"2569-11" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jerome Bigge - Warlady 7 - The Dularnian Queen)2569 A.D.! THE DULARNIAN QUEEN AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Jerome B. Bigge Chapter Eleven "I hope you realize the `implications' of `what' you are saying," I answered, sitting there across the table from Lorraine Richards, the Queen of Trelandar, Warlady of the Empire of Cali- fornia. If Princess Tara did have the "device" which Lorraine suspected that she might possess, it would make her the most dan- gerous person on the face of the Earth! And if she did have "al- lies" among the Priestesses of Lys, it could be even worse yet... "I hope that I am `mistaken', that this is only just `con- jecture' on my part," the stern featured brunette answered back. "However, it is a proven `fact' from what I have determined that the Priestesses of Lys do possess the technology of electronic hypnosis, the `existence' of which I determined for myself when I found it quite impossible to hypnotize anyone of this era. And the fact that I could not hypnotize Carol Simmons there last year is only a further proof that the Priestesses of Lys have been ac- tually tampering with the minds of people not even of this era." "You are building up a large amount of `conjecture' on very little concrete evidence," Darlanis now smiled. "And I refuse to believe that any Priestess would ever have anything to `do' with an evil woman like Princess Tara," the Imperial Empress smiled... "And as for Maris' assassin killing herself, it is quite possible here that she did so to escape the torture she knew we would in- flict upon her for the heinous crime she `attempted' to commit." "Additionally," Darlanis then continued, giving me a smile, "I think you should realize that even back in her own time Lor- raine could only effectively hypnotize about half the people she met in the course of her `practice', and it is quite likely that Carol Simmons would not have been one of them." I supposed that it was true, as I had done a little "reading" of my own on this. "Also," the Imperial Empress added with a smile for Lorraine, "If Princess Tara had possessed such a `device', it is quite likely that she would have `used' it on me to turn me into her `slave'." "There's something `spooky' about this palace of yours," Sharon suddenly spoke. "Like a `haunted house' I visited back in the Twentieth Century just before we ended up here in this time." "You're letting your imagination run away with you," Darla- nis laughed, "Listening to Queen Maris' `ghost stories'." I saw Sharon nod, her eyes as "blue" as Darlanis' then meeting my own. I had wondered if anyone else had sensed these feelings I'd felt? "Seen anything?" I asked, Sharon saying that she hadn't yet. "There is a perfectly good explanation for all this stuff!" the Californian Empress laughed, Lorraine then nodding in reply, the Warlady perhaps wisely now keeping her thoughts to herself. "She sounded pretty `convincing'," I said to Lorraine as my carriage transported us through the streets of Dularn's capital to the great Temple of Lys there half way across Arsana itself. Darlanis having said that it was impossible for the Priestesses of Lys to be behind any of the "troubles" that I was now having. "Explain that High Priestess who tried to kill the Simmons," the Imperial Warlady smiled back. "And just `how' did the Evil One or whatever it was get into our plane of existence in 2579?" Lorraine going on to say that she and Bob once had a long "talk" about such matters when I had allowed the "use" of the iron clad steam powered battleship Diana against the Empire of Mexico in the war between the two rival empires last year. "In my opinion for what it's worth here the Priestesses of Lys may prove to be just as `oppressive' as the Lorr were when they controlled us..." "I don't understand," I said, sitting there across from her. "I developed the `idea' of the Priestesses of Lys as a means of giving Mankind a stabilizing `moral force' that would be out- side the ordinary political spectrum much as the `role' the Cath- olic Church played during the Middle Ages from say the Sixth Cen- tury until perhaps the Fifteenth or Sixteenth. I made it a `religion' based upon Science, not superstitious `mumbo jumbo'." "For which you have the gratitude of all thinking persons," I smiled back, the hustle and bustle of the busy city almost un- noticed just then. The carriage we were using being one of mine, an "escort" of the Royal Guard surrounding us, news of the at- tempted assassination having reached the people of the city now. "I used to `believe' I had the `answer' to every problem the human race faced," Lorraine answered, looking out at the city. "It is said that with age comes `wisdom'," I smiled back. "We live under a benevolent dictatorship," Lorraine said. "The Priestesses do what is `best' for us," I said to her. "I am the `sighted' in the land of the `blind'," she said. "I am not sure that I `understand'," I said to her then. "I once believed that a social order like this would be `ideal'," Lorraine answered, looking out the carriage's window. "A simple society, where the sword was used to settle disputes, and where people still took pride in their own craftsmanship..." "There haven't been that many `changes' since the time of Queen Denise here four centuries ago," I now smiled back at her. "We have perfected things, but life is pretty much the same now." "And the Priestesses of Lys will see that nothing changes," Lorraine replied. "There will be no more `world civilizations'. No spaceships ever again rising up on tails of flame into the sky to visit other worlds. Only a people now living as their own an- cestors once did over much of the world a thousand years before. And anyone who tries to `upset' that world will be `dealt with'." "You honor us with your presence," the Priestess said to me, giving Lorraine a smile as she stood there just behind me now. A sense of "peace", of a lifting of a "burden" from one's soul now going through me as I looked about the great Temple of Arsana. A few people there in the pews, quietly praying to Lys for her help in whatever "problem" they might now be facing. The great golden ankh there before us, brightly lit by candles, gleaming brightly. Overhead great panels glowed softly, speaking of a technology now only legend. Lorraine says that such things are "proof" that the Priestesses of Lys have exploited technology for their "benefit". "Your Queen has been having nightmares," Lorraine said then. "She believes it was possible that `witchcraft' was used," I answered with a smile, the Priestess now giving me an "odd" look and then swiftly walking off, her long white gown lovely on her. "`Shook her up a little there'," Lorraine grinned at me. "I'm sure your `theory' is mistaken," I snapped back. "We shall see, won't we?" Lorraine smiled in reply. "It is a `serious charge' you bring," the Temple's High Priestess said, holding the darkness of Lorraine's eyes with her own. "Especially from one who has in the past `practiced' it..." The three of us sitting in a small "comfortably" furnished room now off the great central interior of Arsana's own Temple of Lys. A painting of LYS, blonde, beautiful, in a long white gown reach- ing out to a struggling group of men and women there before Her. "I am a woman of the Twentieth Century, not some uneducated simple barbarian like the people of today," Lorraine smiled back. "I am also the `founder' of your religion, the `inventor' of the concept of electronic hypnosis that you use to `control' Mankind, and I am quite familiar with the `concepts' that you now preach. What I want to know here is if someone besides you people now has a device to induce a state of hypnosis and if such a `device' has been used on the Queen of Dularn to cause her to have nightmares almost every night." The thought going through my mind just then that if the Priestesses of Lys "were" as Lorraine said, then they would have considerable reason to wish Lorraine out of the way... She also had what Bob would have "called" an "attitude problem". "There are `ways' of `verifying' such things," the High Priestess answered, her long brunette hair lovely. "And there are also other `possibilities' that even you haven't thought of here," the High Priestess "smiled" back at the Imperial Warlady. "One such being a `leakage' between the planes of existence..." "Ghosts?" Lorraine smiled, her "opinion" of such obvious. I didn't consider it "funny" however! I had no desire to continue to live in a palace now haunted by the ghost of my late husband! I'd never liked Darl Jord when he was alive, and I certainly did- n't like him any more now that he was dead and haunting me in my sleep at night! I'd do anything to get "rid" of these dreams... "In cases of violent death such things are not unknown," the High Priestess said, telling me then to stare at her golden ankh as she now held up it there before me on its gleaming gold chain. "And the Prince of Dularn did die a violent death at her hands." "You don't know `everything', Lorraine," I "snapped" at her. "Look at the ankh, my Queen, don't think of anything else," the High Priestess spoke in a soft level voice. I forced myself to study the ankh, listen to her voice, shut the thoughts out of my mind, let the "power" of the Priestess flow into my own being! I felt a sense of "peace" go over me, Lorraine only a "shadow" to my senses, something I wished would "go away", leave me alone... Once again I lived the dream, saw the horrid "thing" that was Darl Jord, but now there was no "fear", for beside me stood a "friend", a woman gowned in white, whose "power" was far greater! I saw the horror that was Darl Jord shrink back, and then creep away, the woman in white holding an ankh "upraised" in her hand. "Well?" I heard Lorraine's voice, as if far away, the blue eyes of the High Priestess glowing into mine like great jewels. "I think it will be necessary for another to visit the pal- ace," she answered, "And cleanse it of what now haunts its cham- bers. I fear too that there may be much danger for our Queen..." With this she then got up and left us both sitting there stunned! 2569 A.D.! THE DULARNIAN QUEEN AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Jerome B. Bigge Chapter Eleven "I hope you realize the `implications' of `what' you are saying," I answered, sitting there across the table from Lorraine Richards, the Queen of Trelandar, Warlady of the Empire of Cali- fornia. If Princess Tara did have the "device" which Lorraine suspected that she might possess, it would make her the most dan- gerous person on the face of the Earth! And if she did have "al- lies" among the Priestesses of Lys, it could be even worse yet... "I hope that I am `mistaken', that this is only just `con- jecture' on my part," the stern featured brunette answered back. "However, it is a proven `fact' from what I have determined that the Priestesses of Lys do possess the technology of electronic hypnosis, the `existence' of which I determined for myself when I found it quite impossible to hypnotize anyone of this era. And the fact that I could not hypnotize Carol Simmons there last year is only a further proof that the Priestesses of Lys have been ac- tually tampering with the minds of people not even of this era." "You are building up a large amount of `conjecture' on very little concrete evidence," Darlanis now smiled. "And I refuse to believe that any Priestess would ever have anything to `do' with an evil woman like Princess Tara," the Imperial Empress smiled... "And as for Maris' assassin killing herself, it is quite possible here that she did so to escape the torture she knew we would in- flict upon her for the heinous crime she `attempted' to commit." "Additionally," Darlanis then continued, giving me a smile, "I think you should realize that even back in her own time Lor- raine could only effectively hypnotize about half the people she met in the course of her `practice', and it is quite likely that Carol Simmons would not have been one of them." I supposed that it was true, as I had done a little "reading" of my own on this. "Also," the Imperial Empress added with a smile for Lorraine, "If Princess Tara had possessed such a `device', it is quite likely that she would have `used' it on me to turn me into her `slave'." "There's something `spooky' about this palace of yours," Sharon suddenly spoke. "Like a `haunted house' I visited back in the Twentieth Century just before we ended up here in this time." "You're letting your imagination run away with you," Darla- nis laughed, "Listening to Queen Maris' `ghost stories'." I saw Sharon nod, her eyes as "blue" as Darlanis' then meeting my own. I had wondered if anyone else had sensed these feelings I'd felt? "Seen anything?" I asked, Sharon saying that she hadn't yet. "There is a perfectly good explanation for all this stuff!" the Californian Empress laughed, Lorraine then nodding in reply, the Warlady perhaps wisely now keeping her thoughts to herself. "She sounded pretty `convincing'," I said to Lorraine as my carriage transported us through the streets of Dularn's capital to the great Temple of Lys there half way across Arsana itself. Darlanis having said that it was impossible for the Priestesses of Lys to be behind any of the "troubles" that I was now having. "Explain that High Priestess who tried to kill the Simmons," the Imperial Warlady smiled back. "And just `how' did the Evil One or whatever it was get into our plane of existence in 2579?" Lorraine going on to say that she and Bob once had a long "talk" about such matters when I had allowed the "use" of the iron clad steam powered battleship Diana against the Empire of Mexico in the war between the two rival empires last year. "In my opinion for what it's worth here the Priestesses of Lys may prove to be just as `oppressive' as the Lorr were when they controlled us..." "I don't understand," I said, sitting there across from her. "I developed the `idea' of the Priestesses of Lys as a means of giving Mankind a stabilizing `moral force' that would be out- side the ordinary political spectrum much as the `role' the Cath- olic Church played during the Middle Ages from say the Sixth Cen- tury until perhaps the Fifteenth or Sixteenth. I made it a `religion' based upon Science, not superstitious `mumbo jumbo'." "For which you have the gratitude of all thinking persons," I smiled back, the hustle and bustle of the busy city almost un- noticed just then. The carriage we were using being one of mine, an "escort" of the Royal Guard surrounding us, news of the at- tempted assassination having reached the people of the city now. "I used to `believe' I had the `answer' to every problem the human race faced," Lorraine answered, looking out at the city. "It is said that with age comes `wisdom'," I smiled back. "We live under a benevolent dictatorship," Lorraine said. "The Priestesses do what is `best' for us," I said to her. "I am the `sighted' in the land of the `blind'," she said. "I am not sure that I `understand'," I said to her then. "I once believed that a social order like this would be `ideal'," Lorraine answered, looking out the carriage's window. "A simple society, where the sword was used to settle disputes, and where people still took pride in their own craftsmanship..." "There haven't been that many `changes' since the time of Queen Denise here four centuries ago," I now smiled back at her. "We have perfected things, but life is pretty much the same now." "And the Priestesses of Lys will see that nothing changes," Lorraine replied. "There will be no more `world civilizations'. No spaceships ever again rising up on tails of flame into the sky to visit other worlds. Only a people now living as their own an- cestors once did over much of the world a thousand years before. And anyone who tries to `upset' that world will be `dealt with'." "You honor us with your presence," the Priestess said to me, giving Lorraine a smile as she stood there just behind me now. A sense of "peace", of a lifting of a "burden" from one's soul now going through me as I looked about the great Temple of Arsana. A few people there in the pews, quietly praying to Lys for her help in whatever "problem" they might now be facing. The great golden ankh there before us, brightly lit by candles, gleaming brightly. Overhead great panels glowed softly, speaking of a technology now only legend. Lorraine says that such things are "proof" that the Priestesses of Lys have exploited technology for their "benefit". "Your Queen has been having nightmares," Lorraine said then. "She believes it was possible that `witchcraft' was used," I answered with a smile, the Priestess now giving me an "odd" look and then swiftly walking off, her long white gown lovely on her. "`Shook her up a little there'," Lorraine grinned at me. "I'm sure your `theory' is mistaken," I snapped back. "We shall see, won't we?" Lorraine smiled in reply. "It is a `serious charge' you bring," the Temple's High Priestess said, holding the darkness of Lorraine's eyes with her own. "Especially from one who has in the past `practiced' it..." The three of us sitting in a small "comfortably" furnished room now off the great central interior of Arsana's own Temple of Lys. A painting of LYS, blonde, beautiful, in a long white gown reach- ing out to a struggling group of men and women there before Her. "I am a woman of the Twentieth Century, not some uneducated simple barbarian like the people of today," Lorraine smiled back. "I am also the `founder' of your religion, the `inventor' of the concept of electronic hypnosis that you use to `control' Mankind, and I am quite familiar with the `concepts' that you now preach. What I want to know here is if someone besides you people now has a device to induce a state of hypnosis and if such a `device' has been used on the Queen of Dularn to cause her to have nightmares almost every night." The thought going through my mind just then that if the Priestesses of Lys "were" as Lorraine said, then they would have considerable reason to wish Lorraine out of the way... She also had what Bob would have "called" an "attitude problem". "There are `ways' of `verifying' such things," the High Priestess answered, her long brunette hair lovely. "And there are also other `possibilities' that even you haven't thought of here," the High Priestess "smiled" back at the Imperial Warlady. "One such being a `leakage' between the planes of existence..." "Ghosts?" Lorraine smiled, her "opinion" of such obvious. I didn't consider it "funny" however! I had no desire to continue to live in a palace now haunted by the ghost of my late husband! I'd never liked Darl Jord when he was alive, and I certainly did- n't like him any more now that he was dead and haunting me in my sleep at night! I'd do anything to get "rid" of these dreams... "In cases of violent death such things are not unknown," the High Priestess said, telling me then to stare at her golden ankh as she now held up it there before me on its gleaming gold chain. "And the Prince of Dularn did die a violent death at her hands." "You don't know `everything', Lorraine," I "snapped" at her. "Look at the ankh, my Queen, don't think of anything else," the High Priestess spoke in a soft level voice. I forced myself to study the ankh, listen to her voice, shut the thoughts out of my mind, let the "power" of the Priestess flow into my own being! I felt a sense of "peace" go over me, Lorraine only a "shadow" to my senses, something I wished would "go away", leave me alone... Once again I lived the dream, saw the horrid "thing" that was Darl Jord, but now there was no "fear", for beside me stood a "friend", a woman gowned in white, whose "power" was far greater! I saw the horror that was Darl Jord shrink back, and then creep away, the woman in white holding an ankh "upraised" in her hand. "Well?" I heard Lorraine's voice, as if far away, the blue eyes of the High Priestess glowing into mine like great jewels. "I think it will be necessary for another to visit the pal- ace," she answered, "And cleanse it of what now haunts its cham- bers. I fear too that there may be much danger for our Queen..." With this she then got up and left us both sitting there stunned! |
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