"2569-41" - 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 Forty One "We've got to get out of here!" Darlanis gasped, dragging me to my feet, the look in her eyes one that I will never forget! I saw nothing of THE QUEEN OF DARKNESS but my sword lying there on the table, the rest of the women still in deep hypnosis sitting there like statues despite all we'd done! I grabbed for my weap- on, the hilt strangely "hot" as if I'd put the blade in a fire! "Carol was `here'," I said, Darlanis nodding, perhaps not believing. I believe a "POWER" greater than even the Priestesses of Lys had taken a "hand" in things here, seen to it that I had "help" when I needed it. I have no other explanation of this... "Guards!" Darlanis hissed, dashing to meet the pair, her blade flashing in the light from the candles as she "met" theirs! I took the few seconds necessary to kill the other women, to "close" this horrid "circuit" that would allow the master of HELL entry. Killing them in cold blood, well aware that I had no oth- er "choice" if I valued my world and those who lived upon it now! "We were `TOO LATE'!" Darlanis cried, the HORROR forming now in the sky overhead leaving no DOUBTS as to "WHO" was "COMING"!!! I could hear the howling of the wolves, the terrified outcries of the women as they dashed about, the gigantic "SPIDER" forming there in the sky the EVIL ONE himself! The Moon now a strange GREEN color, utterly unlike anything that I'd ever seen before... "The `airplane'," I said, wondering if there was any escape! A woman dashing by us, clinging to a baby she held in her arms. Others riding bareback on their wolves, fleeing the village now! The snow a ghastly greenish tint as it reflected the moonlight... "Going to be hard to start," Darlanis muttered, the interior of the airplane now even "colder" as that "thing" up in the sky seemed to draw every last bit of "heat" from everything, the air itself "misty" as we saw the EVIL ONE growing more and more "sol- id" there above us! The engine slow to turn over in this cold!!! "LYS, have mercy on our souls!" I "breathed", seeing that "SPIDER" forming there in the sky, the airplane's engine cranking over with a "rrr", "rrr" sound while the Empress cursed to her- self. Then the engine suddenly caught with a roar of power, the three bladed propeller whirling there before us like a shield as Darlanis quickly flicked on the landing lights for our takeoff!! I saw women fleeing from the village, looking back into the sky! "Here we go!" Darlanis cried, the black Beechcraft bouncing over the rough ground there in the darkness, the snow blowing out behind it, while in the sky to our left there over the big forti- fied village of Valeris' now grew an eerie HORROR from another plane of existence! The Free Women having called upon the MASTER of HELL himself! The ENEMY of GOOD, the arch-enemy of LYS Her- self! Not even the atomic weapons, the great armies of the past could have stood against the HORROR now forming there in sky there above us now! The Empress and I gasping as a woman dashed across our path just ahead of us, clutching a baby in her arms, fleeing in terror from something that even an airplane probably couldn't escape, I knew! The EVIL ONE doubtlessly all powerful!! "Fly south," I said, Darlanis nodding as the plane lifted over the trees, the engine running rough, but thankfully running! I could "feel" the terrors now building up in my mind as we lived this nightmare from which we knew that there was no awaking from! There was no where on Earth itself that we could flee from this!! "We can't outrun `that'," she answered, seeing me nod back, making adjustments, the engine smoothing out, a "roar" of power. The airplane picking up speed as we flew low over the trees now! We were far faster than any living thing, but yet I could see the animals there ahead of us fleeing, all running away from THAT... "There is the radio," I said, seeing her nod back at me. I thought of Tais, of the Priestesses of Lys, of the Lorr of Mars! "It could `attract' that `thing' to us," she pointed out. The trees like dark sentinels moving by there below us now against the greenish glow of the snow reflecting the sky above... Terror "whimpering" at the corners of my mind, the prayers I'd learned as a child racing through my thoughts as I prayed to LYS! "Have `faith' in LYS," I answered, remembering my childhood prayers, Darlanis muttering something underneath her breath too! "Never was `afraid' of anything," the Empress muttered now. "`That' can kill more than just your body," I said to her. "No chance of fighting it either," Darlanis breathed back. "How fast are we going?" I asked, turning on the radio now. "Hundred and sixty knots, all she'll do," Darlanis answered. I was well aware too that we didn't have enough fuel to reach to the land of the Northmen even. That in two hours we would be forced to land here in this snowy wilderness, assuming that the EVIL ONE himself didn't simply reach out now and grab us from the sky like plucking a bird on the wing! "I guess you might as well try the radio even if it does bring `that' down upon us now..." "This is Maris Marn aboard Black Lady calling the Priestess- es," I spoke into the mike, the horror behind us in the sky now blotting out the Moon and everything else. I wondered if the Free Women had really "understood" the nature of what they tried to enlist as their "ally" against us of the "south". I could see the "glow" there on the snow beneath us between the evergreens... There were no "doubts" either now that this was "what" I'd seen there before down in the pits beneath my palace there in Arsana! That same sense of EVIL filling my mind as we fled to the south!! "I don't think even `they' can deal with `this'," Darlanis said to me, her hands steady on the controls. Ahead of us laid a star sprinkled sky, but behind us grew a HORROR from HELL itself! "LOOK!" I gasped, the silvery triangle suddenly there before us! A glowing beam of light suddenly washing over the airplane! The engine sputtering, dying out as we were drawn up beneath it! "The ship of the Priestesses," Darlanis cried out with joy! "It is `what' we have always `feared'," Tais said to me as she stood there. The EVIL ONE a great glowing "mass" in the sky! I felt no fear, although even this craft was no "match" for what laid ahead of us. No energy beam would kill something like that! "Can you destroy it?" Darlanis asked, her voice "odd" now as she stood at my side watching the other Priestesses at the var- ious control panels. The view on the viewscreen showed the EVIL ONE too "clearly" for our own comfort, the HORROR just ahead now! "I require the assistance of your `talent'," Tais said then. I looked into her eyes, the color of Darlanis', and suddenly I was "merged" with her mind, with the spaceship's own sensors too! "We must close the `GATEWAY' through which it has come," her mind spoke into mine! I knew too the nature of the "weapon" that would have to be "used" here. The six missiles already readied!! If we "failed" here then it would take even greater force later!! Forces so "great" that the Earth would be rendered uninhabitable! "Fire!" I heard or rather "sensed" Tais say, the six sparks of "light" racing away as the spaceship wheeled about and "fled"! Racing towards the south at tens of thousands of miles per hour like a blazing white hot brilliant meteor across the sky, only its own "deflection shields" keeping us from burning up now! Then behind us came the LIGHT! LIGHT LIKE A SUPERNOVA RISING UP! Sixty gigatons of explosive force as antimatter warheads now ex- ploded! A great "dome" of blue-white LIGHT that would have in- stantly blinded anyone who saw it. For an instant there blos- somed over the lands once of the Free Women a new "SUN", far hot- ter than the one that shown down upon us from the daytime sky... "It is `gone'," I said to Tais, seeing her nod in reply. "Many lives were lost," she answered, standing there. "The `Inferno'," Tais spoke in level tones, the ship of the Priestesses floating over the boiling "sea" of molten lava below. Due to the smoke, the steam as the boiling ocean poured into the great crater one could see little of what remained there below... "There will be `climatic effects', some `fall out' too," she ad- ded, a Priestess speaking into a mike there before her. I sup- posed the Priestesses would "do" what they "could" about things. We had sent the EVIL ONE back to HELL where He belonged. Made the world once again "safe" for Mankind despite the "foolishness" of some of its members in summoning this HORROR from elsewhere! I thought of what I'd seen there, of that glowing figure that had stood beside me. That figure of a woman I'd once known so well!! "I think Mars might be willing to render assistance," Darla- nis spoke, standing there, looking at the scene there before us. The molten lava leaping up in great gouts of flame, the smoky air surrounding the ship making seeing much of anything difficult... "You might also mention to Lorraine if you see her that she does not `know' quite as `much' about things as she thinks," Tais said then, giving the Empress a "smile" as Darlanis nodded back. Lorraine having complained about the Priestesses' opposition to the private practice of hypnosis, of certain related activities! "There was a strange sense of `EVIL' for a short period of time that terrified everyone, then a great flash of light there in the north. A sound like a great thunderclap shortly after the earth itself shook beneath our feet," my husband said to me as the ship of the Priestesses lifted back up into the star sprin- kled sky, the Moon glowing brightly down now. Arsana itself was brightly lit up, the people yet milling in the streets, suffering from the after effects of the EVIL ONE's "visit" to our world... "Is my hair still `blonde'?" Darlanis asked, standing there. The spaceship having "beamed" the airplane back down at the dock. "A bit `silvery'," my husband grinned, holding me close now. "The `moonlight'," I assured Darlanis, seeing her nod back. "It must have been quite an `adventure'," Paul said to us. "Not one I ever want to `repeat'," Darlanis assured him. She wasn't too "sober", but neither "was" I now for that matter. "I'm glad there wasn't much damage here," I ventured then, refilling my glass, Darlanis grabbing the bottle, refilling hers. "We now know what `witchcraft' can do," Darlanis commented, Kathi standing there looking her in awe. I suspected it would take more than my brandy to make her "forget" what we'd seen now! "Let us hope that the EVIL ONE has been sent back to HELL," Paul said to me. I had detected nothing, but I still recalled that Lorraine had written about an "ultimate battle" between GOOD and EVIL. I wondered if this had been "it". I didn't think so!! ***************************************************************** "I wonder what that great `flash' of light was?" Mara said as Tara regarded her. The old fisherman's cabin chill and damp. "I think it would not be wise to sail north," she answered, the old fisherman watching her as she sat there by the fireplace. "I believe instead we shall now sail south, where I still have friends," the Princess smiled, her dark eyes now meeting Mara's. There was no doubt in her mind that Tais had gotten her letter... 2569 A.D.! THE DULARNIAN QUEEN AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Jerome B. Bigge Chapter Forty One "We've got to get out of here!" Darlanis gasped, dragging me to my feet, the look in her eyes one that I will never forget! I saw nothing of THE QUEEN OF DARKNESS but my sword lying there on the table, the rest of the women still in deep hypnosis sitting there like statues despite all we'd done! I grabbed for my weap- on, the hilt strangely "hot" as if I'd put the blade in a fire! "Carol was `here'," I said, Darlanis nodding, perhaps not believing. I believe a "POWER" greater than even the Priestesses of Lys had taken a "hand" in things here, seen to it that I had "help" when I needed it. I have no other explanation of this... "Guards!" Darlanis hissed, dashing to meet the pair, her blade flashing in the light from the candles as she "met" theirs! I took the few seconds necessary to kill the other women, to "close" this horrid "circuit" that would allow the master of HELL entry. Killing them in cold blood, well aware that I had no oth- er "choice" if I valued my world and those who lived upon it now! "We were `TOO LATE'!" Darlanis cried, the HORROR forming now in the sky overhead leaving no DOUBTS as to "WHO" was "COMING"!!! I could hear the howling of the wolves, the terrified outcries of the women as they dashed about, the gigantic "SPIDER" forming there in the sky the EVIL ONE himself! The Moon now a strange GREEN color, utterly unlike anything that I'd ever seen before... "The `airplane'," I said, wondering if there was any escape! A woman dashing by us, clinging to a baby she held in her arms. Others riding bareback on their wolves, fleeing the village now! The snow a ghastly greenish tint as it reflected the moonlight... "Going to be hard to start," Darlanis muttered, the interior of the airplane now even "colder" as that "thing" up in the sky seemed to draw every last bit of "heat" from everything, the air itself "misty" as we saw the EVIL ONE growing more and more "sol- id" there above us! The engine slow to turn over in this cold!!! "LYS, have mercy on our souls!" I "breathed", seeing that "SPIDER" forming there in the sky, the airplane's engine cranking over with a "rrr", "rrr" sound while the Empress cursed to her- self. Then the engine suddenly caught with a roar of power, the three bladed propeller whirling there before us like a shield as Darlanis quickly flicked on the landing lights for our takeoff!! I saw women fleeing from the village, looking back into the sky! "Here we go!" Darlanis cried, the black Beechcraft bouncing over the rough ground there in the darkness, the snow blowing out behind it, while in the sky to our left there over the big forti- fied village of Valeris' now grew an eerie HORROR from another plane of existence! The Free Women having called upon the MASTER of HELL himself! The ENEMY of GOOD, the arch-enemy of LYS Her- self! Not even the atomic weapons, the great armies of the past could have stood against the HORROR now forming there in sky there above us now! The Empress and I gasping as a woman dashed across our path just ahead of us, clutching a baby in her arms, fleeing in terror from something that even an airplane probably couldn't escape, I knew! The EVIL ONE doubtlessly all powerful!! "Fly south," I said, Darlanis nodding as the plane lifted over the trees, the engine running rough, but thankfully running! I could "feel" the terrors now building up in my mind as we lived this nightmare from which we knew that there was no awaking from! There was no where on Earth itself that we could flee from this!! "We can't outrun `that'," she answered, seeing me nod back, making adjustments, the engine smoothing out, a "roar" of power. The airplane picking up speed as we flew low over the trees now! We were far faster than any living thing, but yet I could see the animals there ahead of us fleeing, all running away from THAT... "There is the radio," I said, seeing her nod back at me. I thought of Tais, of the Priestesses of Lys, of the Lorr of Mars! "It could `attract' that `thing' to us," she pointed out. The trees like dark sentinels moving by there below us now against the greenish glow of the snow reflecting the sky above... Terror "whimpering" at the corners of my mind, the prayers I'd learned as a child racing through my thoughts as I prayed to LYS! "Have `faith' in LYS," I answered, remembering my childhood prayers, Darlanis muttering something underneath her breath too! "Never was `afraid' of anything," the Empress muttered now. "`That' can kill more than just your body," I said to her. "No chance of fighting it either," Darlanis breathed back. "How fast are we going?" I asked, turning on the radio now. "Hundred and sixty knots, all she'll do," Darlanis answered. I was well aware too that we didn't have enough fuel to reach to the land of the Northmen even. That in two hours we would be forced to land here in this snowy wilderness, assuming that the EVIL ONE himself didn't simply reach out now and grab us from the sky like plucking a bird on the wing! "I guess you might as well try the radio even if it does bring `that' down upon us now..." "This is Maris Marn aboard Black Lady calling the Priestess- es," I spoke into the mike, the horror behind us in the sky now blotting out the Moon and everything else. I wondered if the Free Women had really "understood" the nature of what they tried to enlist as their "ally" against us of the "south". I could see the "glow" there on the snow beneath us between the evergreens... There were no "doubts" either now that this was "what" I'd seen there before down in the pits beneath my palace there in Arsana! That same sense of EVIL filling my mind as we fled to the south!! "I don't think even `they' can deal with `this'," Darlanis said to me, her hands steady on the controls. Ahead of us laid a star sprinkled sky, but behind us grew a HORROR from HELL itself! "LOOK!" I gasped, the silvery triangle suddenly there before us! A glowing beam of light suddenly washing over the airplane! The engine sputtering, dying out as we were drawn up beneath it! "The ship of the Priestesses," Darlanis cried out with joy! "It is `what' we have always `feared'," Tais said to me as she stood there. The EVIL ONE a great glowing "mass" in the sky! I felt no fear, although even this craft was no "match" for what laid ahead of us. No energy beam would kill something like that! "Can you destroy it?" Darlanis asked, her voice "odd" now as she stood at my side watching the other Priestesses at the var- ious control panels. The view on the viewscreen showed the EVIL ONE too "clearly" for our own comfort, the HORROR just ahead now! "I require the assistance of your `talent'," Tais said then. I looked into her eyes, the color of Darlanis', and suddenly I was "merged" with her mind, with the spaceship's own sensors too! "We must close the `GATEWAY' through which it has come," her mind spoke into mine! I knew too the nature of the "weapon" that would have to be "used" here. The six missiles already readied!! If we "failed" here then it would take even greater force later!! Forces so "great" that the Earth would be rendered uninhabitable! "Fire!" I heard or rather "sensed" Tais say, the six sparks of "light" racing away as the spaceship wheeled about and "fled"! Racing towards the south at tens of thousands of miles per hour like a blazing white hot brilliant meteor across the sky, only its own "deflection shields" keeping us from burning up now! Then behind us came the LIGHT! LIGHT LIKE A SUPERNOVA RISING UP! Sixty gigatons of explosive force as antimatter warheads now ex- ploded! A great "dome" of blue-white LIGHT that would have in- stantly blinded anyone who saw it. For an instant there blos- somed over the lands once of the Free Women a new "SUN", far hot- ter than the one that shown down upon us from the daytime sky... "It is `gone'," I said to Tais, seeing her nod in reply. "Many lives were lost," she answered, standing there. "The `Inferno'," Tais spoke in level tones, the ship of the Priestesses floating over the boiling "sea" of molten lava below. Due to the smoke, the steam as the boiling ocean poured into the great crater one could see little of what remained there below... "There will be `climatic effects', some `fall out' too," she ad- ded, a Priestess speaking into a mike there before her. I sup- posed the Priestesses would "do" what they "could" about things. We had sent the EVIL ONE back to HELL where He belonged. Made the world once again "safe" for Mankind despite the "foolishness" of some of its members in summoning this HORROR from elsewhere! I thought of what I'd seen there, of that glowing figure that had stood beside me. That figure of a woman I'd once known so well!! "I think Mars might be willing to render assistance," Darla- nis spoke, standing there, looking at the scene there before us. The molten lava leaping up in great gouts of flame, the smoky air surrounding the ship making seeing much of anything difficult... "You might also mention to Lorraine if you see her that she does not `know' quite as `much' about things as she thinks," Tais said then, giving the Empress a "smile" as Darlanis nodded back. Lorraine having complained about the Priestesses' opposition to the private practice of hypnosis, of certain related activities! "There was a strange sense of `EVIL' for a short period of time that terrified everyone, then a great flash of light there in the north. A sound like a great thunderclap shortly after the earth itself shook beneath our feet," my husband said to me as the ship of the Priestesses lifted back up into the star sprin- kled sky, the Moon glowing brightly down now. Arsana itself was brightly lit up, the people yet milling in the streets, suffering from the after effects of the EVIL ONE's "visit" to our world... "Is my hair still `blonde'?" Darlanis asked, standing there. The spaceship having "beamed" the airplane back down at the dock. "A bit `silvery'," my husband grinned, holding me close now. "The `moonlight'," I assured Darlanis, seeing her nod back. "It must have been quite an `adventure'," Paul said to us. "Not one I ever want to `repeat'," Darlanis assured him. She wasn't too "sober", but neither "was" I now for that matter. "I'm glad there wasn't much damage here," I ventured then, refilling my glass, Darlanis grabbing the bottle, refilling hers. "We now know what `witchcraft' can do," Darlanis commented, Kathi standing there looking her in awe. I suspected it would take more than my brandy to make her "forget" what we'd seen now! "Let us hope that the EVIL ONE has been sent back to HELL," Paul said to me. I had detected nothing, but I still recalled that Lorraine had written about an "ultimate battle" between GOOD and EVIL. I wondered if this had been "it". I didn't think so!! ***************************************************************** "I wonder what that great `flash' of light was?" Mara said as Tara regarded her. The old fisherman's cabin chill and damp. "I think it would not be wise to sail north," she answered, the old fisherman watching her as she sat there by the fireplace. "I believe instead we shall now sail south, where I still have friends," the Princess smiled, her dark eyes now meeting Mara's. There was no doubt in her mind that Tais had gotten her letter... |
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