| Fantasy Fiction posted September 19, 2015 | Chapters: |
...25 25 -25- 26... 
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Hey, It Got Your Attention
A chapter in the book THE TRINING Book Three
The Almighty Master Baits Doctrex
by Jay Squires
FINAL DIALOGUE OF LAST CHAPTER:
I pulled my hands away and stepped back, waiting for the color to return. “Do you know who I am?”“General Doctrex, sir.”
“And do you know why I am here?”
His mouth clamped shut.
“Nothing leaves this room.” I said this gently, without smiling, making sure I didn’t blink until he spoke.
“You are a guest, sir ... of Almighty Master.”
“You’re afraid of him, aren’t you?”
“Sir ...” He closed his eyes and took a breath. “I am late with my measurements.” He opened his eyes, but avoided mine.
“I understand.”
BOOK III
Chapter 25
Chapter 25
After the tailor left, I finished dressing and then waited in the shadows, my hands folded on the table. The residual effects of the narcotic had finally worn off. I had no trace of a headache, and I felt more grounded. The sensory exercises helped. Carrying on the conversation with the tailor might have contributed to it as well.
The poor fellow! The fear of saying or doing something I might have misunderstood, something that could have made me feel less of an honored guest ... along with the horror I might complain about it to Rhuether, left his thoughts and emotions in a tangle. Did he even know I was a prisoner, handed over to his Almighty Master by Zarbs? He wasn’t the only one who feared Rhuether. Zarbs was petrified of Rhuether’s wrath, and I recognized, even when I was under the grip of the narcotic, that the doctor seemed careful not to ridicule my terror of the carvings on the ceiling. Even he seemed to exude caution.
How sad, if true, that these people were representative of the rest of the subjects of Rhuether’s Empire. Living in fear, as they were forced to, yielded no quality to their lives. How long before their yoke became too heavy? There had to be rumblings and grumblings. Probably right here in the palace. It was a question of whether any malcontent was organized. I wondered if Rhuether would be aware of any such signs of unrest. Surely he heard of them. Did he have advisors who were allowed exemption from such fears as the tailor, the doctor and Zarbs demonstrated? Could he trust the loyalty of his advisors? It all boiled down to trust, and an open channel of communication with whomever he placed his trust.
My mind gravitated to my troops, who I could only presume still waited on the Plain of Djur for my orders to attack the palace of Qarnolt. They were my men. I had grown to love them, and I believed I had earned their trust and respect.
I had been criticized, more often covertly, but a few times to my face, for the procedure I initiated in an effort to humanize the Kabeezan military. In spite of warnings from the other officers, I urged the troops to address me as simply Doctrex, not sir or General Doctrex. That was the first and seminal step. I wanted the false walls torn down that rank and title erected. I wanted, instead, the development of an overwhelming love of Kabeez and a nurturing camaraderie among all the troops, a willingness to die for their country and for each other.
As I stared at the door through which my visitor could emerge at any moment, I became aware my bladder was full. It would be better to leave my station now than to try to excuse myself in the midst of whatever was on his agenda.
The restroom was at the opposite end of the room, so I needed to go past the bed and into the torch-lit area. Rationally, I knew I had nothing to fear from the carvings on the ceiling, but I also knew it hadn’t been that long ago when my emotions had been under heavy assault. So I convinced myself there was no reason to look up as I passed under. That didn’t stop the ominous feeling that hundreds of eyes were following me right up to when I closed the restroom door.
On my return, another sat at the table, his face turned in my direction, but in shadow. As I approached, I began to make out his features. His hair was black, cropped short, parted in the middle and slicked back. His eyes at once startled and intrigued me. The irises were a washed out gray, so light they seemed almost to blend with the whites surrounding them. The fragile-looking white teeth of his smile, which he displayed for me now, were framed by a trimmed, black moustache, and below by a plump and almost pouty lower lip.
“General Doctrex,” he said, directly, and without inflection, as though he were proclaiming a truth which was self-evident but necessary to articulate before proper conversation could evolve.
It was just now I noticed he was not sitting in one of the three chairs, but in a wheelchair. A neatly folded blue blanket covered his lap.
“Sir,” I said, and noticed a wince from which he appeared to immediately recover.
“Please take a chair.”
I pulled one out from the table and brought it around so I could sit facing him.
“Do you know me, General Doctrex?” Again, his tone was even, without emotion.
“I can only guess, sir.” Once more, he winced at the ‘sir’. “I’ve never been introduced. So I would have to answer, ‘no’.”
His smile disappeared for a moment, and I was able to see a brief emergence of his upper lip, purple and thin as a blade, under the moustache. It slipped back into hiding with the return of his smile. “I am your host.”
I struggled with the indirection of the disclosure. “Ah,” I said.
After several seconds of an awkward silence, still smiling, he asked: “And how were you treated by the doctor?”
I thought about it. “Like I was a guest in his spa.”
“So he took good care of you?”
“Yes, he did.”
“Excellent.”
He seemed to consider me, my boots, my trousers, my shirt. He lingered longer at my face. “You will want to bathe and shave. I shall have my barber visit you.” He waited, his hands palms-down on the blanket. “The tailor?”
“Yes.” I studied his expression and thought I recognized a flutter of mild irritation in his eyelids. The smile was unchanged.
“I mean, he treated you well?”
“Yes. He did his job ... properly. He was polite.”
“Good. That’s good.” He stared at me. His lips met in the middle over his teeth, though the corners of his mouth still held the remnants of a smile. Lifting a hand from the blanket, he pushed his fingers through his hair. His hand drifted back to the blanket.
“General Doctrex,” he said in a voice that seemed louder than he intended, but after a pause he continued without reducing his volume. “Why, General Doctrex, do you refuse to address me by my name?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know how to address you. Your tailor as well as my captor, Supreme Colonel Arklyn Zarbs, would settle for nothing less than ‘Almighty Master’. And it wasn’t ‘Almighty Master Glnot Rhuether’. They apparently were allowed nothing more than Almighty Master since there was only one ... Almighty Master ... and that was you.”
“You appear to be mocking my title.”
“No, sir. That would be foolish of me, wouldn’t it? Rather—suicidal of me.”
He nodded, not so much out of agreement, but from what I gathered from his eyes as an odd sort of self-reflection.
“So I really don’t know how to address you.”
He gave my question lengthy consideration before he spoke. “For the present, if we are together, you and I, alone ... you may call me Glnot, and I shall call you ...
I waited out longer than a slight pause.
“Doctrex. But there can be no lapse of protocol when we’re among others. Then it must be Almighty Master, and you will be General Doctrex.”
“General Doctrex, Commander of the Kabeezan Military?”
He huffed and then he smiled. Seeing I wasn’t smiling, his vanished. “Is that how you are addressed? Is that truly your title?”
“I prefer no titles, Glnot, at any time. How does Axtilla address you when you are among your subjects?”
“And why would that concern you?”
It was time for directness. “Glnot, am I your prisoner?”
My question seemed to stun him. His eyelids batted several times under sculpted black brows as I waited for his reply.
“Does ... does that question even require an answer?” He raised a studied brow and aimed a smirk at me.
I chose not to respond verbally, or smile.
“After all, you are a General, Doctrex—and you are ...” His mouth clamped shut on whatever was to follow, and he allowed his eyes, for the first time, to stray from mine. “Did Zarbs mistreat you, or shackle you so you couldn’t escape?” He kept his eyes averted, but something in his voice sounded less than rhetorical—that my answer was important to him.
“Zarbs' courier gave him your instructions to treat me well.” Not waiting for him to respond, I added, “Where is Supreme Colonel Zarbs, Glnot?”
Answering to the torches, he told me in measured tones, “Why would that also ... be of any concern ... to ... you, Doctrex?”
“True. Supreme Colonel Zarbs loved you as his Almighty Master, Glnot—he revered you—but he was also terrified of turning me over to you—”
“Perhaps he had reason to be terrified.”
“That’s what I don’t understand. If one of my officers captured the Almighty Master, Glnot Rhuether, and turned him over to me, I’d be celebrating and he’d likely be promoted. Glnot, are you promoting Zarbs?”
“You’re making me angry, Doctrex.” He slapped his hand on his cushioned thigh. “How dare you question me about how I run my military!”
Had I gone too far? I knew I was pushing the boundaries of my bizarre incarceration. I wasn’t even sure why they needed testing, but I followed the faint wisp of an inner prompting. Now it told me to let Rhuether make the next move. I broke eye contact and watched the fingertips of my left hand make small circles on the surface of the table.
“Doctrex?” I glanced up in time to see him pull his eyes away from the circles I made and turn his puzzled gaze on me. “I want you to know I have no reason to tell you anything about Zarbs.”
I acknowledged with a nod, making sure it wasn’t attended with any tell-tale expression open to his speculation. He was going to tell me something or he wouldn’t have brought it up. I didn’t want to spoil it now.
“My military decisions do not concern you.”
Another expressionless nod.
“But I’m going to tell you anyway. Do you know why?”
I shook my head.
“Because it doesn’t matter.” He smiled, presenting both rows of teeth. “Because you don’t matter."
As I watched his smile continue on after what he must have thought was a debilitating insult, I didn’t figure a returned smile would be appropriate. I nodded again and waited for his lips to slide back over his teeth.
He sank into silence a moment. “Supreme Colonel Zarbs,” he finally said, “has been destroyed.”
 Recognized |
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CHARACTER LIST
[LISTED ONLY AS PRESENTED]
AXTILLA: THUMBNAIL: PROTAGONIST, BANISHED BY HER PEOPLE TO THE CAVES BY THE KYREAN SEA, WHERE SHE FINDS DOCTREX. In the opening of the book, she finds him unconscious on the shore of the Kyrean Sea. She is convinced he is Pondria. Already she has been banished by her people, the Kyreans, for publicly warning them to beware of the insidious deceit of Pondria (the brother of Rhuether), who would come among them with honeyed words, but destructive intentions. The god of Axtilla is the great Kyre. Axtilla had been the only keeper of the sacred Tablets of Kyre, instructed by her father (at that time the leader of the backsliding Kyrean people) to commit the tablets to memory. Once accomplished, she develops the ability to communicate with Kyre through her dreams. So now she makes a pact with Doctrex to fulfill the Kyrean Prophesy by defeating Glnot Rhuether together. She gets separated from Doctrex and, alone, she finds her way to the palace of Rhuether. She is captured, but later Rhuether announces she is to be his bride and empress.
DOCTREX: THUMBNAIL: PROTAGONIST, GENERAL OF THE KABEEZAN ARMY, IN LOVE WITH AXTILLA. At the beginning of the book, Axtilla discovers him on the Kyrean shore, unconscious, near death from a wound on his side. She heals him, over time, in her cave. He has no memory. She is convinced he is Pondria, brother of Glnot Rhuether, returned from the sea to fulfill the prophesy of Kyre, and bring about the dreaded Trining. Later, when Axtilla gets bitten by a viper and is near death, Doctrex carves an X in the bite and sucks out the venom. At the moment he is sure she is dying, she wakes from her coma. He is astounded to see her wound is healed. For what he tried to do, she humorously names him Doctor X. He combines the syllables and is known thereafter as Doctrex. She comes to fear him less, and it seems she has feelings for him. They bond together to face and destroy Rhuether, thus fulfilling prophecy. But they get separated. Axtilla goes on alone to the Palace, is captured, then is purported to have become engaged to Rhuether. Meanwhile, Doctrex joins the Kabeezan Military who are travelling to the Far Northern Province to battle the forces of Rhuether. Ultimately is captured and turned over to Rhuether at the Palace of Qarnolt.
GLNOT RHUETHER: THUMBNAIL: ANTAGONIST, EMPEROR OF THE FAR NORTHERN PROVINCE WHOSE AMBITION IS RULE OF ALL THE PROVINCES. According to the Tablets of Kyre Glnot Rhuether will bring about the prophecy of the Trining, the destruction of the Kyrean Civilization. The only event that will prevent the Trining will be the destruction of Rhuether at the hands of Axtilla and the brother of Rhuether, Pondria. Rhuether, though, claims Axtilla has agreed to be his wife and empress and the wedding is forthcoming. Doctrex, (who Axtilla believes is Pondria), is on a quest to join with Axtilla to bring about the destruction of Rhuether.
ALMIGHTY MASTER: The name by which the subjects of Glnot Rhuether refer to him. To call him by any other name would be considered disrespectful and subject to severe punishment.
PALACE OF QARNOLT: The residence of Glnot Rhuether, the focus of the Kabeezan Army attack against Rhuether. It is also where Doctrex is prisoner.
SUPREME COLONEL ARKLAN ZARBS: The one-time cruel officer for Glnot Rhuether, later the frightened, bungling pawn of Doctrex, he was the one whose soldiers had captured Doctrex and later turned him over to Rheuther.
Pays
one point
and 2 member cents. [LISTED ONLY AS PRESENTED]
AXTILLA: THUMBNAIL: PROTAGONIST, BANISHED BY HER PEOPLE TO THE CAVES BY THE KYREAN SEA, WHERE SHE FINDS DOCTREX. In the opening of the book, she finds him unconscious on the shore of the Kyrean Sea. She is convinced he is Pondria. Already she has been banished by her people, the Kyreans, for publicly warning them to beware of the insidious deceit of Pondria (the brother of Rhuether), who would come among them with honeyed words, but destructive intentions. The god of Axtilla is the great Kyre. Axtilla had been the only keeper of the sacred Tablets of Kyre, instructed by her father (at that time the leader of the backsliding Kyrean people) to commit the tablets to memory. Once accomplished, she develops the ability to communicate with Kyre through her dreams. So now she makes a pact with Doctrex to fulfill the Kyrean Prophesy by defeating Glnot Rhuether together. She gets separated from Doctrex and, alone, she finds her way to the palace of Rhuether. She is captured, but later Rhuether announces she is to be his bride and empress.
DOCTREX: THUMBNAIL: PROTAGONIST, GENERAL OF THE KABEEZAN ARMY, IN LOVE WITH AXTILLA. At the beginning of the book, Axtilla discovers him on the Kyrean shore, unconscious, near death from a wound on his side. She heals him, over time, in her cave. He has no memory. She is convinced he is Pondria, brother of Glnot Rhuether, returned from the sea to fulfill the prophesy of Kyre, and bring about the dreaded Trining. Later, when Axtilla gets bitten by a viper and is near death, Doctrex carves an X in the bite and sucks out the venom. At the moment he is sure she is dying, she wakes from her coma. He is astounded to see her wound is healed. For what he tried to do, she humorously names him Doctor X. He combines the syllables and is known thereafter as Doctrex. She comes to fear him less, and it seems she has feelings for him. They bond together to face and destroy Rhuether, thus fulfilling prophecy. But they get separated. Axtilla goes on alone to the Palace, is captured, then is purported to have become engaged to Rhuether. Meanwhile, Doctrex joins the Kabeezan Military who are travelling to the Far Northern Province to battle the forces of Rhuether. Ultimately is captured and turned over to Rhuether at the Palace of Qarnolt.
GLNOT RHUETHER: THUMBNAIL: ANTAGONIST, EMPEROR OF THE FAR NORTHERN PROVINCE WHOSE AMBITION IS RULE OF ALL THE PROVINCES. According to the Tablets of Kyre Glnot Rhuether will bring about the prophecy of the Trining, the destruction of the Kyrean Civilization. The only event that will prevent the Trining will be the destruction of Rhuether at the hands of Axtilla and the brother of Rhuether, Pondria. Rhuether, though, claims Axtilla has agreed to be his wife and empress and the wedding is forthcoming. Doctrex, (who Axtilla believes is Pondria), is on a quest to join with Axtilla to bring about the destruction of Rhuether.
ALMIGHTY MASTER: The name by which the subjects of Glnot Rhuether refer to him. To call him by any other name would be considered disrespectful and subject to severe punishment.
PALACE OF QARNOLT: The residence of Glnot Rhuether, the focus of the Kabeezan Army attack against Rhuether. It is also where Doctrex is prisoner.
SUPREME COLONEL ARKLAN ZARBS: The one-time cruel officer for Glnot Rhuether, later the frightened, bungling pawn of Doctrex, he was the one whose soldiers had captured Doctrex and later turned him over to Rheuther.
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