"2566-28" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jerome Bigge - Warlady 4 - 2566 Ad)2566 A.D.! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Jerome B. Bigge Chapter Twenty Eight Sela Dai's now rapidly beating heart seemed to leap into her throat as the great bird finally leaped into the air in response to her kicks and the sting of her riding whip. The mighty wings flapping as the Tarl swooped down towards the sea below, almost as if it so wished to die there in the waves! Then it struggled back aloft, her hands in its feathers as she held the reins, the great flap of the wings bringing back once again memories of oth- er times. Of her own teenage years when she had first been taught to fly the great birds! To become a "bird girl" of Talon! The saddle was small, more just a set of leather straps that served to keep her on the bird's back between its neck and wings, a "bird girl" usually carrying only a small blade and her short composite bow and a quiver of arrows. The birds themselves were by no means "tireless", and one wished to "spare" the bird as much as possible. Riding a bird was far different than flying in an airplane, the play of the muscles between one's thighs leaving no doubts that one was riding on a living being, not in some de- vice developed by a technology now mostly legends few really be- lieved anymore. The "ride" was also quite "swoopy", with a quite "noticeable" up and down motion from the wings that took a good "stomach" to tolerate for long. One could easily become airsick. Ahead of her the misty dark haze that was Dularn, a land in which she could expect to find only enemies should anything hap- pen to her bird. Below her now only rolling ocean, a cold chok- ing death should her bird falter in its flight. And not expect- ing to be "riding", she had allowed herself to put on unnecessary weight over the past few months, which meant a greater burden yet for her bird to carry, Sela's hundred and ten pounds being heavi- er than was usual for a "bird girl" of Talon, most of whom usual- ly held their weights down in the hundred pound range. Mark may have "enjoyed" his "heavier" Sela, but the bird certainly didn't! Well behind her now was the Corsica, all its sails set, with Squala and the Huntress somewhat further back along with the small swift schooner that had brought the birds from Trelandar. A seagull squawking in terror as the Tarl flew by it. Sela hav- ing no doubts that the Tarls would be "usable" outside of Talon! While their military "effectiveness" had been "overrated" by Dar- lanis and others, the great birds did offer a way of gaining military "intelligence" that nothing else could equal. And Sela knew just how "important" that could be to someone like Lorraine! Overhead a watery sun gleamed in a hazy sky, the shoreline ahead now spotted with patches of fog. The fog blowing back against her face like a wet mist as the bird flew thought them. Sela navigating pretty much by landmarks and what she recalled of the map that Lorraine had showed her earlier. Ahead somewhere was Arsana, her objective, where she would observe for herself what preparations had been made for possible attack from Imperial California. Such would also determine whether or not it might be possible as Lorraine thought for her ships to steal on past the Dularnian defenses. Sela doubted it, but it would save consider- able time if it was "possible", Lorraine had pointed out to her. Flying at about a thousand feet, the great bird carried her through now growing patches of fog, the trees sticking up through the haze there beneath her. She could feel the bird's breathing, the beat of its multiple hearts, Tarls having two, unlike other creatures. The leather of her form fitting attire wet, damp now from the fog as ahead of her now she saw the outskirts of Arsana spreading out before her almost half hidden by the growing fog. The city was walled, the walls about fifty feet high. Such could be scaled, but with difficulty, especially if defended. It had proved impossible for Imperial troops to do so in any case! Darlanis had tried it, but with little success for her "trouble". Sela swooped down low, feeling as I have felt while flying Black Lady that I had "nothing to fear" from those below. Darla- nis too made the same "mistake" flying out over the plains as she has narrated in her own story. The little Princess experiencing a "thrill" as she saw the people flee in terror there below her! Suddenly there was a blurred streak as something whizzed by her, the beautiful young Princess of Talon realizing that she was being fired upon by crossbowmen! That one bolt could kill her mount and cause it to crash into the buildings there below her! Sela urged her bird into a dive, leveling out only a dozen feet from the ground, trusting to the bird's own eyes and in- stincts as she clung to her feathered mount. To attempt to rise higher out of crossbow range would only make her a better target! The "climb" of a Tarl carrying a rider so slow that there would be no doubt that such an action would be almost suicide for Sela! No airplane could have flown the path that Sela's bird was now flying, the great feathered monster swooping between the buildings, between trees, soaring across Arsana itself at only a dozen feet or so above the ground. The leather clad figure of its rider almost unnoticed now upon the great feathered terror! Most Dularnians had never ever seen a Tarl, although the birds were of course known to them as being creatures of "legend" more "myth" than reality! No doubt, Sela mused to herself, they would think of Tarls much differently now than they had before!!! Now she was over the great central plaza, swooping low over the fountains and the low growing trees, terrified faces looking up at her, mothers clinging to their children as she flew just over their heads. Her speed so great that no one had "time" now to even react to her passage until after she was gone on past, her great feathered mount far swifter than the fastest unicorn! ***************************************************************** "I feel `responsible' for Sela," I said to Valerie as we stood together and looked out over the sea. Much of Dularn now hidden in the growing fog. I wondered if I should have sent Sela out instead of one of the other "bird girls" of Talon. It was true that Sela would collect more "useful" military information than would the other two young Talon warrioresses, but I hated to "risk" the Crown Princess of Talon like this even with her own mother's approval. It was true that Dala Dai did want her daugh- ter to become something "more" than just the Princess of Talon, but risking her life like I had didn't now seem the way to do it! "She impresses me as being a rather `competent' little wench," Valerie smiled back, Sela's beautiful face and curvy fem- inine figure leaving little doubt that she was a beautiful woman! She was also brave and courageous as I had learned when she had nearly killed me that time back in La Paz. She did seem a bit "nervous" about things at times, but that I felt was understand- able given the fact that naval warfare was completely "alien" to her given her earlier military training as a Talon "bird girl". "I wish though she was safe back in Talon," I answered. ***************************************************************** Sela Dai, banking her bird no more than twenty feet above the ground between two buildings perhaps would have thought the same thing just then, had she had the time to consider such ideas then! A woman screaming, cowering back as the Tarl swooped by her only a few feet away, its rider completely unnoticed. Sela's bird swooping up over the royal palace of Dularn, the flagstaffs whipping by, the bird now almost brushing the water with its wingtips as it flew out over the harbor as swiftly as Sela could urge it. Here once again there was danger, both from men with crossbows and the heavier weapons of ships lying at anchor. The beautiful Princess of Talon reflecting briefly upon the idea that Talon's "bird girls", carrying firebombs, could destroy any ship! She flew into a welcome bank of fog, urging the bird up a bit, gaining a bit of altitude at the cost of speed, and the bird's own growing fatigue from its hard driven flight across the capital of Dularn at better than fifty miles per hour! The damp of the fog wetting her face, chill against her sweat-damp body there beneath the leather of her riding attire. Sela was very much "aware" of the fact that she was "all alone" over a hostile country that would view her only in terms of whips and slave col- lars if she ever was to fall into the hands of those now below! The fact that she was the Princess of Talon might mean "little"! "Why do I do this?" Sela mused to herself, flying out of the fog bank now perhaps a hundred yards up in the air, the great bird still climbing slowly with heavy beats of its tired wings! Making mental notes of the ships there at anchor, the North Star not one of them yet, she noted to herself in passing. Not that it really mattered all that much, but it was something that Lor- raine would doubtless like to know about, Sela mused to herself. "Why do I `drive' myself like this?" Sela mused, heading her bird out to sea, back towards where Lorraine's ships should now be. A heavy fog now growing rapidly there before her now making Sela very much aware that she really didn't know where the ships were! And there was no other "friendly" landing point anywhere!! "Lys, I don't like this!" Sela breathed, scared now. Her bird was becoming exhausted, and there was nothing but water now beneath her! And a land filled with enemies there behind her!!! Even if she flew across the strait, the people living on the oth- er side of the strait would merely turn her back over to Dularn! Doubtlessly stripped and bound, perhaps only after she had been "enjoyed" by her captors. That too Sela dreaded, knowing well how a captive woman could be treated by men. Especially if she was a member of a hated enemy group. Such had happened to a num- ber of Californian women captured by her own people, and Sela did consider her people more "civilized" than those of other nations! Without weapons, Sela carrying nothing but a small blade, she was also well aware that once she landed she might also have trouble controlling her bird, a Tarl being a dangerous carnivore. And once she fled into the woods, then what? There were other dangerous beasts, dire wolves, great bears, all creatures that would enjoy rending her tender flesh. She was a long ways from Talon. From her own country nestled there between the mountains. ***************************************************************** "Sela's in trouble!" I snapped, seeing the fog rolling in. She had a compass, but no way to guide herself back to us. And I knew that the "flying time" of a Tarl was quite "limited" too! I saw Valerie nod, standing there at the rail. The fog had already hidden Dularn from view in that direction. "Blow our foghorns so that Sela can find her way back to us!" I ordered, knowing the terror that poor Sela must have felt flying over this fog, over the cold hostile waters there below, the bird sinking lower as it became exhausted from its long flight to Dularn and back. Why had I allowed Sela to make the flight instead of another? I loved the little Princess of Talon almost like a daughter, and I had been the one to send her out to her death here in this fog!!! 2566 A.D.! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Jerome B. Bigge Chapter Twenty Eight Sela Dai's now rapidly beating heart seemed to leap into her throat as the great bird finally leaped into the air in response to her kicks and the sting of her riding whip. The mighty wings flapping as the Tarl swooped down towards the sea below, almost as if it so wished to die there in the waves! Then it struggled back aloft, her hands in its feathers as she held the reins, the great flap of the wings bringing back once again memories of oth- er times. Of her own teenage years when she had first been taught to fly the great birds! To become a "bird girl" of Talon! The saddle was small, more just a set of leather straps that served to keep her on the bird's back between its neck and wings, a "bird girl" usually carrying only a small blade and her short composite bow and a quiver of arrows. The birds themselves were by no means "tireless", and one wished to "spare" the bird as much as possible. Riding a bird was far different than flying in an airplane, the play of the muscles between one's thighs leaving no doubts that one was riding on a living being, not in some de- vice developed by a technology now mostly legends few really be- lieved anymore. The "ride" was also quite "swoopy", with a quite "noticeable" up and down motion from the wings that took a good "stomach" to tolerate for long. One could easily become airsick. Ahead of her the misty dark haze that was Dularn, a land in which she could expect to find only enemies should anything hap- pen to her bird. Below her now only rolling ocean, a cold chok- ing death should her bird falter in its flight. And not expect- ing to be "riding", she had allowed herself to put on unnecessary weight over the past few months, which meant a greater burden yet for her bird to carry, Sela's hundred and ten pounds being heavi- er than was usual for a "bird girl" of Talon, most of whom usual- ly held their weights down in the hundred pound range. Mark may have "enjoyed" his "heavier" Sela, but the bird certainly didn't! Well behind her now was the Corsica, all its sails set, with Squala and the Huntress somewhat further back along with the small swift schooner that had brought the birds from Trelandar. A seagull squawking in terror as the Tarl flew by it. Sela hav- ing no doubts that the Tarls would be "usable" outside of Talon! While their military "effectiveness" had been "overrated" by Dar- lanis and others, the great birds did offer a way of gaining military "intelligence" that nothing else could equal. And Sela knew just how "important" that could be to someone like Lorraine! Overhead a watery sun gleamed in a hazy sky, the shoreline ahead now spotted with patches of fog. The fog blowing back against her face like a wet mist as the bird flew thought them. Sela navigating pretty much by landmarks and what she recalled of the map that Lorraine had showed her earlier. Ahead somewhere was Arsana, her objective, where she would observe for herself what preparations had been made for possible attack from Imperial California. Such would also determine whether or not it might be possible as Lorraine thought for her ships to steal on past the Dularnian defenses. Sela doubted it, but it would save consider- able time if it was "possible", Lorraine had pointed out to her. Flying at about a thousand feet, the great bird carried her through now growing patches of fog, the trees sticking up through the haze there beneath her. She could feel the bird's breathing, the beat of its multiple hearts, Tarls having two, unlike other creatures. The leather of her form fitting attire wet, damp now from the fog as ahead of her now she saw the outskirts of Arsana spreading out before her almost half hidden by the growing fog. The city was walled, the walls about fifty feet high. Such could be scaled, but with difficulty, especially if defended. It had proved impossible for Imperial troops to do so in any case! Darlanis had tried it, but with little success for her "trouble". Sela swooped down low, feeling as I have felt while flying Black Lady that I had "nothing to fear" from those below. Darla- nis too made the same "mistake" flying out over the plains as she has narrated in her own story. The little Princess experiencing a "thrill" as she saw the people flee in terror there below her! Suddenly there was a blurred streak as something whizzed by her, the beautiful young Princess of Talon realizing that she was being fired upon by crossbowmen! That one bolt could kill her mount and cause it to crash into the buildings there below her! Sela urged her bird into a dive, leveling out only a dozen feet from the ground, trusting to the bird's own eyes and in- stincts as she clung to her feathered mount. To attempt to rise higher out of crossbow range would only make her a better target! The "climb" of a Tarl carrying a rider so slow that there would be no doubt that such an action would be almost suicide for Sela! No airplane could have flown the path that Sela's bird was now flying, the great feathered monster swooping between the buildings, between trees, soaring across Arsana itself at only a dozen feet or so above the ground. The leather clad figure of its rider almost unnoticed now upon the great feathered terror! Most Dularnians had never ever seen a Tarl, although the birds were of course known to them as being creatures of "legend" more "myth" than reality! No doubt, Sela mused to herself, they would think of Tarls much differently now than they had before!!! Now she was over the great central plaza, swooping low over the fountains and the low growing trees, terrified faces looking up at her, mothers clinging to their children as she flew just over their heads. Her speed so great that no one had "time" now to even react to her passage until after she was gone on past, her great feathered mount far swifter than the fastest unicorn! ***************************************************************** "I feel `responsible' for Sela," I said to Valerie as we stood together and looked out over the sea. Much of Dularn now hidden in the growing fog. I wondered if I should have sent Sela out instead of one of the other "bird girls" of Talon. It was true that Sela would collect more "useful" military information than would the other two young Talon warrioresses, but I hated to "risk" the Crown Princess of Talon like this even with her own mother's approval. It was true that Dala Dai did want her daugh- ter to become something "more" than just the Princess of Talon, but risking her life like I had didn't now seem the way to do it! "She impresses me as being a rather `competent' little wench," Valerie smiled back, Sela's beautiful face and curvy fem- inine figure leaving little doubt that she was a beautiful woman! She was also brave and courageous as I had learned when she had nearly killed me that time back in La Paz. She did seem a bit "nervous" about things at times, but that I felt was understand- able given the fact that naval warfare was completely "alien" to her given her earlier military training as a Talon "bird girl". "I wish though she was safe back in Talon," I answered. ***************************************************************** Sela Dai, banking her bird no more than twenty feet above the ground between two buildings perhaps would have thought the same thing just then, had she had the time to consider such ideas then! A woman screaming, cowering back as the Tarl swooped by her only a few feet away, its rider completely unnoticed. Sela's bird swooping up over the royal palace of Dularn, the flagstaffs whipping by, the bird now almost brushing the water with its wingtips as it flew out over the harbor as swiftly as Sela could urge it. Here once again there was danger, both from men with crossbows and the heavier weapons of ships lying at anchor. The beautiful Princess of Talon reflecting briefly upon the idea that Talon's "bird girls", carrying firebombs, could destroy any ship! She flew into a welcome bank of fog, urging the bird up a bit, gaining a bit of altitude at the cost of speed, and the bird's own growing fatigue from its hard driven flight across the capital of Dularn at better than fifty miles per hour! The damp of the fog wetting her face, chill against her sweat-damp body there beneath the leather of her riding attire. Sela was very much "aware" of the fact that she was "all alone" over a hostile country that would view her only in terms of whips and slave col- lars if she ever was to fall into the hands of those now below! The fact that she was the Princess of Talon might mean "little"! "Why do I do this?" Sela mused to herself, flying out of the fog bank now perhaps a hundred yards up in the air, the great bird still climbing slowly with heavy beats of its tired wings! Making mental notes of the ships there at anchor, the North Star not one of them yet, she noted to herself in passing. Not that it really mattered all that much, but it was something that Lor- raine would doubtless like to know about, Sela mused to herself. "Why do I `drive' myself like this?" Sela mused, heading her bird out to sea, back towards where Lorraine's ships should now be. A heavy fog now growing rapidly there before her now making Sela very much aware that she really didn't know where the ships were! And there was no other "friendly" landing point anywhere!! "Lys, I don't like this!" Sela breathed, scared now. Her bird was becoming exhausted, and there was nothing but water now beneath her! And a land filled with enemies there behind her!!! Even if she flew across the strait, the people living on the oth- er side of the strait would merely turn her back over to Dularn! Doubtlessly stripped and bound, perhaps only after she had been "enjoyed" by her captors. That too Sela dreaded, knowing well how a captive woman could be treated by men. Especially if she was a member of a hated enemy group. Such had happened to a num- ber of Californian women captured by her own people, and Sela did consider her people more "civilized" than those of other nations! Without weapons, Sela carrying nothing but a small blade, she was also well aware that once she landed she might also have trouble controlling her bird, a Tarl being a dangerous carnivore. And once she fled into the woods, then what? There were other dangerous beasts, dire wolves, great bears, all creatures that would enjoy rending her tender flesh. She was a long ways from Talon. From her own country nestled there between the mountains. ***************************************************************** "Sela's in trouble!" I snapped, seeing the fog rolling in. She had a compass, but no way to guide herself back to us. And I knew that the "flying time" of a Tarl was quite "limited" too! I saw Valerie nod, standing there at the rail. The fog had already hidden Dularn from view in that direction. "Blow our foghorns so that Sela can find her way back to us!" I ordered, knowing the terror that poor Sela must have felt flying over this fog, over the cold hostile waters there below, the bird sinking lower as it became exhausted from its long flight to Dularn and back. Why had I allowed Sela to make the flight instead of another? I loved the little Princess of Talon almost like a daughter, and I had been the one to send her out to her death here in this fog!!! |
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