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

didn’t have much faith in anything the kings had claimed, but they didn’t know all the reasons why. She’d been told by her father years ago that King Querul the First took in several servants during the Great War, and held them in his secured compound. By the time Querul the Fourth took over the mansion, the servants, who still believed the war continued and that the only place of refuge was in the king’s service, had multiplied to nearly three dozen. After eighty years those servants were finally released, and they were shocked to discover the world was something completely different.
    Cephas Peto had a friend who helped those people, secretly r elocated to the eastern village of Winds, learn to read and write and adapt to life in the real world. And Cephas had told the story to his daughter, years later, in confidence.
    In rare, bleak moments Mahrree wondered if the world wasn’t itself imprisoned in a compound and fed lies to keep them there. But such thoughts were so dispiriting it did no good to ponder them.
    Besides, the Administrators were different, she loyally tried to remind herself. Maybe they might send another expedition to the west . . .
    “Back to Guarders,” Mahrree reluctantly continued her lecture. “Guide Pax travelled north from Idumea until he reached Moorland. About ten miles west of here he bravely entered the treacherous fo rest. He was hoping to find a way through it and up into the mountains. Maybe he could find a valley or another plain where the people who loved violence could live. He left with a dozen of the king’s soldiers—his elite guards—and was never heard from again,” she recounted sadly.
    “The Creator’s last guide, the last man worthy to add to The Writings and receive guidance from the Creator for us, was gone. Several of the guards with him were found later with blood on their hands and uniforms. That’s when the awful reality was known—Querul’s guards had betrayed the man they were to be guarding. I nstead of helping Pax find a peaceful solution, they butchered him. We’ve called the tallest mountain where that occurred ‘Mt. Deceit’ ever since. The guards were captured by Querul and executed for their treachery, but that didn’t convince their associates to stop their rebellion. Over 2,000 people during the next few weeks made mad dashes to the forests north of us, to escape Querul’s fury. It would have been one thing to let the men—Guarders, as someone decided to call them—leave and finally end the battles, but no. Husbands and fathers forced their wives and children into the forests as well. The families had to abandon their homes, farms and shops, and flee to the wild north. Some of those men were even assistants to the guide. That’s likely how he was betrayed—by his deceitful friends. They entered the forests between and near the villages of Sands, Scrub, Moorland, and even Edge.”
    “And all of them were part of the secret groups,” Teeria said as she wrote on her slate.
    “That’s right. And the name ‘Guarders’ took on a somewhat ironic meaning. Now the only thing they guard is whatever they steal from us. King Querul—indeed, no one —understood that there was a secret society living among us. This society had their own oaths, connections, and even methods of communication. Every village was affected with these spies and traitors to the king and the world. It was these people Guide Pax was hoping to find a new home for, who prolonged the war and were to be divided away from the rest of the world. But it seems they initially didn’t want to go. They enjoyed aggravating the magistrates of the villages, tiring the law enforcers with their mischief, and taunting the Army of Idumea to continue the war.
    “But when Guide Pax was lost, King Querul was enraged,” she told them as she slowly paced the class room. “He demanded all the traitors in each village be discovered and brought to Idumea for trial. That’s when houses