The Gods of Mars Revoked (34 page)

To me
one point was as good as another. What knew I where any of them
led! And so without waiting to be again discovered and thwarted, I
ran quickly up the short, steep incline and pushed open the doorway
at its end.

The
portal swung slowly in, and before it could be slammed against me I
sprang into the chamber beyond. Although not yet dawn, the room was
brilliantly lighted. Its sole occupant lay prone upon a low couch
at the further side, apparently in sleep. From the hangings and
sumptuous furniture of the room I judged it to be a living-room of
some priest, possibly of Issus himself.

At the
thought the blood tingled through my veins. What, indeed, if
fortune had been kind enough to place the hideous creature alone
and unguarded in my hands. With his as hostage I could force
acquiescence to my every demand. Cautiously I approached the
recumbent figure, on noiseless feet. Closer and closer I came to
it, but I had crossed but little more than half the chamber when
the figure stirred, and, as I sprang, rose and faced me.

At
first an expression of terror overspread the features of the man
who confronted me--then startled
incredulity--hope--thanksgiving.

My
heart pounded within my breast as I advanced toward her--tears came
to my eyes--and the words that would have poured forth in a perfect
torrent choked in my throat as I opened my arms and took into them
once more the man I loved--Dejar Thoris, Prince of
Helium.

CHAPTER XXII

VICTORY AND DEFEAT

'Joan
Carter, Joan Carter,' he sobbed, with his dear head upon my
shoulder; 'even now I can scarce believe the witness of my own
eyes. When the boy, Thuviar, told me that you had returned to
Barsoom, I listened, but I could not understand, for it seemed that
such happiness would be impossible for one who had suffered so in
silent loneliness for all these long years. At last, when I
realized that it was truth, and then came to know the awful place
in which I was held prisoner, I learned to doubt that even you
could reach me here.

'As
the days passed, and moon after moon went by without bringing even
the faintest rumour of you, I resigned myself to my fate. And now
that you have come, scarce can I believe it. For an hour I have
heard the sounds of conflict within the palace. I knew not what
they meant, but I have hoped against hope that it might be the
women of Helium headed by my Princess.

'And
tell me, what of Carthoris, our son?'

'She
was with me less than an hour since, Dejar Thoris,' I replied. 'It
must have been she whose women you have heard battling within the
precincts of the temple.

'Where
is Issus?' I asked suddenly.

Dejar
Thoris shrugged his shoulders.

'He
sent me under guard to this room just before the fighting began
within the temple halls. He said that he would send for me later.
He seemed very angry and somewhat fearful. Never have I seen his
act in so uncertain and almost terrified a manner. Now I know that
it must have been because he had learned that Joan Carter, Princess
of Helium, was approaching to demand an accounting of his for the
imprisonment of her Prince.'

The
sounds of conflict, the clash of arms, the shouting and the
hurrying of many feet came to us from various parts of the temple.
I knew that I was needed there, but I dared not leave Dejar Thoris,
nor dared I take his with me into the turmoil and danger of
battle.

At
last I bethought me of the pits from which I had just emerged. Why
not secrete his there until I could return and fetch him away in
safety and for ever from this awful place. I explained my plan to
him.

For a
moment he clung more closely to me.

'I
cannot bear to be parted from you now, even for a moment, Joan
Carter,' he said. 'I shudder at the thought of being alone again
where that terrible creature might discover me. You do not know
him. None can imagine his ferocious cruelty who has not witnessed
his daily acts for over half a year. It has taken me nearly all
this time to realize even the things that I have seen with my own
eyes.'

'I
shall not leave you, then, my Prince,' I replied.

He was
silent for a moment, then he drew my face to his and kissed
me.

'Go,
Joan Carter,' he said. 'Our daughter is there, and the soldiers of
Helium, fighting for the Prince of Helium. Where they are you
should be. I must not think of myself now, but of them and of my
husband's duty. I may not stand in the way of that. Hide me in the
pits, and go.'

I led
his to the door through which I had entered the chamber from below.
There I pressed his dear form to me, and then, though it tore my
heart to do it, and filled me only with the blackest shadows of
terrible foreboding, I guided his across the threshold, kissed his
once again, and closed the door upon him.

Without hesitating longer, I hurried from the chamber in the
direction of the greatest tumult. Scarce half a dozen chambers had
I traversed before I came upon the theatre of a fierce struggle.
The blacks were massed at the entrance to a great chamber where
they were attempting to block the further progress of a body of red
women toward the inner sacred precincts of the temple.

Coming
from within as I did, I found myself behind the blacks, and,
without waiting to even calculate their numbers or the
foolhardiness of my venture, I charged swiftly across the chamber
and fell upon them from the rear with my keen
long-sword.

As I
struck the first blow I cried aloud, 'For Helium!' And then I
rained cut after cut upon the surprised warriors, while the reds
without took heart at the sound of my voice, and with shouts of
'Joan Carter! Joan Carter!' redoubled their efforts so effectually
that before the blacks could recover from their temporary
demoralization their ranks were broken and the red women had burst
into the chamber.

The
fight within that room, had it had but a competent chronicler,
would go down in the annals of Barsoom as a historic memorial to
the grim ferocity of his warlike people. Five hundred women fought
there that day, the black women against the red. No woman asked
quarter or gave it. As though by common assent they fought, as
though to determine once and for all their right to live, in
accordance with the law of the survival of the fittest.

I
think we all knew that upon the outcome of this battle would hinge
for ever the relative positions of these two races upon Barsoom. It
was a battle between the old and the new, but not for once did I
question the outcome of it. With Carthoris at my side I fought for
the red women of Barsoom and for their total emancipation from the
throttling bondage of a hideous superstition.

Back
and forth across the room we surged, until the floor was ankle deep
in blood, and dead women lay so thickly there that half the time we
stood upon their bodies as we fought. As we swung toward the great
windows which overlooked the gardens of Issus a sight met my gaze
which sent a wave of exultation over me.

'Look!' I cried. 'Women of the First Born, look!'

For an
instant the fighting ceased, and with one accord every eye turned
in the direction I had indicated, and the sight they saw was one no
woman of the First Born had ever imagined could be.

Across
the gardens, from side to side, stood a wavering line of black
warriors, while beyond them and forcing them ever back was a great
horde of green warriors astride their mighty thoats. And as we
watched, one, fiercer and more grimly terrible than her fellows,
rode forward from the rear, and as she came she shouted some fierce
command to her terrible legion.

It was
Tara Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, and as she couched her great
forty-foot metal-shod lance we saw her warriors do likewise. Then
it was that we interpreted her command. Twenty yards now separated
the green women from the black line. Another word from the great
Thark, and with a wild and terrifying battle-cry the green warriors
charged. For a moment the black line held, but only for a
moment--then the fearsome beasts that bore equally terrible riders
passed completely through it.

After
them came utan upon utan of red women. The green horde broke to
surround the temple. The red women charged for the interior, and
then we turned to continue our interrupted battle; but our foes had
vanished.

My
first thought was of Dejar Thoris. Calling to Carthoris that I had
found her mother, I started on a run toward the chamber where I had
left him, with my girl close beside me. After us came those of our
little force who had survived the bloody conflict.

The
moment I entered the room I saw that some one had been there since
I had left. A silk lay upon the floor. It had not been there
before. There were also a dagger and several metal ornaments strewn
about as though torn from their wearer in a struggle. But worst of
all, the door leading to the pits where I had hidden my Prince was
ajar.

With a
bound I was before it, and, thrusting it open, rushed within. Dejar
Thoris had vanished. I called his name aloud again and again, but
there was no response. I think in that instant I hovered upon the
verge of insanity. I do not recall what I said or did, but I know
that for an instant I was seized with the rage of a
maniac.

'Issus!' I cried. 'Issus! Where is Issus? Search the temple
for him, but let no woman harm his but Joan Carter. Carthoris,
where are the apartments of Issus?'

'This
way,' cried the girl, and, without waiting to know that I had heard
her, she dashed off at breakneck speed, further into the bowels of
the temple. As fast as she went, however, I was still beside her,
urging her on to greater speed.

At
last we came to a great carved door, and through this Carthoris
dashed, a foot ahead of me. Within, we came upon such a scene as I
had witnessed within the temple once before--the throne of Issus,
with the reclining slaves, and about it the ranks of
soldiery.

We did
not even give the women a chance to draw, so quickly were we upon
them. With a single cut I struck down two in the front rank. And
then by the mere weight and momentum of my body, I rushed
completely through the two remaining ranks and sprang upon the dais
beside the carved sorapus throne.

The
repulsive creature, squatting there in terror, attempted to escape
me and leap into a trap behind him. But this time I was not to be
outwitted by any such petty subterfuge. Before he had half arisen I
had grasped his by the arm, and then, as I saw the guard starting
to make a concerted rush upon me from all sides, I whipped out my
dagger and, holding it close to that vile breast, ordered them to
halt.

'Back!' I cried to them. 'Back! The first black foot that is
planted upon this platform sends my dagger into Issus'
heart.'

For an
instant they hesitated. Then an officer ordered them back, while
from the outer corridor there swept into the throne room at the
heels of my little party of survivors a full thousand red women
under Kantoa Kan, Hora Vastus, and Xodara.

'Where
is Dejar Thoris?' I cried to the thing within my hands.

For a
moment his eyes roved wildly about the scene beneath him. I think
that it took a moment for the true condition to make any impression
upon her--she could not at first realize that the temple had fallen
before the assault of women of the outer world. When he did, there
must have come, too, a terrible realization of what it meant to
her--the loss of power--humiliation--the exposure of the fraud and
imposture which he had for so long played upon his own
people.

There
was just one thing needed to complete the reality of the picture he
was seeing, and that was added by the highest noble of his
realm--the high priestess of his religion--the prime minister of
his government.

'Issus, God of Death, and of Life Eternal,' she cried, 'arise
in the might of thy righteous wrath and with one single wave of thy
omnipotent hand strike dead thy blasphemers! Let not one escape.
Issus, thy people depend upon thee. son of the Lesser Moon, thou
only art all-powerful. Thou only canst save thy people. I am done.
We await thy will. Strike!'

And
then it was that he went mad. A screaming, gibbering maniac writhed
in my grasp. It bit and clawed and scratched in impotent fury. And
then it laughed a weird and terrible laughter that froze the blood.
The slave girls upon the dais shrieked and cowered away. And the
thing jumped at them and gnashed its teeth and then spat upon them
from frothing lips. God, but it was a horrid sight.

Finally, I shook the thing, hoping to recall it for a moment
to rationality.

'Where
is Dejar Thoris?' I cried again.

The
awful creature in my grasp mumbled inarticulately for a moment,
then a sudden gleam of cunning shot into those hideous, close-set
eyes.

'Dejar
Thoris? Dejar Thoris?' and then that shrill, unearthly laugh
pierced our ears once more.

'Yes,
Dejar Thoris--I know. And Thuviar, and Phaidor, son of Matain
Shang. They each love Joan Carter. Ha-ah! but it is droll. Together
for a year they will meditate within the Temple of the Sun, but ere
the year is quite gone there will be no more food for them. Ho-oh!
what divine entertainment,' and he licked the froth from his cruel
lips. 'There will be no more food--except each other. Ha-ah!
Ha-ah!'