"THE WARLADY OF DULARN"

2567 A.D.!

By Jerome Bigge

Chapter Twenty Seven

      Carol grabbed for her bow, nocked an arrow, drew, released. Reached for another arrow, did the same. She might have well been shooting straws for all the "effect" her arrows had on the tyrannosaurus. The great carnivore twisting about, looking for the "source" of its "hurt"! Carol saw it charge a terrified man, saw the great jaws suddenly come down, lift its screaming victim up, the screaming suddenly stopping as the jaws now "closed". The teeth like daggers smashing bones, everything as the great reptile looked about for another victim there in the flickering glow of the burning fires, the man's blood streaming from its mouth! Its scaly hide now bristling with arrows, most driven about half way in, perhaps a foot at the most Carol later on de- termined. The crossbow bolts doing somewhat better due to their greater weight and higher "impact" velocity. "We need lances, arrows no good against that Lys Dammed Thing!" Anis screamed now!

      The brownette aimed for an eye, seeing to her satisfaction the arrow drive deep into that organ, half blinding the creature! "AIM FOR THE EYES!" she cried, the horrible thing coming at her! "What an end!" Carol thought, thinking of what would "happen" if the damm thing even stepped on her! Carol dodging around behind a thick tree, the dinosaur, half blinded, smashing into it, the ballistae bolt still sticking out half sunk into its thick skull!

      San-sha aimed carefully in the dim light from the fires, shot, the dinosaur rearing up with a terrible roar, now totally blind, Carol and the Nevada woman fleeing for their lives as the creature stumbled and then suddenly fell with a great thud into the brush, the ballistae bolt piercing its skull finally now tak- ing effect on it! "Too stupid to know when it's dead," San-sha said, smiling to herself at the sight of the white woman's "shakes", her own bravery having awed everyone in her "command"!

      "I guess I've got a lot to learn," Carol answered, her voice not now as "calm" as she would have liked it to be just then! On the other hand she didn't think anyone would ever doubt her own abilities to "command under fire" after this "affair" either now! The forest was once again still as her people now gathered about.

      "The nearest dinosaurs are in that valley next to Leith some seven hundred miles from here," Lorraine smiled as Darlanis told her what she had heard. On the other hand the Warlady had no idea just "what" had made that terrible "roar", and she certainly wasn't going to try to lead any exploratory force into the forest at night to find out! Not that she thought she'd get anyone to go with her, knowing the "superstitious" natures of her people!!!

      "That was the sound of a tyrannosaurus," Darlanis insisted! Sharon clinging to her beloved Empress, giving Lorraine a smile! She personally suspected Darlanis was having another "nightmare"! Darlanis did have "them" at times, even to waking up screaming!

      "I'll have a couple of ballistae taken off the Janis," the Warlady smiled, giving her husband a nod. Jon smiling at the big blonde, who he thought was just having another of her nightmares. Darlanis had never been quite the "same" after what Princess Tara had "done" to her that time there in 2565. The Empress nodding.

      "I see it, but I still don't believe it," Carol said, look- ing down at the body of the dinosaur, the lamps doing little to dispel the darkness. The body bristling with arrows, the ends of a few crossbow bolts visible here and there in the great carcass! Anis prodding it with the point of her sword, the hide, Carol now thought to herself almost like some sort of leather "armorplate".

      "Sometimes we of the People know more than you `whites' do," San-sha smiled, putting her arm affectionately about the other. And "believing" now herself in "legends" she had thought only "superstition" before! The "proof" lying right there before her! She had been earlier merely trying to "scare" the Dularnian War- lady a bit, San-sha often doing so with "white women" who thought they "knew it all" like this one did. Now she "wondered" if it would be safe to even live in these woods any longer with things like this horrible monster roaming about. Perhaps life would be "better" in Dularn, San-sha mused to herself with a grim smile! *****************************************************************

      The lookouts on the Squala considered keeping a watch as be- ing only a waste of time. One could see nothing at night, and in any case, they were safely at anchor only a couple hundred yards from shore. Lorraine's orders to anchor the ship fore and aft had been carried out, and the weapons had been made ready just in case someone did see something. There was a fog, a mist off the sea, and "visibility" wasn't all that good. Thus, when the North Star suddenly came looming out of the darkness and the fog like a terrifying ghost, men at first couldn't "believe" what they saw! *****************************************************************

      "May Lys be with us," Lars breathed to himself, testing the new flamethrower that Carol had "designed". Mounting the end of the hose out on a spar that could be held away from the ship so that there was no danger of the fire spreading back to the ship! The North Star now bearing down upon the anchored Squala, a few arrows and crossbow bolts so far being the only "response" that the Imperials had made to their sudden "arrival" on the "scene"!

      "They're the ones who are going to need her `help'," a man laughed, the Imperial warships now opening up with their ballis- tae, the badly aimed missiles then zipping harmlessly between the masts as the North Star opened up with its catapults against the Janis! Two big gouts of flame leaving no doubts as to some good "hits"! The Janis being too close to shore for the flamethrower.

      "As is Carol," Lars muttered, bringing down his arm, the men on the fire pump laying to with a "will". The blazing oil spurt- ing forth in a blazing stream for nearly a hundred feet, splash- ing against the Squala, screams of terror coming from the doomed Imperial schooner! Men jumping into the water to escape the fire as the North Star wrote "finis" to Lorraine's very own flagship! *****************************************************************

      "Making a big `fuss' about something," Maris said to me. I grumbled something back in reply, wishing the blonde would leave me alone just then. She had claimed to have heard some loud roar from the forest, although I couldn't imagine what would make such a sound. I was tired, exhausted, still recovering from getting hit on the head, and I suspected that perhaps Carol had fired a broadside from long range at the two anchored ships in the cove! Maris now getting out of bed, going to the window, naked as the "jaybird". Women have no "modesty" once they get to "know" you. This is I believe, something that dates back even before our era. Sort of a "you've seen me nude, so what does it matter now for?"

      "Told you that Carol would come back," I said, tempted to "add" a bit more, but thinking the "better" of it considering that Maris was the Queen of Dularn. Keri and Lady Tirana at that moment bursting in, telling us to get dressed as Lorraine wanted to see us and right away too! A glance through the window leav- ing no doubt that my wife had put some of the North Star's own fire bombs to good use, judging from the flames I could see now!!

      "Your wife `paid us a visit tonight'," Lorraine said to me, in "tones" that most definitely were not "friendly" by any means! Darlanis grinning to herself, covering her face with a hand at the famous Warlady's own "discomfort". I recalled the "comment" that Lorraine had made about Darlanis' own "competency". It was now pretty obvious that Carol had made a "fool" of Lorraine too!

      "I think the term `sitting ducks' might apply here," I said, Carol's military tactics being much like those of the Viet Cong, the memories flooding back of what I'd seen there in Vietnam...

      "I do not like being made a `FOOL' of by `ANYONE'," Lorraine snapped back in the most unpleasant tones just then. It being quite obvious now to me that the Warlady of California could be a most unpleasant person too if she wanted to! Lorraine is a very "proud" woman, and Carol had made her look just as "incompetent" as Darlanis had "been" earlier, with the added insult here that at least Darlanis had been "taken by surprise", which Lorraine could not of course claim here, much to her own "embarrassment"!

      "You never did think much of Carol," I retorted back at her. I remembered some of the "snide remarks" she had once made about my wife. About Carol's lack of an education, about the sort of a woman that she was. Lorraine considering herself "high class" and Carol just a cheap "slut", my wife having been a former pros- titute and model for "skin magazines" before I had first met her. It is a long, "involved" story, and has little bearing here now.

      "Don't `provoke her'," Maris warned, shaking my arm a bit!

      "Carol will `pay' for what she's done," Lorraine snapped.

      "Your military tactics could be `improved'," I answered.

      "Lorraine is `Warlady' of the Empire!" Keri gasped at me.

      "She is just a woman `good with a sword'," I smiled back.

      "Explain yourself!" Darlanis now suddenly snapped at me.

      "I have formal military training, she doesn't," I said.

      "This is not the Twentieth Century," Lorraine snapped.

      "Your `position' here is not `good'," I smiled back.

      "What do you `mean' by that?" Darlanis challenged.

      "You are all `sitting ducks'," I smiled back at them.

      "You speak in `riddles'," Lady Tirana now snapped at me.

      "Carol is using Twentieth Century military tactics," I smiled. "She now has the `advantage' in that you are operating from a `defensive' posture where you can only `react' to attack. The exact same situation as what applied there in South Vietnam." I saw Lorraine nod. She was, I thought, well aware of this now. Carol had the "advantage" of the darkness of night, of being "mo- bile" while Lorraine had to "sit and wait" for my wife's attack!

      "You are, as now I recall, a `Marine'," Lorraine said to me.

      "And Carol is not as `dumb' as you think," I "smiled" back.

      "She has won a battle, not a war," Lorraine then answered. The tone of her voice left no doubts now as to her own feelings. I feared much then for what the future might hold for my Carol.

      "I think," Carol said, "That we have learned much tonight." Those gathered around her nodding, glancing at each other, and at their Warlady. A "Warlady" who, they suspected, might be even a "better" Warlady than the one that the Empire of California had! Carol keeping to herself the thought that the dinosaur might have been "placed" just where it had been just to "test" her courage! The thought making her "shudder" to herself as she "knew" without further "thought" the sort of "beings" who possessed such powers! *****************************************************************

      "She is more `intelligent' than we thought," Tais said, "breaking" the "mind-link" that she had been maintaining with my wife. Completely of course without my Carol being "aware" of it.

      "The `power' of her mind is not equal to that of Lorraine's, but she is extremely `flexible' in her thinking," another spoke.

      "A worthy `adversary' for the `Warlady'," a third added.

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