Dreamers 3 - Crystal Gorge by David Eddings

Author:David Eddings [Eddings, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780446613316
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2005-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

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The Warrior Queen

1

The wars on the Isle of Akalla aren”t nearly as complicated as your wars are, Narasan,” Trenicia replied. “Of course, we don”t have armies as large as yours, and we really don”t have to go so far to reach enemy territory.”

“What would you say would be the size of the standard army on Akalla, your Majesty?” Andar rumbled in his deep voice.

“Probably no more than fifty warrior-women,” Trenicia replied, “and it”s usually only about twenty miles to the enemy”s part of the Isle.”

“That has a familiar sort of ring to it, wouldn”t you say?” Brigadier Danal suggested to the others. “It sounds quite a bit like the squabbles between those assorted barons and dukes that we used to go fight for them.”

“Except that we were paid to do the fighting,” Padan added. “It sounds to me like the women-warriors on Akalla fight their own wars.”

“Isn”t that just a little bit illegal?” Danal asked with a faint smile.

“You”ll have to excuse my friends, Trenicia,” Narasan said. “They all seem to think they”re hilariously funny.”

“Do you see me laughing?” Trenicia asked Danal quite firmly.

“Ah - no, ma”am,” he replied. “There is one thing that”s got me just a bit puzzled, though. The people here in the Land of Dhrall all seem to have weapons made of stone, but that sword of yours is made of steel. How did you come by it?”

Trenicia shrugged. “Every now and then a boat that came from some other place washes up on one of the beaches on our island, and there are all kinds of things on those boats that are made of metal. We”ve learned how to heat it so that we can pound it into the shape we want.”

“What are all those wars on your island about?” the deep-voiced Andar asked.

“Pride,” Trenicia said with a blunt honesty. “We all feel that anything we see is ours. Since I”m the proudest woman in all of Akalla, the island is mine. I had to kill quite a few people to persuade the others that I really am the queen, but now that they understand, things are much more peaceful than they used to be. Peace is nice, I suppose, but it does get sort of boring after a while. That”s one of the reasons that I accepted Aracia”s offer. I thought that if I could find a war of some kind in some other part of the world, I could keep all the other proud women busy enough that they”d stop trying to sneak up on me and kill me, and not being killed is fairly important, wouldn”t you say?”

Several days later at about noon, the somewhat boisterous Padan came into the cabin at the stern. “I think we might have reached the place where we”re supposed to go ashore,” he announced. “There”s a good-sized bonfire on the beach, and if I”m not mistaken, the man standing by that fire is Longbow”s old friend, Red-Beard. I”m just guessing here, but I think

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