3 - Barbarians of Mars (13 page)

 
          
 
But when we approached closer we saw a party
of mounted men to the west of the city. They were riding full tilt at it with
bared weapons - swords and axes mainly. They were yellow-skinned men and were
wearing bright cloaks and highly-decorated war-harness. The yellow of their
skins was not like that of the Oriental, but a deeper, brighter yellow,
somewhat like lemon-yellow.

 
          
 
From somewhere within the ruins we heard a
yell - the voice of one man - and we gathered that it was he the yellow men
were attacking.

 
          
 
We were undecided how to act, not knowing what
situation had arisen, but rode in closer to get a better view of what was
happening.

 
          
 
Then I saw the man whose voice we had heard -
and I could not believe my eyes.

 
          
 
The man whom the yellow warriors attacked with
such ferocity was none other than Hool Haji!

 
          
 
The Blue Giant looked weary and
travel-stained. He seemed to have a half-healed wound in his shoulder, but he
bore a great, wide sword of a kind I had seen in the hands of the
yellow-skinned warriors.

 
          
 
As the yellow riders bore down on Hool Haji, I
gave a great shout and urged my dahara towards him.

 
          
 
Zapha and his men followed and soon we were
face to face with the yellow warriors.

 
          
 
They seemed dismayed by our sudden appearance.
They had expected to have to fight only one man and now found nearly twenty
riders coming to his rescue.

 
          
 
We had killed and wounded only a few before
the rest turned their mounts about and rode away. They mounted a hill and were
quickly lost from our view on the other side.

 
          
 
I swung myself off my dahara's broad back and
walked towards Hool Haji. He seemed as astonished to see me as I was to see
him.

 
          
 
"Hool Haji!" I cried. "You are
alive! How did you get here?"

 
          
 
He laughed. "You will think me a liar
when I tell you - but tell you I must. I had thought you dead, also, Michael
Kane. Have you any food? We must feast and celebrate our coming together
again!"

 
          
 
We posted guards and the rest of us built a
fire and cooked some provisions.

 
          
 
While we ate, Hool Haji told me his story.

 
          
 
He had, as I suspected, been carried to the
mountain lair of the First Masters. It was a dark warren of caves in the
highest peaks and there they nested like strange birds.

 
          
 
He had not been harmed at first, but had been
deposited close to the central nest, where a young creature of the same species
rested.

 
          
 
From the way that they protected this
youngster, Hool Haji gathered that this was, in fact, the last of their species,
since he saw no females while he was there.

 
          
 
He had been left as food for the young one by
the First Masters and expected them to kill him but, just as they were coming
towards him, something had disturbed them. He didn't know what it was. They had
suddenly taken it into their heads to fly off.

 
          
 
Left alone with the young one, who was
actually not very much smaller than himself, he had conceived the idea of
training it and thus escaping from the eyrie.

 
          
 
Using his sword, which the First Masters had not
had sense enough to take from him, he prodded the young creature to the edge of
the outer cage. He clambered upon its back and, by many pricks from the sword,
had taught it to obey him.

 
          
 
He had meant to return in the direction of the
Crystal Pit and see if he could find any trace of me, but the young Jihadoo -
as Hool Haji called it - had revealed a mind of its own after its initial
bewilderment, and had resisted him.

 
          
 
It had begun to fly very fast until it had
become very tired.

 
          
 
Lower and lower it had sunk, by this time just
managing to brush over the tops of the trees.

 
          
 
Then some kind of weariness caused it to turn
in the air and began snapping at Hool Haji. A fight developed. Hool Haji was
forced to kill the creature to protect himself and they had both fallen to
earth, where Hool Haji had escaped with only a few bruises. But the creature
was dead. Hool Haji had landed in the swamp we had just crossed, but had
managed to haul
himself
to firm ground, and began
crossing the marsh.

 
          
 
Then the men with small heads had attacked.
Hool Haji called them the Perodi.

 
          
 
They had overwhelmed him after a desperate
fight and taken him overland to a city which lay many shatis to the West.

 
          
 
Here the men with small heads had sold him as
a slave to the yellow-skinned people who lived in the city - the Cinivik, as
they called themselves.

 
          
 
Hool Haji had refused to work as a slave for
the Cinivik and had at length been chained in one of their prisons, of which,
apparently, they had many.

 
          
 
He was displayed, because of his physical
peculiarities, as some kind of zoo specimen, but bided his time until he had
recovered all his strength.

 
          
 
Then he had managed to wrench his chains out
of the wall and throttle his gaoler, taking the man's sword and escaping, after
a fight or two, from the city.

 
          
 
As luck would have it, his only route of
escape was into the marshes. He had had several encounters with the Perodi but
had managed to beat them. He had won several swords from them in these fights
and had snapped two while getting the chains off his arm.

 
          
 
Apparently a reward had been offered for him
and the Perodi had told the Cinivik where he was. He had taken to using the
ruins as his main base.

 
          
 
A small party of warriors had been sent out to
find him, but he had killed several and beaten the rest off.

 
          
 
He would have been killed or recaptured, he
believed, if we had not arrived on the scene just as the second expedition were
about to attack him.

 
          
 
"And that, in brief, is the sum total of
my adventures until today," he told me. "I am sorry if I have bored
you."

 
          
 
"You have not," I told him.
"And now let me tell you my story. I think you will like it."

 
          
 
I told Hool Haji everything that had happened
since our forced parting and he listened attentively.

 
          
 
After I had finished, he said: "Of the
two of us, the most has happened to you. So you are on the way to Bagarad now,
are you? I will be pleased to rejoin you and help as best I can."

 
          
 
"Discovering you alive is the best thing
that has happened yet," I told him sincerely.

 
          
 
That night I slept well and deeply.

 
          
 
In the morning we rode on for Bagarad, which
was still several days* journey away.

 
          
 
The terrain was easier now and made travel
lighter. The whole party of us rode long, talking and joking among ourselves, while
a great plain stretched away in all directions, giving us a sense of security,
since no enemies could approach without warning.

 
          
 
But there were no enemies on the plain, only
herds of strange looking animals which, Zapha informed us, were quite harmless.

 
          
 
Soon the plain gave way to hill country that
was just as pleasant, for the hills were covered in bright, orange grass, with
red and yellow flowers growing in profusion.

 
          
 
It was strange how, on Mars, one would
discover a landscape quite similar to Earth's and then, suddenly, come upon
another that one might never expect to find on any planet.

 
          
 
Soon now, if the map was accurate, we should
come to Bagarad and the long-missing machines.

THE REMAINS

 
          
 
By the next afternoon we had left the hills
and were crossing a rugged landscape of rock and coarse turf, with twisted
trees springing from anywhere that a little earth had deposited itself amongst
cracks in the rocks.

 
          
 
This was the land where Bagarad lay.

 
          
 
But before we reached Bagarad we came upon a
party of barbarians whom I recognized as being similar to those who had
followed Rokin to eventual destruction.

 
          
 
They were gaunt-eyed men, women and children -
and they merely waited for us to pass without challenging us in any way.

 
          
 
I stopped my dahara and spoke to one of them.

 
          
 
"Do you know where Bagarad hes from
here?" I asked.

 
          
 
The man mumbled something which I did not
catch.

 
          
 
"I do not hear you," I said.

 
          
 
"Do not look for Bagarad," he said,
"If you would see where Bagarad lies, go that way." And he pointed.

 
          
 
I was a little perturbed by what he had said,
but set my dahara in the direction he had indicated. Hool Haji, Zapha, and the
cat-men followed.

 
          
 
It was nearly evening by the time we came to
Bagarad.

 
          
 
There was very little of it left.

 
          
 
There were only ruins and the ruins were
deserted. A pall of dusty smoke hung over them.

 
          
 
I knew instinctively what had happened. We had
come too late. The barbarians had tampered with the machines and destroyed
themselves.

 
          
 
Those we had seen must have been the remnants
who had survived.

 
          
 
I climbed down from my dahara and began to
pick my way through the ruins.

 
          
 
Here was a piece of metal, there part of a
coil. It was evident that all the Yaksha machines had been destroyed.

 
          
 
I noticed a small metal tube and picked it up.
It must have been a part from one of the machines. I tucked it into my
belt-pouch regretfully - it was the only complete part left.

 
          
 
With a sigh I turned turned to Hool Haji.

 
          
 
"Well, my friend," I said, "our
quest is over. Somehow we must now return to the Yaksha vaults to see if
anything remains."

 
          
 
Hool Haji clasped my shoulder. "Do not
worry, Michael Kane. Perhaps it was for the best that the machines were
destroyed."

 
          
 
"Unless one of them held the secret that
could have cured the plague," I pointed out. "Think of the madness
and the misery in Cend-Amrid. How are we going to combat that?"

 
          
 
"We must simply put the case to our
physicians and hope they can devise a cure."

 
          
 
But I shook my head. "Martian physicians
are not used to analysing diseases. There is no cure for the Green Death - or
will not be for many years."

 
          
 
"I suppose you are right," he
admitted. "Then the Yaksha vaults are our only chance."

 
          
 
"It seems to be so."

 
          
 
"But how are we to return to our own
continent?" was his next question.

 
          
 
"We must find a ship." I pointed to
the east, where the sea could be seen in the distance.

 
          
 
"Finding a ship is not so easy,"
Hool Haji said.

 
          
 
"The Bagarad had ships," I told him.
"They must have a harbour." I pulled out a map, "Look. There is
a river not far from here. Perhaps they have ships moored there."

 
          
 
"Let us go there, then," he said.
"I am aching to set foot in my own land again."

            
After a while, we discovered a
place where several Bagarad ships were moored. They were deserted.

 
          
 
What urge had made the survivors go inland? I
wondered. Why had they not taken a ship? Perhaps they associated ships with the
machines that had destroyed their city. I could think of no other explanation.

 
          
 
We decided on a small ship with a single mast
that could just about be worked by two men.

 
          
 
Zapha spoke to me after Hool Haji had picked
out our boat and we had discussed its merits.

 
          
 
"Michael Kane," said Zapha, "we
would be honoured if you would take us with you."

 
          
 
I shook my head. "You have helped enough,
Zapha. You will be needed by your own people, and it is a long journey back. In
a way, your journey has been wasted, but I am glad you have lost so few
men."

 
          
 
"That is a relief to me, too," he
said. "But ... but we would follow you, Michael Kane. We still feel our
debt to you."

 
          
 
"Do not thank me," I told him.
"Thank circumstances. It could have been any other man."

 
          
 
"I do not think so."

 
          
 
"Be careful, Zapha," I said.
"Remember your old prophet. If you admire something in me, look for it in
yourself. You will find it there."

 
          
 
He smiled. "I see what you mean," he
said. "Yes, perhaps you are right."

 
          
 
Soon after that we parted regretfully and I
hoped that some day I would be able to return to Purha and meet the cat-people
again.

 
          
 
Hool Haji and I checked our boat and
discovered that it was well provisioned, as if it had been intended for use
just before the explosion.

 
          
 
With some misgivings, Hool Haji allowed me to
shove off and soon we were sailing down the river, bound for the open sea.

 
          
 
The sea soon loomed ahead of us and at length
we had left land behind.

 
          
 
Luckily, the ocean was not in turmoil. Hool
Haji said that he thought this was normally a quiet season on the Western
ocean, and I thanked providence for that.

 
          
 
We set a course for a part of the coast
nearest to the Yaksha vaults.

 
          
 
Was there still time to save Cend-Amrid?

 
          
 
I did not know.

 
          
 
Some days passed and our voyage had been
without mishap. We were just beginning to feel that good luck was now
completely on our side when Hool Haji gave a startled cry and pointed ahead of
us.

 
          
 
There, heaving itself from the deep
ocean,
was a monster of staggering proportions.

 
          
 
Water ran from its back and dripped from its great,
green head. Streamers of flesh clung to its body, as if it had been lacerated
in some mighty underwater fight.

 
          
 
It did not seem to be mammal or fish - a
reptile perhaps, though its body was like that of a hippopotamus and its head
somewhat resembled that of a duck-billed platypus.

 
          
 
It was not so much its appearance as its size
that was so astonishing. It dominated our little boat and could have opened its
jaws and swallowed it, had it wished.

 
          
 
Perhaps it did not normally come to the
surface but had been driven there by the victor of the fight it must recently
have had.

 
          
 
Whatever the reason, we wished that it had not
come, for it paddled towards us, seemingly motivated more by curiosity than
anything else.

 
          
 
We could do nothing but gape and hope that it
would not attack us.

 
          
 
The huge head bent and the great eyes gazed
and I had the impression, in spite of my fears, that it was not in any way a
savage beast.

 
          
 
Indeed, it seemed
more
gentle
than many much smaller creatures I had encountered on Mars.

 
          
 
Having inspected us, it raised its head again
and looked about, as if taking a last look at the surface.

 
          
 
Then it began to dive, leaving behind it a
foaming sea, perhaps returning to the fray it had left, perhaps simply
disturbed by what it had seen.

 
          
 
Hool Haji and I breathed a sigh of relief.

 
          
 
"What was it?" I asked him. "Do
you know?"

 
          
 
"I have only heard of it. In Mendishar
they call it a Sea Mother - because of its gentle nature, perhaps. They have
never been known to harm ships. At least, they have never deliberately attacked
one, though occasionally they have sunk one by accident."

 
          
 
"Then I am glad it saw us first." I
smiled.

 
          
 
A little later we saw a shoal of large
creatures, much smaller than the Sea Mother, but nonetheless daunting, and Hool
Haji spoke warningly.

 
          
 
"I hope they do not come too close,"
he said. "They are by no means as gentle as the Sea Mother."

 
          
 
I could make out their snake-like bodies and
their sharp heads, rather like swordfish.

 
          
 
"What are they?" I said.

 
          
 
“N'heer" he told me. "They range all
the seas in packs, attacking anything they see." He smiled bleakly.
"Luckily they don't see as much as they might, since they are extremely
short-sighted creatures."

 
          
 
We steered as far away from the n'heer as we
could get, but it was our bad luck that they should take it into their heads to
swim closer and closer to the ship.

 
          
 
Hool Haji drew his sword.

 
          
 
"Be ready," he said softly. "I
think they will see us in a moment."

 
          
 
And, sure enough, they did.

 
          
 
They had been moving at a fairly leisurely
pace, but now they darted swiftly through the water, their sinuous necks
straight out,
their
pointed heads like so many spears
flying at us.