"2565-70" - 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 Seven "WEKCOME HOME, QUEEN LORRAINE!" the banner read there at the entrance to my estate. Someone had misspelled "welcome". I hoped it wasn't Sanda. Scribes aren't supposed to make mistakes like that! "Well, at least they spelled `my name' right!" I laughed as we all smiled at the banner spread there between the gate posts. There was a new flag too in front of my house, one I'd never seen before! A green flag with a red tree on it. The Trelandarian flag instead of the Californian Imperial Tarl flag! Waiting for us were all my people, my captain of Warriors, Carl Talen, who had married the lovely Lady Sanda Harles, she who had been once the sister of Paula, the Queen of Trelandar. Lady Tirana in her finest striding to meet us, clad as a High Lady. I knew that Hara Eslund, my Warlady, had gone with Sanda on the Squala. On that now futile voyage to Trella after Darlanis. We had "won" our "Revolution", but at a horrible "price". Sharon was dead. Gone as if she had never existed. My beloved "golden girl"! She had so admired Darlanis. Thought so much of her. I cursed the name of the dead Empress. She had killed my Sharon just as much as if she had put a dagger into her heart herself as well she could have done when she saw the fate that awaited them both! At least Darlanis would have seen to something like that!* * Actually Darlanis didn't do anything like that, but I didn't know at the time and I am glad now that she did what she did even if Sharon did have to endure the horror of repeatedly being raped by the pirates. Fortunately in Sharon's case I was able to hyp- notize her and relieve much of the "pain" from her memories. Such was impossible in the case of Darlanis due to the Priestess- es of Lys having installed in her mind a "block" against hypnosis that I was never able to overcome. The "block" was no doubt in- stalled by the use of electronic hypnosis when she was a small child there in Dularn. Hypnosis is against the law, incidentally I might mention here. It is considered in the same category as "witchcraft" and such things, and can get you in a lot of trouble with both the "civil authorities" and the Priestesses of Lys too! There was Stan Holt, standing next to Lt. Sentis Santa. I recalled what I had said to her. I wondered if she had done what I had suggested. No doubt she had. I expected that he had learned much of what a woman like her could do to a boy like him! "Let me have the honor," Jon said to me, taking me by the hand. Helping me down from the carriage. The sun shining there in the east half-way up into the sky, although the day was still cool. The birds singing in the trees. Gayle had gone with Sanda to Trella on the Squala. Little Mara running up to me, jumping into my arms, crying my name as I held her to me. She was a "Princess" now like Gayle. I supposed I had "everything" that anyone could ever want here in the 26th Century. Then why was my heart so heavy with grief? Why did everyone's faces blur before my eyes as they filled with tears. Everyone smiling, touching me, Lady Tirana standing there in her beautiful gown like another "Queen". I recalled what Sanda had told me about her. How she had helped over the years. The "secrets" they had shared. Now I understood why Sanda had seemed to "have it in" for Maris Marn. The slave girl had unfortunately looked too much like Darlanis! "This is a happy day for Trelandar," Lady Tirana said to me. I suppose that it was. Unfortunately Trelandar's new "Queen" had paid a high "price" for her crown. I hoped it was all worth it. "I guess it will do," Jon said with a smile, looking at my little yacht tied there at the dock as everyone stood around watching. The vessel a copy of the one that Maris Marn had sto- len from me just over a month before. I wondered if she had made it to Dularn or had more likely perhaps been captured by some passing ship and once again now wore the gleaming collar of a slave girl around her lovely slim aristocratic neck? She was a beautiful woman, worth fifty gold crowns in a slave market. She did eventually make safely it to Dularn, and has written a book about her adventures, as well as being feted almost from one end of Dularn to the other before she finally married Darl Jord, Dar- lanis' half-brother, the Prince of Dularn. Maris now having be- come the Queen of Dularn after the recent sucide-death of Queen Tulis. Jon says she's a true "gold digger", which she doubtless may be, but she is also a very competent sailor, and I do admire her for having made such a dangerous voyage to freedom! She is a very "determined" woman, and one who might some day prove to be a deadly enemy of the Empire if our conflict ever starts up again! I knew what Jon wanted me to do, and I wanted to tell him I couldn't. That he would have to go without me! That I was ter- rified of Squalas after my experience with one, and that to sail out beyond the sight of land in such a small craft filled my heart with terror. Made the sweat soak my skin beneath my beau- tiful silken gown. Only my pride as Queen of Trelandar allowed me to step down into that little craft, where I cowered against the little day cabin while Jon pushed off and hoisted the little fore and aft sails for that long and to me utterly terrifying voyage out to the Janis. Feebly waving to those on shore as we sailed out into that vast rolling ocean in my little sailboat. Jon sitting there on the seat with the tiller under his arm, dressed in the gold braided uniform of a proud Dularnian captain. Although his command was pretty small for a "captain" and his "crew" consisted of one now very nervous and scared "Queen" who wished with all her heart that she was standing right then on good old "terra firma" rather then sailing with him in a little twenty foot sailboat out into the vast ocean! An ocean in which swam gigantic sharks over three times the length of our boat! "Seasick?" Jon asked, sitting there, looking down at me as I sat there with my back against the little low day cabin. Waiting to see that horrible fin rise from the sea behind us, a fin that would tower some ten feet or more in the air. It is said that a coward dies many deaths, whereas a brave person dies but once. I tend to have a very "vivid" imagination at times, and this was one of those "times". On land, with a sword in my hand I'll face just about anything that lives, but here on the water I felt com- pletely helpless. Not that the up and down motion of the boat did anything for my stomach, but that wasn't really the problem! "No," I lied. I was also growing aware of another problem. We had eaten a hearty breakfast there at the tavern before going to the sheriff's office. At least I had. There had been lots of greasy sausage and bacon. I had eaten my fill and then some. I tend to suffer a bit at times from "what" tourists used to suffer if they visited a country like Mexico and were careless about drinking the water. I was a woman of the 20th Century yet inside even if I wore the crown of the Queen of Trelandar. It was still less than three months since the time Sharon and I had flown into this era. I was still yet a "tenderfoot" in more ways than one! "You don't look very comfortable," Jon observed, giving me a smile. Sitting there, pleased with himself no doubt for marrying me. He wasn't afraid of Squalas, didn't have painful cramps in his abdomen like I did. My nerves had also effected my bladder to add to my "troubles". The only "restroom" was the bailing bucket or over the side. I am a woman of the 20th Century. One subject to all the "taboos" of my own culture. Jon would have to watch me relieve myself. There was no where else for me to go! "I'm not!" I snapped back, my insides painfully gurgling. Jon nodding, seeing a "part" of me that I had managed until now conceal from him. I am "moody", sometimes hard to live with. I suspect now that I wasn't all that great a wife back in the 20th Century either. Jon disagrees, saying that I am "easy" to live with (compared to who?) and that all I need is a bit of affection from time to time and some good "holding" there in his lap to keep me happy and content. So far at least we seem to doing O.K. "Trelandarian Trots?" he smiled back. That's what the Du- larnians call it. There are also the "Sarnian Shits" if you hap- pen to go there. Public sanitation leaves a lot to be desired! I nodded, not meeting his eyes. It embarrassed me. Made me less than what I wanted to appear before him. I knew better in a rational sense, but the emotional impact still bothered me a bit. I am not a woman of the 26th Century, who merely goes behind a tree and thinks little or nothing of it if everyone knows what is going on. I fear that in many ways I am still a "stranger" to my people. I react differently than would someone like Darlanis for example. My "instincts" are different. If I go "bare nippled" underneath a gown I think nothing of it, although everyone thinks how "scandalous" it was that I dared to do something like that! "Feel better now?" Jon asked, holding me, my head against his shoulder. We were far out now, the land only a distant haze. Ahead I could see the tiny speck of that little waterless rock that hid the Janis. The ramship that would now be my "flagship". Would fly my flag beneath the Red and Green of free Trelandar. I felt the heat of the sun, the cool sea breeze there on my cheek. The movements of our little vessel beneath us as it took the waves. Going up and down, the wave rising there to port and go- ing beneath us, lifting us perhaps a yard or so at a time. The wind was picking up. My stomach was complaining a bit about it. "I'm not a sailor," I smiled back, kissing the side of his cheek. He was a great sea-captain, said to be Dularn's finest. I have excellent "instincts" when it comes to sailing, but I lack the "stomach" for sailing about in small boats. The Squala is deep keeled, more stable in a sea than flat bottomed vessels like the Janis. That is why I use the Squala rather than my flagship. "I wouldn't want to be in a ship to ship action against you," he smiled back, adjusting my crown a bit, looking into my face. He says that I do have an attractive face. That there is a "depth" to me that he's never met in another woman. I do try to look my best for him. To look like the Queen that I am. I saw a brief flash of light there on the rock ahead of us. We had been spotted. Orders would be barked. Men would scurry about in preparation to greet their captain back on board. No doubt too they already knew that he had a passenger with him, and saw the flag we flew. The flag they no doubt knew well to be my own! A black flag with its silver double barred cross. I wondered what they would think when they saw the crown, the silver chain around my throat. Heard the news that they now served a free Trelandar! "Take a look, Lorraine," Jon said to me, the Janis yet under sail, perhaps a mile out from shore. Handing me the telescope as I stood there beside him, a black gowned Queen with a golden crown on her head. Over her flew the Trelandarian flag, and her own black and silver banner that is now so well known everywhere! "And just what sort of a Lorr device is that?" he asked as I lowered the telescope, my eyes glowing with delight. BLACK LADY! It was now mounted on floats, and was tied to the very same dock where we had sailed from some seven hours before! The black Beechcraft Bonanza speaking of another time now nothing but leg- ends. I HAD MY AIRPLANE BACK! The skies were mine again! I saw painted on its side the silvery double barred cross. There could be no doubt! None at all! Once again I could fly! Travel through the air instead of having to ride a unicorn or sail on a rolling sea in some slowly sailing ship! Travel a thousand miles in five hours instead of taking as much as a week there on the Squala! No longer would I be subject to wind or storm! Or have to contend with a unicorn that wanted to go one way while I want- ed to go another! I had my airplane back! I had the "air" back! "It is my airplane," I smiled. For a moment I felt that sense of "superiority" that I sometimes feel when I can do some- thing that no one else can in this era. That feeling of being a "civilized" woman now living among a world full of "barbarians"! "There are legends about such things," Jon smiled. "That once people flew through the air in such things by means of some `magic' like that which the Lorr possess." He regarded me as be- ing of that sort. That I was a "magical being" of some sort. I suppose to many that I am. I am the only Queen with an airplane. "Would you like to go `up' with me?" I asked, giving him a smile. There were men pointing towards shore. Others had seen Black Lady. Those with telescopes could see my symbol painted on the side. I saw them look at me. With awe in their faces. Jon hesitated before answering. Certainly he wouldn't be afraid of going up with me! With his beloved wife, the Queen of Trelandar! "You would go up very high?" he asked in low tones. I sus- pected that he was one of those people who believed that if Man was ever meant to fly Lys would have given him wings like a bird! The Tarls of Talon are regarded as being somewhat "supernatural". "No more than a mile or two," I smiled back, remembering how amused he had been at my fears of Squalas. At being in a small boat sailing on the rolling bosom of the vast Pacific. I found it amusing that this man, who had commanded ships in battle, was afraid of flying in an airplane! Even with his Queen flying it! 2565 A.D.! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Jerome B. Bigge Book Two Chapter Twenty Seven "WEKCOME HOME, QUEEN LORRAINE!" the banner read there at the entrance to my estate. Someone had misspelled "welcome". I hoped it wasn't Sanda. Scribes aren't supposed to make mistakes like that! "Well, at least they spelled `my name' right!" I laughed as we all smiled at the banner spread there between the gate posts. There was a new flag too in front of my house, one I'd never seen before! A green flag with a red tree on it. The Trelandarian flag instead of the Californian Imperial Tarl flag! Waiting for us were all my people, my captain of Warriors, Carl Talen, who had married the lovely Lady Sanda Harles, she who had been once the sister of Paula, the Queen of Trelandar. Lady Tirana in her finest striding to meet us, clad as a High Lady. I knew that Hara Eslund, my Warlady, had gone with Sanda on the Squala. On that now futile voyage to Trella after Darlanis. We had "won" our "Revolution", but at a horrible "price". Sharon was dead. Gone as if she had never existed. My beloved "golden girl"! She had so admired Darlanis. Thought so much of her. I cursed the name of the dead Empress. She had killed my Sharon just as much as if she had put a dagger into her heart herself as well she could have done when she saw the fate that awaited them both! At least Darlanis would have seen to something like that!* * Actually Darlanis didn't do anything like that, but I didn't know at the time and I am glad now that she did what she did even if Sharon did have to endure the horror of repeatedly being raped by the pirates. Fortunately in Sharon's case I was able to hyp- notize her and relieve much of the "pain" from her memories. Such was impossible in the case of Darlanis due to the Priestess- es of Lys having installed in her mind a "block" against hypnosis that I was never able to overcome. The "block" was no doubt in- stalled by the use of electronic hypnosis when she was a small child there in Dularn. Hypnosis is against the law, incidentally I might mention here. It is considered in the same category as "witchcraft" and such things, and can get you in a lot of trouble with both the "civil authorities" and the Priestesses of Lys too! There was Stan Holt, standing next to Lt. Sentis Santa. I recalled what I had said to her. I wondered if she had done what I had suggested. No doubt she had. I expected that he had learned much of what a woman like her could do to a boy like him! "Let me have the honor," Jon said to me, taking me by the hand. Helping me down from the carriage. The sun shining there in the east half-way up into the sky, although the day was still cool. The birds singing in the trees. Gayle had gone with Sanda to Trella on the Squala. Little Mara running up to me, jumping into my arms, crying my name as I held her to me. She was a "Princess" now like Gayle. I supposed I had "everything" that anyone could ever want here in the 26th Century. Then why was my heart so heavy with grief? Why did everyone's faces blur before my eyes as they filled with tears. Everyone smiling, touching me, Lady Tirana standing there in her beautiful gown like another "Queen". I recalled what Sanda had told me about her. How she had helped over the years. The "secrets" they had shared. Now I understood why Sanda had seemed to "have it in" for Maris Marn. The slave girl had unfortunately looked too much like Darlanis! "This is a happy day for Trelandar," Lady Tirana said to me. I suppose that it was. Unfortunately Trelandar's new "Queen" had paid a high "price" for her crown. I hoped it was all worth it. "I guess it will do," Jon said with a smile, looking at my little yacht tied there at the dock as everyone stood around watching. The vessel a copy of the one that Maris Marn had sto- len from me just over a month before. I wondered if she had made it to Dularn or had more likely perhaps been captured by some passing ship and once again now wore the gleaming collar of a slave girl around her lovely slim aristocratic neck? She was a beautiful woman, worth fifty gold crowns in a slave market. She did eventually make safely it to Dularn, and has written a book about her adventures, as well as being feted almost from one end of Dularn to the other before she finally married Darl Jord, Dar- lanis' half-brother, the Prince of Dularn. Maris now having be- come the Queen of Dularn after the recent sucide-death of Queen Tulis. Jon says she's a true "gold digger", which she doubtless may be, but she is also a very competent sailor, and I do admire her for having made such a dangerous voyage to freedom! She is a very "determined" woman, and one who might some day prove to be a deadly enemy of the Empire if our conflict ever starts up again! I knew what Jon wanted me to do, and I wanted to tell him I couldn't. That he would have to go without me! That I was ter- rified of Squalas after my experience with one, and that to sail out beyond the sight of land in such a small craft filled my heart with terror. Made the sweat soak my skin beneath my beau- tiful silken gown. Only my pride as Queen of Trelandar allowed me to step down into that little craft, where I cowered against the little day cabin while Jon pushed off and hoisted the little fore and aft sails for that long and to me utterly terrifying voyage out to the Janis. Feebly waving to those on shore as we sailed out into that vast rolling ocean in my little sailboat. Jon sitting there on the seat with the tiller under his arm, dressed in the gold braided uniform of a proud Dularnian captain. Although his command was pretty small for a "captain" and his "crew" consisted of one now very nervous and scared "Queen" who wished with all her heart that she was standing right then on good old "terra firma" rather then sailing with him in a little twenty foot sailboat out into the vast ocean! An ocean in which swam gigantic sharks over three times the length of our boat! "Seasick?" Jon asked, sitting there, looking down at me as I sat there with my back against the little low day cabin. Waiting to see that horrible fin rise from the sea behind us, a fin that would tower some ten feet or more in the air. It is said that a coward dies many deaths, whereas a brave person dies but once. I tend to have a very "vivid" imagination at times, and this was one of those "times". On land, with a sword in my hand I'll face just about anything that lives, but here on the water I felt com- pletely helpless. Not that the up and down motion of the boat did anything for my stomach, but that wasn't really the problem! "No," I lied. I was also growing aware of another problem. We had eaten a hearty breakfast there at the tavern before going to the sheriff's office. At least I had. There had been lots of greasy sausage and bacon. I had eaten my fill and then some. I tend to suffer a bit at times from "what" tourists used to suffer if they visited a country like Mexico and were careless about drinking the water. I was a woman of the 20th Century yet inside even if I wore the crown of the Queen of Trelandar. It was still less than three months since the time Sharon and I had flown into this era. I was still yet a "tenderfoot" in more ways than one! "You don't look very comfortable," Jon observed, giving me a smile. Sitting there, pleased with himself no doubt for marrying me. He wasn't afraid of Squalas, didn't have painful cramps in his abdomen like I did. My nerves had also effected my bladder to add to my "troubles". The only "restroom" was the bailing bucket or over the side. I am a woman of the 20th Century. One subject to all the "taboos" of my own culture. Jon would have to watch me relieve myself. There was no where else for me to go! "I'm not!" I snapped back, my insides painfully gurgling. Jon nodding, seeing a "part" of me that I had managed until now conceal from him. I am "moody", sometimes hard to live with. I suspect now that I wasn't all that great a wife back in the 20th Century either. Jon disagrees, saying that I am "easy" to live with (compared to who?) and that all I need is a bit of affection from time to time and some good "holding" there in his lap to keep me happy and content. So far at least we seem to doing O.K. "Trelandarian Trots?" he smiled back. That's what the Du- larnians call it. There are also the "Sarnian Shits" if you hap- pen to go there. Public sanitation leaves a lot to be desired! I nodded, not meeting his eyes. It embarrassed me. Made me less than what I wanted to appear before him. I knew better in a rational sense, but the emotional impact still bothered me a bit. I am not a woman of the 26th Century, who merely goes behind a tree and thinks little or nothing of it if everyone knows what is going on. I fear that in many ways I am still a "stranger" to my people. I react differently than would someone like Darlanis for example. My "instincts" are different. If I go "bare nippled" underneath a gown I think nothing of it, although everyone thinks how "scandalous" it was that I dared to do something like that! "Feel better now?" Jon asked, holding me, my head against his shoulder. We were far out now, the land only a distant haze. Ahead I could see the tiny speck of that little waterless rock that hid the Janis. The ramship that would now be my "flagship". Would fly my flag beneath the Red and Green of free Trelandar. I felt the heat of the sun, the cool sea breeze there on my cheek. The movements of our little vessel beneath us as it took the waves. Going up and down, the wave rising there to port and go- ing beneath us, lifting us perhaps a yard or so at a time. The wind was picking up. My stomach was complaining a bit about it. "I'm not a sailor," I smiled back, kissing the side of his cheek. He was a great sea-captain, said to be Dularn's finest. I have excellent "instincts" when it comes to sailing, but I lack the "stomach" for sailing about in small boats. The Squala is deep keeled, more stable in a sea than flat bottomed vessels like the Janis. That is why I use the Squala rather than my flagship. "I wouldn't want to be in a ship to ship action against you," he smiled back, adjusting my crown a bit, looking into my face. He says that I do have an attractive face. That there is a "depth" to me that he's never met in another woman. I do try to look my best for him. To look like the Queen that I am. I saw a brief flash of light there on the rock ahead of us. We had been spotted. Orders would be barked. Men would scurry about in preparation to greet their captain back on board. No doubt too they already knew that he had a passenger with him, and saw the flag we flew. The flag they no doubt knew well to be my own! A black flag with its silver double barred cross. I wondered what they would think when they saw the crown, the silver chain around my throat. Heard the news that they now served a free Trelandar! "Take a look, Lorraine," Jon said to me, the Janis yet under sail, perhaps a mile out from shore. Handing me the telescope as I stood there beside him, a black gowned Queen with a golden crown on her head. Over her flew the Trelandarian flag, and her own black and silver banner that is now so well known everywhere! "And just what sort of a Lorr device is that?" he asked as I lowered the telescope, my eyes glowing with delight. BLACK LADY! It was now mounted on floats, and was tied to the very same dock where we had sailed from some seven hours before! The black Beechcraft Bonanza speaking of another time now nothing but leg- ends. I HAD MY AIRPLANE BACK! The skies were mine again! I saw painted on its side the silvery double barred cross. There could be no doubt! None at all! Once again I could fly! Travel through the air instead of having to ride a unicorn or sail on a rolling sea in some slowly sailing ship! Travel a thousand miles in five hours instead of taking as much as a week there on the Squala! No longer would I be subject to wind or storm! Or have to contend with a unicorn that wanted to go one way while I want- ed to go another! I had my airplane back! I had the "air" back! "It is my airplane," I smiled. For a moment I felt that sense of "superiority" that I sometimes feel when I can do some- thing that no one else can in this era. That feeling of being a "civilized" woman now living among a world full of "barbarians"! "There are legends about such things," Jon smiled. "That once people flew through the air in such things by means of some `magic' like that which the Lorr possess." He regarded me as be- ing of that sort. That I was a "magical being" of some sort. I suppose to many that I am. I am the only Queen with an airplane. "Would you like to go `up' with me?" I asked, giving him a smile. There were men pointing towards shore. Others had seen Black Lady. Those with telescopes could see my symbol painted on the side. I saw them look at me. With awe in their faces. Jon hesitated before answering. Certainly he wouldn't be afraid of going up with me! With his beloved wife, the Queen of Trelandar! "You would go up very high?" he asked in low tones. I sus- pected that he was one of those people who believed that if Man was ever meant to fly Lys would have given him wings like a bird! The Tarls of Talon are regarded as being somewhat "supernatural". "No more than a mile or two," I smiled back, remembering how amused he had been at my fears of Squalas. At being in a small boat sailing on the rolling bosom of the vast Pacific. I found it amusing that this man, who had commanded ships in battle, was afraid of flying in an airplane! Even with his Queen flying it! |
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