The Forest at the Edge of the World by Trish Mercer Page A

the forests one hundred nineteen years ago, in 200.”
    “Before or after the Great War?” asked Sareen.
    “After. Right after. Remember, King Querul the First and Guide Pax were trying to find a way to bring an end to the fighting. For five years our world was in complete upheaval. All seventeen villages and the city of Idumea were entangled in the war. No one is sure of the population, but we were well over one million people, and the land was struggling to sustain that many people. Couple that with farms lying fallow because of the fighting, and herds being slaughtered for meat, meant people were dying. According to some estimates, we may have lost up to 200,000 people to fighting and famine during those five years.”
    The girls dutifully took notes on their slate boards as Mahrree spoke.
    “Famine that King Querul vowed would never happen under his ‘supreme guidance’,” Teeria grumbled in disgust.
    “Exactly. When he took power at the beginning of the war, he said he would unite the world and bring peace. But he tried to force that peace.”
    “That was the problem with all the kings, right?” Teeria asked.
    These were the times Mahrree loved teaching. “Right again. The kings imposed changes upon us, without our consent. A leader may believe he’s successful in forcing his will, but he rarely sees how his subjects are quietly plotting against him until it’s too late.”
    “Like the Administrators,” Teeria said. “Plotting to depose King Oren, and surprising him two years ago. And the Administrators have promised to be here for the people to listen to what they want.”
    Mahrree recognized that phrase: “Be here for the people.”
    That’s what Chairman Mal had posted on the notice boards two years ago, had shouted by his representatives in red jackets as they came to the amphitheater, and had emphasized repeatedly as he took over the government of the world. She’d always believed he was sincere. But since last night, that little bit of guilty cynicism had been tainting every thought of the Administrators. Where her doubt came from, or why it persisted, Mahrree didn’t know.
    “Yes,” Mahrree said, hoping the girls didn’t hear her hesitation.
    Hitty wrinkled her nose. “But I thought it was the king that made the Guarders angry in the first place. Since the kings are gone, why are the Guarders coming back again?”
    “No one’s sure,” Mahrree shrugged. “Maybe they don’t know the kings are gone, or they don’t care. Maybe their anger is with everyone in the world. Remember, in 200 Guide Pax came up with a plan. He and King Querul had realized those prolonging the war were only a small minority of the world. Pax suggested that they try to find a new land for those people to live. Divide the world to have peace.”
    “But we can’t do that,” another girl pointed out. “There’s n owhere else people can live that’s not poisoned.”
    Mahrree scratched her head. “Yes, that’s what we’ve been told for over three hundred years. This plain where our seventeen villages and Idumea exist are the only habitable stretches of land anywhere.”
    Teeria squinted. “As usual, Miss Mahrree, you don’t sound completely sure of that.”
    Mahrree shrugged again. “You know me and Terryp.” 
    She loved nothing more than tales of Terryp. He was a historian who served the first king and went on an expedition with Querul’s soldiers looking for new lands near the end of the Great War. In the west he discovered vast regions of farmable land and enormous ruins of a massive civilization. But he came back from the expedition so crazed that the king vowed never to allow anyone else to suffer as much as Terryp did in the “poisoned” lands. Then all of Terryp’s findings and writings were accidentally destroyed in a fire over one hundred years ago. Mahrree was always suspicious of just how honest King Querul was about the lands Terryp discovered.
    Mahrree’s students knew their teacher