"2566-45" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jerome Bigge - Warlady 4 - 2566 Ad)2566 A.D.! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Jerome B. Bigge Chapter Forty Five
"We've lost Tara," Valerie said to me as the storm cleared
off with the rising of the sun there to port. The Swiftstar was
nowhere to be sight. Had it foundered during the storm? There
would be no "survivors" out here. Only a slow death at sea. The
Corsica herself was battered, her main mast now only a short stub
sticking up a dozen feet or so from the deck. There was a crack
in the fore mast, Valerie had told me, the men now "lashing" it
so that it might hold together long enough to get us safely
"home". I felt like a "failure". I had been too "reckless", too
eager to capture Tara's ship. Now she was gone somewhere on this
trackless ocean if she hadn't gone to the bottom from this storm!
"Set course back to Trella," I said, tired, exhausted, hard-
ly able to stand up now. Annette at my side, her arm about me.
"I have my `duties' as Queen of Trelandar," I added with a smile.
It was time to go back home. "You have all done well," I smiled.
"There are four men missing," Valerie said to me as I ate a
small breakfast there in the stern cabin. Over the side with the
main mast, I supposed. I hoped that their deaths had been swift.
There were also a number of minor injuries, rope burns and such.
"I will hold a service," I said, trying to stand, everything
suddenly whirling about me as I collapsed then in Annette's arms!
I was aware of Annette, of Valerie, of being undressed, then put
in a bunk. I must have slept, although I had a horrible night-
mare of swimming in the ocean, and watching the ship sail away!!!
"What time is it?" I croaked, seeing Annette there beside
me. I could taste some sort of a broth that she must have been
giving me, although I had no memories of even swallowing it then!
"Four bells," Annette answered, "The second afternoon
watch," she added, which made it about six pm, I calculated then.
"The sun is still up, isn't it?" I said, determined to hold
my "service" for those who had died in the cause of their Queen.
"You are very weak, your majesty," she answered. "The doc-
tor says that you overstrained yourself and that you must rest."
"Go get Valerie, have me taken out on deck," I smiled back.
"And `that' is an order from the Queen of Trelandar," I added...
"What was `done' out here last night will be spoken of for
years among those who sail the sea," I spoke, propped up on a cot
there on the main deck, the crew of the Corsica gathered around
me now at my order. There are certain advantages to being a
"Queen", I may note here. You give an "order", and people do
have to obey them! "I attempted to destroy one whose evil is
known to all of us, a woman who has been called, perhaps with
reason, `The Princess of Darkness'. Brave men gave their lives
last night for that cause. Just as they perhaps might have died
in the ship to ship battle had we been successful in bringing the
Swiftstar into range of our weapons." I had no doubts that Tara
would have fought bravely. Even outclassed as she would have
been, I have no doubt that it would have been no "easy" fight...
Pausing to gather my thoughts, I continued, "Let us there-
fore pray to Lys, She who is Mistress of All, that She will look
upon them with mercy, and judge them not for their sins, but for
the good they have done, just as we hope the same for ourselves."
I felt that was the "best" I could do for them. Often I wonder
how I myself will be judged when that "time" comes. Once I spoke
with "SHE", who Men call "LYS" and the Lorr call "SHE-IT-ALL". I
wonder if our activities have "meaning", if what we do "matters".
I like to comfort myself with the thought that it does. That be-
cause one Lorraine Duval and her step daughter Sharon flew into
this era from the 20th Century that we have influenced history.
As Darlanis and I once observed, we have indeed "lived" in a way
that those perhaps of a distant future will only be able to envy!
"Land Ho!" the lookout called down, men dashing to the rail
to look for themselves, although from deck one could see nothing.
"Took us a little longer to sail back," I smiled to Valerie.
We had dared not carry a full suit of sails on the fore and aft
masts. On ropes we had strung a couple stay sails across the gap
between the two masts. The stump of the main mast a reminder to
all of us that even the best rigged ship did have its "limits"...
"If you ever do make an expedition to Hawaii I'd like to be
your captain," Valerie said to me. I wondered if someday I might
just do that. There is a lot of the world I knew nothing about.
"We know that this class of ship is capable of doing it," I
answered thoughtfully. While not as "fast" as the old tea clip-
pers of the Nineteenth Century, my "Squala class" was faster than
the ships that had been used for such exploration in the 18th.
"I still wonder what happened to Tara," she mused then.
And so on this note I will end my story. There has never
been any news of Tara. Perhaps she and the Swiftstar did go to
the bottom of the Pacific out there nearly seven hundred miles
from the nearest point of land. On the other hand I doubt it as
I was once told that she would become the "ally" of the being SHE
called "THE EVIL ONE". The supernatural being we call the DEVIL!
Lorraine Richards
The Queen of Trelandar
2566 A.D.! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Jerome B. Bigge Chapter Forty Five "We've lost Tara," Valerie said to me as the storm cleared off with the rising of the sun there to port. The Swiftstar was nowhere to be sight. Had it foundered during the storm? There would be no "survivors" out here. Only a slow death at sea. The Corsica herself was battered, her main mast now only a short stub sticking up a dozen feet or so from the deck. There was a crack in the fore mast, Valerie had told me, the men now "lashing" it so that it might hold together long enough to get us safely "home". I felt like a "failure". I had been too "reckless", too eager to capture Tara's ship. Now she was gone somewhere on this trackless ocean if she hadn't gone to the bottom from this storm! "Set course back to Trella," I said, tired, exhausted, hard- ly able to stand up now. Annette at my side, her arm about me. "I have my `duties' as Queen of Trelandar," I added with a smile. It was time to go back home. "You have all done well," I smiled. "There are four men missing," Valerie said to me as I ate a small breakfast there in the stern cabin. Over the side with the main mast, I supposed. I hoped that their deaths had been swift. There were also a number of minor injuries, rope burns and such. "I will hold a service," I said, trying to stand, everything suddenly whirling about me as I collapsed then in Annette's arms! I was aware of Annette, of Valerie, of being undressed, then put in a bunk. I must have slept, although I had a horrible night- mare of swimming in the ocean, and watching the ship sail away!!! "What time is it?" I croaked, seeing Annette there beside me. I could taste some sort of a broth that she must have been giving me, although I had no memories of even swallowing it then! "Four bells," Annette answered, "The second afternoon watch," she added, which made it about six pm, I calculated then. "The sun is still up, isn't it?" I said, determined to hold my "service" for those who had died in the cause of their Queen. "You are very weak, your majesty," she answered. "The doc- tor says that you overstrained yourself and that you must rest." "Go get Valerie, have me taken out on deck," I smiled back. "And `that' is an order from the Queen of Trelandar," I added... "What was `done' out here last night will be spoken of for years among those who sail the sea," I spoke, propped up on a cot there on the main deck, the crew of the Corsica gathered around me now at my order. There are certain advantages to being a "Queen", I may note here. You give an "order", and people do have to obey them! "I attempted to destroy one whose evil is known to all of us, a woman who has been called, perhaps with reason, `The Princess of Darkness'. Brave men gave their lives last night for that cause. Just as they perhaps might have died in the ship to ship battle had we been successful in bringing the Swiftstar into range of our weapons." I had no doubts that Tara would have fought bravely. Even outclassed as she would have been, I have no doubt that it would have been no "easy" fight... Pausing to gather my thoughts, I continued, "Let us there- fore pray to Lys, She who is Mistress of All, that She will look upon them with mercy, and judge them not for their sins, but for the good they have done, just as we hope the same for ourselves." I felt that was the "best" I could do for them. Often I wonder how I myself will be judged when that "time" comes. Once I spoke with "SHE", who Men call "LYS" and the Lorr call "SHE-IT-ALL". I wonder if our activities have "meaning", if what we do "matters". I like to comfort myself with the thought that it does. That be- cause one Lorraine Duval and her step daughter Sharon flew into this era from the 20th Century that we have influenced history. As Darlanis and I once observed, we have indeed "lived" in a way that those perhaps of a distant future will only be able to envy! "Land Ho!" the lookout called down, men dashing to the rail to look for themselves, although from deck one could see nothing. "Took us a little longer to sail back," I smiled to Valerie. We had dared not carry a full suit of sails on the fore and aft masts. On ropes we had strung a couple stay sails across the gap between the two masts. The stump of the main mast a reminder to all of us that even the best rigged ship did have its "limits"... "If you ever do make an expedition to Hawaii I'd like to be your captain," Valerie said to me. I wondered if someday I might just do that. There is a lot of the world I knew nothing about. "We know that this class of ship is capable of doing it," I answered thoughtfully. While not as "fast" as the old tea clip- pers of the Nineteenth Century, my "Squala class" was faster than the ships that had been used for such exploration in the 18th. "I still wonder what happened to Tara," she mused then. And so on this note I will end my story. There has never been any news of Tara. Perhaps she and the Swiftstar did go to the bottom of the Pacific out there nearly seven hundred miles from the nearest point of land. On the other hand I doubt it as I was once told that she would become the "ally" of the being SHE called "THE EVIL ONE". The supernatural being we call the DEVIL! Lorraine Richards The Queen of Trelandar |
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