THE QUEEN OF SWORDS!
A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN
2566 A.D.!
By Jerome B. Bigge
Chapter Eleven
     


     
"We have a `stowaway', your majesty," the first lieutenant
of the Seahawk smiled as he brought forth a smiling Sharon. The
ship at the moment perhaps a dozen miles or so already south of
Trella! I had no doubt what Lorraine's reaction would be either!
     
"Your stepmother is going to come flying after us as soon as
she learns of this," I warned Sharon, proud of what she had done
even although I feared what Lorraine's anger might when she
learned! On the other hand there wasn't really that much that
even Lorraine could do about it. She might be the Queen of Tre-
landar, but I was the Empress of California aboard an Imperial
ship. Those aboard the Seahawk would obey me, not her if it came
to that. Jers in any case had little love for the awesome Warla-
dy, saying to me that Lorraine could be someday become more of a
"liability" to me than an "asset"! That I had tended to doubt!!!
     
"She can't without these," Sharon smiled, showing me the ro-
tors to the plane's twin distributors. And there was no way that
Lorraine could find a replacement set any closer than Mars too!!!
     
"Crafty wench!" Lara smiled, her eyes now glowing into mine.
     
"She has ships, other means of catching up with us," I said.
     
"It won't do her any good," Sharon smiled back, "Unless you
`chicken out' and hand me over to her". I smiled to myself.
That wasn't likely. Not now! I wasn't going to give her up now!

     
"Ship astern!" the call came down from the lookout there on
the mainmast of the hundred and twenty foot schooner as it dashed
southwards towards Baja. "Smaller schooner---maybe Sea Star!" he
cried down! I had to smile a bit, Lorraine's all woman crew be-
ing surprisingly competent. Obviously Lorraine had wasted no
time in pursuing us! And Sea Star was definitely the faster of
the two ships! Far more "handy" in a fight, Jers had told me. I
had even thought of that. I knew Lorraine's temper. The fury
that could possess her. She was like "Delilah", her dire wolf.
I feared the "confrontation" with her that was sure to come now!

     
"She's not going to like the idea of you putting Sharon into
danger," Jers smiled as we watched Sea Star close the distance
between our two ships. "And I tend to agree with her on it too."
     
"That's my decision to make, not yours!" I snapped back, the
rasp of my voice making those around us mutter to themselves. I
saw Lara's eyes, saw the concern there in their depths as she
moved to Jers. I knew she would stand at his side against me if
it came to that. I was the Empress of California, but there was
a "limit" to my power. Many no doubt would agree with Lorraine's
opinion that Sharon belonged elsewhere than with me. It was no
secret now what I planned to do. Many believed that I was a fool
for attempting such a thing. That Maris was indeed guilty of the
crime of "piracy" against California and that "WAR" was the only
proper answer that California could make against Dularn's Queen!

     
"I would prefer to say what I have to say to you in priva-
te," Lorraine said to me in low tones as she stepped up on to the
Seahawk's deck from the boat that had brought her from Sea Star,
Sharon standing there at my side. We have shared much over the
months since she first came to our era with Sharon. I have no
better friend than Queen Lorraine of Trelandar. I hoped this was
not the end of our friendship. That I had not made an "enemy" of
her by this. Yet, my relationship with Sharon meant much to me!*

* There is an "emotional bond" between Sharon and me that is hard
to put into words. She is much more to me than just my Princess.

     
"I `know' what you are trying to do," Lorraine said in level
tones to me there in the Seahawk's cabin, the sunlight reflecting
off the waves through the stern windows as our two ships rolled
in the swell. Those dark eyes holding mine as I nodded, taking
the drink that she offered. I had few secrets from my Warlady
and best friend. "But Sharon stays with me this time," she
warned, a note of "finality" in her voice. There was that in her
voice that spoke of a bulldog stubbornness. That she would not
be "swayed" from her decision. I wondered how I could convince
her otherwise. That the decision was mine, not hers to make.
That Sharon had made her "decision", and I felt it was properly
hers to make, not Lorraine's. I looked into those midnight eyes
and shuddered. Sensed the barely suppressed "fury" behind them!
The last time Sharon and I had been together it had cost both of
us nearly our lives. No doubt Lorraine was "aware" of that too!
     
"Sharon has made her decision to go with me," I answered,
"taking the bull by the horns" so to say as I set down my drink.
     
"Your dammed `foolishness' nearly got her killed last time!"
Lorraine snapped. "And damn you, Darlanis, this time she stays
with me!" I saw the look on her face, even feared a bit for my
own safety as she stood up, towering over me, swaying with the
motion of the ship. I saw her hands clench, saw her eyes blaze!
Watched the rise and fall of her bosom beneath the black silk of
her dress. Saw the movements of the muscles there in her throat.
My eyes being drawn to the gold plated hilt of her lovely sword.
     
"You have your Princess, I have mine," I answered, standing
up, regal in my golden mesh, my warrioress instincts all aroused.
I knew her temper, knew that my skill with a blade was not equal
to her own. I did not think, however, that she would draw on me.
     
For a long moment Lorraine stood there, facing me, then I
saw her hand go to the hilt of her sword as my heart seemed to
for a moment stop beating! I watched her draw the blade, unable
to move as she raised it, the keen point then gently touching the
vulnerable softness of my throat. I made no move, no attempt to
defend myself! I did not think that she would kill me. I trust-
ed Lorraine! I suspected this was in the nature of a "test"! I
know Lorraine. She is, deep in her heart, truly a "barbarian"...
     
"Good Luck, you damm big beautiful blonde!" Lorraine smiled,
reversing the sword, handing it to me. I kissed it, handed it
back to her. It is something done among Warrioresses. Under-
stood only by them. Like the "sharing of blood" among Nevadas.
We have stood against a common foe, the dead lying at our feet.
     
"You will need `help'," Lorraine said to me, sheathing her
sword. "I will launch an attack from the air upon Tara's castle
as a distraction while you make your move on the ground," she ex-
plained, her dark eyes holding mine. "That is if I don't set the
plane afire dropping those damm firebombs of mine on Triskelion."
     
"But won't that-----?" I asked, fearing that dropping the
"bombs" from the air might increase our "risks", not lessen them.
     
"Triskelion is built of stone," Lorraine smiled back.
"There's little danger that I can set it afire with my `bombs'."
Such "bombings" would of course cause considerable "confusion".
     
"What about fuel for the plane?" I asked. It was a long
ways from the southern border of Trelandar to La Paz. The plane
had a "range" of about eighteen hundred miles or so. That didn't
give Lorraine too much to "spare" in making an attack upon Tara!
     
"I plan to use Sea Star as a fuel depot," Lorraine smiled.

     
"She didn't make as much of a `fuss' as I thought," Sharon
said to me as we watched Lorraine leave. The sea was getting up
a bit, and I knew how she hated small boats. The thought making
me smile a bit then to myself. We all have our "fears". Even
Lorraine, who is one of the bravest Warrioresses I've ever met!
     
"There was a moment--," I smiled back. Perhaps later on I'd
tell Sharon about it. Lorraine and I had shared much together.
     
"Sea Star should be catching up with us before we reach La
Paz," I told Jers. "And we are to keep an eye out for Squala."
An "attack" by the ships would be part of Lorraine's "trickery".
     
"And if my mother declares war upon us?" Jers answered back.
     
"We have a good `Warlady'," I smiled back. We had Lorraine.
     
"It will be `Lorraine's War' which you allowed to happen,"
he answered in level tones, turning away. "I hope to Lys that
you regret it when the ships burn at sea and brave men die curs-
ing your name among the flames seeing the sharks gathering to
feast." His words bringing forth very vivid visions just then!
I saw Lara's eyes burn hotly into mine as she moved to him, her
very act leaving no doubt in my mind that I had no friends here!

     
It was raining as I stepped up onto the quarterdeck, the
night's cold drizzle instantly chilling me beneath my drawn cape.
Captain Jers Bisan standing there by the helmsman, dressed in
oilskins. The sails now but dim shadows in the darkness above.
     
"Can we talk?" I asked, cold and shivering, looking into his
face there in the darkness. I felt his hand clasp my arm as he
nodded, leading me below. Down below decks out of the cold rain.
     
"You want to talk about Queen Lorraine," he said, pouring me
a drink from a bottle, the tart wine as swiftly disappearing down
my throat. His provocative and sensual wife now asleep there be-
hind the drawn bed curtains to one side of the little cabin. I
wondered if he "resented" me being here aboard the ship. And the
fact that he had "lost" his much more roomy and comfortable stern
cabin to Sharon and me for this smaller one, which had originally
been his first officer's own cabin here aboard the big Seahawk.
     
"I think you `misjudge' her," I said, keeping my voice low.
     
"As you do my mother," he replied, giving me a smile back.
     
"You must know something of what she's done!" I breathed
back. "Certainly you know what she did to Sharon and me last
year!" Still vivid in my memories the torments I had endured at
her cruel hands. The physical and mental abuse. I had "lost" my
uterus because of Tara. My ability to ever bear children. She
had taken much from me. I wanted "revenge" for the hurt done me!
     
"Your own `past' is not something you'd probably want Sharon
to follow as a `guide to proper behavior'," he smiled back at me.
"And my mother has had enough `reason' to hate you with passion."
     
"I'm not proud of what I did back then," I answered him back
as he refilled my goblet. "But I've never done the horrible
things that your mother has to people," I added, defending my own
actions. Still too vivid in my mind the sights there at Talos.
     
"Like `baby roasting'?" Jers smiled. That is a part of the
"Tara" legend. Whether or not it is true is something else. I
suspect that it is, but who am I to say? There are "stories"
about me, about Lorraine that both of us know are but falsehoods!
"And how do you know that my mother actually did these things or
if someone did them in her name?" Jers challenged me in low
tones, perhaps well aware of his wife sleeping only feet from us.
I smiled to myself then as I recalled the things she'd taught me!
     
"I know what I personally experienced, and what Sharon also
experienced," I answered, "And Lorraine and Gayle experienced."
     
"And I know that she's never given me cause to wish that she
wasn't my mother," Jers answered in reply. Tara had been a lov-
ing mother. I knew that much about her. She had been extremely
upset when she first heard about Jers "seeing" Lara. I had been
too, feeling that a woman like her was no fit consort for a young
Prince like him. The only difference between Tara and me on this
issue having been that I wasn't willing to forcefully interfere
in the issue like Tara was. Tara having wished to kill our Lara!
     
"I do fear, however, that Lorraine is `using' you to her own
ends," Jers said to me, refilling my goblet. "She is a woman
driven by an ambition to `rule' the world." I nodded. I had my-
self often wondered about that. She had been responsible for Ja-
net Rogers, the woman who had been the first World Leaderess back
in the 21st Century. Janet had even admitted such in her books.
Was it not possible that Lorraine wished to do the same again???
     
"She would never `harm' me," I answered him. I knew that!!!
That she might `use' me for her own ends was something else, but
there wasn't too much that I could do about that. Both of us are
"users". There is a great deal in my life that I wouldn't wish
to have made public knowledge. I have slept with men for "gain".
Done a number of things in my life that I am not proud of doing!
     
"Consider the fact of what would happen if neither Sharon or
you came back from this foolish foolhardy `stunt' of yours," Jers
said to me. I nodded, understanding. Lorraine would be Empress.
Given her friendship with Raspa, First Princess of the Lorr there
would be nothing standing in her way to make herself Empress of
the Earth. To rule the entire world as Janet Rogers had done!
     
"But if I can get the proof of what I suspect, I can avoid a
war that could cost the lives of thousands," I answered him back.
I had begged Lorraine to "hold off" until I could prove Maris'
innocence of the terrible charges of plotting a war against us!
     
"You are not the `Darlanis' you used to be," Jers smiled.
     
"I have perhaps learned a few things," I now smiled at him.
     
"You're a good Empress, better than Lorraine would be," Jers
replied. "That's why I feel you should forget about doing this."
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