The Forest at the Edge of the World(150)
He slipped on the two pairs of trousers.
“The surgeon even signed it, verifying that I was of sound mind. What he was signing, he still doesn’t know, nor will he know unless . . .” He left the rest up to Neeks’s imagination as he put on the white coat. “This really did the trick last night. Kept out the chill quite nicely. Indeed, a lovely coat.”
Grandpy grunted that he was not amused and handed Perrin his long knives, then his quiver and bow. “Just bring that lovely coat back again tomorrow morning, still white.”
---
Deep in the forest the man in white and gray mottled clothing peered up at the boulder field faintly illuminated by the light of the moons. It was another cloudless night, which meant it would be exceptionally cold again. But that wasn’t a concern as long as he sat by the warm steam vent.
His mouth dropped open as he saw them come, pouring out from a thick stand of trees, as if the entire neighborhood was dropping by his eating room for a snack.
“What are . . . what’s going on?” he whispered to the first man to reach him. “Why so many?”
“Something different,” the man told him as he was joined by many others eager to warm their hands and feet by the vent.
“But, but,” stammered the man whose cozy surroundings had been invaded, “it’s cold! Nothing ever happens in the snow—”
“I told you—something different, and we have little time to find our positions.”
---
Mahrree was watching the back door as she stirred the cracked wheat for breakfast. She smiled when he marched up the back stairs and yanked on the door. She would have heard his yelp of surprise all the way up in her bedroom.
“All right, all right, you locked the door. Very good. Now let me in!”
Mahrree chuckled and went to the back door, unlatched the locks and slid away the three long iron rods that secured it.
He pulled it open. “Now, how did you know it was me? What if I was a Guarder?”
“I knew it was you, Perrin! I watched you jump over the fence.”
“But what if I wasn’t alone? What if a Guarder was holding a knife to my throat, making me say those things?”
Mahrree sighed. “You’d never submit to that. I’d sooner find a dead husband at my door.”
To her surprise, he smiled. “Yes, you would. Very good.”
“Another boring night?” she asked as he kissed her on the cheek.
“Yes.”
“How many more?”
He shrugged. “Not sure.”
“Breakfast, then bed?”
He nodded. “Where’s Jaytsy?”
“Actually asleep in the cradle in her room.”
They heard a high-pitched scream.
“But now she’s awake and wants you.” Mahrree sighed.
He smiled. “I can give her, and you, ten minutes.”
---
It was Karna’s turn that night to help prepare the captain. “No more finding warm spots in the forest, all right?”
“Grandpy told you about that?” Perrin adjusted his gloves.
“I have to admit, I’m curious as to what else you find out there. In the dark. Everything covered with snow—”
Perrin shook his head. “Not everything is covered with snow. The ground is warm, even hot, in many areas we were in before. Then there’s—”
“Stop! Stop! I don’t want to hear it.” Karna covered his ears like a toddler. “Grandpy said you’d start talking again, and we really shouldn’t know.”
“Your name is on that letter too, Brillen. You won’t be in any kind of trouble.”
“But I already feel I am! Perrin—” Karna dared say his first name because sometimes ‘second minds’ really needed to get through to the first ones, “—maybe, maybe it is nothing,” he said earnestly. “Maybe it’s an elaborate hoax. Was there anyone mean-spirited that you went to Command School with?”
“Brillen,” Perrin said as he put on the quiver, “only about half of my class. But this is no trick. I feel it, deep in my bones.”
“Sure that’s not just the cold you’re feeling? It’s another clear night.”
“It’s real, Lieutenant.”
Brillen took a deep breath. “And you’re sure you’re the only one who can break this rule, go over this wall, barge into this forest?”
“You know it as well as I do. I can see it in your eyes. Besides, your skin’s not pale enough.”
Brillen exhaled in unwilling agreement.
---
Mahrree was putting the iron bars back into her windows again, grunting as she did so. “Why did your Grandmother Peto insist on taking these down today, Jaytsy? So what if they look ‘uninviting’? That’s kind of the point! She knew I’d have to put them back up again.”