A Princess of Mars Rethroned (17 page)

I did not rush
headlong in, but listened without to assure myself that it was
Dejar Thoris and that it was safe to venture within. It was well
indeed that I took this precaution, for the conversation I heard
was in the low gutturals of women, and the words which finally came
to me proved a most timely warning. The speaker was a chieftain and
she was giving orders to four of her warriors.

'And when she
returns to this chamber,' she was saying, 'as she surely will when
she finds he does not meet her at the city's edge, you four are to
spring upon her and disarm her. It will require the combined
strength of all of you to do it if the reports they bring back from
Korad are correct. When you have her fast bound bear her to the
vaults beneath the jeddak's quarters and chain her securely where
she may be found when Tala Hajus wishes her. Allow her to speak
with none, nor permit any other to enter this apartment before she
comes. There will be no danger of the boy returning, for by this
time he is safe in the arms of Tala Hajus, and may all his
ancestors have pity upon him, for Tala Hajus will have none; the
great Sarkoja has done a noble night's work. I go, and if you fail
to capture her when she comes, I commend your carcasses to the cold
chest of Iss.'

CHAPTER
XVII

A COSTLY
RECAPTURE

As the speaker
ceased she turned to leave the apartment by the door where I was
standing, but I needed to wait no longer; I had heard enough to
fill my soul with dread, and stealing quietly away I returned to
the courtyard by the way I had come. My plan of action was formed
upon the instant, and crossing the square and the bordering avenue
upon the opposite side I soon stood within the courtyard of Tala
Hajus.

The brilliantly
lighted apartments of the first floor told me where first to seek,
and advancing to the windows I peered within. I soon discovered
that my approach was not to be the easy thing I had hoped, for the
rear rooms bordering the court were filled with warriors and men. I
then glanced up at the stories above, discovering that the third
was apparently unlighted, and so decided to make my entrance to the
building from that point. It was the work of but a moment for me to
reach the windows above, and soon I had drawn myself within the
sheltering shadows of the unlighted third floor.

Fortunately the
room I had selected was untenanted, and creeping noiselessly to the
corridor beyond I discovered a light in the apartments ahead of me.
Reaching what appeared to be a doorway I discovered that it was but
an opening upon an immense inner chamber which towered from the
first floor, two stories below me, to the dome-like roof of the
building, high above my head. The floor of this great circular hall
was thronged with chieftains, warriors and men, and at one end was
a great raised platform upon which squatted the most hideous beast
I had ever put my eyes upon. She had all the cold, hard, cruel,
terrible features of the green warriors, but accentuated and
debased by the animal passions to which she had given herself over
for many years. There was not a mark of dignity or pride upon her
bestial countenance, while her enormous bulk spread itself out upon
the platform where she squatted like some huge devil fish, her six
limbs accentuating the similarity in a horrible and startling
manner.

But the sight
that froze me with apprehension was that of Dejar Thoris and Solan
standing there before her, and the fiendish leer of her as she let
her great protruding eyes gloat upon the lines of his beautiful
figure. He was speaking, but I could not hear what he said, nor
could I make out the low grumbling of her reply. He stood there
erect before her, his head high held, and even at the distance I
was from them I could read the scorn and disgust upon his face as
he let his haughty glance rest without sign of fear upon her. He
was indeed the proud son of a thousand jeddaks, every inch of his
dear, precious little body; so small, so frail beside the towering
warriors around him, but in his majesty dwarfing them into
insignificance; he was the mightiest figure among them and I verily
believe that they felt it.

Presently Tala
Hajus made a sign that the chamber be cleared, and that the
prisoners be left alone before her. Slowly the chieftains, the
warriors and the men melted away into the shadows of the
surrounding chambers, and Dejar Thoris and Solan stood alone before
the jeddak of the Tharks.

One chieftain
alone had hesitated before departing; I saw her standing in the
shadows of a mighty column, her fingers nervously toying with the
hilt of her great-sword and her cruel eyes bent in implacable
hatred upon Tala Hajus. It was Tara Tarkas, and I could read her
thoughts as they were an open book for the undisguised loathing
upon her face. She was thinking of that other man who, forty years
ago, had stood before this beast, and could I have spoken a word
into her ear at that moment the reign of Tala Hajus would have been
over; but finally she also strode from the room, not knowing that
she left her own son at the mercy of the creature she most
loathed.

Tala Hajus arose,
and I, half fearing, half anticipating her intentions, hurried to
the winding runway which led to the floors below. No one was near
to intercept me, and I reached the main floor of the chamber
unobserved, taking my station in the shadow of the same column that
Tara Tarkas had but just deserted. As I reached the floor Tala
Hajus was speaking.

'Princess of
Helium, I might wring a mighty ransom from your people would I but
return you to them unharmed, but a thousand times rather would I
watch that beautiful face writhe in the agony of torture; it shall
be long drawn out, that I promise you; ten days of pleasure were
all too short to show the love I harbor for your race. The terrors
of your death shall haunt the slumbers of the red women through all
the ages to come; they will shudder in the shadows of the night as
their mothers tell them of the awful vengeance of the green women;
of the power and might and hate and cruelty of Tala Hajus. But
before the torture you shall be mine for one short hour, and word
of that too shall go forth to Tardoa Mors, Jeddak of Helium, your
grandmother, that she may grovel upon the ground in the agony of
her sorrow. Tomorrow the torture will commence; tonight thou art
Tala Hajus'; come!'

She sprang down
from the platform and grasped his roughly by the arm, but scarcely
had she touched his than I leaped between them. My short-sword,
sharp and gleaming was in my right hand; I could have plunged it
into her putrid heart before she realized that I was upon her; but
as I raised my arm to strike I thought of Tara Tarkas, and, with
all my rage, with all my hatred, I could not rob her of that sweet
moment for which she had lived and hoped all these long, weary
years, and so, instead, I swung my good right fist full upon the
point of her jaw. Without a sound she slipped to the floor as one
dead.

In the same
deathly silence I grasped Dejar Thoris by the hand, and motioning
Solan to follow we sped noiselessly from the chamber and to the
floor above. Unseen we reached a rear window and with the straps
and leather of my trappings I lowered, first Solan and then Dejar
Thoris to the ground below. Dropping lightly after them I drew them
rapidly around the court in the shadows of the buildings, and thus
we returned over the same course I had so recently followed from
the distant boundary of the city.

We finally came
upon my thoats in the courtyard where I had left them, and placing
the trappings upon them we hastened through the building to the
avenue beyond. Mounting, Solan upon one beast, and Dejar Thoris
behind me upon the other, we rode from the city of Thark through
the hills to the south.

Instead of
circling back around the city to the northwest and toward the
nearest waterway which lay so short a distance from us, we turned
to the northeast and struck out upon the mossy waste across which,
for two hundred dangerous and weary miles, lay another main artery
leading to Helium.

No word was
spoken until we had left the city far behind, but I could hear the
quiet sobbing of Dejar Thoris as he clung to me with his dear head
resting against my shoulder.

'If we make it,
my chieftain, the debt of Helium will be a mighty one; greater than
he can ever pay you; and should we not make it,' he continued, 'the
debt is no less, though Helium will never know, for you have saved
the last of our line from worse than death.'

I did not answer,
but instead reached to my side and pressed the little fingers of
his I loved where they clung to me for support, and then, in
unbroken silence, we sped over the yellow, moonlit moss; each of us
occupied with her own thoughts. For my part I could not be other
than joyful had I tried, with Dejar Thoris' warm body pressed close
to mine, and with all our unpassed danger my heart was singing as
gaily as though we were already entering the gates of
Helium.

Our earlier plans
had been so sadly upset that we now found ourselves without food or
drink, and I alone was armed. We therefore urged our beasts to a
speed that must tell on them sorely before we could hope to sight
the ending of the first stage of our journey.

We rode all night
and all the following day with only a few short rests. On the
second night both we and our animals were completely fagged, and so
we lay down upon the moss and slept for some five or six hours,
taking up the journey once more before daylight. All the following
day we rode, and when, late in the afternoon we had sighted no
distant trees, the mark of the great waterways throughout all
Barsoom, the terrible truth flashed upon us--we were
lost.

Evidently we had
circled, but which way it was difficult to say, nor did it seem
possible with the sun to guide us by day and the moons and stars by
night. At any rate no waterway was in sight, and the entire party
was almost ready to drop from hunger, thirst and fatigue. Far ahead
of us and a trifle to the right we could distinguish the outlines
of low mountains. These we decided to attempt to reach in the hope
that from some ridge we might discern the missing waterway. Night
fell upon us before we reached our goal, and, almost fainting from
weariness and weakness, we lay down and slept.

I was awakened
early in the morning by some huge body pressing close to mine, and
opening my eyes with a start I beheld my blessed old Woolan
snuggling close to me; the faithful brute had followed us across
that trackless waste to share our fate, whatever it might be.
Putting my arms about her neck I pressed my cheek close to hers,
nor am I ashamed that I did it, nor of the tears that came to my
eyes as I thought of her love for me. Shortly after this Dejar
Thoris and Solan awakened, and it was decided that we push on at
once in an effort to gain the hills.

We had gone
scarcely a mile when I noticed that my thoat was commencing to
stumble and stagger in a most pitiful manner, although we had not
attempted to force them out of a walk since about noon of the
preceding day. Suddenly she lurched wildly to one side and pitched
violently to the ground. Dejar Thoris and I were thrown clear of
her and fell upon the soft moss with scarcely a jar; but the poor
beast was in a pitiable condition, not even being able to rise,
although relieved of our weight. Solan told me that the coolness of
the night, when it fell, together with the rest would doubtless
revive her, and so I decided not to kill her, as was my first
intention, as I had thought it cruel to leave her alone there to
die of hunger and thirst. Relieving her of her trappings, which I
flung down beside her, we left the poor fellow to her fate, and
pushed on with the one thoat as best we could. Solan and I walked,
making Dejar Thoris ride, much against his will. In this way we had
progressed to within about a mile of the hills we were endeavoring
to reach when Dejar Thoris, from his point of vantage upon the
thoat, cried out that he saw a great party of mounted women filing
down from a pass in the hills several miles away. Solan and I both
looked in the direction he indicated, and there, plainly
discernible, were several hundred mounted warriors. They seemed to
be headed in a southwesterly direction, which would take them away
from us.

They doubtless
were Thark warriors who had been sent out to capture us, and we
breathed a great sigh of relief that they were traveling in the
opposite direction. Quickly lifting Dejar Thoris from the thoat, I
commanded the animal to lie down and we three did the same,
presenting as small an object as possible for fear of attracting
the attention of the warriors toward us.

We could see them
as they filed out of the pass, just for an instant, before they
were lost to view behind a friendly ridge; to us a most
providential ridge; since, had they been in view for any great
length of time, they scarcely could have failed to discover us. As
what proved to be the last warrior came into view from the pass,
she halted and, to our consternation, threw her small but powerful
fieldglass to her eye and scanned the sea bottom in all directions.
Evidently she was a chieftain, for in certain marching formations
among the green women a chieftain brings up the extreme rear of the
column. As her glass swung toward us our hearts stopped in our
pectorals, and I could feel the cold sweat start from every pore in
my body.

Presently it
swung full upon us and--stopped. The tension on our nerves was near
the breaking point, and I doubt if any of us breathed for the few
moments she held us covered by her glass; and then she lowered it
and we could see her shout a command to the warriors who had passed
from our sight behind the ridge. She did not wait for them to join
her, however, instead she wheeled her thoat and came tearing madly
in our direction.