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

     
"THERE IS SOMETHING HERE IN THIS ROOM WITH US!" Tara sudden-
ly screamed, cowering back. I thought it only a trick of light!
Then I wasn't so "sure" anymore. I felt a sense of "peace", of
"contentment" go over me as if I "shared" the emotions of one who
had over the centuries been tormented by what had been "said" of
her! Now safe in the blanket that was rolled about her remains
would be the "proof" of the last days of a now long gone "world"!
And there was something "else" too, a puzzling feeling of "love"!
     
"I don't SHE `likes' you, Tara," I smiled at the Princess!

     
"You got what you went for?" Aurora said to me as I carried
the rolled up blanket with the dried skeletal remains of She who
had once been ruler of a world! Tara shivering in terror beside
me, more afraid of Domino's "ghost" than anything that Aurora or
me might "do"! I found the Bajan's "terrors" quite pleasurable!*

* I think I know "why" now Tara was so scared of her! If Domi-
no's "last testament" is true, then "Domino Tremaine" was the
"clone daughter" I will someday have, and who will travel back in
time to the 20th Century by some means yet unknown, perhaps by a
flight through a "Gateway", although this is hard to believe.
However, her description of her "mother" as a tall "golden" woman
in golden mesh wearing a sword is only further proof that she was
actually my own daughter that I will someday have! I am well
aware of how "fantastic" this all sounds, but I do have the com-
puter card Domino made just before her death, and she does say
that she remembers what her own mother did look like, and the de-
scription can be of no one else but me as fantastic as it sounds!
Especially since she actually REMEMBERED MY NAME, "DARLANIS"!!!

     
"We still have to get out of here," I pointed out to Sela
Dai as she nodded back. Princess Tara fuming helplessly there in
Lynn's arms as my former slave girl held her dagger to the black
hearted Bajan's throat. A number of Tara's warrioresses now on
the scene along with perhaps a dozen of her warriors. Several
were armed with crossbows. Aurora standing there before us, a
blaster pistol in each hand keeping them "at bay" for the moment.
Things were now getting "tense". It would take little to trigger
off a sudden bloodbath that none of us would survive. I would
see to it personally that Tara didn't survive it. Lorraine could
always "clean up" the resulting political mess later on. I had
the remains of Earth's last Leaderess safe in the old blanket on
which she had died over five centuries before. The body had al-
most fallen apart when moved, the bones and skin all that was now
left of what had once been the tall magnificent golden Leaderess!

     
"Free all your slaves, both male and female!" Lynn snapped
at Tara, poking her with the point of her dagger, making a spot
of blood run. "And have your forces disarm themselves or you die
right here on the spot!" I wondered if Lynn could "kill" if it
came to that. Perhaps Tara was wondering about the same thing!
I now had Tara's pistol. The one that had belonged to Lorraine.
I would have preferred a sword, but the pistol would do for now.
It was "capped", no doubt loaded. Aurora standing there, smiling
to herself, her blasters pointed at Tara's forces. Aurora being
a woman who I had obviously "misjudged", it now appeared too! I
worried however that one of the crossbowmen, "braver" than the
others, might be willing to give his life to take hers with him!
     
"Do it," Tara spoke to her warriors, the tone of her voice
speaking much of how she felt about things just then. There was
no trace of fear in it. She is a Warrioress, true to the Codes.
I wondered about Aurora, "why" she had come here as she had now.
I suspected that I knew "why". That she had needed to "prove" to
me that she was truly my "mother" in just more than a legal term.
     
"I hope you know what this means," Tara snapped at Sela Dai.
I sensed the fury of "betrayal" there in those icy cold tones. I
thought of Tara's terror there in that hidden bedroom far below.
I had seen nothing, but yet I "wondered" if Domino yet "existed"?
Had Tara seen her "ghost"? I recalled that sense of "peace" and
"contentment" I had felt then as if Domino herself had touched me
with a soft gentle caress. She had been much like me in so many
ways. We had even looked so much "alike". I suspected that her
golden dress would fit me, that her sword would fit my own hand!*

* As she was of course a perfect "duplicate" of me, both her own
clothing and her weapons would "fit" me. Domino is also said to
have been the one who introduced the wearing of swords in the
21st Century as a "badge of citizenship". Did she thus honor me?
I wish we had better records of her, and knew "more" about her...

     
"Talon is better off allied with the Empire," Sela smiled.
     
"Even though Darlanis is responsible for the death of your
father?" Princess Tara retorted, her eyes meeting those of Sela.
     
"And was it Darlanis or you who `commanded' those forces?"
Sela asked in reply. I had once pointed this out to her a couple
days ago. That I was not the same person I had been twelve years
ago. That people do "change", and that I deserved a chance to
prove to the people of Talon that I was not what I once had been!
     
"Darlanis gave the orders, I carried them out," Tara smiled.
     
"I never gave orders to have villages burned. Or innocent
women and children put to the sword," I retorted. "That was your
own idea to `help break their spirit' like you did in Trelandar."
     
"It worked in Trelandar, didn't it!" Tara suddenly snapped,
speaking before she thought the implications of her words out!!!
     
"You killed a tenth of our population, you damm bitch!" Sela
snapped back, "And then you actually blamed Darlanis for it too!"
     
"The Nevadas will overrun your country after I `ally' myself
with them," Tara snapped back in fury, not really thinking then!
     
"We may be able to prevent that," I said to the Princess of
Talon. Talon had the ability to make nitroglycerine with Lor-
raine's help. The Tarls could carry a girl and a dozen pints or
so of it. I did not think that the superstitious barbaric Neva-
das could withstand an aerial attack carried out by such means!
On the other hand I didn't know if such a "violation" of the
EDICT would be "tolerated" for long. The Lorr are funny about
such things. Often they pay such things little attention, but at
other times they react almost immediately to such "violations"!!!

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

     
"Look at that, cap'tain!" the midshipman cried as he saw the
group of figures there in the distance come up over the rise. A
tall blonde woman, clad in ill-fitting clothing, leading them. A
woman he recognized even at that distance as none other but me!
Hovering over them all a small saucer of the sort often used as
a "shuttle craft" for short flights over the surface of a world.
     
"Maybe Lorraine did `underestimate' her," Jers smiled back.

     
"Let my mother go, Darlanis," Jers said to me, his hand on
the hilt of his sword as he sat astride his unicorn. The hot sun
of Baja burning down upon us. It was late in the afternoon. The
midshipman beside him on a horse looked "uncomfortable". I was
after all the Empress of California. One does not give such a
person "orders" of any sort. Jers, however, was an "exception".
I had the last remains of Domino Tremaine in a blanket slung over
my back like some tramp with his "stuff". I had been surprised
to find that Tara had never even ever "touched" the body in the
time that it had laid there hundreds of feet below the ground. I
suspected now that perhaps the Princess had been terrified of it!
She said that she did have "nightmares" about the dead Leaderess!
     
"You still have your life, Darlanis," he said to me. "Give
me hers." I thought of Sandia Allis. The look in her eyes as
she died in my arms. The slaves, both male and female, clutching
their weapons, their eyes upon me. They too had reason to hate!
I had one of the blaster pistols thrust into my harness. Aurora
had shown me how to use it. Her saucer itself was also "armed".
     
"Don't attempt an `attack' on us," I snapped, Tara nodding.
Lynn at my order then releasing the Princess, who strolled off,
the very "picture" of impotent fury at what had happened to her!

     
"Darlanis!" Sharon cried, throwing herself into my welcoming
arms as I boarded the Seahawk there in La Paz's harbor. Jers or-
dering his first officer to raise anchor as soon as everyone was
aboard, there being no doubt that his "welcome" here was "over"!
Aurora had left earlier, saying she'd be keeping a "motherly" eye
on me for a while just see that I "stayed out of trouble". She
had of course done so privately, understanding my own situation!
I had taken her in my arms, kissed her. I had a "mother" now! I
was very "proud" too of my mother despite what she had once done!
     
"You couldn't use another `Princess', could you?" Gayle
smiled, "Lorraine's apt to be pretty `sore' after we took her
airplane and I stole her notes on how to manufacture explosives."
     
"I will grant you my `royal protection'," I laughed, giving
her a hug with my free arm, my beloved Princess there at my side.

     
"What made you decide for me?" I asked Lynn as the Seahawk
headed back out to sea, La Paz only a bad memory now behind us.
     
"I can read and write, you know," she said to me. I nodded.
"I stumbled across some of her writing in her trash while she was
still treating me as a `plaything' to be `abused'," Lynn said
with a smile. "She `owns' every slaver throughout Baja." I sup-
posed that would "effect" a woman who had been a female slave.
     
"And?" I ventured, suspecting that there was more to this.
     
"She abuses her slaves," Lynn answered. "You never did."
     
"You have well earned your freedom," I smiled in reply.
     
"I would prefer to remain your `slave'," Lynn smiled.
     
"I'm not going to give you that `choice'," I smiled back.
     
"I'm afraid Tara learned an awful lot from me," Lynn said.
     
"I'm sure she has `other sources of information'," I smiled.
     
"What are you going to do with the remains of that woman
from the past?" Lynn asked. The remains had aroused considerable
comment, especially when I told everyone "who" they had belonged
to! Domino had never been as "famous" as Janet Rogers, but she
was written up in the history books and with the help of Lor-
raine's computer, we might finally learn the "TRUTH" of things!
     
"I will see to that they receive an honorable burial," I
smiled, feeling that Domino Tremaine at least "deserved" that!

     
"There's enough alcohol to make Trella," I told Sharon as
she nodded. Gayle looked rather "worried". She had stolen the
keys to the airplane and also Lorraine's notes on explosives. I
really didn't think she had that much to worry about, however. I
knew that Lorraine had Sela's mother with her now in Trelandar.
     
"You would make my brother a good wife," Sela told Gayle,
"Although you are a bit too tall and heavy to ride on our Tarls."
     
"He is a little bit `young' for me," Gayle smiled back. The
young Prince in question being only sixteen to Gayle's seventeen.
     
"A long engagement would be `proper'," Princess Sela smiled.
That would allow a certain degree of "maturity" to develop too.
     
"I do like your mother," Gayle "admitted" to the Princess.
     
"It is always wise to be on good terms with your mother-in-
law," Sela smiled back. Such a marriage would also be good in a
political sense, uniting the two nations of Talon and Trelandar,
although I didn't wish to "push" Gayle into anything she didn't
want. I did know from Sharon had told me that Gayle had done
most of the work in getting a treaty of friendship between the
two countries. Obviously Gayle Marn was a very capable young
Princess. Much like her older sister Maris, the Queen of Dularn.

     
"Do you think Lynn will be `safe' on the Seahawk?" Sharon
asked from the seat beside me, Sela and Gayle riding behind us in
back. The near desert terrain of Baja passing by there thousands
of feet beneath us. It is not a rich country. The people are
poor. In my own opinion being ruled or rather "exploited" by a
woman like Tara doesn't help anything either! I wondered if one
certain "revolutionary" I knew would be "interested" in making
another "Revolution" once she was delivered of child and free to
act. Sanda Talen had been a very effective opponent against me.
Her "Free Trelandar" movement had given me considerable trouble!
     
"About as safe as Lara is," I answered. Like Lara she would
now have to live the life of a refugee until I could do something
about Tara. Like getting her collared and sold as a slave girl!
     
"If these bones could `speak', what tales they could tell,"
Sela mused, regarding the remains of the Leaderess in the blan-
ket. There was "little left" of her but bones, some strands of
her once lovely golden hair so much like mine, and paper-like
skin that had torn and flaked apart as soon as we moved the body.
     
"There is a computer card from her time that Lorraine can
perhaps `read' with her computer," I answered over the drone of
the engine. "Perhaps she left us her `last will and testament'."
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