"CHAP-37" - 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 By Jerome B. Bigge Chapter Thirty Seven "A very intelligent woman," Serak said to me as I told him about what Lorraine had said to me about all women having a bio- logical urge to "mate" with extremely "masculine" men. "And one who understands the `realities' of life far better than most do." "She is too much in love with violence and bloodshed," I an- swered, annoyed that he did not "understand" me or what sort of an "answer" that I wanted from him just then! And not an agree- ment with the philosophy of some man who had dead for hundreds of years! I was sick and tired of "being in harm's way", of consol- ing weeping widows when their husbands never returned from bat- tle. Of telling little children that their mothers were dead and that I was "responsible" for their deaths! I wondered if it was possible that the Priestesses of Lys might now be able to "impose peace" upon Humanity much like Janet Rogers had done centuries ago? It was obvious that they certainly had the power to do so!* * Tais however has refused to do so, saying that we must learn on our own to live in "peace" with each other. She has however said that the Priestesses will "enforce" the Lorr's old EDICT regard- ing weapons, thus "limiting" us as to the "destructiveness" of the weapons we may build. Doubtlessly just as well as Lorraine was planning a 54 gun heavy frigate of the "Constitution" class! "She is the sort of a woman any Nevada could be proud of," he smiled back, irritating me even more just then with his words. I recalled his comment he had once made about her being "fasci- nating" because of her "knowledge", her awesome intelligence! I wondered if he now considered me a "dumb blonde" like she did!!! "She is a bloodthirsty warrioress from the distant past!" I snapped back. "A woman who once sat and watched another woman torture a man to death!" I knew that was something Lorraine was ashamed of having done. It had bothered her greatly the year be- fore. Colored her every thought afterwards as you will see if you read her book. I was angry. Otherwise I would not have said what I had. Why couldn't he, or anyone for that matter, under- stand how I now felt about such things? That I wanted to see a world at peace, not a world where the hand of man was raised against his brother human! Would there never be an end to war??? "One should not speak such of one's friends," he said to me. "There is that within you, Azure Eyes, that is not so attractive. Something that makes me believe that you are not at `peace' with yourself. That there is a hurt deep inside that makes you strike out at others like a buzztail snake without meaning to hurt them. A pain that is like a cancer eating at your heart like the larva of the desert wasp laid within the body of a yet living spider." He sometimes has a very vivid way of expressing himself in words. "She is my friend," I admitted, ashamed of myself for having spoken such of her. Lorraine was, I thought to myself, the only woman that I had ever been "comfortable" with. That I "trusted". Yet I wondered if she really "understood" matters as I did now. "Just as you are my woman," he smiled, taking me in his arms, stroking my rich golden hair. Looking into my azure eyes. "Just as I must understand that you are not like our own women." "There isn't as much `difference' as you think," I told him, pressing myself up against him. "Lorraine taught a Nevada woman how to use a sword, how to fight in battle." I remembered her telling me about Sa-she-ra. About how she gave her life for her Queen. I knew Lorraine had once thought of training more such. "Yes, Sa-she-ra," Serak smiled. "She is known to us." "Lorraine wishes to train `more' like her," I said. "She will not have much success," Serak smiled. "There is not much left," I said to Serak as we rode through the ruined remains of what once had been the city of Los Vegas. A few buildings still somewhat recognizable, but most had fallen into piles of rubble. Rubble the Nevadas had for centuries picked over for their own use. Being illiterate for the most part, I wondered how much of the "past" they had destroyed not knowing its value to us of the present. There were, I knew, oth- er ruined cities like this, ruined monuments to Man's stupidity. "They were not a happy people," Serak observed. "They did not appreciate the sun, the sky, the land like we do." He was, I knew, something of a "savage" even by my own standards. I had no doubt that those of the 21st Century would have considered him in much the same light as they would have the Indians of their own time. "Their men were not `men', their women were not `women'." I supposed he was right in a way, if you judged the people of the 21st Century by his own standards. They had suffered badly from a condition that Lorraine once dubbed "overcivilization". I had no doubt that she had been right. I would not have wished to have lived back then. Theirs had been in its way a dying world. Even Janet Rogers had not been able to prevent it from eventually destroying itself. I wondered if this we'd do any "better" now. "They worshiped `technology' too much, the `truth' too lit- tle," I replied with a smile. I understood such even if Lorraine did not. We did not need to repeat the mistakes of the past. I knew why the Priestesses told the little children what they did. "The `truth' is all around us only waiting to be found," Serak said, halting his unicorn, swinging his arm in a circle. The hot Nevada sun burning down upon from a cloudless azure sky upon us both. I was glad for my cape, the broad brimmed hat that I now wore. The sun reflecting off the stone dazzling my eyes. "But there are those who `worship other gods'," I smiled. Lorraine wanted to reintroduce the technology of the past. I did not. I saw no reason to build better and better weapons. That road had led only to the destruction of a world. To a war with another planet. War with alien beings who had wished us no harm! "They ignore the `truth' when it stands there before them," he said. "They have eyes, but yet cannot `see' because they are blinded by their own greed. They seek war because they do not have peace in their hearts. This city is a monument to them." I did not think he spoke of the ruins, but of what had once been. The civilization of the 21st Century that now laid in ruins here. "You speak of things that few will understand," I answered. "But you `understand', do you not?" he now then asked me. "I understand `more' than I would have thought," I smiled. "One can be both `rich' and `poor' at the same time," he said. It is a saying among the Nevadas. It is said of those who are not of "The People". That they may be "rich" in gold and such things, but yet "poor" in their own so meaningless lives. I thought of those of the city when it had still stood. They had been "rich" in a way we can hardly understand, but yet I think they were more "poor" than the lowest Peasant out tilling his fields. Like those of Mars they no longer were truly "human". They had "cut" their biological "ties" with their own "natures". It is unnatural for a woman to seek love in the arms of another. For a man to do the "same", although we still have our "queers". The Priestesses can "cure" such, if they desire to be "cured"... "You are more than a wife to me, Azure Eyes," he said to me as we sat our unicorns side by side. He did not need to "ex- plain" further. I understood the true meaning of his few words. "There is within you an `intelligence' I had not expected," I answered with a smile. "Perhaps we of California are little better than those who live beneath the sands of Mars," I smiled. "You `understand' us more than does Lorraine," he answered. "She only wishes to use us for conquest and war against others." "Princess Tara did once hold me slave," I pointed out in re- ply, my unicorn shifting restlessly beneath me, his tail swishing back and forth against the biting black horseflies that seemed to come from nowhere to bother both our mounts and ourselves. She had also once attempted to kill me, but that he already knew. "I have heard much about her, `nothing good'," he smiled. "Friendship between `The People' and California would be very beneficial to both our cultures," I commented, changing the subject just a bit, turning my mount so that the sun was at my back. My thick golden hair protecting the back of my neck from its rays. I am a natural blonde, and I do sunburn rather easily. "It is something my father has wished for all his life," Serak answered. "Unfortunately until just recently the Empress of California didn't share his own `viewpoint' upon the matter." "The `Empress of California' has learned much," I smiled. "Your legs are becoming sunburned," he observed then. "This will help," Serak said to me, gently rubbing a cool softening oil into my sunburned skin, Pussycat sitting there, watching, her dark eyes glowing like those of a cat into mine. "I fear I'll never make a Nevada," I smiled back at him. "There are women among us with hair like yours," he said. "Not many, but some who live in the lands towards where the sun rises in the morning do have light hair much like your own." The thought of someday perhaps exploring such lands with him filling my adventuresome heart with excitement. Such places were now only legend back in California. I recalled names such as "Chica- go", "Detroit", and that great city of "New York" now a legend!!! "How far east does Nevada territory go?" I asked, curious. Pussycat curled up there watching me much like her own namesake. Her dark eyes never leaving me. I sensed her hostility towards me. She had been "Serak's" in a way few slave girls ever are. "There is a point where our borders are in `dispute'," he smiled. Such borders tended to move about with the fortunes of war. The Rocky Mountains were inhabited by various tribes of war-like peoples. Further east there were forests, legends I had heard of peoples living in social levels similar to that of Cali- fornia. There were, however, no eastern "Empires" like my own. "Like ours with Dularn," I smiled back. The "cease-fire" last year had not really resolved anything. Obviously Maris now felt the same way, although I did not consider it a very "intel- ligent" move on her part to try to provoke another war with me. Lorraine's new mass produced compound bows might be "decisive". "And the Montanas to the north, who Dularn is now allied with," Serak answered. Their possession of Dularnian crossbows was proof of such in Lorraine's eyes if not completely in mine. "Men must fight, while women wait," Pussycat suddenly spoke. "Nothing ever changes despite the ages that have passed since the first man picked up a club to slay his brother," she then added. "Cain and Abel," I smiled, recalling the legends. As Lor- raine has noted elsewhere, the Priestesses of Lys do not tolerate other beliefs when they conflict with that in THE BOOK OF LYS. The Bible is a "legend", although copies do survive in museums. "Yet those who do not fight are our `masters'," Serak noted. "Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned there," Pussycat now ventured, showing a surprising intelligence for one like her. "Make love, not war," Serak smiled, Pussycat being the sort of a slave girl that one thinks of making love to frequently. I recalled hearing that very same quotation before, but just where? Perhaps Lorraine would know as I thought the saying came from her own era back in the 20th Century. Of course overpopulation also can lead to war, so "love" is not always the "answer" either, al- though that was not clearly understood back then or even later. "`Love' always better than `war'," Pussycat smiled at me. THE QUEEN OF SWORDS! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Jerome B. Bigge Chapter Thirty Seven "A very intelligent woman," Serak said to me as I told him about what Lorraine had said to me about all women having a bio- logical urge to "mate" with extremely "masculine" men. "And one who understands the `realities' of life far better than most do." "She is too much in love with violence and bloodshed," I an- swered, annoyed that he did not "understand" me or what sort of an "answer" that I wanted from him just then! And not an agree- ment with the philosophy of some man who had dead for hundreds of years! I was sick and tired of "being in harm's way", of consol- ing weeping widows when their husbands never returned from bat- tle. Of telling little children that their mothers were dead and that I was "responsible" for their deaths! I wondered if it was possible that the Priestesses of Lys might now be able to "impose peace" upon Humanity much like Janet Rogers had done centuries ago? It was obvious that they certainly had the power to do so!* * Tais however has refused to do so, saying that we must learn on our own to live in "peace" with each other. She has however said that the Priestesses will "enforce" the Lorr's old EDICT regard- ing weapons, thus "limiting" us as to the "destructiveness" of the weapons we may build. Doubtlessly just as well as Lorraine was planning a 54 gun heavy frigate of the "Constitution" class! "She is the sort of a woman any Nevada could be proud of," he smiled back, irritating me even more just then with his words. I recalled his comment he had once made about her being "fasci- nating" because of her "knowledge", her awesome intelligence! I wondered if he now considered me a "dumb blonde" like she did!!! "She is a bloodthirsty warrioress from the distant past!" I snapped back. "A woman who once sat and watched another woman torture a man to death!" I knew that was something Lorraine was ashamed of having done. It had bothered her greatly the year be- fore. Colored her every thought afterwards as you will see if you read her book. I was angry. Otherwise I would not have said what I had. Why couldn't he, or anyone for that matter, under- stand how I now felt about such things? That I wanted to see a world at peace, not a world where the hand of man was raised against his brother human! Would there never be an end to war??? "One should not speak such of one's friends," he said to me. "There is that within you, Azure Eyes, that is not so attractive. Something that makes me believe that you are not at `peace' with yourself. That there is a hurt deep inside that makes you strike out at others like a buzztail snake without meaning to hurt them. A pain that is like a cancer eating at your heart like the larva of the desert wasp laid within the body of a yet living spider." He sometimes has a very vivid way of expressing himself in words. "She is my friend," I admitted, ashamed of myself for having spoken such of her. Lorraine was, I thought to myself, the only woman that I had ever been "comfortable" with. That I "trusted". Yet I wondered if she really "understood" matters as I did now. "Just as you are my woman," he smiled, taking me in his arms, stroking my rich golden hair. Looking into my azure eyes. "Just as I must understand that you are not like our own women." "There isn't as much `difference' as you think," I told him, pressing myself up against him. "Lorraine taught a Nevada woman how to use a sword, how to fight in battle." I remembered her telling me about Sa-she-ra. About how she gave her life for her Queen. I knew Lorraine had once thought of training more such. "Yes, Sa-she-ra," Serak smiled. "She is known to us." "Lorraine wishes to train `more' like her," I said. "She will not have much success," Serak smiled. "There is not much left," I said to Serak as we rode through the ruined remains of what once had been the city of Los Vegas. A few buildings still somewhat recognizable, but most had fallen into piles of rubble. Rubble the Nevadas had for centuries picked over for their own use. Being illiterate for the most part, I wondered how much of the "past" they had destroyed not knowing its value to us of the present. There were, I knew, oth- er ruined cities like this, ruined monuments to Man's stupidity. "They were not a happy people," Serak observed. "They did not appreciate the sun, the sky, the land like we do." He was, I knew, something of a "savage" even by my own standards. I had no doubt that those of the 21st Century would have considered him in much the same light as they would have the Indians of their own time. "Their men were not `men', their women were not `women'." I supposed he was right in a way, if you judged the people of the 21st Century by his own standards. They had suffered badly from a condition that Lorraine once dubbed "overcivilization". I had no doubt that she had been right. I would not have wished to have lived back then. Theirs had been in its way a dying world. Even Janet Rogers had not been able to prevent it from eventually destroying itself. I wondered if this we'd do any "better" now. "They worshiped `technology' too much, the `truth' too lit- tle," I replied with a smile. I understood such even if Lorraine did not. We did not need to repeat the mistakes of the past. I knew why the Priestesses told the little children what they did. "The `truth' is all around us only waiting to be found," Serak said, halting his unicorn, swinging his arm in a circle. The hot Nevada sun burning down upon from a cloudless azure sky upon us both. I was glad for my cape, the broad brimmed hat that I now wore. The sun reflecting off the stone dazzling my eyes. "But there are those who `worship other gods'," I smiled. Lorraine wanted to reintroduce the technology of the past. I did not. I saw no reason to build better and better weapons. That road had led only to the destruction of a world. To a war with another planet. War with alien beings who had wished us no harm! "They ignore the `truth' when it stands there before them," he said. "They have eyes, but yet cannot `see' because they are blinded by their own greed. They seek war because they do not have peace in their hearts. This city is a monument to them." I did not think he spoke of the ruins, but of what had once been. The civilization of the 21st Century that now laid in ruins here. "You speak of things that few will understand," I answered. "But you `understand', do you not?" he now then asked me. "I understand `more' than I would have thought," I smiled. "One can be both `rich' and `poor' at the same time," he said. It is a saying among the Nevadas. It is said of those who are not of "The People". That they may be "rich" in gold and such things, but yet "poor" in their own so meaningless lives. I thought of those of the city when it had still stood. They had been "rich" in a way we can hardly understand, but yet I think they were more "poor" than the lowest Peasant out tilling his fields. Like those of Mars they no longer were truly "human". They had "cut" their biological "ties" with their own "natures". It is unnatural for a woman to seek love in the arms of another. For a man to do the "same", although we still have our "queers". The Priestesses can "cure" such, if they desire to be "cured"... "You are more than a wife to me, Azure Eyes," he said to me as we sat our unicorns side by side. He did not need to "ex- plain" further. I understood the true meaning of his few words. "There is within you an `intelligence' I had not expected," I answered with a smile. "Perhaps we of California are little better than those who live beneath the sands of Mars," I smiled. "You `understand' us more than does Lorraine," he answered. "She only wishes to use us for conquest and war against others." "Princess Tara did once hold me slave," I pointed out in re- ply, my unicorn shifting restlessly beneath me, his tail swishing back and forth against the biting black horseflies that seemed to come from nowhere to bother both our mounts and ourselves. She had also once attempted to kill me, but that he already knew. "I have heard much about her, `nothing good'," he smiled. "Friendship between `The People' and California would be very beneficial to both our cultures," I commented, changing the subject just a bit, turning my mount so that the sun was at my back. My thick golden hair protecting the back of my neck from its rays. I am a natural blonde, and I do sunburn rather easily. "It is something my father has wished for all his life," Serak answered. "Unfortunately until just recently the Empress of California didn't share his own `viewpoint' upon the matter." "The `Empress of California' has learned much," I smiled. "Your legs are becoming sunburned," he observed then. "This will help," Serak said to me, gently rubbing a cool softening oil into my sunburned skin, Pussycat sitting there, watching, her dark eyes glowing like those of a cat into mine. "I fear I'll never make a Nevada," I smiled back at him. "There are women among us with hair like yours," he said. "Not many, but some who live in the lands towards where the sun rises in the morning do have light hair much like your own." The thought of someday perhaps exploring such lands with him filling my adventuresome heart with excitement. Such places were now only legend back in California. I recalled names such as "Chica- go", "Detroit", and that great city of "New York" now a legend!!! "How far east does Nevada territory go?" I asked, curious. Pussycat curled up there watching me much like her own namesake. Her dark eyes never leaving me. I sensed her hostility towards me. She had been "Serak's" in a way few slave girls ever are. "There is a point where our borders are in `dispute'," he smiled. Such borders tended to move about with the fortunes of war. The Rocky Mountains were inhabited by various tribes of war-like peoples. Further east there were forests, legends I had heard of peoples living in social levels similar to that of Cali- fornia. There were, however, no eastern "Empires" like my own. "Like ours with Dularn," I smiled back. The "cease-fire" last year had not really resolved anything. Obviously Maris now felt the same way, although I did not consider it a very "intel- ligent" move on her part to try to provoke another war with me. Lorraine's new mass produced compound bows might be "decisive". "And the Montanas to the north, who Dularn is now allied with," Serak answered. Their possession of Dularnian crossbows was proof of such in Lorraine's eyes if not completely in mine. "Men must fight, while women wait," Pussycat suddenly spoke. "Nothing ever changes despite the ages that have passed since the first man picked up a club to slay his brother," she then added. "Cain and Abel," I smiled, recalling the legends. As Lor- raine has noted elsewhere, the Priestesses of Lys do not tolerate other beliefs when they conflict with that in THE BOOK OF LYS. The Bible is a "legend", although copies do survive in museums. "Yet those who do not fight are our `masters'," Serak noted. "Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned there," Pussycat now ventured, showing a surprising intelligence for one like her. "Make love, not war," Serak smiled, Pussycat being the sort of a slave girl that one thinks of making love to frequently. I recalled hearing that very same quotation before, but just where? Perhaps Lorraine would know as I thought the saying came from her own era back in the 20th Century. Of course overpopulation also can lead to war, so "love" is not always the "answer" either, al- though that was not clearly understood back then or even later. "`Love' always better than `war'," Pussycat smiled at me. |
|
|