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

     
"You are a very beautiful woman," Princess Sela Dai of Talon
said to me as I knelt there before her. I was smart enough from
my own personal experience enough to keep my knees together as a
woman's slave should. A man's slave of course keeps them open.
I would have preferred to have been kneeling before my barbarian
Nevada Prince, my knees widely spread, my wrists as they were
well tied. The thought excited me, and made me sexually aroused.
     
Sela's attire consisted of the black leather halter and
skirt worn by Bajan Warrioresses. She was slim, trim, a delight!
Around us the luxurious furnishings of her apartment. It was ob-
vious that the Princess of Talon lived well. On the other hand I
knew of her courage, of the fact that she had lead the attack on
Lorraine despite the sight of Lorraine's terrifying force-saber!
A weapon against which there was no known defense here on Earth!
     
"I could say the same of you," I observed with a smile as I
knelt there before her on the soft carpeting. She was "small",
but very nicely figured with lovely fine aristocratic features.
     
"But the man I loved married another woman, and a prostitute
at that," Sela answered back, the anger showing now in her voice.
     
"Men sometimes have unusual `tastes' in women," I answered.
     
"She was your closest friend, and he did spend considerable
time with you," Sela Dai answered with a cold smile, standing
there, her hands on her hips, looking down at me. Her eyes hard.
I worried what she might do to me if the mood so struck her now.
     
"I advised them both against the marriage," I answered her.
     
"Were you `aware' that I loved him?" the Princess asked me.
     
"It was his decision, not mine to make for him," I answered.
     
"You did not `prevent' it, however," she answered back. We
had gone through this before. I had pointed out that there was
no way that I could prevent the marriage from taking place with-
out using "means" I detested upon the innocent Lara of Trelandar.
I personally felt that Lara had as much "right" to marry the man
she loved as any other woman, although I had advised against the
marriage knowing fully well what Princess Tara might do about it!
     
"I advised against it, which was the best I could do," I an-
swered her. "Jers made the decision that he wanted Lara Warsan."
     
"She wears a sword, doesn't she?" Sela asked, her dark eyes
gleaming hotly into mine. The little Princess was an excellent
swordswoman. No doubt her skill was superior to that of Lara's.
     
"I doubt that you can `win' Jers that way," I informed her.
I was getting extremely tired of this foolish "round-robin" talk.
     
"I will be the `judge' of that," Princess Sela Dai answered.
The tone of her voice leaving little doubt in my mind that she
yet hoped to win Jers even if he was now happily married to Lara.
     
"Love is something you `earn'," I said to her. "It is not
something that you can take at the point of a sword." I wondered
if Sela realized that. That Jers no longer loved her, but Lara.
     
"I am a Princess of Talon, she is nothing but a Trelandarian
whore!" I heard the little Princess snap back furiously at me! I
merely nodded, knowing when it was best to keep my mouth closed!!

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"I'm sure glad I didn't know it was her daughter who nearly
killed Lorraine," Gayle breathed in low tones as Sharon nodded in
agreement. The two Queens walking some distance ahead of them.
     
"You `like' Queen Dala, don't you?" Sharon smiled back then.
Gayle nodding. The little Queen was a warm, loving woman, almost
like another "mother", Gayle had found during her stay in Talon.
Yet she still loved Lorraine as she had never loved any one else!
Lorraine was "steel & iron", hard, but yet "loving" in a way that
Gayle had never found with any other woman. A woman who expected
much of a "daughter", but on the other hand "understood" like no
other could how a young woman could "feel" and not laugh at her!
Her own mother having died when she was young, only a small baby.
Her father had remarried later on, but her step mother, a former
naval commodore, had never been a very "loving" mother as such...
     
"How can she be that `way' with a woman whose own daughter
nearly killed her?" Gayle answered, regarding the Queen of Tre-
landar and the little Queen of Talon looking like a child beside
her. A grim smile curving Sharon's lips as she nodded in reply.
     
"Lorraine's never been like other women," Sharon answered.
     
"Nor like the `mother' I once knew," Gayle agreed in return.
     
"I'm worried about Darlanis," Sharon spoke softly, her eyes
meeting those of Gayle. The "jealousy" between the two long
gone. Both remembered the time in Thistle when they had actually
come to blows there in the street, with the sheriff of Thistle
throwing a bucket of water over them both to put an end to it!
     
"She is very brave, and very beautiful," Gayle admitted.
     
"The only woman I love more than Lorraine," Sharon replied.
     
"And you want me to steal the keys to the airplane," Gayle
smiled back, understanding much of the other Princess' feelings.

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"You will dance before my warriors tonight, and then serve
their `pleasure' as a part of your continuing `education'," Tara
said to me as I knelt before her, Sela Dai standing there at my
side, looking on. I wondered muchly about her and what thoughts
really went through her mind? In the day that I had been her
slave I had learned little more from her but that she still
yearned for her now hopelessly lost love. As for me, she seemed
to bear me surprisingly little ill will considering that I had
been in a way responsible for the death of her father in the war
between Talon and the Empire of California a dozen years ago.
She had been however quite surprised when I had told her of our
attempt to establish diplomatic relations between California and
Talon, and the "hostile" reception I had received there in Talon
when Lorraine and I had arrived in Black Lady. The thought mak-
ing me smile to myself as I thought of the time that such a "re-
ception" would have resulted in an immediate declaration of war!!
     
"As `mistress' wishes," I answered, knowing my fate to be.
I would ask Sela to "grease" me so that I might be "readied" for
what was to happen. Tara seemed to delight in abusing me in any
way that she could, although I suppose I was lucky that she had
other "plans" for me or otherwise I fear my fate would have been
far more unpleasant. The reader should recall here that last
time I nearly lost my life while in Tara's hands. No doubt such
a fate would have been mine had not Tara wished to "use" me for
her own purposes. Only my "value" saving me from an awful fate!

     
Swaying slowly in time to the music, I danced my beauty be-
fore Tara's warriors and her friends, letting the music flow
through my body. My vagina greased for their pleasure beneath
the gauzy silk that now only served to accent what laid beneath
it. The torches on the walls and the men gathered around the low
tables gave the scene a look I found strangely exciting despite
my own terrors at the "fate" that awaited me. The knowledge that
my beauty was the center of their attention oddly stirring my own
womanhood as I danced before them, a lovely tall golden houri
whose movements stirred the hot beating blood in any man's veins.
     
Triskelion is old, dating back to the Sixteenth Century, to
the time of the early Spanish Conquistadors. Nearly a thousand
years having passed since its first stones were laid by sweating
bare backed slaves beneath the whips of their masters. By men
who have been dust now for nearly a thousand years! Did they too
dance lovely female slaves for their pleasure? I wondered a bit!
     
Moving before a warrior more handsome than most, I danced my
beauty before him, moving close to let him know the "delights" I
had to "offer". Now I was no longer a Queen, an Empress, but
just a slave wench, a near naked slut with a collar locked around
her neck. A woman who was "property", and now legally only an
animal. No different under the laws of Baja than Tara's unicorns
and dogs. I could be bought and sold like any other "animal". I
was a slave girl. Without "rights", without even a name save for
that which free persons wished to call me. I now even had a
golden stubble of fine pubic hair now starting to sprout there on
my mons, only free women as a rule being free of such body hair.*

* Why it is the practice for free women to shave their body hair
while slave girls do not is a question for which I lack answers.

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"You could get into an awful lot of trouble doing this,"
Gayle cautioned as Sharon poured the last of the alcohol into the
airplane's wing tanks there in the darkness, careful to see that
it was filtered as it went in. A reasonable precaution consider-
ing what might happen to the Princess if a fuel line plugged up.
     
"Lorraine's going to have to catch up with me first," Sharon
smiled back at the lovely Gayle Marn, setting down the empty fuel
can. "And I want to know what happened to Darlanis," she added,
her eyes glowing into those of the Princess of Trelandar. It be-
ing Sharon's intention to fly Black Lady back to La Paz to see
what happened to me. What she would "do" after that she didn't
really know. The ships did not have the forces necessary to re-
duce Triskelion, and the supply of nitroglycerine aboard the Sea
Star was used up. Triskelion was built of stone, and was there-
fore invulnerable against primitive fire bombs dropped from the
air. Sharon felt, however, that she "had" to "do something"!
     
"I would like to come along," Gayle said suddenly to Sharon.
     
"It could be dangerous," Sharon pointed out, wise for her
years. Girls grew up swiftly in the Sixth Century after The War.
     
"No worse there with you than with Lorraine once she finds
out who stole the keys to Black Lady," the Princess laughed back.
     
"You do have a point there," Sharon smiled as she and Gayle
pushed the airplane around so that it faced the ramp leading down
into the harbor. The hangar was guarded, but as both girls were
of "royalty", the guards had paid them but little actual notice,
especially after the "tale" that Sharon had told them about her
step mother needing to use the airplane again early the next day.
     
"We are both going to be `pirates'," Gayle pointed out with
a laugh. The thought making the two teenage girls giggle a bit
to themselves as they climbed into the airplane and shut the
doors. Both were nervous, a bit scared at what they were doing.
     
"Yo ho ho and bottle of rum!" Sharon laughed, pulling out
the choke while the preheater vaporized the alcohol for starting.
The guard was now staring at them curiously, puzzled at their ac-
tions. Motioning to the other, Gayle noted with terror clutching
at her heart as Sharon turned the ignition key to the "start" po-
sition. The two men now strolling over towards the airplane as
the engine then suddenly caught with a deafening roar of power!
     
"Sharon! It's Lorraine!" Gayle cried as the plane started
to move, the surprised guards shielding their faces against the
prop blast as suddenly a tall black clad brunette Warrioress came
running painfully towards them, the look on her face boding ill
for the two golden haired teenage delights there in the cockpit!
     
"Then We Go!" Sharon cried, shoving the throttle all the way
in, the airplane rumbling across the planking and down into the
calm water of the harbor, leaving an infuriated Queen of Trelan-
dar standing there, the prop blast blowing her clothing and ruf-
fling her heavy midnight hair. She was then joined by another,
who smiled at the sight and made a low comment that the taller of
the two found fitting considering the nature of the situation.

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A glowing silvery disc floated up from the embassy there in
Trella, a soft hum of power fading away as it lifted into the sky
above, the stars gleaming down upon it as it then swiftly flew to
the southeast. Aurora had made a decision. This time she would
not "fail" her own daughter as she had before, the woman "vowed"!
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