THE QUEEN OF SWORDS!
A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN
By Jerome B. Bigge
Chapter Twenty

     
"I understand from Lynn that you are coming along quite well
learning your lessons like a `good girl'," Princess Tara smiled
down at me as I knelt there before her, a naked bound slave girl.
Lynn nodding as she knelt at my side, Princess Sela Dai of Talon
having eaten earlier. The rich furnishings of the dining room
there in her castle leaving no doubts that Tara did enjoy her own
"comforts". I noticed the caplock pistol of Lorraine's near
Tara's hand. I considered the "possibilities". Decided this was
not the "time". I am of the Warrioresses. We are not like other
women might be. With them was another woman, dark haired, wear-
ing the jumpsuit of a Lorr Servitor, a blaster pistol in its hol-
ster at her hip. She was no doubt the Servitor who had now be-
come the "agent" of Tara. Her name was Dena, Tara having "intro-
duced" us. She was one of the women who worked there at the
Lorr's embassy there in La Paz. Another "enemy" serving EVIL! I
wondered if the Lorr perhaps now had a "role" here in things too!
     
"No doubt you are finding it an enjoyable experience," I an-
swered, my eyes seeking the darkness of hers. At Tara's orders I
had been whipped earlier in my training to make me more "docile".
It had not been successful. Serving only to mark my tender skin
and make me even more resentful than ever! I fear I am not the
right "type" for slavery! I am not "submissive" enough, I guess!
     
"But your `attitude' needs `improvement', I fear," the Bajan
Princess smiled down at me there at the breakfast table where I
knelt awaiting table scraps like some dog. Tara had felt that it
would be best that I lost some weight, and she was "starving" me
into "submission". Her attempts had not been so far successful.
     
"I fear I am not the right woman for the task," I told her.
Dena was thoughtfully regarding me from her dark eyes, smiling.
I wondered if she knew that I was the daughter of Aurora. I sup-
posed not, as otherwise Tara would be doubtlessly "tossing" that
little bit of "information" into my face just to taunt me a bit!
     
"It is more a matter of proper `discipline'," she answered.
     
"I will attempt to improve my `attitudes'," I smiled back,
fearing what Dena might "do" to me now if Tara so "permitted" it.
The `Women of Mars' are said to be "different" from us of Earth.
There are "stories" told of such "things", perhaps some are true.
     
"Perhaps you are not a `dumb blonde' after all," Tara said.
     
"I am doing the best I can with her, mistress," Lynn spoke.
     
"The proper term of address is `my Princess'," Tara smiled.
Slave girls address all free women as "mistress" as a matter of
practice. Apparently Tara prefered it otherwise. Sela Dai had
"recogized" Lorraine while she had been in La Paz earlier, and
had apparently attempted to capture the famous Warlady for Tara!
     
"I will try to remember, `my Princess'," Lynn answered back.
     
"Perhaps another would do a better job of training our `new
girl'," Tara smiled, sitting there, eating, regarding me now
kneeling there on the carpet perhaps a yard or so away from her.
     
"I have done the best I could with her!" Lynn now protested.
Lynn being greatly concerned that I would be "abused" by another!
     
"You are too `emotionally involved'," Tara then smiled back.
"Another, one who is not so `involved', might do a better job."
I saw Lynn's eyes meet mine. She had done for me what she could.

*****************************************************************

     
"The wonders of modern air travel," Lorraine smiled in
greeting as she got painfully up to her feet, extending out her
right hand to the little Queen of Talon as Sharon and Gayle es-
corted her into the throne room of the Royal Palace of Trelandar.
     
"I'll have to take you up on one of our bigger Tarls," Queen
Dala Dai of Talon smiled back as Queen Lorraine escorted her to a
more private room, Gayle now at her side as Lorraine greeted her
with a smile of welcome. The Princess' eyes filled with concern
as she saw how badly her beloved foster mother had been injured.
     
"Your daughter is an excellent swordswoman," Lorraine smiled
as the two Queens seated themselves side by side on a comfortable
sofa. The Princesses Gayle and Sharon, like a pair of beautiful
golden haired sisters, now sitting opposite the two crowned heads
of state. A glow of understanding going through Dala's dark eyes
as she suddenly realized just "who" had been actually responsible
for the Queen of Trelandar's wound! Her own daughter, Sela Dai!
     
"You won't---?" Dala Dai breathed softly, a chill of terror
going through her heart at the thought. She had heard much of
Lorraine and her knowledge of the technology of the past. Of the
woman's incredible swordsmanship that some said no other woman
could ever equal. If Lorraine was to seek out her daughter...!!!
     
"I am of the Warrioresses," Lorraine smiled back. Dala Dai
nodded, understanding. Seeing Sharon's eyes glowing hot into
hers as she glanced over at the Princess. Had she known of this?
     
"Lorraine," Gayle spoke, her eyes meeting those of Sharon.
     
"Sela Dai is a brave and courageous Warrioress," Lorraine
spoke in level tones to the two Princesses. "And fortunately I
recognized her just in time before I took her head off with my
force saber for sticking several inches of steel into my guts."

*****************************************************************

     
"We have met before," I said, regarding Princess Sela Dai as
she stood before me. She was 5'2" to my 5'10". Even kneeling as
I was the differences in our physical sizes were quite obvious.
She is a very beautiful brunette, quite small, exquisite. I had
once hoped like Tara that Jers would decide to make her his wife.
     
"It would have been best had you stayed in Sarn," Sela an-
swered in level tones. Even Princess Tara at 5'7" seemingly tow-
ering over her. The women of Talon are small, often little more
than five feet in height. Only a woman may ride the great Tarls.
     
"No doubt she has had reason to consider that fact," Tara
smiled, regarding me. I am by birth and training of the Warrio-
resses. Both Tara and Sela Dai would be well aware of that fact.
     
"I have been ordered to take charge of your training," Sela
said to me, regarding me from dark deep brown eyes. Her face is
beautifully shaped, and quite "aristocratic" if that is the term.
     
"Lynn was perhaps too `involved' with you to do what needs
to be done," Tara explained, her hand "possessively" on the lit-
tle Princess' shoulder. I wondered about their own relationship.
     
"Tara believes that I will do a better job," Sela Dai said.
     
"Especially since I am the `responsible' for the war between
Talon and the Empire twelve years ago," I commented with a smile.
     
"You attacked us without `provocation'," Sela pointed out.
     
"It is not a `point' in my favor," I smiled back, recalling
the treatment I had received there in Talon at Lorraine's side.
Perhaps it had been what I deserved for what I had done to them.
     
"You are not what I expected," Sela Dai then admitted to me.
     
"People often have that experience with me," I smiled back.

     
"I must caution you that I am skilled with a dagger," Sela
warned me as we walked side by side towards her quarters on the
upper floor of the castle. I had no doubt that she viewed me
with a degree of concern due to our differences in physical size.
     
"I will try to remember that," I smiled, well aware that she
had left my hands well secured. I am a trained fighting woman.
My skill with a sword is second only to that of Lorraine herself.
     
"I will not `abuse' you as Tara no doubt hopes, but on the
other hand you will submit yourself to my discipline," Sela said.
     
"Why do you serve her?" I suddenly asked, wondering what her
reply would be. Sela certainly knew the "sort" of a person that
Tara was and knew something at least of her criminal activities!
     
"She is Jers' mother," Sela answered in low tones, her dark
eyes looking up into mine. "And her son once loved me." I could
finish the rest for myself. No doubt Tara had promised Sela
something along the line of seeing to it that her son soon became
a "widower". There had been already several attempts on Lara's
life. The first having been at the time of her wedding there in
my palace at Sarn. Another had been by poison. I wondered, how-
ever, what "hold" Tara had over the government of Talon itself?
     
"It was his decision, not mine or anyone else's," I smiled.
     
"She used her `skills' as a prostitute to get him," Sela
snapped in heated tones, a barely suppressed fury in her voice.
     
"Perhaps," I answered, not wishing to pursue the topic now.
     
"She is a `slut', and he was `putty' in her hands," Sela
snapped back, standing there, bristling with angry fury. The
term "spit-fire" perhaps fitting her better than any other then!
     
"Women such as Lara often are very `attractive' to men," I
answered. Lara had never lacked for suitors in all the time that
I had known her. She is an extremely "sensual" and provocative
woman. About 5'8" with reddish brown hair, gray blue eyes. As
Lorraine once described her, she is also rather ripely figured!
     
"Women who `live' off their `bodies'!" Sela snapped back.
     
"I found her `useful', but I did not approve of her marriage
to Jers either," I answered, feeling it best to refer to my rela-
tionship to Lara in those terms. It being well known that I had
used Lara's Prostitute Guild as a "cover" for my own purposes. I
climbed the stairway to the upper floors there beside her, Sela's
attire well displaying the slim feminine delights of her figure.
     
"You could have stopped her had you wished," Sela retorted.
"Poison, a dagger in the darkness, a crossbowman on a rooftop."
     
"She has as much `right' to her life as you do to yours or I
do to mine," I pointed out in level tones. I am not a murderess.
I have executed people for crimes both against "society" and
against the "Crown", but that is an entirely different matter. I
would never order someone killed just to prevent a marriage from
happening, even if I thought the marriage was unwise and foolish.
I had often considered Jers' marriage to Lara to be exactly such!
However, after seeing the love they had for each other, I had
changed my opinion of the marriage. I felt Lara was perhaps a
"better" choice in a wife for Jers than this "Princess of Talon".
     
"I am a Princess, she's just a `hip-swinger'!" Sela snapped.
     
"And I am a Queen and an Empress who according to Tara and
certain `others' I know `bedded' her way to her crown," I smiled.
     
"You are of royal birth, Lara certainly isn't," she replied.
     
"No doubt some `sword-swinging' ancestor of mine made her-
self Queen of Dularn by `force of arms'," I smiled back at Sela.
Well aware of the "fact" that I wasn't really Queen Tulis' child!
     
"Do you approve of Lara?" Sela asked, pausing there before a
door, the two of us now on the upper floor of the Bajan castle.
A window at the end of the hallway looking out over the city of
La Paz below. A warm breeze blowing down the hallway towards us.
A number of paintings on the walls speaking of past residents of
the place. Triskelion is centuries old, and dates back to an era
long before The War. Lorraine's own sister even had lived here!
     
"If Jers is happy with her, and he seems to be, I think it
is best to leave well enough alone," I told the little Princess.
     
"I think that when he gets over the `sexual excitement' of
being married to the most famous prostitute in California that he
will come back to me," Sela spoke as she opened the door. I felt
it best considering the situation not to disagree with her then.
     
"You have lovely quarters," I smiled, changing the subject.
     
"I am a Princess," Sela Dai of Talon reminded me in reply.
     
"With the Empress of California now as your slave girl," I
smiled back at her. I wondered what it would be like, serving
her as a slave girl. What sort of "demands" would she put on me?
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