THE QUEEN OF SWORDS!
A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN
By Jerome B. Bigge
Chapter Thirty Six
"You have that `look' about you of a `well used' woman," Lorraine smiled up at me as I greeted her the next morning there at breakfast. I had little doubt of that. I thought Serak had learned a few things too. He had given me a good spanking, then took me while I was well tied! The orgasm that had rippled through my loins had been fantastic! Later on I had showed him how a wench of California could behave towards the man she loved. We had much both enjoyed ourselves. I had however refused to al- low him Pussycat in the bed with us!!! That had been too much!!!
"And in another couple years we'll have Gayle married off to that Prince of Talon," Jon smiled, changing the subject a bit. I recalled that the young man in question was quite "smitten" with Gayle, who was blonde and "taller" than he was by an inch or so. Gayle, like many who had once been enslaved, looked upon sex dif- ferently than did the young women of his own acquaintance. As the Princess of Trelandar it would be an excellent marriage for all concerned, serving to cement together the political relation- ships between Trelandar and Talon, and in a way that of Califor- nia too. Should it be "possible" as I still hoped to restore peaceful relations with Dularn I might yet see a united "Empire" that covered all of the western coast of North America. One that would be held together by the "common interest" of those gov- erned, and not by the blades and spears of my Imperial Legions!!!
"We still have Maris and Tara to deal with," I pointed out, giving Lorraine a smile. Tara I believed I had "neutralized" by my marriage to the Crown Prince of the Nevadas. No doubt Lor- raine's three "Squala" class schooners, the first one already in the water, could deal with anything that Queen Maris might pro- duce to trouble us with. I still believed that Maris was being given "bad advice" or something as I did not believe she was foolish enough to "start" a war after my conversations with her. Yet someone had provided the Montanas with a number of crossbows. Those we had captured as proof had been of Dularnian manufacture. Their major assault upon the Nevadas had been routed by the Star- fire. It had, I thought, been an effective "lesson" to us all.
"Annoyances now, nothing more," Lorraine smiled back at me. I wasn't so sure of that. I suspected that Lorraine had been too overly impressed by the awesome technology of Mars to realize as I had that it really didn't make any difference in our own lives. That we still faced the same problems we had before all of this! That while Raspa and Aurora might jointly "rule", as now seemed to be the case, it really made little difference to us of Earth. I still wasn't too "clear" on the role of the Priestesses of Lys.
"My father is willing to fight your enemies if you will give us the things that we need," Serak suddenly interrupted us both.
"Might give Princess Tara something to worry about," Jon smiled. "We could have a bit of trouble getting the Nevadas to Baja, but I suppose we could use our own ships for that purpose."
"I don't know how Dala Dai of Talon would take it, however," Lorraine commented, picking at the remains of her breakfast there before her. "Her people are pretty `scared' of the Nevadas." I gave Serak a smile as he nodded, his hand caressing my buttocks there beneath my skirt. Serak likes to "pat" me and "tease" me.
"There is also the matter of the Montanas," I pointed out, blushing a bit from his "attentions" in front of the two of them.
"Probably Queen Maris of Dularn behind them," Lorraine said, her dark eyes meeting those of my new husband as he nodded in agreement. The Montanas had possessed a number of Dularnian crossbows. A new and terrifying weapon here on the arid plains. One that I would have to "match" with similar weapons of my own if I could not bring some sort of a "peace" between the two peo- ples. I knew Lorraine was having a factory manufacture compound bows there in Trelandar. Such a weapon could be "decisive" here in the hands of the Nevadas. The rate of fire far exceeded that of crossbows, and with a range of over three hundred yards they could be as "decisive" a weapon as the "Winchester '73" had been!
"We seem as far from `peace' as ever," Lorraine smiled back.
"At least I have a good `Warlady' this time," I answered, thinking of how Princess Tara had betrayed me over the years for her own ends. I wondered how many lives had been lost for her own gains. How many "enemies" I had "made" just because of her?
"My son has spoken of the Montanas and your role in saving his life and that of his men," Terak said to me as we strolled through the ruins of Los Vegas. I now wore the attire I had worn here, the golden mesh that is almost a "trademark". "I am con- cerned that they are now obviously in possession of Dularnian weapons," he added. I nodded in agreement. I and Lorraine had spoken of such earlier. I wondered about Queen Maris. And about my brother. And too about Princess Tara? Did she have a "hand" in things? It seemed to all "fit" together if you added her and my worthless brother to the puzzle. I spoke of such to the King.
"I have a number of young men who are eager to fight," Terak said to me with a knowing smile. "Give them weapons and trans- portation and they'll fight whoever you wish." I nodded, smiled, remembering what Jon Richards had said to me this very morning.
"If you could get your hands on Princess Tara....," I spoke. Terak nodded. Such, I thought, might just be possible if she had no knowledge that I was now the Crown Princess of the Nevadas!!!
"I only regret that you cannot give me a grandson," he said, changing the subject. We were now some distance from his palace, deeper into the ruins of Los Vegas. There was little left now after all the years. A half dozen of his men, archers, with us. They were armed with the usual Nevada composite bow. It is short, handy, ideal for fighting off the back of a running mount. The range is short, no more than a hundred and fifty yards if so. My compound would shoot an arrow over twice that distance easy!
"That isn't difficult," I said, "Although another woman would have to provide the uterus for me." My mother could do that for me in Leith. The first experiments in that field had been carried out back in the late 20th Century. It was possible to take one of my ovums, some of Serak's sperm, fertilize the "egg", and implant it into the uterus of another woman. We had spoken of such briefly there at Leith. I did wish to have chil- dren. A son to give Serak. One who carried both our own genes. Later a daughter from my own ovums to carry on my own blood line. She would be the one that I buried recently there on Lorraine's estates, the last World Leaderess of the 21st Century, Domino Tremaine. I suspected that she would grow up, try to use the "Portals" to somehow travel back through time to before the time of the Priestesses of Lys. Perhaps even attempt to prevent Lor- raine from suggesting them to Janet Rogers for all I knew here... That was as much "possible" as her attempting to prevent The War.
"I have heard such things can be done by the Priestesses," he said, unaware of my thoughts, leaning back against a ruined building of the 21st Century. I nodded, smiled. It was best he did not know of what laid in the future for the wife of his son.
"Perhaps Serak's slave girl, Pussycat," I mused to myself.
I drew the arrow back until the feathers kissed my cheek be- fore releasing it. The shaft flying off, although not quite to where I had wished. Hitting a foot below the target before me. Terak glanced at Serak, my Prince giving his father a smile. I had of course used the common "three finger draw", not the "pinch" draw commonly used by the Nevadas. The warrior whose bow I had used looked at me in awe. He was a big muscular brute, and had loudly protested earlier that "no woman" could ever draw his bow even half-way back. The fact that I had done so awed every- one except for Lorraine, who of course knew my own capabilities.
We had with us another of Lorraine's new compound bows. These were of a similar design to those manufactured in Dularn, but with a few "improvements" to make them even more effective arms. The arrows were shorter than standard, and were shot off a "shelf" fitted to the bow. The weapon she had brought had been a weapon of some seventy pounds "peak" draw. None of the Nevadas had even come close to being able to drawing it with their pinch draws. I watched her draw it, release the arrow. She is a good archer. Not perhaps quite the master of it I am, but on the oth- er hand she has no equal when it comes to the use of the sword either! There is only the one "Lorraine". There never will be another. I am glad that I have known her. Stood with her in battle. She is the sort of a woman that makes one realize just what a "woman" can do if she really sets her mind to doing "it"!
I smiled as Terak took the bow from her. Attempted to draw it as she had, but using the Nevada pinch draw. It was of course impossible to do so. Lorraine took the bow back from him, showed him how to draw it using three fingers. This time he drew the bow back all the way. The arrow didn't even come close to the target however. He turned, looked at his warriors. Their faces were of "stone". Lorraine nodded, smiled at me. I nodded back.
"We learn how to draw bows `Californian style'," he cried, lifting the compound over his head. "Then we ride with `Golden One' to battle!" His last words took me completely by surprise!
"I think that with men like that you could still conquer the world," Lorraine said to me with a smile while the cheering still went on. Serak had his arm around me. I was to him more than a "wife". More than his "Princess". I was Darlanis, his Darlanis! The woman who wore his neck-chain. His woman. The one he had been willing to die for there in the mountains now only a memory!
"And with `you' to lead us," Serak said to her, glancing at Lorraine. I think he had misunderstood the meaning of her words. At least the meaning that I had taken. Perhaps she had meant as Serak thought she did. Armed with compound bows the Nevadas would be almost invincible in battle. They would not quite equal the "reach" of crossbows, but their rate of fire would be better.
"It is often better to try to make peace than fight wars," I answered. I had no wish to see more war. Know that I had sent brave men and women out to die for a cause few could understand! I was of the Warrioresses, but I had little desire to die as one!
"One always prefers `peace', but often your enemy does not give you that choice," Serak smiled back, holding me in his arms.
"Like Queen Maris of Dularn," Lorraine added just then, much to my own irritation. Her activities were like a thorn in my side. Why did she wish to provoke another war with the Empire?
"The source of the crossbows the Montanas now have," Serak added. "A weapon against which my people suffer a disadvantage."
"Not after my factory in Trelandar gets going making those new compound bows," Lorraine smiled, having overheard his words. "Then you will have a weapon the equal of anything before the in- vention of firearms." I considered the fact that she was indeed truly a "Warlady". That she gloried, delighted in such horrors!!
"Ah, if you were not already married, what a wife you'd make me!" Terak suddenly said to Lorraine, perhaps much to her shock!! I doubted very much if Jon Richards was "delighted" to hear that!
"I am," Lorraine smiled, hesitating for a second, glancing at her husband before adding, "Although I do appreciate that more than you'll ever understand." I had no doubt he found her quite attractive. She is not without certain "charms" all of her own!
"You seem to enjoy the thought of sending these people at the throats of other people!" I hissed to Lorraine as soon as we were alone together. Her dark eyes were like coals burning into my own as she regarded me. Her hand on the hilt of her sword. I sometimes do not think before I speak. She nodded, smiled at me.
"There is a time for `peace', and a time for `war'," she an- swered in level tones. "Had the democratic nations of the world in the first half of the 20th Century not resisted Hitler and later Stalin, the world you would be living in now would be con- siderably different than what it is. There are times when it is necessary to fight. I know what you've been through, and I can understand why you only want to live out the rest of your life in peace, but unfortunately, this is just not the era for that yet." The tall brunette now laid her hand on my shoulder in affection.
"I keep thinking of what Aurora could do..," I answered her.
"The `second coming of Janet Rogers'?" Lorraine smiled back.
"She could do so `much' for us!" I spoke, raising my voice.
"Why should she?" Lorraine asked. "We mean little to her."
"But she's my own mother!" I protested, wondering too if the Priestesses of Lys would even "allow" it. They now were the true rulers of the Earth. Perhaps of the solar system itself, I knew. I thought again of the "fact" that Lorraine had "invented" them.
"And just what do you want her to do for you?" Lorraine then challenged me back. "Give Maris Jord a good spanking where she needs it and then exile Princess Tara to the Moon or something?" The idea of Queen Maris bent across Aurora's knee made me smile.
"There has got to be a better way than wars," I protested.
"Man named Gandhi thought so back in the 20th Century," she answered. "Called `non-violent resistance'. Turned out it only actually worked in democratic countries where the government wouldn't send millions of people to the concentration camps." I thought of Princess Tara. There had been others like her in our history. And others like Queen Maris, I thought to myself, who I had "trusted", and who had betrayed that trust for her own ends.
"You don't offer us too much hope," I said to her. Lorraine smiled and nodded. I knew the history of the human race myself.
"We will someday become like the Women and the Lorr, but they will not have `lived' as we do," she answered me with a smile. "This is an `age of adventure' that will never be again."
"I don't like what you are now `implying'," I said to her, well aware of the meaning there behind her words. I feared that she spoke the truth. The Women and the Lorr were "dead ends" in the biological sense. There can be no "evolution" in such a so- cial order. No "improvement" in the races other in a minor way.
"Some of us are tigers, others are pussycats," she smiled. "Why do you think that Raspa had me with her on Mars?" she said. I suspected that I knew the "answer" to that question already.
"I don't understand the `implications'," I answered her.
"There are those who build civilizations, and those who lat- er on live in them. Think of the men who originally settled this land seven centuries ago, and compare them to the men of the era where they seriously discussed `giving it back to the Indians'," she smiled. "Civilization unfortunately does not breed `men' of the type necessary to rebuild the civilization they now live in."
"The Nevadas are barbaric savages," I pointed out to her.
"You also found one attractive enough to marry," she smiled. "There is in any healthy `normal' woman a drive to mate with the strongest and most fit warrior that she can, so that her children will have his own abilities to survive in a hostile cold world."
"And where did you ever get that idea?" I challenged her.
"I am a woman. My genes yet speak to me," she answered.