Jerome Bigge Second Dark Age of Man Dularnian Queen

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husband then ventured, looking about the stern cabin that we'd seen only once
before, and then inhabited by the dead.
"The Priestesses of Lys certainly can, but I'm doubtful that they will
prove cooperative in a matter like this," she answered. "The easiest way to
resolve this would be to send a ship to their own lands, assuming that the
Priestesses will allow us to do so."
"And I assume that you would like to do so?" Tori ventured.
"I have no doubt that it could be done," Lorraine smiled.
"What type of ship would you use?" I asked the Warlady.
"One such as your North Star would be ideal," she smiled.
2569 A.D.!
THE DULARNIAN QUEEN
AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN
By Jerome B. Bigge
Chapter Twenty Seven
"You aren't planning to make such a voyage?" I smiled as we ate dinner
with my father, Lorraine having said earlier that she felt it was possible now
to cross the Pacific in a ship like the North Star. What the Priestesses of
Lys would "think" of such a voyage was another matter entirely. The Lorr had
centuries be- fore imposed upon Mankind "THE EDICT", which had strictly
prohib- ited such voyages, although I knew of one that had been success- ful,
the power of the Lorr to observe all that Mankind did being somewhat
overrated. It being likely that their reliance upon the Women of Mars (their
slaves and servants) for everything had re- sulted in a certain "slackness"
and lack of control over things. Tori had done well fixing the meal, although
she had joked with me that she had never thought she'd have to "cook" for her
Queen as a part of her "duties" as the captain of my personal guard...
"I'm nearly six months pregnant," Lorraine smiled back, pat- ting her
swollen belly as she sat there at the table. She had also put on a bit of
weight as pregnant women do, her face being a bit "fuller" than what it had
been when I'd seen her last year. I had also noticed that she had muchly
enjoyed Tori's good Dular- nian cooking, Tori being the sort of a woman who
took "pride" in such things even if she had a slave girl at home to do the
work.
"Would you try to sail straight across, or skirt the coast?" Tori asked,
it being possible to reach Asia by either method. If one skirted the coasts,
it would be possible to stay in sight of land the entire time, and the
gathering of firewood would be pos- sible until one reached the Bering Strait.
I assumed that there would be little actual "change" in things once one passed
the In- ternational Date Line and actually crossed the "barrier" the Lorr
established centuries ago as the "dividing line" between North America and
Asia on the other side of the Pacific. While such a voyage would be "longer",
it would also be "safer" than just sailing out into the "unknown" with only
maps over five centuries old to guide one as to what laid ahead. Lorraine had
once ven- tured out into the Pacific in pursuit of Princess Tara a consid-
erable distance with the Corsica back in 519, much to the terror of her crew
at sailing so far out, as she notes in her own book.
"In skirting the coast you would have the `problem' of Queen Valeris
once you reached that far north," Lorraine smiled, "A `problem' I might note
that could have been `resolved' by a bit more `reasonableness' on the part of
your Queen and my Empress."
"Imperial `aggression' is a more `proper' term," I snapped.
"Maris!" my father snapped, looking at me across the table.
"`Deny' the fact that the Empire has been supplying Valeris with arms
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and `advisors'!" I snapped right back at Lorraine then. Such "things" were
common knowledge in Dularn, as Lorraine knew!
"Or the fact that the Nevadas have been given arms," my hus- band smiled
back at the discomfited Imperial Warlady just then... The Trelandarian
compound bow now was "common" among the Nevadas.
"Shall we mention the Swiftstar supplied by Dularn to Queen Freydis, the
several companies of Dularnian Warrioresses, the ten thousand crossbows, the
supplies, `advisors' that Maris has given to a Queen whose people made their
living by raiding coastal vil- lages all the way up and down the coast line of
North America? I am also well aware of the numbers of Dularnian weapons now
found among the Wyomings, the fact that your father is now married to a high
born Dularnian noblewoman, your marriage to Maris," Lorraine "smiled" back,
her dark eyes burning straight right into his own!
"My father married Pharis because he loved her, just as I married Maris
because I love her!" Prince Paul Blue Sky snapped!! I suspected that the
"same" was true of Darlanis and Prince Serak of the Nevadas, only such a
"barbarian" being "man" enough for a woman like her. I recalled his "comments"
he'd made to my Prince about "spanking" one's wife, the "grin" I'd seen on
Darlanis' own face then. Like me Darlanis did have a nicely "full" rear
end...
"Enough of this!" my father snapped. "We are repeating the history of
the past, interlocking alliances, small `limited wars' just as those of your
era fought, woman from the time of legend!" I rather thought that he had "hit
the nail on the head" here too.
"Historically we are `repeating the past', such as Mankind has done
throughout His entire history," Lorraine smiled back. I suspected that she was
right here too. The "war" last year be- tween Mexico and California was
triggered off by Nevada raids into Mexican territory. And if Valeris "pushed"
too hard on the territory of Queen Freydis, I could see the same thing
happening all over again. Dularn would "intervene" on the side of Freydis, the
Californians on the behalf of Queen Valeris, and we'd all be right back where
we were before. What we "needed" was a common enemy, someone who would "unite"
us, Dularnian, Californian, Nevada and Wyoming, Northman and Free Woman, into
one "society"!
"Is there a `solution'?" Tori asked then, sitting there lis- tening to
all this between us, keeping her own thoughts to her- self as she sipped at a
glass of my father's home brewed brandy.
"I once `believed' the problem was `technology', the use of military [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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