by Trish Mercer
A brief recap of Book One:
The Forest at the Edge of the World
Captain Shin found much more than he expected at his first command in the small northern village of Edge of the World. Not only did he find Guarders—the mysterious enemy of the world—plotting in the treacherous forests above Edge, but he also found a school teacher plotting so ruthlessly to distract him from his duty that all he could do about it was to marry her.
But Mahrree Peto Shin would tell that story differently.
What she wouldn’t argue with her husband is that Chairman Nicko Mal and the twenty-two Administrators ruling the world from Idumea weren’t as altruistic as they seemed, tightening their hold on the world that was so ready to see the reign of stupid kings come to an end that the citizens eagerly embraced the edicts of their new rulers, when they should have been questioning them instead.
But the Shins have worries closer to home. Soon after their marriage, Captain Perrin Shin faced his first Guarder attack. Breaking the first rule in the High General’s book, he barged into the forbidden forest to find answers about this strange group of people who dress in black, steal goods, and kill citizens with no reason or explanation. Perrin didn’t find answers, but more aggravation.
He also unwittingly aggravated Chairman Mal who secretly controls the Guarders to research the animalistic behavior of humans, but more to punish those who speak out against his government. That this arrangement also allows Mal to torment a former arrogant student turned captain in Edge isn’t entirely coincidental.
A warning sent anonymously by Dr. Brisack, Mal’s research partner, told Perrin of a second Guarder raid intended to kill Perrin’s expecting wife Mahrree and their nine-moons-old daughter. To keep that a secret from his wife, Perrin again flouted the laws of the Army of Idumea and spent several cold nights in the snowy forest to wipe out the dozen Guarders sent to destroy his happiness.
But he didn’t know that there were actually fourteen Guarders sent, the last two also failing to take him out, but leaving him with a scarred back and an excuse to fabricate for his wife and his father.
And Perrin also doesn’t know that there were even more men in the forest, and that they also have their eye on the Shin family.
