Freedom Fighters of Trelandar
A Tale of Adventure in the Second Dark Age
Book Nine of the Warlady Series
By Jerome B. Bigge
Chapter Four
     
"Why did you decide to become a Scribe instead of a Warrio-
ress?" Carl Talen asked as we sat side by side there on this log.
The sounds of the oncoming night making me glad he was "there"...
There being creatures here in these forests that not even the new
Dularnian compound crossbows we had would have "stopped" in time.
Like the Garth, a reptilian horror like some dinosaur of legends.
Other creatures once thought extinct since the last Ice Age, the
dire wolf, the saber tooth tiger, the mammoth, the mastodon, cave
bears, all the creatures that Neolithic Man must have once faced!
The keen blade at my hip, my compound bow, all so "useless" here.
I'd have him build a small fire in the ruins, just for "comfort".
     
"Because all our societies are just military dictatorships!"
I snapped. "Even Dularn with its so called `democracy' is just a
military dictatorship with the `black castes' firmly in control!"
The attire of the Warriors and Warrioresses being black colored,
the symbol of death. In my opinion dating back to the Nazi SS...
This last opinion of mine having almost cost me my life here too!
Especially when I'd expressed the opinion that Janet Rogers' own
"World Federation" was based upon the NEW ORDER of Nazi Germany!!
Fortunately I'd won the sword duel against my challenger, but I'd
learned to keep my mouth "shut" about Janet Rogers and Lorraine
Duval, who everyone believed had been the FOUNDER of everything!*

* In life Lorraine was a warm kind person, not the fearsome War-
lady that she's often been seen of by others. She did however at
one time admit to me that she felt responsible for the "mistakes"
that Janet Rogers made, that she'd been too concerned with "solv-
ing" the social problems of her time to realize the consequences.
I was her close friend for fifty six years, and while we had our
"differences" at times, I always respected her for what she was.
I mourn her passing, although she died as she wished to. (Sanda)

     
"Not exactly `opinions' that would endear you to some," Carl
smiled back, regarding me as I sat there on the log beside him...
"You sound like one of those `revolutionaries' I've heard about."
     
"I wanted a society that was truly `democratic'," I said, my
voice soft as I stared out into the growing darkness, hearing the
"sounds" of the night come to my ears now from between the trees.
"Not one based upon the writings of Janet Rogers, but upon those
of a society that had existed a couple of centuries before her."
     
"My wife used to `speak' of such things," Carl mused to me.
"She was Dularnian to the core, a Warrioress like few others..."
I "nodded", aware that his family had died in the Sarnian assault
on Trella, when King John had died fighting Darlanis' own forces.
My sister had rallied the survivors, fought her way free of them,
leaving Darlanis firmly in control of Trelandar's capital city.
     
"I used to `know' Darlanis," I said, remembering my years at
the Warrioress Academy. She'd been a woman with a "chip" on her
shoulder, hard, embittered, ready to "fight" a duel for the least
insult to her ever so touchy honor!! Stunningly beautiful, hated
by most of the cadets at the Academy, although few dared to cross
her path, Darlanis being a "loner", with few if any friends then.
I'd tutored her, helping her try to understand military tactics.
Darlanis was smart enough, but unable to comprehend such things,
leaving no doubts in my mind now that this war was actually being
fought by Princess Tara, not by Darlanis even if she was Queen...
Her first Warlady, Hara Eslund, having resigned shortly after the
invasion began, apparently over Tara's "scorched earth" tactics.
     
"You believe her claim that her brother raped her?" he said,
it being commonly believed that Queen Tulis had disowned her due
to Darlanis' own "immorality", which I tended to disbelieve here,
as the "conversations" I'd had with Darlanis back in the Academy
had led me to believe that she was speaking the "truth" in this.
     
"One thing she is," I said, "Is honorable." I'd admired her
that way, even if I didn't like what she'd done as Queen of Sarn!
I suspected that Darlanis was trying to "win" something with the
sword that cannot be won, no matter how many conquests she made!!
She was a woman "driven" by her own internal demons, a woman whom
I thought would go to her death still never knowing true "peace"!
I hated too what she'd done to my country, but I found it hard to
hate Darlanis the woman, even if Darlanis the Queen was my enemy!
"And this war is so `unnecessary'," I breathed, sitting there on
the log beside him, the darkness flooding in from the east as the
sunset now started to die out behind us. The howl of a dire wolf
in the distance making me shiver... I'm not a "country woman" as
such, used to such things, but one who was raised in a large man-
or, who had a slave girl to serve her, who had read book after
book while other girls her age were out doing what teenage girls
have always done here in every society that Man has ever known.
     
"Darlanis didn't exactly give us a `choice'," Carl spoke.
     
"A `federation' would have been possible," I answered.
     
"With her as `Empress'," he grinned there beside me.
     
"America did have a `President'," I pointed out to him.
     
"I suppose so," Carl Talen answered rather doubtfully now.
     
"George Washington was the first President," I said to him.
     
"That was in one of my wife's books," Carl answered me now.
     
"Democracy `worked' for a hundred and fifty years," I said.
It had been in the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt I
knew that the first trappings of "liberalism" had appeared, much
like mold grows on bread... FDR having been the first to dare go
against the ideals of America and attempt to change it into a so-
cialistic welfare state of the sort that it eventually so became!
     
"And what happened to it then?" Carl grinned over at me, the
forest now growing darker with every minute that passed. I felt
however but little concern now of such things, despite the sounds
that came to my ears just because he was sitting there beside me.
A night bird crying out as it flew just over the tree tops now.
     
"We don't have to repeat the mistakes of the past," I said.
     
"The Lorr won't allow us to rebuild," he pointed out to me.
The Lorr did not allow any of the "modern" technology of the past
although they did allow certain fields of knowledge to exist now.
Medicine had not been effected, nor had the Priestesses of Lys...
     
"They do not interfere in our political affairs," I replied.
They were monitoring this war between Trelandar and Sarn, I knew,
their spaceships having been seen floating in the sky, but other-
wise they'd done nothing to indicate that they cared very much as
to what happened upon the Earth as long as we didn't manufacture
firearms or build ships that didn't rely upon wind and oar power.
The Lorr themselves were seldom now seen on Earth, but their own
Servitors were common enough, especially in our capital cities...
The Servitors serving the Lorr as "hands", the forelimb of a Lorr
being clawed, much as is an ant's, and unable to do things that a
woman with her slim fingers, her delicate touch could do easily.
It was commonly believed that they were the "slaves" of the Lorr,
but the relationship I suspected was more complex than that here.
     
"You never did say just `why' you decided you could not be-
come a `Warrioress' even after graduation from the Academy," Carl
said to me as the shadows now closed in ever closer here. It was
late summer, the end of August, and while the nights were getting
cool now, the days had still been hot. I've read that just after
The War that it used to "snow" here in the lowlands, like it does
up in the mountains, but such has not happened now for centuries.
The two of us having both done "justice" to dried meat he cut up.
     
"I'm going to get a drink of water," I said, getting up now.
The brook just visible yet before me, although one could see some
of the brighter stars now appearing, the Moon due to rise later.
I wondered if he'd even understand now why I hadn't been able to
accept the caste mark, not after what had happened there before.
It was not something that I thought he'd be able to "understand".
     
"Don't fall in," Carl grinned now, sitting there on the log.
     
"I'll be careful," I answered, going to the edge, dipping my
hand into the water, cupping it and raising it to my lips, water
running from my hand. It would have been easier to kneel at the
bank and put my face to it, but that would have positioned me be-
fore him like some slave girl with my rear end stuck up, which is
not a "pose" that any self respecting Lady ever does before men!
     
"It is said that the caste chooses you, you do not `choose'
the caste," I heard him saying as I drank, the salt of the dried
meat having made me thirsty. Such is one of the sayings that the
Warriors and the Warrioresses have. Another such being that the
companion of the Warrior or the Warrioress is "steel", which I'd
remembered that Darlanis used to say when I knew her back then...
The "implication" being the only one you can trust is your sword!
     
"I'm a Scribe, not a Warrioress," I replied, standing up, my
foot sinking into the mud there at the edge of the brook, a trout
now jumping somewhere out beyond me, no doubt after some insect.
"I fight for my country, because it is my country, not because it
is my duty because of my caste to fight for my country," I spoke.
"I do not glory in war, or in killing, or feel that it is proper
to die with a sword in my hand as those of your caste believe..."
Unlike my "sisters" at the Academy, I didn't "glory" in violence,
nor did I feel as they felt that the sword "solves all problems".
It is true historically that "violence" has settled many issues,
but on the other hand it often merely makes things worse later on
as I believe history shows even more clearly here. One thinks of
the great wars of the 20th Century perhaps as the best proof too.
"There was no `need' for this war either," I said, standing there
before him in the darkness, Carl Talen only a darker shadow now.
Another fish jumping behind me, the sound of the splash making me
start just a bit. "But King John wouldn't listen to me either!"
     
"Darlanis' terms were unacceptable," Carl pointed out to me.
I was aware of "what" Darlanis had wanted, but I felt that these
"terms" of hers could have been negotiated, much as disputes be-
tween two parties are "negotiated" in a court of law... And as a
lawyer I felt I could sit with Darlanis, negotiate with her, even
perhaps get her to trust me, to become my friend once again here.
     
"And will we be any better off now?" I challenged him back.
     
"We can retreat to the mountains, fight for years," he said.
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