2569 A.D.!
THE DULARNIAN QUEEN
AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN
By Jerome B. Bigge
Chapter Nine
"I haven't `kept' hours like this since our last war," Tori smiled to me, yawning a bit, having been on her feet all day too!
"You could `stay' here at the palace tonight," I suggested, Tori living over on the other side of the city from the palace.
"I suppose I could `bunk' at the guardhouse," she smiled.
"Or you could keep your Queen `company'," I suggested.
"I've heard about your `nightmares'," Tori grinned.
"My bed's `big' enough for both of us," I said.
"Just as long as you `ain't'...," she smiled at me.
"I assure you that I'm `not'," I grinned back at her.
"I don't even `like' my slave girl `touching' me," she said, Tori's eyes meeting mine as I "nodded" back. My "opinions" about "slavery" were something that few people in this era shared. Not that Tori or her husband ever "mistreated" their slave girl so far as I knew, but the wench was being kept as a sort of "unpaid" housemaid, servant, and "sexual partner" for Tori's Physician husband when she wasn't "available" or in the "mood" for "sex"... Tori in this respect at least truly a wife of the 26th Century.
"This is kind of `embarrassing'," Tori said as she removed her uniform, a well filled halter cradling her breasts. She had, I thought to myself, a "20th Century" figure, the "ideal" of lat- er eras being smaller breasted, "larger" in the hips and thighs. The sort of a "figure" that Bob Simmons had called "Hefnerian"... I recalled what Prince Paul of the Wyomings and I had once "done" there in the forest, the gentle breeze rustling the leaves in the broughs overhead, the birds chirping away, the little animals running about. The "sounds" that our unicorns had made as they watched us. The "feel" of his body against mine as we made love. I had talked of "running away" with him, of "leaving" Dularn, of giving up my crown, everything else just to get away from Darl...
"A Queen is just a woman with a crown," I smiled, removing my "clips" and slipping off my strap. I usually sleep completely nude, seeing no reason to wear "underclothing" when I'm in bed... La-ra had not neglected to "warm" my bed with hot bricks so that it would be nice and warm when I slipped in between the covers.
"I've always looked upon you as being `more' than that," she answered, turning her back now to me as she removed her clips and slipped down her strap. I wondered again "why" women wore such "attire" beneath their clothing. Why the "exposure" of the nip- ple was something so "forbidden" when the "breast" itself wasn't? Carol Simmons having once told me that back in her own time when she was an "exotic dancer" (Such exist today, but only slave girls do it!) that it was "illegal" for a woman to "expose" those parts of her body in a public place. This of course implies that perhaps our own "style" of clips and strap commonly worn by the women of the "civilized" nations of North America dates back somehow to the 20th Century, or perhaps slightly "later", as such styles being quite "commonplace" in the "time" of Janet Rogers.
"She `forgot' to `shave'," La-ra whispered to me, her dark eyes meeting mine. Tori having a dark "shadow" that left little "doubt" there at the junction of her thighs that she hadn't done so for several days at least. Being a blonde, I can go some time without "shaving", as my own pubic hair is a light golden "down". I suspected that Tori probably only did so before having sex, as a number of women do. The practice of "shaving" being another of those strange "customs" that we've "inherited" from another era.
"You may `wash' your Queen," I told the Nevada, La-ra then doing so while Tori did the "same" there on the other side of the room, the woman keeping her back to me most of the time, I noted!
"Isn't `this' better than a bunk in the guardhouse?" I asked Tori as she settled herself in the bed beside me, La-ra blowing out the lamp and closing the door behind herself for the night. A soft "glow" through the windows overlooking the harbor telling of the Moon floating peacefully there in the star sprinkled sky.
"If `word' ever gets out that we `slept' together...," Tori spoke, her eyes only dark spots in the pale "shadow" of her face. "And both of us are `bare crotched'," she added in a low voice, making me smile to myself at the delightful "phrasing" she used! The "embarrassment" of speaking so obvious too in her voice here!
"You are `concerned' about `protecting' the `reputation' of the Queen of Dularn?" I laughed, slipping out of the warm bed, going to my closet, pulling down a couple of flannel nighshifts! Tossing one to Tori while I slipped the other over my naked body!
"Now no one can `say' anything," Tori laughed, slipping hers on over herself as she stood there and then slipping back under the covers while I did the same on the other side of the bed now.
I thought it was just "part" of a "dream" I was having as I watched the bedroom window push open from the outside and a wom- an, one of my own guardswomen, climb down inside the room, cling- ing to a rope she had used to descend from the palace roof above. The thought going through my mind just then that at least "this" was something different from my usual nightmares about Darl Jord!
"Tori!" I breathed softly, watching the woman, her helmet and chain mail gleaming there in the moonlight as she drew her dagger, the polished steel blade gleaming, the weapon the long slim blade often carried by Warrioresses for close quarter work.
"LYS!" Tori yelled, half falling out of bed as she went for her weapons beside her, the woman "reversing" her dagger, throw- ing it, Tori's outcry leaving no doubts that she'd been struck! My friend "clutching" at herself, at the dagger buried in her chest! The blood dark, staining her nightshift, oozing out from around her fingers! THIS WAS `REAL'! NOT JUST SOME NIGHTMARE!!!
"HELP!" I screamed, "GUARDS!" The woman whipping out her sword and coming after me! Her blade, thirty inches of razor sharp steel, gleaming there in the moonlight streaming through the window as I frantically rolled across the bed to grab Tori's! The woman dashing to the door, slamming the bar across, thus in- suring that anyone on the other side would not be able to enter! The door built of solid oak with a steel core, designed as a last ditch defense against an invasion of the Royal Palace! It would take a "battering ram", and a dozen men to smash through it now!
I saw Tori look up at me as she laid there, her teeth gleam- ing in her face, the blood black against the pale shadow of her nightshift, more of it oozing from her chest with every beat of her heart. "Sorry I couldn't...," she muttered, softly gasping!!
I had no time for a "reply" as the woman rushed me then, our blades meeting in a ring of steel. I am a good swordswoman, able with the blade, although no where in the same "class" as such as Lorraine or Darlanis, who are true mistresses of the sword in a way that I never will be. The rapid dip and dart of our deadly gleaming blades bringing back "memories" of other times, of ships at sea, of the outcry of men and women in mortal combat! The woman's chain mail gave her a certain "advantage" over me, as she was well aware that it would be difficult for me to penetrate her armor with my blade without leaving an "opening" that she might exploit in turn. It being not unknown to "catch" a blade in such armor between the links that make it up, imposing only a minor flesh wound while the enemy in turn has the opportunity to kill!!
I could tell after the first few seconds that the woman was not my equal in skill, although her armor did give her something of an advantage here against me, one that she might "exploit" if the "opportunity" presented itself to her. She attempted to push me back against my bed, hoping to "trap" me, but I was too quick for her, wheeling away, the sound of "pounding" against the door leaving no "doubt" that my screams for help had been heard now...
"They will not `save' you, Maris Marn!" she screamed at me! I was at the moment trying to think of her name, of who she was! I have a hundred such women in my service, and while I do know them all by sight, I do not know them all by name. On the other hand this woman did not seem to be anyone that I knew, which now made me suspect that she was not a member of the Royal Guard af- ter all. This "pleasing" me muchly just then, perhaps for Tori's sake more than mine, as they were after all her own guardswomen!!
"You're going to have to `do' better than `that'," I snapped back, parrying her thrust, spinning, kicking her in the leg with the side of my heel, hoping that I might "cripple" her a little! I didn't want to kill her, I wanted to know "who" sent her to kill me, and "why"? Obviously this wasn't an "Imperial plot" against me, and I couldn't think of anyone else who hated me enough to try to kill me now! I do have "political" enemies, but I didn't think any of them hated me enough to hire an assassin to try to kill me! And obviously they'd "failed" in their attempt! I'd force the "truth" from this damn woman assassin even if there wasn't anything "left" of her afterwards to sell as a slave girl!