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

     
"Vegas," Serak smiled, pointing. The ruins of the great
city of the past spreading out there before us. I thought of
what had once existed. What the Lorr had done to us in The War.
Lorraine had spoken to me of what she had seen on Mars. Neither
Man or the Lorr would go out to other worlds with "clean hands".*

* I suspect this is more the reason why "The Guardians of Life"
did not wish the Valkyrie to be used to explore other worlds. I
am of the opinion too that the Women are not "guiltless" either.
I have in my life dealt with too many of the Women to feel other-
wise. Their "attitudes" towards us of Earth leaves little doubt.

     
"Something out of history," I smiled back at him, touching
him with my hand. He enjoyed such physical contacts with me too.
I like to "tease" him a little when we're together, just to let
him know I am a sexy, "desirable" woman who is in love with him.
     
"Better `go easy' on this business with Leith," he warned me
as I circled the ruins looking for a safe spot to land the plane.
"My father worries enough about you Imperials without having a
bunch of queer women from Mars to worry his head about." I nod-
ded, smiled to myself. The women of Mars were "queer" in the
full meaning of the word. I had met my mother's "lover" there in
Leith. I remembered her death in battle, my mother's reaction!
     
"That looks long enough, and there doesn't seem to be any
rubble to worry about," I answered, looking down as we circled
over what was once perhaps long ago a great roadway dividing the
city. My imagination busy at work recalling what had once been.
The streets teeming with traffic, the throngs of people. All now
only a few lines in a moldy musty history book in some library
back in California! And how much did we really know anymore
about things? About the "realities" of life? That I wondered...

     
"I hope they believe in finding out who we are before they
shoot," I said to my Prince as we stepped down from the airplane.
The gathered Nevada archers standing there regarding us leaving
no doubt in my mind of what their intentions might very well be!
It had been less than four years ago that my Legions had fought a
great battle a few hundred miles from here. A historic battle
that had decided the eastern limits of my Californian Empire in a
way that nothing else could have so well done. It had been at
the "peace" table that I had first met Serak. Allowed him later
to "touch" me. Allowed myself to "respond" to him as I had then.
Then "terrified" by my own "feelings", I had listened to Tara
when she had told me that he was totally "unfit" for a husband!
     
"I am Serak, Crown Prince of the People, and this is my wom-
an, the Empress Darlanis of California!" Serak cried to the men.
The way he emphasized "my woman" leaving no doubt how he now felt
about me. I was "his property" as much as his unicorn or his
sword. It gave me a bit of a feminine "thrill" to be so classed!
"She has agreed to become my wife under the customs of our peo-
ple." I briefly wondered what their marriage ceremony was like?
What sort of a costume I would be wearing? I have my "vanities".

     
"I see that my son has taken a wife," the King of the Neva-
das spoke from his throne as Serak stood beside me. "One tall
and golden," he smiled, regarding me. My attire concealed little
of my figure. I was bare breasted, my nipples concealed by gold-
en clips. The setting was both barbaric and majestic at the same
time, I thought to myself. The Nevadas had taken over what I
suspected had once been a great edifice of some sort, and made it
into what they considered a palace. Their "tastes" were a bit
"barbaric". On the other hand there was no doubts as to things.
Their cultural patterns are a mixture of the two races from which
they have sprung. Their history is now rich in legends, myths.
     
"You have raised a fine son, your majesty," I smiled back.
He was an older man, but one still in his prime of life. Able to
ride with any of his warriors. Draw a bow, fight with a blade.
A half naked woman, dark of complexion, now crouched by his side.
She was collared. A slave girl. Perhaps from an enemy nation.
     
"And I think he has chosen well," Terak smiled back at me.
"Union between the People and the Empire will be of benefit to
all." I hadn't really thought of it that way, but he was right!
     
"I have chosen her because I love her," Serak said to him.
     
"That is always wise, my son," his father then smiled back.

     
"I feel," Serak said, regarding me, "That this white doeskin
skirt would be proper." My attire would be brief. I would be
bare breasted, my nipples daringly exposed and painted. I would
be loaded down with precious jewels, ornaments of various sorts.
I would soon also be wearing silver about my neck as his wife.
     
"My slave girls wear more than that!" I pointed out to him.
     
"You are a beautiful woman. Men should `see' you," he said.
In a corner, pouting to herself was a lovely Indian girl. Ser-
ak's Pussycat. Her coal black hair a lovely mane falling to the
small of her back. She wore beads, a brief buckskin skirt. Her
breasts were bared and painted, her nipples gilded as mine would
be. Around her throat a gleaming band of steel. A slave collar.
She displayed her femaleness like another woman might a fur coat.
     
"As long as don't you ask me to do it back in California," I
smiled back. Exposing your nipples is considered quite "erotic".
     
"Only when we are `alone' together," he smiled, kissing me,
undoing my clothing. Pussycat getting to her feet, coming near.

     
"You fear me, don't you?" I said to Pussycat as she prepared
me. Often slave girls fear free women. And with good cause too.
     
"You tall, golden, not short, dark like me," she said in
broken English. Many Nevadas do not speak good English. Lor-
raine would of course say that only Dularnians speak good Eng-
lish. That the rest of us speak a bastard tongue that is partly
Spanish with a touch here and there of American Indian tongues.
I might note here however that those of Leith speak perfect Eng-
lish, which is to be expected considering their own form of life.
     
"Treat me with the respect due me, and you will have nothing
to fear from me," I said to her as she perfumed me, wishing to
establish a proper relationship with her right off. I had shaved
myself earlier, such not being a common practice among Nevadas.
     
"He loves you now, not me," she answered, her eyes wet with
tears. "I cannot match one tall, golden like you in his eyes."
     
"Once the `thrill' wears off, I'm sure he will look upon you
with more favor once again," I told her, kissing her forehead. I
was well aware of her femaleness, the total womanhood of her. I
had no doubt that a girl like Pussycat would bring a high price.
     
"You not like what I was expecting you to be," she answered.
I supposed she had expected an "imperious mistress" ready to whip
her should she commit the slightest error in her relation to me.
     
"I have learned much in my life in the past few years," I
said to her. "Much of what `loyalty' means, and `justice' too."
     
"Tell Serak not to `forget' his Pussycat," she purred back.

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

     
"You could have gotten yourself killed there on Mars!" Jon
Richards protested as he saw the half-healed burn there on his
wife's leg. Lorraine still yet limping a bit from being shot by
a Lorr's laser. Her dark eyes smiling into his she nodded back.
     
"I `stand by' my friends," the Imperial Warlady smiled.
     
"I fear `losing' you," Jon "admitted", holding her close.
     
"I expect to `be around' for a few years yet," she smiled.
     
"I want `you' to be my son's mother," he then said to her.
     
"I have every intention of being so," she smiled back then.

     
"You are a woman like no other," he said, pressing her down
on the bed, her mouth like a leech now clinging to his as he let
his hands stroke her beloved body, that hard muscular unfeminine
body that he had learned to love so well there on the Janis after
the tragic death of his Princess. Lorraine being like no other.
The sort of a woman that a man might "value" as a wife forever!

     
"They told me there on the Starfire what `happened'," Jon
said as he held the now sweaty damp body of his beloved Queen to
himself. Their "union" had been swift, "hungry", driven by their
"need" for each other. Later they would make love again, a kind-
er and "gentler" love, one not "driven" by the "hunger" of their
bodies. He could feel the scratches of her nails from where she
had clawed at him in the throes of orgasm. He had bitten her
mouth, her lip now swollen a bit from the bite. The silver of
her neck chain glistened against the tanned softness of her neck.
     
"The `plans of mice and men' oft go a'gay," she smiled back.
     
"Perhaps it is for the `best'," Jon agreed with his Queen.

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

     
Serak and I knelt as his father gave us his blessing. I was
barbaric and provocative in my attire, the briefness of which
left no doubts that I was a woman about to become the wife of a
Nevada warrior Prince. My height, my blonde hair making me an
exotic delight to their eyes. I doubt if many of them had ever
seen a woman like me before. A woman who was quite "different"
from their own women. I had worn my weapons. I wished to make a
certain "statement" here for everyone to see. Serak accepted me
as what I was. That I was both wife and Warrioress. The Empress
of California. A woman who sat upon a golden throne, and ruled a
million people. A woman who could give orders to another Queen.
A woman whose "domain" in a way extended from just below Puget
Sound to the northern borders of Baja. A woman who in her own
way had made "history" in her own lifetime. I thought of my
mother. Of Anna. Of Lorraine, who had done so much for me now.

     
The Priestess who was to marry us was no different in her
appearance from those in California. I had to smile to myself as
I saw her. Her white gown, the ankh no difference from those I'd
seen the Priestesses there in California wearing. Lorraine had
once told me that the Priestesses operated in every "civilized"
part of the world. And perhaps some not so "civilized" too, I
mused with a smile to myself, noting however that she was not a
"white woman", but of much the same "racial type" as the Nevadas!
     
I noted a bit of disturbance to one side as a man rushed to
the King, whispered something in his ear. Another yelling some-
thing about a "flying saucer"! Smiled to myself as Serak looked
at me. It was obvious that we were about to have "guests" at our
wedding! And I had little doubt just "who" that they might be!!!

     
"I suppose `such' attire is `fitting'," Aurora said to me.
My wedding "dress" leaving few if any doubts as to my own "femi-
nine charms". The Warlady of California in her black silk and
leather was the "same" as always. Jon Richards there at her
side, his arm around her slender muscular waist, and rather nerv-
ously "eying" the Nevadas now gathered around us. Like many men
of the "civilized countries", he viewed such men as being "un-
civilized" barbarians whose only desire in life seemed to be to
steal women and gold! "You are a daughter any mother could be
proud to call 'hers'," Aurora smiled at me, her jade eyes glowing
into mine. Lorraine giving me a smile, nudging Jon at her side.
     
"I am pleased you are here to witness our marriage," Serak
said to my Martian mother, who gave him a warm smile in reply. I
suspected that she now looked upon him somewhat differently than
she had before. I did not of course then know of what had hap-
pened there on the Moon, or what the First Priestess had said. I
suppose it had also given her considerable "cause" for thought!

     
"Then under the eyes of Lys I declare you husband and wife,"
the Priestess said as we stood before her hand in hand. I won-
dered what Lorraine thought of all this. She tends at times to
view such things from the point of a woman of the 20th Century.
     
"Now there will `no doubts'," Serak said to me, kissing me
there before everyone, and giving me an affectionate slap on the
rear end where it jutted out beneath the white doeskin now cover-
ing it. I had no doubt that I would be "well kept" as his wife.
That I might from time to time be put over his knee and spanked.
I was naked beneath the skirt, with nothing covering my crotch.
I found it an experience that left me now muchly aware of myself!
Aware of the fact that he could reach beneath my skirt at any
time and intimately caress me. Touch my own intimacies. I was
"his" now in the eyes of his people. Nevadas often look upon
their wives as the men of California look upon their slave girls.
I found such a relation quite "thrilling" to my own womanhood. I
had no doubts that he would find me an "eager and willing" wife!
About my throat now the silver chain of the newly married wife!!!

     
"We have been `judged' and found `wanting'," Lorraine said
to me as the festivities started after the wedding ceremony. Her
words for the moment hardly registering in my consciousness then.
     
"It seems that Mankind, Womankind, and Lorrkind are all un-
fit to `mingle' with the `superior' beings of the Universe," the
Queen of Trelandar smiled, her words still yet meaningless to me.
     
"What Lorraine means is that we were told that we would not
be `welcome' out past the bounds of our solar system," Aurora now
added as she joined us. Telling me the story of what had hap-
pened there on the Moon. I found the tale "amusing" even if I
knew how "hurt" my mother was over all this. "And the Priestess-
es of Lys will be the ones to `decide' when we are `fit' to join
with the other intelligent races of the Universe!" Lorraine giv-
ing me a smile as Jon nodded beside his wife. Serak then joining
me, dragging me off before I could make any "comment" on things!
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