"2565-77" - 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 Thirty Four "The Squala is in sight," the warrioress said who had been sent down from the quarterdeck. The first officer had died of his injuries from a pirate crossbow bolt despite my best efforts. Lady Tirana stood with a crutch beside me, her right leg wrapped in bandages from where the sword had slashed her thigh. Aurora sitting at Darlanis' side with the lovely golden haired An'na of Mars as the sun now rose brightly over the trees there in the east. Sharon standing beside her beloved Empress. Darlanis on a stretcher, weak, pale, her face drawn, dark with bruises, her body covered by a blanket. I had tried to speak to her, but she had only turned her head away. Even Sharon seemed a bit "hos- tile" towards me. We were now having burial service. The men and women of the Janis drawn up in their ranks. My own people, what remained of them in their own formation. About half the "hip-swingers" had survived. Six of the cadets from the Warrio- ress Academy would stand before Lys. The bodies there beneath the blankets now numbered sixty. There were another half a dozen on the Starfire racing towards Mars now stored in "Cold Sleep". I wondered if they would survive their wounds or perhaps end up buried somewhere on that ruddy desert world up there in the sky. "Inform her to heave to and wait for our signal," Jon spoke from beside me. His left arm was bandaged from a sword thrust. We were battered, bruised, tired, but still proud of what we had done. "We" had won the victory, I pointed out, not the Starfire! Standing before them all, I said, "It will be said by some that they gave their lives in vain, that little was accomplished here, but those who say such things are liars, for much was ac- complished here last night. Much that in the history of our world will never be forgotten. We stood together against a com- mon foe, all of us. We were not Dularnians, or Trelandarians, or even Californians. We fought for higher ideals than those of our countries, of our societies. We fought for something that sepa- rates us from the beasts, for our Honor. For something precious without which as history has shown, we become `less' than human." "Sword salute!" Jon snapped, all of us drawing our blades. Once again I carried the sword I had once pledged to Darlanis. I felt it proper. I would see that her "dream" did not die even if she no longer believed in it. Together we could do for Mankind what neither of us could do as the individual Queens of our coun- tries. Perhaps someday she would understand that, I prayed. I saw Darlanis raise a sword in her hand, An'na helping her, the blade shaking in the sunlight as she too saluted those who had died. I felt tears come to my eyes as I saw the scene. We were "enemies" now in a way, but yet I hoped she would someday under- stand that I had not betrayed her. Her recovery from surgery would take time. I was her "attending physician". She would have to "put up with me" for a while more if she liked it or not! I had to smile to myself as Gayle stepped up on to the deck of the Janis after the boat from the Squala had hooked on to our gangway. She was dressed as the Princess of Trelandar, even to the long gray silken gown and the diamond studded tiara. I, the Queen, on the other hand was sweaty, dirty, no doubt badly in need of a bath, and looked like something as I sometimes hear men say, "rode hard and put away wet". I was tired, my clothing splattered with blood from the surgery I had done. The wounded I had treated. The hands I had held as they died while I was still trying to save them with all my skills. I fear I did not present a very good picture of the Queen of Trelandar for Gayle to greet! Gayle turned to the Squala and waved. I wondered for a mo- ment why she did, then I saw men removing something from the ship's catapults, which to my shock I saw had been readied for firing! The red spheres even at that distance were unmistakable! "Had I not waved, they had orders to attack," Gayle spoke in level tones that made a shiver go down my spine. "Two for this ship, two each for the others." We had with us the two captured prizes. The Ronda had burned to the waterline. We had burned the other schooner rather than leave it. "You would have been avenged." She would have of course died. I felt the tears come to my eyes. She was of the Warrioresses. I took her in my arms, crushed her to me. Darlanis had her Sharon. I had my Gayle. I had my "Princess". She had two of hers. One from the 20th Cen- tury, and the other from a world only a dot of light in the sky! "Had the pirates `won', they would have been a very serious threat to Trelandar and Sarn to the north," Gayle said with a smile as we watched Squala disarm itself of my terrifying NAPALM! "Sanda told me to make sure that they didn't," she added, glanc- ing about. It being quite obvious that we had been in a fight. "They didn't `win'," I smiled, remembering. Sa-she-ra was gone. Carl Talen was gone. Sentis Santa, Stan Holt. Janet Lay- ton. Others I had known only the brief time I had been their "Lady" and for a few days, their Queen. I still had my Warlady, Hara Eslund, and my first and most dear friend, Lady Tirana. She had suffered her losses, I had suffered mine. Her leg would al- ways bear the scar of the injury she had suffered. My scars were internal, where they didn't show. I had lost Sharon, Darlanis. "Empress Darlanis, Princess Sharon, may I introduce Princess Gayle of Trelandar," I said, Gayle standing at my side. Sharon's eyes were icy cold, frigid. She had made her decision. I hoped she was happy with it. I did not believe that what Darlanis now "represented" would survive for long. What Sanda had done for Trelandar she could do for Sarn too. There would be a new "Em- pire", but it would be ruled by me, not by that golden bitch now lying there on the stretcher that we had wasted sixty lives for! "Pretty fancy clothes for some jumped up slave girl," Sharon snapped back. Gayle had been a slave girl only a month before. I suppose Darlanis' Imperial Secret Service had reported that to her. Sharon had no doubt learned that from Darlanis' own lips. "I would much prefer to have some `jumped up slave girl' as my Princess than a `snooty bitch' like you," Darlanis suddenly snapped! "The way you've treated your own stepmother after all she's risked for us both disgusts me more than you can ever real- ize." I think you could have heard a pin drop as everyone heard Darlanis! Sharon suddenly breaking down in tears and fleeing to a hatchway where she might be away from all the eyes now on her! "My deepest apologies, Princess Gayle," Darlanis said, giv- ing me a wink as if to say Sharon had coming what she had gotten! "Gladly accepted," Gayle answered, taking Darlanis' hand in hers. "You are everything that Lorraine said that you would be." "And what has Lorraine `said' about me?" Darlanis asked. I felt it best to take my leave then, and go see where Sharon went. Aurora giving An'na a hug as the two "Martians" watched us all. Aurora having told me that Darlanis had "forgiven" her, even say- ing that perhaps it was for the "best" as things had turned out! I found Sharon down on the lower deck, where the ship's stores are kept below the waterline. Among the barrels, the dim light from the hatches above shedding but the dimmest of illumi- nation. I heard her sobbing before I saw her, crouched down in among the barrels, a pitiful little thing, all curled up, sobbing as if she had just lost everything ever dear to her in the entire world. She was still a girl of sixteen, a lost little waif in a world not her own. A world that had hurt her terribly, caused her to suffer torments as few young girls ever suffer and live. A world where the two women she loved had now turned upon each other. Where her foster mother was now the enemy of her step mother. A world where she was torn between two hostile monarchs whose armies might one day soon be marching against each other's. "Sharon," I said softly, placing my hand on her, squatting down before her. "I know what you have been through, what you have suffered. What some damm unthinking fools on this ship have told you just because they hate Darlanis so much and want to `get even' with her any way that they can, including hurting you if they can just hurt her too." I thought of Sanda Talen. Of her burning hatred for Darlanis, everything that Darlanis stood for. "Lorraine, I just want'a go home," Sharon sobbed as I took her in my arms. "Go home with you. Make it like it used to be!" I knew better than that. It could never be the same as it once was. As the saying goes, "you can never go home again". Sharon was now Darlanis' own foster daughter. She belonged with her. "Is that truly what you want, or are you just mad at Darla- nis and can think of nothing else that would hurt her more?" I asked, taking her face, and forcing her to look into my eyes. I recalled too what Queen Tulis had once done to Darlanis long ago. "Jon," I said to him as he stood there, "Inform Squala that we are setting sail for home." Adding with a smile, "I'd like to sleep in my own bed tonight." He would of course sleep with me. Sharon standing there, looking on, her eyes still a bit red and puffy. Gayle still there with Darlanis, An'na sitting at her side clad in the form fitting jumpsuit of the woman of Mars. She had fired all the cartridges in the blaster at her hip, I re- called. All twenty five rounds. Sent the souls of twenty five pirates to face their final judgment. She had obtained a full clip there on the Starfire before it went racing back to Mars. I had also recharged my amazing force saber, although I would re- serve it for those few times when it was actually called for. I saw Aurora standing there by the rail, looking out at the sea. At a "world" that was as "alien" to her as Mars had been to me! She was wearing sunglasses now against the glare of the sunlight. "I'm sorry," Sharon said in a soft voice to Gayle, "I hope you can forgive me for acting like a fool in front of everyone." I saw Darlanis smile. It wasn't a big smile, but it was a smile! "In oars!" Jon barked. "Ready with those ropes!" The Janis now creeping in towards the dock. Black Lady drawn up on shore where I had left her after our landing the day before. I would have to figure out how to repair the wing and the fuel tank. For now, however, I had a more serious problem as I saw Sanda stand- ing there waiting for us, her daughter, my Mara, and Ta-she-ra beside her. We had paid a very high "price" for getting Darlanis back. For ridding Trelandar of that one group of pirates that had been Princess Tara's own lackeys. We had taken papers off the two captured schooners. They might tell us much of what had gone on. What we might do to defend ourselves now against Tara! Squala and the two former pirate schooners coming in behind us, anchoring in deeper water. I had my own "Navy" now. Doubt- less Darlanis was well aware of that fact. That I had the means to fight back should she decide to try to reconquer Trelandar. I was a more able military leader than her, and unlike Queen Paula, I was more than a match for Darlanis if it came to a sword duel! "Lorraine, where's my husband?" Sanda breathed as I stepped down from the gangplank and took her in my arms, drawing Ta-she- ra to me also. I shook my head in the negative. Told her the truth. Our losses had been heavy. Ta-she-ra looked up into my face, her eyes wet with tears. Her mother was gone. Gone to that place in the sky where the hunting was always good and there were no pale-face slavers to steal women and kill their husbands. "That's not our Gayle!" Sanda gasped, her eyes blurred with tears as Sharon stepped down to stand beside me. I had suggested that they not carry Darlanis down as of yet. That would have been too much of a blow for even Sanda to take. She had lost her husband, and lost her dreams of vengeance against Queen Darlanis! "This is Sharon Duval, my stepdaughter from the 20th Cen- tury," I said, introducing Sharon to Sanda. I could feel the hostility. Sharon was the Imperial Princess. Darlanis' own le- gal successor to the golden throne of the Empire of California! "I'm sorry, but I've just `lost' my husband for you," Sanda said, the tears running down her cheeks, perhaps believing that at least Darlanis was dead and gone! Sanda was well dressed, the usual blue silken blouse and soft black leather riding skirt that she likes. A sword at her hip. High heeled boots, glistening with polish. She is an attractive woman. Capable, competent. I think highly of her. Her advice is usually well worth following. "We have all lost much," Sharon answered in soft tones. I had "coached" her a bit about Sanda. Warned Darlanis. I didn't know what Sanda would do when she saw that Darlanis still lived! "Ta-she-ra," I said, taking her hands in mine as I squatted down before her, "Your mother was my `blood-sister' and by the blood we shared you are now my daughter just like Mara." Ta-she-ra nodding, her dark liquid eyes glistening into my own. "You good with sword, but need to practice with bow more," Ta-she-ra smiled back, moving into my arms. She is a good girl. Someday I think that there will be friendship between Trelandar and her people, the nomadic and barbaric Nevadas there beyond the mountains, and she will play a major role in making that happen. "There's a lot of fighting going on, but we're `winning'," Sanda said to me as I walked back to her, Gayle now having joined Sharon there on the dock as more people streamed off the Janis. Boats pulling from the schooners anchored further out. I won- dered what would happen when she learned that Darlanis yet lived. The Revolution was turning out to be "bloodier" than any of us had first thought. There were those who believed in Darlanis. I feared that Sanda might not understand why I had saved Darlanis. Why Darlanis now lived when her own husband had died there on a pirate schooner. Such is often hard for any woman to understand. "We have Darlanis," I said to Sanda. "I saved her life." 2565 A.D.! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Jerome B. Bigge Book Two Chapter Thirty Four "The Squala is in sight," the warrioress said who had been sent down from the quarterdeck. The first officer had died of his injuries from a pirate crossbow bolt despite my best efforts. Lady Tirana stood with a crutch beside me, her right leg wrapped in bandages from where the sword had slashed her thigh. Aurora sitting at Darlanis' side with the lovely golden haired An'na of Mars as the sun now rose brightly over the trees there in the east. Sharon standing beside her beloved Empress. Darlanis on a stretcher, weak, pale, her face drawn, dark with bruises, her body covered by a blanket. I had tried to speak to her, but she had only turned her head away. Even Sharon seemed a bit "hos- tile" towards me. We were now having burial service. The men and women of the Janis drawn up in their ranks. My own people, what remained of them in their own formation. About half the "hip-swingers" had survived. Six of the cadets from the Warrio- ress Academy would stand before Lys. The bodies there beneath the blankets now numbered sixty. There were another half a dozen on the Starfire racing towards Mars now stored in "Cold Sleep". I wondered if they would survive their wounds or perhaps end up buried somewhere on that ruddy desert world up there in the sky. "Inform her to heave to and wait for our signal," Jon spoke from beside me. His left arm was bandaged from a sword thrust. We were battered, bruised, tired, but still proud of what we had done. "We" had won the victory, I pointed out, not the Starfire! Standing before them all, I said, "It will be said by some that they gave their lives in vain, that little was accomplished here, but those who say such things are liars, for much was ac- complished here last night. Much that in the history of our world will never be forgotten. We stood together against a com- mon foe, all of us. We were not Dularnians, or Trelandarians, or even Californians. We fought for higher ideals than those of our countries, of our societies. We fought for something that sepa- rates us from the beasts, for our Honor. For something precious without which as history has shown, we become `less' than human." "Sword salute!" Jon snapped, all of us drawing our blades. Once again I carried the sword I had once pledged to Darlanis. I felt it proper. I would see that her "dream" did not die even if she no longer believed in it. Together we could do for Mankind what neither of us could do as the individual Queens of our coun- tries. Perhaps someday she would understand that, I prayed. I saw Darlanis raise a sword in her hand, An'na helping her, the blade shaking in the sunlight as she too saluted those who had died. I felt tears come to my eyes as I saw the scene. We were "enemies" now in a way, but yet I hoped she would someday under- stand that I had not betrayed her. Her recovery from surgery would take time. I was her "attending physician". She would have to "put up with me" for a while more if she liked it or not! I had to smile to myself as Gayle stepped up on to the deck of the Janis after the boat from the Squala had hooked on to our gangway. She was dressed as the Princess of Trelandar, even to the long gray silken gown and the diamond studded tiara. I, the Queen, on the other hand was sweaty, dirty, no doubt badly in need of a bath, and looked like something as I sometimes hear men say, "rode hard and put away wet". I was tired, my clothing splattered with blood from the surgery I had done. The wounded I had treated. The hands I had held as they died while I was still trying to save them with all my skills. I fear I did not present a very good picture of the Queen of Trelandar for Gayle to greet! Gayle turned to the Squala and waved. I wondered for a mo- ment why she did, then I saw men removing something from the ship's catapults, which to my shock I saw had been readied for firing! The red spheres even at that distance were unmistakable! "Had I not waved, they had orders to attack," Gayle spoke in level tones that made a shiver go down my spine. "Two for this ship, two each for the others." We had with us the two captured prizes. The Ronda had burned to the waterline. We had burned the other schooner rather than leave it. "You would have been avenged." She would have of course died. I felt the tears come to my eyes. She was of the Warrioresses. I took her in my arms, crushed her to me. Darlanis had her Sharon. I had my Gayle. I had my "Princess". She had two of hers. One from the 20th Cen- tury, and the other from a world only a dot of light in the sky! "Had the pirates `won', they would have been a very serious threat to Trelandar and Sarn to the north," Gayle said with a smile as we watched Squala disarm itself of my terrifying NAPALM! "Sanda told me to make sure that they didn't," she added, glanc- ing about. It being quite obvious that we had been in a fight. "They didn't `win'," I smiled, remembering. Sa-she-ra was gone. Carl Talen was gone. Sentis Santa, Stan Holt. Janet Lay- ton. Others I had known only the brief time I had been their "Lady" and for a few days, their Queen. I still had my Warlady, Hara Eslund, and my first and most dear friend, Lady Tirana. She had suffered her losses, I had suffered mine. Her leg would al- ways bear the scar of the injury she had suffered. My scars were internal, where they didn't show. I had lost Sharon, Darlanis. "Empress Darlanis, Princess Sharon, may I introduce Princess Gayle of Trelandar," I said, Gayle standing at my side. Sharon's eyes were icy cold, frigid. She had made her decision. I hoped she was happy with it. I did not believe that what Darlanis now "represented" would survive for long. What Sanda had done for Trelandar she could do for Sarn too. There would be a new "Em- pire", but it would be ruled by me, not by that golden bitch now lying there on the stretcher that we had wasted sixty lives for! "Pretty fancy clothes for some jumped up slave girl," Sharon snapped back. Gayle had been a slave girl only a month before. I suppose Darlanis' Imperial Secret Service had reported that to her. Sharon had no doubt learned that from Darlanis' own lips. "I would much prefer to have some `jumped up slave girl' as my Princess than a `snooty bitch' like you," Darlanis suddenly snapped! "The way you've treated your own stepmother after all she's risked for us both disgusts me more than you can ever real- ize." I think you could have heard a pin drop as everyone heard Darlanis! Sharon suddenly breaking down in tears and fleeing to a hatchway where she might be away from all the eyes now on her! "My deepest apologies, Princess Gayle," Darlanis said, giv- ing me a wink as if to say Sharon had coming what she had gotten! "Gladly accepted," Gayle answered, taking Darlanis' hand in hers. "You are everything that Lorraine said that you would be." "And what has Lorraine `said' about me?" Darlanis asked. I felt it best to take my leave then, and go see where Sharon went. Aurora giving An'na a hug as the two "Martians" watched us all. Aurora having told me that Darlanis had "forgiven" her, even say- ing that perhaps it was for the "best" as things had turned out! I found Sharon down on the lower deck, where the ship's stores are kept below the waterline. Among the barrels, the dim light from the hatches above shedding but the dimmest of illumi- nation. I heard her sobbing before I saw her, crouched down in among the barrels, a pitiful little thing, all curled up, sobbing as if she had just lost everything ever dear to her in the entire world. She was still a girl of sixteen, a lost little waif in a world not her own. A world that had hurt her terribly, caused her to suffer torments as few young girls ever suffer and live. A world where the two women she loved had now turned upon each other. Where her foster mother was now the enemy of her step mother. A world where she was torn between two hostile monarchs whose armies might one day soon be marching against each other's. "Sharon," I said softly, placing my hand on her, squatting down before her. "I know what you have been through, what you have suffered. What some damm unthinking fools on this ship have told you just because they hate Darlanis so much and want to `get even' with her any way that they can, including hurting you if they can just hurt her too." I thought of Sanda Talen. Of her burning hatred for Darlanis, everything that Darlanis stood for. "Lorraine, I just want'a go home," Sharon sobbed as I took her in my arms. "Go home with you. Make it like it used to be!" I knew better than that. It could never be the same as it once was. As the saying goes, "you can never go home again". Sharon was now Darlanis' own foster daughter. She belonged with her. "Is that truly what you want, or are you just mad at Darla- nis and can think of nothing else that would hurt her more?" I asked, taking her face, and forcing her to look into my eyes. I recalled too what Queen Tulis had once done to Darlanis long ago. "Jon," I said to him as he stood there, "Inform Squala that we are setting sail for home." Adding with a smile, "I'd like to sleep in my own bed tonight." He would of course sleep with me. Sharon standing there, looking on, her eyes still a bit red and puffy. Gayle still there with Darlanis, An'na sitting at her side clad in the form fitting jumpsuit of the woman of Mars. She had fired all the cartridges in the blaster at her hip, I re- called. All twenty five rounds. Sent the souls of twenty five pirates to face their final judgment. She had obtained a full clip there on the Starfire before it went racing back to Mars. I had also recharged my amazing force saber, although I would re- serve it for those few times when it was actually called for. I saw Aurora standing there by the rail, looking out at the sea. At a "world" that was as "alien" to her as Mars had been to me! She was wearing sunglasses now against the glare of the sunlight. "I'm sorry," Sharon said in a soft voice to Gayle, "I hope you can forgive me for acting like a fool in front of everyone." I saw Darlanis smile. It wasn't a big smile, but it was a smile! "In oars!" Jon barked. "Ready with those ropes!" The Janis now creeping in towards the dock. Black Lady drawn up on shore where I had left her after our landing the day before. I would have to figure out how to repair the wing and the fuel tank. For now, however, I had a more serious problem as I saw Sanda stand- ing there waiting for us, her daughter, my Mara, and Ta-she-ra beside her. We had paid a very high "price" for getting Darlanis back. For ridding Trelandar of that one group of pirates that had been Princess Tara's own lackeys. We had taken papers off the two captured schooners. They might tell us much of what had gone on. What we might do to defend ourselves now against Tara! Squala and the two former pirate schooners coming in behind us, anchoring in deeper water. I had my own "Navy" now. Doubt- less Darlanis was well aware of that fact. That I had the means to fight back should she decide to try to reconquer Trelandar. I was a more able military leader than her, and unlike Queen Paula, I was more than a match for Darlanis if it came to a sword duel! "Lorraine, where's my husband?" Sanda breathed as I stepped down from the gangplank and took her in my arms, drawing Ta-she- ra to me also. I shook my head in the negative. Told her the truth. Our losses had been heavy. Ta-she-ra looked up into my face, her eyes wet with tears. Her mother was gone. Gone to that place in the sky where the hunting was always good and there were no pale-face slavers to steal women and kill their husbands. "That's not our Gayle!" Sanda gasped, her eyes blurred with tears as Sharon stepped down to stand beside me. I had suggested that they not carry Darlanis down as of yet. That would have been too much of a blow for even Sanda to take. She had lost her husband, and lost her dreams of vengeance against Queen Darlanis! "This is Sharon Duval, my stepdaughter from the 20th Cen- tury," I said, introducing Sharon to Sanda. I could feel the hostility. Sharon was the Imperial Princess. Darlanis' own le- gal successor to the golden throne of the Empire of California! "I'm sorry, but I've just `lost' my husband for you," Sanda said, the tears running down her cheeks, perhaps believing that at least Darlanis was dead and gone! Sanda was well dressed, the usual blue silken blouse and soft black leather riding skirt that she likes. A sword at her hip. High heeled boots, glistening with polish. She is an attractive woman. Capable, competent. I think highly of her. Her advice is usually well worth following. "We have all lost much," Sharon answered in soft tones. I had "coached" her a bit about Sanda. Warned Darlanis. I didn't know what Sanda would do when she saw that Darlanis still lived! "Ta-she-ra," I said, taking her hands in mine as I squatted down before her, "Your mother was my `blood-sister' and by the blood we shared you are now my daughter just like Mara." Ta-she-ra nodding, her dark liquid eyes glistening into my own. "You good with sword, but need to practice with bow more," Ta-she-ra smiled back, moving into my arms. She is a good girl. Someday I think that there will be friendship between Trelandar and her people, the nomadic and barbaric Nevadas there beyond the mountains, and she will play a major role in making that happen. "There's a lot of fighting going on, but we're `winning'," Sanda said to me as I walked back to her, Gayle now having joined Sharon there on the dock as more people streamed off the Janis. Boats pulling from the schooners anchored further out. I won- dered what would happen when she learned that Darlanis yet lived. The Revolution was turning out to be "bloodier" than any of us had first thought. There were those who believed in Darlanis. I feared that Sanda might not understand why I had saved Darlanis. Why Darlanis now lived when her own husband had died there on a pirate schooner. Such is often hard for any woman to understand. "We have Darlanis," I said to Sanda. "I saved her life." |
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