"2568-10" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jerome Bigge - Warlady 6 - In Harms Way)"IN HARM'S WAY" AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Robert J. Simmons Chapter Ten An arrow zipped by Lorraine's shoulder, the Warlady's too quick "return" shot blasting the log apart right next to the man. "Easy!" Lorraine breathed, fighting to keep her nerves under con- trol. She could see the smoke rising up into the sky, hear the alarm bars, the yells and cries of men, the screaming of women... Most of the fleeing slave girls were barefoot in the snow and half frozen mud, their nearly naked bodies doubtlessly al- ready numbed by the cold as they now fled towards the docks. Yet they all held weapons of one sort or another, and woe to the man whose "path" they crossed. The pirates had not yet made much at- tempt against them, doubtlessly due to the fire from the ships! Several of the nearby houses already ablaze from the fire bombs! The streets between the houses now filled with smoke like a fog. "I knew you'd come," Sharon had said. Lorraine had nodded. "Getting too `old' for this sort of stuff," she'd laughed! ***************************************************************** "Attack!" Queen Valeris cried, waving her drawn sword, Carol and her women following, pausing only to fire upon the village ahead of them. The pirates had been careless, allowing only a hundred yards between their own village and the evergreen forest. The women on their racing wolves throwing the "fire bombs" over the village walls as they dashed up in the face of pirate cross- bowmen and archers much like American Indians of another time... ***************************************************************** I saw the pirate try to turn away, but it was too late with both the captain and the helmsman dead from quickfirer missiles!! The heavy armored bow of the Athena striking amidships, the pi- rate longship smashed in, the men thrown into the icy water, their deaths no doubt swift in that numbing paralyzing liquid! I saw Sarnian Queen coming about, firing both broadsides, the black smoke pouring from her funnel, the heavy "thud-thud" of her steam engine audible over the still icy waters, the flames, the smoke rising up into that iron gray sky something I will never forget!! The falling snow, the low visibility like that of another time... An arrow, fired at maximum range, thunked down on the deck next to me. We were firing our thumping quickfirers at anyone we saw on shore, the constant fusillade having quickly taught those on shore that opposing one of our steam frigates with bows and crossbows was a quick way to commit suicide! Most of the pirates having now either fled our fire or died in combat against us. I saw Sarnian Queen moving towards the dock, saw a group of half clad women come dashing out towards the ship, Lorraine's last pistol shots driving back the few pirates who still showed fight! Her highly explosive bullets no doubt terrifying them even more! "Bring us in closer!" Janice snapped to the helmsman, the Athena turning, firing a full broadside at maximum range into the village, another sixteen fire bombs, this being followed up by darts, sixteen full packets of fifty each like a deadly rain to fall from the iron gray sky above! A last serpent now fleeing to the sea, the North Star and the Vengeance then closing in on it. Ropes were being thrown from Sarnian Queen to those on the dock, a grouping of nearly naked women holding swords and a few bows. Their "leader" a lovely slim golden haired girl holding a "weap- on" that brought back memories of a movie now only a "legend"... ***************************************************************** "These men are `mine'," Queen Valeris said, her dark eyes meeting ours. I saw Lorraine nod, smile back. I did not envy the handful who had survived, or the women who had surprisingly fought at their sides. Those would be taken south to California. At Lorraine's order Queen Valeris would be given everything left. We would take the gold back south with us, however. On the ships there was considerable "celebration" at this almost "bloodless" victory of ours, there having been no fatalities on either ves- sel! The last serpent had surrendered without a fight under the broadsides of the North Star and the Vengeance. The women of the Vengeance had decided to cast their lot with Queen Valeris. She would have the other two pirate schooners as her new "navy". I wondered what Queen Maris Marn of Dularn would think of all this? While the "losses" had been almost totally on the side of the pirates, Queen Valeris had taken some losses among her own forces during the assault on the village from the back, and Shari Johnson, first Lieutenant of the North Star, had died with them!! Taking a crossbow bolt through her heart just before the last of the pirates surrendered to the infuriated fighting women from the south. Her body now laid wrapped in a hammock on the North Star. "We won," Carol said to me, her eyes glowing up into mine. I supposed that we "had", although the issue had never been in "doubt" what with the steam frigates and their awesome firepower. "Lorraine `won'," I answered, feeling strangely depressed. "You had `emotional feelings' towards Lieutenant Johnson, didn't you?" Carol replied, putting her hands on my shoulders as I stood there among the crowd of Imperials and Dularnians along with the fur clad and rather "smelly" Amazons of Queen Valeris. "She was a good officer," I answered. "One I had high hopes for." I saw Carol nod. She is a "smart" woman, that brownette. One who knows that there are times not to ask further questions. "Bring her up into the wind, captain Steven, and we'll per- form our burial service here," I said, my wife standing there be- side me. Such a "service" is always given by the highest ranking officer on board, in this case Carol as the Warlady of Dularn. I could see the land like a haze in the distance, the sails of the two steam frigates as they sailed back "home" to warmer climes... "The old girl still has some `life' in her," my wife said to me as captain Steven informed me that we were making all of twelve knots. We had easily caught up with and passed the two steam frigates, neither of which was any "match" for us in speed. "I hope Maris gives her a good retirement," I answered, well aware of how "obsolete" the North Star was now. Like an old war horse, it was now time to put her "out to pasture". There was a "need" for a swift passenger ship to carry people from one end of Dularn to the other. The North Star could well serve that need. "And what are you going to tell Maris?" my wife asked me as I finished writing up my "report" of the "events" of this voyage. "I think she'd better make the best `deal' with the Empire that she can," I answered back, looking out over the restless waves. Soon Imperial California would "rule the waves" as Great Britain had once done many centuries ago. A great fleet of Lor- raine's steam frigates, almost invincible, the smoke rising from their funnels, would soon patrol the ocean from Baja to Dularn... "You don't think we can't build ships like that...?" Carol challenged, standing there, the sun striking highlights in her hair. She was "different" now, more "mature", I supposed, what with the pregnancy and everything else that she'd been through. No longer the sexy "playmate" of memory, of an era now long gone. "For every ship we build, the Imperials will build three," I answered. And how long would it take for Darlanis begin dreaming once again of an "empire" that stretched from Alaska to Baja...? Of course it wouldn't be "called" an "empire" anymore, but it would still be the same exact thing in "fact" if not in "name"... "Dularn's defeated `HER' before," my wife pointed out to me. "She has Lorraine now," I smiled, wondering how much differ- ence it would make in such matters. Lorraine was the most compe- tent military commander of this era at the more "conventional" types of warfare. Carol was better at "guerrilla warfare", but I was well aware of the fact that guerrillas have never "won" a war without "outside support" from someone else. On the other hand I was well aware that Queen Valeris might look with more "favor" upon Dularn than she would upon the Empire there to the south. I had no idea, however, of what the men of Dularn would think now. While Dularnians are more "used" to the idea of "sexual equality" than would be Californians for example, still Queen Valeris' own practice of male infantcide wouldn't be "acceptable" to most men. "And Maris has `us'," Carol answered back, putting her arms around me as we stood there swaying with the motion of the ship there on the quarterdeck. Her hazel eyes burning up into mine. I wondered if it really "mattered" anymore. If anything did now! "There was a woman among those Lorraine took with her who I suspect was Japanese," I said to my wife, seeing her nod in turn. No doubt she had been a survivor off a ship from Japan that had followed the coastline to the north, eventually violating the old "EDICT" the Lorr used to maintain about intercontinental travel. If the Priestesses no longer kept that "rule" in effect, I mused to my wife then, would it be possible to reach Japan with the North Star? Open up trade relations before the Imperials did so? On the other hand Lorraine's steam frigates were probably better at transoceanic voyages than schooners like the North Star were. (several days later) "Bob!" Carol breathed out, her eyes wide as she suddenly sat up in bed beside me! The soft glow that filled the stern cabin of the North Star, a "glow" that came from the white gowned fig- ure there before us leaving no doubts as just "who" she was now!! "Tais!" I muttered, well aware of the Priestess' own powers! "Like to take a little `trip' with me?" the Priestess asked. "Where?" Carol challenged, well aware as I was that we were completely powerless up against one such as the First Priestess. "Your home, the year 1991," Tais smiled back at us both. "There is a matter that you can assist me with back in your era." I wondered what we could "do" for someone as infinitely powerful as Tais, a woman who was "mistress" of both "time" and "space". Kathi sitting there in her cot, her eyes wide with amazement at the sight of the First Priestess, who was to her much like the Pope of the Catholic Church would have been to one of our time.* * The completely sincere faith that the people of this time have towards the Priestesses of Lys and their teachings yet amazes me. On the other hand there are those who do manage to "oppose" them, Queen Valeris and her Free Women being a good example of this... "Whew! What a way to travel!" Carol breathed, my arms about her as we stood in front of the ruins that had once been our home centuries before. The bright flashes of the storm that had been summoned up by the combined powers of the Priestesses now light- ing up the area, the trees towering up around us. The remains of our once beloved home only a weedy hump here in the Trelandarian forest that was part of the "property" of one "Queen Lorraine"... "It does have its advantages," Tais smiled, standing there, "Although on the other hand it is not as `easy' as it appears..." "`A sufficiently `ADVANCED' technology will appear to be as `MAGIC''," I smiled, quoting an author I'd once read of long ago. "There is a Garth," Carol spoke up in level tones, the next lightning flash revealing the great reptile to both Tais and me as it stepped out of the forest. There are no "known" weapons in this era that will stop one in its tracks. I think only one of the "big game" rifles of the 20th Century would do the job here. Both the Priestesses and the Lorr of course possess "advanced" weapons, with the Priestesses perhaps the "more" advanced here. "No problem," Tais smiled back, a sudden lightning bolt then blasting the ground in front fearsome reptile as it stood there now watching us! The horror then quickly departing the "scene". "I see you could be rather `persuasive'," I smiled at her, the thought going through my mind that there was a damm good rea- son why no one had ever tried to directly "oppose" these women!!! "We are not allowed to take life save in self defense," Tais answered, the flashing of lightning now almost continuous, the crash of the thunder like continuous broadsides from battleships! "IN HARM'S WAY" AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Robert J. Simmons Chapter Ten An arrow zipped by Lorraine's shoulder, the Warlady's too quick "return" shot blasting the log apart right next to the man. "Easy!" Lorraine breathed, fighting to keep her nerves under con- trol. She could see the smoke rising up into the sky, hear the alarm bars, the yells and cries of men, the screaming of women... Most of the fleeing slave girls were barefoot in the snow and half frozen mud, their nearly naked bodies doubtlessly al- ready numbed by the cold as they now fled towards the docks. Yet they all held weapons of one sort or another, and woe to the man whose "path" they crossed. The pirates had not yet made much at- tempt against them, doubtlessly due to the fire from the ships! Several of the nearby houses already ablaze from the fire bombs! The streets between the houses now filled with smoke like a fog. "I knew you'd come," Sharon had said. Lorraine had nodded. "Getting too `old' for this sort of stuff," she'd laughed! ***************************************************************** "Attack!" Queen Valeris cried, waving her drawn sword, Carol and her women following, pausing only to fire upon the village ahead of them. The pirates had been careless, allowing only a hundred yards between their own village and the evergreen forest. The women on their racing wolves throwing the "fire bombs" over the village walls as they dashed up in the face of pirate cross- bowmen and archers much like American Indians of another time... ***************************************************************** I saw the pirate try to turn away, but it was too late with both the captain and the helmsman dead from quickfirer missiles!! The heavy armored bow of the Athena striking amidships, the pi- rate longship smashed in, the men thrown into the icy water, their deaths no doubt swift in that numbing paralyzing liquid! I saw Sarnian Queen coming about, firing both broadsides, the black smoke pouring from her funnel, the heavy "thud-thud" of her steam engine audible over the still icy waters, the flames, the smoke rising up into that iron gray sky something I will never forget!! The falling snow, the low visibility like that of another time... An arrow, fired at maximum range, thunked down on the deck next to me. We were firing our thumping quickfirers at anyone we saw on shore, the constant fusillade having quickly taught those on shore that opposing one of our steam frigates with bows and crossbows was a quick way to commit suicide! Most of the pirates having now either fled our fire or died in combat against us. I saw Sarnian Queen moving towards the dock, saw a group of half clad women come dashing out towards the ship, Lorraine's last pistol shots driving back the few pirates who still showed fight! Her highly explosive bullets no doubt terrifying them even more! "Bring us in closer!" Janice snapped to the helmsman, the Athena turning, firing a full broadside at maximum range into the village, another sixteen fire bombs, this being followed up by darts, sixteen full packets of fifty each like a deadly rain to fall from the iron gray sky above! A last serpent now fleeing to the sea, the North Star and the Vengeance then closing in on it. Ropes were being thrown from Sarnian Queen to those on the dock, a grouping of nearly naked women holding swords and a few bows. Their "leader" a lovely slim golden haired girl holding a "weap- on" that brought back memories of a movie now only a "legend"... ***************************************************************** "These men are `mine'," Queen Valeris said, her dark eyes meeting ours. I saw Lorraine nod, smile back. I did not envy the handful who had survived, or the women who had surprisingly fought at their sides. Those would be taken south to California. At Lorraine's order Queen Valeris would be given everything left. We would take the gold back south with us, however. On the ships there was considerable "celebration" at this almost "bloodless" victory of ours, there having been no fatalities on either ves- sel! The last serpent had surrendered without a fight under the broadsides of the North Star and the Vengeance. The women of the Vengeance had decided to cast their lot with Queen Valeris. She would have the other two pirate schooners as her new "navy". I wondered what Queen Maris Marn of Dularn would think of all this? While the "losses" had been almost totally on the side of the pirates, Queen Valeris had taken some losses among her own forces during the assault on the village from the back, and Shari Johnson, first Lieutenant of the North Star, had died with them!! Taking a crossbow bolt through her heart just before the last of the pirates surrendered to the infuriated fighting women from the south. Her body now laid wrapped in a hammock on the North Star. "We won," Carol said to me, her eyes glowing up into mine. I supposed that we "had", although the issue had never been in "doubt" what with the steam frigates and their awesome firepower. "Lorraine `won'," I answered, feeling strangely depressed. "You had `emotional feelings' towards Lieutenant Johnson, didn't you?" Carol replied, putting her hands on my shoulders as I stood there among the crowd of Imperials and Dularnians along with the fur clad and rather "smelly" Amazons of Queen Valeris. "She was a good officer," I answered. "One I had high hopes for." I saw Carol nod. She is a "smart" woman, that brownette. One who knows that there are times not to ask further questions. "Bring her up into the wind, captain Steven, and we'll per- form our burial service here," I said, my wife standing there be- side me. Such a "service" is always given by the highest ranking officer on board, in this case Carol as the Warlady of Dularn. I could see the land like a haze in the distance, the sails of the two steam frigates as they sailed back "home" to warmer climes... "The old girl still has some `life' in her," my wife said to me as captain Steven informed me that we were making all of twelve knots. We had easily caught up with and passed the two steam frigates, neither of which was any "match" for us in speed. "I hope Maris gives her a good retirement," I answered, well aware of how "obsolete" the North Star was now. Like an old war horse, it was now time to put her "out to pasture". There was a "need" for a swift passenger ship to carry people from one end of Dularn to the other. The North Star could well serve that need. "And what are you going to tell Maris?" my wife asked me as I finished writing up my "report" of the "events" of this voyage. "I think she'd better make the best `deal' with the Empire that she can," I answered back, looking out over the restless waves. Soon Imperial California would "rule the waves" as Great Britain had once done many centuries ago. A great fleet of Lor- raine's steam frigates, almost invincible, the smoke rising from their funnels, would soon patrol the ocean from Baja to Dularn... "You don't think we can't build ships like that...?" Carol challenged, standing there, the sun striking highlights in her hair. She was "different" now, more "mature", I supposed, what with the pregnancy and everything else that she'd been through. No longer the sexy "playmate" of memory, of an era now long gone. "For every ship we build, the Imperials will build three," I answered. And how long would it take for Darlanis begin dreaming once again of an "empire" that stretched from Alaska to Baja...? Of course it wouldn't be "called" an "empire" anymore, but it would still be the same exact thing in "fact" if not in "name"... "Dularn's defeated `HER' before," my wife pointed out to me. "She has Lorraine now," I smiled, wondering how much differ- ence it would make in such matters. Lorraine was the most compe- tent military commander of this era at the more "conventional" types of warfare. Carol was better at "guerrilla warfare", but I was well aware of the fact that guerrillas have never "won" a war without "outside support" from someone else. On the other hand I was well aware that Queen Valeris might look with more "favor" upon Dularn than she would upon the Empire there to the south. I had no idea, however, of what the men of Dularn would think now. While Dularnians are more "used" to the idea of "sexual equality" than would be Californians for example, still Queen Valeris' own practice of male infantcide wouldn't be "acceptable" to most men. "And Maris has `us'," Carol answered back, putting her arms around me as we stood there swaying with the motion of the ship there on the quarterdeck. Her hazel eyes burning up into mine. I wondered if it really "mattered" anymore. If anything did now! "There was a woman among those Lorraine took with her who I suspect was Japanese," I said to my wife, seeing her nod in turn. No doubt she had been a survivor off a ship from Japan that had followed the coastline to the north, eventually violating the old "EDICT" the Lorr used to maintain about intercontinental travel. If the Priestesses no longer kept that "rule" in effect, I mused to my wife then, would it be possible to reach Japan with the North Star? Open up trade relations before the Imperials did so? On the other hand Lorraine's steam frigates were probably better at transoceanic voyages than schooners like the North Star were. (several days later) "Bob!" Carol breathed out, her eyes wide as she suddenly sat up in bed beside me! The soft glow that filled the stern cabin of the North Star, a "glow" that came from the white gowned fig- ure there before us leaving no doubts as just "who" she was now!! "Tais!" I muttered, well aware of the Priestess' own powers! "Like to take a little `trip' with me?" the Priestess asked. "Where?" Carol challenged, well aware as I was that we were completely powerless up against one such as the First Priestess. "Your home, the year 1991," Tais smiled back at us both. "There is a matter that you can assist me with back in your era." I wondered what we could "do" for someone as infinitely powerful as Tais, a woman who was "mistress" of both "time" and "space". Kathi sitting there in her cot, her eyes wide with amazement at the sight of the First Priestess, who was to her much like the Pope of the Catholic Church would have been to one of our time.* * The completely sincere faith that the people of this time have towards the Priestesses of Lys and their teachings yet amazes me. On the other hand there are those who do manage to "oppose" them, Queen Valeris and her Free Women being a good example of this... "Whew! What a way to travel!" Carol breathed, my arms about her as we stood in front of the ruins that had once been our home centuries before. The bright flashes of the storm that had been summoned up by the combined powers of the Priestesses now light- ing up the area, the trees towering up around us. The remains of our once beloved home only a weedy hump here in the Trelandarian forest that was part of the "property" of one "Queen Lorraine"... "It does have its advantages," Tais smiled, standing there, "Although on the other hand it is not as `easy' as it appears..." "`A sufficiently `ADVANCED' technology will appear to be as `MAGIC''," I smiled, quoting an author I'd once read of long ago. "There is a Garth," Carol spoke up in level tones, the next lightning flash revealing the great reptile to both Tais and me as it stepped out of the forest. There are no "known" weapons in this era that will stop one in its tracks. I think only one of the "big game" rifles of the 20th Century would do the job here. Both the Priestesses and the Lorr of course possess "advanced" weapons, with the Priestesses perhaps the "more" advanced here. "No problem," Tais smiled back, a sudden lightning bolt then blasting the ground in front fearsome reptile as it stood there now watching us! The horror then quickly departing the "scene". "I see you could be rather `persuasive'," I smiled at her, the thought going through my mind that there was a damm good rea- son why no one had ever tried to directly "oppose" these women!!! "We are not allowed to take life save in self defense," Tais answered, the flashing of lightning now almost continuous, the crash of the thunder like continuous broadsides from battleships! |
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