Freedom Fighters of Trelandar
A Tale of Adventure in the Second Dark Age
Book Nine of the Warlady Series
By Jerome B. Bigge
Chapter Ten
     
"`Dangerous' what you did there," Carl Talen said to me as I
came riding in the last of the rain, the sky growing dark in the
east as the sun set in the west behind the overcast. I nodded,
dismounting, wet, a bit chilled from the ride, the rain having
been cold, telling of the fall that would come in another month.
     
"It isn't something I'll `do' again," I answered, leading my
unicorn into the barn where the rest of them were now concealed.
Had I not come alone, the others would have bolted out the other
side out into the dripping forest, where it was likely that they
would have been able to ditch any pursuing Imperial Warrioresses.
     
"You had a `close call', didn't you?" Carl said to me as I
untied the cinch and pulled the saddle off my dapple gray mount.
His dark eyes meeting mine as I now nodded quietly back in reply.
     
"I met Darlanis," I said, seeing the look on his face then.
On all their faces as I told them what had happened to me there.

     
"`She' could have exploited the situation," Four said to me,
her eyes, dark like mine, meeting mine as I told them the story.
A tale that left no doubts in my mind what Darlanis was after...
     
"I think she `believes' she is the `second Janet Rogers'," I
said. The woman who would lead us all back to a glorious future.
The time of Janet Rogers being seen by most as a "golden age" of
civilization never matched before or afterwards. As a Scribe I
knew better, but it was so hard to explain such things to people.
Janet had been extremely "competent" at what she did, following
the teachings of Lorraine Duval, but in reality she had been more
a benevolent dictator than anything else, who forced people to do
what she wanted them to do, whether or not they wished to or not!
While there had been a great deal of economic and social freedom,
there had been no political freedom under Janet despite trappings
of "democracy" that she maintained doubtlessly to confuse people.
The parallels between Nazi Germany and Janet's NEW ORDER are not
well known, nor do even most Scribes wish to speak of such here.*

* This is as true today here in 2621 as it was back then. (Sanda)

     
Back when Darlanis and I were cadets at the Academy we used
to argue such concepts, Darlanis being a worshiper of Janet, who
to her could have done no "wrong" despite what history now shows.
I on the other hand looked back to a America further back yet, to
an era when government played but a small role in people's lives.
Depending upon the few books left from the past to explain to my
friend then that what she "worshiped" wasn't what she thought...
Much of the "history" of the past being distorted and unreliable.
There being some evidence that Janet attempted to censor what was
written so that the past would be seen as different than what it
was then. She however was not completely sucessful, perhaps due
to the fact that the older books, written on paper, not on the
strange disks that were used during her era, survived in part The
War and the destruction that took place afterwards. A "reign of
barbarianism" that is little understood even by today's Scribes.*

* This is frequently mentioned in Lorraine's diaries, I should
note, the Warlady having made several trips back in time, both at
her own behest, and too at the behest of Tais. The First Priest-
ess who died there on Mars of heart failure last year overseeing
preparations for Mankind's colonization of that world. (Sanda)

     
"Whatever she `believes', she's still dangerous," Carl said
to me as we sat there in the straw, our unicorns standing there.
Driven by her own beliefs, her own ideology here, Darlanis was no
doubt a dangerous woman, if perhaps one more "honorable" than any
of the past. She believed she was destined to rule, to guide all
of Mankind into a "golden age" that could "exist" only in her own
imagination. Seeing herself as a "savior", perhaps as the "Queen
of Light" mentioned there in THE BOOK OF LYS. Her very choice of
words leaving no doubts that she was living out a delusion here.
     
"I've read her writings," I smiled, Darlanis having written
down what she "planned" for us. This "Empire of California" that
would control the entire western coastline of North America from
Baja north to the snowy lands of western Canada north of Dularn.
How much of a grasp she had upon reality too was another question
I had no answer for. I suspected that she lived in a dreamworld.
That she felt it "right" that she should be the ruler of us all!
She'd even written of bringing in the Nevadas and Wyomings as a
part of her "empire", savage tribes much like those who had been
roaming these same areas back in the 18th and 19th Centuries now!
     
"A `fruitcake'," One commented, chewing on some dried meat.
     
"And more `dangerous' because of it," Two ventured here.
     
"I spoke to her, she's not `insane'," I protested back.
     
"She was once your friend," Four pointed out to me here.
     
"Perhaps she could be `reasoned' with..." I mused to her.
     
"She wants political `control' of Trelandar," Carl replied.
No doubt Darlanis would be willing to allow us to live our lives
pretty much as we wished, but we would be living with HER as our
true ruler. It would be Darlanis who would be making the deci-
sions, not Paula, not anyone else. We would be "property" as her
own Warlady had so put it. No longer truly free men or women...
Living under the NEW ORDER of Janet Rogers as Darlanis so saw it.
     
"We'll ride out of here `tonight'," I said, aware that I had
much thinking to do. I wanted to talk to my sister, get advice.
To do so we'd have to cross the Imperial lines, something that
would have to be done using the forests, as I'd done here before.
Darlanis had been willing to allow my sister to remain "Queen of
Trelandar", or so at least she'd said. The Empress being mainly
interested here in being able to recuit the forces she needed for
her attack upon Talon, which was her next step here, she'd said!

     
"`Spooky' riding at night like this," Carl said to me as we
rode down a forest trail one could just barely sense before them.
Our unicorns shying at the slightest movement here in the trees.
     
"Did it `before'," I replied, crouching low on my mount, the
Moon from time to time trying to peek through the clouds above us
as we headed south, back towards that part of Trelandar that my
sister still yet controlled. I was thinking of what Darlanis had
said to me, of what I'd say to Paula when she asked me about it.
When one got past the rhetoric, what Darlanis was promising peo-
ple was a social order where a "benevolent government" would see
to it that everyone was "protected", although Darlanis was pretty
"vague" here as to just "what" she planned to offer everyone now.
So far what she'd DONE here indicated more a return to the sort
of serfdom that had existed over a thousand years ago in Europe.
Of Lords and Ladies on their great estates ruling over Peasants,
over all the "lower castes", almost a return to a past now myth.
     
"You're just lucky she let you go," Carl answered me back.
     
"She only did so that her thoughts might be communicated to
my sister," I answered, well aware of what Darlanis really was...
The simple fact that she spoke what she had, behaved the way that
she did indicating that she was living a life of delusions here.
I would not have called her "insane", but she was a bit "touched"
in a way, perhaps due to the sort of a childhood that she'd had.
My unicorn suddenly shying back, half rearing as a deer or some
sort of another animal now jumped up and bounded off just ahead.
Forcing me to concern myself not with Darlanis, but keeping in my
saddle as my mount tried to bolt back the way that we'd come now!
     
We were well up into the hills, away from the area where it
was likely that we'd see any Imperial patrols, the resources of
the Empire being strained enough now as it was to fight this war.
My major concern was running across one of the larger predators,
or a pack of dire wolves, as big as ponies, against which we'd be
almost helpless despite our weapons in the darkness, these woods.
These animals due to the war having been driven away from their
usual haunts into "areas" of Trelandar that were less inhabited.
     
"Worth a man's neck to be riding like this," Carl observed.
The other members of my force having now scattered back to their
own groups, there to "lie low" until I needed them again here...
Some of them on their own having carried out small operations I
knew, making life even more miserable here for the Imperials, no
doubt forcing Darlanis to pay more "attention" to protecting her
"rear" from guerrillas, although such attacks tended to be more
of an "annoyance" to her than any actual military threat as such.
And Princess Tara's actions in burning villages, fields where any
such attacks took place were slowly breaking down the will of the
Trelandarian people to resist. Making them see "surrendering" to
the Empire the only way that they could ever hope for peace now.
     
"Could be, if the Imperials catch us," I smiled back at him.
We were technically I supposed "spies". At least Tara would have
seen us as such, and she was pretty much in charge of things here
as Warlady. The position of a Warlady within a government being
as much "political" as military, the Warlady being responsible in
wartime for seeing to a nation's military defenses, for seeing to
it that everyone did what they were supposed to be doing here. A
task that Tirana did well, if not as sucessfully as we'd hoped...
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