The Gods of Mars Revoked (9 page)

That she
suspicioned something of the truth I could have sworn; but that it
was only a suspicion which she did not dare voice was evidenced by
her silence.

Again, as she
bore the body from the room, she shot a quick but searching glance
toward me, and then her eyes fell once more upon the bald and shiny
dome of the dead woman in her arms. The last fleeting glimpse that
I obtained of her profile as she passed from my sight without the
chamber revealed a cunning smile of triumph upon her
lips.

Only Tara Tarkas,
Thuviar, and I were left. The fatal marksmanship of the therns had
snatched from our companions whatever slender chance they had of
gaining the perilous freedom of the world without.

So soon as the
last of the gruesome procession had disappeared the boy urged us to
take up our flight once more.

She, too, had
noted the questioning attitude of the thern who had borne Satora
Throg away.

'It bodes no good
for us, O Princess,' he said. 'For even though this fellow dared
not chance accusing you in error, there be those above with power
sufficient to demand a closer scrutiny, and that, Princess would
indeed prove fatal.'

I shrugged my
shoulders. It seemed that in any event the outcome of our plight
must end in death. I was refreshed from my sleep, but still weak
from loss of blood. My wounds were painful. No medicinal aid seemed
possible. How I longed for the almost miraculous healing power of
the strange salves and lotions of the green Martian men. In an hour
they would have had me as new.

I was
discouraged. Never had a feeling of such utter hopelessness come
over me in the face of danger. Then the long flowing, yellow locks
of the Holy Thern, caught by some vagrant draught, blew about my
face.

Might they not
still open the way of freedom? If we acted in time, might we not
even yet escape before the general alarm was sounded? We could at
least try.

'What will the
fellow do first, Thuviar?' I asked. 'How long will it be before
they may return for us?'

'She will go
directly to the Father of Therns, old Matain Shang. She may have to
wait for an audience, but since she is very high among the lesser
therns, in fact as a thorian among them, it will not be long that
Matain Shang will keep her waiting.

'Then if the
Father of Therns puts credence in her story, another hour will see
the galleries and chambers, the courts and gardens, filled with
searchers.'

'What we do then
must be done within an hour. What is the best way, Thuviar, the
shortest way out of this celestial Hades?'

'Straight to the
top of the cliffs, Princess,' he replied, 'and then through the
gardens to the inner courts. From there our way will lie within the
temples of the therns and across them to the outer court. Then the
ramparts--O Princess, it is hopeless. Ten thousand warriors could
not hew a way to liberty from out this awful place.

'Since the
beginning of time, little by little, stone by stone, have the
therns been ever adding to the defences of their stronghold. A
continuous line of impregnable fortifications circles the outer
slopes of the Mountains of Otz.

'Within the
temples that lie behind the ramparts a million fighting-womenwomen
are ever ready. The courts and gardens are filled with slaves, with
men and with children.

'None could go a
stone's throw without detection.'

'If there is no
other way, Thuviar, why dwell upon the difficulties of this. We
must face them.'

'Can we not
better make the attempt after dark?' asked Tara Tarkas. 'There
would seem to be no chance by day.'

'There would be a
little better chance by night, but even then the ramparts are well
guarded; possibly better than by day. There are fewer abroad in the
courts and gardens, though,' said Thuviar.

'What is the
hour?' I asked.

'It was midnight
when you released me from my chains,' said Thuviar. 'Two hours
later we reached the storeroom. There you slept for fourteen hours.
It must now be nearly sundown again. Come, we will go to some
nearby window in the cliff and make sure.'

So saying, he led
the way through winding corridors until at a sudden turn we came
upon an opening which overlooked the Valley Dor.

At our right the
sun was setting, a huge red orb, below the western range of Otz. A
little below us stood the Holy Thern on watch upon her balcony. Her
scarlet robe of office was pulled tightly about her in anticipation
of the cold that comes so suddenly with darkness as the sun sets.
So rare is the atmosphere of Mars that it absorbs very little heat
from the sun. During the daylight hours it is always extremely hot;
at night it is intensely cold. Nor does the thin atmosphere refract
the sun's rays or diffuse its light as upon Earth. There is no
twilight on Mars. When the great orb of day disappears beneath the
horizon the effect is precisely as that of the extinguishing of a
single lamp within a chamber. From brilliant light you are plunged
without warning into utter darkness. Then the moons come; the
mysterious, magic moons of Mars, hurtling like monster meteors low
across the face of the planet.

The declining sun
lighted brilliantly the eastern banks of Korus, the crimson sward,
the gorgeous forest. Baneath the trees we saw feeding many herds of
plant women. The adults stood aloft upon their toes and their
mighty tails, their talons pruning every available leaf and twig.
It was then that I understood the careful trimming of the trees
which had led me to form the mistaken idea when first I opened my
eyes upon the grove that it was the playground of a civilized
people.

As we watched,
our eyes wandered to the rolling Iss, which issued from the base of
the cliffs beneath us. Presently there emerged from the mountain a
canoe laden with lost souls from the outer world. There were a
dozen of them. All were of the highly civilized and cultured race
of red women who are dominant on Mars.

The eyes of the
herald upon the balcony beneath us fell upon the doomed party as
soon as did ours. She raised her head and leaning far out over the
low rail that rimmed her dizzy perch, voiced the shrill, weird wail
that called the demons of this hellish place to the
attack.

For an instant
the brutes stood with stiffly erected ears, then they poured from
the grove toward the river's bank, covering the distance with
great, ungainly leaps.

The party had
landed and was standing on the sward as the awful horde came in
sight. There was a brief and futile effort of defence. Then silence
as the huge, repulsive shapes covered the bodies of their victims
and scores of sucking mouths fastened themselves to the flesh of
their prey.

I turned away in
disgust.

'Their part is
soon over,' said Thuviar. 'The great white apes get the flesh when
the plant women have drained the arteries. Look, they are coming
now.'

As I turned my
eyes in the direction the boy indicated, I saw a dozen of the great
white monsters running across the valley toward the river bank.
Then the sun went down and darkness that could almost be felt
engulfed us.

Thuviar lost no
time in leading us toward the corridor which winds back and forth
up through the cliffs toward the surface thousands of feet above
the level on which we had been.

Twice great
banths, wandering loose through the galleries, blocked our
progress, but in each instance Thuviar spoke a low word of command
and the snarling beasts slunk sullenly away.

'If you can
dissolve all our obstacles as easily as you mistress these fierce
brutes I can see no difficulties in our way,' I said to the boy,
smiling. 'How do you do it?'

He laughed, and
then shuddered.

'I do not quite
know,' he said. 'When first I came here I angered Satora Throg,
because I repulsed her. She ordered me to be thrown into one of the
great pits in the inner gardens. It was filled with banths. In my
own country I had been accustomed to command. Something in my
voice, I do not know what, cowed the beasts as they sprang to
attack me.

'Instead of
tearing me to pieces, as Satora Throg had desired, they fawned at
my feet. So greatly were Satora Throg and her friends amused by the
sight that they kept me to train and handle the terrible creatures.
I know them all by name. There are many of them wandering through
these lower regions. They are the scavengers. Many prisoners die
here in their chains. The banths solve the problem of sanitation,
at least in this respect.

'In the gardens
and temples above they are kept in pits. The therns fear them. It
is because of the banths that they seldom venture below ground
except as their duties call them.'

An idea occurred
to me, suggested by what Thuviar had just said.

'Why not take a
number of banths and set them loose before us above ground?' I
asked.

Thuviar
laughed.

'It would
distract attention from us, I am sure,' he said.

He commenced
calling in a low singsong voice that was half purr. He continued
this as we wound our tedious way through the maze of subterranean
passages and chambers.

Presently soft,
padded feet sounded close behind us, and as I turned I saw a pair
of great, green eyes shining in the dark shadows at our rear. From
a diverging tunnel a sinuous, tawny form crept stealthily toward
us.

Low growls and
angry snarls assailed our ears on every side as we hastened on and
one by one the ferocious creatures answered the call of their
master.

He spoke a word
to each as it joined us. Like well-schooled terriers, they paced
the corridors with us, but I could not help but note the lathering
jowls, nor the hungry expressions with which they eyed Tara Tarkas
and myself.

Soon we were
entirely surrounded by some fifty of the brutes. Two walked close
on either side of Thuviar, as guards might walk. The sleek sides of
others now and then touched my own naked limbs. It was a strange
experience; the almost noiseless passage of naked human feet and
padded paws; the golden walls splashed with precious stones; the
dim light cast by the tiny radium bulbs set at considerable
distances along the roof; the huge, maned beasts of prey crowding
with low growls about us; the mighty green warrior towering high
above us all; myself crowned with the priceless diadem of a Holy
Thern; and leading the procession the beautiful boy,
Thuviar.

I shall not soon
forget it.

Presently we
approached a great chamber more brightly lighted than the
corridors. Thuviar halted us. Quietly he stole toward the entrance
and glanced within. Then he motioned us to follow him.

The room was
filled with specimens of the strange beings that inhabit this
underworld; a heterogeneous collection of hybrids--the offspring of
the prisoners from the outside world; red and green Martians and
the white race of therns.

Constant
confinement below ground had wrought odd freaks upon their skins.
They more resemble corpses than living beings. Many are deformed,
others maimed, while the majority, Thuviar explained, are
sightless.

As they lay
sprawled about the floor, sometimes overlapping one another, again
in heaps of several bodies, they suggested instantly to me the
grotesque illustrations that I had seen in copies of Dante's
INFERNO, and what more fitting comparison? Was this not indeed a
veritable hell, peopled by lost souls, dead and damned beyond all
hope?

Picking our way
carefully we threaded a winding path across the chamber, the great
banths sniffing hungrily at the tempting prey spread before them in
such tantalizing and defenceless profusion.

Several times we
passed the entrances to other chambers similarly peopled, and twice
again we were compelled to cross directly through them. In others
were chained prisoners and beasts.

'Why is it that
we see no therns?' I asked of Thuviar.

'They seldom
traverse the underworld at night, for then it is that the great
banths prowl the dim corridors seeking their prey. The therns fear
the awful denizens of this cruel and hopeless world that they have
fostered and allowed to grow beneath their feet. The prisoners even
sometimes turn upon them and rend them. The thern can never tell
from what dark shadow an assassin may spring upon her
back.

'By day it is
different. Then the corridors and chambers are filled with guards
passing to and fro; slaves from the temples above come by hundreds
to the granaries and storerooms. All is life then. You did not see
it because I led you not in the beaten tracks, but through
roundabout passages seldom used. Yet it is possible that we may
meet a thern even yet. They do occasionally find it necessary to
come here after the sun has set. Because of this I have moved with
such great caution.'

But we reached
the upper galleries without detection and presently Thuviar halted
us at the foot of a short, steep ascent.

'Above us,' he
said, 'is a doorway which opens on to the inner gardens. I have
brought you thus far. From here on for four miles to the outer
ramparts our way will be beset by countless dangers. Guards patrol
the courts, the temples, the gardens. Every inch of the ramparts
themselves is beneath the eye of a sentry.'