A Princess of Mars Rethroned

by Edna Rice Burroughs

CHAPTER VIII

  A FAIR CAPTIVE FROM THE SKY

  The third day after the incubator ceremony we set forth toward home, but scarcely had the head of the procession debouched into the open ground before the city than orders were given for an immediate and hasty return. As though trained for years in this particular evolution, the green Martians melted like mist into the spacious doorways of the nearby buildings, until, in less than three minutes, the entire cavalcade of chariots, mastodons and mounted warriors was nowhere to be seen.

  Solan and I had entered a building upon the front of the city, in fact, the same one in which I had had my encounter with the apes, and, wishing to see what had caused the sudden retreat, I mounted to an upper floor and peered from the window out over the valley and the hills beyond; and there I saw the cause of their sudden scurrying to cover. A huge craft, long, low, and gray-painted, swung slowly over the crest of the nearest hill. Following it came another, and another, and another, until twenty of them, swinging low above the ground, sailed slowly and majestically toward us.

  Each carried a strange banner swung from stem to stern above the upper works, and upon the prow of each was painted some odd device that gleamed in the sunlight and showed plainly even at the distance at which we were from the vessels. I could see figures crowding the forward decks and upper works of the air craft. Whether they had discovered us or simply were looking at the deserted city I could not say, but in any event they received a rude reception, for suddenly and without warning the green Martian warriors fired a terrific volley from the windows of the buildings facing the little valley across which the great ships were so peacefully advancing.

  Instantly the scene changed as by magic; the foremost vessel swung broadside toward us, and bringing his guns into play returned our fire, at the same time moving parallel to our front for a short distance and then turning back with the evident intention of completing a great circle which would bring his up to position once more opposite our firing line; the other vessels followed in his wake, each one opening upon us as he swung into position. Our own fire never diminished, and I doubt if twenty-five per cent of our shots went wild. It had never been given me to see such deadly accuracy of aim, and it seemed as though a little figure on one of the craft dropped at the explosion of each bullet, while the banners and upper works dissolved in spurts of flame as the irresistible projectiles of our warriors mowed through them.

  The fire from the vessels was most ineffectual, owing, as I afterward learned, to the unexpected suddenness of the first volley, which caught the ship's crews entirely unprepared and the sighting apparatus of the guns unprotected from the deadly aim of our warriors.

  It seems that each green warrior has certain objective points for her fire under relatively identical circumstances of warfare. For example, a proportion of them, always the best marksmen, direct their fire entirely upon the wireless finding and sighting apparatus of the big guns of an attacking naval force; another detail attends to the smaller guns in the same way; others pick off the gunners; still others the officers; while certain other quotas concentrate their attention upon the other members of the crew, upon the upper works, and upon the steering gear and propellers.

  Twenty minutes after the first volley the great fleet swung trailing off in the direction from which it had first appeared. Several of the craft were limping perceptibly, and seemed but barely under the control of their depleted crews. Their fire had ceased entirely and all their energies seemed focused upon escape. Our warriors then rushed up to the roofs of the buildings which we occupied and followed the retreating armada with a continuous fusillade of deadly fire.

  One by one, however, the ships managed to dip below the crests of the outlying hills until only one barely moving craft was in sight. This had received the brunt of our fire and seemed to be entirely unmanned, as not a moving figure was visible upon his decks. Slowly he swung from his course, circling back toward us in an erratic and pitiful manner. Instantly the warriors ceased firing, for it was quite apparent that the vessel was entirely helpless, and, far from being in a position to inflict harm upon us, he could not even control himself sufficiently to escape.

  As he neared the city the warriors rushed out upon the plain to meet him, but it was evident that he still was too high for them to hope to reach his decks. From my vantage point in the window I could see the bodies of his crew strewn about, although I could not make out what manner of creatures they might be. Not a sign of life was manifest upon his as he drifted slowly with the light breeze in a southeasterly direction.

  He was drifting some fifty feet above the ground, followed by all but some hundred of the warriors who had been ordered back to the roofs to cover the possibility of a return of the fleet, or of reinforcements. It soon became evident that he would strike the face of the buildings about a mile south of our position, and as I watched the progress of the chase I saw a number of warriors gallop ahead, dismount and enter the building he seemed destined to touch.

  As the craft neared the building, and just before he struck, the Martian warriors swarmed upon his from the windows, and with their great spears eased the shock of the collision, and in a few moments they had thrown out grappling hooks and the big boat was being hauled to ground by their fellows below.

  After making his fast, they swarmed the sides and searched the vessel from stem to stern. I could see them examining the dead sailors, evidently for signs of life, and presently a party of them appeared from below dragging a little figure among them. The creature was considerably less than half as tall as the green Martian warriors, and from my balcony I could see that it walked erect upon two legs and surmised that it was some new and strange Martian monstrosity with which I had not as yet become acquainted.

  They removed their prisoner to the ground and then commenced a systematic rifling of the vessel. This operation required several hours, during which time a number of the chariots were requisitioned to transport the loot, which consisted in arms, ammunition, silks, furs, jewels, strangely carved stone vessels, and a quantity of solid foods and liquids, including many casks of water, the first I had seen since my advent upon Mars.

  After the last load had been removed the warriors made lines fast to the craft and towed his far out into the valley in a southwesterly direction. A few of them then boarded his and were busily engaged in what appeared, from my distant position, as the emptying of the contents of various carboys upon the dead bodies of the sailors and over the decks and works of the vessel.

  This operation concluded, they hastily clambered over him sides, sliding down the guy ropes to the ground. The last warrior to leave the deck turned and threw something back upon the vessel, waiting an instant to note the outcome of her act. As a faint spurt of flame rose from the point where the missile struck she swung over the side and was quickly upon the ground. Scarcely had she alighted than the guy ropes were simultaneous released, and the great warship, lightened by the removal of the loot, soared majestically into the air, his decks and upper works a mass of roaring flames.

  Slowly he drifted to the southeast, rising higher and higher as the flames ate away his wooden parts and diminished the weight upon him. Ascending to the roof of the building I watched his for hours, until finally he was lost in the dim vistas of the distance. The sight was awe-inspiring in the extreme as one contemplated this mighty floating funeral pyre, drifting unguided and unmanned through the lonely wastes of the Martian heavens; a derelict of death and destruction, typifying the life story of these strange and ferocious creatures into whose unfriendly hands fate had carried it.

  Much depressed, and, to me, unaccountably so, I slowly descended to the street. The scene I had witnessed seemed to mark the defeat and annihilation of the forces of a kindred people, rather than the routing by our green warriors of a horde of similar, though unfriendly, creatures. I could not fathom the seeming hallucination, nor could I free myself from it; but somewhere in the innermost recesses of my soul I felt a strange yearning toward these un
known foemen, and a mighty hope surged through me that the fleet would return and demand a reckoning from the green warriors who had so ruthlessly and wantonly attacked it.

  Close at my heel, in her now accustomed place, followed Woolan, the hound, and as I emerged upon the street Solan rushed up to me as though I had been the object of some search on his part. The cavalcade was returning to the plaza, the homeward march having been given up for that day; nor, in fact, was it recommenced for more than a week, owing to the fear of a return attack by the air craft.

  Lorqua Ptomel was too astute an old warrior to be caught upon the open plains with a caravan of chariots and children, and so we remained at the deserted city until the danger seemed passed.

  As Solan and I entered the plaza a sight met my eyes which filled my whole being with a great surge of mingled hope, fear, exultation, and depression, and yet most dominant was a subtle sense of relief and happiness; for just as we neared the throng of Martians I caught a glimpse of the prisoner from the battle craft who was being roughly dragged into a nearby building by a couple of green Martian females.

  And the sight which met my eyes was that of a slender, girlish figure, similar in every detail to the earthly men of my past life. He did not see me at first, but just as he was disappearing through the portal of the building which was to be his prison he turned, and his eyes met mine. His face was oval and beautiful in the extreme, his every feature was finely chiseled and exquisite, his eyes large and lustrous and his head surmounted by a mass of coal black, waving hair, caught loosely into a strange yet becoming coiffure. His skin was of a light reddish copper color, against which the crimson glow of his cheeks and the ruby of his beautifully molded lips shone with a strangely enhancing effect.

  He was as destitute of clothes as the green Martians who accompanied him; indeed, save for his highly wrought ornaments he was entirely naked, nor could any apparel have enhanced the beauty of his perfect and symmetrical figure.

  As his gaze rested on me his eyes opened wide in astonishment, and he made a little sign with his free hand; a sign which I did not, of course, understand. Just a moment we gazed upon each other, and then the look of hope and renewed courage which had glorified his face as he discovered me, faded into one of utter dejection, mingled with loathing and contempt. I realized I had not answered his signal, and ignorant as I was of Martian customs, I intuitively felt that he had made an appeal for succor and protection which my unfortunate ignorance had prevented me from answering. And then he was dragged out of my sight into the depths of the deserted edifice.