by Ava D. Dohn
*
“Wake up, you old fool! Something’s a’foul, and I want to know why!” Treston kicked Tanner’s cot, jolting him out of a restless dream.
Tanner’s sleepy eyes popped open, filled with surprise. At seeing the anger in his captain’s face, he threw his hands up in front of his own. “What? What? My Lord! What’s the matter?”
Treston was in no mood to be pleasant. “That girl’s the problem, you ass! What did you do to her last night?”
“It’s not my fault!” Tanner cried, sitting up on the raggedy old cot. He began to fidget nervously. “Perk wanted it done.”
“Wanted what done!?” Shouted Treston. “What did Perk want done?”
Tanner was awake now. Fearing he had said too much already, he fussed and fretted, pretending to be confused over the question. Treston grabbed him by the shirt, pulling him to his feet. “You come with me, shit weed! I want to know the reason for this mess.”
Torches set along the passageways were all alight, casting their flickering blazes into corners long hidden. Treston had called out his entire guard, which was presently assembling in the prison, leaving little room to navigate the narrow corridors.
Tanner was already unnerved, being dragged from his sleep and rudely manhandled by Treston, the chief of the guard. Treston was head of the governor’s judicial police, over two hundred soldiers. He rarely visited the governor’s prison this early in the day, and when he did it was often at a high cost to some unfortunate. Tanner was beginning to fear that he was this day’s candidate.
“Sergeant of the guard!” Treston called out.
A grizzled soldier, a flagellum tucked in his belt, hurried toward him. “Yes, my Lord...” He stopped and saluted Treston.
Treston motioned the man into line. “If he doesn’t have the right answers, maybe you can help get some.”
Tanner cowered as the sergeant sidled up next to him. The man frowned. “Has our little titmouse been up to some mischief?”
“No!” Treston shook his head. “I believe our watchdog has been sniffing the bitch ‘stead of guarding the door.”
Tanner cried out, “My Lord, I h’aint sniffed nothing! I just done my job is all!” He began to whimper. “All poor Tanner’s done’s his job. H’aint smelt nothing.”
The sergeant poked Tanner in his side. “Shut up, fool! Lord Treston was only makin’ a point. You ain’t dead…yet...”
Treston stopped outside one of the prison rooms and looked Tanner in the face, politely asking, “Now would you be kind enough to explain to us just what happened here last night?”
Tanner began to shake. He feared Treston’s reputation. The man had been known to disembowel a person or gouge out their eyes on a whim. The ‘brand of Treston’ - a deep scar across one’s cheek, with the lower earlobe removed - was an all too common phrase bandied about the governor’s house.
But Tanner feared Perk nearly as much, possibly more. Perk always had his way behind these sullied walls. The sergeant left Perk to himself, allowing the man to run the night watch much as he wished. Poisoned food and drink had taken the life of more than one guard who had crossed the man. Perk pretty much remained in the shadows when the sergeant was about. The sergeant preferred it that way.
Tanner shrugged, sweat running down his face, “Tanner doesn’t know what my lord wants…doesn’t know what to explain.”
Treston flew into a rage, screaming out vile curses. He seized Tanner by the neck, dragging him into the room and flinging the man against the bars. “Explain that to me, you moronic ass!”
Tanner grasped the bars, pulling himself up as he slowly turned to look into Ishtar’s cell. Expecting to see a bloodied corpse on the filthy floor, he was preparing some alibi for his defense. Instead, he gazed upon a beautiful young woman in a silky, satin gown, quietly sitting on a clean pile of straw.
Gasping aloud, Tanner stared in disbelief. His eyes bulged as they filled with terror. “By the gods! By the gods! I didn’t know! Please! I didn’t know!” He fell to his knees, beseeching the forces of heaven with tears and incoherent babblings.
“Please! Please! Forgive me!” He wailed. “I didn’t know. No! No! Please! I didn’t know!” He looked up at a very confused Treston, sobbing and weeping, invoking the spirits to forgive him. “I didn’t know! I didn’t know!”
“What is wrong with you, fool?!” Treston backhanded Tanner across the face. “Tell me! What is this all about?!”
Tanner paid no attention to Treston. He continued his laments and woeful outcries. Treston finally had enough. He shouted, “Go bring Perk! I want to him here!”
When the man didn’t move, Treston gave him a hard boot to his side, knocking Tanner to the floor. “Now go get me Perk or I’ll feed you to the lions right now! Tell him I want answers, or you’ll both get it! Go!”
Tanner slowly stood, pulling himself up by the prison bars. He was nearly hysterical, in fear, but not of Treston. Why, his eyes were not even focused on Treston, but on something far more distant. “The gods! The gods!” He cried.
Treston screamed into his face. “I am your god! Now go get Perk, you good for nothing ass-wipe, or you’ll wish you were dead!”
Tanner started to recognize Treston. His pale lips quivered. “I… I’m already dead.” His face, pallid white and distorted with fear, showed his understanding of Treston’s command. Quailing, he turned and darted toward the passageway to get Perk. The others could hear his incessant pleas and constant blubbering long after he was gone from sight.
Treston turned to the sergeant. “Follow him. The fool’s near cracked.”
Perk was sprawled across his cot, snoring loudly, an empty wine skin lying where he dropped it. Tanner burst into the room crying, “We’re damned! We’re damned! To a Hell of a thousand deaths we’re cast!” He fell on his knees next to Perk’s cot and clutched hold of his shirt, shaking him.
Perk grunted in anger as his eyes popped open. “What the…what the Hell!” His eyes began to focus. When he recognized Tanner, he broke into a rage, clutching him by the throat. “You wanna die?! God damned fool! I’ll kill you, myself, for botherin’ me!” He released Tanner and rolled over.
Tanner lunged forward and violently shook Perk, renewing his cries. “The world of damned! The world of damned! That’s ‘ar curse! The world of the damned!” He fell forward and began to weep.
Perk angrily pushed Tanner away and sat up. “Fool! Old woman! Waking me that way, I oughta kill ya! What’s in yor head? Shut up your hole and tell me!”
Tanner sat up on his knees, clasped his hands together in front of his face, and wailed, “That girl! That little girl... She’s…she’s a goddess! A goddess, I tell you!” Lifting his head up and extending his arms heavenward, he cried, “Forgive me! Oh you mighty gods! I didn’t know the Hesperides was her home!”
Perk was becoming perplexed. “What’s this about?! Tell me!”
Lowering his arms, Tanner stared at Perk and exclaimed, “Wer goin’ to the Land of the Damned!” He buried his face in his hands and began to weep. “That child is one of the gods! She’s sendin’ us to the world of the damned!”
Perk’s face clouded with fear. “Is she dead?”
Tanner did not reply.
Perk clutched Tanner’s shirt, ripping it, screaming in Tanner’s face, “Is she dead? Tell me! Is the little bitch dead?!”
Tanner let out a howl. “Don’t call her that! I tell ya, she’s a goddess! A goddamn goddess! And wer’ dead men! I tell ya! Dead men!”
Perk backhanded Tanner across his face and then threatened him with his fist. “Is she dead?! Fool! Is she dead?”
“No! No!” Tanner shook his head, sobbing. “She’s a goddess from the Isles of the Blessed and we’re gonna burn in the pits of the damned!”
The sergeant, along with another guard, stepped into the room. “Perk! The old man wants ta s
ee ya… now! He ain’t happy!” Pointing at Tanner, he added, “And bring that bag o’ shit with ya!”
He and the other guard dragged Perk and Tanner from the room and hurried them back down the passageway.
Treston was pacing the floor, muttering to himself. Tanner was running nuts, out of his mind. The girl in the cell stared at the floor, mute as a stone. And Perk? Maybe Perk would provide him with some information. At the sound of footsteps echoing from the corridor, he smiled and hurried to the doorway.
Confronting Perk, Treston angrily queried, “Is your head also in your ass…” he pointed at Tanner. “like this fool?! Or do you have a mind to tell me what happened here?” He grabbed Perk’s ear and yanked him into the chamber.
Perk was taller than Treston, with a thick, muscular body and a flabby gut. It had been this mass that Perk had used to his advantage, to bully others. Treston paid no heed to it and Perk knew it. The big man cowered before the captain of the guard, knowing full well how valueless his life was in Treston’s eyes.
Treston shoved Perk up against the prison bars, twisting his face in Ishtar’s direction. He gritted his teeth and hissed in Perk’s ear, “I don’t like secrets and you’re hiding one! If you want all your body parts, you’d better start talking!”
Perk stared blankly at Ishtar. She was still alive…and able to sit! What was the problem? Gradually, his senses came to him and he began to take in the surroundings. It was too much for this simple man’s mind to comprehend. He was dumbstruck.
Treston exploded, “Enough of this charade! You better give me answers, or I will have someone’s skin!” He squeezed Perk’s neck, shaking him. “And I mean now!”
Perk became nearly as incoherent as Tanner had been, but not invoking the gods. He blubbered on about how he didn’t know anything, that he was sleeping all night, and how good a servant he had been. This did nothing to appease Treston’s growing wrath. He cuffed Perk across the face, making the man’s mouth bleed. “Look at me, you dumb ass!”
Treston pressed his face against Perk’s. His suspicions were growing. “How much did they pay you?”
A stupid look crossed Perk’s face. “Who?”
Treston screamed curses and vile oaths filled with threats. He finally calmed a little, shouting, “The people you allowed in here last night to dress the girl up!” He glanced into the cell and back at Perk. “She didn’t bring them clothes with her and for certain wasn’t hiding that straw in her ass! Now tell me, who paid you to do this?”
“Nothin’! I mean nobody!” Perk was sweating profusely by now, thinking of something to say that would get him off the hook. He stuttered, “Nothin’! I… I mean… er… Nobody! There weren’t nobody here! Nobody come in here last night!”
“Well…” Treston reached up and squeezed Perk’s face. “Somebody dressed up the little lady. It didn’t just happen!” He lowered his voice to just above a whisper and snarled, “If you think you can take a bribe and not share it, you’re too stupid to live, at least as a man. I think it wise for you to ‘fess up, and quick!”
Perk was beginning to panic. He beseeched Treston, “My Lord, I don’t know nothin’! Nothin’ at all! F’rgive me, Lord, I don’t know nothin’!”
Treston grabbed Perk by the ears, slamming him against the cell bars and screamed, “What did you do, you miserable excuse for life?!”
Perk quailed, but stuck to his tale of ignorance.
Treston turned to the sergeant. “I’ll have you feed his guts to my dogs this very hour if he doesn’t come up with some answers!”
Perk fell to his knees, raising his hands high, seeking mercy, “I don’t know, my Lord! I don’t know nothin’ at all! I ain’t lyin’! Honest, Lord! I ain’t lyin’ at all!”
Treston gave up. “Dumb ass!” He motioned to the guards, and they pulled Perk from the floor. He put his hands on the bars and pressed his face against them. In a soothing, fatherly voice, he asked, “Please child, what happened here? Tell me, please. It will go much better for all of us if you do.”
Ishtar sat there, staring at the filthy floor, deliberately ignoring Treston. It enraged him to the point that he started screaming and violently shaking the bars. “You little piss-wart! Do you know what I can do to you?”
Ishtar started. She glared at Treston, defiance burning in her angry eyes. Standing up, she stepped closer and contemptuously spat, “What would you do, take the virgin and hole her?” She reached down and picked up her old, torn, filthy tunic, smelling of blood and sexual exhaustion, flinging it at him. “You’re too late!”
Treston reeled like he had been punched and struck dumb. He slowly turned, facing Perk and Tanner, seething with rage. He shook his fist. “Did we have some fun last night? We didn’t do nothin’...”
Taking the sergeant’s flagellum, he angrily whipped the two men, shouting vile threats and accusations. Then, shaking the spiked end of the handle at them, asked, “Does someone want to start talking now? And no lies this time!”
Tanner started his blubbering, confessing everything, making sure Perk received the blame. “You shit!” Perk bellowed, punching Tanner in the nose.
Blood splattered everywhere as Tanner tumbled back, falling to the floor while screaming in agony. The guards quickly subdued Perk.
Treston was beside himself, furious. He clutched Perk’s face in his hands, digging in with his nails until the blood flowed freely. “You slimy bastard! No good son-of-a-bitch! Why’d you have to go and ruin the girl for me?! Do you think I would follow the likes of a shit like you?!” He cursed and swore until his energy was drained. In disgust, he pushed Perk back and turned away. “I ought to cut your balls off and feed ‘em to Tanner!”
Treston ordered the sergeant to take Perk and Tanner away. He called after them, “Make sure they’re locked up secure. I’ll deal with them later!” He straightened his uniform, examining it to be sure it had no stains or tears, muttering as he did so. “Now to the business at hand…”
Treston turned his attention back to Ishtar. He found it difficult to believe that the things Tanner had spoken were true. If Perk had really attacked the girl, she would be lucky to still live. He looked at the bloodied tunic. Sure enough, it had been a violent night. And then there was the girl’s implied accusation of rape.
The thought of Perk having touched the child troubled Treston. From the day of Ishtar’s arrest, Treston had dreamed of having her for himself. He came to the prison early this morning on some lame excuse, hoping to secret her away just long enough to take his pleasure with her. Then Perk had to ruin it. But, oh, how good she looked.
“Damn it all!” Treston fumed under his breath. There wasn’t any time now. Never would be, if the governor carried out his plans against her.
But what of the clothing and straw? Those questions needed answering, at least enough to satisfy the governor. Treston fought back his growing passion and attempted a charming inquiry, asking, “Please, child, tell me how you got this beautiful gown.”
Ishtar looked down at her hands, pretending to take special interest in them, turning them over to see the fronts and then the backs. She appeared to completely ignore the question. But out the corner of her eye she watched, waiting while Treston’s impatience grew. Just as he started to rise on his toes and his lips began to quiver, she spoke. In a tone showing casual disregard for Treston, she nonchalantly answered, “An angel gave it to me…”
Treston was taken aback. Uncertainty and fear of unknown things began growing in his heart. Perk was ruthless and cruel, he was deceitful. But he was not stupid, leastwise about Treston. If someone had bribed Perk to get to Ishtar, he would have offered to buy off Treston’s anger with some of the reward.
And there was the girl. He knew she had been violently raped. Perk would have done it no other way. Rape was a common thing in these prisons. Few women survived more than a week in them from the brutal treatment met
ed out, and young boys or effeminate men suffered similarly. That was the reason Treston had threatened such severe punishment to anyone touching Ishtar. He still had half-expected her to be abused.
The blood on the dress must have been Ishtar’s, but there was no visible sign of the violence she received, not even a tiny bruise. How had the girl managed such a transformation?
There was one possible answer. The governor or some other power baron had sent people to examine her. Finding her in such straits, and fearing the wrath of the governor, they hurried her away to be made presentable. Perk would not have dared to mention such a thing if he was ordered to remain silent about matters. Even Treston’s dire threats wouldn’t have pried such information from him.
Treston was troubled. It made no sense to have the governor request such a thing. After all, the man had not even seen the girl yet. Besides, if such a thing were ordered, Treston would have been the one to carry the order out. No. No. It was no one from the governor’s house who did this. Then who did?
Treston motioned the guards. One came forward and unlocked the cell door. Treston stepped in, a guard entering behind with a brightly lit lamp. Ishtar did not move. She continued staring down at her hands, half expecting more violence.
Shimmering light cascaded across Ishtar’s shoulders, revealing her near perfect figure hidden only by a semi-sheer garment. The woman was flawless in every way, from the curved bridge of her nose to her rounded hips. Why, even the girl’s dazzling white teeth were as straight as if chiseled by a master sculptor.
“Who are you?” Treston asked with a faltering voice. “For this is not the child I delivered to this place.” His mind began to whirl with stories of gods and goddesses. The haunting tales of his mother flooded the man’s mind. With a shaking hand, he reached up to touch the girl, but stopped short, fear gripping him. Treston’s heart began to ache, not from passion, at least he thought not. No. It was something new and strange. Here stood a kind of untouchable divine beauty, something unearthly and above him. He was insignificantly small in comparison to it.
Ishtar reached up suddenly and clasped his hand. “You will take me to my fate, for this day the eagle shall fall from the heavens and the sea shall turn to blood. My hour is near and you, Lord Treston, must deliver me to it. You must bring to ruin my flesh in order to deliver your own.”
Treston was shaken from his trance. He became gruff and defensive. “I am here to deliver you to the governor, for you to answer certain charges brought against you. Do be good and I will see no more harm comes to you in this place.”
Ishtar was curt in rejecting Treston’s words. “Your governor has even now judged me. Can you not already hear the dogs howling for my blood?”
She poked Treston with a finger. “In a dream I have seen all things. Your grief is my reward and your savior. Today your soul dies with me, so that tomorrow it will lift me up, for my God has said of you, ‘His sword shall become a defense for you, a shield and a fortress, too. Against the one who murders you shall he stand with you in the day of darkness.’ ”
Treston was shaken, but put on a bold face. “I serve my governor and king! The gods’ business belongs to scholars and prophets. Should you live or die today is no concern of mine.” He motioned to the guard with the lamp. “We must not keep the governor waiting.”
Ishtar stared at Treston. “I shall forget you in the Field of the Minds. It is my reward.” She shook her head. “But I shall haunt your waking moments. Never will my spirit depart from you until you know that to the Maker of all things does prophecy belong.”
Not wishing further discussion, Treston hustled Ishtar from the cell.
As they hurried along the passageway toward the palace stairs, Ishtar again grabbed Treston’s hand. “I shall take hold of a serpent and he will keep me safe!” She stared at him in wonder and puzzlement, adding, “For shall one serpent gulp down the many and thus save all living things.” Treston remained silent.
The sounds of their footsteps soon disappeared as they circled the staircase leading from the prison up to the governor’s palace.
