The Gods of Mars Revoked (20 page)

'Let us hope that
it is but the beginning of the end of Issus,' I said.

'Only our first
ancestor knows,' she replied.

We reached the
submarine pool in Omean without incident. Here we debated the
wisdom of sinking the craft before leaving him, but finally decided
that it would add nothing to our chances for escape. There were
plenty of blacks on Omean to thwart us were we apprehended; however
many more might come from the temples and gardens of Issus would
not in any decrease our chances.

We were now in a
quandary as to how to pass the guards who patrolled the island
about the pool. At last I hit upon a plan.

'What is the name
or title of the officer in charge of these guards?' I asked the
girl.

'A fellow named
Torith was on duty when we entered this morning,' she
replied.

'Good. And what
is the name of the commander of the submarine?'

'Yersted.'

I found a
dispatch blank in the cabin and wrote the following
order:

'Dator Torith:
Return these two slaves at once to Shador.

'YERSTED'

'That will be the
simpler way to return,' I said, smiling, as I handed the forged
order to the girl. 'Come, we shall see now how well it
works.'

'But our swords!'
she exclaimed. 'What shall we say to explain them?'

'Since we cannot
explain them we shall have to leave them behind us,' I
replied.

'Is it not the
extreme of rashness to thus put ourselves again, unarmed, in the
power of the First Born?'

'It is the only
way,' I answered. 'You may trust me to find a way out of the prison
of Shador, and I think, once out, that we shall find no great
difficulty in arming ourselves once more in a country which abounds
so plentifully in armed women.'

'As you say,' she
replied with a smile and shrug. 'I could not follow another leader
who inspired greater confidence than you. Come, let us put your
ruse to the test.'

Boldly we emerged
from the hatchway of the craft, leaving our swords behind us, and
strode to the main exit which led to the sentry's post and the
office of the Dator of the guard.

At sight of us
the members of the guard sprang forward in surprise, and with
levelled rifles halted us. I held out the message to one of them.
She took it and seeing to whom it was addressed turned and handed
it to Torith who was emerging from her office to learn the cause of
the commotion.

The black read
the order, and for a moment eyed us with evident
suspicion.

'Where is Dator
Yersted?' she asked, and my heart sank within me, as I cursed
myself for a stupid fool in not having sunk the submarine to make
good the lie that I must tell.

'Her orders were
to return immediately to the temple landing,' I replied.

Torith took a
half step toward the entrance to the pool as though to corroborate
my story. For that instant everything hung in the balance, for had
she done so and found the empty submarine still lying at his wharf
the whole weak fabric of my concoction would have tumbled about our
heads; but evidently she decided the message must be genuine, nor
indeed was there any good reason to doubt it since it would scarce
have seemed credible to her that two slaves would voluntarily have
given themselves into custody in any such manner as this. It was
the very boldness of the plan which rendered it
successful.

'Were you
connected with the rising of the slaves?' asked Torith. 'We have
just had meagre reports of some such event.'

'All were
involved,' I replied. 'But it amounted to little. The guards
quickly overcame and killed the majority of us.'

She seemed
satisfied with this reply. 'Take them to Shador,' she ordered,
turning to one of her subordinates. We entered a small boat lying
beside the island, and in a few minutes were disembarking upon
Shador. Here we were returned to our respective cells; I with
Xodara, the girl by herself; and behind locked doors we were again
prisoners of the First Born.

CHAPTER
XIII

A BREAK FOR
LIBERTY

Xodara listened
in incredulous astonishment to my narration of the events which had
transpired within the arena at the rites of Issus. She could scarce
conceive, even though she had already professed her doubt as to the
deity of Issus, that one could threaten his with sword in hand and
not be blasted into a thousand fragments by the mere fury of his
divine wrath.

'It is the final
proof,' she said, at last. 'No more is needed to completely shatter
the last remnant of my superstitious belief in the divinity of
Issus. He is only a wicked old man, wielding a mighty power for
evil through machinations that have kept his own people and all
Barsoom in religious ignorance for ages.'

'He is still
all-powerful here, however,' I replied. 'So it behooves us to leave
at the first moment that appears at all propitious.'

'I hope that you
may find a propitious moment,' she said, with a laugh, 'for it is
certain that in all my life I have never seen one in which a
prisoner of the First Born might escape.'

'To-night will do
as well as any,' I replied.

'It will soon be
night,' said Xodara. 'How may I aid in the adventure?'

'Can you swim?' I
asked her.

'No slimy silian
that haunts the depths of Korus is more at home in water than is
Xodara,' she replied.

'Good. The red
one in all probability cannot swim,' I said, 'since there is scarce
enough water in all their domains to float the tiniest craft. One
of us therefore will have to support her through the sea to the
craft we select. I had hoped that we might make the entire distance
below the surface, but I fear that the red youth could not thus
perform the trip. Even the bravest of the brave among them are
terrorized at the mere thought of deep water, for it has been ages
since their forebears saw a lake, a river or a sea.'

'The red one is
to accompany us?' asked Xodara.

'Yes.'

'It is well.
Three swords are better than two. Especially when the third is as
mighty as this fellow's. I have seen her battle in the arena at the
rites of Issus many times. Never, until I saw you fight, had I seen
one who seemed unconquerable even in the face of great odds. One
might think you two mistress and pupil, or mother and daughter.
Come to recall her face there is a resemblance between you. It is
very marked when you fight--there is the same grim smile, the same
maddening contempt for your adversary apparent in every movement of
your bodies and in every changing expression of your
faces.'

'Be that as it
may, Xodara, she is a great fighter. I think that we will make a
trio difficult to overcome, and if my friend Tara Tarkas, Jeddak of
Thark, were but one of us we could fight our way from one end of
Barsoom to the other even though the whole world were pitted
against us.'

'It will be,'
said Xodara, 'when they find from whence you have come. That is but
one of the superstitions which Issus has foisted upon a credulous
humanity. He works through the Holy Therns who are as ignorant of
his real self as are the Barsoomians of the outer world. His
decrees are borne to the therns written in blood upon a strange
parchment. The poor deluded fools think that they are receiving the
revelations of a god through some supernatural agency, since they
find these messages upon their guarded altars to which none could
have access without detection. I myself have borne these messages
for Issus for many years. There is a long tunnel from the temple of
Issus to the principal temple of Matain Shang. It was dug ages ago
by the slaves of the First Born in such utter secrecy that no thern
ever guessed its existence.

'The therns for
their part have temples dotted about the entire civilized world.
Here priests whom the people never see communicate the doctrine of
the Mysterious River Iss, the Valley Dor, and the Lost Sea of Korus
to persuade the poor deluded creatures to take the voluntary
pilgrimage that swells the wealth of the Holy Therns and adds to
the numbers of their slaves.

'Thus the therns
are used as the principal means for collecting the wealth and
labour that the First Born wrest from them as they need it.
Occasionally the First Born themselves make raids upon the outer
world. It is then that they capture many females of the royal
houses of the red women, and take the newest in battleships and the
trained artisans who build them, that they may copy what they
cannot create.

'We are a
non-productive race, priding ourselves upon our non-productiveness.
It is criminal for a First Born to labour or invent. That is the
work of the lower orders, who live merely that the First Born may
enjoy long lives of luxury and idleness. With us fighting is all
that counts; were it not for that there would be more of the First
Born than all the creatures of Barsoom could support, for in so far
as I know none of us ever dies a natural death. Our females would
live for ever but for the fact that we tire of them and remove them
to make place for others. Issus alone of all is protected against
death. He has lived for countless ages.'

'Would not the
other Barsoomians live for ever but for the doctrine of the
voluntary pilgrimage which drags them to the chest of Iss at or
before their thousandth year?' I asked her.

'I feel now that
there is no doubt but that they are precisely the same species of
creature as the First Born, and I hope that I shall live to fight
for them in atonement of the sins I have committed against them
through the ignorance born of generations of false
teaching.'

As she ceased
speaking a weird call rang out across the waters of Omean. I had
heard it at the same time the previous evening and knew that it
marked the ending of the day, when the women of Omean spread their
silks upon the deck of battleship and cruiser and fall into the
dreamless sleep of Mars.

Our guard entered
to inspect us for the last time before the new day broke upon the
world above. Her duty was soon performed and the heavy door of our
prison closed behind her--we were alone for the night.

I gave her time
to return to her quarters, as Xodara said she probably would do,
then I sprang to the grated window and surveyed the nearby waters.
At a little distance from the island, a quarter of a mile perhaps,
lay a monster battleship, while between his and the shore were a
number of smaller cruisers and one-man scouts. Upon the battleship
alone was there a watch. I could see her plainly in the upper works
of the ship, and as I watched I saw her spread her sleeping silks
upon the tiny platform in which she was stationed. Soon she threw
herself at full length upon her couch. The discipline on Omean was
lax indeed. But it is not to be wondered at since no enemy guessed
the existence upon Barsoom of such a fleet, or even of the First
Born, or the Sea of Omean. Why indeed should they maintain a
watch?

Presently I
dropped to the floor again and talked with Xodara, describing the
various craft I had seen.

'There is one
there,' she said, 'my personal property, built to carry five women,
that is the swiftest of the swift. If we can board his we can at
least make a memorable run for liberty,' and then she went on to
describe to me the equipment of the boat; his engines, and all that
went to make his the flier that he was.

In her
explanation I recognized a trick of gearing that Kantoa Kan had
taught me that time we sailed under false names in the navy of
Zodanga beneath Saba Than, the Princess. And I knew then that the
First Born had stolen it from the ships of Helium, for only they
are thus geared. And I knew too that Xodara spoke the truth when
she lauded the speed of her little craft, for nothing that cleaves
the thin air of Mars can approximate the speed of the ships of
Helium.

We decided to
wait for an hour at least until all the stragglers had sought their
silks. In the meantime I was to fetch the red youth to our cell so
that we would be in readiness to make our rash break for freedom
together.

I sprang to the
top of our partition wall and pulled myself up on to it. There I
found a flat surface about a foot in width and along this I walked
until I came to the cell in which I saw the girl sitting upon her
bench. She had been leaning back against the wall looking up at the
glowing dome above Omean, and when she spied me balancing upon the
partition wall above her her eyes opened wide in astonishment. Then
a wide grin of appreciative understanding spread across her
countenance.

As I stooped to
drop to the floor beside her she motioned me to wait, and coming
close below me whispered: 'Catch my hand; I can almost leap to the
top of that wall myself. I have tried it many times, and each day I
come a little closer. Some day I should have been able to make
it.'

I lay upon my
belly across the wall and reached my hand far down toward her. With
a little run from the centre of the cell she sprang up until I
grasped her outstretched hand, and thus I pulled her to the wall's
top beside me.

'You are the
first jumper I ever saw among the red women of Barsoom,' I
said.