John Carter (9 page)

When he emerged, sword held high, the Tharks cheered.

“Virginia! Virginia! Virginia!”

Sola led her father away, limping, from the ape's twitching carcass.

Coated with gore, Carter strode boldly toward the grandstand. With a single thrust, he hacked his chain in two, then pointed his sword straight up at Tal Hajus. The Tharks grew silent.

“I claim the right of challenge!” Carter cried.

The crowd gasped.

Tal Hajus stood slowly. He glared down at Carter, but his tone was less confident now. “You have no right of challenge. You are not Thark.”

“He
is
Thark!” Tars Tarkas shook his fist. “He is Dotar Sojat!”

Sola started up a new chant: “Do-tar So-jat! Do-tar So-jat!”

Soon the entire crowd was on their feet. “Do-tar So-jat! Do-tar So-jat! Do-tar So-jat!”

A flicker of fear crossed Tal Hajus's face.

Carter swept his sword around, taking in the whole arena. “Who will pledge their metal to mine?”

The Tharks cheered even louder. Tars Tarkas and Sola moved in to join Carter but he waved them back. His attention—and his sword—were focused solely on Tal Hajus.

Tal made his move. He grabbed four swords from the guards attending him, one with each hand. Then he vaulted easily over the spiked wall and into the arena, a fierce war cry on his green lips.

Carter tensed and leaped in response. As he passed Tal Hajus in mid-air, Carter reached out with his sword and sliced. Earth muscles strained as the sword cut into…something. It was all happening too fast to see.

Carter landed, catlike, and turned to see Tal Hajus sneering back at him. For a moment, Carter thought his sword stroke had missed, struck some flying debris by mistake.

Then Tal's perfectly sliced head slid off his torso, falling to land on the arena floor.

Carter looked to the stunned crowd. Once again they began to chant. “Do-tar So-jat! Do-tar So-jat!”

Sola placed a hand on his shoulder, and Tars gave him a weary Thark smile. Carter smiled back…then he leaped again, soaring up over the wall to land atop Tal's abandoned throne. Carter scanned the crowd, raised his sword. The Tharks fell back into an obedient silence.

“The Jeddak of Zodanga means to crush Helium this very night,” Carter said. “And if Helium falls, so falls Barsoom. We must throw off the yoke of old hatreds. Tharks did not begin this, but by Issus,
Tharks will end it
!”

The crowd went berserk. In the arena below, Tars's eyes shone with pride.

“We ride,” Carter screamed, “for Zodanga!”

S
AB
T
HAN
felt oddly restless as he watched the wedding party file into the Palace of Light. This was his goal, the culmination of everything he'd been working toward. Yet even now, Matai Shang's consciousness squatted on his brain, intruding into his thoughts.

Even this
, he thought,
is not mine.

The cream of Zodangan royalty filed in through one entrance, resplendent in red. From the opposite side, the Heliumites marched in, a sea of blue. The two groups crossed to staircases on either side, climbing to a common balcony beneath the shimmering dome. The wedding would take place on the central dais, where Sab now stood with his five groomsmen and a single bodyguard.

On the other side of the dais, Dejah Thoris approached her father, Tardos Mors. He handed her one end of a ceremonial chain, and they began to speak in low tones.

“Would you like to hear their words?”
Matai Shang asked in Sab's mind. Sab nodded, and suddenly he was privy to every word of Tardos and Dejah's conversation. No doubt Matai had another spy planted in the Helium royal party and was sharing the Thern group consciousness again.

“I know,” Tardos said, “this is not the fate you would have chosen, daughter. For yourself, or for Helium. But choice is a luxury, even for a Jeddak of Barsoom. Your heart—”

“A heart is a luxury too,” Dejah replied.

Then they turned and began to walk toward the center of the dais. Sab Than stepped toward her, forcing a smile. Dejah's face was hard, emotionless.

“Easy,”
Matai Shang said to him alone.
“Remember that she is not the prize.”

The groomsmen moved in on Sab's side, and Dejah's maidens joined her. Sab fell in beside his bride-to-be, and the priestess took up her officiating position before them.

High above, a mirror mounted at the top of the dome flipped over. A beam of moonlight stabbed down to a receptor on the dais—and the dais began to levitate, rising slowly up into the air. When it reached the level of the balcony, the ceremony would begin.

“The prize is Barsoom,”
Matai said.

Zodanga was easy to find. It hadn't traveled far since Carter's escape, and its path of destruction was visible miles away. When its spires came into view, the Earthman let out a rebel yell, and several hundred mounted Tharks stormed the city's gates.

At Tars Tarkas's command, the Tharks fired off a volley, shattering the main gate to scrap. Tharks poured into the streets, whooping and roaring. Carter tensed himself for resistance, pulling hard on his thoat's reins. He looked around, past the old stone buildings and guard barracks, and saw…

Nothing. No crowds, no wedding party, no defenses. No army. Only a few Zodangan guards and civilians running hastily for cover from the green horde.

The Thark charge slowed to a bewildered crawl. Tars Tarkas rode up beside Carter, and they exchanged puzzled glances.

Sola spotted a Zodangan guard hiding in a doorway. She leaped off her thoat and snatched him up, holding him close to her sharp tusks. “Why is Zodanga undefended?” she asked. “Where is everyone?”

“The army's been repositioned outside Helium! Only a small contingent remains.” The man squirmed, terrified. “I beg you—have mercy—”

Carter rode up next to them. “Sab and Dejah Thoris. Where are they?”

“At the wedding.”

Carter, frustrated beyond belief, drew his sword.

“In
Helium
!” the man cried.

Tars Tarkas rode up behind Carter. “We're in the wrong city?” He smacked the Earthman on the back of the head, a painful blow.

I deserve that
, Carter thought.

“It's the only way to get there in time,” Carter insisted.

Tars Tarkas fixed him with a steely glare. “Tharks. Do. Not. Fly.”

They stood together on the Zodangan Hangar Deck. Tharks loitered around the edges, eyeing the assembled airships warily. Normally the green Martians were fearless, eager to rush into any new situation at their Jeddak's command. But this seemed to be a leap too far.

Carter opened his mouth to argue, then stopped. Time was running out.

“Okay,” he said. He gestured to a Thark guard, who tossed him an extra pistol. He strapped on another sword, then hopped onto a one-man flier and kicked it to life.

Woola, faithful Woola, roared in protest. Sola held the beast back. Tars Tarkas approached Carter cautiously. “This is madness, Dotar Sojat. You'll die.”

“Then I'll see you down the River Iss!” Carter yelled, over the noise of the flier.

Sola touched his arm. “Follow the canal,” she said. “And be careful. Moonlight will force you to fly low.”

He nodded, smiled, and shook her off. Lifted his flier into the night sky.

And began his one-man assault on the forces of Helium
and
Zodanga.

As the dark wasteland sped beneath him, Carter realized a startling fact. Since he'd come to Barsoom, this was the first time he'd been alone. And despite the urgency of his mission, he found himself growing pensive.

His former life, back on Earth, seemed unimaginably distant now. He felt a twinge of guilt at the thought, and for just a moment he felt Sarah next to him, her long hair soft against his neck. Silently, sadly, he bade her a final good-bye.

In that moment, he knew what mattered to him. Barsoom—and Dejah Thoris most of all. Carter's old war, his old pain, was gone. Now he had something new to fight for, something worth a man's life. He flicked the flier's light controls, feeding more stored power into the motor. The rush of acceleration forced him back against the seat.

Helium loomed ahead, a glowing jewel in an ocean of dead sand. Carter frowned and banked his flier to the side, scanning the desert before him. Sure enough—it was hard to make out, but a vast fleet of Zodangan ground troops lay scattered on the desert floor ahead, just now fanning out to surround the city. The troops carried no lights, no torches. That would have given them away.

Just as he'd thought. Zodanga was planning to use the royal wedding as a distraction to invade and conquer Helium with overwhelming force. That was why they'd left their own city almost undefended.

Carter grimaced as his flier approached the Zodangan army. A trooper pointed up at him, swiveling a rifle quickly in his direction. But a big officer quickly slapped his hand down.

Carter exhaled in relief. He'd hoped they wouldn't risk giving away their presence by firing. Besides, Carter was riding a Zodangan flier. They probably assumed he was one of their own scouts.

Still, he knew that this was the easy part.

Carter glided over the city walls, cutting his motor to silence. He scanned the spires quickly, spotted a domed palace blazing with light.

Gangway, boys
, he thought.
I'm late to the chapel.

“L
IKE OUR ANCESTORS
before us, we gather under the mingled light of Barsoom's first lovers…Cluros and Thuria…”

For Dejah Thoris, all hope was lost. She stood ramrod-straight on the elevated dais, listening as the priestess sealed her marriage vows. And her doom.

“. . . as the moons are joined in celestial union, so do we unite Sab Than and Dejah Thoris. So do we unite Zodanga…and Helium.”

Sab Than's eyes flickered to hers. But Dejah just stared straight ahead, painfully aware of the hundreds of eyes fixed on her from the balconies. More spectators watched from the floor below, along with half of Helium's royal guard.

The priestess poured clear liquid into a crystal goblet. “In the Time of Oceans, the celestial lovers rose from the sea each night to consummate their love in the sky.” She handed the goblet to Sab Than. “Drink now of this holy water, and be wed.”

Sab Than drew himself up to full height, held out the goblet in a toast to the congregation. “So may it be again.” He turned to Dejah, his eyes seeming to take possession of her. “I am yours forever.”

Sab took a long, full drink, then offered the goblet to Dejah. She stared at it for a moment, then took it in both hands.

“And I am yours. Forever.”

She lifted the goblet to her lips…

Carter burst through the dome, raining shattered glass down on the crowd. Helium guards scurried up and down the balconies, drawing swords and pistols. Carter swooped his flier down and around, circling above the floating dais.

He cried out to Dejah Thoris, who stood shielding her eyes from the falling glass. She lowered her hand and called back, “Carter!”

The ceremonial goblet slipped from her hand, shattering on the dais.

“It's a trap!” he yelled. “Zodanga is at your walls!”

Sab Than stepped in front of Dejah, followed by his retinue of groomsmen. He glared up at Carter, then stopped as his bodyguard grabbed his arm.

When the “bodyguard” spoke, Carter recognized the deep voice of Matai Shang.

“The nanoblade,” Matai said to Sab Than. “Now!”

Grimacing, Sab Than pulled a disk from his belt. As Carter watched from above, the familiar blue energy leaped up out of it, weaving itself into a sharp, glowing sword.

Carter sprang off his flier, letting it crash into the balcony. He landed on the far side of the dais, momentarily disoriented. Dejah made a run toward him, but Sab Than grabbed her by the hair, stopping her in her tracks.

Then, as Carter watched, Sab Than levitated upward in a stream of blue energy, dragging the screaming Dejah with him by her hair. He soared all the way up to the very top of the cracked dome, to the mirror that fed power down to the dais's receptor.

Sab held up the blue sword, and for a moment Carter thought he was going to slit Dejah's throat. Then Sab reached out with its blade and flipped the mirror upward, sending a bright beam of reflected moonlight shooting up into the night sky.

“Helium falls!” Sab Than cried.

It was the sign, Carter knew. The signal for Zodanga to invade in force.

But it was more than that. Deprived of its power source, the dais plummeted downward, crashing to the floor below. Carter lost his balance, toppling into an elderly Heliumite couple scrambling to avoid the falling platform. He muttered apologies, then threw them to safety as the first wave of Zodangan soldiers poured in the door.

The room erupted in chaos. Zodangans opened fire, mowing down stunned Heliumites. Carter drew his sword and glanced back upward to see Sab Than and his five groomsmen suspended in mid-air, held aloft by the crackling blue Thern energy. Dejah Thoris still hung by her hair in Sab's grip, struggling but held fast. The hovering groomsmen pulled out their own blue disks and morphed them into fiery blue guns. They rained down fire on the soldiers and scientists of Helium. Carter dodged to the side, barely escaping the deadly barrage.

Then Dejah Thoris pulled out her jeweled hair comb and stabbed it into Sab's hand. He screamed, released her.

Carter leaped, arcing over the fallen, shattered dais. He caught Dejah in both arms, swooping past the floating groomsmen. They turned, momentarily startled, as Carter and Dejah sailed by.

When they landed, she gave him a brief, intense look. “So you have changed your metal.”

He nodded. “And my heart.”

“If you'll just get behind me, sir.”

She grabbed his sword and thrust it through an attacking Zodangan, impaling him. Then she swung wide, slicing into two more men.

Carter smiled as he dodged two other Zodangan swordsmen. He elbowed one into the other, knocking them off balance, and grabbed both their blades as they fell.

From the balcony, Tardos Mors cried out as blue fire assaulted him. Dejah Thoris broke away from Carter to help her father. As she ran, she fired at the five floating groomsmen. Carter watched her with pure admiration. He turned quickly to follow her—and then Sab Than was upon him, furious, swinging his deadly blue nanoblade. Carter ducked behind a pillar, and Sab's blade sliced through it like butter. The next stroke made contact with Carter's first sword, chipping off the tip. Carter stumbled backward, edging down a small flight of stairs.

Sab Than smiled, cruel and confident.

Carter parried the next blow, but the nanoblade sliced his sword in half. Carter gasped, barely managing to raise his remaining sword in time.

He realized grimly that whatever Thern science or magic was at play here, mere swordsmanship wasn't going to defeat it. Sab had him, and the Zodangan knew it. Meticulously, one stroke at a time, Sab whittled Carter's blades down to blunt nubs.

At last Sab backed him up against a wall. Sab leveled his black glowing blade against Carter's throat, his hot breath foul on the Earthman's face.

“When you are dead,” Sab hissed, “when Helium is mine…
she
will be mine too.”

Carter darted a glance past him to the balcony, where Tardos Mors, Kantos Kan, and Dejah Thoris crouched behind a pillar, making their last stand against several regiments of red-clad Zodangan troops swarmed through the palace, making short bloody work of the remaining Helium forces.

No
, Carter thought, squirming back from Sab's hot blade on his throat.
It can't end this way.

Then the palace itself seemed to implode. People screamed, Zodangans and Heliumites alike running for cover as the dome's framework toppled inward. Sab stumbled but maintained his grip on Carter. Together they watched as a heavy Zodangan personnel transport wobbled, toppled, and crashed down to the floor stern first, cracking the ancient stonework.

Time seemed to stand still as the transport's hatch creaked open. Then Tars Tarkas climbed out, looking a bit dazed.

“Thank the Goddess that's over with,” he said.

Sola appeared behind him, and then a hundred more Tharks spilled out of the transport. At the sight of the green warriors, both the Zodangans and the Heliumites panicked.
“Tharks!”

Even Sab Than gasped, momentarily surprised. Seizing the moment, Carter dove and jabbed his sword's blunt nub into Sab's leg, impaling him by sheer force. Sab roared in pain, hacking and slashing wildly at Carter. But Carter was already leaping free.

“Virginia!” Tars Tarkas cried.

Carter turned as Tars flung his sword. Carter caught it by the hilt and, in one fluid motion, sliced off Sab Than's entire sword arm. Sab howled, a blood-curdling cry of pain that mingled with the buzz of one-man fliers ridden by the remaining Tharks. They swooped down into the roofless dome, firing mounted guns. Three of the floating groomsmen fell before their fury.

Maybe Tharks never flew before
, Carter thought.
But they sure learn fast.

He whirled toward Dejah, saw that the two remaining groomsmen still held her and her father pinned under fire. Carter crouched to spring to her aid—and then Sola and Woola swooped past him on a one-man flier heading straight for the groomsmen. Sola held out her sword, impaling one assassin in mid-air. Woola bounded, roaring, and chomped down hard on the other's torso. They landed in a ball, Woola whooping and yowling over his prey.

Dejah grinned upward, and Sola grinned back.

“The Tharks,” Tardos Mors said, amazed. “By Issus, they're fighting
with
us!”

And so they were. Throughout the palace Tharks swarmed, firing and slashing—but only at the red-caped Zodangans. A Heliumite flashed his blue uniform at Tars Tarkas, and the Thark grinned in response, moving on to his next target.

Carter whipped his head down to see Sab Than moaning, clutching his bleeding arm-stump. Carter jabbed his sword at the Zodangan's throat.

“The Therns,” Carter said. “You're gonna spit out everything you know about them.”

Sab Than flinched in pain, nodded. “Spare me and I will tell you—”

Then Sab stopped, eyes flicking in fear to his own severed arm, lying nearby. The nanoweb of the weapon was crawling off of it, oozing across the floor toward Sab himself. “No,” the Zodangan said. “No, you can't. I've done everything. I've—I've served the Goddess…”

But as Carter watched in horror, the web reached Sab and crept up over his face, into his mouth and nose. Sab began to choke, to spasm, gasping hopelessly for air—strangled by his own unearthly weapon.

When Sab Than lay dead, the web seemed to recede, moving away—toward Carter. The Earthman turned to leap, but it was too late. The web oozed onto Carter's sword and up his arm. He shook his sword, eyes casting around frantically as the eerie substance crawled slowly toward his face…and then he saw it. A green Thark, up on the balcony, manipulating a Thern bracelet. Medallion around his neck.

As if from nowhere, Dejah Thoris's well-aimed sword struck the fake Thark's bracelet. The instant it shattered, the nanoweb evaporated from Carter's body, dissipating into the air.

Up on the balcony, Dejah pointed her sword at the Thark. He grinned, shape-shifted—and then Matai Shang stood before her.

Dejah had not seen Matai's transformations before; she stepped back in amazement. Matai Shang took immediate advantage, transforming into a duplicate of Dejah herself. “Your Highness,” he said. As she stood, astonished, he reached out and snatched her sword away.

“Dejah!” Carter called. All around him, Tharks still sparred with Zodangans, but all he could see was
her
. In one smooth motion, he sprang up onto the balcony—just as Matai-Dejah brought the sword up around the real Dejah's neck.

“A fitting solution to your setback, wouldn't you say, Captain?” The Thern smiled with Dejah's face. “Dejah Thoris survives her assassins, but fails to prove her misguided theory of the Ninth Ray.”

“You don't have to do this,” Carter said. “Oh, I know. But I think she—I mean,
I
—will enjoy playing out this particular scenario.”

Teeth gritted, the real Dejah ripped the medallion off her captor's neck and tossed it to Carter. He caught it handily, smiling as Matai's eyes went wide.

“You want it?” Carter asked, then hurled the medallion into the seething fray below. It vanished into the battling mob of Zodangans, Tharks, and Heliumite guards.

Sneering back, Matai threw Dejah off the balcony.

Carter leaped immediately and caught her in midair. Dejah pointed downward. “He's—I'm—no,
he's
getting away!”

Carter landed on the lip of the balcony, placing Dejah down gently. When he turned to look, Matai was already floating down toward the floor. The Thern morphed several times in rapid succession: Zodangan, Heliumite, Zodangan again. Then he disappeared into the crowd.

“The medallion,” Dejah said.

Carter nodded, turned, and vaulted off the balcony. He landed on a piece of jagged debris between two brawling groups of Zodangans and Tharks. Then an oddly familiar voice rang out.

“Tars. The medallion!”

Carter turned to see
himself
reaching out toward Tars Tarkas. Tars stood holding the medallion, hesitating.

“Give it to me, my Jeddak.”

Carter yelled to Tars, leaping over the crowd toward the Thark. He saw Tars's eyes dart from the real John Carter, arcing toward him in mid-air, to the disguised Matai Shang, still holding out his hand for the medallion.

Tars made his decision. He swung his sword straight at Matai-Carter just as the real Carter soared down out of the air, also swinging.

And then Matai was gone. Tars Tarkas's sword sliced through open air, nicking the real Carter on the neck. The Thark jumped back, his eyes darting around warily.

Carter mopped blood off his neck and looked around. The last of the Zodangans were being marched off by a dual force of Heliumites and Tharks—the red and green people of Barsoom, working together at last.

No trace remained of the blue energy, or the Thern weapons.

Tars Tarkas crossed to Carter and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You are my Jeddak now. And you have won.” He grinned. “All is finished.”