A Princess of Mars (16 page)

"Yes," she replied, and taking a great diamond from her hair she
drew upon the marble floor the first map of Barsoomian territory I
had ever seen. It was crisscrossed in every direction with long
straight lines, sometimes running parallel and sometimes converging
toward some great circle. The lines, she said, were waterways; the
circles, cities; and one far to the northwest of us she pointed out
as Helium. There were other cities closer, but she said she feared
to enter many of them, as they were not all friendly toward Helium.

Finally, after studying the map carefully in the moonlight which
now flooded the room, I pointed out a waterway far to the north of
us which also seemed to lead to Helium.

"Does not this pierce your grandfather's territory?" I asked.

"Yes," she answered, "but it is two hundred miles north of us;
it is one of the waterways we crossed on the trip to Thark."

"They would never suspect that we would try for that distant
waterway," I answered, "and that is why I think that it is the
best route for our escape."

Sola agreed with me, and it was decided that we should leave Thark
this same night; just as quickly, in fact, as I could find and
saddle my thoats. Sola was to ride one and Dejah Thoris and I the
other; each of us carrying sufficient food and drink to last us for
two days, since the animals could not be urged too rapidly for so
long a distance.

I directed Sola to proceed with Dejah Thoris along one of the less
frequented avenues to the southern boundary of the city, where I
would overtake them with the thoats as quickly as possible; then,
leaving them to gather what food, silks, and furs we were to need,
I slipped quietly to the rear of the first floor, and entered the
courtyard, where our animals were moving restlessly about, as was
their habit, before settling down for the night.

In the shadows of the buildings and out beneath the radiance of the
Martian moons moved the great herd of thoats and zitidars, the
latter grunting their low gutturals and the former occasionally
emitting the sharp squeal which denotes the almost habitual state
of rage in which these creatures passed their existence. They were
quieter now, owing to the absence of man, but as they scented me
they became more restless and their hideous noise increased. It
was risky business, this entering a paddock of thoats alone and at
night; first, because their increasing noisiness might warn the
nearby warriors that something was amiss, and also because for the
slightest cause, or for no cause at all some great bull thoat might
take it upon himself to lead a charge upon me.

Having no desire to awaken their nasty tempers upon such a night as
this, where so much depended upon secrecy and dispatch, I hugged the
shadows of the buildings, ready at an instant's warning to leap into
the safety of a nearby door or window. Thus I moved silently to the
great gates which opened upon the street at the back of the court,
and as I neared the exit I called softly to my two animals. How I
thanked the kind providence which had given me the foresight to win
the love and confidence of these wild dumb brutes, for presently
from the far side of the court I saw two huge bulks forcing their
way toward me through the surging mountains of flesh.

They came quite close to me, rubbing their muzzles against my body
and nosing for the bits of food it was always my practice to reward
them with. Opening the gates I ordered the two great beasts to pass
out, and then slipping quietly after them I closed the portals
behind me.

I did not saddle or mount the animals there, but instead walked
quietly in the shadows of the buildings toward an unfrequented
avenue which led toward the point I had arranged to meet Dejah
Thoris and Sola. With the noiselessness of disembodied spirits
we moved stealthily along the deserted streets, but not until we
were within sight of the plain beyond the city did I commence to
breathe freely. I was sure that Sola and Dejah Thoris would find
no difficulty in reaching our rendezvous undetected, but with my
great thoats I was not so sure for myself, as it was quite unusual
for warriors to leave the city after dark; in fact there was no
place for them to go within any but a long ride.

I reached the appointed meeting place safely, but as Dejah Thoris
and Sola were not there I led my animals into the entrance hall of
one of the large buildings. Presuming that one of the other women
of the same household may have come in to speak to Sola, and so
delayed their departure, I did not feel any undue apprehension until
nearly an hour had passed without a sign of them, and by the time
another half hour had crawled away I was becoming filled with grave
anxiety. Then there broke upon the stillness of the night the sound
of an approaching party, which, from the noise, I knew could be no
fugitives creeping stealthily toward liberty. Soon the party was
near me, and from the black shadows of my entranceway I perceived
a score of mounted warriors, who, in passing, dropped a dozen
words that fetched my heart clean into the top of my head.

"He would likely have arranged to meet them just without the city,
and so—" I heard no more, they had passed on; but it was enough.
Our plan had been discovered, and the chances for escape from now
on to the fearful end would be small indeed. My one hope now was
to return undetected to the quarters of Dejah Thoris and learn what
fate had overtaken her, but how to do it with these great monstrous
thoats upon my hands, now that the city probably was aroused by the
knowledge of my escape was a problem of no mean proportions.

Suddenly an idea occurred to me, and acting on my knowledge of the
construction of the buildings of these ancient Martian cities with
a hollow court within the center of each square, I groped my way
blindly through the dark chambers, calling the great thoats after
me. They had difficulty in negotiating some of the doorways, but
as the buildings fronting the city's principal exposures were all
designed upon a magnificent scale, they were able to wriggle through
without sticking fast; and thus we finally made the inner court
where I found, as I had expected, the usual carpet of moss-like
vegetation which would prove their food and drink until I could
return them to their own enclosure. That they would be as quiet
and contented here as elsewhere I was confident, nor was there but
the remotest possibility that they would be discovered, as the
green men had no great desire to enter these outlying buildings,
which were frequented by the only thing, I believe, which caused
them the sensation of fear—the great white apes of Barsoom.

Removing the saddle trappings, I hid them just within the rear
doorway of the building through which we had entered the court, and,
turning the beasts loose, quickly made my way across the court to
the rear of the buildings upon the further side, and thence to the
avenue beyond. Waiting in the doorway of the building until I was
assured that no one was approaching, I hurried across to the
opposite side and through the first doorway to the court beyond;
thus, crossing through court after court with only the slight chance
of detection which the necessary crossing of the avenues entailed,
I made my way in safety to the courtyard in the rear of Dejah
Thoris' quarters.

Here, of course, I found the beasts of the warriors who quartered in
the adjacent buildings, and the warriors themselves I might expect
to meet within if I entered; but, fortunately for me, I had another
and safer method of reaching the upper story where Dejah Thoris
should be found, and, after first determining as nearly as possible
which of the buildings she occupied, for I had never observed them
before from the court side, I took advantage of my relatively great
strength and agility and sprang upward until I grasped the sill of
a second-story window which I thought to be in the rear of her
apartment. Drawing myself inside the room I moved stealthily toward
the front of the building, and not until I had quite reached the
doorway of her room was I made aware by voices that it was occupied.

I did not rush headlong in, but listened without to assure myself
that it was Dejah 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 men, and the words which finally
came to me proved a most timely warning. The speaker was a
chieftain and he was giving orders to four of his warriors.

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

As the speaker ceased he 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 Tal 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 women. 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 women, and at one end was a great raised platform upon which
squatted the most hideous beast I had ever put my eyes upon. He had
all the cold, hard, cruel, terrible features of the green warriors,
but accentuated and debased by the animal passions to which he had
given himself over for many years. There was not a mark of dignity
or pride upon his bestial countenance, while his enormous bulk
spread itself out upon the platform where he squatted like some huge
devil fish, his six limbs accentuating the similarity in a horrible
and startling manner.

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

Presently Tal Hajus made a sign that the chamber be cleared, and
that the prisoners be left alone before him. Slowly the chieftains,
the warriors and the women melted away into the shadows of the
surrounding chambers, and Dejah Thoris and Sola stood alone before
the jeddak of the Tharks.

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

Tal Hajus arose, and I, half fearing, half anticipating his
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 Tars Tarkas had but just deserted. As I
reached the floor Tal 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 men
through all the ages to come; they will shudder in the shadows of
the night as their fathers tell them of the awful vengeance of the
green men; of the power and might and hate and cruelty of Tal Hajus.
But before the torture you shall be mine for one short hour, and
word of that too shall go forth to Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium,
your grandfather, that he may grovel upon the ground in the agony of
his sorrow. Tomorrow the torture will commence; tonight thou art Tal
Hajus'; come!"