"CHAP-06" - 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 Six "You gave us quite a surprise, flying over us like that," Lara said to me as we shared a late dinner and more. Her young boyish Prince of a husband nodding, giving me a smile. She was at least one friend that accepted me for what I was. She did not consider me a "dumb blonde" like Lorraine, or some comic book (actually a TV) heroine like Sharon did. Lara respected me for what I was as a person. Almost worshiped me in a way. With her I could be comfortable. At ease. Be "myself". Not what someone else thought that I should be. That meant a lot to me just then. Especially after the treatment I had received there in Talon from Dala Dai, its Queen. I had come in friendship, and gotten HATE! There would have been a time that Legions would be marching now! I had at one time or another fought a war with every country that bordered upon the Empire of California. My entire career as the Empress of California seems now as I look back on it one of WAR! First Trelandar, and then the Montanas to the east of Sarn. Then Talon, a painful defeat for my ambitions. After that battles with the Nevadas. Clashes with the Empire of Mexico. Dularn.* * It is not surprising that Aurora considered me a "barbarian"! "You are as beautiful and provocative as ever," I smiled. Lara is a very sensual, "exciting" woman. A very famous woman. Once she had knelt naked before me in chains. Accused of the crime of attempting to "overthrow the government". Of speaking out against authority. Against me, the Empress of California! I had understood as others had not that she had only sought to im- prove the status, the conditions of life for those women who had become prostitutes. That this "Queen of Prostitutes" was clearly no danger to "established order", unless you define such as being the private profit of the pimps and other low orders of life who lived off the sweat, the labors of the prostitutes of California! "Jers is `man' enough to keep me happy," she smiled back. I saw the love in his eyes as he smiled back at her. She is above medium height, has reddish brown hair, gray-blue eyes. Is a bit "busty" perhaps, but with a figure that most women can only envy! Sharon says that she is almost the "twin sister" of a 20th Cen- tury movie and television actress by the name of Catherine Bach. Her attire consisted of a brief red leather skirt and a matching silken halter in a dark blue. Her boots also matching her skirt. "It must be hard on you, having to live on a hundred and twenty foot ship with nothing but the sea every day there before you," I said to Lara as we stood there beneath the stars on the rooftop of Lorraine's palace. Few wives could have stood it. I watched the full Moon rising there behind us, a brilliant sphere, its "face" smiling down upon us as it has for millions of years. "At least I'm `alive', which is more than I would be if Tara ever got her hands on me," Lara smiled back. Tara had promised to kill Lara if she ever got her hands on her for marrying her son Jers against her wishes. I suspected that Tara would carry out her threat if she ever got the opportunity to do so. She had already tried twice to my knowledge. Once at Lara's wedding ceremony, where she attempted to have Lara assassinated, and once again there on the Seahawk with poisoned food. Fortunately dis- covered just in time before anyone died from having eaten of it due to a rat who had nibbled on it and died almost instantly too! "I only wish I could do more for you after all you've done for me over the years," I said to her, my hands on her shoulders. Without "Lara of Trelandar" I probably wouldn't have been able to be the ruler that I was. Her prostitutes had become my "agents". Lara had "advised" me from time to time. I fear I should have "listened" more to her back then and far less to Princess Tara. "I betrayed you at the end, you know," Lara said softly. I knew she had supported the "Free Trelandar" movement of Sanda's. That had "come out" after the successful revolution in Trelandar I had made no real attempt to stop. I did not blame her for her actions. She was after all a Trelandarian. It was her country. "You only followed the ideals I taught you," I smiled back. We had both been "young". Perhaps a bit too "idealistic" in some ways. I had been an Empress. She a prostitute. It had been a relationship that raised eyebrows all over the Empire of Califor- nia. Lara had been the one who had suggested the golden mesh. I had learned much from her of how to control men, keep them "off balance". She had been one of my most valuable "advisors". We had been more than friends. That was why I had done nothing when she started a relationship with Princess Tara's son, although I dreaded what the "outcome" might be if Tara ever learned of it! "Perhaps we've both `grown up' now," Lara said to me. "Out- grown our dreams of a better world for everyone." I recalled our talks back then. I had been young, ambitious. Ready to make a "name" for myself. Then I had lost the war with Talon. That had been the turning point of my career. I was no longer "invinci- ble". I had lost Anna shortly afterwards when Sarnian Queen was lost on an uncharted rock in a storm, a blow that had badly shak- en me. Made me turn inwards on myself. Made me bitter, "hard". "You've been at sea too long," I smiled back, hugging her. The light of the full Moon behind me reflected there in her eyes. "I think we're chasing a dream of what was, instead of going after what should be," Lara answered. "We should forget Janet Rogers. Stop pretending that we have another in Queen Lorraine." Lorraine had been the one "responsible" for Janet Roger's ideas. There were a number of people who believed that Lorraine was the "Second Janet Rogers" that would "rescue" Mankind from the Lorr. And even restore the legendary civilization of the 21st Century. "You don't like her that much, do you?" I asked, wondering. "Too `hard', too `dominant' for my taste," she smiled back. "She is a good friend," I answered, coming to her defense. "She's a `mother figure', and that's why you like her," Lara answered, her words reminding me much of Lorraine's herself in a certain way. I wondered if Lara was right. I did look upon Lor- raine that way. As someone who would "protect" me, "mother" me! Especially after Queen Tulis had "turned on me" as she had when I was but a teenage girl! And Aurora certainly wasn't any better!! Suddenly the thought came to me out of nowhere that Lynn had been kidnaped only last night, and Trella was five hundred miles from Sarn! No ship, even the swiftest that ever sailed, was able to have reached this far south yet! And the Seahawk was the match of anything but a heavy galley! I could capture Tara's ship! Perhaps the evil Princess herself if she was aboard it! I had Lorraine's Black Lady, and there was a full Moon tonight too! "We're up awfully high, aren't we?" Lara breathed nervously, staring straight ahead through the windshield, the Pacific like a rippling pond there below in the soft pale glow of the full Moon that now shined down upon it from the east. I had told Jers to sail north towards Sarn. Fortunately it had been possible to get enough men to man the big warship despite those who had already "disappeared" into Trella's myriad waterfront dives and brothels. "Five thousand feet," I smiled back. I did not doubt Lara's courage. I had once stood beside her in battle, disguised as one of her prostitutes. Those who had faced me that night had not known that they faced Darlanis Marden, the Empress of California! Lara had given a good account of herself, although I fear that my own skill with a blade was perhaps what saved us from those cut- throats that had been sent to put an end to her organizing the prostitutes of California. We had stood together, side by side. "A mile straight up," Lara breathed, staring at the controls there before her, the various instruments there on the panel now glowing softly in the darkness. Their indications doubtlessly of little meaning to her. Up here I felt in command, "in control"! "And we're traveling at nearly a hundred and fifty knots," I smiled back. Lara's eyes glowing into mine in the darkness of the cabin, the only illumination the full Moon there in the star sprinkled sky and the soft red glow off the plane's instruments. "Ten times better than the swiftest ship in your navy," my friend breathed. Lorraine's Squala could reach fifteen knots, I knew, although such did put a great deal of strain on the vessel! Lara held the little chamber pot up against herself beneath her short red leather skirt as I watched the gleaming sea below. My friend's nervousness no doubt effecting her bladder somewhat. The airplane's "sanitary" arrangements being rather "crude", al- though as Lorraine once pointed out, one must do as one must do! "Shouldn't have drank so much there at dinner," she smiled, setting the chamber pot down there at her feet and adjusting her strap there beneath her skirt. I remembered how embarrassed that Lorraine had gotten the first time she had to do that with me in the plane with her. Even to climbing into the back seat to do it so that I couldn't watch her! Different eras, different "mores"! "There ahead of us," I said to Lara, seeing the sails. The ship a two masted schooner. I dared not approach too close for fear of warning those aboard. The sound of the engine carries. "We're about two hundred miles north of Trella," I observed, mak- ing a quick mental calculation from our airspeed, time of flight. "Average speed of twelve knots," Lara smiled, doing her own calculations. "The Seahawk will have a hard time doing any more than just matching that," she warned. I hadn't thought of that! "Maybe we got the wrong ship," she suggested a second later. "Or Tara's got something a bit `better' than we thought," I suggested back. There were better ship designs than those used for warships if one desired to sacrifice everything for "speed". "They'll see us," Lara warned as I brought the plane lower. "Give me those binoculars of Lorraine's," I answered her back. "Then we'll know for sure one way or the other." I prayed that Lynn would be O.K. That we might still yet rescue her from Tara. I looked upon her as being "more" than just a slave girl. The ship was like nothing I'd ever seen before. It was a two masted schooner alright, but with a sail plan and yardage far beyond what normally would have been carried for a vessel its size. It would be, I thought to myself, perhaps even be faster than the Seahawk. The equal of the Squala, and more "handy" than that big heavy schooner. I flew low above the water, to the west where the plane would be hard to spot against the sea, the sky. "Not good," Lara observed. She had learned much from Jers. "It has to get past the Seahawk," I pointed out in return. "It's probably a knot faster than the Seahawk is now," Lara answered. The Seahawk had been at sea for months. The bottom was getting foul. Not enough to be serious, but it was slower by the knot or so than Tara's ship. Perhaps just enough so that her ship might yet escape the Seahawk in any sort of a confrontation! I thought momentarily of trying to fly to the Sea of Cortez, find the Squala. The Squala might be more a match for Tara's new ship, being slightly faster and bigger than the Seahawk. On the other hand such a flight was very close to the limits for the plane considering its fuel range of eighteen hundred miles and the need to return to Trella or another major city for refueling. "I sure wish Lorraine was here, she'd know what to do," I muttered to myself half under my breath. But she was hundreds of miles away in Talon right now! What would she do in this case??? "Where are we going?" Lara asked as we flew south again. The full Moon brightly lighting up the sea, the shoreline to our left. From time to time we could see little seacoast villages, a bit of light perhaps from fires flickering like stars below us. "Lorraine's estates," I answered. I knew her estates were now being managed by Lady Tirana, who had once been my Warlady. The Warlady I had unjustly used as a "scapegoat" after the vio- lent death of my husband the King in battle against the Nevadas. Thar Marden having gone riding with a force of knights after a group of Nevadas much like Colonel Custer had done at Little Big Horn centuries before him! And had suffered the exact same fate! "You haven't changed much," Lady Tirana smiled, regarding me and Lara as we stood there beside the plane. "You still love to dash around at all hours of the night and get people out of bed!" The old retired Warlady in her robe standing there among a dozen or more of Lorraine's people, a robe pulled around her tall, slender figure. In appearances she reminded me a great deal of Lorraine herself! She is brunette, slim, somewhat hard featured. "I need your help," I said to her, taking her hands in mine. Wondering if she would after everything that I had done to her. "We all make mistakes," she smiled back. "Even Queens." I nodded. This Queen, now an Empress, had indeed made enough too! "Is there `anything' we can do?" I asked, Lady Tirana there in her robe across the room from me, a sleepy slave girl waiting to be of service should we require anything. Lara's eyes droopy as she sat slumped down in an easy chair beside me. The sounds of the night coming in through the partly open windows. A soft breeze, a bit "chilly", gently ruffling the white lace curtains. "You could set fire to Tara's ship," Lady Tirana said. THE QUEEN OF SWORDS! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN 2566 A.D.! By Jerome B. Bigge Chapter Six "You gave us quite a surprise, flying over us like that," Lara said to me as we shared a late dinner and more. Her young boyish Prince of a husband nodding, giving me a smile. She was at least one friend that accepted me for what I was. She did not consider me a "dumb blonde" like Lorraine, or some comic book (actually a TV) heroine like Sharon did. Lara respected me for what I was as a person. Almost worshiped me in a way. With her I could be comfortable. At ease. Be "myself". Not what someone else thought that I should be. That meant a lot to me just then. Especially after the treatment I had received there in Talon from Dala Dai, its Queen. I had come in friendship, and gotten HATE! There would have been a time that Legions would be marching now! I had at one time or another fought a war with every country that bordered upon the Empire of California. My entire career as the Empress of California seems now as I look back on it one of WAR! First Trelandar, and then the Montanas to the east of Sarn. Then Talon, a painful defeat for my ambitions. After that battles with the Nevadas. Clashes with the Empire of Mexico. Dularn.* * It is not surprising that Aurora considered me a "barbarian"! "You are as beautiful and provocative as ever," I smiled. Lara is a very sensual, "exciting" woman. A very famous woman. Once she had knelt naked before me in chains. Accused of the crime of attempting to "overthrow the government". Of speaking out against authority. Against me, the Empress of California! I had understood as others had not that she had only sought to im- prove the status, the conditions of life for those women who had become prostitutes. That this "Queen of Prostitutes" was clearly no danger to "established order", unless you define such as being the private profit of the pimps and other low orders of life who lived off the sweat, the labors of the prostitutes of California! "Jers is `man' enough to keep me happy," she smiled back. I saw the love in his eyes as he smiled back at her. She is above medium height, has reddish brown hair, gray-blue eyes. Is a bit "busty" perhaps, but with a figure that most women can only envy! Sharon says that she is almost the "twin sister" of a 20th Cen- tury movie and television actress by the name of Catherine Bach. Her attire consisted of a brief red leather skirt and a matching silken halter in a dark blue. Her boots also matching her skirt. "It must be hard on you, having to live on a hundred and twenty foot ship with nothing but the sea every day there before you," I said to Lara as we stood there beneath the stars on the rooftop of Lorraine's palace. Few wives could have stood it. I watched the full Moon rising there behind us, a brilliant sphere, its "face" smiling down upon us as it has for millions of years. "At least I'm `alive', which is more than I would be if Tara ever got her hands on me," Lara smiled back. Tara had promised to kill Lara if she ever got her hands on her for marrying her son Jers against her wishes. I suspected that Tara would carry out her threat if she ever got the opportunity to do so. She had already tried twice to my knowledge. Once at Lara's wedding ceremony, where she attempted to have Lara assassinated, and once again there on the Seahawk with poisoned food. Fortunately dis- covered just in time before anyone died from having eaten of it due to a rat who had nibbled on it and died almost instantly too! "I only wish I could do more for you after all you've done for me over the years," I said to her, my hands on her shoulders. Without "Lara of Trelandar" I probably wouldn't have been able to be the ruler that I was. Her prostitutes had become my "agents". Lara had "advised" me from time to time. I fear I should have "listened" more to her back then and far less to Princess Tara. "I betrayed you at the end, you know," Lara said softly. I knew she had supported the "Free Trelandar" movement of Sanda's. That had "come out" after the successful revolution in Trelandar I had made no real attempt to stop. I did not blame her for her actions. She was after all a Trelandarian. It was her country. "You only followed the ideals I taught you," I smiled back. We had both been "young". Perhaps a bit too "idealistic" in some ways. I had been an Empress. She a prostitute. It had been a relationship that raised eyebrows all over the Empire of Califor- nia. Lara had been the one who had suggested the golden mesh. I had learned much from her of how to control men, keep them "off balance". She had been one of my most valuable "advisors". We had been more than friends. That was why I had done nothing when she started a relationship with Princess Tara's son, although I dreaded what the "outcome" might be if Tara ever learned of it! "Perhaps we've both `grown up' now," Lara said to me. "Out- grown our dreams of a better world for everyone." I recalled our talks back then. I had been young, ambitious. Ready to make a "name" for myself. Then I had lost the war with Talon. That had been the turning point of my career. I was no longer "invinci- ble". I had lost Anna shortly afterwards when Sarnian Queen was lost on an uncharted rock in a storm, a blow that had badly shak- en me. Made me turn inwards on myself. Made me bitter, "hard". "You've been at sea too long," I smiled back, hugging her. The light of the full Moon behind me reflected there in her eyes. "I think we're chasing a dream of what was, instead of going after what should be," Lara answered. "We should forget Janet Rogers. Stop pretending that we have another in Queen Lorraine." Lorraine had been the one "responsible" for Janet Roger's ideas. There were a number of people who believed that Lorraine was the "Second Janet Rogers" that would "rescue" Mankind from the Lorr. And even restore the legendary civilization of the 21st Century. "You don't like her that much, do you?" I asked, wondering. "Too `hard', too `dominant' for my taste," she smiled back. "She is a good friend," I answered, coming to her defense. "She's a `mother figure', and that's why you like her," Lara answered, her words reminding me much of Lorraine's herself in a certain way. I wondered if Lara was right. I did look upon Lor- raine that way. As someone who would "protect" me, "mother" me! Especially after Queen Tulis had "turned on me" as she had when I was but a teenage girl! And Aurora certainly wasn't any better!! Suddenly the thought came to me out of nowhere that Lynn had been kidnaped only last night, and Trella was five hundred miles from Sarn! No ship, even the swiftest that ever sailed, was able to have reached this far south yet! And the Seahawk was the match of anything but a heavy galley! I could capture Tara's ship! Perhaps the evil Princess herself if she was aboard it! I had Lorraine's Black Lady, and there was a full Moon tonight too! "We're up awfully high, aren't we?" Lara breathed nervously, staring straight ahead through the windshield, the Pacific like a rippling pond there below in the soft pale glow of the full Moon that now shined down upon it from the east. I had told Jers to sail north towards Sarn. Fortunately it had been possible to get enough men to man the big warship despite those who had already "disappeared" into Trella's myriad waterfront dives and brothels. "Five thousand feet," I smiled back. I did not doubt Lara's courage. I had once stood beside her in battle, disguised as one of her prostitutes. Those who had faced me that night had not known that they faced Darlanis Marden, the Empress of California! Lara had given a good account of herself, although I fear that my own skill with a blade was perhaps what saved us from those cut- throats that had been sent to put an end to her organizing the prostitutes of California. We had stood together, side by side. "A mile straight up," Lara breathed, staring at the controls there before her, the various instruments there on the panel now glowing softly in the darkness. Their indications doubtlessly of little meaning to her. Up here I felt in command, "in control"! "And we're traveling at nearly a hundred and fifty knots," I smiled back. Lara's eyes glowing into mine in the darkness of the cabin, the only illumination the full Moon there in the star sprinkled sky and the soft red glow off the plane's instruments. "Ten times better than the swiftest ship in your navy," my friend breathed. Lorraine's Squala could reach fifteen knots, I knew, although such did put a great deal of strain on the vessel! Lara held the little chamber pot up against herself beneath her short red leather skirt as I watched the gleaming sea below. My friend's nervousness no doubt effecting her bladder somewhat. The airplane's "sanitary" arrangements being rather "crude", al- though as Lorraine once pointed out, one must do as one must do! "Shouldn't have drank so much there at dinner," she smiled, setting the chamber pot down there at her feet and adjusting her strap there beneath her skirt. I remembered how embarrassed that Lorraine had gotten the first time she had to do that with me in the plane with her. Even to climbing into the back seat to do it so that I couldn't watch her! Different eras, different "mores"! "There ahead of us," I said to Lara, seeing the sails. The ship a two masted schooner. I dared not approach too close for fear of warning those aboard. The sound of the engine carries. "We're about two hundred miles north of Trella," I observed, mak- ing a quick mental calculation from our airspeed, time of flight. "Average speed of twelve knots," Lara smiled, doing her own calculations. "The Seahawk will have a hard time doing any more than just matching that," she warned. I hadn't thought of that! "Maybe we got the wrong ship," she suggested a second later. "Or Tara's got something a bit `better' than we thought," I suggested back. There were better ship designs than those used for warships if one desired to sacrifice everything for "speed". "They'll see us," Lara warned as I brought the plane lower. "Give me those binoculars of Lorraine's," I answered her back. "Then we'll know for sure one way or the other." I prayed that Lynn would be O.K. That we might still yet rescue her from Tara. I looked upon her as being "more" than just a slave girl. The ship was like nothing I'd ever seen before. It was a two masted schooner alright, but with a sail plan and yardage far beyond what normally would have been carried for a vessel its size. It would be, I thought to myself, perhaps even be faster than the Seahawk. The equal of the Squala, and more "handy" than that big heavy schooner. I flew low above the water, to the west where the plane would be hard to spot against the sea, the sky. "Not good," Lara observed. She had learned much from Jers. "It has to get past the Seahawk," I pointed out in return. "It's probably a knot faster than the Seahawk is now," Lara answered. The Seahawk had been at sea for months. The bottom was getting foul. Not enough to be serious, but it was slower by the knot or so than Tara's ship. Perhaps just enough so that her ship might yet escape the Seahawk in any sort of a confrontation! I thought momentarily of trying to fly to the Sea of Cortez, find the Squala. The Squala might be more a match for Tara's new ship, being slightly faster and bigger than the Seahawk. On the other hand such a flight was very close to the limits for the plane considering its fuel range of eighteen hundred miles and the need to return to Trella or another major city for refueling. "I sure wish Lorraine was here, she'd know what to do," I muttered to myself half under my breath. But she was hundreds of miles away in Talon right now! What would she do in this case??? "Where are we going?" Lara asked as we flew south again. The full Moon brightly lighting up the sea, the shoreline to our left. From time to time we could see little seacoast villages, a bit of light perhaps from fires flickering like stars below us. "Lorraine's estates," I answered. I knew her estates were now being managed by Lady Tirana, who had once been my Warlady. The Warlady I had unjustly used as a "scapegoat" after the vio- lent death of my husband the King in battle against the Nevadas. Thar Marden having gone riding with a force of knights after a group of Nevadas much like Colonel Custer had done at Little Big Horn centuries before him! And had suffered the exact same fate! "You haven't changed much," Lady Tirana smiled, regarding me and Lara as we stood there beside the plane. "You still love to dash around at all hours of the night and get people out of bed!" The old retired Warlady in her robe standing there among a dozen or more of Lorraine's people, a robe pulled around her tall, slender figure. In appearances she reminded me a great deal of Lorraine herself! She is brunette, slim, somewhat hard featured. "I need your help," I said to her, taking her hands in mine. Wondering if she would after everything that I had done to her. "We all make mistakes," she smiled back. "Even Queens." I nodded. This Queen, now an Empress, had indeed made enough too! "Is there `anything' we can do?" I asked, Lady Tirana there in her robe across the room from me, a sleepy slave girl waiting to be of service should we require anything. Lara's eyes droopy as she sat slumped down in an easy chair beside me. The sounds of the night coming in through the partly open windows. A soft breeze, a bit "chilly", gently ruffling the white lace curtains. "You could set fire to Tara's ship," Lady Tirana said. |
|
|