"2565-69" - 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 Six "What will happen to those under my command?" Colonel Janet Layton of the Imperial Secret Service asked as she stood there in the sheriff's office. She was head of Darlanis' secret service here in Trelandar. Wisely the sheriff had offered the "comforts" of a cell as I feared she might have been "accidentally shot" had she attempted to leave Thistle. It being now well known that she was the commanding officer of Darlanis' secret agents that had been watching us. She was the same redheaded "prostitute" who had tried to sell her life for Darlanis, the same one who got "punched out" by Sentis Santa and who had been placed under my "protection" for her safety. It is the normal practice in such matters as these to collar the women of your "enemy". Sanda hav- ing given orders to that effect that I had countermanded. Sanda had obeyed, although she had said that I didn't know what I was doing and that she feared for our Revolution should such women remain "on the loose", an hidden secret enemy there in our midst. "When things get `settled' a bit I'll try to get all of you out of Trelandar," I answered. I had already spoken to the head of the Prostitute Guild here in Thistle. Explained a few things. Darlanis had "used" the prostitutes for her own "eyes" and "ears". I thought it wise to do the same. Men often "talk" when visiting such women. "A few Eagles wisely spent can often return Crowns later". It is a saying of the 26th Century that I like. "The pirates are still `active' around here," the sheriff said, breaking into our conversation. "They took some foolish slaver two days ago." It was early in the morning. I mention this to give you a sense of the passage of time here from the time of the capture of Darlanis and Sharon until the time that I learned about it. It had taken a little under two days for such information to travel sixty miles and eventually come to me. I am often amazed at how slowly "news" travels here in the 26th Century. How long it takes for even my own orders and commands to take effect out towards the distant borders of Trelandar. To one of the 20th Century such things often amaze me although I am often "smiled at" a bit when I forget how long it takes to get anything done in this era. When news has to travel by horseback or in the sealed packets aboard some coastal vessel. If I have need of "speed" and it is important enough I fuel up Black Lady and travel at a rate of a hundred and fifty knots to my eventual destination, although Jon always says that he expects some day I'll go flying off and never return, fearing that I'll go through another "Gateway" and end up who knows where! Perhaps back in the Fifteenth Century to end up an "Indian Goddess" or something! "The funny thing about it is that the slaver actually turned and rammed one of the pirate schooners," the sheriff mused, his dark eyes admiring the figure of the tall Queen that stood before him. I am, when well dressed, an attractively figured woman if no beauty in the face. I don't think anyone understood why the look of horror suddenly crossed my face. Why I whimpered "No-No" like I did. They did not understand at first what was so very clear to me. They did not "know" Darlanis as I knew her. So in- credibly brave, so courageous. So very much that wonderful War- rioress who thinks not of the risks that she might face. They did see the dark eyes of their Queen suddenly fill with tears as I thought of how "brave" she had been, of the things we had once shared. Now she was dead! Gone! The friend I had betrayed! I thought of Sharon. Hoped the death had been quick. Darlanis was the type who would have seen to that. Given orders that her own warrioresses would have obeyed. The pirates had gotten nothing but dead bodies. I knew that. I knew Darlanis all too well to believe anything else! She had died a "Warrioress' Death". Per- haps it was for the best, I told myself. She would never know how I had betrayed her. Destroyed all her dreams. I could at least "avenge" her. Make the pirates "pay". I had six NAPALM bombs hidden away on my estate. I thought of Sharon. She had loved Darlanis so much. It was, I thought to myself, perhaps just as well that she was dead too. That she didn't know how despicable her "Lorraine" was. That I was unworthy of her love! "Lorraine," Jon said, taking me in his arms, holding me. The sheriff, a deputy, Darlanis' agent, all watching, puzzled as to why the Queen of Trelandar had suddenly started to cry as she had. I wonder if they thought I was a "crybaby". I had been do- ing an awful lot of it lately. There had been too much "hurt"! "Darlanis is dead," I wept. "She-she was coming to me! You rammed her ship! She-she-she didn't have any other way of get- ting here!" I broke down completely then, a sobbing figure with a crown on her head. The tears rolling down my cheeks like a dam had burst! I fear I did not act much like the Queen of Trelandar then. I had brought death to those I loved. "The Priestess told me I'd have to-to pay for my sin!" I wept, everyone's faces noth- ing but a blur before me! "SHE has had HER revenge on me!" I know better than that, but at the time I didn't think too clear! "The Janis is yours to command," Jon said to me. I saw the agent of Darlanis. She drew the sword at her hip, offered it to me as everyone gasped in surprise. I kissed it. Such is mean- ingful. I was a Queen. She was of the Warrioresses. We have our Codes, our Honor. Darlanis would be avenged. It was all we could do now. The sheriff told me he would send "volunteers" to my estates. I had no doubt we would eventually find the pirates. Half an hour later, after I had regained a bit of my "compo- sure" and had remade up my face so that I once again looked like a Queen should look, we set out for my seacoast estate, Jon tell- ing me that the Janis was about twenty miles out to sea, anchored in a cove there inside a tiny island, a waterless treeless little rock, where the ship might be concealed from passing Imperial vessels. I knew of the place, having visited it once with the Squala when I had been trying to train a crew in making practice attacks on an enemy vessel. It also makes an excellent prison, which is what it is now used as, as there is no escape from the place except by ship. Sharon once named it "The Rock", which is its present name, although I suspect those who have felt my wrath as their new Queen of Trelandar have another name for the place! "Despite what anyone says about her, she was a good ruler," I said as we rode in my carriage, Jon holding his arm around me, Colonel Janet Layton facing me. We were escorted by about thirty men, all armed. Men willing to follow to follow their new Queen in her mission of vengeance against those who had killed those dear to her. Jon saying that the pirates would be hard to find. I wondered if he really wanted to find them. He had no reason to feel as I did about Darlanis. His sword was pledged to Tulis of Dularn. He was married to me. There could be a "problem" here. "She was not the decent and honorable Queen you are," Janet answered, much to my surprise. "Darlanis was a woman who could and did order the death of thousands of innocent people who were fighting for their country and never weep a tear over the horri- ble waste of life." Jon nodding in agreement. He had told me of his wife's death. That he felt was part of the "reality" about Darlanis, not the "legend" she had so carefully tried to present to me and Sharon. Yet I do think that Darlanis is basically "good". She never sat and watched a man being tortured to death! "I had a man tortured to death," I said in low tones. "She would have never stood for that," I spoke, defending Darlanis. I had never told Jon about that. That he was married to a woman who had once ordered another to torture and then kill. I thought of Princess Tara. We were really not all that different either! "Darlanis ordered Hara Eslund, her Warlady, to burn a vil- lage here in Trelandar, slay all its inhabitants for rising up against her," Janet answered. "I was there at Darlanis' side. I remember her words. The hatred in her voice that anyone should `defy' HER!" Janet pausing, then adding, "I still recall her last words as she snarled, `let not a dog live in Talos'." I shuddered at the very implications. The innocent women, chil- dren! I recalled Vietnam. The soldiers. The innocent dead. Saw in my mind's eye then a tall golden Queen, her azure eyes blazing with cold hatred as she sat on her unicorn and saw the smoke rising up into the sky. Heard the screams as its innocent people "were put to the sword"! This was a part of Darlanis I had never known! The events having taken place just before the death of Queen Paula and the surrender of Trelandar's military! "Hara drew her sword and flung it to Darlanis' feet, saying that she would not violate her blade with the blood of innocent children," Janet continued in level tones. "Darlanis turned to Princess Tara, and `made' her Warlady on the spot." Going on to tell me the horrors she saw herself as Tara carried out Darlanis' orders with a sadistic glee that horrified even the most battle- hardened of those who served beneath the banner of their Queen! Telling us that horrid tale of how Tara had roasted a new born baby on the blade of her sword before its mother's eyes. Then tortured the mother until she ate of it before then killing her! "There was the Island of Flowers south of Dularn," Jon spoke, remembering. Much the same thing had happened there, I knew. He had told me something of it. What had been found after the Imperials left. What had happened to the women and children. "Princess Tara was in command then," Janet answered in level tones. "It was perhaps Darlanis' worst mistake of her career." I saw Jon clench his fists. He had stood beside the Princess only weeks ago. I recalled his words, what he sensed about her! "Enough!" I barked. I didn't want to "know"! I wanted my memories of Darlanis to be good ones. I wanted to remember her as she was. Tall, beautiful, golden, "The Queen of Light"! Not another as evil as Princess Tara. Not another who served EVIL! Comment by Darlanis I once tried to tell Lorraine these things. That I was not what I appeared to be to her. She did not understand. Believe. I fear she "saw" what she wanted to see. The reader might also note here that after the affair on the Ronda when I said I'd nev- er been in "combat" before (according to Lorraine), I meant to say that I'd never been in close personal combat before. I had, of course, led my forces in battle, but I had never actually been in very much danger during these times. There are also some things about Queen Paula that I have tried to explain, but to no avail. It may be noted here that everyone sees what they wish to see and that the TRUTH may be utterly different from what is put down on paper. I fear we Queens are no more truthful than anyone else in such things. My story of Lorraine's adventures here in the 26th Century would no doubt be somewhat different than hers! The biggest mistake I ever made in my life was making Tara Warlady of the Empire. I think I wanted to "win" just too much! It was easy to ignore the "stories" that I heard about her. Easy to sit on a golden throne and live out the "life" of an Empress while someone else did the "dirty" work of maintaining my Empire of California. You will note that Lorraine herself made use of Lady Tirana in somewhat the same way, although there is of course no real comparison between what Tara did over the years and what my friend Lorraine allowed to happen because she was angry at be- ing nearly killed. We are both monarchs, not "angels". That should be understood. We are "ambitious" women, both different, but yet in a way both the same. We have our "friends", and our "enemies". No doubt Lys will judge us both harshly when the time comes and we stand before her. Neither of us is "without sin". 2565 A.D.! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Jerome B. Bigge Book Two Chapter Twenty Six "What will happen to those under my command?" Colonel Janet Layton of the Imperial Secret Service asked as she stood there in the sheriff's office. She was head of Darlanis' secret service here in Trelandar. Wisely the sheriff had offered the "comforts" of a cell as I feared she might have been "accidentally shot" had she attempted to leave Thistle. It being now well known that she was the commanding officer of Darlanis' secret agents that had been watching us. She was the same redheaded "prostitute" who had tried to sell her life for Darlanis, the same one who got "punched out" by Sentis Santa and who had been placed under my "protection" for her safety. It is the normal practice in such matters as these to collar the women of your "enemy". Sanda hav- ing given orders to that effect that I had countermanded. Sanda had obeyed, although she had said that I didn't know what I was doing and that she feared for our Revolution should such women remain "on the loose", an hidden secret enemy there in our midst. "When things get `settled' a bit I'll try to get all of you out of Trelandar," I answered. I had already spoken to the head of the Prostitute Guild here in Thistle. Explained a few things. Darlanis had "used" the prostitutes for her own "eyes" and "ears". I thought it wise to do the same. Men often "talk" when visiting such women. "A few Eagles wisely spent can often return Crowns later". It is a saying of the 26th Century that I like. "The pirates are still `active' around here," the sheriff said, breaking into our conversation. "They took some foolish slaver two days ago." It was early in the morning. I mention this to give you a sense of the passage of time here from the time of the capture of Darlanis and Sharon until the time that I learned about it. It had taken a little under two days for such information to travel sixty miles and eventually come to me. I am often amazed at how slowly "news" travels here in the 26th Century. How long it takes for even my own orders and commands to take effect out towards the distant borders of Trelandar. To one of the 20th Century such things often amaze me although I am often "smiled at" a bit when I forget how long it takes to get anything done in this era. When news has to travel by horseback or in the sealed packets aboard some coastal vessel. If I have need of "speed" and it is important enough I fuel up Black Lady and travel at a rate of a hundred and fifty knots to my eventual destination, although Jon always says that he expects some day I'll go flying off and never return, fearing that I'll go through another "Gateway" and end up who knows where! Perhaps back in the Fifteenth Century to end up an "Indian Goddess" or something! "The funny thing about it is that the slaver actually turned and rammed one of the pirate schooners," the sheriff mused, his dark eyes admiring the figure of the tall Queen that stood before him. I am, when well dressed, an attractively figured woman if no beauty in the face. I don't think anyone understood why the look of horror suddenly crossed my face. Why I whimpered "No-No" like I did. They did not understand at first what was so very clear to me. They did not "know" Darlanis as I knew her. So in- credibly brave, so courageous. So very much that wonderful War- rioress who thinks not of the risks that she might face. They did see the dark eyes of their Queen suddenly fill with tears as I thought of how "brave" she had been, of the things we had once shared. Now she was dead! Gone! The friend I had betrayed! I thought of Sharon. Hoped the death had been quick. Darlanis was the type who would have seen to that. Given orders that her own warrioresses would have obeyed. The pirates had gotten nothing but dead bodies. I knew that. I knew Darlanis all too well to believe anything else! She had died a "Warrioress' Death". Per- haps it was for the best, I told myself. She would never know how I had betrayed her. Destroyed all her dreams. I could at least "avenge" her. Make the pirates "pay". I had six NAPALM bombs hidden away on my estate. I thought of Sharon. She had loved Darlanis so much. It was, I thought to myself, perhaps just as well that she was dead too. That she didn't know how despicable her "Lorraine" was. That I was unworthy of her love! "Lorraine," Jon said, taking me in his arms, holding me. The sheriff, a deputy, Darlanis' agent, all watching, puzzled as to why the Queen of Trelandar had suddenly started to cry as she had. I wonder if they thought I was a "crybaby". I had been do- ing an awful lot of it lately. There had been too much "hurt"! "Darlanis is dead," I wept. "She-she was coming to me! You rammed her ship! She-she-she didn't have any other way of get- ting here!" I broke down completely then, a sobbing figure with a crown on her head. The tears rolling down my cheeks like a dam had burst! I fear I did not act much like the Queen of Trelandar then. I had brought death to those I loved. "The Priestess told me I'd have to-to pay for my sin!" I wept, everyone's faces noth- ing but a blur before me! "SHE has had HER revenge on me!" I know better than that, but at the time I didn't think too clear! "The Janis is yours to command," Jon said to me. I saw the agent of Darlanis. She drew the sword at her hip, offered it to me as everyone gasped in surprise. I kissed it. Such is mean- ingful. I was a Queen. She was of the Warrioresses. We have our Codes, our Honor. Darlanis would be avenged. It was all we could do now. The sheriff told me he would send "volunteers" to my estates. I had no doubt we would eventually find the pirates. Half an hour later, after I had regained a bit of my "compo- sure" and had remade up my face so that I once again looked like a Queen should look, we set out for my seacoast estate, Jon tell- ing me that the Janis was about twenty miles out to sea, anchored in a cove there inside a tiny island, a waterless treeless little rock, where the ship might be concealed from passing Imperial vessels. I knew of the place, having visited it once with the Squala when I had been trying to train a crew in making practice attacks on an enemy vessel. It also makes an excellent prison, which is what it is now used as, as there is no escape from the place except by ship. Sharon once named it "The Rock", which is its present name, although I suspect those who have felt my wrath as their new Queen of Trelandar have another name for the place! "Despite what anyone says about her, she was a good ruler," I said as we rode in my carriage, Jon holding his arm around me, Colonel Janet Layton facing me. We were escorted by about thirty men, all armed. Men willing to follow to follow their new Queen in her mission of vengeance against those who had killed those dear to her. Jon saying that the pirates would be hard to find. I wondered if he really wanted to find them. He had no reason to feel as I did about Darlanis. His sword was pledged to Tulis of Dularn. He was married to me. There could be a "problem" here. "She was not the decent and honorable Queen you are," Janet answered, much to my surprise. "Darlanis was a woman who could and did order the death of thousands of innocent people who were fighting for their country and never weep a tear over the horri- ble waste of life." Jon nodding in agreement. He had told me of his wife's death. That he felt was part of the "reality" about Darlanis, not the "legend" she had so carefully tried to present to me and Sharon. Yet I do think that Darlanis is basically "good". She never sat and watched a man being tortured to death! "I had a man tortured to death," I said in low tones. "She would have never stood for that," I spoke, defending Darlanis. I had never told Jon about that. That he was married to a woman who had once ordered another to torture and then kill. I thought of Princess Tara. We were really not all that different either! "Darlanis ordered Hara Eslund, her Warlady, to burn a vil- lage here in Trelandar, slay all its inhabitants for rising up against her," Janet answered. "I was there at Darlanis' side. I remember her words. The hatred in her voice that anyone should `defy' HER!" Janet pausing, then adding, "I still recall her last words as she snarled, `let not a dog live in Talos'." I shuddered at the very implications. The innocent women, chil- dren! I recalled Vietnam. The soldiers. The innocent dead. Saw in my mind's eye then a tall golden Queen, her azure eyes blazing with cold hatred as she sat on her unicorn and saw the smoke rising up into the sky. Heard the screams as its innocent people "were put to the sword"! This was a part of Darlanis I had never known! The events having taken place just before the death of Queen Paula and the surrender of Trelandar's military! "Hara drew her sword and flung it to Darlanis' feet, saying that she would not violate her blade with the blood of innocent children," Janet continued in level tones. "Darlanis turned to Princess Tara, and `made' her Warlady on the spot." Going on to tell me the horrors she saw herself as Tara carried out Darlanis' orders with a sadistic glee that horrified even the most battle- hardened of those who served beneath the banner of their Queen! Telling us that horrid tale of how Tara had roasted a new born baby on the blade of her sword before its mother's eyes. Then tortured the mother until she ate of it before then killing her! "There was the Island of Flowers south of Dularn," Jon spoke, remembering. Much the same thing had happened there, I knew. He had told me something of it. What had been found after the Imperials left. What had happened to the women and children. "Princess Tara was in command then," Janet answered in level tones. "It was perhaps Darlanis' worst mistake of her career." I saw Jon clench his fists. He had stood beside the Princess only weeks ago. I recalled his words, what he sensed about her! "Enough!" I barked. I didn't want to "know"! I wanted my memories of Darlanis to be good ones. I wanted to remember her as she was. Tall, beautiful, golden, "The Queen of Light"! Not another as evil as Princess Tara. Not another who served EVIL! Comment by Darlanis I once tried to tell Lorraine these things. That I was not what I appeared to be to her. She did not understand. Believe. I fear she "saw" what she wanted to see. The reader might also note here that after the affair on the Ronda when I said I'd nev- er been in "combat" before (according to Lorraine), I meant to say that I'd never been in close personal combat before. I had, of course, led my forces in battle, but I had never actually been in very much danger during these times. There are also some things about Queen Paula that I have tried to explain, but to no avail. It may be noted here that everyone sees what they wish to see and that the TRUTH may be utterly different from what is put down on paper. I fear we Queens are no more truthful than anyone else in such things. My story of Lorraine's adventures here in the 26th Century would no doubt be somewhat different than hers! The biggest mistake I ever made in my life was making Tara Warlady of the Empire. I think I wanted to "win" just too much! It was easy to ignore the "stories" that I heard about her. Easy to sit on a golden throne and live out the "life" of an Empress while someone else did the "dirty" work of maintaining my Empire of California. You will note that Lorraine herself made use of Lady Tirana in somewhat the same way, although there is of course no real comparison between what Tara did over the years and what my friend Lorraine allowed to happen because she was angry at be- ing nearly killed. We are both monarchs, not "angels". That should be understood. We are "ambitious" women, both different, but yet in a way both the same. We have our "friends", and our "enemies". No doubt Lys will judge us both harshly when the time comes and we stand before her. Neither of us is "without sin". |
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