[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
teachings of wind and wave, of the knowledge of currents that had stood me in
such good stead later when I had been the captain of the North Star. I had
drawn then upon the knowledge she, once Commodore Marta Dan had given me in my
ship to ship battles against the Imperials...
"It is `good' that we are among `friends'," she spoke, hob- bling
forward, brushing away the tears that now filled my eyes at the thought of how
I had "hurt" her by my words and actions here in Sana as a teenage girl. I had
been a "bitch" in the full sense of the term, another like Diane, too
impressed with herself to understand the realities of life. I held her then to
me, and wept on her shoulder, caring little then too that I was a Queen.
2569 A.D.!
THE DULARNIAN QUEEN
AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN
By Jerome B. Bigge
Chapter Twenty One
"You are not the `same' as you were only a few years ago," my step
mother said to me as we spoke together in private, Paul having taken his leave
of us and returned to the North Star, my father having gone with him, leaving
us with a smile that left no doubt what he had felt too about my hostility
towards Marta Marn.
"When I came here with Lorraine," I said, remembering that time as if it
was yet only a few weeks ago instead of years now. I wondered if some of the
"dislike" I felt towards Lorraine was due to the fact that she reminded me in
a way of my step mother? The living room was different now, the old house
having been burned by Lorraine's forces back in 519. The wood plank walls, the
beamed ceiling all typical of a Dularnian country home. The lamps, the
paintings on the walls, all a part of its "hominess". Sana is a coastal
village, the manufacture of furniture the major industry, although hunting and
fishing play a part in life here.
Page 50
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"It is not that far from Arsana to here," she said to me. I nodded, well
aware of that fact. No doubt my father would have liked to have had me visit,
but something had always kept me from doing so. There had always been
something "necessary" to keep me from making the day's sail from Arsana to
here. The "duties" of a Queen of Dularn can fill one's day if you allow them
to do so. I had no doubt of course that she knew "why" I hadn't "visited".
"I wrote," I answered, knowing that it wasn't the same here.
"I have not always made the `right' decisions," she said, "And I fear I
still yet often thought I stood on a quarterdeck." She was a Warrioress, and
different from what my mother had been. I had hated her, hated her for what
she'd become to my father... My own mother had been a Physician, kind and
gentle, not a hard bitten old Warrioress who had been "beached" for her
disability.
"You were Dularn's `best'," I said to her, knowing that now. I had later
read of her exploits, of the things she'd done when many men still yet
believed that women didn't "belong" at sea save as slave girls. That had come
as a surprise to me then too.
"I taught you well," she smiled back. "You have `fulfilled' an old
woman's dreams, and proved once again as I once did that a woman can command a
ship of war just as good as any man can." I thought of her on the quarterdeck
of the North Star. Unlike old captain Wood, there was no doubts about her
abilities to command!
"I am in `need' of a `Sealady'," I said, "Someone who can whip the Navy
back into shape." I saw her nod, her eyes meet my own as she sat there across
the black oak coffee table from me.
"I am an `old woman', hobbling about on one leg and a `peg' for the
other, living out her `dreams' through another now," she said to me. "I sailed
under `mad Kathis', under Tulis before the catapult shot took my leg, and left
me only a useless cripple."
"You were once Dularn's greatest sea officer," I spoke then.
"Your father `needs' me," Marta answered softly. "You are the Queen of
Dularn, your sister now a Princess of Talon, a part of a `New Order' that
someday will once again rule the world..."
"Your Queen, your country needs you," I spoke in reply.
"There was a time when you hated me," she spoke then.
"You `asked' too much of me," I said to her in reply.
"You are a `legend' in your own time," she smiled back.
"There was once one `greater'," I said, weeping a bit now.
"I know `little' about the sort of ships we have now," Marta answered.
"I commanded triremes, not steam ships like your own."
"You taught me how to sail, to understand the winds, waves," I said to
her. "You told me that once brave men sailed ships in- ferior to ours around
this entire world knowing less than we do."
"And then you ran away, and joined the cavalry," she smiled.
"But I never forgot what you taught me," I said to her then.
"I am over a hundred now," she said. I knew that. True, the anti-aging
serums would preserve her life for decades yet, but she was no longer a
"young" woman. No longer in the prime of life. There were here and there
strands of gray in her hair now.
"There is a young midshipman on the North Star, a young wom- an, the
daughter of a Warrioress, whose mother had me place her on the ship so that
she could learn `discipline'," I said then. "She was furious that her mother
would do such a `thing' to her. But yet, when her mother was seriously wounded
by the dagger of an assassin sent to kill me, this young girl suddenly
realized just how much her mother meant to her after all," I said to her.
"I am not your mother," Marta Marn said to me in reply.
"Neither is Darlanis Sharon's mother," I said to her.
"I assume there is a `story' here," she "smiled" back.
"I understand what I did not understand before," I said.
"Perhaps you will be a `good' Queen after all," she smiled.
Page 51
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"And what about my father?" I asked, seeing her smile back.
"I am sure that he will enjoy Arsana," Marta Marn smiled...
"`Half' your crew belongs growing food, and the other half I wouldn't
want to turn my back on," Marta Marn smiled as she hob- bled up on to the
quarterdeck of the North Star the next morning. Captain Dan Wood didn't look
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]