2565 A.D.!
A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN
By Jerome B. Bigge
Book Two
Chapter Seven


     
Our foils came together with a sharp ring, Hara driving for-
ward as I stepped back, letting her take the offensive. Letting
her use herself up against my impenetrable defense. Waiting for
her to make the momentary mistake that I could exploit in return!
The watching cadets silent, their eyes riveted on the scene be-
fore them. I doubted that any of them had seen such swordplay
except at the yearly Royal Games held there in Sarn to the north.
Someone once offered me a hundred gold crowns to see a match be-
tween me and Darlanis. I wisely turned the offer down, not for
my own sake, but because Darlanis is my friend as well as being
the Empress of California. We have fenced. She is not my equal.
     
Hara feinted, attempting to draw me out. I did not accept
the offer. She was stronger than me, but her strength did her
little good again my quick footwork. Darlanis once said to me
that I danced around like a ballerina when I fought. I suppose
it is true. I rely a great deal on my "footwork". In "not being
there" when my opponent makes his or her move. Part of my skill
consists of keeping my opponent "off balance". Not letting them
get a chance to think about what they are going to try next. I
let Hara thrust at me. She was slightly "off balance". My foil
struck swiftly, a blur to those watching. In a real fight I
would have gone for the throat, which is my favorite "kill spot"!
     
"By Lys, I've never seen such wizardry with a sword like
yours!" Hara gasped as she stepped back, lowering her foil. She
had given me a good fight, although she had been even from the
first obviously outclassed by my own abilities with the foil.
The gathered cadets had doubtlessly seen something I hoped would
remain in their memories. Hara had been better than any of the
Academy's instructors, but the outcome had been just the same re-
gardless. I sometimes feel that the woman hasn't yet been born
who can face me and win. Only Darlanis really comes close to
matching me. She has a fighting style much like mine, although I
feel that her "footwork" needs a bit of working on. She tends to
depend too much upon her shoulder and arm muscles, upon her size.
     
"I've been doing this most of my life," I smiled. "I should
be good at it by now." I was wet with sweat, the silken tunic I
wore plastered to my body. I was glad Hara had quit when she
had. There is a limit to my endurance and I was approaching it!
     
I was thankful that I had done the fencing that I had back
on my estate. While my skill with a sword surpasses that of any
Warrioress that I know, still, I do have my own physical limits.
It requires daily exercise, work-outs to keep me up at my "peak".

     
"How do you justify your martial skills with your beliefs?"
one of the cadets asked me as I stood there before them on the
stage in the brightly lit auditorium. They were intelligent
young women, the best California had. The flower of 26th Century
womanhood. To me there was no conflict between my skills and my
beliefs, I explained to them. I believe in the right of "self-
defense", that there are times that it is necessary to fight a
war to avoid a greater disaster later. There is a difference be-
tween a "just" war and an "unjust" one. World War Two is a good
example. Vietnam on the other hand is still extremely "iffy". I
saw many young lives being wasted there. The war with Dularn is
another. The era, the causes are utterly different, but other-
wise there are far too many uncomfortable "similarities" for me!
     
"Being a Warrioress is not a matter of physical skills," I
answered one. My Scribe, Sanda Talen, was as good as many of the
black caste with a sword. She could even stand against me for a
few seconds at least. More if I didn't try to win right away. I
look upon the Caste Codes as a guide to proper living. There are
evil people in the world. Someone must stand up for the "good",
a sword in hand, and tell the forces of evil "this far, no more".
     
"Would you die for Darlanis?" I had one ask me. It was, I
suspected, more than just a rhetorical question. Twice now I
have fought for Her life at the risk of my own, and I think I can
answer that today just as I did that day at the Warrioress Acade-
my. "My life is less important to California than hers." I
don't have any better way of putting it. She is, I think, a sym-
bol of something good, something "decent". Something to defend!

     
"You might be interested in this," Hara said to me with a
smile, handing me the weapon. The design leaving no doubt in my
mind that it was of the 21st Century. The cylindrical magazine
mounted in the upper half of the interior of the stock allowed a
magazine capacity considerably greater than anything that I knew
about in the 20th Century. It would have held a hundred rounds,
Hara told me. The design was similar to the Lorr auto-rifle, al-
though this weapon did not fire the explosive bullets of the Lorr
weapon. The sights were telescopic, the fit of the weapon per-
fect. It had been manufactured only a few short years before The
War. It was the best "killing machine" Man had ever developed
for killing his own kind in large numbers by one single human be-
ing. The metal was a dark stainless steel of some sort. The
stock made of fiberglass. It was in amazingly good condition
considering its age. Given ammunition, I have no doubt that it
would function just as well as it did back in the 21st Century!
     
"Perhaps it wasn't the `Utopia' that we thought it was,"
Hara said as I handed the military rifle back to her. I nodded.
Janet Rogers had attempted to impose "order" upon Mankind. She
had no doubt been forced to use military force to do so. It had
been all in vain. Her civilization had not survived her by more
than a couple years. I wondered what would happen to California
once Darlanis was gone. Would that too collapse into anarchy? I
knew of the "independence" movements in Orgon and Trelandar that
wanted an end to the Empire. I had already been "approached" by
those who mistakenly believed that I might be the one to over-
throw Darlanis. To establish a "new social order" based upon the
mythologies of the past. What Janet Rogers did can never be done
again. Perhaps it is just as well now. It is too easy to misuse
such power. The Priestesses of Lys are still yet our best hope.
     
"Maybe it's best we carry these instead of that," I smiled
in reply, tapping the hilt of my sword where it hung at my hip.
     
"At least it's face to face, not just a figure at three hun-
dred yards," Hara answered, closing the glass case over the 21st
Century military rifle. There is something to be said for the
sword. It is, I feel, the weapon of he or she who takes pride in
their skills. Who is willing to practice day after day with it.

     
"I think I understand now a little more of what it means to
be a Warrioress," I said to Hara as I saddled my unicorn for the
ride back home. "And I think some of my own doubts have been an-
swered," I added, drawing the girth up tight and waiting until my
big stallion let out his breath before tightening the girth fur-
ther. My horned mount having a "delightful habit" of taking in a
deep breath and then holding it until you tightened the girth up.
Thus insuring that the saddle was "comfortably loose". Of course
you might just find it slipping too, and ending up walking home!
     
"And I don't think anyone here will ever forget you either,"
Hara smiled as I hoisted myself up into the saddle, my skirt rid-
ing up my legs to the middle of my thighs. My mount shifting be-
neath me, restless. The ivory horn jutting out there before it.

     
I listened to the birds now chirping in the trees as I rode
along, saw a herd of deer race off into the forest as I came up
on them. Saw the little harmless squirrels and rabbits run off.
The sun hot there in the sky before me, it being late afternoon.
     
Suddenly something whizzed just before my eyes a few inches
from my face! A blurred missile that thunked into a nearby tree!
A CROSSBOW BOLT! SOMEONE HAD TAKEN A SHOT AT ME FROM THE WOODS!
     
A wiser Warrioress would have laid spurs to her mount and
crouching low over its back, put distance between herself and
that hidden crossbowman! However, I am sometimes not as "wise"
as I should be. Like Darlanis, I sometimes do "stupid things"!
     
Leaping from the back of my prancing unicorn, I ran swiftly
towards to the woods, keeping low, running in a zig-zag pattern
between the scattered trees, my drawn sword shining there in my
hand! My fury at being so shot at so great I did not stop to
consider the possible dire consequences of my reckless actions!
     
Suddenly there came a painful slap to my thigh, and I fell
rolling between some rocks, clutching at my bleeding left leg!
This hidden crossbowman was a true master of his deadly weapon!
     
"Damn!" I muttered to myself, suddenly aware of how foolish
I had been. I had only a sword and dagger against his crossbow!
The blood staining my fingers as I clutched at my painful flesh
wound. The bolt having cut my flesh much like a sword cut as it
had ripped into my thigh. I hoped it wasn't poisoned, or I was a
dead woman whatever I did! Poison is against all the Codes, but
is sometimes used by hired assassins just to make really "SURE"!
     
I could see my unicorn perhaps fifty yards away, grazing now
at the grasses that grew between the scattered trees. With no
missile weapon of my own I had little chance of defeating the
hidden crossbowman. He only had to wait for me to make the next
move and aim carefully. Writing "finis" to all my adventures! I
thought of Sharon, of Gayle, of Mara, and of Darlanis, whose
bravery I had always so admired. What would she do in my place?
     
Slipping off my hat and veil, I slipped the point of my
sword into the crown of my hat and carefully gently raised it
just over the edge of the rocks behind which I now laid. Wonder-
ing if he would actually take a shot at it like those Western
movies I'd seen as a young girl back in France! That would give
me about twenty seconds to act before he could recock, reload his
deadly weapon. Twenty seconds to find him, kill him with my keen
blade! That was, of course, assuming that there was only one!
     
"Come on, you bastard, shoot!" I muttered to myself, gently
moving the hat and its veil up a bit higher and to one side of
the rock as if I was fearfully peering out around the edge!
     
The bolt was only a blurred streak as it zipped through my
hat, flinging it to one side off the tip of my sword as I jumped
to my feet and dashed madly towards the spot where I knew now he
had to be! The man, clad in green, short, swarthy, madly yanking
back his bowstring and slipping another bolt on the track just as
I came charging up to him! Raising, lifting his weapon to fire
as I leaped towards him, my sword outthrust there before me! "HE
CAN'T MISS AT THIS RANGE!" I remember thinking to myself as he
then fired right at my charging form from only a few feet away!
     
There was a sharp stinging pain across my upper right chest
as his bolt ripped through my dress and scraped across my ribs
just beneath my armpit, his terrified aim having just off by the
fraction necessary to save my life! The man flinging up his
crossbow to parry my thrust as we collided and went down in a
thrashing heap, my nails clawing at his face, my knee smashing
into his groin as he felt the full anger of the infuriated Lady
Lorraine! Striking his face with that momentarily paralyzing
blow Hara had shown me only that morning, that blow with the heel
of the cupped hand that is so effective when delivered to the
base of the nose! Practically jumping up and down on him in my
fury, the blood running from my torn body, staining my lovely
fitted black silk dress now torn and ripped from what I had gone
through in the last few seconds! The blood running from his face
and mouth as he tried helplessly to defend himself from my fury!
     
"WHO PAID YOU TO KILL ME? TELL ME OR BY GOD I'LL DRAG THE
INFORMATION OUT OF YOU WITH THE REST OF YOUR STINKING GUTS!" I
snarled, straddling his chest, striking his face again and again!
The man only whimpering and sobbing, crying like some big baby!!!
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