Read Online The Forest at the Edge of the World by Trish Mercer - Free Book Online Page B

consider tonight. Too many new ideas to consider further before we declare a winner.” He turned to the two of them. “And with that, I bid you a fair evening.” He pounded his walking stick on the ground which signaled the end of the debate.
    Shouts of “Declare a winner!” arose, but the rector held his hand up to his ear as if he’d gone deaf. The shouts dissolved into laughter and finally applause.
    Mahrree waved politely, then turned and rushed down the back steps of the platform to the bench that sat under her tree. Usually she enjoyed meeting the audience after a debate, but not tonight. She felt oddly shaken, as if something was approaching to disrupt all that she knew. She remembered her father’s words: “Sometimes the world really is out to get you.”
    Maybe the world was there in the form of Captain Shin.
    She had to think carefully about him. Her mind was split in two: one half influenced by girls that giggled about his features, the other half worried about his ideas of education and progress.
    “An interesting evening, wouldn’t you agree?” Rector Densal broke into her thoughts, and he placed a wrinkled hand on her shou lder.
    She stood up to greet him. “Oh, Rector, he seems to be a . . . a dangerous man, doesn’t he? And he’s our hope against the Guar ders? If the rumors are true about their return, we might as well surrender now!”
    Rector Densal’s white eyebrows rose. “Actually, I thought him a pleasant-looking fellow and quite good-natured. And I thought for a few moments you considered him pleasant as well. Was I mista ken?”
    Mahrree froze. She’d never been attracted to a man before, so she wasn’t sure if she did. “But his arguments . . .”
    “Consider this for a moment, my dear: did Captain Shin, at any time, state that the arguments he presented were his own ideas?”
    She ran the debate quickly over in her head, but irritatingly found herself remembering only how he’d smiled at her. “I, I . . . honestly don’t remember.”
    “Well I do. And no, he never said those were his ideas. He came for a debate, right? And he gave you an interesting time, correct?” he teased her.
    “Interesting or aggravating?” she snapped.
    He smiled in unexplained satisfaction. “I look forward to three nights’ time from now. Captain Shin asked to meet you again in d ebate, and I agreed. I hope that’s all right.”
    He patted her arm without waiting for an answer—probably suspecting it would be “No!”—and slowly ambled away, leaving Mahrree standing under the tree still trying to formulate a way out of it. 
    A faint movement from the platform above caused her to look up . . . into the eyes of the captain. Each time she looked at him the world seemed to change, and it was most irksome.
    He crouched to reduce the span that the ten steps created b etween them.
    “I want to thank you for a fascinating evening,” he said with a smile that made the ground seem to shift under her feet. “We must do this again. And I understand we will be, very soon.” He seemed different somehow. More agreeable.
    Mahrree slowly nodded, desperately searching her mind for some retort or comment besides the anemic, “Uh-huh,” that she could manage. She shouldn’t have been staring into his dark eyes.
    “My great-uncle said my time here would be interesting. He was right, but he usually is. Good evening, Miss Peto.”
    And with that Captain Shin righted himself, turned, and walked out of Mahrree’s view.
    She didn’t mean to whimper. It just leaked out.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 4 ~ “All science is about
    proving a bias.”
     
     
    “ I heard the debate was interesting tonight. I now wished I could’ve attended,” Hycymum Peto said as her daughter sat down at her kitchen table to a mug of warm milk.
    Mahrree fidgeted. She wasn’t sure if it was because of what her mother said, or because of the new sheepskin coverings for the chairs that were dyed pink to match