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thing that didn't flap its wings, but yet still flew through the air like some
great bird. A thing of "legend", from a time now mostly "myth" and "legend" to
most.
"Is it black, with things hanging down beneath it?" Tara croaked,
familiar with the appearance of Lorraine's Black Lady.
"It is," the girl answered, moving away now from the window.
"She is Lorraine, the Imperial Warlady," Tara answered her.
*****************************************************************
"Hard to tell what way the currents flow around here," the Imperial
Warlady said to me as we flew low over the area in ques- tion. "It's possible
that Tara's body washed up around here and someone buried it without ever
knowing `who' she was," she added.
"At least she's `gone'," I replied, remembering how she had attacked the
North Star almost without warning. I suspected that she had desired my own
death, perhaps for killing Darl Jord, who had been a valued "lieutenant" of
hers here in the North from the papers that I'd found after his death that
left no doubts of it.
"No doubt to sit at the side of the EVIL ONE as his con- sort," Lorraine
smiled back. I didn't think even Princess Tara would find the EVIL ONE a very
delightful "companion" after what I'd "seen" of the Master of Hell in the pits
beneath my palace... "Too many rocks around to make a landing here either,"
she added. The trees growing right down to the water here left no shore to
land on either, I noted, the Queen of Trelandar then pushing the throttle
forward as she headed once again towards Sana, our des- tination. I wondered
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if Tara's last remains perhaps now laid buried somewhere underneath some tree,
in some unmarked grave. I thought it might be "fitting" for one so evil as she
had been...
"I remember seeing what appeared to be a woman, her clothing in flames,
leap from the ship just before it exploded," my Prince said as he sat there in
the rear seat of the airplane with Tori.
"Then she would have drowned in the cold water," Tori said.
"In any case I think we can say she won't be giving any of us any more
trouble now, at least not in this life," I commented.
"Sana," Lorraine smiled, flying over the village. We had seen a couple
fishing boats, and a quite small craft sailing along the coastline in this
direction. This last shortly after Lorraine had circled the little hut there
on that rocky point jutting out into the strait a half mile or a bit less from
where Tara's ship had been destroyed by the Priestesses of Lys' craft.
"You may not be exactly `welcome' here," I pointed out. It had been
Lorraine's "squadron" back in 519 that had burned Sana. True, she had not been
the one to give the order, but the ships had been hers, and it had been her
second in command, Princess Sela Dai, who had been the one actually
responsible for the deed!
"Compared to `what' others would have done, I think Sana got off quite
`easy'," Lorraine smiled back, now circling the harbor. "The attacks you led
on my estate took far more lives," she said.
"I welcome you to Sana," my father the mayor said to Lor- raine as the
Imperial Warlady stepped out of her airplane after me. I was struck then as I
had before how much that Lorraine re- sembled my late step mother in her
build, and her own mannerisms. Paul now helping Tori, the captain of my
guardswomen now exiting the airplane to stand on the dock behind me. Like
Lorraine Marta had been an extremely "competent" woman, one who had been a
great military commander, who had seen battle, had seen decks run with blood,
seen death there all about her, Now she was gone, her life suddenly snuffed
out by the weaponry of an evil genius who hopefully would kill no more now. I
was glad that for a few hours we had been "close". That I had given her my
"trust" in a situation where I would have been justified in refusing to do
so!
"You have my sympathy in the loss of your wife," she smiled. "I am only
sorry that it took so long to rid our world of Tara." It was a nice day, the
breeze off the ocean however rather chill.
"She was of the Warrioresses, and she died as one," he said. I recalled
his words when he had held her dead body in his arms. I think Marta would have
preferred it that way rather than dying in bed of old age, crippled up with
arthritis, unable to take care of herself. She was a proud woman, one who took
pride in the fact that she could still "manage" despite the fact that her
right leg had been severed many years before just below the knee.
"We have lived lives that others could only envy," she said.
"We have removed the bodies," the Scribe said, the derelict having been
"searched" from stem to stern for anything of value, these items having been
gathered together for shipment to Arsana. At the moment the interior of the
stern cabin was being carefully gone over for any clues that might be helpful
later on in things.
"The vessel is similar in some aspects to Chinese junks, al- though
there may be differences," Lorraine spoke, standing there. "What we need is
maps, some hint as to how they viewed their world. We know that they would be
worshipers of LYS, but also it is possible that they would have had other gods
too than Her. Also what was the average size of men who crewed this?" Lorraine
then asked, her awesome mind now hard at work as she stood there.
"There is evidence that they were smaller than we are," he said, looking
up at the Warlady as he sat there in the stern ca- bin of the derelict. A
woman nearby carefully studying a lamp...
"They could be Korean, Chinese, or Japanese," Lorraine said. "These are
all parts of the continent of Asia itself," she mused. "There are also other
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nations,or at least there were in my time who would fit the racial stereotypes
that you found aboard here. The cargo of the vessel indicates that this was a
trading ship of some sort, and that they were returning to their homeland when
the storm struck and drove them out into the Pacific to their deaths." The man
there staring at Lorraine with a bit of awe...
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