A Princess of Mars (22 page)

Running rapidly down first one and then another of them I soon
became hopelessly lost and was standing panting against a side wall
when I heard voices near me. Apparently they were coming from the
opposite side of the partition against which I leaned and presently
I made out the tones of Dejah Thoris. I could not hear the words
but I knew that I could not possibly be mistaken in the voice.

Moving on a few steps I discovered another passageway at the end of
which lay a door. Walking boldly forward I pushed into the room
only to find myself in a small antechamber in which were the four
guards who had accompanied her. One of them instantly arose and
accosted me, asking the nature of my business.

"I am from Than Kosis," I replied, "and wish to speak privately with
Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium."

"And your order?" asked the fellow.

I did not know what he meant, but replied that I was a member of The
Guard, and without waiting for a reply from him I strode toward the
opposite door of the antechamber, behind which I could hear Dejah
Thoris conversing.

But my entrance was not to be so easily accomplished. The guardsman
stepped before me, saying,

"No one comes from Than Kosis without carrying an order or the
password. You must give me one or the other before you may pass."

"The only order I require, my friend, to enter where I will, hangs
at my side," I answered, tapping my long-sword; "will you let me
pass in peace or no?"

For reply he whipped out his own sword, calling to the others to
join him, and thus the four stood, with drawn weapons, barring my
further progress.

"You are not here by the order of Than Kosis," cried the one who had
first addressed me, "and not only shall you not enter the apartments
of the Princess of Helium but you shall go back to Than Kosis under
guard to explain this unwarranted temerity. Throw down your sword;
you cannot hope to overcome four of us," he added with a grim smile.

My reply was a quick thrust which left me but three antagonists and
I can assure you that they were worthy of my metal. They had me
backed against the wall in no time, fighting for my life. Slowly I
worked my way to a corner of the room where I could force them to
come at me only one at a time, and thus we fought upward of twenty
minutes; the clanging of steel on steel producing a veritable bedlam
in the little room.

The noise had brought Dejah Thoris to the door of her apartment,
and there she stood throughout the conflict with Sola at her back
peering over her shoulder. Her face was set and emotionless and
I knew that she did not recognize me, nor did Sola.

Finally a lucky cut brought down a second guardsman and then, with
only two opposing me, I changed my tactics and rushed them down
after the fashion of my fighting that had won me many a victory.
The third fell within ten seconds after the second, and the last lay
dead upon the bloody floor a few moments later. They were brave men
and noble fighters, and it grieved me that I had been forced to kill
them, but I would have willingly depopulated all Barsoom could I
have reached the side of my Dejah Thoris in no other way.

Sheathing my bloody blade I advanced toward my Martian Princess,
who still stood mutely gazing at me without sign of recognition.

"Who are you, Zodangan?" she whispered. "Another enemy to harass me
in my misery?"

"I am a friend," I answered, "a once cherished friend."

"No friend of Helium's princess wears that metal," she replied,
"and yet the voice! I have heard it before; it is not—it cannot
be—no, for he is dead."

"It is, though, my Princess, none other than John Carter,"
I said. "Do you not recognize, even through paint and strange
metal, the heart of your chieftain?"

As I came close to her she swayed toward me with outstretched hands,
but as I reached to take her in my arms she drew back with a shudder
and a little moan of misery.

"Too late, too late," she grieved. "O my chieftain that was,
and whom I thought dead, had you but returned one little hour
before—but now it is too late, too late."

"What do you mean, Dejah Thoris?" I cried. "That you would not have
promised yourself to the Zodangan prince had you known that I
lived?"

"Think you, John Carter, that I would give my heart to you yesterday
and today to another? I thought that it lay buried with your ashes
in the pits of Warhoon, and so today I have promised my body to
another to save my people from the curse of a victorious Zodangan
army."

"But I am not dead, my princess. I have come to claim you, and all
Zodanga cannot prevent it."

"It is too late, John Carter, my promise is given, and on Barsoom
that is final. The ceremonies which follow later are but
meaningless formalities. They make the fact of marriage no more
certain than does the funeral cortege of a jeddak again place the
seal of death upon him. I am as good as married, John Carter.
No longer may you call me your princess. No longer are you my
chieftain."

"I know but little of your customs here upon Barsoom, Dejah Thoris,
but I do know that I love you, and if you meant the last words you
spoke to me that day as the hordes of Warhoon were charging down
upon us, no other man shall ever claim you as his bride. You meant
them then, my princess, and you mean them still! Say that it is
true."

"I meant them, John Carter," she whispered. "I cannot repeat them
now for I have given myself to another. Ah, if you had only known
our ways, my friend," she continued, half to herself, "the promise
would have been yours long months ago, and you could have claimed
me before all others. It might have meant the fall of Helium, but
I would have given my empire for my Tharkian chief."

Then aloud she said: "Do you remember the night when you offended
me? You called me your princess without having asked my hand of me,
and then you boasted that you had fought for me. You did not know,
and I should not have been offended; I see that now. But there was
no one to tell you what I could not, that upon Barsoom there are two
kinds of women in the cities of the red men. The one they fight for
that they may ask them in marriage; the other kind they fight for
also, but never ask their hands. When a man has won a woman he may
address her as his princess, or in any of the several terms which
signify possession. You had fought for me, but had never asked me
in marriage, and so when you called me your princess, you see," she
faltered, "I was hurt, but even then, John Carter, I did not repulse
you, as I should have done, until you made it doubly worse by
taunting me with having won me through combat."

"I do not need ask your forgiveness now, Dejah Thoris," I cried.
"You must know that my fault was of ignorance of your Barsoomian
customs. What I failed to do, through implicit belief that my
petition would be presumptuous and unwelcome, I do now, Dejah
Thoris; I ask you to be my wife, and by all the Virginian fighting
blood that flows in my veins you shall be."

"No, John Carter, it is useless," she cried, hopelessly,
"I may never be yours while Sab Than lives."

"You have sealed his death warrant, my princess—Sab Than dies."

"Nor that either," she hastened to explain. "I may not wed the man
who slays my husband, even in self-defense. It is custom. We are
ruled by custom upon Barsoom. It is useless, my friend. You must
bear the sorrow with me. That at least we may share in common.
That, and the memory of the brief days among the Tharks. You must
go now, nor ever see me again. Good-bye, my chieftain that was."

Disheartened and dejected, I withdrew from the room, but I was not
entirely discouraged, nor would I admit that Dejah Thoris was lost
to me until the ceremony had actually been performed.

As I wandered along the corridors, I was as absolutely lost in the
mazes of winding passageways as I had been before I discovered Dejah
Thoris' apartments.

I knew that my only hope lay in escape from the city of Zodanga, for
the matter of the four dead guardsmen would have to be explained,
and as I could never reach my original post without a guide,
suspicion would surely rest on me so soon as I was discovered
wandering aimlessly through the palace.

Presently I came upon a spiral runway leading to a lower floor, and
this I followed downward for several stories until I reached the
doorway of a large apartment in which were a number of guardsmen.
The walls of this room were hung with transparent tapestries behind
which I secreted myself without being apprehended.

The conversation of the guardsmen was general, and awakened no
interest in me until an officer entered the room and ordered four
of the men to relieve the detail who were guarding the Princess of
Helium. Now, I knew, my troubles would commence in earnest and
indeed they were upon me all too soon, for it seemed that the squad
had scarcely left the guardroom before one of their number burst in
again breathlessly, crying that they had found their four comrades
butchered in the antechamber.

In a moment the entire palace was alive with people. Guardsmen,
officers, courtiers, servants, and slaves ran helter-skelter
through the corridors and apartments carrying messages and orders,
and searching for signs of the assassin.

This was my opportunity and slim as it appeared I grasped it, for as
a number of soldiers came hurrying past my hiding place I fell in
behind them and followed through the mazes of the palace until, in
passing through a great hall, I saw the blessed light of day coming
in through a series of larger windows.

Here I left my guides, and, slipping to the nearest window, sought
for an avenue of escape. The windows opened upon a great balcony
which overlooked one of the broad avenues of Zodanga. The ground
was about thirty feet below, and at a like distance from the
building was a wall fully twenty feet high, constructed of polished
glass about a foot in thickness. To a red Martian escape by this
path would have appeared impossible, but to me, with my earthly
strength and agility, it seemed already accomplished. My only fear
was in being detected before darkness fell, for I could not make the
leap in broad daylight while the court below and the avenue beyond
were crowded with Zodangans.

Accordingly I searched for a hiding place and finally found one
by accident, inside a huge hanging ornament which swung from the
ceiling of the hall, and about ten feet from the floor. Into the
capacious bowl-like vase I sprang with ease, and scarcely had I
settled down within it than I heard a number of people enter the
apartment. The group stopped beneath my hiding place and I could
plainly overhear their every word.

"It is the work of Heliumites," said one of the men.

"Yes, O Jeddak, but how had they access to the palace? I could
believe that even with the diligent care of your guardsmen a single
enemy might reach the inner chambers, but how a force of six or
eight fighting men could have done so unobserved is beyond me. We
shall soon know, however, for here comes the royal psychologist."

Another man now joined the group, and, after making his formal
greetings to his ruler, said:

"O mighty Jeddak, it is a strange tale I read in the dead minds
of your faithful guardsmen. They were felled not by a number
of fighting men, but by a single opponent."

He paused to let the full weight of this announcement impress his
hearers, and that his statement was scarcely credited was evidenced
by the impatient exclamation of incredulity which escaped the lips
of Than Kosis.

"What manner of weird tale are you bringing me, Notan?" he cried.

"It is the truth, my Jeddak," replied the psychologist. "In fact
the impressions were strongly marked on the brain of each of the
four guardsmen. Their antagonist was a very tall man, wearing the
metal of one of your own guardsmen, and his fighting ability was
little short of marvelous for he fought fair against the entire four
and vanquished them by his surpassing skill and superhuman strength
and endurance. Though he wore the metal of Zodanga, my Jeddak, such
a man was never seen before in this or any other country upon
Barsoom.

"The mind of the Princess of Helium whom I have examined and
questioned was a blank to me, she has perfect control, and I could
not read one iota of it. She said that she witnessed a portion of
the encounter, and that when she looked there was but one man
engaged with the guardsmen; a man whom she did not recognize as
ever having seen."

"Where is my erstwhile savior?" spoke another of the party, and I
recognized the voice of the cousin of Than Kosis, whom I had rescued
from the green warriors. "By the metal of my first ancestor," he
went on, "but the description fits him to perfection, especially as
to his fighting ability."

"Where is this man?" cried Than Kosis. "Have him brought to me at
once. What know you of him, cousin? It seemed strange to me now
that I think upon it that there should have been such a fighting man
in Zodanga, of whose name, even, we were ignorant before today. And
his name too, John Carter, who ever heard of such a name upon
Barsoom!"

Word was soon brought that I was nowhere to be found, either in the
palace or at my former quarters in the barracks of the air-scout
squadron. Kantos Kan, they had found and questioned, but he knew
nothing of my whereabouts, and as to my past, he had told them he
knew as little, since he had but recently met me during our
captivity among the Warhoons.

"Keep your eyes on this other one," commanded Than Kosis. "He also
is a stranger and likely as not they both hail from Helium, and
where one is we shall sooner or later find the other. Quadruple
the air patrol, and let every man who leaves the city by air or
ground be subjected to the closest scrutiny."