The Gods of Mars Revoked (13 page)

'Secure them,'
she said, 'but do not injure them.'

Several of the
pirates already had released Xodara. She now personally attended to
my disarming and saw that I was properly bound. At least she
thought that the binding was secure. It would have been had I been
a Martian, but I had to smile at the puny strands that confined my
wrists. When the time came I could snap them as they had been
cotton string.

The boy they
bound also, and then they fastened us together. In the meantime
they had brought our craft alongside the disabled battleship, and
soon we were transported to the latter's deck.

Fully a thousand
black women manned the great engine of destruction. His decks were
crowded with them as they pressed forward as far as discipline
would permit to get a glimpse of their captives.

The boy's beauty
elicited many brutal comments and vulgar jests. It was evident that
these self-thought supermen were far inferior to the red women of
Barsoom in refinement and in chivalry.

My close-cropped
black hair and thern complexion were the subjects of much comment.
When Xodara told her fellow nobles of my fighting ability and
strange origin they crowded about me with numerous
questions.

The fact that I
wore the harness and metal of a thern who had been killed by a
member of my party convinced them that I was an enemy of their
hereditary foes, and placed me on a better footing in their
estimation.

Without exception
the blacks were handsome women, and well built. The officers were
conspicuous through the wondrous magnificence of their resplendent
trappings. Many harnesses were so encrusted with gold, platinum,
silver and precious stones as to entirely hide the leather
beneath.

The harness of
the commanding officer was a solid mass of diamonds. Against the
ebony background of her skin they blazed out with a peculiarly
accentuated effulgence. The whole scene was enchanting. The
handsome women; the barbaric splendour of the accoutrements; the
polished skeel wood of the deck; the gloriously grained sorapus of
the cabins, inlaid with priceless jewels and precious metals in
intricate and beautiful design; the burnished gold of hand rails;
the shining metal of the guns.

Phaidor and I
were taken below decks, where, still fast bound, we were thrown
into a small compartment which contained a single port-hole. As our
escort left us they barred the door behind them.

We could hear the
women working on the broken propellers, and from the port-hole we
could see that the vessel was drifting lazily toward the
south.

For some time
neither of us spoke. Each was occupied with her own thoughts. For
my part I was wondering as to the fate of Tara Tarkas and the boy,
Thuviar.

Even if they
succeeded in eluding pursuit they must eventually fall into the
hands of either red women or green, and as fugitives from the
Valley Dor they could look for but little else than a swift and
terrible death.

How I wished that
I might have accompanied them. It seemed to me that I could not
fail to impress upon the intelligent red women of Barsoom the
wicked deception that a cruel and senseless superstition had
foisted upon them.

Tardoa Mors would
believe me. Of that I was positive. And that she would have the
courage of her convictions my knowledge of her character assured
me. Dejar Thoris would believe me. Not a doubt as to that entered
my head. Then there were a thousand of my red and green warrior
friends whom I knew would face eternal damnation gladly for my
sake. Like Tara Tarkas, where I led they would follow.

My only danger
lay in that should I ever escape the black pirates it might be to
fall into the hands of unfriendly red or green women. Then it would
mean short shrift for me.

Well, there
seemed little to worry about on that score, for the likelihood of
my ever escaping the blacks was extremely remote.

The boy and I
were linked together by a rope which permitted us to move only
about three or four feet from each other. When we had entered the
compartment we had seated ourselves upon a low bench beneath the
porthole. The bench was the only furniture of the room. It was of
sorapus wood. The floor, ceiling and walls were of carborundum
aluminum, a light, impenetrable composition extensively utilized in
the construction of Martian fighting ships.

As I had sat
meditating upon the future my eyes had been riveted upon the
port-hole which was just level with them as I sat. Suddenly I
looked toward Phaidor. He was regarding me with a strange
expression I had not before seen upon his face. He was very
beautiful then.

Instantly his
white lids veiled his eyes, and I thought I discovered a delicate
flush tingeing his cheek. Evidently he was embarrassed at having
been detected in the act of staring at a lesser creature, I
thought.

'Do you find the
study of the lower orders interesting?' I asked,
laughing.

He looked up
again with a nervous but relieved little laugh.

'Oh very,' he
said, 'especially when they have such excellent
profiles.'

It was my turn to
flush, but I did not. I felt that he was poking fun at me, and I
admired a brave heart that could look for humour on the road to
death, and so I laughed with him.

'Do you know
where we are going?' he said.

'To solve the
mystery of the eternal hereafter, I imagine,' I replied.

'I am going to a
worse fate than that,' he said, with a little shudder.

'What do you
mean?'

'I can only
guess,' he replied, 'since no thern damsel of all the millions that
have been stolen away by black pirates during the ages they have
raided our domains has ever returned to narrate his experiences
among them. That they never take a woman prisoner lends strength to
the belief that the fate of the girls they steal is worse than
death.'

'Is it not a just
retribution?' I could not help but ask.

'What do you
mean?'

'Do not the
therns themselves do likewise with the poor creatures who take the
voluntary pilgrimage down the River of Mystery? Was not Thuviar for
fifteen years a plaything and a slave? Is it less than just that
you should suffer as you have caused others to suffer?'

'You do not
understand,' he replied. 'We therns are a holy race. It is an
honour to a lesser creature to be a slave among us. Did we not
occasionally save a few of the lower orders that stupidly float
down an unknown river to an unknown end all would become the prey
of the plant women and the apes.'

'But do you not
by every means encourage the superstition among those of the
outside world?' I argued. 'That is the wickedest of your deeds. Can
you tell me why you foster the cruel deception?'

'All life on
Barsoom,' he said, 'is created solely for the support of the race
of therns. How else could we live did the outer world not furnish
our labour and our food? Think you that a thern would demean
herself by labour?'

'It is true then
that you eat human flesh?' I asked in horror.

He looked at me
in pitying commiseration for my ignorance.

'Truly we eat the
flesh of the lower orders. Do not you also?'

'The flesh of
beasts, yes,' I replied, 'but not the flesh of woman.'

'As woman may eat
of the flesh of beasts, so may gods eat of the flesh of woman. The
Holy Therns are the gods of Barsoom.'

I was disgusted
and I imagine that I showed it.

'You are an
unbeliever now,' he continued gently, 'but should we be fortunate
enough to escape the clutches of the black pirates and come again
to the court of Matain Shang I think that we shall find an argument
to convince you of the error of your ways. And--,' he hesitated,
'perhaps we shall find a way to keep you as--as--one of
us.'

Again his eyes
dropped to the floor, and a faint colour suffused his cheek. I
could not understand his meaning; nor did I for a long time. Dejar
Thoris was wont to say that in some things I was a veritable
simpleton, and I guess that he was right.

'I fear that I
would ill requite your mother's hospitality,' I answered, 'since
the first thing that I should do were I a thern would be to set an
armed guard at the mouth of the River Iss to escort the poor
deluded voyagers back to the outer world. Also should I devote my
life to the extermination of the hideous plant women and their
horrible companions, the great white apes.'

He looked at me
really horror struck.

'No, no,' he
cried, 'you must not say such terribly sacrilegious things--you
must not even think them. Should they ever guess that you
entertained such frightful thoughts, should we chance to regain the
temples of the therns, they would mete out a frightful death to
you. Not even my--my--' Again he flushed, and started over. 'Not
even I could save you.'

I said no more.
Evidently it was useless. He was even more steeped in superstition
than the Martians of the outer world. They only worshipped a
beautiful hope for a life of love and peace and happiness in the
hereafter. The therns worshipped the hideous plant women and the
apes, or at least they reverenced them as the abodes of the
departed spirits of their own dead.

At this point the
door of our prison opened to admit Xodara.

She smiled
pleasantly at me, and when she smiled her expression was
kindly--anything but cruel or vindictive.

'Since you cannot
escape under any circumstances,' she said, 'I cannot see the
necessity for keeping you confined below. I will cut your bonds and
you may come on deck. You will witness something very interesting,
and as you never shall return to the outer world it will do no harm
to permit you to see it. You will see what no other than the First
Born and their slaves know the existence of--the subterranean
entrance to the Holy Land, to the real heaven of
Barsoom.

'It will be an
excellent lesson for this son of the therns,' she added, 'for he
shall see the Temple of Issus, and Issus, perchance, shall embrace
him.'

Phaidor's head
went high.

'What blasphemy
is this, dog of a pirate?' he cried. 'Issus would wipe out your
entire breed an' you ever came within sight of his
temple.'

'You have much to
learn, thern,' replied Xodara, with an ugly smile, 'nor do I envy
you the manner in which you will learn it.'

As we came on
deck I saw to my surprise that the vessel was passing over a great
field of snow and ice. As far as the eye could reach in any
direction naught else was visible.

There could be
but one solution to the mystery. We were above the south polar ice
cap. Only at the poles of Mars is there ice or snow upon the
planet. No sign of life appeared below us. Evidently we were too
far south even for the great fur-bearing animals which the Martians
so delight in hunting.

Xodara was at my
side as I stood looking out over the ship's rail.

'What course?' I
asked her.

'A little west of
south,' she replied. 'You will see the Otz Valley directly. We
shall skirt it for a few hundred miles.'

'The Otz Valley!'
I exclaimed; 'but, woman, is not there where lie the domains of the
therns from which I but just escaped?'

'Yes,' answered
Xodara. 'You crossed this ice field last night in the long chase
that you led us. The Otz Valley lies in a mighty depression at the
south pole. It is sunk thousands of feet below the level of the
surrounding country, like a great round bowl. A hundred miles from
its northern boundary rise the Otz Mountains which circle the inner
Valley of Dor, in the exact centre of which lies the Lost Sea of
Korus. On the shore of this sea stands the Golden Temple of Issus
in the Land of the First Born. It is there that we are
bound.'

As I looked I
commenced to realize why it was that in all the ages only one had
escaped from the Valley Dor. My only wonder was that even the one
had been successful. To cross this frozen, wind-swept waste of
bleak ice alone and on foot would be impossible.

'Only by air boat
could the journey be made,' I finished aloud.

'It was thus that
one did escape the therns in bygone times; but none has ever
escaped the First Born,' said Xodara, with a touch of pride in her
voice.

We had now
reached the southernmost extremity of the great ice barrier. It
ended abruptly in a sheer wall thousands of feet high at the base
of which stretched a level valley, broken here and there by low
rolling hills and little clumps of forest, and with tiny rivers
formed by the melting of the ice barrier at its base.

Once we passed
far above what seemed to be a deep canyon-like rift stretching from
the ice wall on the north across the valley as far as the eye could
reach. 'That is the bed of the River Iss,' said Xodara. 'It runs
far beneath the ice field, and below the level of the Valley Otz,
but its canyon is open here.'

Presently I
descried what I took to be a village, and pointing it out to Xodara
asked her what it might be.