Freedom Fighters of Trelandar
A Tale of Adventure in the Second Dark Age
Book Nine of the Warlady Series
By Jerome B. Bigge
Chapter Twenty
     
"It's hard to believe how much has `changed'," Carl said to
me as we strolled the streets of Sanda's Landing, the entire town
now "different", the armored Warriors and Warrioresses leaving no
doubts that they were serious about keeping Darlanis at bay here.
A week ago I'd been only a guerrilla leader, fighting against the
Imperials in a battle that everyone admitted was hopeless. I had
tried to point out to people that we could defeat Darlanis if we
stood together as one nation against her. That we had to "rely"
upon ourselves, not upon the "government" to defend us here now.
"Statements" that had not in the least endeared me to my sister.
It was getting dark now, the sun having set, the night coming...
     
"Paula has recollected the fact that she is a Warrioress," I
answered as we paused to look out at the last of the sunset now.
A prostitute strolling on by, a sword at her hip, although most
of those now carrying them had little knowledge yet in their use.
People were taking instructions, others practicing their archery,
the Iron Workers hard at work making arms for everyone now. We
were also learning that those who wished to live in peace must be
prepared at all times to fight for peace, not depend upon others
to give it to them. A few even were questioning our "political
system" now, whether or not we wished to place so much POWER in
the hands of any one person, in a Queen who could make mistakes.
Some spoke of how things were done in Dularn, in that far land to
the north from where Darlanis had come so many years ago now. Of
a political system where people had a "say" in things, although I
was well aware that Dularn was not as "democratic" as people now
believed, or perhaps more likely wished to believe that it was...
     
"It's like there's suddenly `hope' again," Carl said to me.
Only the week before I'd noticed how the people of Trelandar had
seemed to have "given up", lost hope of our ever winning the war
against Darlanis, something that the Imperials themselves too had
believed, that their own Empress had believed before suddenly she
had found that Queen Paula of Trelandar was still a "Warrioress".
We'd won two victories against the Empire, the first against Dar-
lanis herself in a bloody nighttime battle I'd been "witness" to.
The second being the attack upon the Imperial Legion at Cluro by
Paula, an attack that had taught the Imperials we weren't licked
by any means yet. That we had LEADERSHIP, and a new WARLADY who
was a far better "tactician" than any on the Imperial side here.
     
"Darlanis is stubborn, she won't give up her dreams easily,"
I said, aware of what the Empress of California was truly like.
In a way I felt sorry for Darlanis, knowing what I did about her.
She was not an "evil" person in the same way as Princess Tara, I
knew, Darlanis being a person who believed that she acting in the
best long term interests of all Mankind. That she was indeed the
"second Janet Rogers" that Mankind had spoken of for centuries.
The woman who would give Man back what he'd once had long ago in
an age that is really more myth and legend than anything else...
     
"You seem to feel `sorry' for her," Carl said to me, sensing
my mood as the darkness came, the patrolling figures of our own
forces guarding this port hardly "visible" as the stars came out.
     
"She is the `way' that she is because she's been `hurt' so
much in her life that she wants to `strike out' at everyone," I
said to him, remembering what it had been like as her friend then
at the Academy. The snide remarks made behind her back, the vi-
cious little jokes that would be passed from hand to hand, some
of which I'd been on the receiving end too for being her friend.
"Comments" of the sort like "Does she `taste' good?" and such so.
And now it would be "personal" between Darlanis and me, my knowl-
edge of military tactics against her long range strategic plans.
     
"We'd all be a lot better off if `she' was dead," he said.
     
"And the world would be the `less' for it..." I replied.*

* Darlanis was not the evil person that I tried to her make her
out to be while I was head of the "Free Trelandar Movement" I or-
ganized after the death of Paula and Darlanis' resulting takeover
of Trelandar. I also know too that a lot of what she was blamed
for was actually the work of Princess Tara, who was truly a demon
from Hell itself in both "fact" and in her reputation... On the
other hand I naturally wanted people to believe in an evil Darla-
nis, in a Darlanis who did "horrible things" to people when I my-
self "knew better". As Darlanis once said to me a long time ago,
"Sanda, if you were my friend, I'd hate to have you as an enemy!"

     
(later)

     
"I guess its back to `making war'," Carl grinned to me as we
got ready for bed, carefully avoiding mentioning that Paula had
warned me earlier here that Darlanis would not "yield" on her de-
mands for us. That my voyage to Trella had been a waste of time.
     
"Back to making widows and orphans," I smiled, undressing.
     
"Sometimes I wonder about you, Sanda," he grinned at me.
     
"Any `doubts' about me as a woman?" I asked, now nude.
     
"None at all," Carl grinned, taking me in his arms.
     
"It is nice to be `wanted'," I smiled, kissing him.

     
(the next morning)

     
"Who is it?" I growled as the pounding came on the door, the
gray light of dawn just peeking into the window here, Carl roll-
ing over, grabbing for something to cover himself, getting out of
bed as I wondered WHO would be bothering us this time of the day?
My husband going to the door, unbarring it, the door now swinging
open, then much to our surprise Queen Paula came strolling right
in! The landlord grinning at me like a stupid fool might do too!
     
"Damn `modern' women!" Carl muttered under his breath, Queen
Paula giving me a big friendly grin as she sat on the edge of the
bed looking at me. Carl shutting the door, Paula grinning back.
     
"I've been married," Paula smiled, Carl then nodding back.
     
"You got Darlanis very `upset'," I smiled, Paula nodding.
     
"I expect she doesn't feel so `confident' now," she spoke.
     
"She was sure angry enough at Sanda," Carl now added here.
     
"My sister has good taste in men," Paula grinned in reply.
     
"And she's the Queen of Trelandar!" Carl laughed in return.

     
"We took them by surprise before they could get out of their
tents," Paula said as she sat there telling of what had happened.
"Taking out their sentries as we did certainly did pay off here."
This having been a task that I'd assigned to the Huntresses and
those who were skilled in woodcraft, in sneaky activities of all
sorts, Paula having recruited at my suggestion a force of those
who in more common terms were not of a "sort" we commonly used in
warfare. Those who had fled from Trella just ahead of Darlanis'
guardsmen. Poachers, footpads, people who "sought" the darkness.
     
"We have to keep up the `pressure' on Darlanis, force her to
spread her forces out, while we concentrate ours for attacks," I
said to her, such being simple "tactics" of hit and run warfare.
We couldn't stand and fight with Darlanis' forces, something we'd
been taught ever since the invasion early this spring, but we did
have the ability of operations with a friendly populace support-
ing us, while Darlanis in turn had to face hostile people wherev-
er she turned, thanks in part to what Princess Tara had done now.
It was true that Tara terrified people, but on the other hand she
also made "enemies" of the people, and had taught them that they
had no choice now but to support us against the Sarnian invaders.
     
"Going to be cavalry work, not infantry work," Carl pointed
out, wiping his face after shaving. "Hitting the Imperials where
they are `unprepared' for attack, the very sort of `warfare' that
Sanda here has been carrying out for since they invaded us now."
Paula nodding, her dark eyes meeting mine as I nodded in reply,
aware of the lives that would be lost, most cavalry being women.
     
"Darlanis could smash through our defenses, our lines," Pau-
la said, no doubt well aware that we were the "weaker" here now.
That any time the Empress was willing to sacrifice the lives, we
could be defeated in open battle, if she so wished it to be here.
She would lose thousands of lives, if not tens of thousands, but
it could be done, and I suspected she might eventually do so now.
In her boots I would have made landings all the way up and down
the coastline, forcing Trelandar to fight a war we couldn't win.
     
"It will `cost' her dearly," I answered, my sister nodding.
     
"And `weaken' her to the point that we can win against her,"
Carl said, getting dressed, buckling on his weapons belt here. I
supposed it would come to that eventually, a "war" that would be
like some of those written of in the old books, wars where no one
had really "won", like World War One. We'd beat Darlanis, but at
a "price" that Trelandar would be paying for a generation, with
broken families, children who would have only dim memories of a
father or mother, some even who would be without any parents now.
I wondered too if the country would survive, or would it "revert"
back to what it had been before? Without a strong central gov-
ernment Trelandar would once again become not a "nation" as such,
but more like what the nations of Europe had once been long ago.*

* This is of course what actually happened after Darlanis' con-
quest of us here in 2550, although it was done "intentionally" to
keep us weak, thus making us less of a threat. Trelandar not be-
ing "reunited" as a nation until 2565 under Queen Lorraine. Thus
for fifteen years there was no actual central government as such,
althought there was a sort of "national administration". (Sanda)

     
"Victory will be ours," Paula spoke, seeing me nod in reply.
     
"And may Lys have mercy upon us all," I spoke to them both.
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