoes.

Mahrree looked away from his plate filled with bacon, potatoes, and scrambled eggs. It was a good thing he was adept at cooking himself a big breakfast each morning.

Strangely, she found herself repulsed by the texture of food. And the smell of food. And the taste of food—

“Four more weeks, Mahrree. That’s all. That’s what we decided, remember?”

“I remember, I remember.”

It was the most sensible thing, but she simply didn’t feel sensible. She alternated between feeling joyful and jubilant, and woozy and weepy. But, in an effort to feign sensibility, she behaved as if she felt fine even though she was sick each morning and dizzy each afternoon.

But sometimes what she felt was overwhelming. Whenever she saw anything remotely sentimental she began to tear up. Just last week Mahrree and Perrin went out for an evening stroll to enjoy the Harvest Season air when she noticed a little boy on the side of the road playing with a tiny kitten. Just as Perrin started to pull her away, she broke out of his grip and rushed over to croon at the scene. She knew her behavior was completely irrational, but the little boy and kitten were just so cute!

“Cute?” Perrin mumbled as he led her away. “Since when do you use the word ‘cute’?”

“Should I have said ‘adorable’?”

“Neither of those words was on my mother’s list.”

After that, Perrin began to develop avoidance strategies, or so Mahrree assumed that might be the official term for his behavior. On Holy Day yesterday, a new mother offered to let Mahrree hold her baby girl at the meeting. The infant was in her arms for only a minute when Mahrree began to sniff and grow weepy.

“Ah, must be those allergies, again, huh Mahrree? We better get you home,” Perrin said with a tone of hinting. “Before your eyes puff up again. Oh dear, looks like they already are. Let’s get going before you bloat and frighten that baby. Now.”

Mahrree noticed several of the older women smiling in her direction as they quickly left. They weren’t fooling them, and the fact that they suspected what Mahrree and Perrin suspected filled her with even more hope that all their suspicions were correct.



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Lieutenant Heth heard the quiet knock on the door, but suspected it was for a room further down the dormitory. At such a late hour, there was only one kind of visitor that would dare lurk in the halls. And she was obviously lost.

It wasn’t until the third time he heard the soft knock that he began to suspect it was for his room. His roommates were snoring, so obviously none of them were expecting someone. Reluctantly he got out of his bed, lit a candle, and snuck over to the door. When he opened it, he sneered.