THE QUEEN OF SWORDS!

A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN

2566 A.D.!

By Jerome B. Bigge

Chapter Eight

     

      "I thought that you two needed your rest," Lady Sanda Talen smiled as she had trays brought in to Sharon and I there at the royal palace in Trella. The time was now close to noon. She was becoming now rather obviously "pregnant", her swelling belly hav- ing become quite noticeable beneath her dress. We had landed in the wee hours of the morning, having taken turns flying while the other slept. The plane was due to have its oil changed again, Sharon had reminded me with a yawn before we had both retired.* * Although the top speed of the airplane is in excess of two hun- dred miles per hour, we usually never flew it over one fifty due to Lorraine's quite justified concerns about overstressing it!

      With her was Lara and Jers, Jers having some minor repairs done to the Seahawk before taking the big schooner out to sea to patrol for pirates, that yet being his assignment as its captain.

      "You `race' about like one of the Ancients," Lara smiled, referring to the people of the pre-War world who flew about here and there, and who thought nothing of traveling a thousand miles or two just on a "whim". The term "jet-set" coming from the 20th Century with air travel then becoming far more common in the next century before The War put a halt to all such activities forever!

      "It does make the `world' seem `smaller'," I smiled back. I used to think of Dularn in terms of a voyage of nearly two weeks. But with Lorraine's airplane it is a flight of only eight hours! I fear just using such a craft makes me very much "aware" of what Mankind "lost" by fighting The War with the Lorr back in 2047 AD.

      "We'll make a 20th Century woman out of you yet, Darlanis," Sharon smiled from the other bed, busy eating her own breakfast. Sharon sometimes playfully "teases" me about such things. I have at times however had the "last laugh" on her. I enjoy that too!

      "You have something in mind to do against my mother," Jers said to me. No doubt being Tara's son gave him some discomfort. It was perhaps just as well that he spent his life out at sea. That he was married to a woman like Lara who would "mother" him. From what I knew of Princess Sela she wouldn't have been "right".

      "I don't wish her life, only her power to do evil," I said.

      "And if you capture her, what then?" he challenged me back.

      "There are charges of kidnaping, for one," I answered him.

      "The collar, for life," he replied in level tones, regarding me as I laid there before him eating my breakfast. I nodded, un- derstanding. I did not think she would allow herself to be tak- en. Perhaps it would be for the best. She would not make a good slave girl. She was a proud, haughty woman. A Warrioress. Once the Queen of Sarn. In Baja she was surprisingly popular, I knew.

      "Jers," Lara said, touching his arm, stroking him. Her eyes concerned as they looked down into mine. I understood much then. It was doubtlessly "hard" on Lara too, having to "deal" with it.

      "This isn't the best way to do it," Sharon pointed out to me as I drained Black Lady's oil and did other minor maintenance to the airplane. A crowd gathered to watch, but keeping their dis- tance due to the guards I had posted to keep away the curious. I am of course always aware of a lurking crossbowman and his bolts. It is something that you learn to "live with" with enough time.

      "What do you suggest?" I challenged her back with a smile.

      "I think the Seahawk would be a better choice," she smiled.

      "It would probably be safer," I smiled back at my Princess.

      "I probably know Triskelion better than Tara does herself," Sharon smiled back, her lovely azure eyes meeting mine. A cold chill going through me at the very thought of what she was hint- ing at. "And I'd stand a far better chance of getting away with it than one of your agents stumbling around it half lost. She'd probably end up chained next to Lynn in Tara's dungeon if lucky."

      "Absolutely not!" I snapped back, pouring one of the bottles of oil into the engine, too well aware of the dangers that Sharon would face in making such an attempt to rescue Lynn and gather evidence on Tara's malignant and far-flung criminal activities. Evidence that we could use to convince the people of Baja of the horrible sort of person she was! Then Jers could take her place. His lovely and provocative wife there at his side his Princess!

      "There is also that Princess of Talon," Sharon reminded me. "You killed her father twelve years ago." I needed no reminding of that. Still painfully vivid in my memories the reception that I had received there in Talon. Worse than Lorraine's in Dularn!

      "Sela Dai," I answered, remembering. The Princess a beauty! A small and very exquisite brunette. Once Jers and her had been quite "intimate". Both Tara and I had thought she would become his wife, his Princess. That was, of course, before Lara Warsan.

      "If she spots you anywhere around the place--," Sharon said. The rest of her thoughts being left for me to fill in for myself as I wiped the oil from my hands and closed the engine covers up. She was much more a daughter to me than Anna, who had been raised by an alien creature more of an insect than anything near human.* * Raspa had a "claw" in the raising of my Anna, I might note. It is not all that uncommon for a Lorr to have a "pet" human like we do a favorite dog or cat. Their "attitude" towards us is often much like that of a race of "masters" towards a society of "slaves" who exist only to serve their needs. I have encountered the same attitude at times among the Women of Mars here on Earth. Their recent "Revolution" there on Mars actually altered little.

      "I hate to send someone on a mission like that," I said. I had agents willing to do it, but their chances of success weren't very high. I really needed someone "inside", but I didn't have anyone to use. Tara's own security was even superior to my own!

      "You need someone who knows the place," Sharon smiled back.

      "This is what Tara's ship looked like," Jers said, showing us the drawing he had made earlier there at dinner. He had climbed Seahawk's mainmast, used a powerful telescope while the ship was anchored in the cove there before Lorraine's estates. The drawing an excellent likeness of the same ship that Lara and I had seen from Black Lady. The same two masted schooner I'd seen before, I recalled, but where? There was something odd about this entire affair. The ship looked something like a Du- larnian war-schooner, but "slimmer", more designed for speed than battle. Jers had said the ship was faster than his own Seahawk!

      "That's Swiftstar, Queen Maris' flagship!" Sharon breathed!

      "That figures!" Lady Sanda Talen snapped, her eyes hard. "That dammed bitch doubtlessly has thrown in with Tara against us all!" Sanda having a low opinion of the present Queen of Dularn! Maris having allowed herself to become the "mistress" of Sanda's late husband, who fell in love with the beauty and later helped her escape from the estate when Lorraine planned to sell her off!

      "She'd never!" Sharon protested, "And her ship was stolen!" Sharon explaining that she had seen a painting of the Swiftstar. That Maris had told her that the ship had been stolen one night. Her present "flagship" was the North Star, a big three master.

      "And so she lied!" Sanda snapped back, an angry blaze in her dark eyes. "That lying bitch is as bad as Tara, mark my words! She was nothing but `trouble' all the time that I ever knew her!"

      "I think that I've heard enough of this," I snapped, my eyes holding those of Trelandar's Prime Minister. I understood now why Maris had fled Lorraine's estates as she did. Sanda had been the major domo there. The overseer of all the slaves. Maris had already once felt the whip. No doubt she had "feared" the woman. What Sanda might "do" to her with Lorraine's complete approval. It didn't surprise me that much o that Maris was willing to risk her life to escape what punishments could have then awaited her!* * A woman such as Sanda can make life very unpleasant for a slave girl. There are a number of ways of "abusing" such girls that do not fall under the jurisdiction of the "humane treatment" laws.

      "I've been thinking," Sharon said to me that night as we prepared for bed, as far from having a "solution" to the "Tara problem" as ever. I wondered if there really was one after all!

      "And?" I smiled, stripped to clips and strap, undoing my jewelry, laying it on the dressing table where it would be ready for me in the morning. I was "making do" with one of Lorraine's slave girls, with Lynn never far from my thoughts. I feared for her, what Tara might do if she thought my lovely slave had any "secrets" that she was not telling. I knew of Tara's sadistic love for torture, for inflicting pain upon those in her power, and shuddered to myself at what she might be doing now to Lynn! Tara having developed tortures that sickened me to think of them!

      "I worry about what Sanda said tonight at dinner," Sharon spoke, slipping beneath the covers of her bed there next to mine.

      "She's a widow still filled with hate for being `betrayed'," I smiled back. Such was not that uncommon. Lorraine tended not to like any woman with light hair because "blondes" had given her "trouble" back in the 20th Century. It made about as much sense as me hating brunettes because Princess Tara happened to be one!

      "And she's also a very good friend of Lorraine and Prime Minister of Trelandar," Sharon pointed out. "And Lorraine is now building up a navy far in excess of anything needed for pirates."

      "Those three big schooners of hers?" I smiled. They were of the same class, three masted schooners, a hundred and thirty five feet at the waterline, with ninety foot masts capable of reaching speeds of fifteen knots under "ideal conditions". I recalled Ma- ris having mentioned them, the Queen being "concerned" to a cer- tain extent considering what such awesome ships could do as com- merce raiders! Especially when fitted with Lorraine's weapons!* * Lorraine once "let slip" that she was "working" on cannons. I now suspect that Lorraine also knew about "things" there on Mars.

      "I think Sanda would like to see another war with Dularn," Sharon answered. "With Lorraine in command of our military." I had no doubt that my awesome Warlady would be quite "effective"!

      "As I recall now, Sanda was not in favor of the last war," I smiled back, snuggling in under the covers, the silky sheets cool against the softness of my skin. I remembered Lorraine's book.

      "Maris Marn was not the Queen of Dularn then, either," Shar- on said, using the Queen's maiden name. The name Sanda knew her as. Maris had spoken briefly to me of the matter. She and Sanda had both been "educated" women. She had not been like the other slave girls. Maris had been the sort that could carry on an in- telligent conversation. Speak learnedly on a number of topics. I had no doubt that Carl Talen had found her extremely attractive despite the fact that he was already married. Since Maris had been a slave girl there had been no issue of "infidelity" here although his widow certainly didn't look upon it in that fashion!

      "Better get some sleep," I said, turning out the lamp. Won- dering to myself how much of Sharon's ideas might reflect reality as I stared into the darkness. Sanda's hatred of Maris reflected something I didn't want to think about. She was a close friend of Lorraine. Lorraine listened to her. Considered her opinions. I knew too that Lorraine's husband, Jon Richards, did not think much of Maris either. He had once been her lover, but Maris, who is depicted in Lorraine's book as a "gold-digger", had deserted him to seek instead my brother, Darl Jord, the Prince of Dularn! Maris' actions in many aspects paralleling my own before I became the Queen of Sarn twenty four years ago. Lys, what a "bitch" I was back then! Ambitious, greedy, and so utterly immoral! Ready to fight and scratch my way to riches, to power, to rule an Em- pire in the traditions of conquerors now forgotten by history!

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