"CHAP-04" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jerome Bigge - Warlady 3 - The Queen Of Swords)THE QUEEN OF SWORDS! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN 2566 A.D.! By Jerome B. Bigge Chapter Four "I'm not quite sure about the meaning of all of this," Queen Maris Jord of Dularn answered. Our eyes meeting over the papers there in the lead sheathing that I had just set down on the love- ly polished dark oak table there before her. Lorraine standing quietly with Sharon there at my side. Golden haired Maris' new husband, my gross foster brother Darl, wisely keeping his own distance from us all as he now stood there by the crackling blaz- ing fireplace like some bloated boar in dark wool. I have never forgiven him for what he did to me over thirty years ago. I was young and innocent then, only a girl of fifteen. I still remem- bered the rape as vividly as if it had been only the day before. The three young men, all masked, dragging me into a dark alley by surprise. Throwing me down there on the hard stone, tearing at my clothing and then striking me as I screamed with terror! A filthy rag forced into my mouth as my hose were yanked down over my hips to bare my body. Two of them holding me while the third then cruelly raped me there among the garbage, the refuse. The pain, the "hurt", the HORROR as I then recognized his birthmark! "Princess Tara wishes to start up the warfare between our countries again," I answered, hoping that Lorraine would keep her mouth shut for once. There was "bad blood" between her and Maris of Dularn. Once the Queen had been a slave of Lorraine's foster daughter Mara. Lorraine had threatened to sell the blonde beauty on the basis that she was "too old" for the girl. With the help of Mara and the late Carl Talen, who had been her "lover", Maris had fled on board a little sailing yacht all the way back to Du- larn. The story is quite involved, and I am doubtful if either Lorraine or Maris has been completely truthful about the matter! "You will find the translation accurate," Lorraine added, her hand on the hilt of her sword. The tone of her voice left no doubt too that she considered Maris just another "dumb blonde"! Lorraine tends to "resent" women more beautiful than herself. I know she will deny this, but I have ample "proof" for my beliefs! "I can verify that for myself," the young Queen snapped, her eyes like emerald jewels burning hotly into Lorraine's dark eyes. Like so many of the Warrioress caste, Maris was a "touchy" woman. "I don't want to see another war between our countries," I answered, reaching out, touching the golden haired Queen's hand as she glanced up at me. It would have been best, I knew, meet- ing those green eyes with my own, had Lorraine not come with us. "Such matters are not something I can always control," she answered, glancing at Lorraine. I wondered how much she knew. I had seen the framework of another "North" class schooner under construction there in the shipyard as we flew over the harbor. I worried about that too. Maris was a fighter much like Lorraine! An able and competent Warrioress said to be an excellent naval commander. A Dularnian "Nelson", some had called her, much to my Warlady's annoyance, there being "bad blood" between the two now! "We do not view Princess Tara in quite the same light as you two do," my foster brother Darl "commented" from beside the fire- place. I noticed that it was now snowing outside, wet and heavy. I didn't think we'd be flying back to Porlan today if it kept up. Lorraine had warned me about such. About what could happen if the wings "iced up"! Maris would have to put up with our company for the night! I wished once again that Lorraine was elsewhere! "She was the Warlady who murdered hundreds of innocents!" Maris told him in reply. Apparently she knew something of Tara! "And who gave her the orders to do so?" my brother snapped. I had been Tara's "Commander in Chief". The responsibility mine. For an instant our eyes met. I saw "fear" in his. I was not the little "helpless" teenager now that I had been thirty years ago! "We didn't do so great, did we?" Sharon smiled as we were shown a room for the night. Lorraine nodding, giving me a smile. I felt like saying we'd have done a lot better without Lorraine, but dared not speak such words with my Warlady standing there! I do not fear her, but I am no mental match for her in an argument. "I think a bright young lady like you should be able to make friends with Maris given a month or so to work on her," Lorraine smiled back in reply. I was glad that Lorraine was "on my side". I'd hate to have HER as an enemy! Sharon nodding, smiling back. Lorraine may be extremely intelligent, knowledgeable, but she is also not the "easiest" person in the world to get along with! I sometimes have to bite my lip just to keep "control" around her! "Just as long as Maris doesn't get the idea she's a spy," I warned, worried a bit about what Lorraine planned to "do" with Sharon. Lorraine laughing softly to herself at my words as she unbuckled her harness, hanging her weapons on a hook there on the wall above the bed. The room furnished in a style that brought back memories of my childhood. The animal heads on the walls were a touch I found pleasing if somewhat unfeminine by Califor- nian standards. Such is common in Dularnian homes. Pride is taken in such activities. Both sexes hunt, and fight in battle. That is perhaps why Dularn has never been "conquered" by anyone. "Military `secrets' with a Twelfth Century technology?" my Warlady laughed to herself in reply as she stirred up the fire there in the fireplace. "I'd worry a lot more about Maris pick- ing Sharon's brains." I supposed now that was just possible too. Sharon was after all a girl of the 20th Century, with knowledge and training that was hardly known here now in the 26th Century. Much of the "knowledge" of the past was lost over the centuries. "They have compound bows and those weren't invented until the 1960's," Sharon pointed out, coming to the defense of Dularn! "And the keel design of their `North' class schooner is also quite `modern'," I pointed out with a smile. Lorraine nodding, a smile now curving her thin lips. We had indeed made our "point"! "You have a lovely country, but the winters are too cold," I heard Lorraine say as Queen Maris wished us a farewell early the next morning, Sharon there at her side. The sun shining through the clouds, reflecting off the pure whiteness of the newly fallen snow. I would have liked to have stayed for a while, but "duty called" and our final destination was far to the south, there in the mysterious land of Talon nestled there in the mountains be- tween Trelandar and the territory claimed by the nomadic Nevadas. "A matter of taste," Queen Maris smiled back. I had gotten along with her fairly well last year before the death of my moth- er, the late Queen of Dularn.* Lorraine can be "nasty" at times without sometimes realizing it. She does have her own "flaws". Her innate dominant nature makes her a natural leader of people, but on the other hand she tends to be as stubborn as a bulldog! * Yes, I do know my real mother is Aurora, but I did think of Tu- lis as being my "mother" even after getting the letter she wrote before her death stating that I was "Aurora's"! Tulis did raise me. She was still the woman who nursed me at her own breast, who soothed away my childish fears when there was a thunderstorm. "Well, let's hope that this will start," Lorraine smiled, turning on the ignition key and the pre-heaters. The plane rock- ing a bit on its floats there in the bay before the Royal Palace of Dularn. "It's a long walk back from here," she laughed softly as she pushed the starter button. The engine starting up with a roar, making Maris and everyone leap back in surprise a bit. I had taken Maris up in the plane a couple times the year before with Tulis. We had both found the experience quite enjoyable. "I'm glad things turned out the way that they did," Lorraine said to me with a smile as she flew while I relaxed there beside her. My attire, as she had said, making her think of skiers that she had seen back in the 20th Century. The fur lined leather jacket and my wool hose no doubt similar to 20th Century attire. I had worn a dark blue wool tunic falling to just below my hips. "We would have done better if you hadn't been along," I pointed out in all honesty. Lorraine's being there had been un- comfortable for Maris. Making her more "hostile" than otherwise. I always feel uneasy criticizing Lorraine as she is more intelli- gent than me and I'm really no match for her in any verbal duel! "I'm not referring to that," Lorraine smiled back, "But to what would have happened had Sharon and I made it to Dularn with your `sister' last year." I nodded, smiled. The thought had al- ready occurred to me more than once. I suspected that I would have lost my Empire, my life before things were finally over. I had no delusions of what it would have been like. Lorraine would have exploited the "Free Trelandar" movement for everything it was worth. Sent against me a fleet of ships armed with flame- throwers, firebombs. Thousands would have died in a terrible war before my own death finally ended it! Perhaps even at the point of her sword as I so killed the lovely Queen Paula of Trelandar!* * I am not quite a "match" for Lorraine with swords, although I am a better archer than she is. I have no doubt that she would have killed me in a sword duel unless I was extremely "lucky". I doubt that Aurora would have "saved" me as she paid little actual attention to my "activities" as such back then, being more "in- volved" in certain "political" matters there on Mars and the up- bringing of her granddaughter, my own lovely blondish Anna! "I read your first manuscript," I smiled. I had made a few footnotes there in the margins. A few comments of my own. There had obviously been a time when she would have gladly killed me! "Of course An'na might have come and saved you," she smiled. I nodded, turned my face away so that she might not see my look. It still hurt that Anna had "deserted" me in the way she had. I "understood" in a rational sense, but it still hurt emotionally. "And you even hated me without even knowing anything about me," I pointed out in reply, not meeting her eyes. That was true. I had read her book. She had been truthful, honest about her feelings back then towards me. I recalled her statement about what she would have done had she possessed the hunting ri- fle she had owned back in the 20th Century and how easy it would have been to have killed me there on Sarnian Lady from the woods! "And Sharon even hated you worse than I did," she smiled in turn, reaching out, touching my hand. I remembered Sharon stand- ing there on the Ronda's quarterdeck, a crossbow in her hands, aimed directly at my heart! The hate burning there in her eyes. "All proof of how easy it is to hate others when you don't know anything about them," Lorraine smiled back as she checked the plane's instruments there before her. Navigating by that de- vice An'na installed that always showed exactly where we were! I could see the land there to port, hazy in the distance, the sea there far below like a grayish platter covered with fine ripples. The scattered clouds above us gray and dark for the most part. "Sarn," I said, the city beautiful in the last twilight. It had been a long flight. Lorraine had decided not to stop in Or- gon, but fly on. I was hungry, the sandwich I had eaten having served only to whet my appetite for something more. I enjoy such pleasures. Perhaps too much for my own good. I envy those like Lorraine who don't have to ever worry about such things as "watching their weight". Lorraine easing out the throttle, push- ing the wheel forward a bit as we now descended towards the bay. "And Talon tomorrow," Lorraine smiled in reply. I nodded. I wondered if it might not be wise for me to stay home. I was not likely to be very "popular" with Talon's Queen or her people! "Lynn is gone, your majesty!" my major domo told me there at my palace as soon as we landed. "We've searched the entire city, but she is nowhere to be found!" she exclaimed. I saw Lorraine's eyes meet mine. Saw her nod, a grim smile on her thin lips. Princess Tara had struck again! I wondered how much Lynn knew? "But how?" I protested. Security was tight. I had taken every precaution that I could. Not that it ever seemed to do any good. Tara came and went like a ghost. Nothing I did "worked"! "Tara has a first rate mind as `good' as Janet Rogers' com- bined with a personality like the `Marquis de Sade'," Lorraine smiled back after I dismissed the woman and the warrioresses with her. Even with an entire Legion now in the city Tara still came and went as if she was still my Warlady, still head of the Senate as she had been before we had fought that duel the summer before! "But how does she do it?" I protested. I had men, women, an army, a powerful Empire. Yet Tara made me look like a simpleton! "I believe that she controls the criminal `underground'," my Warlady smiled back. "All `evil' here in your world is Tara's."* * Lorraine is probably referring here to the claim she makes that Princess Tara is in reality "The Anti-Lys", the enemy of "GOOD". "She's just a woman, an evil woman, but still a woman!" I snapped back. I don't put any stock in Lorraine's "supernatural" beliefs about Tara. She is simply an evil woman, nothing more! On the other hand I sometimes "wonder" just a bit now about her! "She also has your slave girl, whose tongue will soon wag," Lorraine pointed out. Tara was a true mistress of sadism. She could extract "information" out of a stone, it was said of her! I knew something of Tara's "methods" of "extracting" information! "Which means she knows everything we do," I answered her. I was thankful she didn't know about Aurora and me. Tara would have loved to have "exploited" that little bit of "information"! "We do have Black Lady," Lorraine smiled back. We could travel far faster than she could. At least we still had that ad- vantage over "The Princess of Darkness" as Lorraine calls her! "Poor Lynn," I muttered to myself, pitying the slave girl. Knowing what Tara would "do" to her even if she did "co-operate"! ***************************************************************** Lynn knelt on a hard wooden deck, her teeth chattering with cold, salty tears trickling down her burning cheeks as she sobbed in terror. The cold icy eyes of a beautiful dark haired woman burning now into hers. The slave girl stripped, shackled, her naked body now a cruel mass of welts. Tara had whipped her with a sadistic cruelty that had even revolted many of her own crew! The cruel Princess laughing as the slave girl pleaded for mercy! "Darlanis' little `plaything'," Tara laughed, pushing up the girl's chin with her coiled whip. "Her little `pussy-licker'!" A bit of cold spray coming over the side in the darkness making the Bajan curse as it then splattered her fine silken dress, wet- ting the leather of her jacket and her near knee high boots. A gentle creaking of the rigging speaking of the ship's progress. "Darlanis never made me do `that'," Lynn breathed foolishly, coming to my defense, suddenly aware as she spoke that her com- ment might have been perhaps unwise considering "what" Tara was! "Then it is due time that you learned." Tara laughed back! ***************************************************************** I tossed restlessly in my bed, unable to get to sleep, my weapons as usual slung over the bedpost near to hand. Such is a wise precaution in a social order where assassination is common. I thought of Lynn, of the evil of Princess Tara, who Lorraine had said was "THE PRINCESS OF DARKNESS", the "Anti-Lys" of legend the Priestesses tell us will someday come to fight with Lys herself. There is a great deal of "mumbo-jumbo" in their teachings, a lot of things that you can "read" whatever way you happen to believe. Suddenly there was a noise at one of my windows, the dark figure of someone slipping into the room, a woman clad in black, some sort of weapon held there in her hands as she now advanced!! The dim glow from the fireplace lighting up her face as I saw she was one of my own guardswomen. A member of my own Royal Guard!!! "DIE!" she hissed in low tones, swinging up her weapon, a small hand crossbow of the sort used for "target shooting", the bolt no doubt poisoned so that the least flesh wound would be fa- tal. Such is against the "Codes", but is sometimes done anyway! The bolt slapped harmlessly into my pillow as I suddenly swung it up. I am of the Warrioresses. My reactions are swift! Seeing that she had "failed" with her crossbow, she whipped out her dagger and charged me just as I drew my own from its or- nate sheath! Swinging up the pillow to catch her downswing as I drove up with my own weapon, driving it hilt deep into her body! A dozen inches of cold steel driving deep up into her own vitals! THE QUEEN OF SWORDS! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN 2566 A.D.! By Jerome B. Bigge Chapter Four "I'm not quite sure about the meaning of all of this," Queen Maris Jord of Dularn answered. Our eyes meeting over the papers there in the lead sheathing that I had just set down on the love- ly polished dark oak table there before her. Lorraine standing quietly with Sharon there at my side. Golden haired Maris' new husband, my gross foster brother Darl, wisely keeping his own distance from us all as he now stood there by the crackling blaz- ing fireplace like some bloated boar in dark wool. I have never forgiven him for what he did to me over thirty years ago. I was young and innocent then, only a girl of fifteen. I still remem- bered the rape as vividly as if it had been only the day before. The three young men, all masked, dragging me into a dark alley by surprise. Throwing me down there on the hard stone, tearing at my clothing and then striking me as I screamed with terror! A filthy rag forced into my mouth as my hose were yanked down over my hips to bare my body. Two of them holding me while the third then cruelly raped me there among the garbage, the refuse. The pain, the "hurt", the HORROR as I then recognized his birthmark! "Princess Tara wishes to start up the warfare between our countries again," I answered, hoping that Lorraine would keep her mouth shut for once. There was "bad blood" between her and Maris of Dularn. Once the Queen had been a slave of Lorraine's foster daughter Mara. Lorraine had threatened to sell the blonde beauty on the basis that she was "too old" for the girl. With the help of Mara and the late Carl Talen, who had been her "lover", Maris had fled on board a little sailing yacht all the way back to Du- larn. The story is quite involved, and I am doubtful if either Lorraine or Maris has been completely truthful about the matter! "You will find the translation accurate," Lorraine added, her hand on the hilt of her sword. The tone of her voice left no doubt too that she considered Maris just another "dumb blonde"! Lorraine tends to "resent" women more beautiful than herself. I know she will deny this, but I have ample "proof" for my beliefs! "I can verify that for myself," the young Queen snapped, her eyes like emerald jewels burning hotly into Lorraine's dark eyes. Like so many of the Warrioress caste, Maris was a "touchy" woman. "I don't want to see another war between our countries," I answered, reaching out, touching the golden haired Queen's hand as she glanced up at me. It would have been best, I knew, meet- ing those green eyes with my own, had Lorraine not come with us. "Such matters are not something I can always control," she answered, glancing at Lorraine. I wondered how much she knew. I had seen the framework of another "North" class schooner under construction there in the shipyard as we flew over the harbor. I worried about that too. Maris was a fighter much like Lorraine! An able and competent Warrioress said to be an excellent naval commander. A Dularnian "Nelson", some had called her, much to my Warlady's annoyance, there being "bad blood" between the two now! "We do not view Princess Tara in quite the same light as you two do," my foster brother Darl "commented" from beside the fire- place. I noticed that it was now snowing outside, wet and heavy. I didn't think we'd be flying back to Porlan today if it kept up. Lorraine had warned me about such. About what could happen if the wings "iced up"! Maris would have to put up with our company for the night! I wished once again that Lorraine was elsewhere! "She was the Warlady who murdered hundreds of innocents!" Maris told him in reply. Apparently she knew something of Tara! "And who gave her the orders to do so?" my brother snapped. I had been Tara's "Commander in Chief". The responsibility mine. For an instant our eyes met. I saw "fear" in his. I was not the little "helpless" teenager now that I had been thirty years ago! "We didn't do so great, did we?" Sharon smiled as we were shown a room for the night. Lorraine nodding, giving me a smile. I felt like saying we'd have done a lot better without Lorraine, but dared not speak such words with my Warlady standing there! I do not fear her, but I am no mental match for her in an argument. "I think a bright young lady like you should be able to make friends with Maris given a month or so to work on her," Lorraine smiled back in reply. I was glad that Lorraine was "on my side". I'd hate to have HER as an enemy! Sharon nodding, smiling back. Lorraine may be extremely intelligent, knowledgeable, but she is also not the "easiest" person in the world to get along with! I sometimes have to bite my lip just to keep "control" around her! "Just as long as Maris doesn't get the idea she's a spy," I warned, worried a bit about what Lorraine planned to "do" with Sharon. Lorraine laughing softly to herself at my words as she unbuckled her harness, hanging her weapons on a hook there on the wall above the bed. The room furnished in a style that brought back memories of my childhood. The animal heads on the walls were a touch I found pleasing if somewhat unfeminine by Califor- nian standards. Such is common in Dularnian homes. Pride is taken in such activities. Both sexes hunt, and fight in battle. That is perhaps why Dularn has never been "conquered" by anyone. "Military `secrets' with a Twelfth Century technology?" my Warlady laughed to herself in reply as she stirred up the fire there in the fireplace. "I'd worry a lot more about Maris pick- ing Sharon's brains." I supposed now that was just possible too. Sharon was after all a girl of the 20th Century, with knowledge and training that was hardly known here now in the 26th Century. Much of the "knowledge" of the past was lost over the centuries. "They have compound bows and those weren't invented until the 1960's," Sharon pointed out, coming to the defense of Dularn! "And the keel design of their `North' class schooner is also quite `modern'," I pointed out with a smile. Lorraine nodding, a smile now curving her thin lips. We had indeed made our "point"! "You have a lovely country, but the winters are too cold," I heard Lorraine say as Queen Maris wished us a farewell early the next morning, Sharon there at her side. The sun shining through the clouds, reflecting off the pure whiteness of the newly fallen snow. I would have liked to have stayed for a while, but "duty called" and our final destination was far to the south, there in the mysterious land of Talon nestled there in the mountains be- tween Trelandar and the territory claimed by the nomadic Nevadas. "A matter of taste," Queen Maris smiled back. I had gotten along with her fairly well last year before the death of my moth- er, the late Queen of Dularn.* Lorraine can be "nasty" at times without sometimes realizing it. She does have her own "flaws". Her innate dominant nature makes her a natural leader of people, but on the other hand she tends to be as stubborn as a bulldog! * Yes, I do know my real mother is Aurora, but I did think of Tu- lis as being my "mother" even after getting the letter she wrote before her death stating that I was "Aurora's"! Tulis did raise me. She was still the woman who nursed me at her own breast, who soothed away my childish fears when there was a thunderstorm. "Well, let's hope that this will start," Lorraine smiled, turning on the ignition key and the pre-heaters. The plane rock- ing a bit on its floats there in the bay before the Royal Palace of Dularn. "It's a long walk back from here," she laughed softly as she pushed the starter button. The engine starting up with a roar, making Maris and everyone leap back in surprise a bit. I had taken Maris up in the plane a couple times the year before with Tulis. We had both found the experience quite enjoyable. "I'm glad things turned out the way that they did," Lorraine said to me with a smile as she flew while I relaxed there beside her. My attire, as she had said, making her think of skiers that she had seen back in the 20th Century. The fur lined leather jacket and my wool hose no doubt similar to 20th Century attire. I had worn a dark blue wool tunic falling to just below my hips. "We would have done better if you hadn't been along," I pointed out in all honesty. Lorraine's being there had been un- comfortable for Maris. Making her more "hostile" than otherwise. I always feel uneasy criticizing Lorraine as she is more intelli- gent than me and I'm really no match for her in any verbal duel! "I'm not referring to that," Lorraine smiled back, "But to what would have happened had Sharon and I made it to Dularn with your `sister' last year." I nodded, smiled. The thought had al- ready occurred to me more than once. I suspected that I would have lost my Empire, my life before things were finally over. I had no delusions of what it would have been like. Lorraine would have exploited the "Free Trelandar" movement for everything it was worth. Sent against me a fleet of ships armed with flame- throwers, firebombs. Thousands would have died in a terrible war before my own death finally ended it! Perhaps even at the point of her sword as I so killed the lovely Queen Paula of Trelandar!* * I am not quite a "match" for Lorraine with swords, although I am a better archer than she is. I have no doubt that she would have killed me in a sword duel unless I was extremely "lucky". I doubt that Aurora would have "saved" me as she paid little actual attention to my "activities" as such back then, being more "in- volved" in certain "political" matters there on Mars and the up- bringing of her granddaughter, my own lovely blondish Anna! "I read your first manuscript," I smiled. I had made a few footnotes there in the margins. A few comments of my own. There had obviously been a time when she would have gladly killed me! "Of course An'na might have come and saved you," she smiled. I nodded, turned my face away so that she might not see my look. It still hurt that Anna had "deserted" me in the way she had. I "understood" in a rational sense, but it still hurt emotionally. "And you even hated me without even knowing anything about me," I pointed out in reply, not meeting her eyes. That was true. I had read her book. She had been truthful, honest about her feelings back then towards me. I recalled her statement about what she would have done had she possessed the hunting ri- fle she had owned back in the 20th Century and how easy it would have been to have killed me there on Sarnian Lady from the woods! "And Sharon even hated you worse than I did," she smiled in turn, reaching out, touching my hand. I remembered Sharon stand- ing there on the Ronda's quarterdeck, a crossbow in her hands, aimed directly at my heart! The hate burning there in her eyes. "All proof of how easy it is to hate others when you don't know anything about them," Lorraine smiled back as she checked the plane's instruments there before her. Navigating by that de- vice An'na installed that always showed exactly where we were! I could see the land there to port, hazy in the distance, the sea there far below like a grayish platter covered with fine ripples. The scattered clouds above us gray and dark for the most part. "Sarn," I said, the city beautiful in the last twilight. It had been a long flight. Lorraine had decided not to stop in Or- gon, but fly on. I was hungry, the sandwich I had eaten having served only to whet my appetite for something more. I enjoy such pleasures. Perhaps too much for my own good. I envy those like Lorraine who don't have to ever worry about such things as "watching their weight". Lorraine easing out the throttle, push- ing the wheel forward a bit as we now descended towards the bay. "And Talon tomorrow," Lorraine smiled in reply. I nodded. I wondered if it might not be wise for me to stay home. I was not likely to be very "popular" with Talon's Queen or her people! "Lynn is gone, your majesty!" my major domo told me there at my palace as soon as we landed. "We've searched the entire city, but she is nowhere to be found!" she exclaimed. I saw Lorraine's eyes meet mine. Saw her nod, a grim smile on her thin lips. Princess Tara had struck again! I wondered how much Lynn knew? "But how?" I protested. Security was tight. I had taken every precaution that I could. Not that it ever seemed to do any good. Tara came and went like a ghost. Nothing I did "worked"! "Tara has a first rate mind as `good' as Janet Rogers' com- bined with a personality like the `Marquis de Sade'," Lorraine smiled back after I dismissed the woman and the warrioresses with her. Even with an entire Legion now in the city Tara still came and went as if she was still my Warlady, still head of the Senate as she had been before we had fought that duel the summer before! "But how does she do it?" I protested. I had men, women, an army, a powerful Empire. Yet Tara made me look like a simpleton! "I believe that she controls the criminal `underground'," my Warlady smiled back. "All `evil' here in your world is Tara's."* * Lorraine is probably referring here to the claim she makes that Princess Tara is in reality "The Anti-Lys", the enemy of "GOOD". "She's just a woman, an evil woman, but still a woman!" I snapped back. I don't put any stock in Lorraine's "supernatural" beliefs about Tara. She is simply an evil woman, nothing more! On the other hand I sometimes "wonder" just a bit now about her! "She also has your slave girl, whose tongue will soon wag," Lorraine pointed out. Tara was a true mistress of sadism. She could extract "information" out of a stone, it was said of her! I knew something of Tara's "methods" of "extracting" information! "Which means she knows everything we do," I answered her. I was thankful she didn't know about Aurora and me. Tara would have loved to have "exploited" that little bit of "information"! "We do have Black Lady," Lorraine smiled back. We could travel far faster than she could. At least we still had that ad- vantage over "The Princess of Darkness" as Lorraine calls her! "Poor Lynn," I muttered to myself, pitying the slave girl. Knowing what Tara would "do" to her even if she did "co-operate"! ***************************************************************** Lynn knelt on a hard wooden deck, her teeth chattering with cold, salty tears trickling down her burning cheeks as she sobbed in terror. The cold icy eyes of a beautiful dark haired woman burning now into hers. The slave girl stripped, shackled, her naked body now a cruel mass of welts. Tara had whipped her with a sadistic cruelty that had even revolted many of her own crew! The cruel Princess laughing as the slave girl pleaded for mercy! "Darlanis' little `plaything'," Tara laughed, pushing up the girl's chin with her coiled whip. "Her little `pussy-licker'!" A bit of cold spray coming over the side in the darkness making the Bajan curse as it then splattered her fine silken dress, wet- ting the leather of her jacket and her near knee high boots. A gentle creaking of the rigging speaking of the ship's progress. "Darlanis never made me do `that'," Lynn breathed foolishly, coming to my defense, suddenly aware as she spoke that her com- ment might have been perhaps unwise considering "what" Tara was! "Then it is due time that you learned." Tara laughed back! ***************************************************************** I tossed restlessly in my bed, unable to get to sleep, my weapons as usual slung over the bedpost near to hand. Such is a wise precaution in a social order where assassination is common. I thought of Lynn, of the evil of Princess Tara, who Lorraine had said was "THE PRINCESS OF DARKNESS", the "Anti-Lys" of legend the Priestesses tell us will someday come to fight with Lys herself. There is a great deal of "mumbo-jumbo" in their teachings, a lot of things that you can "read" whatever way you happen to believe. Suddenly there was a noise at one of my windows, the dark figure of someone slipping into the room, a woman clad in black, some sort of weapon held there in her hands as she now advanced!! The dim glow from the fireplace lighting up her face as I saw she was one of my own guardswomen. A member of my own Royal Guard!!! "DIE!" she hissed in low tones, swinging up her weapon, a small hand crossbow of the sort used for "target shooting", the bolt no doubt poisoned so that the least flesh wound would be fa- tal. Such is against the "Codes", but is sometimes done anyway! The bolt slapped harmlessly into my pillow as I suddenly swung it up. I am of the Warrioresses. My reactions are swift! Seeing that she had "failed" with her crossbow, she whipped out her dagger and charged me just as I drew my own from its or- nate sheath! Swinging up the pillow to catch her downswing as I drove up with my own weapon, driving it hilt deep into her body! A dozen inches of cold steel driving deep up into her own vitals! |
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