"I sometimes wonder what is going to come of all this in the years to come," provocative featured Lara Warsan mused, the links of the silver neck-chain that marked her as a newly married woman gleaming around her throat as she looked out over the gleaming rolling ocean, the sunlight reflecting off the waves. The smell of salt in the air as Seahawk's forefoot cut through the water beneath us. The wind in the rigging a familiar sound as we stood at the bowsprit and spoke of what laid in our hearts. Two women sharing much. She was provocative, sensual, a woman who any man might desire. A woman who had given her heart to a young boyish Prince whose love might very well cost her life if one of Tara's agents managed to ever get her into the sights of their crossbows. Only out here at sea was she safe from danger, I thought!
"I'm sure that things will turn out O.K. for you in the end," I answered. "Jers' love for you is like something I've never seen before." He almost worshiped Lara. She was more than a "wife" to him. It was almost as if he feared his marriage to her would soon end in her death as I knew was quite possible, especially after the poisoned food we had found aboard the ship among the supplies. Fortunately Lara had not eaten any of it. I had done what I could to investigate, but to little avail. Even out here, miles at sea, Tara's evil still hung over us like a cloud. Her hatred of the lovely brownette still in our thoughts.
"Perhaps, but still I wish Darlanis had killed her when she had the chance," Lara replied, staring out to sea. I knew that there was already a "strain" in their marriage from his mother's burning hatred of Lara. Jers being torn between Tara and Lara. Between his love for his provocative and sensual new wife and his own mother, who yet still claimed to love him despite everything!
"SAIL-HO!" the look-out called down from his dizzy perch some eighty feet overhead. The Seahawk's towering high masts gave us somewhat of an advantage over the more common lateen rigged vessels common to this era in that our look-outs could spot other ships before they could spot us. Our blue green sails of course were a big help too, as we were nearly invisible at a distance unless you knew exactly where to look for the tall ship!
"What do you make of it?" I heard the handsome young boyish captain of the Seahawk call through his speaking trumpet to the man now swaying in his dizzy perch a good eighty feet overhead.
"Another schooner like this one, sir!" he called down, his words causing a stir to go through the crew. California had but one such craft, and we were aboard it! "Three masts!" the lookout added, leaving no doubt that the vessel ahead was indeed the "Squala", a fearsome terrifying Dularnian raider that had been prowling the coasts of southern California for the past month!
"Lorraine," Lara breathed, her eyes holding mine, her lips parting as if to speak more. Then closing in a grim line as my eyes met hers. I put my hand on her shoulder and gave her a warm smile of understanding. Her place would be beside her husband as his wife. Advising, helping, just "being there" when so needed.
Commander Jers Bisan was speaking to his first officer when we stepped onto the quarterdeck. His eyes briefly flicking over us before he turned again to the man, speaking in low and urgent tones, Lara at my side, her hand clutching mine. Her palm damp. She was, I knew, said to be "good" with a sword, although not in the same class as true mistresses of the sword as Darlanis or myself. Or Princess Tara for that matter. Tara having once tried to rid California of the lovely Trelandarian by trying to challenge her to a sword duel which would have had but one outcome!
I wondered what thoughts went through her mind at the thought of combat. I knew she was no coward from what Darlanis had told me of her, but I also suspected that she might not view things as I would, for example, or a Warrioress such as Darlanis.
"We have sighted the enemy," he spoke, regarding us both in a way that spoke much. "It would be best, Lara, if you stayed below with the other women where you will be safe." I didn't think that was the sort of a statement that Lara wished to hear just then. She was a woman of the 26th Century, not the 20th! I don't think Jers had thought before he spoke such words to Lara!
"My place is at your side, my sword in my hand," Lara answered in level tones. "I am not of the Warrioresses like Lorraine, but I have fought before and I am not unskilled with a blade." I saw the look in those gray-blue eyes. Jers nodded, no doubt knowing better than to argue with her just then. I knew he looked upon her differently than most husbands look upon a wife. I think that is why he married her instead of Princess Sela Dai. Lara is the sort of a woman that is more than just a wife to you.
"I suggest then that you prepare yourselves, for we are going to be 'in harm's way' very soon now," giving me a smile that left much unsaid. I suppose he was glad to have me, as my skill with weapons was already "legendary" here in California after our battle against the pirate Tarkas when we first took the Seahawk.
"Do you think there's going to be a fight?" Sharon asked me as I buckled my harness around my slim waist, my chain mail gleaming in the flickering light from the porthole. It was hot below decks. The roll of the Seahawk was unpleasant in the heat.
"Yes," I answered, wanting to tell Sharon this time to stay out of harms way. Knowing as I slipped the steel helmet over my head that it would be a waste of breath. The helmet and the armor were the best the Imperial armorer could supply. Thoughts of another battle went through my mind as I slipped the arm-shield on. I thought fondly of a Lorr blaster with its deadly explosive bullets. With such a weapon in my hand, there would be a good chance to avoid hand-to-hand combat. I had much to live for, I suddenly realized. I didn't want to have to fight again. To once again risk my life for the political ambitions of another.
"Be careful and don't risk yourself," I told her, kissing her before going up on deck, a Warrioress clad for battle. I thought of another's lips on mine and how his hands had touched me. How we had made love, my body arching beneath his. If we met again it would be as deadly enemies. I prayed we would not meet. That this ship would not be "his" now for some reason.
"There's no doubt about it," Jers said as he turned to his first officer, the other ship a schooner much like the Seahawk. We would be evenly matched. I remembered the men of the Janis and how they had looked. I suddenly felt very small and female.
"Do you think that we can deceive them into thinking this is still a pirate ship?" Lara asked as she stood at his side. The slim short sword and the dagger now swinging from their sheaths. I did not doubt that she could give a good account of herself if it became necessary. I saw her briefly caress him. Not as a wife, but as a mother would. He was in his middle twenties, but noticeably less "mature" than An'na, who was several years younger yet. I had ordered Sharon to stick with Lara when the fight came. Lara was level headed and capable. I considered that it was now quite possible that the Dularnians were now allied with the pirates from what recent evidence we had been able to obtain. I had turned Jon's letter over to Darlanis. Her agents had confirmed his suspicions. I did not envy him. He was of the Warriors. It is part of the Caste Codes that one does not betray one's honor. One does not ally oneself with outlaws, pirates, those who live outside the Caste Codes here in the 26th Century.
"If Lorraine and our other warrioresses will please hide themselves until I give the word, I think it is possible," he answered, leaving off my title as his eyes burned into mine. Lara once again touching, stroking, her gray-blue eyes meeting mine as I nodded. I understood much about their relationship. Why Sela Dai despite her beauty never had a "chance" against Lara Warsan.
"Of course," I smiled back, meeting Lara's eyes. Nodding to the squad of warrioresses who stood there waiting for my orders. Their armor gleaming in the brightness of the sun. I thought they might even the odds just a bit. They were all picked women. Volunteers from Darlanis' own personal forces. The best that the Empire had. Their archery might make a considerable difference.
It was hot and smelly in the cramped cabin where we were gathered, the smell of sweaty women awaiting battle an odor I can never forget. It is different than the smell of men. I thought of another time, another ship, another who had been with me then. The smell of her perfume mingled with her own "fear-sweat". She had been, I thought to myself, braver than I had known or suspected. Now, like Jers on the quarterdeck above, we would both be "tested" in battle. There would be no Darlanis this time to follow. No "Janis" to rescue us if things went against us. By the time Sarnian Lady reached us it would be all over one way or the other. Jers had been seriously wounded the time before. No doubt he had "doubts" about his ability to command. That was why Lara kept touching, stroking. She understood him as no one else!
"Oh, Lys, take me in your arms if I fall," one of my warrioresses prayed to herself. Her soft words seemingly loud to my ears although they were, I knew, spoken in a whisper. I added a silent prayer of my own to SHE, whom I knew watched over me. I was glad that Sharon was with Lara. I thought of Lana, of Janis. With a low growl escaping my lips I shook my head to clear it of such thoughts before they sapped my own will to fight! To win!
Unnoticed, my warrioresses drew back, muttering softly among themselves, their eyes upon me. To them I was already a legend. The woman from the legendary past who could match swords with the greatest among them. The tall slim brunette from the legendary past who their ruler called "friend". The woman who had traveled to another world, and come back with her body scarred from battle with an alien monster. The woman who had trained them in new ways of battle, ways that they didn't understand, but yet obeyed!
Warrioresses aboard ships are usually used in ranks, an officer directing their fire as you saw earlier in my story. I believed that such tactics tended to be wasteful of their lives. Thus I had trained my women to fight as individuals, to work their way around to the enemy's flank and then fire their arrows. Granted the individual warrioress was thus deprived of the help of her sisters if things went against her, but on the other hand I felt that she was more likely to survive than standing in a big group where she made an easy target for other archers or crossbowmen, the crossbow being quite popular in the Dularnian military forces, although their warrioresses generally use bows much like ours. Dularnian military tactics being quite similar to our own no doubt due to the excellent reason that technology determines one's tactics to a considerable degree in such "matters".
Then came the call from above, "ATTACK!", and from our cramped smelly quarters we charged up onto the deck, the heavy thuds of our ballistae and catapults shaking the ship as our missiles tore through the enemy's surprised crew! Our plot to pose as a pirate ship had been successful! Apparently word had not yet reached the Squala that the Seahawk was now part of the naval forces of the Empire of California! There on the horizon behind us came Sarnian Lady and the slightly smaller 48 that had been escorting the five big fat slow merchantmen from Sarn to Trella!
"SPREAD OUT! USE YOUR BOWS! STRIKE THEIR FLANKS!" I cried, my sword in my hand. Arrows and crossbow bolts whizzing past almost unnoticed, my blade gleaming in my hand. My women turning to shoot their swift arrows into the foe as they spread out as I had trained them. Our men leaping across the railings to the deck of the enemy ship. The clash of steel filling my ears as blade met blade across the rails, the Dularnian captain directing his men, his warrioresses gathered together, their arrows whistling around our ears! Mine returning their fire, more effective by far as they poured their arrows as fast as they could nock them into the still confused and gathered bunched up enemy!
My blade rang against that of our foes as we fought our way across the enemy's deck. The blonde haired warrioress facing me screaming with agony as my blade bit deep, another taking her place as she fell back, the blood spurting from her wound. Ringing swords at my side telling that my sword-companions still stood as we fought like demons from the "other side"! The tall Dularnians were worthy foes, well trained in close deadly combat.
My blade ringing against those of my foes, I fought my way across the bloody deck, quarter neither being asked or given. An arrow zipping past me to bury itself in a foeman's breast. I prayed that Sharon would stay at Lara's side. My blade bit deep into an opening, my burly foe dropping before me, the blood spurting in a red gush from his mortal wound there in his throat.
I parried a down-slash from a longsword that would have almost split me in two, letting it slide harmlessly to one side, my keen point driving up through his throat to the brain before then slipping free. Death stood at my side, his cold breath chilling. A blade cut my hip through my chain mail. I saw the blood run as my slash whistled across her throat. She was the last of the enemy's warrioresses. The others only still forms on the deck.
I stood on the bloody deck as the few enemy survivors knelt before us in surrender, the breath rasping in my lungs, the blood of my wound running down my thigh, staining my black hose. I saw Sharon and Lara leap over the rail and come towards me, bows in their hands. Seven of my warrioresses had survived, although two had wounds that would require immediate medical attention. I was sick of fighting, of killing others for Darlanis' own ambitions!
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