"THE WARLADY OF DULARN"

2567 A.D.!

By Jerome Bigge

Chapter Seventeen

      "We're within bowshot now," Carol said standing there at the rail, her words "reminding" me of another's. I wondered if Carol would have been the "way" she was now if we'd never met Lorraine? The sort of "questions" that I've often asked myself now of late. I would have never given up Carol for Lorraine regardless of what Lorraine might have "thought" back then. I "admired" Lorraine, but I did not love her. She "fascinated" me, but that was "all".

      Sarnian Lady was "big", far larger even than Corsica had been. Almost two hundred feet in length, three times the length of our stolen cargo ship. An Imperial "dreadnought", now some- what "obsolete" perhaps in this new era of fore and aft rigged schooners such as the North Star. I don't think Darlanis really "understood" the "threat" she faced. She is brave, but in some ways rather "dumb". Lorraine would have been more "cautious". I suppose it is just as well that she is "Warlady". Darlanis is not I feel a good military commander. On the other hand her own courage and bravery is something that might "inspire" any. I ad- mire her a great deal even if Maris finds her a constant headache to deal with. Our "peace" with the Empire is precarious. There is still much "hatred" on both sides. And there is, "Lorraine". A woman, I think, still yet driven by a "dream" of what once was. I once tried to explain to Lorraine that her "dream" had indeed come "true", but in a much "different" form than what she wished. There is no glorious world civilization, or great "starships" to carry one to other worlds. There is, however, a "new world" to explore. A social order that offers "more" than the "old" did. "Adventure" for those who seek it. I have Carol. My "Warlady". That "playful" wench of mine who still delights in "teasing", in doing those things that leave no doubts that she is truly one in a million. I serve a beautiful Queen, and see her every day, but at night I snuggle up next to a sexy provocative "delight" who in her way has proven to me and others that there is but one CAROL!

      "I have given Sandi her `instructions'," Carol said to me. We were perhaps a mile from shore. A long ways to swim, I mused. Sandi would cut Maris and the others free if we failed to "fool" Darlanis. I didn't know if Darlanis would pick up "survivors" or not. I didn't know what we would "do" if Darlanis couldn't con- trol the fire on her own ship and was then forced to abandon it! There were only a dozen men aboard the Cleolantis, and half a dozen slave girls. Maris and her own three Warrioresses. Sarni- an Lady carried a crew of a couple hundred plus Darlanis' own personal Warrioresses numbering a dozen or so. Slaves too, who might die just because of what we did! And we couldn't just shoot some burning oil out into the water to scare off Darlanis! She'd just pull back far enough to get safely out of range, and then pour a deadly stream of catapult shot and ballistae bolts into us until the Cleolantis eventually sank under us! She also had the same deadly "fire weapons" too that I'd seen used so ef- fectively by the Corsica! And under oars she was far more "ma- neuverable" than any sailing ship! That was why galleys were still in military service even in this era of fore and aft rigged schooners! "We are `doing' what we must `do'," Carol said then, putting her hand on my arm. She was my "Warlady" now, no longer my "wife" in the same sense she'd been "before". I felt as if a great "burden" had been taken from my shoulders. I felt "love". More than just "love" as you think of it. Carol and I are "one". I am very proud of what Carol has become. I am glad I am "hers".

      "I'm glad I married you," I said to Carol, my wife nodding, the torch burning well there as she held it low so it would not be "spotted" by those aboard Sarnian Lady. I saw the "beauty" of the ship, recalled what Darlanis had written in her own book. I did "like" her in a way. She was brave, courageous, and I hated to "do" to her what I was going to do. As Lorraine once noted, it is "easier" when the "enemy" is but a "faceless foe". I think it is "why" the warfare of the 20th Century was as it was. There is something to be said for a social order where weapons are lim- ited to those "edged" and "pointed". Where you must "see" the "face" of your "enemy". Where they are not just a speck in rifle sights. Or a "nameless enemy" you "kill" with the "push" of a "button". That is, I think, why The War happened as it did then.

      Carol, smiling, raised a hand, gave Darlanis the "one finger salute". I wondered if the Empress understood the meaning of it? I flung the sail off the fire pump, the four selected men leaping to the handles as I picked up the brass nozzle. My wife holding her flaming torch there just in front of it! I saw Sharon point, grab at Darlanis! She was of an era where flamethrowers had once existed! She understood what Darlanis and the others did not! "Aim for the deck!" Carol snapped, the oar ports a poor "target"!

      "NOW!" I snapped, the oil gushing forth, instantly ignited by Carol's torch. It was much like the demonstration I had once seen in the Marines of a flame thrower in action. Worse I think due to the greater quality of flammable liquid spurting forth! I recalled those who had dropped the first atomic bomb. It was, I thought, much the "same". We had unleased a "HORROR" like none any had ever seen before! The flames gushing out, falling on the decks of the doomed trireme as its terrified officers tried to turn it away! I saw Darlanis, tall, golden, a sword in her hand, trying futilely to maintain order. A hopeless task as men fled, some burning, to seek the sea! The oil spurting out suddenly stopping as the fifty gallon barrel of it ran dry! Carol stand- ing there, the torch yet in her hand, her eyes filled with horror as she saw what we had done! I watched terrified oarsmen seeking the "safety" of the sea, a few, more "in control", throwing some- thing overboard that might float them. Darlanis leaping among the flames, "magnificent" as she fought to save the lives of her own people! I saw everything blur before me, realized then that I was crying, knowing what we had "done" to these people, many of whom I had "known" by Darlanis' and Lorraine's very own writings!

      "Throw everything overboard that will float them!" Carol snapped in loud tones in as we stood there "stunned" by what we'd done to Sarnian Lady! "Sandi! Free Maris and the others!" The former slave girl dashing to obey as Carol buckled on her weap- ons, warning us to "disarm" anyone who managed to reach us now! My wife's awesome "competency", something I've "taken for grant- ed" for years now, once again coming to the fore as we hurried to put her orders into action! Seeing the futile efforts of those aboard the doomed trireme, the flames now shooting up into the sky, to launch what few boats yet remained as others now dove into the water to escape the flames! The sheer bravery and cour- age of Darlanis awing everyone now aboard the Cleolantis as we watched the Imperial Empress, now "burned" herself, fighting to save the lives of her own people even at the risk of her own! And there was Sharon at her side, taking the same "risks" that she was! A true Princess of the Imperials! A true "daughter" of their own "Warlady"! Carol dashing about to see that her orders were being carried out, while the smoke from the burning Imperial trireme rose up like a funeral pyre into the sky like some cloud of doom! I reached down, grabbed her hand, drew the terrified dripping Imperial warrioress up over the side, yanked her dagger out its sheath and tossed it over the side as she scrambled to join the others now being dragged over the side! Reached down for the oarsman behind her like some fisherman now drawing a net full of fish from the sea! And there were "more" behind him too!

      "Oh, Lys!" I heard Maris breathe, her eyes filled with hor- ror at the sight there before her. I thought of the pictures I'd seen of Hiroshima. The books I'd read about that "event". Knew Carol and I been the one "responsible" for the deaths, these hor- rible burns as we dragged men sobbing in agony over the side, some now drowning right before our eyes as they gave up the "struggle"! I grabbed a burned slave girl, her shift horribly burned right into her own flesh, her only sound a horrible "Ah-ah-ah" of agony! I saw Sandi vomiting over the side, felt the "gorge" rise in my own throat as I saw below me the "horrors" of what we had done to these people! What Carol and I had or- dered us to "do"! The wind blowing the smoke from the blazing trireme over us, the odor horrible as screaming trapped men and women died in agony on that floating funeral pyre that had only minutes before been a proud Imperial flagship! I saw Sharon clinging to Darlanis, the Empress' eyes filled with horror as she saw the horror all about! Her proud flagship only a great blaz- ing mass of flames as it now started to "settle" in the water. Her own people, terrified, out of "control", reaching out, cling- ing to the sides of her badly overloaded small boat. I saw a burned warrioress, in agony, now reach out to a half naked slave girl there on our now overcrowded deck, one of the six who had come with us from Lorraine's estate. The warrioress begging in a pitiful sobbing voice to be put out of her suffering, her burns I knew too great for any "hope" of her ever surviving them! I saw the Queen of Dularn draw her sword, saw the woman guide the razor sharp point to a place there on her throat, and watched the swift thrust that put a quick "end" to her suffering! The tears roll- ing down Maris' own reddened cheeks as she looked up at me then!

      I saw Darlanis, the side of her face burned, her beautiful golden hair now half burned away, allow Sharon to help her up on to our deck, the Empress' skin reddened, dirty, even bleeding in spots. Her eyes were like blue pools of horror as they met mine for a brief instant although I don't think she recognized me now. Maris going to her, speaking to her, her words inaudible over the sounds of the moaning and whimpering burned now already on our deck! Sharon clinging to her Empress, as if Darlanis was the only thing "left" in a "world" that had suddenly become something of horror! A world where once again there existed weapons of mass destruction! A world where the flagship of a mighty Empire might be reduced to a blazing wreck by the command of one person! Sarnian Lady now only a sinking mass of flames as the smoke like a great black column rose up into the sky to mark her passing. I thought of the mushroom clouds of atomic warfare, and knew that Carol was the "Warlady" who had killed as many as fifty or sixty people if not more, including innocent harmless slave girls who had not survived to make it to our deck. I prayed that they had not been chained aboard Sarnian Lady, that I had not been the one to condemn them to a horrible agonizing death aboard the now sinking trireme! I saw the fin of a shark in the water, as the creatures of the deep came in now to "finish" what fire had not!

      Suddenly to my horror I felt a greasy oily liquid spray over me like some heavy rain, and I saw Carol standing there at the fire pump, spraying the deadly flammable oil over everyone aboard the Cleolantis! A blazing torch held ready in Sandi' hand now! I saw the fins of more sharks gathering around the blazing embers of Sarnian Lady, and realized that Carol only needed to toss that torch down among us there before her to condemn us all to death!

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