Freedom Fighters of Trelandar
A Tale of Adventure in the Second Dark Age
Book Nine of the Warlady Series
By Jerome B. Bigge
Chapter Nine
     
"Dress yourself," Darlanis said to me, standing there before
me, her own lovely attire much like that of some woman of legend.
Tara standing there watching with her men at arms, a motley crew
of "cutthroats" no doubt drawn from the worst criminals in Sarn.
Despite whatever lofty ideals Darlanis had, it was Tara who was
running this war, and she used a policy of intimidation. Of ter-
rifying people into surrender, of burning villages, fields, of
driving people from their homes, creating an "army" of refugees.
People who had to be taken care of, draining further the scarce
resources of that part of Trelandar still yet free of the Empire!
     
"Yes, your Imperial majesty..." I breathed, shuddering with
terror as I stood there before her, knowing that SHE knew "who" I
was! That she knew I was Sanda Hibber, Lady Sanda Harles, sister
of the Queen of Trelandar, and the guerrilla leader who had been
making so much trouble for her forces here behind her own lines!!
My fingers shaking so badly that I couldn't get my clips on here!
     
"Let me help you," Darlanis spoke, taking the golden disks,
slipping them through the pierced flesh, then closing them so
that I was now "decent", my nipples once again properly covered.
Her eyes glowing into mine, a smile curving those perfect lips.
     
"You are very beautiful," I said, knowing that she was.
     
"Beauty can be a weapon, like a sword," she answered.
     
"Thank you for helping me," I said, seeing her nod.
     
"I am not what you make me out to be," she answered.
     
"She's just a slut, just a cheap whore," Tara snapped.
     
"As I recall, you once said that of me," Darlanis spoke as I
drew my blouse about myself and belted my skirt up securely here.
Tara's men standing there watching this interplay between their
own Empress and their Warlady, it suddenly becoming obvious to me
that neither one of the two actually liked the other here at all!
I thought of two cats circling, hissing, their claws extended, it
being quite plain to see that Darlanis did not much care for some
of the things that Tara was doing here in Trelandar! But yet, if
she didn't "like" these things, why did she let Tara continue on
now doing them? What "hold" did the Princess have over Darlanis?
Were Darlanis' ambitions such that she'd stoop to any level here?
     
"Not quite in the same `context'," Tara retorted quickly. I
supposed she had no wish to settle such on the field of honor as
Darlanis was a swordswoman of renown, said to be the best in all
of Sarn from what I'd heard of her now over the past ten years.
This interplay making me wonder if somehow I couldn't exploit it!
Get Darlanis and my sister Queen Paula to the negotiating table!!
Set up some sort of "deal" where Darlanis would get the "military
assistance" she wanted to establish her "empire", while at the
same time keeping my Trelandar free of outside political control.
The major problem that I could see to this already was that Paula
wanted no part of giving Darlanis any "assistance" at all, while
Darlanis wanted "everything" here, not just a military alliance.*

* This is of course exactly what Darlanis "got" with Lorraine in
charge of Trelandar now fifteen years later. By this time howev-
er Darlanis was no longer able to dictate to anyone as she could
earlier, having suffered a number of military reverses here both
with Dularn and with Talon. While the reader may be surprised by
how "friendly" Darlanis was towards me here in 2550, it should be
noted that personal animosity between us did not occur until af-
ter the death of my sister, when Trelandar fell into the hands of
Darlanis and my Free Trelandar Movement was the only force still
yet fighting against the Empire of California. Also, it is my
belief, "knowing" Darlanis as I did for so many years, that Dar-
lanis was of the opinion that it might be possible to "use" me as
a foil for her own objectives here. That if she could "charm" me
(she just about did too) that it might help her with my sister...
One should note here her actions with Lara Warsan, who became her
"tool" here in Trelandar; the Empress being a woman who was quite
"competent" at winning friends and influencing people as Lorraine
used to say. Both of them are gone now, but I do have excellent
memories of both, and both Lorraine and Darlanis were remarkable
people. Both in their ways "legends in their own times". (Sanda)

     
"I don't think we'll be overheard here," Darlanis said, un-
screwing the cap to the bottle of wine she'd gotten, the rain yet
pouring down, the square before us now nothing but a pool of mud.
The rain pouring down off the store's wooden awning there above.
Taking a good healthy swig of it and handing it to me then, say-
ing as she did, "It's been ten years," the implications now clear
as I drank from the bottle, aware that we, "enemies", were in
fact sharing a bottle of wine. "And you should have accepted the
caste mark," she added then, her eyes glowing into mine here as
we now stood here leaning back against the unpainted wooden wall.
The store keeper having no doubt felt it wise to close his store.
Imperial troops, especially those not of the first line, having a
bad reputation, much like Blacks once had many centuries ago now.
     
"You are putting your thesis into practice and I am mine," I
said, aware that obviously she was winning, while I wasn't here!
Of course, if my sister had given me the forces I wanted, then it
was quite possible that the tables would have been turned here...
I still felt striking at Sarn made sense, although there was no
way I could do so now with the meager rag tag forces I commanded.
     
"Paula should have made you Warlady," Darlanis smiled back.
"Tirana's competent, but she fights by the `book'," the Empress
added as I nodded. Tirana was experienced, but "set in her ways"
too. That was pretty much the same problem with my sister here.
Paula was quite excellent on "tactics", but lacked the long range
strategic outlook that Darlanis possessed. The Empress having in
her actions shown that she was willing bid her time, wait until a
situation developed in her favor before acting here. Paula's own
strategic outlook seemed to be only that of a "holding action"...
A belief that eventually Darlanis' society would "crumple" under
the strain of supporting a war that was now bleeding it dry here.
     
"Only a Warrioress can be a Warlady," I pointed out to her.
     
"It is said that the caste `chooses'," Darlanis smiled back.
     
"I didn't behave much like a Warrioress back there," I said.
I was ashamed for how I'd behaved, for how I'd wept, especially
in front of Princess Tara and her men at arms, most of whom too I
suspected were drawn from the dregs of Sarnian society, the "be-
havior" of second line Imperial troops being more like that of an
army of criminals let loose than anything else I can name here...
     
"Tara can `break' almost anyone," Darlanis then smiled back.
     
"How did you know that it was me?" I asked. It had been a
matter of a decade now. I'd been a mother, I was "older", with a
more "riper" a figure than I'd had back when I was only nineteen.
The anti-aging serums are quite effective in keeping you "young"
for about the first century, but there are physical changes here.
     
"You have a small dark spot on the left side of your face by
your cheekbone," Darlanis said, changing the subject here. "You
haven't really `changed' that much in a decade now," she grinned.
"In any case I was pretty sure it was you," she admitted, seeing
me nod as I stood there beside her watching the rain coming down.
The few trees in the square "drooping" in the rain like old men.
The air "moist", a bit "chill", the summer being almost over now.
     
"You will never conquer Trelandar," I said to her, aware of
how "little" of Trelandar she actually held. She had conquered
the northern half, but only to a depth now of about fifty miles.
To conquer the entire country would have been impossible without
the weapons of the past, the rifles fitted with telescope sights.
Weapons that could kill at ranges of half a mile or more here...
     
"You are thinking of retreating to the mountains, fighting a
guerrilla war," Darlanis smiled, almost as if she'd read my mind!
"One that will last for years until I grow tired and give it up."
     
"One thing the Lorr have done for us is to balance the level
of `power' between the civilian and the military," I smiled back.
In the past when firearms were in use, when there were "machines"
of war, the military had the advantage, but not any more now with
everyone being forced to fight using weapons of a sort that had
not been in use for over a thousand years. The hewn longbow of
the Peasant was quite capable of bringing down the armored Knight
as he came charging in, of striking down the Warrioress from her
saddle, of launching flights of arrows against a marching Legion.
And unlike the firearms of the past, which required a complex in-
dustry to manufacture, the weapons of today could be made almost
by anyone with simple tools. It was true that crossbows required
the services of a Iron Worker, but the longbow could be made even
by simple Peasants, and with practice, the Peasant could stand up
against the Warrior, the Warrioress, with a good hope of success.
In this regard it is the ability of the people to "overthrow" the
government, to defeat its forces in battle, that assures freedom.
It being my belief from experience here that governments that can
NOT be overthrown by their people will eventually become tyranni-
cal despite whatever "safeguards" are put into place by laws, by
"Constitutions", or by some system of "representative government"
of the sort that has been tried in the past. Perhaps what keeps
a Queen "honest" is the knowledge she can be taken out and HUNG!!
That even she, with her armies, her men at arms, still is ruling
at the consent of the people, who will decide with arms whether
or not she is to continue on ruling. The example of "Mad Kathis"
in Dularn being a good example of this, the people having risen
up against her, and after a clash with her personal guard,
dragged her from her palace and then hung her from a nearby tree!
     
"How long would it take before your people grew `tired'?" I
asked, standing there beside her. "How `long' will even your own
troops follow you in a war that they can never win?" I challenged
her as we stood there, the low rumbling of the thunder fitting...
     
"You should have been Queen, not your sister," she smiled.
     
"I `regret' that we are `enemies'," I said to the Empress.
     
"I share your regret, more than you'll ever know," she said.
Next Chapter