AN ELONGATED ABBREVIATION (Pt 3)

by Jay Squires

AN ELONGATED ABBREVIATION
(Not unlike cliffs notes for):
BOOK III
OF
THE TRINING
CHAPTERS 1-19

Faithful readers of The Trining: As you are no doubt tired of hearing, approximately the last one-third of Book III did not survive a computer crash. I'm in the process of re-creating them. Two chapters are done, but before I post them I thought it might be wise to provide the new readers a cliffs notes type abbreviation of the first 19 chapters of Book III. It will have the added benefit of being a kind of refresher for those who have been reading it all along. This is the first of three parts, to be posted (I hope) in consecutive days. I am promoting for enough FanStory cash to make it worth the readers' time.

Please understand it is not intended to have any of the dramatic build-up or character development of the original. I'm afraid, without much dialogue, it might be soporific. I hope not.

Finally, I trust the green highlights won't be too distracting. They will identify the characters, places and terms that are defined in the Author's notes.

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(Part 3)

About the time things can’t get worse ...
The captor goes on to explain in graphic detail how they were successfully ambushed. A thin, very sharp blade had been extended across the roadway at the height of about mid leg of the crossans. Most of their crossans’ legs were severed and the riders sent soaring over the tops of their suddenly shortened beasts. The poor animals were mercifully destroyed.

Horrified, Doctrex asks about the others in the front ranks; his captor describes one whose head was crushed like a melon. Doctrex asks about the well-being of the other three. His captor intends rather to taunt him.

He boasts they got information so easily from the first one that the interrogators were actually disappointed. The soldier told them how all the separate units were to rendezvous at the Plain of Djur.

At any moment, he shall get the further information about why Doctrex’s puny army was heading south instead of to the Plain. As he is saying this, a soldier comes in and hands him a paper. With great enthusiasm he tells Doctrex that not only do they know the reason he was heading south, but he can personally offer Doctrex his condolences—that Special Colonel Eele Jessip and his men didn't make it out of the ravine.

Devastated, but feeling like he has little now to lose, Doctrex begins to whittle away at his captor’s confidence. He speculates aloud that capturing the Kabeezan General should certainly increase his rank. Doctrex guesses he is probably now a lieutenant or stand captain.

This riles the other, and Doctrex builds on that. Slowly, the other becomes rattled, and over time, unravels. While he earlier refused to give Doctrex his name, now he blurts out that he wants Doctrex to know his name. He wants Supreme Colonel Arklyn Zarbs to be the last thing Doctrex hears as he begs to be put out of his misery.

But Doctrex uses his trump card: He asks if it wouldn’t be wise for a Supreme Colonel, soon to be Supreme Commander, to advise The Almighty Glnot Rhuether that he is putting him to death? Zarbs chides him for thinking he was so ignorant he wouldn’t already have sent a courier to The Almighty Glnot Rhuether.

But why is it taking so long, Doctrex wonders aloud?

Zarbs thinks it might be because The Almighty Glnot Rhuether is planning his wedding.

Doctrex continues to undermine Zarbs' confidence. A frustrated Zarbs hollers to a soldier to prepare Doctrex’s sleeping chamber. The soldier half pulls, half drags him outside into another room. He slams Doctrex into the wall, telling him to stay there until his chamber is ready. Doctrex slides down the wall, slips into unconsciousness.

He awakens with a scorching pain at the back of his head where he had hit the wall. He tries to reach for it, but can’t raise his arms from his side. He realizes his difficulty breathing. His back and chest are flush against a hard surface. He feels his hot breath against his face. He’s able to crane his neck enough to see the ceiling, with the ropes looped over a crossbeam. He is off the ground, in a chamber.

On the verge of panic, his breathing more labored, he thinks of Axtilla, He wants his last thought to be of her. The image he conjures up of her slips away and he slips with it.

The angry cacophony of screeching voices wakes him. One of them is Zarbs’. He is berating another that he will pay for it. The chamber is lowered, opened, and he is removed. Laid on a gurney, he is carried out of that room. Many turns later, he is in another room. There is a sumptuous bed there. He is placed on it. Zarbs urges him to sleep as long as he likes. When he wakes, there will be a bath for him and food. Zarbs leaves. Doctrex wonders why the complete turn-about. He will find out how much leverage this gives him.

A woman enters to give him a bath. He sees she is schooled to be seductive. He tells her he wants only one thing: to speak to Zarbs—and right away. Two minutes later Zarbs is at his bedside, asking why he didn’t accept her offer of a bath.

Doctrex is direct. He wants to know what has changed with him. What did the courier’s message say? Clearly rattled, Zarbs puts his hand on Doctrex’s shoulder, pulls it back; he drops to his knees by the bed, buries his face in the blanket beside Doctrex and sobs.

After Doctrex asks Zarbs again what message his courier brought back, he admits the Almighty Glnot Rhuether told him to personally escort Doctrex to him. Then he makes a feeble attempt to convince Doctrex he was bluffing about torturing him. Doctrex, realizing leverage is on his side, orders his men to be brought in to him. Zarbs leaves.

Karule Barsach enters, limping heavily; no other apparent injury. Doctrex questions him about what happened. Karule identifies another who is too injured to come in as the one whose crossan was between his and Doctrex's. That was Jed. Doctrex knows it had to be Engle, then, they had euthanized after his head injury. Karule says it was the torch bearer who told them everything they wanted before he died. He says they made him and Jed watch it all so they would crack when it was their turn. Doctrex continues to pursue his investigation and catches Karule Barsach in a lie. Trapped, Karule passes his hand in front of his lips. In a few moments his eyes roll up and he collapses.

Doctrex calls for Zarbs. When Zarbs arrives Doctrex orders him to have his men bring a cot and blankets and the other soldier. He also orders him to have Karule and the man they tortured to death wrapped in blankets to be returned to his men.

They bring in the cot and two others bring Jed, slumped between their arms. His back is severely lashed and oozing, his nose is broken, his cheekbone swollen to twice its size and purple. Doctrex almost vomits when he sees Jed is missing an eye. When he asks Zarbs why Jed hadn’t been cared for, Zarbs tells him the medic said there was nothing that could be done.

Doctrex insists on a medic. Zarbs, full of excuses, has a medic brought in. The medic examines Jed, says he belongs under constant supervision. Doctrex orders the medic to stay there along with Jed. Another bed is brought in, one for Jed and the other for Doctrex. The medic volunteers to sleep on the cot.

With Zarbs out of the room, Garvin (the medic) confesses under Doctrex’s questioning that he never said he gave up on Jed. He hadn’t seen him.

They place Jed on the bed next to Doctrex’s, and Doctrex immediately begins ministering to him. Jed is braced on his side with weighted bags at his head and hips, so he can't roll back on his bandages.

His fever is raging. They apply wet cloths to his chest and stomach, but it dries almost at contact. Garvin explains they can’t give him water unless he is conscious. He gets Jed to respond by opening his eye. Jed stares at Doctrex and mouths his name.

For several hours they are able to dribble small amounts of water into Jed’s mouth. Garvin leaves the room and Doctrex continues on. He notices Jed’s breathing is irregular and his face, when Doctrex brings the canteen close to it, is radiating heat. Jed begins to moan and Doctrex tells him not to try to hold it in; he would go try to find Garvin.

He rounds the bed just as Garvin enters, saying he brought some broth for Jed’s strength. When Doctrex tells him of Jed’s pain, Garvin explains it’s the wounds drying and stretching under the bandages. He would apply more unguent and re-bandage.

While Doctrex dribbles water in Jed’s mouth, Garvin is busily preparing to remove the bandage. The first one he pulls from the wound, Jed lets out a huff of air, and Garvin’s face registers despair as the room is filled with a horrific stench. Doctrex puts his hand over his face and struggles to keep from throwing up. Garvin hollers for another medic, calling for unguent. Shortly thereafter a medic comes in bearing a tray, piled with unguent and a brush to apply it. The medic gags and Garvin angrily sends him out of the room while he proceeds to apply the unguent himself.

Doctrex continues giving him small sips of water. Garvin finishes bandaging him, readjusts the weights at his hips and head and tells Doctrex that Jed’s temperature seems to have stabilized, and after he rests a while they would start the broth so he can build up his strength.

Doctrex notes that Jed seems to be asleep. Garvin nods, but Doctrex recognizes from his expression something is troubling him.

“Sir,” Garvin says, under his breath, “if we may talk ...” He gives a slight movement of his head toward the wall to his left that is roughly equidistant from Jed and the door, “over there?”

Doctrex agrees, not wanting to hear what Garvin has to tell him.

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CHARACTERS AND TERMINOLOGY FROM THE GREEN HIGHLIGHTED TEXT

GENERAL DOCTREX: Protagonist, Leader of Kabeezan Army.
MEDIC BRAIMS GLASSEM: Doctrex's Chief Medic. Headstrong.
SPECIAL COLONEL EELE JESSIP: He and his men are reason for Doctrex's mission to rescue them.
CAMP JERRI FIBE: The Last Kabeezan outpost. Center for training & weapons.
CROSSAN: Equivalent of a horse
RAIN SPIRIT II: Doctrex's crossan
PLAIN OF DJUR: Where All Kabeezan Armies were to reconnoiter before final attack on Glnot Rhuether.
GLNOT RHUETHER: Master Magician who intends to conquer Kabeez
PALACE OF QARNOLT: Where Glnot Rhuether lives with his aleged bride-to-be Axtilla, Doctrex's love.
PROFUE BROTHERS: Knew Doctrex before he was General. His closest "brothers" in army.
GILN PROFUE: The oldest Profue Brother (Lieutenant)
SHELECK PROFUE: The youngest Profue Brother (adjutant Lieutenant)
ZURN PROFUE: Adopted brother to Profues. Mentally challenged.
POMNOT: A huge beast (Rhuether's expendable Killing machine)
POMNOT (2ND MEANING): To Kabeezans the equivalent of the bogeyman, threats of whom parents used to use to discipline children
AXTILLA: Doctrex's love, who is Rhuether's prisoner, and alegedly his bride-to-be.
GOTZEL: One of the soldiers who, along with medic Braims, heard voices (Rhuether possessed.)
ENGLE: Doctrex's courier after his first courier became an AIM: Advanced Intelligence Men, who were trained to do surveillance and espionage work for the Kabeezan army.
LESN: One of the officers of the Kabeezan Army who, when possessed by Rhuether, performed impossible feats of strength. Committed suicide when lover, Morz, died.
MORZ: former officer, Lesn's lover, died when he exploded.
PHANTOM BIRDS: Gigantic "Magical" Birds that dropped fire eggs on the troops.
ARZ MAKEL:An AIM (Advance Intelligence Man) who died while spying and whose head was "magically" in the talons of one of the phantom birds.
STAND CAPTAIN ARVAL BREENZ: The first of the Kabeezan Army to lead his troops to the Plain of Dzur.
JED: Doctrex's original courier, who later got permission from him to become an AIM.
KARULE BARSACH: Expert and co-inventor of the automatic crossbow, is allowed in front ranks with Doctrex.
SUPREME COLONEL ARKLYN ZARBS: Commander of one of Glnot Rhuether's outposts, and Doctrex's captor.
GARVIN: Medic under Supreme Colonel Arklyn Zarbs. Tries with Doctrex to minister to Jed.

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A chapter in the book THE TRINING Book Three

AN ELONGATED ABBREVIATION (Pt 3)

by Jay Squires

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