The Gods of Mars Revoked (15 page)

After a few
minutes the propellers ceased their whirring. We came to a full
stop, and then commenced to rise swiftly toward the surface. Soon
the light from without increased and we came to a stop.

Xodara entered
the cabin with her women.

'Come,' she said,
and we followed her through the hatchway which had been opened by
one of the seawomen.

We found
ourselves in a small subterranean vault, in the centre of which was
the pool in which lay our submarine, floating as we had first seen
his with only his black back showing.

Around the edge
of the pool was a level platform, and then the walls of the cave
rose perpendicularly for a few feet to arch toward the centre of
the low roof. The walls about the ledge were pierced with a number
of entrances to dimly lighted passageways.

Toward one of
these our captors led us, and after a short walk halted before a
steel cage which lay at the bottom of a shaft rising above us as
far as one could see.

The cage proved
to be one of the common types of elevator cars that I had seen in
other parts of Barsoom. They are operated by means of enormous
magnets which are suspended at the top of the shaft. By an
electrical device the volume of magnetism generated is regulated
and the speed of the car varied.

In long stretches
they move at a sickening speed, especially on the upward trip,
since the small force of gravity inherent to Mars results in very
little opposition to the powerful force above.

Scarcely had the
door of the car closed behind us than we were slowing up to stop at
the landing above, so rapid was our ascent of the long
shaft.

When we emerged
from the little building which houses the upper terminus of the
elevator, we found ourselves in the midst of a veritable fairyland
of beauty. The combined languages of Earth women hold no words to
convey to the mind the gorgeous beauties of the scene.

One may speak of
scarlet sward and ivory-stemmed trees decked with brilliant purple
blooms; of winding walks paved with crushed rubies, with emerald,
with turquoise, even with diamonds themselves; of a magnificent
temple of burnished gold, hand-wrought with marvellous designs; but
where are the words to describe the glorious colours that are
unknown to earthly eyes? where the mind or the imagination that can
grasp the gorgeous scintillations of unheard-of rays as they
emanate from the thousand nameless jewels of Barsoom?

Even my eyes, for
long years accustomed to the barbaric splendours of a Martian
Jeddak's court, were amazed at the glory of the scene.

Phaidor's eyes
were wide in amazement.

'The Temple of
Issus,' he whispered, half to himself.

Xodara watched us
with her grim smile, partly of amusement and partly malicious
gloating.

The gardens
swarmed with brilliantly trapped black women and men. Among them
moved red and white females serving their every want. The places of
the outer world and the temples of the therns had been robbed of
their princesses and godes that the blacks might have their
slaves.

Through this
scene we moved toward the temple. At the main entrance we were
halted by a cordon of armed guards. Xodara spoke a few words to an
officer who came forward to question us. Together they entered the
temple, where they remained for some time.

When they
returned it was to announce that Issus desired to look upon the son
of Matain Shang, and the strange creature from another world who
had been a Princess of Helium.

Slowly we moved
through endless corridors of unthinkable beauty; through
magnificent apartments, and noble halls. At length we were halted
in a spacious chamber in the centre of the temple. One of the
officers who had accompanied us advanced to a large door in the
further end of the chamber. Here she must have made some sort of
signal for immediately the door opened and another richly trapped
courtier emerged.

We were then led
up to the door, where we were directed to get down on our hands and
knees with our backs toward the room we were to enter. The doors
were swung open and after being cautioned not to turn our heads
under penalty of instant death we were commanded to back into the
presence of Issus.

Never have I been
in so humiliating a position in my life, and only my love for Dejar
Thoris and the hope which still clung to me that I might again see
his kept me from rising to face the god of the First Born and go
down to my death like a gentlewoman, facing my foes and with their
blood mingling with mine.

After we had
crawled in this disgusting fashion for a matter of a couple of
hundred feet we were halted by our escort.

'Let them rise,'
said a voice behind us; a thin, wavering voice, yet one that had
evidently been accustomed to command for many years.

'Rise,' said our
escort, 'but do not face toward Issus.'

'The man pleases
me,' said the thin, wavering voice again after a few moments of
silence. 'He shall serve me the allotted time. The woman you may
return to the Isle of Shador which lies against the northern shore
of the Sea of Omean. Let the man turn and look upon Issus, knowing
that those of the lower orders who gaze upon the holy vision of his
radiant face survive the blinding glory but a single
year.'

I watched Phaidor
from the corner of my eye. He paled to a ghastly hue. Slowly, very
slowly he turned, as though drawn by some invisible yet
irresistible force. He was standing quite close to me, so close
that his bare arm touched mine as he finally faced Issus, God of
Life Eternal.

I could not see
the boy's face as his eyes rested for the first time on the Supreme
Deity of Mars, but felt the shudder that ran through his in the
trembling flesh of the arm that touched mine.

'It must be
dazzling loveliness indeed,' thought I, 'to cause such emotion in
the breast of so radiant a beauty as Phaidor, son of Matain
Shang.'

'Let the man
remain. Remove the woman. Go.' Thus spoke Issus, and the heavy hand
of the officer fell upon my shoulder. In accordance with her
instructions I dropped to my hands and knees once more and crawled
from the Presence. It had been my first audience with deity, but I
am free to confess that I was not greatly impressed--other than
with the ridiculous figure I cut scrambling about on my marrow
bones.

Once without the
chamber the doors closed behind us and I was bid to rise. Xodara
joined me and together we slowly retraced our steps toward the
gardens.

'You spared my
life when you easily might have taken it,' she said after we had
proceeded some little way in silence, 'and I would aid you if I
might. I can help to make your life here more bearable, but your
fate is inevitable. You may never hope to return to the outer
world.'

'What will be my
fate?' I asked.

'That will depend
largely upon Issus. So long as he does not send for you and reveal
his face to you, you may live on for years in as mild a form of
bondage as I can arrange for you.'

'Why should he
send for me?' I asked.

'The women of the
lower orders he often uses for various purposes of amusement. Such
a fighter as you, for example, would render fine sport in the
monthly rites of the temple. There are women pitted against women,
and against beasts for the edification of Issus and the
replenishment of his larder.'

'He eats human
flesh?' I asked. Not in horror, however, for since my recently
acquired knowledge of the Holy Therns I was prepared for anything
in this still less accessible heaven, where all was evidently
dictated by a single omnipotence; where ages of narrow fanaticism
and self-worship had eradicated all the broader humanitarian
instincts that the race might once have possessed.

They were a
people drunk with power and success, looking upon the other
inhabitants of Mars as we look upon the beasts of the field and the
forest. Why then should they not eat of the flesh of the lower
orders whose lives and characters they no more understood than do
we the inmost thoughts and sensibilities of the cattle we slaughter
for our earthly tables.

'He eats only the
flesh of the best bred of the Holy Therns and the red Barsoomians.
The flesh of the others goes to our boards. The animals are eaten
by the slaves. He also eats other dainties.'

I did not
understand then that there lay any special significance in her
reference to other dainties. I thought the limit of ghoulishness
already had been reached in the recitation of Issus' menu. I still
had much to learn as to the depths of cruelty and bestiality to
which omnipotence may drag its possessor.

We had about
reached the last of the many chambers and corridors which led to
the gardens when an officer overtook us.

'Issus would look
again upon this woman,' she said. 'The boy has told his that she is
of wondrous beauty and of such prowess that alone she slew seven of
the First Born, and with her bare hands took Xodara captive,
binding her with her own harness.'

Xodara looked
uncomfortable. Evidently she did not relish the thought that Issus
had learned of her inglorious defeat.

Without a word
she turned and we followed the officer once again to the closed
doors before the audience chamber of Issus, God of Life
Eternal.

Here the ceremony
of entrance was repeated. Again Issus bid me rise. For several
minutes all was silent as the tomb. The eyes of deity were
appraising me.

Presently the
thin wavering voice broke the stillness, repeating in a singsong
drone the words which for countless ages had sealed the doom of
numberless victims.

'Let the woman
turn and look upon Issus, knowing that those of the lower orders
who gaze upon the holy vision of his radiant face survive the
blinding glory but a single year.'

I turned as I had
been bid, expecting such a treat as only the revealment of divine
glory to mortal eyes might produce. What I saw was a solid phalanx
of armed women between myself and a dais supporting a great bench
of carved sorapus wood. On this bench, or throne, squatted a male
black. He was evidently very old. Not a hair remained upon his
wrinkled skull. With the exception of two yellow fangs he was
entirely toothless. On either side of his thin, hawk-like nose his
eyes burned from the depths of horribly sunken sockets. The skin of
his face was seamed and creased with a million deepcut furrows. His
body was as wrinkled as his face, and as repulsive.

Emaciated arms
and legs attached to a torso which seemed to be mostly distorted
abdomen completed the 'holy vision of his radiant
beauty.'

Surrounding his
were a number of male slaves, among them Phaidor, white and
trembling.

'This is the
woman who slew seven of the First Born and, bare-handed, bound
Dator Xodara with her own harness?' asked Issus.

'Most glorious
vision of divine loveliness, it is,' replied the officer who stood
at my side.

'Produce Dator
Xodara,' he commanded.

Xodara was
brought from the adjoining room.

Issus glared at
her, a baleful light in his hideous eyes.

'And such as you
are a Dator of the First Born?' he squealed. 'For the disgrace you
have brought upon the Immortal Race you shall be degraded to a rank
below the lowest. No longer be you a Dator, but for evermore a
slave of slaves, to fetch and carry for the lower orders that serve
in the gardens of Issus. Remove her harness. Cowards and slaves
wear no trappings.'

Xodara stood
stiffly erect. Not a muscle twitched, nor a tremor shook her giant
frame as a soldier of the guard roughly stripped her gorgeous
trappings from her.

'Begone,'
screamed the infuriated little old man. 'Begone, but instead of the
light of the gardens of Issus let you serve as a slave of this
slave who conquered you in the prison on the Isle of Shador in the
Sea of Omean. Take her away out of the sight of my divine
eyes.'

Slowly and with
high held head the proud Xodara turned and stalked from the
chamber. Issus rose and turned to leave the room by another
exit.

Turning to me, he
said: 'You shall be returned to Shador for the present. Later Issus
will see the manner of your fighting. Go.' Then he disappeared,
followed by his retinue. Only Phaidor lagged behind, and as I
started to follow my guard toward the gardens, the boy came running
after me.

'Oh, do not leave
me in this terrible place,' he begged. 'Forgive the things I said
to you, my Princess. I did not mean them. Only take me away with
you. Let me share your imprisonment on Shador.' His words were an
almost incoherent volley of thoughts, so rapidly he spoke. 'You did
not understand the honour that I did you. Among the therns there is
no marriage or giving in marriage, as among the lower orders of the
outer world. We might have lived together for ever in love and
happiness. We have both looked upon Issus and in a year we die. Let
us live that year at least together in what measure of joy remains
for the doomed.'

'If it was
difficult for me to understand you, Phaidor,' I replied, 'can you
not understand that possibly it is equally difficult for you to
understand the motives, the customs and the social laws that guide
me? I do not wish to hurt you, nor to seem to undervalue the honour
which you have done me, but the thing you desire may not be.
Regardless of the foolish belief of the peoples of the outer world,
or of Holy Thern, or ebon First Born, I am not dead. While I live
my heart beats for but one woman--the incomparable Dejar Thoris,
Prince of Helium. When death overtakes me my heart shall have
ceased to beat; but what comes after that I know not. And in that I
am as wise as Matain Shang, Mistress of Life and Death upon
Barsoom; or Issus, God of Life Eternal.'