"2565-67" - читать интересную книгу автора (Warlady 1 - 2565 Ad Book 2)2565 A.D.! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Jerome B. Bigge Book Two Chapter Twenty Four "It is true, Lorraine," Jon said to me, touching my shoul- der, "You are as much a Queen now as Darlanis is." I took his hands in mine, looked into his eyes. Wondered if he had known about all this? Had he kept the "secret" too? What was his "re- lationship" if any with Sanda Talen, if indeed that was "who" she actually was? The bar room was packed now, men and women, all armed, bows, swords, some with crossbows. I saw Colonel Hara Es- lund of the Warrioress Academy step up beside Sanda and Gayle. Was she too part of all this? Where did this all end? And there was Lady Tirana too! And Sa-she-ra with her daughter standing there! All my friends, everyone I knew here in the 26th Century! "Why?" I asked, my voice breaking, the tears flooding my eyes. I knew what they did not. The fury that Darlanis would bring down upon all our heads. The horrors of NAPALM as my own forces responded. I saw ships at sea, aflame! The bodies of brave men and women, scattered, dead. Burned huts, villages. I saw the azure eyes of Darlanis, burning with hatred into mine! I recalled what I had seen there in South Vietnam. They did not understand. They did not understand, know Darlanis' lovely dream they were destroying! The tears rolled down my cheeks as I wept for what could have been! What now would never be! THE FOOLS!!! "I am she who was the Lady Sanda Harles," Sanda said to me, the beautiful crown of Trelandar there in her hands. "My sister was the Queen that Darlanis killed before my eyes." Sanda was the Head of the Free Trelandar movement! The woman that Queen Darlanis herself had put a price of a hundred gold crowns on! I saw Gayle's eyes meet mine as she nodded. Had she been a part to this plot too! I thought of Sharon. Thanked SHE that Darlanis was honorable, decent, good. Not a betraying bitch like I was! I felt a fury rise before my eyes like nothing I've ever felt before. The bar room hazing over, the light from the lamps a reddish glow like that I had seen in the tunnels of the Lorr there on Mars. My sword was now in my hand. Gleaming there in the lamplight. I saw Sanda step back, saw the concern there in her eyes. She knew of my moods. She knew what was in my mind as I saw everyone go to their knees before me, only Darlanis' agent and myself still on our feet! I saw her shrink up back against the bar, her gray eyes filling with terror at what she saw in my eyes! Sensed the horrible burning fury that possessed my body! "Tell your mistress that what has happened here was not of my doing. Not of my wishes," I sobbed. My point touched the softness of her throat. She shuddered, the terror in her eyes. I had no doubt she would speak the truth of my words. Not that it would make any difference now, but it did just then to me, and nothing else was important just then. I suppose it was an awful way for the new Queen of Trelandar to carry on, but it is what I did, and you might as well know the truth of what happened then! I flung my sword to the floor at my feet, the sword I had pledged once to Darlanis. That regal golden Empress I had betrayed! The tears running down my cheeks as I stood there and sobbed there before them all! My sword, once Darlanis', now lying at my feet. "Why, Sanda, why are you doing this to me?" I wept as Sanda undressed me there in the little room, preparing me for my "pre- sentation" to the people of Thistle as the new Queen of Trelan- dar! I fear I did not make a very impressive Queen just then. I hoped my people would understand. That they would not curse my name as they died beneath the marching feet of Darlanis' legions! "You are the woman, the one woman who `can' lead us against Darlanis," Sanda answered in soft tones. There were tears in her eyes as she looked up into my face. Her makeup as the Lady Sanda Harles of Trelandar was running a bit. I would have to remind her of that before we appeared again in public. I did not wish to see her embarrassed after all she had been through. I only wished that she understood that I was not the "Queen" she dreamed of. That I was just a "shrink" from the 20th Century who hap- pened to have flown through a time warp and ended up here in the 26th Century. That I was not "Janet Rogers"! Not what everyone thought I was. That I wasn't the woman to be Queen of Trelandar! "A slave girl should be doing that," I said as Sanda gently bathed me as I stood there before her in nothing but clips and strap. Sanda nodding, smiling to herself. Why did she worship me so? What was Jon's relationship to all this? There were a lot of questions that I needed the answers to! And right now!!! "You can collar me if you wish," Sanda smiled up at me, love showing in her dark eyes as she looked up into mine. There was a beautiful gown laid out for me. Black silk, one fitted so that I would be perfectly dressed. As much made of me as was possible! "Darlanis will have your head if she ever gets her hands on you," I answered. There was the Janis. The Squala. We could flee to Dularn. Throw ourselves on the mercy of Queen Tulis. The thought made me smile to myself. Sanda suddenly "perked up" as she saw my grim smile. Not knowing what its true cause was! "She's been after me for the last ten years," Sanda smiled. I recalled Darlanis having mentioned something about the matter. About an "outlaw Lady" that her people had been after for years! I had thought she was referring to some 26th Century version of "Robin Hood". Just some woman outlaw with a small following! I had never dreamed that this "outlaw Lady" was my own major domo! "You realize what all of this means?" I asked her. Was she aware of what Darlanis would do? The power that she possessed? "Jon Richards says that Darlanis has lost `face' and that if we `play our cards right' (that made me smile) that we just may be able to take her without a fight and get Sharon away from her," Sanda answered, perfuming me. The perfume was my own. It was obvious that Sanda was a capable, competent woman even now! "I will take the Squala to Trella and acting as your employee, under your orders, see if I can get her to come back with us." I suspect that the idea would have worked too, had Darlanis not been so "eager" herself to see me that she pulled that "bonehead" stunt that she did by taking the Ronda without any escort to try to get to my estates. Getting herself nearly killed and my poor Sharon left with memories of the horrors she endured that only my best efforts with hypnosis have ever been able to even partially relieve! DAMMIT DARLANIS! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO BE SUCH A DAMM FOOL TO TAKE A CHANCE LIKE THAT??? ESPECIALLY WITH MY SHARON!!! "Sanda," I said to her, taking her hands in mine. I was na- ked but for clips and strap. Heavily perfumed, which was just as well as the sweat was just rolling off me. "Why didn't you tell me what you were planning to do? Why couldn't you trust me?" I was after all the woman that she wanted to be "Queen of Trelan- dar"! As her "Queen" I thought I deserved at least that much!!! "I `knew' you would have never `gone along' had I told you," Sanda answered in a soft voice. She started to sob again. Her eye makeup running. I would have to take care of that before we stepped back out into the "public eye" as the Queen of Trelandar and her very capable, competent Prime Minister! One must keep up "appearances" regardless of how one feels. Darlanis and I share much now as I write this. She is more than a "friend" to me now. "Why me?" I asked. "Why not you?" She was after all the late Queen's sister. About as "royal" as I was. It is true that my mother was a "Countess", but I never thought very much of it. "You are `Lorraine'," Sanda spoke. "Our `Lorraine'." I supposed it made sense in a way. I wondered if she realized what was going to happen if she didn't manage to trick Darlanis into coming aboard the Squala. Perhaps it would be better if I went myself. If worse came to worse, I preferred that Darlanis' blood be on my blade than another's. I feared however, that by now Sharon would be "Darlanis'" so much that it would do but little good. I had a vision of Sharon holding a dying Darlanis in her arms, saw the hatred in those lovely eyes as she looked up at me! "Queen Lorraine of Trelandar!" Sanda spoke, standing beside me as I stood on that hastily erected platform before the people of Thistle. More running towards us in the twilight of the set- ting sun as the word spread to the outlying areas. How long would it be before word reached Trella? The other major cities? "Our Queen!" "Our Queen Lorraine!" I heard cries. Swords lifted in my honor. Hara Eslund stood at my side. She was my Warlady. The commander of my royal forces. Sanda had done well. As Jon once said of her, "a capable, competent woman". She is. I looked into Gayle's eyes, saw another. I threw my head back, nearly losing my crown. The royal scepter was there in my hand. The crown and scepter that had belonged to the last Queen of Trelandar. Queen Paula. She had been, I understood, brave, a capable and competent woman. Better with a sword than Sanda, but still not good enough to stand against one such as Darlanis. Jon stepped up beside me. He wore the uniform of a Dularnian cap- tain. With him his lieutenant, the tall golden haired "wife" who now stood beside him. Jon was my Sealord, commander of my Navy. Sa-she-ra was my ambassador to the Nevadas. She too had been part of Sanda's plotting. The woman was amazingly "competent" in what she did. Sanda Talen is that. I saw her husband, much to my surprise. I saw him lift his sword to me. I had always be- lieved that his loyalty to Darlanis was unshakable! I had been wrong. He had been a skillful actor playing out his role too. Even the late Lady Lana had been part of the plot. She had hidden Sanda, given her a new "identity", a new "history". Carl had known her from before in Queen Paula's time. Loved her. He had married her, made a mother of her, adopted her son, Sanda be- ing a widow, her first husband having been killed by Darlanis' forces when they took over Trelandar. Then I had stepped up on to the scene. A woman from a past now legend. A woman who had known Janet Rogers. More than that, had taught her much! I had been "different" than the aristocratic Lords and Ladies Darlanis had imposed upon the people of Trelandar. Sanda had seen that. My skill with a sword, my "democratic" ideals, all proof that her country might again be free. They had a woman to lead them. One so great a Warrioress that none could stand for long against her! "People of Thistle! People of Trelandar!" I spoke, standing there sweating, my gown already plastered to my body. I thought of Stan Holt. He was out there somewhere in the crowd. In that sea of faces that looked up at me. I thought of his fantasies. In a somewhat better mood I said, "I come to you as your new Queen. Not with a sword in my hand as Darlanis did, to lay upon you new taxes, to place over you new `Lords' and `Ladies' to rule your lives, but as a Queen who wishes only your welfare. I am a woman of another time, another era so different from yours that I fear few of you understand just how different I am from you all." "Queen Lorraine!" I heard cry. "May Lys bless our Queen." I thought that wise. I would need the help of SHE. I wondered what the Priestesses of Lys from Thistle's temple thought of all this! There was one standing there to one side, watching. She was old, her ankh of gold. She ran my first school. That was a "bit" of me that not even Darlanis would be able to eliminate if she won against us and imposed her rule once again upon us. I sensed the "feel" of the crowd. Felt their love and admiration. "Much may be asked of you in the future. We seek not war, but we will defend our homes. You have the bows, the swords. It may come to the point that we will have to fight in the fields, in the forests, among the great trees of Trelandar for our free- dom from the Sarnian Queen." I felt it best to refer to Darlanis that way. That had been what she had started out as back after the king of Sarn had died in battle against the nomadic Nevadas. "We will not again repeat the mistakes of the past. Those of Janet Rogers, may Lys bless her name, or those of the Dularni- ans, or those of Queen Darlanis, who has meant well, even if she has perhaps been misguided in her actions." I felt it best to keep Darlanis' supporters as much on "my side" as I could. I had nothing against Darlanis. She had only made the mistakes that I would have made perhaps had I stood in her boots. It is easy to condemn others. Much more difficult to realize your own errors. Comment by Queen Darlanis My first feelings upon hearing that Lorraine Duval had been made Queen of Trelandar were ones of "betrayal"! I wondered why she had saved my life, took the risks she had, just to destroy my dreams! Then I realized upon speaking with her that it had not been her idea, but another's. Another who saw in her what I had not. That I and Lorraine Duval, standing together as "equals", could yet accomplish more than either one of us by ourselves. We are perhaps different in our viewpoints, Lorraine having more "confidence" in the wisdom of the people she rules than I do, but I think perhaps she is right and I am wrong. She is in many ways another "Janet Rogers". Perhaps even better than the first, al- though I know I shouldn't say or write such things, but Janet did make mistakes. Her "Golden Age" that we worship so much was not according to Lorraine much more than a benevolent dictatorship based upon her possession of the secrets of electronic hypnosis. Doubtlessly she was "benevolent", "kind", if such a thing can be, but yet Janet Rogers herself ruled all of Humanity with an "Iron Hand" as we now know, thanks to Lorraine's wonderful little com- puter and its ability to "read" the "books" of the 21st Century. Books not on paper like ours, or this one, but on "cards" Lor- raine says are "imprinted" with a "laser" and "readable" only by a computer like the one in her possession! Lorraine says that "democracy" has a lot of flaws as a political system, but its still better than anything we've been able to dream up as of yet! 2565 A.D.! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Jerome B. Bigge Book Two Chapter Twenty Four "It is true, Lorraine," Jon said to me, touching my shoul- der, "You are as much a Queen now as Darlanis is." I took his hands in mine, looked into his eyes. Wondered if he had known about all this? Had he kept the "secret" too? What was his "re- lationship" if any with Sanda Talen, if indeed that was "who" she actually was? The bar room was packed now, men and women, all armed, bows, swords, some with crossbows. I saw Colonel Hara Es- lund of the Warrioress Academy step up beside Sanda and Gayle. Was she too part of all this? Where did this all end? And there was Lady Tirana too! And Sa-she-ra with her daughter standing there! All my friends, everyone I knew here in the 26th Century! "Why?" I asked, my voice breaking, the tears flooding my eyes. I knew what they did not. The fury that Darlanis would bring down upon all our heads. The horrors of NAPALM as my own forces responded. I saw ships at sea, aflame! The bodies of brave men and women, scattered, dead. Burned huts, villages. I saw the azure eyes of Darlanis, burning with hatred into mine! I recalled what I had seen there in South Vietnam. They did not understand. They did not understand, know Darlanis' lovely dream they were destroying! The tears rolled down my cheeks as I wept for what could have been! What now would never be! THE FOOLS!!! "I am she who was the Lady Sanda Harles," Sanda said to me, the beautiful crown of Trelandar there in her hands. "My sister was the Queen that Darlanis killed before my eyes." Sanda was the Head of the Free Trelandar movement! The woman that Queen Darlanis herself had put a price of a hundred gold crowns on! I saw Gayle's eyes meet mine as she nodded. Had she been a part to this plot too! I thought of Sharon. Thanked SHE that Darlanis was honorable, decent, good. Not a betraying bitch like I was! I felt a fury rise before my eyes like nothing I've ever felt before. The bar room hazing over, the light from the lamps a reddish glow like that I had seen in the tunnels of the Lorr there on Mars. My sword was now in my hand. Gleaming there in the lamplight. I saw Sanda step back, saw the concern there in her eyes. She knew of my moods. She knew what was in my mind as I saw everyone go to their knees before me, only Darlanis' agent and myself still on our feet! I saw her shrink up back against the bar, her gray eyes filling with terror at what she saw in my eyes! Sensed the horrible burning fury that possessed my body! "Tell your mistress that what has happened here was not of my doing. Not of my wishes," I sobbed. My point touched the softness of her throat. She shuddered, the terror in her eyes. I had no doubt she would speak the truth of my words. Not that it would make any difference now, but it did just then to me, and nothing else was important just then. I suppose it was an awful way for the new Queen of Trelandar to carry on, but it is what I did, and you might as well know the truth of what happened then! I flung my sword to the floor at my feet, the sword I had pledged once to Darlanis. That regal golden Empress I had betrayed! The tears running down my cheeks as I stood there and sobbed there before them all! My sword, once Darlanis', now lying at my feet. "Why, Sanda, why are you doing this to me?" I wept as Sanda undressed me there in the little room, preparing me for my "pre- sentation" to the people of Thistle as the new Queen of Trelan- dar! I fear I did not make a very impressive Queen just then. I hoped my people would understand. That they would not curse my name as they died beneath the marching feet of Darlanis' legions! "You are the woman, the one woman who `can' lead us against Darlanis," Sanda answered in soft tones. There were tears in her eyes as she looked up into my face. Her makeup as the Lady Sanda Harles of Trelandar was running a bit. I would have to remind her of that before we appeared again in public. I did not wish to see her embarrassed after all she had been through. I only wished that she understood that I was not the "Queen" she dreamed of. That I was just a "shrink" from the 20th Century who hap- pened to have flown through a time warp and ended up here in the 26th Century. That I was not "Janet Rogers"! Not what everyone thought I was. That I wasn't the woman to be Queen of Trelandar! "A slave girl should be doing that," I said as Sanda gently bathed me as I stood there before her in nothing but clips and strap. Sanda nodding, smiling to herself. Why did she worship me so? What was Jon's relationship to all this? There were a lot of questions that I needed the answers to! And right now!!! "You can collar me if you wish," Sanda smiled up at me, love showing in her dark eyes as she looked up into mine. There was a beautiful gown laid out for me. Black silk, one fitted so that I would be perfectly dressed. As much made of me as was possible! "Darlanis will have your head if she ever gets her hands on you," I answered. There was the Janis. The Squala. We could flee to Dularn. Throw ourselves on the mercy of Queen Tulis. The thought made me smile to myself. Sanda suddenly "perked up" as she saw my grim smile. Not knowing what its true cause was! "She's been after me for the last ten years," Sanda smiled. I recalled Darlanis having mentioned something about the matter. About an "outlaw Lady" that her people had been after for years! I had thought she was referring to some 26th Century version of "Robin Hood". Just some woman outlaw with a small following! I had never dreamed that this "outlaw Lady" was my own major domo! "You realize what all of this means?" I asked her. Was she aware of what Darlanis would do? The power that she possessed? "Jon Richards says that Darlanis has lost `face' and that if we `play our cards right' (that made me smile) that we just may be able to take her without a fight and get Sharon away from her," Sanda answered, perfuming me. The perfume was my own. It was obvious that Sanda was a capable, competent woman even now! "I will take the Squala to Trella and acting as your employee, under your orders, see if I can get her to come back with us." I suspect that the idea would have worked too, had Darlanis not been so "eager" herself to see me that she pulled that "bonehead" stunt that she did by taking the Ronda without any escort to try to get to my estates. Getting herself nearly killed and my poor Sharon left with memories of the horrors she endured that only my best efforts with hypnosis have ever been able to even partially relieve! DAMMIT DARLANIS! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO BE SUCH A DAMM FOOL TO TAKE A CHANCE LIKE THAT??? ESPECIALLY WITH MY SHARON!!! "Sanda," I said to her, taking her hands in mine. I was na- ked but for clips and strap. Heavily perfumed, which was just as well as the sweat was just rolling off me. "Why didn't you tell me what you were planning to do? Why couldn't you trust me?" I was after all the woman that she wanted to be "Queen of Trelan- dar"! As her "Queen" I thought I deserved at least that much!!! "I `knew' you would have never `gone along' had I told you," Sanda answered in a soft voice. She started to sob again. Her eye makeup running. I would have to take care of that before we stepped back out into the "public eye" as the Queen of Trelandar and her very capable, competent Prime Minister! One must keep up "appearances" regardless of how one feels. Darlanis and I share much now as I write this. She is more than a "friend" to me now. "Why me?" I asked. "Why not you?" She was after all the late Queen's sister. About as "royal" as I was. It is true that my mother was a "Countess", but I never thought very much of it. "You are `Lorraine'," Sanda spoke. "Our `Lorraine'." I supposed it made sense in a way. I wondered if she realized what was going to happen if she didn't manage to trick Darlanis into coming aboard the Squala. Perhaps it would be better if I went myself. If worse came to worse, I preferred that Darlanis' blood be on my blade than another's. I feared however, that by now Sharon would be "Darlanis'" so much that it would do but little good. I had a vision of Sharon holding a dying Darlanis in her arms, saw the hatred in those lovely eyes as she looked up at me! "Queen Lorraine of Trelandar!" Sanda spoke, standing beside me as I stood on that hastily erected platform before the people of Thistle. More running towards us in the twilight of the set- ting sun as the word spread to the outlying areas. How long would it be before word reached Trella? The other major cities? "Our Queen!" "Our Queen Lorraine!" I heard cries. Swords lifted in my honor. Hara Eslund stood at my side. She was my Warlady. The commander of my royal forces. Sanda had done well. As Jon once said of her, "a capable, competent woman". She is. I looked into Gayle's eyes, saw another. I threw my head back, nearly losing my crown. The royal scepter was there in my hand. The crown and scepter that had belonged to the last Queen of Trelandar. Queen Paula. She had been, I understood, brave, a capable and competent woman. Better with a sword than Sanda, but still not good enough to stand against one such as Darlanis. Jon stepped up beside me. He wore the uniform of a Dularnian cap- tain. With him his lieutenant, the tall golden haired "wife" who now stood beside him. Jon was my Sealord, commander of my Navy. Sa-she-ra was my ambassador to the Nevadas. She too had been part of Sanda's plotting. The woman was amazingly "competent" in what she did. Sanda Talen is that. I saw her husband, much to my surprise. I saw him lift his sword to me. I had always be- lieved that his loyalty to Darlanis was unshakable! I had been wrong. He had been a skillful actor playing out his role too. Even the late Lady Lana had been part of the plot. She had hidden Sanda, given her a new "identity", a new "history". Carl had known her from before in Queen Paula's time. Loved her. He had married her, made a mother of her, adopted her son, Sanda be- ing a widow, her first husband having been killed by Darlanis' forces when they took over Trelandar. Then I had stepped up on to the scene. A woman from a past now legend. A woman who had known Janet Rogers. More than that, had taught her much! I had been "different" than the aristocratic Lords and Ladies Darlanis had imposed upon the people of Trelandar. Sanda had seen that. My skill with a sword, my "democratic" ideals, all proof that her country might again be free. They had a woman to lead them. One so great a Warrioress that none could stand for long against her! "People of Thistle! People of Trelandar!" I spoke, standing there sweating, my gown already plastered to my body. I thought of Stan Holt. He was out there somewhere in the crowd. In that sea of faces that looked up at me. I thought of his fantasies. In a somewhat better mood I said, "I come to you as your new Queen. Not with a sword in my hand as Darlanis did, to lay upon you new taxes, to place over you new `Lords' and `Ladies' to rule your lives, but as a Queen who wishes only your welfare. I am a woman of another time, another era so different from yours that I fear few of you understand just how different I am from you all." "Queen Lorraine!" I heard cry. "May Lys bless our Queen." I thought that wise. I would need the help of SHE. I wondered what the Priestesses of Lys from Thistle's temple thought of all this! There was one standing there to one side, watching. She was old, her ankh of gold. She ran my first school. That was a "bit" of me that not even Darlanis would be able to eliminate if she won against us and imposed her rule once again upon us. I sensed the "feel" of the crowd. Felt their love and admiration. "Much may be asked of you in the future. We seek not war, but we will defend our homes. You have the bows, the swords. It may come to the point that we will have to fight in the fields, in the forests, among the great trees of Trelandar for our free- dom from the Sarnian Queen." I felt it best to refer to Darlanis that way. That had been what she had started out as back after the king of Sarn had died in battle against the nomadic Nevadas. "We will not again repeat the mistakes of the past. Those of Janet Rogers, may Lys bless her name, or those of the Dularni- ans, or those of Queen Darlanis, who has meant well, even if she has perhaps been misguided in her actions." I felt it best to keep Darlanis' supporters as much on "my side" as I could. I had nothing against Darlanis. She had only made the mistakes that I would have made perhaps had I stood in her boots. It is easy to condemn others. Much more difficult to realize your own errors. Comment by Queen Darlanis My first feelings upon hearing that Lorraine Duval had been made Queen of Trelandar were ones of "betrayal"! I wondered why she had saved my life, took the risks she had, just to destroy my dreams! Then I realized upon speaking with her that it had not been her idea, but another's. Another who saw in her what I had not. That I and Lorraine Duval, standing together as "equals", could yet accomplish more than either one of us by ourselves. We are perhaps different in our viewpoints, Lorraine having more "confidence" in the wisdom of the people she rules than I do, but I think perhaps she is right and I am wrong. She is in many ways another "Janet Rogers". Perhaps even better than the first, al- though I know I shouldn't say or write such things, but Janet did make mistakes. Her "Golden Age" that we worship so much was not according to Lorraine much more than a benevolent dictatorship based upon her possession of the secrets of electronic hypnosis. Doubtlessly she was "benevolent", "kind", if such a thing can be, but yet Janet Rogers herself ruled all of Humanity with an "Iron Hand" as we now know, thanks to Lorraine's wonderful little com- puter and its ability to "read" the "books" of the 21st Century. Books not on paper like ours, or this one, but on "cards" Lor- raine says are "imprinted" with a "laser" and "readable" only by a computer like the one in her possession! Lorraine says that "democracy" has a lot of flaws as a political system, but its still better than anything we've been able to dream up as of yet! |
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