The Gods of Mars Revoked (3 page)

Half a dozen
great leaps brought me to the spot, and another instant saw me
again in my stride in quick pursuit of the hideous monsters that
were rapidly gaining on the fleeing warrior, but this time I
grasped a mighty long-sword in my hand and in my heart was the old
blood lust of the fighting woman, and a red mist swam before my
eyes and I felt my lips respond to my heart in the old smile that
has ever marked me in the midst of the joy of battle.

Swift as I was I
was none too soon, for the green warrior had been overtaken ere she
had made half the distance to the forest, and now she stood with
her back to a boulder, while the herd, temporarily balked, hissed
and screeched about her.

With their single
eyes in the centre of their heads and every eye turned upon their
prey, they did not note my soundless approach, so that I was upon
them with my great long-sword and four of them lay dead ere they
knew that I was among them.

For an instant
they recoiled before my terrific onslaught, and in that instant the
green warrior rose to the occasion and, springing to my side, laid
to the right and left of her as I had never seen but one other
warrior do, with great circling strokes that formed a figure eight
about her and that never stopped until none stood living to oppose
her, her keen blade passing through flesh and bone and metal as
though each had been alike thin air.

As we bent to the
slaughter, far above us rose that shrill, weird cry which I had
heard once before, and which had called the herd to the attack upon
their victims. Again and again it rose, but we were too much
engaged with the fierce and powerful creatures about us to attempt
to search out even with our eyes the author of the horrid
notes.

Great tails
lashed in frenzied anger about us, razor-like talons cut our limbs
and bodies, and a green and sticky syrup, such as oozes from a
crushed caterpillar, smeared us from head to foot, for every cut
and thrust of our longswords brought spurts of this stuff upon us
from the severed arteries of the plant women, through which it
courses in its sluggish viscidity in lieu of blood.

Once I felt the
great weight of one of the monsters upon my back and as keen talons
sank into my flesh I experienced the frightful sensation of moist
lips sucking the lifeblood from the wounds to which the claws still
clung.

I was very much
engaged with a ferocious fellow who was endeavouring to reach my
throat from in front, while two more, one on either side, were
lashing viciously at me with their tails.

The green warrior
was much put to it to hold her own, and I felt that the unequal
struggle could last but a moment longer when the huge fellow
discovered my plight, and tearing herself from those that
surrounded her, she raked the assailant from my back with a single
sweep of her blade, and thus relieved I had little difficulty with
the others.

Once together, we
stood almost back to back against the great boulder, and thus the
creatures were prevented from soaring above us to deliver their
deadly blows, and as we were easily their match while they remained
upon the ground, we were making great headway in dispatching what
remained of them when our attention was again attracted by the
shrill wail of the caller above our heads.

This time I
glanced up, and far above us upon a little natural balcony on the
face of the cliff stood a strange figure of a woman shrieking out
her shrill signal, the while she waved one hand in the direction of
the river's mouth as though beckoning to some one there, and with
the other pointed and gesticulated toward us.

A glance in the
direction toward which she was looking was sufficient to apprise me
of her aims and at the same time to fill me with the dread of dire
apprehension, for, streaming in from all directions across the
meadow, from out of the forest, and from the far distance of the
flat land across the river, I could see converging upon us a
hundred different lines of wildly leaping creatures such as we were
now engaged with, and with them some strange new monsters which ran
with great swiftness, now erect and now upon all fours.

'It will be a
great death,' I said to my companion. 'Look!'

As she shot a
quick glance in the direction I indicated she smiled.

'We may at least
die fighting and as great warriors should, Joan Carter,' she
replied.

We had just
finished the last of our immediate antagonists as she spoke, and I
turned in surprised wonderment at the sound of my name.

And there before
my astonished eyes I beheld the greatest of the green women of
Barsoom; their shrewdest statesman, their mightiest general, my
great and good friend, Tara Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark.

CHAPTER
II

A FOREST
BATTLE

Tara Tarkas and I
found no time for an exchange of experiences as we stood there
before the great boulder surrounded by the corpses of our grotesque
assailants, for from all directions down the broad valley was
streaming a perfect torrent of terrifying creatures in response to
the weird call of the strange figure far above us.

'Come,' cried
Tara Tarkas, 'we must make for the cliffs. There lies our only hope
of even temporary escape; there we may find a cave or a narrow
ledge which two may defend for ever against this motley, unarmed
horde.'

Together we raced
across the scarlet sward, I timing my speed that I might not
outdistance my slower companion. We had, perhaps, three hundred
yards to cover between our boulder and the cliffs, and then to
search out a suitable shelter for our stand against the terrifying
things that were pursuing us.

They were rapidly
overhauling us when Tara Tarkas cried to me to hasten ahead and
discover, if possible, the sanctuary we sought. The suggestion was
a good one, for thus many valuable minutes might be saved to us,
and, throwing every ounce of my earthly muscles into the effort, I
cleared the remaining distance between myself and the cliffs in
great leaps and bounds that put me at their base in a
moment.

The cliffs rose
perpendicular directly from the almost level sward of the valley.
There was no accumulation of fallen debris, forming a more or less
rough ascent to them, as is the case with nearly all other cliffs I
have ever seen. The scattered boulders that had fallen from above
and lay upon or partly buried in the turf, were the only indication
that any disintegration of the massive, towering pile of rocks ever
had taken place.

My first cursory
inspection of the face of the cliffs filled my heart with
forebodings, since nowhere could I discern, except where the weird
herald stood still shrieking her shrill summons, the faintest
indication of even a bare foothold upon the lofty
escarpment.

To my right the
bottom of the cliff was lost in the dense foliage of the forest,
which terminated at its very foot, rearing its gorgeous foliage
fully a thousand feet against its stern and forbidding
neighbour.

To the left the
cliff ran, apparently unbroken, across the head of the broad
valley, to be lost in the outlines of what appeared to be a range
of mighty mountains that skirted and confined the valley in every
direction.

Perhaps a
thousand feet from me the river broke, as it seemed, directly from
the base of the cliffs, and as there seemed not the remotest chance
for escape in that direction I turned my attention again toward the
forest.

The cliffs
towered above me a good five thousand feet. The sun was not quite
upon them and they loomed a dull yellow in their own shade. Here
and there they were broken with streaks and patches of dusky red,
green, and occasional areas of white quartz.

Altogether they
were very beautiful, but I fear that I did not regard them with a
particularly appreciative eye on this, my first inspection of
them.

Just then I was
absorbed in them only as a medium of escape, and so, as my gaze ran
quickly, time and again, over their vast expanse in search of some
cranny or crevice, I came suddenly to loathe them as the prisoner
must loathe the cruel and impregnable walls of her
dungeon.

Tara Tarkas was
approaching me rapidly, and still more rapidly came the awful horde
at her heels.

It seemed the
forest now or nothing, and I was just on the point of motioning
Tara Tarkas to follow me in that direction when the sun passed the
cliff's zenith, and as the bright rays touched the dull surface it
burst out into a million scintillant lights of burnished gold, of
flaming red, of soft greens, and gleaming whites--a more gorgeous
and inspiring spectacle human eye has never rested upon.

The face of the
entire cliff was, as later inspection conclusively proved, so shot
with veins and patches of solid gold as to quite present the
appearance of a solid wall of that precious metal except where it
was broken by outcroppings of ruby, emerald, and diamond
boulders--a faint and alluring indication of the vast and
unguessable riches which lay deeply buried behind the magnificent
surface.

But what caught
my most interested attention at the moment that the sun's rays set
the cliff's face a-shimmer, was the several black spots which now
appeared quite plainly in evidence high across the gorgeous wall
close to the forest's top, and extending apparently below and
behind the branches.

Almost
immediately I recognised them for what they were, the dark openings
of caves entering the solid walls--possible avenues of escape or
temporary shelter, could we but reach them.

There was but a
single way, and that led through the mighty, towering trees upon
our right. That I could scale them I knew full well, but Tara
Tarkas, with her mighty bulk and enormous weight, would find it a
task possibly quite beyond her prowess or her skill, for Martians
are at best but poor climbers. Upon the entire surface of that
ancient planet I never before had seen a hill or mountain that
exceeded four thousand feet in height above the dead sea bottoms,
and as the ascent was usually gradual, nearly to their summits they
presented but few opportunities for the practice of climbing. Nor
would the Martians have embraced even such opportunities as might
present themselves, for they could always find a circuitous route
about the base of any eminence, and these roads they preferred and
followed in preference to the shorter but more arduous
ways.

However, there
was nothing else to consider than an attempt to scale the trees
contiguous to the cliff in an effort to reach the caves
above.

The Thark grasped
the possibilities and the difficulties of the plan at once, but
there was no alternative, and so we set out rapidly for the trees
nearest the cliff.

Our relentless
pursuers were now close to us, so close that it seemed that it
would be an utter impossibility for the Jeddak of Thark to reach
the forest in advance of them, nor was there any considerable will
in the efforts that Tara Tarkas made, for the green women of
Barsoom do not relish flight, nor ever before had I seen one
fleeing from death in whatsoever form it might have confronted her.
But that Tara Tarkas was the bravest of the brave she had proven
thousands of times; yes, tens of thousands in countless mortal
combats with women and beasts. And so I knew that there was another
reason than fear of death behind her flight, as she knew that a
greater power than pride or honour spurred me to escape these
fierce destroyers. In my case it was love--love of the divine Dejar
Thoris; and the cause of the Thark's great and sudden love of life
I could not fathom, for it is oftener that they seek death than
life--these strange, cruel, loveless, unhappy people.

At length,
however, we reached the shadows of the forest, while right behind
us sprang the swiftest of our pursuers--a giant plant woman with
claws outreaching to fasten her bloodsucking mouths upon
us.

She was, I should
say, a hundred yards in advance of her closest companion, and so I
called to Tara Tarkas to ascend a great tree that brushed the
cliff's face while I dispatched the fellow, thus giving the less
agile Thark an opportunity to reach the higher branches before the
entire horde should be upon us and every vestige of escape cut
off.

But I had
reckoned without a just appreciation either of the cunning of my
immediate antagonist or the swiftness with which her fellows were
covering the distance which had separated them from me.

As I raised my
long-sword to deal the creature its death thrust it halted in its
charge and, as my sword cut harmlessly through the empty air, the
great tail of the thing swept with the power of a grizzly's arm
across the sward and carried me bodily from my feet to the ground.
In an instant the brute was upon me, but ere it could fasten its
hideous mouths into my breast and throat I grasped a writhing
tentacle in either hand.

The plant woman
was well muscled, heavy, and powerful but my earthly sinews and
greater agility, in conjunction with the deathly strangle hold I
had upon her, would have given me, I think, an eventual victory had
we had time to discuss the merits of our relative prowess
uninterrupted. But as we strained and struggled about the tree into
which Tara Tarkas was clambering with infinite difficulty, I
suddenly caught a glimpse over the shoulder of my antagonist of the
great swarm of pursuers that now were fairly upon me.