THE QUEEN OF SWORDS!

A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN

2566 A.D.!

By Jerome B. Bigge

Chapter Nine

     

      The Seahawk smashed through the rolling sea like a battering ram, its sails drawing well as its young captain barked orders from its quarterdeck to set the topsails for more speed yet. His beautiful companion, Lara, Princess of Baja, at his side looking on. Only she and captain Jers Bisan knew of our true destina- tion. Of the fact that we were sailing to La Paz there in Baja at my order. That there I would attempt to rescue Lynn, steal if I could the proof of Princess Tara's involvement with the pirates that I knew she had been closely allied with the year before. If I failed, I did not look forward to the consequences of failure!

      Sharon Duval, blonde, beautiful, the crown Princess of Impe- rial California, strolled across the deck to greet me as I came up the stairway to stand there at the rail, looking out over the endless rolling sea. The hot sun glistening off my golden mesh. A silken blue cape protecting my back from the rays of the sun.

      "I still don't like the idea of taking you into danger like this," I said to Sharon as she stood there beside me at the rail, a bit of salt spray from time to time wetting our faces as the Seahawk smashed through the waves. While Sharon would not be in on the actual "assault" on Tara's castle, still, she would be in a certain amount of "danger" due to the fact she would be in La Paz. I had three of my agents in La Paz, with two now posing as prostitutes. Women in Baja generally bear arms, like they do in Dularn and Talon and some parts of the Empire such as Trelandar. I had also considered using some of the warrioresses on the ship. I needed "proof" of Tara's treason to bring before my government. Before the Assemblies and Senates of all three Imperial nations. Support for a declaration of war against Baja and Princess Tara. I was also prepared to make Maris a very "generous" offer if she would have Dularn declare war against Baja too, as I needed all the forces that I could get if we could depose Tara before Mexico could act to intervene there on the side of the evil Princess! I did not think the Emperor of Mexico would wish to fight for Tara!

      "You'll look less `suspicious' if I'm at your side," Sharon pointed out. Tara's people no doubt kept a close eye on things. Single men or women are much more likely to be "spies" than some woman with her "daughter", Sharon had pointed out to me earlier. Sharon herself would of course have to pose as a prostitute her- self. I hoped Lorraine wouldn't hear about it or I'd never hear the end of it! "You did `WHAT', Darlanis!" I could hear her now!

      "Why did you pick me instead of Lorraine for this?" I had asked Sharon that first evening over dinner, the two of us eating in private, Jers and Lara having eaten a bit earlier that night so that we might have the cabin to ourselves for an hour or so. I considered Sharon a highly competent young woman, very capable.

      "I admire you and love you for what you are," Sharon said. "And I think you're more `competent' than `she' gives you credit for!" she burst out. I had to smile to myself at that. Lorraine has written that I am beautiful, "noble", etc, but something of a "dumb blonde" when it comes to making decisions there in combat!

      "I `try'," I smiled back, well aware that I was no genius at such things. I am "good with a sword", but not a good commander. My scores at the Warrioress Academy for "tactics" were very poor. I barely scraped through on the basis of my personal skills, not because I was able to command forces in the field as an officer. That is why I held on to Tara so long. She did "win" battles. I simply "looked the other way" when I heard about how she did it!* * It is "so easy" when you "want" something "bad enough" to find someone like Tara who can "get it" for you as long as you don't ask too many "questions" about just "how" it is going to be done!

      "I know you love me more than Lorraine ever did," Sharon said to me, much to my surprise. I knew that Lorraine loved her. You only have to read her book to see that. To sense her "pain".

      "I'm sure she loves you just as much as I do," I answered. Sharon was too young, too "innocent" to understand the "reality" of such things. Lorraine had made her decision for Sharon's wel- fare. I had the power to offer Sharon more than Lorraine could.

      "Would you give me up to another woman to raise?" Sharon challenged back. I knew the answer to that. Sharon was every- thing I had hoped for in a daughter. The knowledge that I would never again have a child of my own no doubt effected my feelings.

      "Only if I knew I was dying," I answered. I believed that was the best answer I could give. Sharon means more to me than anything else. I would give up my Empire for her. I nearly did!

      "Lorraine gave me up to you," Sharon answered back, her eyes meeting mine. "I think that tells you how she felt about it." I thought Sharon would someday learn something of what it is like to be a mother. To make such a decision for the welfare of your child. For the welfare of one whom you love dearly. Then and only then would she understand why Lorraine did what she did do! Why my own mother let Queen Tulis raise me as her own daughter!* * I "understand" now what I did not before. Aurora wanted me to live a life of "freedom", not at the "beck and call" of the Lorr.

      "She did it for you," I answered, knowing Sharon would never understand until she grew older, had children of her own to love. I valued these few short years that I could share with her before she grew up and got married and had children of her own. She is very much the sort of a daughter I had once hoped Anna might be.

      "She has Gayle, Ta-she-ra, Mara," Sharon answered. "And Gayle is a slave girl she bought to replace me," she added then.

      "That `proves' that she loved you," I pointed out in reply.

      "She always `dominated' me," she answered. "You don't." There was no answer that I could give for that. I am not the same type of woman that Lorraine is. We are different "mothers". I do not pretend to claim that I am a "better" mother than she. I suspect that Sharon views me in a different light than she does Lorraine. Lorraine is awesomely "competent", but also "hard" in ways that are hard to put down on paper. Much like Janet Rogers. Janet was a "living legend" in her own time. Lorraine is "one"!

      "Darlanis, I'd like to speak to you about something," Lara said to me as we came up on to the deck later on, the stars bright in the sky overhead, a few misty clouds their only cover.

      "Excuse us," I said, Sharon moving off, walking across the deck as Lara guided me to the stern, the wake visible beneath us.

      "I want to go in your place," Lara said to me, her face a shadow there in the darkness. She was close enough that I could smell her perfume, a heavy scent that betrayed a lack of "taste". She is not well educated, barely literate at the best, self- taught. Her own social "class" was far below that of her Prince. On the other hand she is "faithful", "loyal" to a fault. I tend to place value upon things that others would not. I respect Lara for the person that she is. For the friend that she is to me...

      "And if Tara ever got her hands on you?" I challenged. I felt her shudder there in the darkness. Her death would be as slow and agonizing as Tara could make it, and Tara is an expert!

      "She won't," Lara answered, explaining that she had the skills to disguise herself so that none would know who she was. I did not think, however, that Lara was motivated by such consid- erations. Once again I wondered why others thought so much of me. That people would put their own lives "on the line" for me.

      "And how do you think I'd feel if she captured you?" I asked. I knew something of what could be done to a person. Tara had once showed me such. Once had been enough for my stomach! I had no doubt that Tara would make Lara's death slow and painful. Inflicting agonies upon her that would turn her into a shrieking animal begging for a merciful death. I knew Tara all too well! I had once seen Tara "at work" torturing a "rebel". She had im- mersed the woman's hands in black iron pots. Filled them with water, set fires beneath the pots until the water was boiling. I ran the woman through with my sword to put an end to her agonies!

      "If she gets you..." Lara spoke, her eyes looking into mine.

      "Go to Lorraine, tell her to `avenge' me," I answered Lara.

      "Bring her into the wind and lower a boat!" Jers ordered as we heaved to nearby a fat merchantman who had signaled us that they had been attacked by a Dularnian raider. The vessel was Trelandarian, and flew the flag of a well known Trella merchant!

      "Maybe there's something to what Sanda said," Jers said to me, a grim smile on his lips as he prepared to get into the boat. "Dularn `loses' too many ships for my liking." I nodded, smiled. This was not the time to get into an argument over such matters.

      "The `evidence' isn't good for Maris," Lara said softly, her eyes meeting mine as we watched Jers being rowed over to the oth- er ship wallowing there in the swells like some bloated whale.

      "She's no `pirate'," Sharon protested. "I know that!"

      "We'd all be a lot better off if she hadn't escaped Lor- raine," the Seahawk's first officer observed from beside us, the officer swaying gently with the roll of the big war-schooner. I smiled to myself at his words. How easy it was to accuse Maris! I wondered for a moment if there wasn't a Californian ship some- where up there in Dularnian waters doing the exact same thing to their shipping? And perhaps some Dularnian was cursing me out!

      "You can put any flag on a ship," Sharon pointed out then.

      "And this ship itself was once part of the Dularnian navy," I pointed out with a smile. Our own ship was "Dularnian" too!!!

      "Well, that was the Swiftstar all right," Jers said as he came back aboard, "And it was flying the Dularnian flag too," he added, giving me a glance that left a great deal left unspoken!

      "That doesn't mean that it was sailing under Maris' orders!" Sharon protested. "And as her flagship it would have her flag!"

      "Take us back to Trella," I spoke. It was time to speak to Maris. To hear what she had to say about all "this" from her own lovely lips. Perhaps she would join with me against the Bajan!

      It had been a long flight, even with Sharon spelling me at the controls. All the way from Trella to Arsana with only a stop at Sarn and Porlan for fuel, food and water. I was tired, not in the best of moods as I faced the young Queen of Dularn there on her throne, my worthless rapist of a brother sitting there beside her, a gross swollen brute of a man. I wondered what it was like for Maris, if they did actually have sex. I suspected otherwise.

      "How dare you come here after what Lorraine has been doing!" Maris snapped, standing up there before me, her hand on the hilt of the sword there at her hip. The people around us muttering as they regarded us. "And its Squala without a doubt!" she snapped! Her words leaving me at a loss for words since the last I knew the Squala was still patrolling off the western coast of Mexico for pirates! Along with Lorraine's other two smaller schooners.

      "You have had ships attacked by a vessel claiming to be the Squala?" Sharon answered for me, being more "quick-witted" here.

      "Dammit, Yes!" Maris snapped back, stepping down to face me. Then stepping back, my height being greater than hers, she found. Maris being five eight to my five ten. I am a bigger woman too.

      "The Squala is over two thousand miles from here right now," I answered in level tones. "And the other ships are still under construction there in Trella. I'll fly you down to Trella myself if you don't believe me," I told that young golden haired beauty.

      "It was here two days ago off our shores, and it fired fire bombs into a fishing village just to terrify the people!" Maris snapped back at me. "Lorraine's own fire bombs!" I nodded. It was becoming very clear now. All too clear. There was a second "Squala", and it was under Tara's command. And Tara had built the same sort of fire weapons that Lorraine had built, damn her!

      "Your Swiftstar is being used to attack Californian ship- ping," I answered, keeping my voice steady despite Maris' anger. "And there can be no doubt that Princess Tara is behind all this as I know that Lorraine is still in Talon and that the Squala, her Squala, is patrolling off the coast of Mexico for pirates. Join with me in a mutual action against Tara and I'll return to you all the territory that Dularn lost to the Empire last year!"

      "Leave," Maris snapped, "Get out of here now!" I nodded. Took Sharon by the arm. Perhaps another time I might get Maris to listen to reason, but not now. Princess Tara had "won" again!

      "Darlanis," Sharon said to me as I reflected upon the fact that in the last ten days I'd flown a distance of more than half way around the world. Touching my arm to get my attention as I fought to stay awake there at the controls. It was getting dark, and I needed to land in Sarn to refuel for the flight to Trella.

      "Yes," I answered, reaching out, tousling her hair. She is more than just a foster daughter to me. Much more. My emotional feelings towards her are hard to describe. We are very "close".

      "I'm glad Lorraine flew through that `Gateway'," she said.

      "So am I," I smiled back, giving her an affectionate hug.

      "You're going to wear that out," Sanda smiled as Sharon and I dragged ourselves back to the palace there at Trella. I didn't know about the airplane, but I was getting sick and tired of it!

      "Maris got on her `high horse' and ordered us to leave," Sharon answered. Sanda nodding, smiling, apparently "pleased".

      "What you get when you make a `Queen' out of a slave slut," she observed back. I was in no mood to argue the issue just then with her. The only thing I could think of now was going to bed! "Not that you can trust any Dularnian not to turn `pirate' when they get the chance," she added. I reached out, grabbed Lady Ta- len by her neck chain, suggested she "rethink" her last comment!* * I consider myself "Dularnian" despite the fact that I am actu- ally "half-Martian". I was raised in Dularn, and still consider it "my country" in a way despite the fact I rule California now.

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