The Marus Manuscripts

by Paul McCusker

  “We’ll have to find good hiding places or we’ll be surrounded by more than just rocks,” Darien said. He gave instructions for the 100 of them to split up into four groups of 25 and then camp at strategic places around the valley.

  “But if we split up,” Colonel Oliver observed, “the king will have a better chance of defeating us.”

  “But if we stay together, he’ll have a better chance of finding us,” Darien countered. “It’s easier to hide small groups of 25 than a whole army of 100.”

  “But General—”

  Darien held up his hand. “I know it’s a gamble. And unless Anna has words of wisdom for us, I think it’s the best thing for us to do.”

  Anna didn’t have any words of wisdom. She closed her eyes, but no dreams or visions came.

  Darien and his group of 25, including Kyle and Anna, slowly wove their way through the rocks on the north side of the valley. It was a tortuous climb for both people and horses. They went up and up until they found a large cleft in one of the rocks that would shelter them all. It curved into a deep cave where they had plenty of room. It also afforded them a vantage point to the valley in all directions. Darien was troubled only by the existence of a ridge above them, one that might give the king’s army a chance to trap him. But he had to take a chance. His people were exhausted, and they were running out of places to hide.

  While they set up camp, Kyle got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He looked around quickly to see what was causing it. The soldiers were busy arranging their provisions or unpacking their knapsacks. Darien sat quietly in the corner. He was either thinking or praying—or both. Still, the sick feeling grew worse.

  Kyle walked over to Darien. “I’m sorry to bother you,” he started to say. But just then, a shot rang out. The entire squad drew their pistols and swords instantaneously. Darien leaped to his feet and went to the edge of the cave.

  “Surrender now and we may be merciful!” someone shouted from afar, the voice bouncing and echoing around the rock walls. Darien recognized the voice. It was General Liddell.

  “I’ll check their position,” a young soldier said. Before Darien could stop him, he had crept out of the cave and raced to a rock farther out in the open. He looked around, then signaled to Darien that the king’s army was situated in four places on the long ridge above them. Darien cursed himself for not paying closer attention to his instincts. They were trapped.

  “Yes, trapped!” General Liddell called out as if he knew what the signals meant. “We’ve been watching you for hours. Did you think we were so foolish as to not anticipate that you’d come to the Valley of the Rocks to hide? We’ve been hiding here since you defeated the Palatians at Kellen last night. The king is here. He wants desperately to see you.”

  “It’s true, my son!” the king shouted. “Come! Embrace me!”

  Darien’s face was expressionless. He said nothing.

  General Liddell then said, “To demonstrate how effectively you are trapped . . .”

  Another shot rang out, and the young scout suddenly clutched his chest and fell behind the rock he mistakenly thought was protecting him.

  “No!” Darien cried out, and he would’ve run to the young man if he hadn’t been grabbed by some of his other soldiers.

  “What are we going to do?” one of them asked.

  “I’m going to surrender myself to them,” Darien replied quickly.

  Another soldier immediately protested, “No! You can’t! They’ll kill you!”

  “Better for me to take that chance than for everyone here to die in this trap.”

  “Well?” General Liddell shouted.

  Another soldier stepped forward. “Maybe Colonel Oliver and the others will see what’s happening and rescue us.”

  “If they haven’t already been captured,” Darien reminded him. “Though, if George was right, we’re so outnumbered that they couldn’t do us much good anyway.”

  “But you’re our future king!” the first soldier said. “If you die, the rest of us will die anyway for having joined you.”

  “Better to die fighting!” a third soldier added.

  “If I’m to be your future king, I’m in the hands of the Unseen One anyway,” Darien said. “He will do with me whatever He wills, whether I stay here or go.”

  With the mention of the Unseen One, Darien looked over at Anna. She sat on a rock nearby and trembled. Her eyes filled with tears. The Unseen One hadn’t given her any sort of dream or vision about what they should do. She shook her head and slumped sadly.

  The discussion continued for a few more minutes, the soldiers arguing that surely the Unseen One wouldn’t have brought them this far only to have Darien “throw his life away” now. Finally, Darien beckoned everyone to kneel. “A moment of silent prayer,” he said.

  Five minutes later, he stood up. “I will go,” he said and pushed through his soldiers, ignoring their protests. He went to the mouth of the cave. Taking a deep breath, he stepped out into the open. Darien didn’t know what he expected. But he certainly didn’t expect nothing to happen. Scanning the ridges above, he was surprised to see that they were empty. He suspected that General Liddell’s soldiers were simply out of view.

  “Hello?” he called out. He thought someone—General Liddell or the king himself—would appear. He got no response, not even sniper fire.

  He ventured farther out, past the body of the dead scout. “All right, General, you win,” he shouted. “Tell the king I will surrender myself—provided you let my men go!”

  General Liddell didn’t respond. No one did. Again, nothing happened.

  The feeling in the pit of Kyle’s stomach went away. “General?” he called out.

  Darien waved him back. “Hello?” he shouted to the valley. “Are you playing games with me?” No one answered. Darien moved farther out and climbed up on a rock. He waved. “Hello? Is anybody out there?” Shielding his eyes from the sun, he scanned the valley and the rock walls. He looked back at the cave and shrugged.

  Kyle, Anna, and the soldiers wandered out into the open.

  Darien stepped down from the rock. “I don’t understand this at all,” he said.

  Small pebbles fell at their feet. They all looked up in time to see Colonel Oliver scurrying down across the rocks toward them. “It’s unbelievable!” he said breathlessly as he got closer. “Unbelievable!”

  “Slow down, Colonel,” Darien ordered.

  The colonel panted but smiled as he reported, “We were surrounded. On all sides. No chance of escape. They had us, General.”

  “I know all that,” Darien said. “But why haven’t they captured us? Where are they?”

  “They left.”

  “Left! They had us where they wanted us, and they simply up and left?”

  “Yes! We watched them leave! They were poised to attack us, and then they suddenly retreated. I’ve never seen an army move so fast.”

  “But why?”

  Colonel Oliver eyed them for dramatic effect. His red complexion was alight. “We picked up on our shortwave wireless the very thing that they picked up. A distress call. The Palatians have attacked Furnchance, just to the south. A massive Palatian army. Retaliation for your victory in Kellen, probably. There was no time to lose. They couldn’t capture you and fight the Palatians, so the king and General Liddell left! It was that simple.” Colonel Oliver was laughing now.

  Darien watched him, the news still slowly sinking in.

  Colonel Oliver clapped him on the back. “You, my dear general, were saved from your worst enemies by your worst enemies!”

  With that, they all began to laugh. They laughed long and hard—not the laugh of those who were amused but of those who felt a great sense of relief.

  The battle of Furnchance was no small skirmish. It marked the beginning of a war between Marus and Palatia. The Palatians, a civilization founded on principles of conquest and domination, unleashed everything they had in the southern part of Marus. King Lawrence, General Liddell,
and their best advisers were busy for weeks keeping the Palatians on their own side of the border. No one had time to think about Darien or where he and his men had gone.

  They had, in fact, hidden in the hills of the Territory of Peace, in the far north of Marus where Darien had helped to thwart an attack from the Adrians and was nearly assassinated by one of General Liddell’s men. (There was no doubt about it now.)

  A network of communication developed throughout the country as Darien’s secret got around. Anyone who had ever been abused or victimized by King Lawrence joined Darien’s side. Some stayed in their own towns and contributed money or food to Darien’s men. Others actually traveled to the Territory of Peace, where they pledged themselves to help Darien in any way they could. Kyle and Anna took on simple duties and responsibilities to help around the camp, all the while wondering and worrying about their family and friends back in their own world. When could they go back? In time, they began to second-guess themselves. Did they really want to go back?

  “Of course we do!” Anna said one afternoon as they were picking vegetables from a makeshift garden. “We have to go back!”

  “Don’t you like it here?” Kyle asked.

  “Yes! But that’s not the point. Mom and Dad will be worried about us. And who knows what this has done to poor Grandma and Grandpa? We’ve been gone for weeks!”

  Kyle wiped a spot of dirt from his sister’s chin. “But I like being a helper to the future king of Marus,” he said honestly. “It’ll be so boring to go back to our world and school and normal things and be . . . just me again.”

  “But we’re chosen by the Unseen One,” Anna replied. “Aren’t we chosen there as well as here?”

  “I hope so, but it won’t be the same,” Kyle observed sadly.

  Anna knew he was right. Somehow—though she didn’t understand how—she realized that whatever power she had as a voice and whatever it was that made Kyle a protector, those gifts would be gone if the two of them left Marus. She wondered then, as later, if God would give them different kinds of gifts or choose them for different tasks in their world. What had her grandparents said about it? That all believers were called to serve Him. But Kyle was right. It wouldn’t be the same.

  She sighed. “But we still have to go back,” she insisted. “I’m going to ask Darien about it at dinner tonight. I’m going to ask him to let us go back to the Old Judge and see how we can get home.”

  True to her word, Anna sat down next to Darien near the fire where dinner was prepared. Kyle sat on his other side. They both noticed that Darien looked worried and preoccupied.

  “Have you seen anything lately?” Darien asked Anna before she could speak.

  Anna had to admit that she hadn’t. Occasionally she had dreams of the king in battle against the Palatians, but they were fuzzy, unspecific dreams, like old newsreels of somebody else’s war somewhere. It had been awhile since she’d had the kinds of visions and dreams that had helped them.

  “The Unseen One has been so quiet,” Darien said. A twinge of sadness in his voice alarmed Anna and Kyle. “It’s as if He is allowing His voice to . . . to . . .” He stopped. A tear slid down his cheek.

  “What’s wrong, Darien?” asked Anna anxiously.

  “The Old Judge is dead.”

  “No . . .” Kyle said.

  “What?” Anna was stunned.

  “He died in his sleep this morning. The Unseen One has taken him away.”

  Kyle stared into the fire. He didn’t know what to feel.

  Anna began to cry. “But he can’t die!” she insisted. “He can’t ever die!”

  Darien pulled her close with one arm, then wrapped another around Kyle. “Yes,” he agreed, “he should have lived forever.”

  They all wept together.

  Against the advice of his officers, Darien decided to disguise himself and take a train to Hailsham for the Old Judge’s funeral. He explained to them that it was the least he could do after all the Old Judge had done for him. Colonel Oliver insisted on going along. So did Kyle and Anna. They were also determined to pay their last respects to the old prophet. Darien’s other officers harrumphed and argued with them up to the very last minute.

  By now, Darien was hard to recognize. He hadn’t shaved since the narrow escape at the Valley of the Rocks and had a full beard and mustache. His curly hair also had streaks of gray in it. With his country-folk clothes and hat, he could have been anyone. Few would’ve guessed that he was the great General Darien.

  The small party booked a first-class compartment on a train from Krawley and traveled without incident south toward Hailsham. They knew they were scheduled to stop in the main terminal in Sarum, but they didn’t worry since the king was reported to be with General Liddell at Kellen. Kellen had become an important headquarters for the king and his leaders since the war with Palatia had begun. Besides, no one thought much about Darien anymore. The war was on everyone’s minds, first and foremost.

  As the train pulled into the Sarum station, Darien looked wistfully at the capital city. “I wonder if I will ever be able to return here,” he said softly. Considering he was a die-hard country boy, he was surprised to find that he’d fallen in love with the city.

  “You’re going to be king here!” Colonel Oliver insisted with feeling.

  “I wonder . . .” Darien said.

  Anna opened her mouth to assure him that he would be king. There were few things on earth of which she could be absolutely certain, but Darien’s kingship was one of them. Something prompted her to keep silent, however. Somehow she knew that Darien would have to see—and believe—for himself.

  The train to Hailsham sat at the station longer than they had expected. Five minutes, ten minutes, then half an hour went by. The train didn’t move. Even the people on the platform seemed to thin out until it was virtually empty. Colonel Oliver got nervous and went into the hall to ask a steward what the holdup was. When the colonel returned a few minutes later, he was white as a ghost.

  Kyle felt that sick feeling again in his stomach.

  “It’s the king,” Colonel Oliver said. “He’s getting on the train!”

  “What train?” Darien asked. “He has his own train, and it’s in Kellen, where he’s supposed to be.”

  Colonel Oliver gestured wildly as he explained, “He’s not in Kellen, he’s here. And his train is having mechanical problems, so he’s getting on this train. He’s going to Hailsham for the Old Judge’s funeral!”

  Darien put a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing.

  “You think this is funny, General?” Colonel Oliver asked indignantly. “They’re putting him in the carriage ahead of us. He has a compartment right in front of us. I think we should get off now, while we can.”

  “And I think we should go up and say hello.”

  “This isn’t amusing.”

  “Sit down, Colonel. If we make a run for it now, they’ll suspect us. Let’s just stick to our plan, all right? The king isn’t a politician. He won’t venture back here to shake our hands or ask how our families are. He’ll stay in his carriage, and we’ll stay in ours.”

  Colonel Oliver looked at him skeptically. “And when we get to Hailsham?”

  Darien sat back casually. “We’ll get off the train with the hundreds of other people who are on it and lose ourselves in the crowd. Don’t panic.”

  “Panic? Who’s panicked?” the colonel said as he wiped beads of sweat from his freckled forehead.

  With a jolt, the train suddenly began to move from the station. Within a few minutes it was going full speed.

  “Half an hour is all it should take,” said Darien. “They won’t make any more stops with the king on board.” He had a mischievous look on his face. A smile crept onto his lips. “Maybe I should go say hello to the king.”

  “What?” Colonel Oliver cried, exasperated.

  “It’s dangerous,” Kyle warned, his stomach still churning.

  “Just a quick little visit. Why not?” Darien said.<
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  Anna shook her head silently, like a mother with a precocious child.

  “You’re going to kill him then?” Colonel Oliver asked.

  “Kill him! He’s the king,” Darien said earnestly. “Chosen by the Unseen One. I won’t raise my hand against him.”

  Colonel Oliver pointed a finger at him. “Well, if you’re going to all the trouble of dropping in on him, I suspect you’ll have to kill him as well. He’s not going to give you a nice, big howdy-do and let you go.”

  “No, I suppose not,” Darien admitted thoughtfully, then brightened again. “A quick peek won’t hurt, though. I won’t have to speak to him. You said his compartment is just ahead?”

  “Yes, but—”

  Before Colonel Oliver could say anything else, Darien was on his feet and opening the outside door to their compartment. Wind rushed in, nearly yanking the door from his hand. The inside door, the one that led into the carriage hall, rattled in its frame.

  “How are you going to get there?” Colonel Oliver asked, his face the picture of worry.

  “Plenty of rods and rails to hold on to,” Darien said as he stepped halfway outside. The wind pounded against him, pressing his hair back and turning his shirt into a billowing sheet. “Each door has its own step. I’ll simply pull myself from one to another until I find his compartment.”

  “And if someone reports you before you get to his compartment?”

  “Then I’ll jump off the train and meet you later in Hailsham.”

  “Oh, that’s a comfort.”

  “It’s something fun to do!” he said like a little boy. “I haven’t had any fun since I got those Palatian medals. Bye!” He slipped out the door. They watched him as he clung to the side of the train like a spider, inching his way forward, swinging from one step to the next. The train went into a black tunnel, and when it emerged into the light again, Darien was gone.