"You shouldn't be here," I protested to Darlanis as she shifted her position on the uncomfortably hard seat of Sarnian Lady's launch beside me. "Your life is far too valuable to be risked like this," I explained as the burly oarsman ahead of me rowed with a tireless stroke, keeping his thoughts to himself. His eyes shining in the darkness, the stars now bright overhead. I envied his muscles, the man no doubt strong enough that he could have put me under one arm and Darlanis under the other and carried us both off! It was a warm night in middle July, and the oarsmen were stripped to their kilts, their muscular masculine shadowy forms swaying back and forth with the motion of the oars.
"Are their lives less valuable than mine?" she challenged, indicating the oarsmen rowing us across a black ocean to the shadowed Ronda with a nod of her golden head. "Should they take the risks of dying in battle while I relax in safety aboard Sarnian Lady?" Darlanis challenged me. I had no answer. There was none that I could give. Now I understood why the Warriors and Warrioresses of California were so willing to die for their Empress. Why men almost fought to serve her, to even die for Her!
"Victory will be ours," she said, taking my hand in hers, the boat's motion on the open sea making my stomach queasy. The dot of light ahead the lantern hung in the Ronda's rigging for us. Mars like a bright orange star shining down upon us, Venus bright in the western sky hanging low above the faint glow of the sunset. I tried not to think of what laid ahead if my plan was successful and the pirates took our "bait". I wished again that I was brave and courageous like the regal woman beside me, Darlanis showing no signs of apprehension at the dangers she would soon face. I wondered how many battles she had seen, how many enemies had died at the point of her long slim blade? She was truly of the Warrioresses. Born into that martial Caste at birth much unlike me, a woman of another time who had suddenly found herself now in an alien world she did not yet fully understand!
Behind us came Sarnian Lady's two longboats, each loaded down with oarsmen and warrioresses. Our launch carrying another dozen. Our total force numbered sixty. There would be another half a dozen on the Ronda, sailors from Sarnian Lady, but yet it was still a small force to oppose perhaps a hundred men or more! I didn't like the idea of such odds, though Darlanis didn't seem to share my fears, saying that any one of her people was equal to any two of the enemy, which I rather doubted, but felt it wise not to disagree with her just then! Darlanis being a "Queen of Swords", Janis had told me in passing, whatever that all meant! At least Sharon was safe aboard the trireme, I thought to myself. Janis had insisted upon coming along, as had Lady Lana. Even the young Prince was with us, although I had protested "putting all our eggs in one basket" like we had but to little avail.
The Ronda loomed up out of the darkness like a ghost ship, the sails hardly visible in the darkness, a faint glow in the east telling of the moonrise soon. Our timing had been perfect.
"Sharon!" I gasped as a pretty young blonde climbed over the side and stepped through the Ronda's sally port. My stepdaughter greeting me with a smile, burly Shirl at her side holding a boarding pike. The burly ex-fisherman's wife giving me a smile as others crowded by us to take their places on the Ronda's deck.
"You don't think I'd `miss' this, do you?" Sharon replied, a slim bow and a quiver full of arrows slung across her back. I thought of the pleasures in spanking that curvy young rump, but suspected that it wouldn't do much good. Darlanis behind me whispered something to her older sister, something to the effect, "like mother, like daughter". The young Prince giving me a "don't blame me" smile as he stood behind Sharon. I wondered how much Shirl had to do with things too! And perhaps that smile now curving Lady Lana's lips betrayed certain knowledge kept secret from me! Obviously I had been "had" by all of them, and good!
"You're mad at me, aren't you?" Sharon said, standing before me, looking at my boots. Darlanis laughed softly behind me at some comment that Janis had made. Lady Lana smiled, a glow there in her hazel eyes. A number of the oarsmen now standing about, poking each other in the ribs at the sight there before them. I wondered if they too might have been "in" on all this!
"Yes, I'm mad at you!" I laughed, sweeping her up into my arms and crushing her to me, her feet inches off the deck. Kissing her cheek before setting her down, knowing that she would soon bear the mark of the Warrioress there on her own left wrist!
The Moon rose golden in the east, its rounded orb perhaps concealing secrets centuries old. I wondered about those who had lived there beneath its surface before The War and there were no more spaceships to bring supplies. They now perhaps served the Lorr like the others the "ants" used as human servants, thinking again of the one who had so much reminded me of Darlanis in a way. I thought of a woman with a dream, a tall regal Empress who sought to give Man back the civilization He had lost. One who could see beyond the apparent outward shape of others and honor what laid beneath despite appearances. Many would die tonight if my suggestion bore fruit and the "Seahawk" took the "bait" as I hoped it would. I still wondered if I had done the right thing.
"What are you thinking about?" Sharon asked me a few minutes later as we stood at the rail looking out at the Moon rising there in the east, a great swollen misshapen orb now lifting over the distant horizon. The reflection there in her lovely eyes. I had watched Deimos passing over earlier, racing across the sky, a reminder of the might of the Lorr and their domination of Earth.
"Of another's dreams," I answered. Telling her of Darlanis and what we had spoken of. I wondered if Darlanis had been right when she said that the Empire represented Man's last hope. A second "ROME", she had called it. I thought of how those aboard Sarnian Lady had fought to volunteer themselves to accompany Her. I hoped the Prince had chosen well. It would be a nasty fight.
"We have the "Seahawk" within sight, sir," the sailor said as he stood before the young Prince. Pointing astern as the Ronda sailed slowly towards Sarn a hundred miles distant. Darlanis smiling and giving me a hug at the words, acting more like a delighted child about to get a new toy than a Warrioress going into battle! I couldn't see what everyone was so happy about. Despite whatever Darlanis' warrioresses could do with their bows, there would still be many aboard who would never see the sun rise in the morning. I forced the thought of my mind that I might be one of them. Tossed overside in the morning to feed the fishes.
"The Warrioress may know fear as she faces battle, but conquers that fear as she conquers the enemy she faces." I found the thought comforting as we went about preparing ourselves for the battle, the pirate schooner now plainly visible from the Ronda's deck. I was thankful for an experienced commander like Darlanis. She would know what to do. I would only need to follow, put to "use" the amazing Dularnian compound bow she'd given me...
Somewhere to the west of us, her sails down, lookouts at her masts, her hull hidden by the curve of the Earth, was Sarnian Lady. I wondered what thoughts passed through captain Stone's mind as he waited for the outcome of our plan. I did not envy him, not with the life of his beloved ruler there "on the line"!
I had given Sharon our biggest telescope to look at the Moon and stars with, it being something to take her mind off what loomed in the distance behind us. Perhaps curious, she scanned the horizon, and to her credit, spotted the sail ahead, the sail of another galley. A galley of the same class as Sarnian Lady! And with three masts of various heights rigged with square sails!
"Well, what is it?" Darlanis asked as the Prince looked through the telescope, there being just a touch of rasp in her voice that told of hidden fears. No Californian ship being equipped with square sails, although there were some "Northmen" ships so equipped, I recalled, from what Janis had told me once.
"A three master, no doubt about it," he answered, looking at Princess Janis, seeing her smile in reply and nod. Her flagship, the "Janis", a powerful galley of 56 oars, being so fitted out.
"Signal Sarnian Lady to close up," Darlanis snapped. Adding, "Send enemy vessel sighted." For an instant I saw a cold blaze in her eyes as she looked at her older sister, then it was gone and she was the same as ever. I saw Sharon with the signal lamp and the code book climb the rigging to the Ronda's crow's nest. My stepdaughter having learned much in the past ten days we had lived here in the 26th Century. She had been a good "Girl Scout" back in the 20th Century and knew Morse Code, the Imperial code used being much the same. We also had the Dularnian codes.
"Sarnian Lady is replying," Darlanis said as she observed the flashes through a telescope. Adding in the same tones, "If that is the `Janis', then this is the night for it." Referring to the light breeze which would hinder neither vessel in battle. I felt the tension like an electric current as the two women regarded each other. Both were armed, both disliked the other for what she stood for. Both were Warrioresses with a tradition of dueling. It would take little to cause a fight now here on the decks of the Ronda! Janis I knew was no match for me any more than Lana had been. Of Darlanis I knew little more but that she was said to be a "Queen of Swords" and one of the finest swordswomen in California. She might very well even be a match for me!
"Our enemy is out there behind us," I interjected, stepping between them. For an instant Darlanis' eyes seemed to blaze like white hot coals into mine, then she nodded, understanding. Janis stepping back, giving me a smile and a nod as I turned to her.
The pirate schooner was perhaps a couple miles behind us now, the Ronda doing well, despite the fact that she was carrying nearly twice her rated capacity, the slave girls having been told to stay below. Darlanis had promised them their freedom and had ordered their chains removed. Weapons had been given to those who wished to fight. I did not think they would be of much use.
The pirate seemed determined to capture us despite no doubt seeing the signals from Sarnian Lady and the sight of the Janis creeping towards us. I wondered about that! There were questions yet in my mind for which I could conceive only one answer!
As I stared at the approaching Dularnian galley, I saw a sudden flash of light from it, as if it was replying to a signal, but then I put it out of my mind as I knew none aboard the Ronda could have signaled the Janis. I knew Sharon had the signaling equipment up in the crow's nest that she now shared with Shirl.
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