2569 A.D.!

THE DULARNIAN QUEEN

AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN

By Jerome B. Bigge

Chapter Forty Two

      "Sleep well?" I asked, Darlanis supervising the airplane's refueling. I had spent the night in my husband's arms, so drunk that I couldn't even make love before falling into a deep sleep. The Empress herself had the "look" commonly called "the morning after" about her. Kathi had managed to get the Empress to bed, although I understood that Darlanis had cried out in a nightmare later on. No doubt there in the north she had learned the true meaning of FEAR in a way that few Warrioresses have known it now! On the other hand she had been "braver" than anyone I'd known...

      "You've got more `guts' than I gave you credit for," Darla- nis suddenly smiled back, watching the last of the alcohol being poured into Black Lady's three fuel tanks. A few people glancing at me then, well aware of Darlanis' own "fearless" reputation...

      "The `Free Women' are `gone'," I said. There probably were a few "survivors" on the outskirts of Valeris' territory, but the major part of the population had been killed by the sixty gigaton blast from the half dozen antimatter missiles that Tais fired.

      "I don't think they ever `understood' what they were doing," the Empress answered, screwing on the filling caps as I watched. "Hopefully we'll never see anything `more' of `Old Ugly' now." I wondered about Princess Tara, if we'd ever see any more of her... *****************************************************************

      "Look!" Mara breathed, Princess Tara looking up, the buzz of the airplane's engine unmistakable as the craft flew to the south towards Sarn. The old fishing boat unnoticed by its royal pilot. The former Bajan Princess' head now concealed by the hood of her robe, such serving to hide from pubic view her scarred features.

      "I wonder `what' did happen there in the north?" Tara said. *****************************************************************

      "How's the North Star doing?" I asked, the ship's major dam- age from its clash with Princess Tara's seemingly so long ago now almost all repaired now. I still hoped that it might be possible to sail to Japan, although it would no longer be possible to skirt the coastline too far north of the territory of the North- men without running into the damage caused by the antimatter mis- siles used by the Priestesses of Lys to rid us of the EVIL ONE... The sun shining brightly in the sky, spring most definitely here. The sunsets had been brilliant, beautiful the last few days too.

      "Another three weeks and she'll be ready for sea," the chief of the workers now smiled, her strikingly blue eyes meeting mine.

      "Maris, Queen of Dularn is a most `amazing' woman," Paul said to me, tracing a line down my naked body as I laid there be- fore him. I was freshly "used", and quite content to lie there.

      "I've had `adventures' few Queens ever have had," I smiled.

      "You had another `nightmare' last night," Paul said to me.

      "When one looks into the `face' of the EVIL ONE you don't forget," I replied, remembering how we'd fled from that HORROR. His "consort", "THE QUEEN OF DARKNESS" hadn't been any "beauty".

      "I don't think my father will remain `single' for long," he spoke, his father having been "seen" with a high ranking "Lady". Freydis had married the young Nevada Prince Orthis at the temple. I had also spoken to the High Priestess about a voyage to Japan.

      "Darlanis and I have `shared' something few women have," I said, remembering our terrified flight from the EVIL ONE with the airplane. Had it not been for the radio I have no doubt that we would have been killed by the "blast" of the antimatter missiles. I recalled the "look" on Darlanis' face back then. I think for the first time in her life she had learned the meaning of TERROR! Oddly enough I had not been as "terrified" as she had been then, although earlier on she had been the "braver" of the two of us... Facing that "Horror" from Hell while I broke that evil "circuit"!

      "I see you're on your `feet' now," I said to Diane, her mother standing there protectively at her side, Tori now nodding. A pair of birds chirping there just outside one of the windows, a few puffy white clouds drifting across the azure sky, a mild warm spring breeze now gently rippling the waters of the harbor below. In another couple weeks the North Star would be ready to sail... Apparently the Priestesses would "tolerate" the voyage, but they would not "bless" it from what I'd heard from the High Priestess.

      "I want to sail with you on the North Star to Japan," Miss Wells smiled back, her eyes glowing into mine as Tori smiled back at me. No doubt her mother knew all about this proposed voyage!!

      "We will be at sea a `long' time," I warned, Diane nodding. I would carry supplies for a hundred and twenty days, the maximum that could be carried aboard the ship. I would sail north, skirting the coastline of North America until I reached the place there to the north of the land of the Northmen where molten lava yet "glowed", where volcanoes poured thick smoke up into the sky. Then I would sail towards the sunset, across the Pacific itself!

      "`Odd' that Princess Tara `did' what she did...," Tori said to me. I nodded in reply, aware that Pharis, Valeris too were now only memories. There were surviving Free Women, but not enough now to be of "bother" to anyone. The Priestesses had now moved up into the area, treating the survivors, and seeing to it that the practice of "witchcraft" came to a end. We needed no more "visits" from the EVIL ONE or another such from HELL itself!

      "And the Empire no longer seems to be a `threat'," I smiled.

      "Perhaps the `day' will come when we won't need to `learn war' any more," Tori smiled back. I rather doubted "that". Man, throughout his entire history, has always made "war" upon his own kind except when under the "thumb" of some all powerful ruler... On the other hand Darlanis and I had shared an "adventure" that I feel had brought us much "closer" than we'd ever been before now! *****************************************************************

      "I didn't know such a `city' like this could exist," Mara breathed in "awe" as she clung tightly to the scarred hand of the former Princess of Baja, Tara keeping her hood drawn close to hide her scarred features from any who might now look upon her.

      "Sarn `is' one of the largest cities in the known world," Tara then smiled back, looking down at the girl who had grown to mean so much to her. "And it is the `home' of a woman who many have said is the most beautiful woman of all time," she added...

      "I wish I could `write' my mother," Mara "ventured" then.

      "I will see that `word' is gotten to her," Tara answered. *****************************************************************

      "We have, in the past few weeks now, learned `much'," I said as I stood there addressing the Senate, a number of the Senators well aware that they had supported Pharis against me back then... I suspected they "worried" what their Queen's vengence might be. "Throughout the entire history of Mankind, from the time we first `developed' civilization, there has a `distrust' of `women'," I said, standing there before them, a fly buzzing about the room. The sound of birds chirping away coming in through the windows. "Yet in all of human history only in `one' century did women ever `behave' in any way that might lead to any justified fear of us." My husband sitting there to one side, while Tori stood watching, the other guardswomen of my escort enjoying the sunshine outside. "And `that' was under a political system `doomed' to failure," I spoke, looking straight into their faces as they sat before me.

      "Yet even today we still see women as `property', as `be- longing' to someone as if my entire sex were only collared slave girls..." I continued. "Our own children are considered legally under our laws to be the `property' of the father. Our surnames are taken away from us much as they might from some slave girl upon our marriage." I thought too of the fact that married women are "neck chained", the "implications" of "that" right here now!!

      "I ask," I spoke, "Only that we be allowed the same `rights' under the laws of this nation that men now enjoy. Nothing more, nothing less. Just as we once enjoyed this under Janet Rogers."

      "I am wondering," my husband said to me as we returned to the Royal Palace, Tori sitting there in the carriage facing us, "Just `who' will our children `belong' to?" He was already aware that I wished to keep the name "Marn". I knew that he loved me, but I also knew that he was having "trouble" accepting all this.

      "They will `belong' to both of us," I smiled, kissing him.

      "And whose `name' will they bear?" he asked then in reply.

      "The girl mine, the boy yours?" I suggested, seeing him nod. One could of course make the point here that if I continued hav- ing the "sort" of "adventures" I'd been having lately, it wasn't too likely that I'd be living long enough to ever have children!!

      "We have a very `good' Queen," Tori smiled, seeing him nod.

      "The `champion of women' everywhere," Prince Paul "smiled". I also sensed that he was "uncomfortable" with my own "feminism". The fact that I was not a woman who accepted things as they were.

      "It `bothers' you, doesn't it?" I said, the two of us stand- ing there looking out over the harbor, the sun shining down, the birds making their nests now in the eaves over our heads. It was almost warm enough now that I might lie out on the roof top in no more than my clips and strap and sun myself as others have done.

      "I always knew you were a `feminist'," he answered, holding me in his arms. "I think one of the things that first attracted me to you was the fact that you weren't quite like other women."

      "But now you're starting to have `doubts' about me?" I asked. I supposed he was justified in such feelings. I had not yet "taken" his name, nor had I "done" the things that many new wives do. As the Queen of Dularn of course the throne would be my daughter's, not my son's as in most other countries, only Tre- landar and Talon having a similar system of feminine inheritance.

      "I never `liked' Pharis," he said to me, seeing me nod back.

      "I didn't either," I smiled. The woman had been "pushy"...

      "You don't `behave' like a wife," Paul "said" to me then.

      "I'm the Queen of Dularn," I smiled, "Not just some girl."

      "You go about without me," he spoke, looking into my eyes.

      "If you hadn't been `here' when Pharis tried to take over, I would have `lost' my throne for sure," I pointed out to him then. "And I don't think your `presence' would have been `helpful' when we went to meet with Queen Valeris," I added, kissing him. "Nor would you have `enjoyed' our `meeting' with the EVIL ONE either."

      "It's hard to `argue' with a woman like you," he said to me.

      "Just don't forget that I am a woman," I purred, moving up against him, caressing him in reply. "One who loves her Prince."

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