CHAPTER XIV
AT GHEK'S COMMAND
Turan the panthan chafed in his chains. Time dragged; silence andmonotony prolonged minutes into hours. Uncertainty of the fate of thewoman he loved turned each hour into an eternity of hell. He listenedimpatiently for the sound of approaching footsteps that he might seeand speak to some living creature and learn, perchance, some word ofTara of Helium. After torturing hours his ears were rewarded by therattle of harness and arms. Men were coming! He waited breathlessly.Perhaps they were his executioners; but he would welcome themnotwithstanding. He would question them. But if they knew naught ofTara he would not divulge the location of the hiding place in which hehad left her.
Now they came--a half-dozen warriors and an officer, escorting anunarmed man; a prisoner, doubtless. Of this Turan was not left long indoubt, since they brought the newcomer and chained him to an adjoiningring. Immediately the panthan commenced to question the officer incharge of the guard.
"Tell me," he demanded, "why I have been made prisoner, and if otherstrangers were captured since I entered your city."
"What other prisoners?" asked the officer.
"A woman, and a man with a strange head," replied Turan.
"It is possible," said the officer; "but what were their names?"
"The woman was Tara, Princess of Helium, and the man was Ghek, akaldane, of Bantoom."
"These were your friends?" asked the officer.
"Yes," replied Turan.
"It is what I would know," said the officer, and with a curt command tohis men to follow him he turned and left the cell.
"Tell me of them!" cried Turan after him. "Tell me of Tara of Helium!Is she safe?" but the man did not answer and soon the sound of theirdeparture died in the distance.
"Tara of Helium was safe, but a short time since," said the prisonerchained at Turan's side.
The panthan turned toward the speaker, seeing a large man, handsome offace and with a manner both stately and dignified. "You have seen her?"he asked. "They captured her then? She is in danger?"
"She is being held in The Towers of Jetan as a prize for the nextgames," replied the stranger.
"And who are you?" asked Turan. "And why are you here, a prisoner?"
"I am A-Kor the dwar, keeper of The Towers of Jetan," replied theother. "I am here because I dared speak the truth of O-Tar the jeddak,to one of his officers."
"And your punishment?" asked Turan.
"I do not know. O-Tar has not yet spoken. Doubtless the games--perhapsthe full ten, for O-Tar does not love A-Kor, his son."
"You are the jeddak's son?" asked Turan.
"I am the son of O-Tar and of a slave, Haja of Gathol, who was aprincess in her own land."
Turan looked searchingly at the speaker. A son of Haja of Gathol! A sonof his mother's sister, this man, then, was his own cousin. Well didGahan remember the mysterious disappearance of the Princess Haja and anentire utan of her personal troops. She had been upon a visit far fromthe city of Gathol and returning home had vanished with her wholeescort from the sight of man. So this was the secret of the seemingmystery? Doubtless it explained many other similar disappearances thatextended nearly as far back as the history of Gathol. Turan scrutinizedhis companion, discovering many evidences of resemblance to hismother's people. A-Kor might have been ten years younger than he, butsuch differences in age are scarce accounted among a people who seldomor never age outwardly after maturity and whose span of life may be athousand years.
"And where lies Gathol?" asked Turan.
"Almost due east of Manator," replied A-Kor.
"And how far?"
"Some twenty-one degrees it is from the city of Manator to the city ofGathol," replied A-Kor; "but little more than ten degrees between theboundaries of the two countries. Between them, though, there lies acountry of torn rocks and yawning chasms."
Well did Gahan know this country that bordered his upon the west--eventhe ships of the air avoided it because of the treacherous currentsthat rose from the deep chasms, and the almost total absence of safelandings. He knew now where Manator lay and for the first time in longweeks the way to his own Gathol, and here was a man, a fellow prisoner,in whose veins flowed the blood of his own ancestors--a man who knewManator; its people, its customs and the country surrounding it--onewho could aid him, with advice at least, to find a plan for the rescueof Tara of Helium and for escape. But would A-Kor--could he dare broachthe subject? He could do no less than try.
"And O-Tar you think will sentence you to death?" he asked; "and why?"
"He would like to," replied A-Kor, "for the people chafe beneath hisiron hand and their loyalty is but the loyalty of a people to the longline of illustrious jeddaks from which he has sprung. He is a jealousman and has found the means of disposing of most of those whose bloodmight entitle them to a claim upon the throne, and whose place in theaffections of the people endowed them with any political significance.The fact that I was the son of a slave relegated me to a position ofminor importance in the consideration of O-Tar, yet I am still the sonof a jeddak and might sit upon the throne of Manator with as perfectcongruity as O-Tar himself. Combined with this is the fact that ofrecent years the people, and especially many of the younger warriors,have evinced a growing affection for me, which I attribute to certainvirtues of character and training derived from my mother, but whichO-Tar assumes to be the result of an ambition upon my part to occupythe throne of Manator.
"And now, I am firmly convinced, he has seized upon my criticism of histreatment of the slave girl Tara as a pretext for ridding himself ofme."
"But if you could escape and reach Gathol," suggested Turan.
"I have thought of that," mused A-Kor; "but how much better off would Ibe? In the eyes of the Gatholians I would be, not a Gatholian; but astranger and doubtless they would accord me the same treatment that weof Manator accord strangers."
"Could you convince them that you are the son of the Princess Haja yourwelcome would be assured," said Turan; "while on the other hand youcould purchase your freedom and citizenship with a brief period oflabor in the diamond mines."
"How know you all these things?" asked A-Kor. "I thought you were fromHelium."
"I am a panthan," replied Turan, "and I have served many countries,among them Gathol."
"It is what the slaves from Gathol have told me," said A-Kor,thoughtfully, "and my mother, before O-Tar sent her to live at Manatos.I think he must have feared her power and influence among the slavesfrom Gathol and their descendants, who number perhaps a million peoplethroughout the land of Manator."
"Are these slaves organized?" asked Turan.
A-Kor looked straight into the eyes of the panthan for a long momentbefore he replied. "You are a man of honor," he said; "I read it inyour face, and I am seldom mistaken in my estimate of a man; but--" andhe leaned closer to the other--"even the walls have ears," hewhispered, and Turan's question was answered.
It was later in the evening that warriors came and unlocked the fetterfrom Turan's ankle and led him away to appear before O-Tar, the jeddak.They conducted him toward the palace along narrow, winding streets andbroad avenues; but always from the balconies there looked down uponthem in endless ranks the silent people of the city. The palace itselfwas filled with life and activity. Mounted warriors galloped throughthe corridors and up and down the runways connecting adjacent floors.It seemed that no one walked within the palace other than a few slaves.Squealing, fighting thoats were stabled in magnificent halls whiletheir riders, if not upon some duty of the palace, played at jetan withsmall figures carved from wood.
Turan noted the magnificence of the interior architecture of thepalace, the lavish expenditure of precious jewels and metals, thegorgeous mural decorations which depicted almost exclusively martialscenes, and principally duels which seemed to be fought upon jetanboards of heroic size. The capitals of many of the columns supportingthe ceilings of the corridors and chambers through which they passedwere wrought into formal likenesses of jetan
pieces--everywhere thereseemed a suggestion of the game. Along the same path that Tara ofHelium had been led Turan was conducted toward the throne room of O-Tarthe jeddak, and when he entered the Hall of Chiefs his interest turnedto wonder and admiration as he viewed the ranks of statuesque thoatmendecked in their gorgeous, martial panoply. Never, he thought, had heseen upon Barsoom more soldierly figures or thoats so perfectly trainedto perfection of immobility as these. Not a muscle quivered, not a taillashed, and the riders were as motionless as their mounts--each warlikeeye straight to the front, the great spears inclined at the same angle.It was a picture to fill the breast of a fighting man with awe andreverence. Nor did it fail in its effect upon Turan as they conductedhim the length of the chamber, where he waited before great doors untilhe should be summoned into the presence of the ruler of Manator.
* * * * *
When Tara of Helium was ushered into the throne room of O-Tar she foundthe great hall filled with the chiefs and officers of O-Tar and U-Thor,the latter occupying the place of honor at the foot of the throne, aswas his due. The girl was conducted to the foot of the aisle and haltedbefore the jeddak, who looked down upon her from his high throne withscowling brows and fierce, cruel eyes.
"The laws of Manator are just," said O-Tar, addressing her; "thus is itthat you have been summoned here again to be judged by the highestauthority of Manator. Word has reached me that you are suspected ofbeing a Corphal. What word have you to say in refutation of the charge?"
Tara of Helium could scarce restrain a sneer as she answered theridiculous accusation of witchcraft. "So ancient is the culture of mypeople," she said, "that authentic history reveals no defense for thatwhich we know existed only in the ignorant and superstitious minds ofthe most primitive peoples of the past. To those who are yet sountutored as to believe in the existence of Corphals, there can be noargument that will convince them of their error--only long ages ofrefinement and culture can accomplish their release from the bondage ofignorance. I have spoken."
"Yet you do not deny the accusation," said O-Tar.
"It is not worthy the dignity of a denial," she responded haughtily.
"And I were you, woman," said a deep voice at her side, "I should,nevertheless, deny it."
Tara of Helium turned to see the eyes of U-Thor, the great jed ofManatos, upon her. Brave eyes they were, but neither cold nor cruel.O-Tar rapped impatiently upon the arm of his throne. "U-Thor forgets,"he cried, "that O-Tar is the jeddak."
"U-Thor remembers," replied the jed of Manatos, "that the laws ofManator permit any who may be accused to have advice and counsel beforetheir judge."
Tara of Helium saw that for some reason this man would have assistedher, and so she acted upon his advice.
"I deny the charge," she said, "I am no Corphal."
"Of that we shall learn," snapped O-Tar. "U-Dor, where are those whohave knowledge of the powers of this woman?"
And U-Dor brought several who recounted the little that was known ofthe disappearance of E-Med, and others who told of the capture of Ghekand Tara, suggesting by deduction that having been found together theyhad sufficient in common to make it reasonably certain that one was asbad as the other, and that, therefore, it remained but to convict oneof them of Corphalism to make certain the guilt of both. And then O-Tarcalled for Ghek, and immediately the hideous kaldane was dragged beforehim by warriors who could not conceal the fear in which they held thiscreature.
"And you!" said O-Tar in cold accusing tones. "Already have I been toldenough of you to warrant me in passing through your heart the jeddak'ssteel--of how you stole the brains from the warrior U-Van so that hethought he saw your headless body still endowed with life; of how youcaused another to believe that you had escaped, making him to seenaught but an empty bench and a blank wall where you had been."
"Ah, O-Tar, but that is as nothing!" cried a young padwar who had comein command of the escort that brought Ghek. "The thing which he did toI-Zav, here, would prove his guilt alone."
"What did he to the warrior I-Zav?" demanded O-Tar. "Let I-Zav speak!"
The warrior I-Zav, a great fellow of bulging muscles and thick neck,advanced to the foot of the throne. He was pale and still tremblingvisibly as from a nervous shock.
"Let my first ancestor be my witness, O-Tar, that I speak the truth,"he began. "I was left to guard this creature, who sat upon a bench,shackled to the wall. I stood by the open doorway at the opposite sideof the chamber. He could not reach me, yet, O-Tar, may Iss engulf me ifhe did not drag me to him helpless as an unhatched egg. He dragged meto him, greatest of jeddaks, with his eyes! With his eyes he seizedupon my eyes and dragged me to him and he made me lay my swords anddagger upon the table and back off into a corner, and still keeping hiseyes upon my eyes his head quitted his body and crawling upon six shortlegs it descended to the floor and backed part way into the hole of anulsio, but not so far that the eyes were not still upon me and then itreturned with the key to its fetter and after resuming its place uponits own shoulders it unlocked the fetter and again dragged me acrossthe room and made me to sit upon the bench where it had been and thereit fastened the fetter about my ankle, and I could do naught for thepower of its eyes and the fact that it wore my two swords and mydagger. And then the head disappeared down the hole of the ulsio withthe key, and when it returned, it resumed its body and stood guard overme at the doorway until the padwar came to fetch it hither."
"It is enough!" said O-Tar, sternly. "Both shall receive the jeddak'ssteel," and rising from his throne he drew his long sword and descendedthe marble steps toward them, while two brawny warriors seized Tara byeither arm and two seized Ghek, holding them facing the naked blade ofthe jeddak.
"Hold, just O-Tar!" cried U-Dor. "There be yet another to be judged.Let us confront him who calls himself Turan with these his fellowsbefore they die."
"Good!" exclaimed O-Tar, pausing half way down the steps. "Fetch Turan,the slave!"
When Turan had been brought into the chamber he was placed a little toTara's left and a step nearer the throne. O-Tar eyed him menacingly.
"You are Turan," he asked, "friend and companion of these?"
The panthan was about to reply when Tara of Helium spoke. "I know notthis fellow," she said. "Who dares say that he be a friend andcompanion of the Princess Tara of Helium?"
Turan and Ghek looked at her in surprise, but at Turan she did notlook, and to Ghek she passed a quick glance of warning, as to say:"Hold thy peace."
The panthan tried not to fathom her purpose for the head is uselesswhen the heart usurps its functions, and Turan knew only that the womanhe loved had denied him, and though he tried not even to think it hisfoolish heart urged but a single explanation--that she refused torecognize him lest she be involved in his difficulties.
O-Tar looked first at one and then at another of them; but none of themspoke.
"Were they not captured together?" he asked of U-Dor.
"No," replied the dwar. "He who is called Turan was found seekingentrance to the city and was enticed to the pits. The following morningI discovered the other two upon the hill beyond The Gate of Enemies."
"But they are friends and companions," said a young padwar, "for thisTuran inquired of me concerning these two, calling them by name andsaying that they were his friends."
"It is enough," stated O-Tar, "all three shall die," and he tookanother step downward from the throne.
"For what shall we die?" asked Ghek. "Your people prate of the justlaws of Manator, and yet you would slay three strangers without tellingthem of what crime they are accused."
"He is right," said a deep voice. It was the voice of U-Thor, the greatjed of Manatos. O-Tar looked at him and scowled; but there came voicesfrom other portions of the chamber seconding the demand for justice.
"Then know, though you shall die anyway," cried O-Tar, "that all threeare convicted of Corphalism and that as only a jeddak may slay such asyou in safety you are about to be honored with the steel of O-Tar."
> "Fool!" cried Turan. "Know you not that in the veins of this womanflows the blood of ten thousand jeddaks--that greater than yours is herpower in her own land? She is Tara, Princess of Helium,great-granddaughter of Tardos Mors, daughter of John Carter, Warlord ofBarsoom. She cannot be a Corphal. Nor is this creature Ghek, nor am I.And you would know more, I can prove my right to be heard and to bebelieved if I may have word with the Princess Haja of Gathol, whose sonis my fellow prisoner in the pits of O-Tar, his father."
At this U-Thor rose to his feet and faced O-Tar. "What means this?" heasked. "Speaks the man the truth? Is the son of Haja a prisoner in thypits, O-Tar?"
"And what is it to the jed of Manatos who be the prisoners in the pitsof his jeddak?" demanded O-Tar, angrily.
"It is this to the jed of Manatos," replied U-Thor in a voice so low asto be scarce more than a whisper and yet that was heard the wholelength and breadth of the great throne room of O-Tar, Jeddak ofManator. "You gave me a slave woman, Haja, who had been a princess inGathol, because you feared her influence among the slaves from Gathol.I have made of her a free woman, and I have married her and made herthus a princess of Manatos. Her son is my son, O-Tar, and though thoube my jeddak, I say to you that for any harm that befalls A-Kor youshall answer to U-Thor of Manatos."
O-Tar looked long at U-Thor, but he made no reply. Then he turned againto Turan. "If one be a Corphal," he said, "then all of you be Corphals,and we know well from the things that this creature has done," hepointed at Ghek, "that he is a Corphal, for no mortal has such powersas he. And as you are all Corphals you must all die." He took anotherstep downward, when Ghek spoke.
"These two have no such powers as I," he said. "They are but ordinary,brainless things such as yourself. I have done all the things that yourpoor, ignorant warriors have told you; but this only demonstrates thatI am of a higher order than yourselves, as is indeed the fact. I am akaldane, not a Corphal. There is nothing supernatural or mysteriousabout me, other than that to the ignorant all things which they cannotunderstand are mysterious. Easily might I have eluded your warriors andescaped your pits; but I remained in the hope that I might help thesetwo foolish creatures who have not the brains to escape without help.They befriended me and saved my life. I owe them this debt. Do not slaythem--they are harmless. Slay me if you will. I offer my life if itwill appease your ignorant wrath. I cannot return to Bantoom and so Imight as well die, for there is no pleasure in intercourse with thefeeble intellects that cumber the face of the world outside the valleyof Bantoom."
"Hideous egotist," said O-Tar, "prepare to die and assume not todictate to O-Tar the jeddak. He has passed sentence and all three ofyou shall feel the jeddak's naked steel. I have spoken!"
He took another step downward and then a strange thing happened. Hepaused, his eyes fixed upon the eyes of Ghek. His sword slipped fromnerveless fingers, and still he stood there swaying forward and back. Ajed rose to rush to his side; but Ghek stopped him with a word.
"Wait!" he cried. "The life of your jeddak is in my hands. You believeme a Corphal and so you believe, too, that only the sword of a jeddakmay slay me, therefore your blades are useless against me. Offer harmto any one of us, or seek to approach your jeddak until I have spoken,and he shall sink lifeless to the marble. Release the two prisoners andlet them come to my side--I would speak to them, privately. Quick! doas I say; I would as lief as not slay O-Tar. I but let him live that Imay gain freedom for my friends--obstruct me and he dies."
The guards fell back, releasing Tara and Turan, who came close toGhek's side.
"Do as I tell you and do it quickly," whispered the kaldane. "I cannothold this fellow long, nor could I kill him thus. There are many mindsworking against mine and presently mine will tire and O-Tar will behimself again. You must make the best of your opportunity while youmay. Behind the arras that you see hanging in the rear of the throneabove you is a secret opening. From it a corridor leads to the pits ofthe palace, where there are storerooms containing food and drink. Fewpeople go there. From these pits lead others to all parts of the city.Follow one that runs due west and it will bring you to The Gate ofEnemies. The rest will then lie with you. I can do no more; hurrybefore my waning powers fail me--I am not as Luud, who was a king. Hecould have held this creature forever. Make haste! Go!"
The Chessmen of Mars Page 15
