I had learned the method from Tars Tarkas himself and had come to feel considerable proficiency, so that I approached this crucial test of my power with the confidence that was absolutely requisite to success.
Placing myself close beside the gate, I concentrated every faculty of my mind to the direction of my will, telepathically, upon the brain of the thoat I had selected for my purpose, the selection being determined solely by the fact that he stood nearest to me. The effect of my effort was immediately apparent. The creature, which had been searching for the occasional tufts of moss that grew between the stone flags of the courtyard, raised his head and looked about him. At once he became restless, but he gave forth no sound, since I was willing him to silence. Presently his eyes moved in my direction and halted upon me. Then, slowly, I drew him towards me. It was slow work, for he evidently sensed that I was not his master, but on he came. Once, when he was quite near me, he stopped and snorted angrily. He must have caught my scent then and realized that I was not even of the same race as that to which he was accustomed. Then it was that I exerted to their fullest extent every power of my mind. He stood there shaking his ugly head to and fro, his snarling lips baring his great fangs.
Beyond him I could see that the other thoats had been attracted by his actions. They were looking towards us and moving about restlessly, always drawing closer. Should they discover me and start to squeal, which is the first and always ready sign of their easily aroused anger, I knew that I should have their riders upon me in no time, since because of his nervous and irritable nature the thoat is the watchdog as well as the beast of burden of the green Barsoomians.
For a moment the beast I had selected hesitated before me as though undecided whether to retreat or to charge, but he did neither; instead he came slowly up to me, and as I backed through the gate into the vaulted corridor beyond, he followed me. This was better than I had expected, for it permitted me to compel him to lie down, so that the girl and I were able to mount with ease.
Before us lay a long vaulted corridor, at the far end of which I could discern a moonlit archway, through which we presently passed on to a broad avenue.
To the left lay the hills, and, turning this way, I urged the fleet animal along the ancient deserted thoroughfare between rows of stately ruins towards the west and—what?
Where the avenue turned to wind upward into the hills, I glanced back; nor could I restrain a feeling of exultation as I saw strung out behind us in the moonlight a file of great thoats, which I was confident would well know what to do with their new-found liberty.
“Your captors will not pursue us far,” I said to the girl, indicating the thoats with a nod of my head.
“Our ancestors are with us to-night,” she said. “Let us pray that they may never desert us.”
Now, for the first time, I had a fairly good look at my companion, for both Cluros and Thuria were in the heavens and it was quite light. If I revealed my surprise it is not to be wondered at, for, in the darkness, having only my companion’s voice for a guide, I had been perfectly confident that I had given aid to a female, but now as I looked at that short hair and boyish face I did not know what to think; nor did the harness that my companion wore aid me in justifying my first conclusion, since it was quite evidently the harness of a man.
“I thought you were a girl,” I blurted out.
A fine mouth spread into a smile that revealed strong, white teeth. “I am,” she said.
“But your hair—your harness—even your figure belies your claim.”
She laughed gaily. That, as I was to find later, was one of her chief charms—that she could laugh so easily, yet never to wound.
“My voice betrayed me,” she said. “It is too bad.”
“Why is it too bad?” I asked.
“Because you would have felt better with a fighting man as a companion, whereas now you feel that you have only a burden.”
“A light one,” I replied, recalling how easily I had lifted her to the thoat’s back. “But tell me who you are and why you are masquerading as a boy.”
“I am a slave girl,” she said; “just a slave girl who has run away from her master. Perhaps that will make a difference,” she added a little sadly. “Perhaps you will be sorry that you have defended just a slave girl.”
“No,” I said, “that makes no difference. I, myself, am only a poor padwar, not rich enough to afford a slave. Perhaps you are the one to be sorry that you were not rescued by a rich man.”
She laughed. “I ran away from the richest man in the world,” she said. “At least I guess he must have been the richest man in the world, for who could be richer than Tul Axtar, Jeddak of Jahar?”
“You belong to Tul Axtar, Jeddak of Jahar?” I exclaimed.
“Yes,” she said. “I was stolen when I was very young from a city called Tjanath, and ever since I have lived in the palace of Tul Axtar. He has many women—thousands of them. Sometimes they live all their lives in his palace and never see him. I have seen him,” she shuddered; “he is terrible. I was not unhappy there, for I had never known my mother; she died when I was young, and my father was only a memory. You see I was very, very young indeed when the emissaries of Tul Axtar stole me from my home in Tjanath. I made friends with everyone about the palace of Tul Axtar. They all liked me, the slaves and the warriors and the chiefs, and because I was always boyish it amused them to train me in the use of arms and even to navigate the smaller fliers; but then came a day when my happiness was ended for ever—Tul Axtar saw me. He saw me and he sent for me. I pretended that I was ill and did not go, and when night came I went to the quarters of a soldier whom I knew to be on guard and stole harness, and I cut off my long hair and painted my face that I might look more like a man, and then I went to the hangars on the palace roof and by a ruse deceived the guard there and stole a one-man flier.
“I thought,” she continued, “that if they searched for me at all they would search in the direction of Tjanath, and so I flew in the opposite direction, towards the north-east, intending to make a great circle to the north, turning back towards Tjanath. After I passed over Xanator I discovered a large grove of mantalia growing out upon the dead sea bottom, and I immediately descended to obtain some of the milk from these plants, as I had left the palace so hurriedly that I had had no opportunity to supply myself with provisions. The mantalia grove was an unusually large one, and as the plants grew to a height of from eight to twelve sofads, the grove offered excellent protection from observation. I had no difficulty in finding a landing-place well within its confines. In order to prevent detection from above, I ran my plane in among the concealing foliage of two over-arching mantalias and then set about obtaining a supply of milk.
“As near objects never appear as attractive as those more distant, I wandered some little distance from my flier before I found the plants that seemed to offer a sufficiently copious supply of rich milk.
“A band of green warriors had also entered the grove to procure milk, and, as I was tapping the tree I had selected, one of them discovered me and a moment later I was captured. From their questions I became assured that they had not seen me enter the grove and that they knew nothing of the presence of my flier. They must have been in a portion of the grove very thickly overhung by foliage while I was approaching from above and making my landing; but be that as it may, they were ignorant of the presence of my flier, and I determined to keep them in ignorance of it.
“When they had obtained as much milk as they required they returned to Xanator, bringing me with them. The rest you know.”
“This is Xanator?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied.
“And what is your name?” I asked.
“Tavia,” she replied. “And what is yours?”
“Tan Hadron of Hastor,” I replied.
“It is a nice name,” she said. There was a certain boyish frankness about the way she said it that convinced me that she would have been just as quick to tell me had she not liked
my name. There was no suggestion of brainless flattery in her tone, and I was to learn, as I became better acquainted with her, that honesty and candour were two of her marked characteristics, but at the moment I was giving such matters little thought, since my mind was occupied with a portion of her narrative that had suggested to me an easy and swift method of escape from our predicament.
“Do you believe,” I asked, “that you can find the mantalia grove where you hid your flier?”
“I am positive of it,” she replied.
“Will the craft carry two?” I asked.
“It is a one-man flier,” she replied, “but it will carry both of us, though both its speed and altitude will be reduced.”
She told me that the grove lay to the south-east of Xanator, and accordingly I turned the thoat’s head towards the east. After we had passed well beyond the limits of the city we moved in a southerly direction down out of the hills on to the dead sea bottom.
Thuria was winging her swift flight through the heavens, casting strange and ever-moving shadows upon the ochre moss that covered the ground, while far above cold Cluros took his slow and stately way. The light of the two moons clearly illuminated the landscape and I was sure that keen eyes could easily have detected us from the ruins of Xanator, although the swiftly moving shadows cast by Thuria were helpful to us, since the shadows of every shrub and stunted tree produced a riot of movement upon the surface of the sea bottom in which our own moving shadow was less conspicuous, but the hope that I entertained most fondly was that all of the thoats had followed our beast from the courtyard and that the green Martian warriors were left dismounted, in which event no pursuit could overtake us.
The great beast that was carrying us moved swiftly and silently, so that it was not long before we saw in the distance the shadowy foliage of the mantalia grove, and shortly afterwards we entered its gloomy confines. It was not without considerable difficulty, however, that we located Tavia’s flier, and mighty glad was I, too, when we found it in good condition, for we had seen more than a single shadowy form slinking through the forest, and I knew that the fierce animals of the barren hills and the great white apes of the ruined cities were equally fond of the milk of the mantalia and that we should be fortunate indeed if we escaped an encounter.
I rode as close to the flier as possible, and, leaving Tavia on the thoat, slipped quickly to the ground and dragged the small craft out into the open. An examination of the controls showed that they had not been tampered with, which was a great relief to me, as I had feared that the flier might have been damaged by the great apes, which are inclined to be both inquisitive and destructive.
Assured that all was well I assisted Tavia to the ground, and a moment later we were upon the deck of the flier. The craft responded satisfactorily, though a little sluggishly, to the controls, and immediately we were floating gently upward into the temporary safety of a Barsoomian night.
The flier, which was of a design now almost obsolete in Helium, was not equipped with a destination control compass, which rendered it necessary for the pilot to be constantly at the controls. Our quarters on the narrow deck were exceedingly cramped and I foresaw a most uncomfortable journey ahead of us. Our safety-belts were snapped to the same deck ring as we lay almost touching one another upon the hard skeel. The cowl which protected our faces from the rush of the wind that was generated even by our relatively slow speed was not sufficiently high to permit us to change our positions to any considerable degree, though occasionally we found it a relief to sit up with our backs towards the bow and thus relieve the tedium of remaining constantly prone in one position. When I thus rested my cramped muscles, Tavia guided the flier, but the cold wind of the Barsoomian night always brought me down behind the cowl in a very few moments.
By mutual consent we were heading in a south-westerly direction while we discussed our eventual destination.
I had told Tavia that I wished to go to Jahar and why. She appeared much interested in the story of the abduction of Sanoma Tora, and, from her knowledge of Tul Axtar and the customs of Jahar, she thought it most probable that the missing girl might be found there, but as to the possibility of rescuing her, that was another matter over which she shook her head dubiously.
It was obvious to me that Tavia did not desire to return to Jahar, yet she put no obstacles in the path of my search for this my great objective; in fact, she gave me Jahar’s position, and herself set the nose of the flier upon the right course.
“Will there be any great danger to you in returning to Jahar?” I asked her.
“The danger will be very great,” she said, “but where the master goes, the slave must follow.”
“I am not your master,” I said, “and you are not my slave. Let us consider ourselves as comrades in arms.”
“That will be nice,” she said simply, and then after a pause, “and if we are to be comrades, then let me warn you against going directly to Jahar. This flier would be recognized immediately. Your harness would mark you as an alien, and you would accomplish nothing more towards rescuing your Sanoma Tora than to achieve the pits of Tul Axtar and sooner or later the games in the great arena, where eventually you must be slain.”
“What would you suggest then?” I asked.
“Beyond Jahar, to the south-west, lies Tjanath, the city of my birth.
Of all the cities upon Barsoom that is the only one where I may hope to be received in a friendly manner, and as they receive me, so will they receive you. There you may better prepare to enter Jahar, which you may only accomplish by disguising yourself as a Jaharian, for Tul Axtar permits no alien within the confines of his empire other than those who are brought as prisoners of war and as slaves. In Tjanath you can obtain the harness and metal of Jahar, and there I can coach you in the customs and manners of the empire of Tul Axtar so that in a short time you may enter it with some reasonably slight assurance that you may deceive them as to your identity. To enter without proper preparation would be fatal.”
I saw the wisdom of her counsel, and accordingly we altered our course so as to pass south of Jahar, as we headed straight towards Tjanath, six thousand haads away.
All the balance of the night we travelled steadily at the rate of about six hundred haads per zode—a slow speed when compared with that of the good one-man flier that I had brought out of Helium.
As the sun rose, the first thing that attracted my particular attention was the ghastly blue colour of the flier.
“What a colour for a flier!” I exclaimed.
Tavia looked up at me. “There is an excellent reason for it though,” she said; “a reason that you must fully understand before you enter Jahar.”
chapter V
TO THE PITS
BELOW US, in the ever-changing light of the two moons, stretched the weird landscape of a Barsoomian night as our little craft, sorely overloaded, winged slowly away from Xanator above the low hills that mark the south-western boundary of the fierce green hordes of Torquas. With the coming of the new day we discussed the advisability of making a landing and waiting until night before proceeding upon our journey, since we realized that should we be sighted by an enemy craft we could not possibly hope to escape.
“Few fliers pass this way,” said Tavia, “and if we keep a sharp lookout I believe that we shall be as safe in the air as on the ground, for although we have passed beyond the limits of Torquas, there would still be danger from their raiding parties, which often go far afield.”
And so we proceeded slowly in the direction of Tjanath, our eyes constantly scanning the heavens in all directions.
The monotony of the landscape, combined with our slow rate of progress, would ordinarily have rendered such a journey unendurable to me, but to my surprise the time passed quickly, a fact which I attributed solely to the wit and intelligence of my companion, for there was no gainsaying the fact that Tavia was excellent company. I think that we must have talked about everything upon Barsoom, and naturally a great deal of the conversa
tion revolved about our own experiences and personalities, so that long before we reached Tjanath I felt that I knew Tavia better than I had ever known any other woman, and I was quite sure that I had never confided so completely in any other person.
Tavia had a way with her that seemed to compel confidences, so that, to my own surprise, I found myself discussing the most intimate details of my past life, my hopes, ambitions and aspirations, as well as the fears and doubts which, I presume, assail the minds of all young men.
When I realized how fully I had unbosomed myself to this little slave girl, I experienced a distinct shock of embarrassment, but the sincerity of Tavia’s interest dispelled this feeling, as did the realization that she had been almost equally as free with her confidences as had I.
We were two nights and a day covering the distance between Xanator and Tjanath, and as the towers and landing-stages of our destination appeared upon the distant horizon towards the end of the first zode of the second day, I realized that the hours that stretched away behind us to Xanator were, for some unaccountable reason, as happy a period as I had ever experienced.
Now it was over. Tjanath lay before us, and with the realization I experienced a distinct regret that Tjanath did not lie upon the opposite side of Barsoom.
With the exception of Sanoma Tora, I had never been particularly keen to be much in the company of women. I do not mean to convey the impression that I did not like them, for that would not be true. Their occasional company offered a diversion, which I enjoyed and of which I took advantage, but that I could be for so many hours in the exclusive company of a woman I did not love and thoroughly enjoy every minute of it would have seemed to me quite impossible; yet such had been the fact, and I found myself wondering if Tavia had shared my enjoyment of the adventure.
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