Warlord of Mars Embattled (3 page)

Directly before
me the river thundered down from above in a mighty waterfall that
filled the narrow gorge from side to side, rising far above me
several hundred feet--as magnificent a spectacle as I ever had
seen.

But the roar--the
awful, deafening roar of those tumbling waters penned in the rocky,
subterranean vault! Had the fall not entirely blocked my further
passage and shown me that I had followed the wrong course I believe
that I should have fled anyway before the maddening
tumult.

Thurid and the
therns could not have come this way. By stumbling upon the wrong
course I had lost the trail, and they had gained so much ahead of
me that now I might not be able to find them before it was too
late, if, in fact, I could find them at all.

It had taken
several hours to force my way up to the falls against the strong
current, and other hours would be required for the descent,
although the pace would be much swifter.

With a sigh I
turned the prow of my craft down stream, and with mighty strokes
hastened with reckless speed through the dark and tortuous channel
until once again I came to the chamber into which flowed the three
branches of the river.

Two unexplored
channels still remained from which to choose; nor was there any
means by which I could judge which was the more likely to lead me
to the plotters.

Never in my life,
that I can recall, have I suffered such an agony of indecision. So
much depended upon a correct choice; so much depended upon
haste.

The hours that I
had already lost might seal the fate of the incomparable Dejar
Thoris were he not already dead--to sacrifice other hours, and
maybe days in a fruitless exploration of another blind lead would
unquestionably prove fatal.

Several times I
essayed the right-hand entrance only to turn back as though warned
by some strange intuitive sense that this was not the way. At last,
convinced by the oft-recurring phenomenon, I cast my all upon the
left-hand archway; yet it was with a lingering doubt that I turned
a parting look at the sullen waters which rolled, dark and
forbidding, from beneath the grim, low archway on the
right.

And as I looked
there came bobbing out upon the current from the Stygian darkness
of the interior the shell of one of the great, succulent fruits of
the sorapus tree.

I could scarce
restrain a shout of elation as this silent, insensate messenger
floated past me, on toward the Iss and Korus, for it told me that
journeying Martians were above me on that very stream.

They had eaten of
this marvelous fruit which nature concentrates within the hard
shell of the sorapus nut, and having eaten had cast the husk
overboard. It could have come from no others than the party I
sought.

Quickly I
abandoned all thought of the left-hand passage, and a moment later
had turned into the right. The stream soon widened, and recurring
areas of phosphorescent rock lighted my way.

I made good time,
but was convinced that I was nearly a day behind those I was
tracking. Neither Woolan nor I had eaten since the previous day,
but in so far as she was concerned it mattered but little, since
practically all the animals of the dead sea bottoms of Mars are
able to go for incredible periods without nourishment.

Nor did I suffer.
The water of the river was sweet and cold, for it was unpolluted by
decaying bodies--like the Iss--and as for food, why the mere
thought that I was nearing my beloved prince raised me above every
material want.

As I proceeded,
the river became narrower and the current swift and turbulent--so
swift in fact that it was with difficulty that I forced my craft
upward at all. I could not have been making to exceed a hundred
yards an hour when, at a bend, I was confronted by a series of
rapids through which the river foamed and boiled at a terrific
rate.

My heart sank
within me. The sorapus nutshell had proved a false prophet, and,
after all, my intuition had been correct--it was the left-hand
channel that I should have followed.

Had I been a man
I should have wept. At my right was a great, slow-moving eddy that
circled far beneath the cliff's overhanging side, and to rest my
tired muscles before turning back I let my boat drift into its
embrace.

I was almost
prostrated by disappointment. It would mean another half-day's loss
of time to retrace my way and take the only passage that yet
remained unexplored. What hellish fate had led me to select from
three possible avenues the two that were wrong?

As the lazy
current of the eddy carried me slowly about the periphery of the
watery circle my boat twice touched the rocky side of the river in
the dark recess beneath the cliff. A third time it struck, gently
as it had before, but the contact resulted in a different
sound--the sound of wood scraping upon wood.

In an instant I
was on the alert, for there could be no wood within that buried
river that had not been woman brought. Almost coincidentally with
my first apprehension of the noise, my hand shot out across the
boat's side, and a second later I felt my fingers gripping the
gunwale of another craft.

As though turned
to stone I sat in tense and rigid silence, straining my eyes into
the utter darkness before me in an effort to discover if the boat
were occupied.

It was entirely
possible that there might be women on board it who were still
ignorant of my presence, for the boat was scraping gently against
the rocks upon one side, so that the gentle touch of my boat upon
the other easily could have gone unnoticed.

Peer as I would I
could not penetrate the darkness, and then I listened intently for
the sound of breathing near me; but except for the noise of the
rapids, the soft scraping of the boats, and the lapping of the
water at their sides I could distinguish no sound. As usual, I
thought rapidly.

A rope lay coiled
in the bottom of my own craft. Very softly I gathered it up, and
making one end fast to the bronze ring in the prow I stepped
gingerly into the boat beside me. In one hand I grasped the rope,
in the other my keen long-sword.

For a full
minute, perhaps, I stood motionless after entering the strange
craft. It had rocked a trifle beneath my weight, but it had been
the scraping of its side against the side of my own boat that had
seemed most likely to alarm its occupants, if there were
any.

But there was no
answering sound, and a moment later I had felt from stem to stern
and found the boat deserted.

Groping with my
hands along the face of the rocks to which the craft was moored, I
discovered a narrow ledge which I knew must be the avenue taken by
those who had come before me. That they could be none other than
Thurid and her party I was convinced by the size and build of the
boat I had found.

Calling to Woolan
to follow me I stepped out upon the ledge. The great, savage brute,
agile as a cat, crept after me.

As she passed
through the boat that had been occupied by Thurid and the therns
she emitted a single low growl, and when she came beside me upon
the ledge and my hand rested upon her neck I felt her short mane
bristling with anger. I think she sensed telepathically the recent
presence of an enemy, for I had made no effort to impart to her the
nature of our quest or the status of those we tracked.

This omission I
now made haste to correct, and, after the manner of green Martians
with their beasts, I let her know partially by the weird and
uncanny telepathy of Barsoom and partly by word of mouth that we
were upon the trail of those who had recently occupied the boat
through which we had just passed.

A soft purr, like
that of a great cat, indicated that Woolan understood, and then,
with a word to her to follow, I turned to the right along the
ledge, but scarcely had I done so than I felt her mighty fangs
tugging at my leathern harness.

As I turned to
discover the cause of her act she continued to pull me steadily in
the opposite direction, nor would she desist until I had turned
about and indicated that I would follow her voluntarily.

Never had I known
her to be in error in a matter of tracking, so it was with a
feeling of entire security that I moved cautiously in the huge
beast's wake. Through Cimmerian darkness she moved along the narrow
ledge beside the boiling rapids.

As we advanced,
the way led from beneath the overhanging cliffs out into a dim
light, and then it was that I saw that the trail had been cut from
the living rock, and that it ran up along the river's side beyond
the rapids.

For hours we
followed the dark and gloomy river farther and farther into the
bowels of Mars. From the direction and distance I knew that we must
be well beneath the Valley Dor, and possibly beneath the Sea of
Omean as well--it could not be much farther now to the Temple of
the Sun.

Even as my mind
framed the thought, Woolan halted suddenly before a narrow, arched
doorway in the cliff by the trail's side. Quickly she crouched back
away from the entrance, at the same time turning her eyes toward
me.

Words could not
have more plainly told me that danger of some sort lay near by, and
so I pressed quietly forward to her side, and passing her looked
into the aperture at our right.

Before me was a
fair-sized chamber that, from its appointments, I knew must have at
one time been a guardroom. There were racks for weapons, and
slightly raised platforms for the sleeping silks and furs of the
warriors, but now its only occupants were two of the therns who had
been of the party with Thurid and Matain Shang.

The women were in
earnest conversation, and from their tones it was apparent that
they were entirely unaware that they had listeners.

'I tell you,' one
of them was saying, 'I do not trust the black one. There was no
necessity for leaving us here to guard the way. Against what, pray,
should we guard this long-forgotten, abysmal path? It was but a
ruse to divide our numbers.

'She will have
Matain Shang leave others elsewhere on some pretext or other, and
then at last she will fall upon us with her confederates and slay
us all.'

'I believe you,
Lakora,' replied the other, 'there can never be aught else than
deadly hatred between thern and First Born. And what think you of
the ridiculous matter of the light? `Let the light shine with the
intensity of three radium units for fifty tals, and for one xat let
it shine with the intensity of one radium unit, and then for
twenty-five tals with nine units.' Those were her very words, and
to think that wise old Matain Shang should listen to such
foolishness.'

'Indeed, it is
silly,' replied Lakora. 'It will open nothing other than the way to
a quick death for us all. She had to make some answer when Matain
Shang asked her flatly what she should do when she came to the
Temple of the Sun, and so she made her answer quickly from her
imagination--I would wager a hekkador's diadem that she could not
now repeat it herself.'

'Let us not
remain here longer, Lakora,' spoke the other thern. 'Perchance if
we hasten after them we may come in time to rescue Matain Shang,
and wreak our own vengeance upon the black dator. What say
you?'

'Never in a long
life,' answered Lakora, 'have I disobeyed a single command of the
Father of Therns. I shall stay here until I rot if she does not
return to bid me elsewhere.'

Lakora's
companion shook her head.

'You are my
superior,' she said; 'I cannot do other than you sanction, though I
still believe that we are foolish to remain.'

I, too, thought
that they were foolish to remain, for I saw from Woolan's actions
that the trail led through the room where the two therns held
guard. I had no reason to harbor any considerable love for this
race of self-deified demons, yet I would have passed them by were
it possible without molesting them.

It was worth
trying anyway, for a fight might delay us considerably, or even put
an end entirely to my search--better women than I have gone down
before fighters of meaner ability than that possessed by the fierce
thern warriors.

Signaling Woolan
to heel I stepped suddenly into the room before the two women. At
sight of me their long-swords flashed from the harness at their
sides, but I raised my hand in a gesture of restraint.

'I seek Thurid,
the black dator,' I said. 'My quarrel is with her, not with you.
Let me pass then in peace, for if I mistake not she is as much your
enemy as mine, and you can have no cause to protect
her.'

They lowered
their swords and Lakora spoke.

'I know not whom
you may be, with the white skin of a thern and the black hair of a
red woman; but were it only Thurid whose safety were at stake you
might pass, and welcome, in so far as we be concerned.

'Tell us who you
be, and what mission calls you to this unknown world beneath the
Valley Dor, then maybe we can see our way to let you pass upon the
errand which we should like to undertake would our orders
permit.'

I was surprised
that neither of them had recognized me, for I thought that I was
quite sufficiently well known either by personal experience or
reputation to every thern upon Barsoom as to make my identity
immediately apparent in any part of the planet. In fact, I was the
only white woman upon Mars whose hair was black and whose eyes were
gray, with the exception of my daughter, Carthoris.