Manipulation of Arklyn Zarbs (Pt 1)

by Jay Squires

THE ENDING OF THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER:
       His head was bowed.
       “Listen, if you’re not going to—here ...” I whipped a rag through the air until it felt cold, then applied it to Jed’s forehead and down to his cheeks and then his neck.
       “Doctrex ... Sir ...”
       “Where is that pan? Soldier!”
       “Sir, Jed's—gone.”
       "Gone?"
       "He fought to the end, sir."
       I laid my palm on Jed's cheek. "He was a good soldier, Garvin."
       "He loved you, sir."
       I pressed my lips together tightly to keep them from trembling. A sob seemed to come from nowhere and forced them open again.
       Garvin turned, abruptly, as out of a realized breach of propriety. "I'll leave you now, sir."
       "Yes. A few minutes. Please." I followed him with my eyes until he was gone, and then I bent forward and put my brow on the damp pillow next to Jed's head. I thought of our brief time together and I wept my goodbye without reservation or shame.

BOOK III
Chapter Twenty-One
(Part 1)

The dawn of the second day after Jed’s death. It’s as good a day as any to be a prisoner, scheduled to be delivered to Glnot Rhuether at his Palace of Qarnolt.

Jed, as close to a son as anyone had a right to be, had been wrapped in a large sheet, clean and white at my insistence, and was now lying behind us in the bed of the wagon, alongside the other two bodies, wrapped in clean, white sheets as well.

Also at my insistence, all the bodies had been bathed, perfumed, and then dressed in immaculately cleaned uniforms, boots polished. This was especially essential for Erel Fozzen whom they had rushed to bury—I was sure to cover the brutality of their torture—and whom I had ordered to be disinterred.

Jed certainly deserved as much, and while Karule Barsach died under less-than-honorable circumstances, I knew Jed would have wanted him to also be so honored. Jed’s last words in this life were concerning Karule. “He was a weak man, not a bad man.”

I wondered who scrubbed those bodies this morning, perfumed them and then dressed them. Was it the same young lady who had offered to bathe me a few days earlier, and who, just last night, repeated the offer as she gathered up my dirty uniform and boots? She employed as much seductiveness as her pasty, squared face would allow as she cooed, “Your bath is drawn, General Doctrex.”

Though I chose to bathe myself, not since our brief stay at Camp Jerri-Fibe had my body felt so clean. That was the result of soap and hot, scented water. There was a part of me, though, that could never be scrubbed clean. One does not become so interwoven with the process of inhumanity without it sullying him beneath the surface and, over time, worming to the core.

“Well, General Doctrex,” Arklyn Zarbs, said, his knee bumping my thigh as he turned to address me. “Oh, pardon me.” I glanced down at his knee and he slid back from me on the seat.

“Yes,” I said.

“I was about to say, General Doctrex, the ... circumstances of your arrival here were unfortunate, you understand—the—the—” His eyes were bouncing all over the place as he was obviously trying to remember that exact word he had memorized and now tried to retrieve. “—the consequences of war. Much that happened, though, after you were brought into my camp I was not—party to.”

“You mean the systematic dehumanizing and murdering of my men?”

“Yes. Yes. I had no control over the manner that they—and those guilty soldiers are already being severely punished, and—”

“Well, I’m sure you’ve already explained that to your Almighty Glnot Rhuether.” He seemed to study me as I articulated Rhuether’s title.

“Well, I—”

“And I’m sure it will never cross his mind to ask me how well you treated me or,” I made a flamboyant gesture, “or these men wrapped in the sheets behind us.”

A high-pitched moan squeezed from his throat. It took him a moment to speak. “He did ask that I—that we treat you as a guest.”

I feigned surprise. “Oops! Did he expect that?”

“Oh, General Doctrex, I tried. The moment I got his letter. I tr—I tried.”

“Hmmm.”

“I did offer ...” He produced a trembly smile, "...the services of the young lady—”

“Oh, yes, to bathe me. Let me see ... one event seems to crowd into another ... Help me out. I remember asking you if I could have a bath, but for the life of me, I can’t remember if that was before or after you had one of your men prepare my sleeping chamber.”

The driver must have heard his supreme colonel’s intake of breath, for he made a jerky half-turn of his head in his direction before looking ahead.

“That was not my doing, General Doctrex." Zarbs’ voice left his throat just above a whine and the driver again made a jerk of his head, though not as prominently as before. “And remember when I told you he is in chains for what he did?”

“The bath! Now I remember. The young lady offered to help me bathe after you had me removed from my bed chamber and deposited onto a real bed."

He smiled. “But you ...”

“No, you’re right; I didn’t. There were other pressing things, Supreme Colonel Zarbs.”

“Yes ... so ...” He fell silent.

I waited, and then seeing he wasn’t going to add anything, I repeated that I couldn’t imagine the Almighty Glnot Rhuether asking how well my men (whom I indicated with another gesture) enjoyed their sojourn with him.

“You’ll remember, General Doctrex, I invited you to dine with me.”

Thinking about that invitation almost made me ill. “I was ... occupied at the time.”

He sank back against the sideboard of his corner of the seat, his jowls slack, and stared through those two feet of vacant space between me and the driver.

I thought the conversation had gone just about full circle and, as if to punctuate my notion, one of the two crossans harnessed to the wagon turned her head toward us and whinnied.

“Easy, girl,” said the driver.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Zarbs stammered, “But surely, General Doctrex, you—you’re not—we can’t take your men ... back there to the Palace.”

“Oh?” I questioned.

“Well ...”

I laughed and then immediately stopped. “No, that would be stupid, wouldn’t it, Colonel?”

His jaw rippled, and he cast a quick glance at the driver, but he didn’t say anything.

“Why would I want to take my men to the enemy’s Palace? That’s stupid. No, they belong with their own army, for a dignified burial.”

“But, we—”

“No, that would also be stupid. It would be stupid of me to expect you and your men to commit suicide. Why, you might be ambushed.” I brought my gaze full on Zarbs and studied his face. He was not the same Zarbs I saw when I drifted up out of unconsciousness. Gone was the untrimmed full beard, the color of dirty cinnamon, beneath his dead brown eyes. He still wore a beard, but it was thinned out and trimmed. It left his face thinner, at the expense of a weaker-seeming mouth and chin. Even the once plump, caterpillar-like brows suffered under the emaciation of grooming. His head was freshly shaven and polished.

“I’ve another idea, Colonel,” I said, watching him wince at not hearing the full entitlement of his rank. “It will involve a bit of a detour toward, but not all the way to the Plain of Djur. In all it shouldn’t divert your plans by more than an hour.”

“And If I were ... to refuse?” He sounded tentative, but with a hint of challenge.

“But you don’t know the idea yet, Colonel Zarbs. You see, there is a pond our troops stopped at to water our crossans on our way to your ambush. It is still some distance from the Plain of Djur. A variety of tall reeds line the back and ends of the pond. The ground is also very spongy there. Some of your soldiers would scoop out some of the soil. We would place the bodies in that space and cover them with reeds and leaves.”

I watched his expression change. “You look puzzled.”

“How will your men know?”

“Excellent question, Colonel. One of your men will take a letter I’ll have prepared, explaining where the bodies are.”

“I see,” Zarbs said, but couldn’t conceal the laughter that was on its heels. “Excuse me, General Doctrex, but I am supposed to command one of my men to—as you put it—commit certain suicide?”

“No, he should volunteer.”

“...To commit suicide?”

“I believe I know one who would volunteer, Colonel Zarbs. He is the young medic who assisted me with the treatment of ... that one on the end.” I pointed to the sheet that contained Jed.

“What makes you think he would volunteer?”

“He might not, Colonel. But I’ve thought it through, and he’s the only one I can trust to deliver the message. Look at it this way ... what would be stopping one of your messengers from going a mile or so out of our sight, perhaps reading the letter, destroying it, and then swinging back to your camp long after we’ve gone on to the Palace of Qarnolt?”

“What would be stopping Garvin from doing the same?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all. But I have such faith that he will first of all volunteer and secondly, that he will complete the mission successfully—that, should he decline, I shall take my chances bringing the bodies to the Castle of Qarnolt and to the mercy of The Almighty Glnot Rhuether.”

Zarbs was silent, his eyes batting so fiercely that for a moment I thought he was having a seizure. Then they stopped and he turned them to me with a sigh.

“Colonel,” I said, “I need a sheet of paper, ink and a quill, and when it’s finished something to seal it with.”

At once his face came alive with unexpected glee. “To be sure. I have just the thing, General Doctrex. I always have it with me. I would be honored to have you use it.” From under the seat, he brought out a carved, yellow and tan box, and held it in his lap, caressing the smooth sides of it, before holding it out to me as carefully as a mother would transfer her infant to the waiting arms of another. His eyes went from the box to me and then back to the box which I held in my lap. “It was given to me by the Almighty Master himself, in recognition of my promotion to Supreme Colonel.” He was having difficulty controlling the emotion that accompanied his recall.

“This should do, Colonel.” I examined the box. It was hinged on one side and clasped on the other. I released the clasp and opened it. There were slotted compartments, one perfectly sized to hold three jars of ink, and a long thin compartment with quills stacked one atop the other. Wedged into the upper right-hand corner was a perhaps two-inch square container with a hinged-lidded top that begged my curiosity, as well as Zarbs urging smile, to be lifted. I did. Inside was an approximately one-inch-tall stack of gilded and embossed stamps of some variety. I sensed Zarbs wanted to linger there a while, so I closed the lid and examined the sheets of paper that snugged into the central compartment. In lavish scroll the top sheet announced “Supreme Colonel Arklyn Zarbs."

“This just won’t do," I told him. "I need plain, not personalized paper.”

“Oh,” he said. “To be sure ... toward the bottom are the blank sheets I use if I am writing a two or more page letter.” Still he was unable, just for an instant, to conceal his disappointment that I found anything in the box that left me unimpressed.

I fanned through the sheets until I found one that was plain, pulled it out, and then removed a quill and the ink jar, setting them between us on the seat. With the top closed it made a perfect surface on which to write. “It won’t take me long to finish this, Colonel. If you’ll send someone to get Garvin, I’ll make the proposal to him. If he refuses, we’ll always have plan b to fall back on.”

“You mean ...?”

I nodded, and the color left his face.

“Oh, but I think he can be persuaded, General Doctrex,” and following a wry grin he added, “and as his supreme colonel ...”

“I’d rather we don’t resort to that. I’ll just talk to the lad ... and let it just be a yes or a no.”

His mouth gaped open.

I laid the sheet atop the box I held in my lap and removed the stopper from the ink bottle. “If you will send for Medic Garvin ...”

As I started the letter, he dispatched one of his men to go back inside the cave and bring Garvin to us.

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CHARACTERS AND TERMINOLOGY

GENERAL DOCTREX: Protagonist, General and 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, who is 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.
EREL FOZZEN: The torchbearer of the ambushed troops, later tortured died a hero.
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.
PAPPERING: An automatic translation system occurring in this dimension. Only some words resist being translated.

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Pulling the Strings ...

A chapter in the book THE TRINING Book Three

Manipulation of Arklyn Zarbs (Pt 1)

by Jay Squires

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