The Mansions of Idumea (Book 3 Forest at the Edge series) Read online

  The Mansions of Idumea

  By Trish Mercer

  Smashwords Version

  Copyright © 2014 Patricia Strebel Mercer

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  All characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and utterly remarkable.

  Cover design and photography is by Alexandria Mercer’s mom and Dave Mercer’s wife. The photographer would like to thank Alex for digging the cloak out of the costume box and growing her hair out just long enough, and thank Dave for once again dressing up, even though he kept channelling Bones from Star Trek for his inspiration. (“Dammit Jim, I’m a soldier, not a doctor!”)

  The doors and stairs are from dreamstime.com, and bear a remarkable resemblance to the Parthenon in Paris, or so I’m told.

  Contact author via website: forestedgebooks.com

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is also available in print.

  Please remember to leave a review for my book at your favorite retailer.

  Because to the world,

  doing the right thing

  often looks like doing

  the dumb thing.

  MAPS: visit http://forestedgebooks.com/maps/

  A pronunciation guide to some of the more unusual names . . .

  Nicko Mal— NEE-koh MAL

  Querul—KWER-el

  Idumea— i-doo-ME-uh

  Hogal Densal— HOE-gal DENS-al

  Mahrree Peto— MARR-ee PAY-toh

  Cephas Peto— SEE-fus PAY-toh

  Hycymum Peto— HIE-si-mum PAY-toh

  Hierum— HIE-rum

  Tuma Hifadhi— TOO-muh hi-FOD-hee

  Sonoforen— sun-uv-OR-en

  Terryp— TARE-up

  Jaytsy— JAYT-see

  Brisack— BRIZ-ak

  Gizzada— gi-ZAH-duh

  Shem Zenos—Shem ZEE-noss

  Qualipoe Hili—KWAL-ee-poe HEE-lee

  Hegek—HEG-ik

  Kuman—KOO-min

  Kindiri—kin-DEER-ee

  Giyak—GUY-ak

  For background information on all character names and derivations, visit forestedgebooks.com/characters.

  CONTENTS:

  Prologue ~ “Oh, I remember Idumea.”

  Chapter 1 ~ “Change isn’t all bad, Perrin.”

  Chapter 2 ~ “Did something happen?”

  Chapter 3 ~ “My . . . my . . . my sofa!”

  Chapter 4 ~ “Your renovations will have to wait, Mrs. Shin.”

  Chapter 5 ~ “Sometimes it feels like the world’s out to get me.”

  Chapter 6 ~ “This is another reason why I hate Idumea.”

  Chapter 7 ~ “Finally found a way to get them to Idumea.”

  Chapter 8 ~ “Peto, have you ever had . . . a dream?”

  Chapter 9 ~ “Says the most competitive woman in the world.”

  Chapter 10 ~ “Just smile and nod. Smile and nod.”

  Chapter 11 ~ “You messed up again, didn’t you?”

  Chapter 12 ~ “In an emergency, you need to preserve the hierarchy to prevent anarchy.”

  Chapter 13 ~ “As if there are different kinds of people in the world.”

  Chapter 14 ~ “The enlisted men are teaching the brassy a thing or two.”

  Chapter 15 ~ “You get yourself ready. I will deal with my son.”

  Chapter 16 ~ “Those kind don’t belong here.”

  Chapter 17 ~ “What we need is someone who has a special talent.”

  Chapter 18 ~ “But the people of Edge are beginning to panic, sir.”

  Chapter 19 ~ “Mother, who’s driving the coach?”

  Chapter 20 ~ “I realize it’s not exactly a mansion in Idumea--”

  Chapter 21 ~ “What we did would be known by now, wouldn’t it?”

  Chapter 22 ~ “This really isn’t in my nature, and I’m very sorry about this, but--”

  Chapter 23 ~ “Once she even caught a falcon.”

  Chapter 24 ~ “Can you help him see reason?”

  Chapter 25 ~ “So the Quiet Man is still our man.”

  Chapter 26 ~ “Snakes, cats—I know you hate them all.”

  Chapter 27 ~ “Then again, Shem impresses everyone.”

  Sneak peek at Book 3, Falcon in the Barn

  Acknowledgements . . .

  About the author and contact me

  Prologue ~ “Oh, I remember Idumea.”

  “Never in the history of the world has someone taken so long to eat a piece of pie,” the thirteen-year-old boy complained as he watched the old woman seated in the middle of the pumpkin patch regarding her dessert with too much fascination.

  She was now dissecting a raspberry with her fork, trying to catch each tiny bump on the tines.

  “Oh, why did you just say that?” the boy’s cousin whined. “She’s not going to take that as a reprimand, but as a challenge!”

  The old woman pretended not to hear the conversation taking place in front of her, but examined a bit of berry closely. “Truly remarkable—it holds together, yet easily falls apart . . .”

  The cousins rolled their eyes at each other.

  A distance behind them, leaning against a fence and under the shade of a peach tree stood a tall, burly, graying man. His arms were folded, his face was concealed by the shadows, but his broad shoulders shook with quiet laughter.

  “Good crop this year,” the old woman continued analytically, a tiny berry bit held up impossibly close to her eye.

  She knew the man was behind her, watching. He always was.

  “Need to appreciate each berry,” she said. “I’m getting so old—just don’t know how many more years left I have to enjoy these.”

  The boy sighed in aggravation, and the girl let her head drop on the large pumpkin before her with a dull thunk.

  “She’s doing this on purpose, Vid,” the girl told her cousin, or rather, the pumpkin. “Because of what you said.”

  “I don’t think so, Hycy,” he told her. “I think she just can’t remember the rest of the story. So old, you see . . . Muggah? Can you still hear us?” he called loudly.

  Muggah looked past the bit of berry and focused on the obnoxious boy. “Oh, I hear you all right, Vid. I just love raspberries.”

  Vid growled under his breath while Muggah slipped the last bite of pie into her mouth.

  “She doesn’t remember,” Vid announced, hoping to nudge the woman to prove him otherwise. “She doesn’t remember about the forest incidents, or the world changing, or even Idumea—”

  His cousin’s head popped up, and she tried to send a warning with her eyes.

  But it was too late.

  Muggah was already glaring at him. “Oh, I remember Idumea, Viddrow. I remember far too much.”

  For once the teenage boy squirmed. Had he noticed the older man watching them, he would have seen that he, too, had stopped chuckling.

&
nbsp; “So tell us?” Hycy squeaked, hoping to take some of the glare away from her cousin.

  Muggah’s expression softened as she looked at the girl, then she sent a mollifying wink to the boy. “Thirteen-year-olds always find the parts about Idumea most interesting, probably because Peto was the same age. But a lot happened before—”

  “No, no, no,” Hycy begged. “Just . . . shorten some of that. There’s not enough pie in the world to cover all of that time.”

  Muggah smiled slyly. “But we don’t get any pie from the world.”

  The teenagers sighed. “You know what I mean,” Hycy said.

  “All right, then,” Muggah said. “I’ll get to the good parts as fast as I can.”

  Behind her, the man settled in more comfortably against the fence. After all, it was his story, too.

  Chapter 1 ~ “Change isn’t all bad, Perrin.”

  Two men sat in the dark office of an unlit building.

  “Are you sure you’re up to it, Nicko?”

  Chairman Nicko Mal sat up taller. “Why shouldn’t I be, Doctor?”

  Dr. Brisack shrugged. “Oh, let’s see . . . heart palpitations, chest pains, numbness—I can’t help but wonder if the previous experiments didn’t lead to your heart problems. Since we haven’t been taking an active role in directing the Guarders these past years, you’ve become much healthier. You know, you’re not a young man anymore. You’re not even a middle-aged man—”

  He ignored the sneer of Nicko Mal; Dr. Brisack was used to patients not being happy with the truth.

  “Your heart’s nearing eighty, Nicko,” the Administrator of Family Life reminded him. “So too is the rest of you. Your mind’s certainly capable of restarting our research about the animalistic nature of man, but if you’re heart’s not in it, then—”

  “I’m perfectly fine,” Mal sighed. “In fact, I haven’t felt this invigorated in years. The Guarders have been flailing aimlessly for years now, and I think it’s time to send a bit of direction their way, along with a bit of gold.”

  Brisack nodded. “Yes, we’ve certainly amassed enough to fund some truly creative studies. My only concern,” he said slowly, “is that they may not come back completely under our guidance.”

  Mal held up his finger. “For enough gold, anyone will subject themselves to another man’s guidance.”

  “I can’t think of a single instance where that hasn’t been true,” Brisack agreed. “I must admit, I’m rather looking forward to this. And you’re planning a way to bring Perrin Shin to Idumea?”

  “We need to establish some baseline. I haven’t even talked to the man in over fifteen years. How can I know where best to stab my test subjects if I don’t know what already hurts?” Mal folded his hands on his lap. “And a couple of moons ago I took the liberty of instigating some rumors around Idumea, that Guarders are living among us in disguise. Once people start growing paranoid, their imaginations fill in the rest. I do so enjoy priming the pump,” Mal smiled thinly. “Perhaps Relf will become antsy himself, and call for Perrin to come investigate to see if there is any truth to the rumors.”

  After a moment’s hesitation Brisack asked, “And what about Perrin’s wife?”

  Mal heard Brisack’s voice tremor when he mentioned Mahrree Shin. After all these years, the good doctor still had a faraway look in his eyes when he thought about the only woman in the world to question his studies and demand to know why children no longer learned how to debate.

  Debate wasn’t needed; the sky was always blue, and the world had been quite accommodating to that and every other fact the Administrators had inflicted on it over the past eighteen years. Mal and Brisack even shut down their experiments for several years when it became apparent that the world was a timid mutt. Dogs were loyal, obedient, and willingly stupid.

  Except for a few rogue dogs here and there. Well, actually one was a bi—

  But even the Shins had been quiet for a surprisingly long time, and so the world had grown dull.

  Yes, Nicko Mal was healthier for it, the stresses of directing the world and its enemy no longer taxing his heart—

  But he had also grown bored.

  Brisack would argue that boredom was an infantile response, but Nicko’s elevated mind needed his entertainment to be academic and cerebral. He wasn’t interested in asinine contests or predictable plays. He craved real drama, with genuine challenges and the possibility of suffering and death. That’s where you find honest edification.

  And that’s why he called his old friend and research companion to join him again in his darkened library that, many years ago under the four King Queruls and King Oren, housed a throne. The vast room was accustomed to displays of power, and Mal could feel it yearning for the old days again. And the best way to demonstrate power was to attack those who thought they had some. Even if—

  No; especially if they live in an unimportant village called Edge of the World.

  Mal stared at Brisack for a moment longer than it took for the doctor to become embarrassed about mentioning Mrs. Shin before he answered his question. “I suppose she’ll want to come along, considering what I’m about to put him through. If she truly has feelings for him, she won’t let him suffer alone, now, would she?”

  Brisack squirmed a bit at that. “What does he look like, anyway?”

  “Rather hard to forget Perrin Shin, I assure you. It’s been many years, but—well, picture the High General, but taller, broader, stronger, and deeper in voice. Like the offspring of thunder and a bear,” Mal said with a mixture of disdain and reluctant admiration for his preferred test subject.

  No matter what Mal sent after him—three Guarder raids, two lieutenants intent on killing his parents, and specially trained “soldiers” to keep an eye and a blade on him—the man sidestepped and survived it all.

  But his luck couldn’t hold. Mal would make sure of that. There was still one soldier trained by and loyal to the Guarders under Shin’s command: the Quiet Man.

  Communications had broken down years ago, but Mal was sure his soldier, serving for nearly fourteen years now, was still there, loyal, obedient, and conveniently placed to earn Shin’s trust. And soon, the Quiet Man would be required to make a little noise.

  “Now,” Mal worked his shoulders deeper into his cushioned chair, “let’s begin devising a variety of scenarios by which our dear Lieutenant Colonel—and even his wife—may be forced down here to Idumea for a little visit.”

  ---

  Lieutenant Colonel Perrin Shin looked at the report in front of him dated the 29th Day of Planting, 335, and groaned.

  “Well?” Major Karna asked with a knowing smile.

  “Chief Curglaff is an idiot. Still.” Shin cleared his throat and read in the nasally tone of the chief of enforcement. “‘The continued thieving problems in Edge are not a result of teenage mischief but may indicate a Guarder presence, therefore all thefts and concerns should continue to be under the jurisdiction of the fort.’”

  In disgust he tossed the document on his large oak desk where it ruffled a few careful stacks of forms and reports. Sometime later Perrin would rearrange the disorganization he just caused, but not until he was more in control of his anger.

  “We established the Guarder-theft connection years ago,” Perrin grumbled. “It’s just another excuse as to why his men aren’t going to do anything this season but pretend to direct traffic and drag home some drunks. Didn’t he promise he was going to retire this year?”

  Karna, second in command of the fort, was smaller in stature than the lieutenant colonel. He was a bundle of muscle and fiercely accurate with a bow and arrow, but more frequently with the quill and a supply form. Against his light dirt-brown skin, his grin shone brightly, if not a bit mischievously. “Retires at the end of Weeding Season. Can you deal with him for that much longer?”

  Perrin scoffed. “I’ve been dealing with that hard-nosed goat for fifteen years now! Where’s my medal for that?” He patted his dark blue uniform filled with patches de
claring him to be the commander of the fort, the most frequently decorated Officer of the Year, and the most irritated lieutenant commander in the Army of Idumea.

  Karna chuckled, and there was a knock at the command office door.

  “Come in!” Perrin called.

  The door opened and a tall, brawny master sergeant with light brown hair, gravel-pale skin, and sky-blue eyes leaned in. Instead of stepping into the private office, he cringed. “Oh, sir, I can see this is a bad time.”

  “I still want to see you, Zenos,” Perrin waved him in.

  Zenos closed the door behind him. “That look on your face says, ‘Curglaff’s an idiot and when’s he retiring?’”

  “Very good, Zenos,” Karna said, “but even I could have read that expression.”

  The master sergeant sat casually on a chair next to the major without waiting for an invitation. Had there been lower ranked enlisted men around, he may have stood at attention. But fourteen years of service at the same fort allows one a certain license.

  “So Curglaff’s still not wanting to direct the patrols in the village?” Zenos said.

  “Of course not!” the commander spat. “All the thieving this season is Guarder related, after all.”

  “Where’s his evidence?” Karna asked.

  “Since when has he ever needed evidence?”

  Zenos sighed. “I’ve been through this with him before. The fourth time we arrested Poe Hili for thieving, he admitted he had buyers for the goods, but he’d never met any of them. And no one was more prolific than Poe.”

  “Shem,” Karna turned to Zenos, also employing such a level of relaxed familiarity that it would have sent the Command Board in Idumea into fits of sputtering, “where’s Poe now?”

  “Not around here, that’s all I know,” Shem sighed.

  “Been what, two years since he was released from his last incarceration?” Perrin said. “The couple of times I’ve had the unpleasant accident of running into his parents, they didn’t mention him. I don’t think they even know what happened to their sweet-yet-misunderstood lamb.”