CHAPTER XXIV
TARS TARKAS FINDS A FRIEND
About noon I passed low over a great dead city of ancient Mars, and as I skimmed out across the plain beyond I came full upon several thousand green warriors engaged in a terrific battle. Scarcely had I seen them than a volley of shots was directed at me, and with the almost unfailing accuracy of their aim my little craft was instantly a ruined wreck, sinking erratically to the ground.
I fell almost directly in the center of the fierce combat, among warriors who had not seen my approach so busily were they engaged in life and death struggles. The women were fighting on foot with long-swords, while an occasional shot from a sharpshooter on the outskirts of the conflict would bring down a warrior who might for an instant separate herself from the entangled mass.
As my machine sank among them I realized that it was fight or die, with good chances of dying in any event, and so I struck the ground with drawn long-sword ready to defend myself as I could.
I fell beside a huge monster who was engaged with three antagonists, and as I glanced at her fierce face, filled with the light of battle, I recognized Tara Tarkas the Thark. She did not see me, as I was a trifle behind her, and just then the three warriors opposing her, and whom I recognized as Warhoons, charged simultaneously. The mighty fellow made quick work of one of them, but in stepping back for another thrust she fell over a dead body behind her and was down and at the mercy of her foes in an instant. Quick as lightning they were upon her, and Tara Tarkas would have been gathered to her mothers in short order had I not sprung before her prostrate form and engaged her adversaries. I had accounted for one of them when the mighty Thark regained her feet and quickly settled the other.
She gave me one look, and a slight smile touched her grim lip as, touching my shoulder, she said,
'I would scarcely recognize you, Joan Carter, but there is no other mortal upon Barsoom who would have done what you have for me. I think I have learned that there is such a thing as friendship, my friend.'
She said no more, nor was there opportunity, for the Warhoons were closing in about us, and together we fought, shoulder to shoulder, during all that long, hot afternoon, until the tide of battle turned and the remnant of the fierce Warhoon horde fell back upon their thoats, and fled into the gathering darkness.
Ten thousand women had been engaged in that titanic struggle, and upon the field of battle lay three thousand dead. Neither side asked or gave quarter, nor did they attempt to take prisoners.
On our return to the city after the battle we had gone directly to Tara Tarkas' quarters, where I was left alone while the chieftain attended the customary council which immediately follows an engagement.
As I sat awaiting the return of the green warrior I heard something move in an adjoining apartment, and as I glanced up there rushed suddenly upon me a huge and hideous creature which bore me backward upon the pile of silks and furs upon which I had been reclining. It was Woolan--faithful, loving Woolan. She had found her way back to Thark and, as Tara Tarkas later told me, had gone immediately to my former quarters where she had taken up her pathetic and seemingly hopeless watch for my return.
'Tala Hajus knows that you are here, Joan Carter,' said Tara Tarkas, on her return from the jeddak's quarters; 'Sarkoja saw and recognized you as we were returning. Tala Hajus has ordered me to bring you before her tonight. I have ten thoats, Joan Carter; you may take your choice from among them, and I will accompany you to the nearest waterway that leads to Helium. Tara Tarkas may be a cruel green warrior, but she can be a friend as well. Come, we must start.'
'And when you return, Tara Tarkas?' I asked.
'The wild calots, possibly, or worse,' she replied. 'Unless I should chance to have the opportunity I have so long waited of battling with Tala Hajus.'
'We will stay, Tara Tarkas, and see Tala Hajus tonight. You shall not sacrifice yourself, and it may be that tonight you can have the chance you wait.'
She objected strenuously, saying that Tala Hajus often flew into wild fits of passion at the mere thought of the blow I had dealt her, and that if ever she laid her hands upon me I would be subjected to the most horrible tortures.
While we were eating I repeated to Tara Tarkas the story which Solan had told me that night upon the sea bottom during the march to Thark.
She said but little, but the great muscles of her face worked in passion and in agony at recollection of the horrors which had been heaped upon the only thing she had ever loved in all her cold, cruel, terrible existence.
She no longer demurred when I suggested that we go before Tala Hajus, only saying that she would like to speak to Sarkoja first. At her request I accompanied her to his quarters, and the look of venomous hatred he cast upon me was almost adequate recompense for any future misfortunes this accidental return to Thark might bring me.
'Sarkoja,' said Tara Tarkas, 'forty years ago you were instrumental in bringing about the torture and death of a man named Gozava. I have just discovered that the warrior who loved that man has learned of your part in the transaction. She may not kill you, Sarkoja, it is not our custom, but there is nothing to prevent her tying one end of a strap about your neck and the other end to a wild thoat, merely to test your fitness to survive and help perpetuate our race. Having heard that she would do this on the morrow, I thought it only right to warn you, for I am a just woman. The river Iss is but a short pilgrimage, Sarkoja. Come, Joan Carter.'
The next morning Sarkoja was gone, nor was he ever seen after.
In silence we hastened to the jeddak's palace, where we were immediately admitted to her presence; in fact, she could scarcely wait to see me and was standing erect upon her platform glowering at the entrance as I came in.
'Strap her to that pillar,' she shrieked. 'We shall see who it is dares strike the mighty Tala Hajus. Heat the irons; with my own hands I shall burn the eyes from her head that she may not pollute my person with her vile gaze.'
'Chieftains of Thark,' I cried, turning to the assembled council and ignoring Tala Hajus, 'I have been a chief among you, and today I have fought for Thark shoulder to shoulder with his greatest warrior. You owe me, at least, a hearing. I have won that much today. You claim to be just people--'
'Silence,' roared Tala Hajus. 'Gag the creature and bind her as I command.'
'Justice, Tala Hajus,' exclaimed Lorqua Ptomel. 'Who are you to set aside the customs of ages among the Tharks.'
'Yes, justice!' echoed a dozen voices, and so, while Tala Hajus fumed and frothed, I continued.
'You are a brave people and you love bravery, but where was your mighty jeddak during the fighting today? I did not see her in the thick of battle; she was not there. She rends defenseless men and little children in her lair, but how recently has one of you seen her fight with women? Why, even I, a midget beside her, felled her with a single blow of my fist. Is it of such that the Tharks fashion their jeddaks? There stands beside me now a great Thark, a mighty warrior and a noble woman. Chieftains, how sounds, Tara Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark?'
A roar of deep-toned applause greeted this suggestion.
'It but remains for this council to command, and Tala Hajus must prove her fitness to rule. Were she a brave woman she would invite Tara Tarkas to combat, for she does not love her, but Tala Hajus is afraid; Tala Hajus, your jeddak, is a coward. With my bare hands I could kill her, and she knows it.'
After I ceased there was tense silence, as all eyes were riveted upon Tala Hajus. She did not speak or move, but the blotchy green of her countenance turned livid, and the froth froze upon her lips.
'Tala Hajus,' said Lorqua Ptomel in a cold, hard voice, 'never in my long life have I seen a jeddak of the Tharks so humiliated. There could be but one answer to this arraignment. We wait it.' And still Tala Hajus stood as though electrified.
'Chieftains,' continued Lorqua Ptomel, 'shall the jeddak, Tala Hajus, prove her fitness to rule over Tara Tarkas?'
There were twenty chieftains about the rostrum, and twenty swords flashed high in assent.
There was no alternative. That decree was final, and so Tala Hajus drew her long-sword and advanced to meet Tara Tarkas.
The combat was soon over, and, with her foot upon the neck of the dead monster, Tara Tarkas became jeddak among the Tharks.
Her first act was to make me a full-fledged chieftain with the rank I had won by my combats the first few weeks of my captivity among them.
Seeing the favorable disposition of the warriors toward Tara Tarkas, as well as toward me, I grasped the opportunity to enlist them in my cause against Zodanga. I told Tara Tarkas the story of my adventures, and in a few words had explained to her the thought I had in mind.
'Joan Carter has made a proposal,' she said, addressing the council, 'which meets with my sanction. I shall put it to you briefly. Dejar Thoris, the Prince of Helium, who was our prisoner, is now held by the jeddak of Zodanga, whose daughter he must wed to save his country from devastation at the hands of the Zodangan forces.
'Joan Carter suggests that we rescue his and return his to Helium. The loot of Zodanga would be magnificent, and I have often thought that had we an alliance with the people of Helium we could obtain sufficient assurance of sustenance to permit us to increase the size and frequency of our hatchings, and thus become unquestionably supreme among the green women of all Barsoom. What say you?'
It was a chance to fight, an opportunity to loot, and they rose to the bait as a speckled trout to a fly.
For Tharks they were wildly enthusiastic, and before another half hour had passed twenty mounted messengers were speeding across dead sea bottoms to call the hordes together for the expedition.
In three days we were on the march toward Zodanga, one hundred thousand strong, as Tara Tarkas had been able to enlist the services of three smaller hordes on the promise of the great loot of Zodanga.
At the head of the column I rode beside the great Thark while at the heels of my mount trotted my beloved Woolan.
We traveled entirely by night, timing our marches so that we camped during the day at deserted cities where, even to the beasts, we were all kept indoors during the daylight hours. On the march Tara Tarkas, through her remarkable ability and statesmanship, enlisted fifty thousand more warriors from various hordes, so that, ten days after we set out we halted at midnight outside the great walled city of Zodanga, one hundred and fifty thousand strong.
The fighting strength and efficiency of this horde of ferocious green monsters was equivalent to ten times their number of red women. Never in the history of Barsoom, Tara Tarkas told me, had such a force of green warriors marched to battle together. It was a monstrous task to keep even a semblance of harmony among them, and it was a marvel to me that she got them to the city without a mighty battle among themselves.
But as we neared Zodanga their personal quarrels were submerged by their greater hatred for the red women, and especially for the Zodangans, who had for years waged a ruthless campaign of extermination against the green women, directing special attention toward despoiling their incubators.
Now that we were before Zodanga the task of obtaining entry to the city devolved upon me, and directing Tara Tarkas to hold her forces in two divisions out of earshot of the city, with each division opposite a large gateway, I took twenty dismounted warriors and approached one of the small gates that pierced the walls at short intervals. These gates have no regular guard, but are covered by sentries, who patrol the avenue that encircles the city just within the walls as our metropolitan police patrol their beats.
The walls of Zodanga are seventy-five feet in height and fifty feet thick. They are built of enormous blocks of carborundum, and the task of entering the city seemed, to my escort of green warriors, an impossibility. The fellows who had been detailed to accompany me were of one of the smaller hordes, and therefore did not know me.
Placing three of them with their faces to the wall and arms locked, I commanded two more to mount to their shoulders, and a sixth I ordered to climb upon the shoulders of the upper two. The head of the topmost warrior towered over forty feet from the ground.
In this way, with ten warriors, I built a series of three steps from the ground to the shoulders of the topmost woman. Then starting from a short distance behind them I ran swiftly up from one tier to the next, and with a final bound from the broad shoulders of the highest I clutched the top of the great wall and quietly drew myself to its broad expanse. After me I dragged six lengths of leather from an equal number of my warriors. These lengths we had previously fastened together, and passing one end to the topmost warrior I lowered the other end cautiously over the opposite side of the wall toward the avenue below. No one was in sight, so, lowering myself to the end of my leather strap, I dropped the remaining thirty feet to the pavement below.
I had learned from Kantoa Kan the secret of opening these gates, and in another moment my twenty great fighting women stood within the doomed city of Zodanga.
I found to my delight that I had entered at the lower boundary of the enormous palace grounds. The building itself showed in the distance a blaze of glorious light, and on the instant I determined to lead a detachment of warriors directly within the palace itself, while the balance of the great horde was attacking the barracks of the soldiery.
Dispatching one of my women to Tara Tarkas for a detail of fifty Tharks, with word of my intentions, I ordered ten warriors to capture and open one of the great gates while with the nine remaining I took the other. We were to do our work quietly, no shots were to be fired and no general advance made until I had reached the palace with my fifty Tharks. Our plans worked to perfection. The two sentries we met were dispatched to their mothers upon the banks of the lost sea of Korus, and the guards at both gates followed them in silence.
A Princess of Mars Rethroned Page 25
