Read Online The Mansions of Idumea (Book 3 Forest at the Edge series) by Trish Mercer - Free Book Online

itself again, and bolted
down a side road.
    For a moment, Mahrree’s rational mind decided
this was indeed the most bizarre event she’d ever witnessed. She
kept looking around just to assure herself this wasn’t some strange
dream, but reality.
    But then the rational part of her mind
decided it was done for the day, and the desire to become frantic
nearly overwhelmed her. Only by looking into her husband’s steady
and solid gaze did she find a bit of bravery to borrow.
    A flash of orange caught her eye, and she
noticed the tall tower near their home. Always the towers, a dozen
throughout the village, were manned by two soldiers who kept
careful watch over the neighborhoods. But right now the young men
were keeping hold of the sides of the tower, trying not to fall
over the waist-high walls of the swaying structures.
    “Lie down!” Mahrree murmured uselessly in
their direction. Already they had sent up the orange banner, the
twenty-foot length of cloth waving erratically in the breeze and
the jerking of the tower. One of the soldiers was valiantly trying
to signal for help with the horn, but his repeating pattern of two
short bursts was interrupted by jolts and shivers from the ground.
It sounded more like he had a bad case of the hiccups.
    “Oh, for crying out loud!” Perrin said loudly
as he noticed his soldiers’ vain attempts. “Wait out the tremor, then let everyone know what we already know: we have an
emergency! First thing I’ll retrain—”
    He didn’t get to finish his sentence, because
a sudden lurch sent him almost flopping on top of his children. As
he braced himself, a house down the road shivered and partially
collapsed.
    This isn’t Edge , Mahrree thought to
herself. This isn’t . . .
    Words from a book poured into her mind.
     
    Before the Last Day will be a land tremor
more powerful than any ever experienced. It will awaken the largest
mountain and change all that we know in the world.
     
    The words of the Great Guide Hierum bounced
around in her head as violently as the ground. She twisted to try
to see Mt. Deceit, the largest mountain in the world, but her view
was obscured by a neighbor’s tree.
    No, she didn’t think this was the Last Day
just yet.
    But then again, if the land keeps
trembling—
    It abruptly stopped, the ground’s final
movement an upward lift that brought down another house nearby; its
crumbling sounded like a clay pot being thrown onto a stone floor.
After that, there was no noise, no movement, nothing.
    The Shin family held their collective breath
for several moments, Perrin and Mahrree staring at each other as
they hovered protectively over their children.
    Jaytsy started to wail. “I didn’t mean it! I
didn’t mean it! I didn’t want this to happen!”
    Perrin blinked and looked down at his
daughter who threw her arms around his waist. “What?”
    “I wanted people to wake up, but . . . but .
. . not like this! ”
    Peto sat up and stared at his sister, then
looked questioningly at his mother.
    Motherhood has a strange way of putting
everything suddenly into perspective. It took Mahrree only a
fraction of a second to make sense of the world again.
    There had been a land tremor, an enormous
one. There was great damage, which likely meant cleaning up for
weeks, if not moons. People were injured and perhaps even dead,
which meant they would have to find bandages and shovels. Breakfast
would be difficult to make today, as would be midday meal and
dinner.
    And her daughter, in the manner of all
teenagers who think the world actually listens to and takes its
cues from the sophistication of minds that are centered around
haircuts, dress lengths, and clipped intellect, believed the land
tremor was caused by her.
    “ You did not cause this, Jaytsy Shin!
My goodness,” Mahrree said. “And you think your friends are
self-centered.”
    Perrin gave his family a cautious smile, the
corner of his eye catching sight of the banner nearby which was now
slumped against its