The Gods of Mars Revoked (27 page)

As we reached the
raised enclosure I saw our judges. As is the custom upon Barsoom
there were thirty-one, supposedly selected by lot from women of the
noble class, for nobles were on trial. But to my amazement I saw no
single friendly face among them. Practically all were Zodangans,
and it was I to whom Zodanga owed his defeat at the hands of the
green hordes and his subsequent vassalage to Helium. There could be
little justice here for Joan Carter, or her daughter, or for the
great Thark who had commanded the savage tribesmen who overran
Zodanga's broad avenues, looting, burning, and
murdering.

About us the vast
circular coliseum was packed to its full capacity. All classes were
represented--all ages, and both sexes. As we entered the hall the
hum of subdued conversation ceased until as we halted upon the
platform, or Throne of Righteousness, the silence of death
enveloped the ten thousand spectators.

The judges were
seated in a great circle about the periphery of the circular
platform. We were assigned seats with our backs toward a small
platform in the exact centre of the larger one. This placed us
facing the judges and the audience. Upon the smaller platform each
would take her place while her case was being heard.

Zata Arras
herself sat in the golden chair of the presiding magistrate. As we
were seated and our guards retired to the foot of the stairway
leading to the platform, she arose and called my name.

'Joan Carter,'
she cried, 'take your place upon the Pedestal of Truth to be judged
impartially according to your acts and here to know the reward you
have earned thereby.' Then turning to and fro toward the audience
she narrated the acts upon the value of which my reward was to be
determined.

'Know you, O
judges and people of Helium,' she said, 'that Joan Carter, one time
Princess of Helium, has returned by her own statement from the
Valley Dor and even from the Temple of Issus itself. That, in the
presence of many women of Helium she has blasphemed against the
Sacred Iss, and against the Valley Dor, and the Lost Sea of Korus,
and the Holy Therns themselves, and even against Issus, God of
Death, and of Life Eternal. And know you further by witness of
thine own eyes that see her here now upon the Pedestal of Truth
that she has indeed returned from these sacred precincts in the
face of our ancient customs, and in violation of the sanctity of
our ancient religion.

'She who be once
dead may not live again. She who attempts it must be made dead for
ever. Judges, your duty lies plain before you--here can be no
testimony in contravention of truth. What reward shall be meted to
Joan Carter in accordance with the acts she has
committed?'

'Death!' shouted
one of the judges.

And then a woman
sprang to her feet in the audience, and raising her hand on high,
cried: 'Justice! Justice! Justice!' It was Kantoa Kan, and as all
eyes turned toward her she leaped past the Zodangan soldiery and
sprang upon the platform.

'What manner of
justice be this?' she cried to Zata Arras. 'The defendant has not
been heard, nor has she had an opportunity to call others in her
behalf. In the name of the people of Helium I demand fair and
impartial treatment for the Princess of Helium.'

A great cry arose
from the audience then: 'Justice! Justice! Justice!' and Zata Arras
dared not deny them.

'Speak, then,'
she snarled, turning to me; 'but blaspheme not against the things
that are sacred upon Barsoom.'

'Women of
Helium,' I cried, turning to the spectators, and speaking over the
heads of my judges, 'how can Joan Carter expect justice from the
women of Zodanga? She cannot nor does she ask it. It is to the
women of Helium that she states her case; nor does she appeal for
mercy to any. It is not in her own cause that she speaks now--it is
in thine. In the cause of your husbands and daughters, and of
husbands and daughters yet unborn. It is to save them from the
unthinkably atrocious indignities that I have seen heaped upon the
fair men of Barsoom in the place women call the Temple of Issus. It
is to save them from the sucking embrace of the plant women, from
the fangs of the great white apes of Dor, from the cruel lust of
the Holy Therns, from all that the cold, dead Iss carries them to
from homes of love and life and happiness.

'Sits there no
woman here who does not know the history of Joan Carter. How she
came among you from another world and rose from a prisoner among
the green women, through torture and persecution, to a place high
among the highest of Barsoom. Nor ever did you know Joan Carter to
lie in her own behalf, or to say aught that might harm the people
of Barsoom, or to speak lightly of the strange religion which she
respected without understanding.

'There be no
woman here, or elsewhere upon Barsoom to-day who does not owe her
life directly to a single act of mine, in which I sacrificed myself
and the happiness of my Prince that you might live. And so, women
of Helium, I think that I have the right to demand that I be heard,
that I be believed, and that you let me serve you and save you from
the false hereafter of Dor and Issus as I saved you from the real
death that other day.

'It is to you of
Helium that I speak now. When I am done let the women of Zodanga
have their will with me. Zata Arras has taken my sword from me, so
the women of Zodanga no longer fear me. Will you
listen?'

'Speak, Joan
Carter, Princess of Helium,' cried a great noble from the audience,
and the multitude echoed her permission, until the building rocked
with the noise of their demonstration.

Zata Arras knew
better than to interfere with such a sentiment as was expressed
that day in the Temple of Reward, and so for two hours I talked
with the people of Helium.

But when I had
finished, Zata Arras arose and, turning to the judges, said in a
low tone: 'My nobles, you have heard Joan Carter's plea; every
opportunity has been given her to prove her innocence if she be not
guilty; but instead she has but utilized the time in further
blasphemy. What, gentlewomen, is your verdict?'

'Death to the
blasphemer!' cried one, springing to her feet, and in an instant
the entire thirty-one judges were on their feet with upraised
swords in token of the unanimity of their verdict.

If the people did
not hear Zata Arras' charge, they certainly did hear the verdict of
the tribunal. A sullen murmur rose louder and louder about the
packed coliseum, and then Kantoa Kan, who had not left the platform
since first she had taken her place near me, raised her hand for
silence. When she could be heard she spoke to the people in a cool
and level voice.

'You have heard
the fate that the women of Zodanga would mete to Helium's noblest
hero. It may be the duty of the women of Helium to accept the
verdict as final. Let each woman act according to her own heart.
Here is the answer of Kantoa Kan, head of the navy of Helium, to
Zata Arras and her judges,' and with that she unbuckled her
scabbard and threw her sword at my feet.

In an instant
soldiers and citizens, officers and nobles were crowding past the
soldiers of Zodanga and forcing their way to the Throne of
Righteousness. A hundred women surged upon the platform, and a
hundred blades rattled and clanked to the floor at my feet. Zata
Arras and her officers were furious, but they were helpless. One by
one I raised the swords to my lips and buckled them again upon
their owners.

'Come,' sand
Kantoa Kan, 'we will escort Joan Carter and her party to her own
palace,' and they formed about us and started toward the stairs
leading to the Aisle of Hope.

'Stop!' cried
Zata Arras. 'Soldiers of Helium, let no prisoner leave the Throne
of Righteousness.'

The soldiery from
Zodanga were the only organized body of Heliumetic troops within
the temple, so Zata Arras was confident that her orders would be
obeyed, but I do not think that she looked for the opposition that
was raised the moment the soldiers advanced toward the
throne.

From every
quarter of the coliseum swords flashed and women rushed
threateningly upon the Zodangans. Some one raised a cry: 'Tardoa
Mors is dead--a thousand years to Joan Carter, Jeddak of Helium.'
As I heard that and saw the ugly attitude of the women of Helium
toward the soldiers of Zata Arras, I knew that only a miracle could
avert a clash that would end in civil war.

'Hold!' I cried,
leaping to the Pedestal of Truth once more. 'Let no woman move till
I am done. A single sword thrust here to-day may plunge Helium into
a bitter and bloody war the results of which none can foresee. It
will turn sister against sister and mother against daughter. No
woman's life is worth that sacrifice. Rather would I submit to the
biased judgment of Zata Arras than be the cause of civil strife in
Helium.

'Let us each give
in a point to the other, and let this entire matter rest until
Tardoa Mors returns, or Mora Kajak, her daughter. If neither be
back at the end of a year a second trial may be held--the thing has
a precedent.' And then turning to Zata Arras, I said in a low
voice: 'Unless you be a bigger fool than I take you to be, you will
grasp the chance I am offering you ere it is too late. Once that
multitude of swords below is drawn against your soldiery no woman
upon Barsoom--not even Tardoa Mors herself--can avert the
consequences. What say you? Speak quickly.'

The Jed of
Zodangan Helium raised her voice to the angry sea beneath
us.

'Stay your hands,
women of Helium,' she shouted, her voice trembling with rage. 'The
sentence of the court is passed, but the day of retribution has not
been set. I, Zata Arras, Jed of Zodanga, appreciating the royal
connections of the prisoner and her past services to Helium and
Barsoom, grant a respite of one year, or until the return of Mora
Kajak, or Tardoa Mors to Helium. Disperse quietly to your houses.
Go.'

No one moved.
Instead, they stood in tense silence with their eyes fastened upon
me, as though waiting for a signal to attack.

'Clear the
temple,' commanded Zata Arras, in a low tone to one of her
officers.

Fearing the
result of an attempt to carry out this order by force, I stepped to
the edge of the platform and, pointing toward the main entrance,
bid them pass out. As one woman they turned at my request and
filed, silent and threatening, past the soldiers of Zata Arras, Jed
of Zodanga, who stood scowling in impotent rage.

Kantoa Kan with
the others who had sworn allegiance to me still stood upon the
Throne of Righteousness with me.

'Come,' said
Kantoa Kan to me, 'we will escort you to your palace, my Princess.
Come, Carthoris and Xodara. Come, Tara Tarkas.' And with a haughty
sneer for Zata Arras upon her handsome lips, she turned and strode
to the throne steps and up the Aisle of Hope. We four and the
hundred loyal ones followed behind her, nor was a hand raised to
stay us, though glowering eyes followed our triumphal march through
the temple.

In the avenues we
found a press of people, but they opened a pathway for us, and many
were the swords that were flung at my feet as I passed through the
city of Helium toward my palace upon the outskirts. Here my old
slaves fell upon their knees and kissed my hands as I greeted them.
They cared not where I had been. It was enough that I had returned
to them.

'Ah, mistress,'
cried one, 'if our divine Prince were but here this would be a day
indeed.'

Tears came to my
eyes, so that I was forced to turn away that I might hide my
emotions. Carthoris wept openly as the slaves pressed about her
with expressions of affection, and words of sorrow for our common
loss. It was now that Tara Tarkas for the first time learned that
her son, Solan, had accompanied Dejar Thoris upon the last long
pilgrimage. I had not had the heart to tell her what Kantoa Kan had
told me. With the stoicism of the green Martian she showed no sign
of suffering, yet I knew that her grief was as poignant as my own.
In marked contrast to her kind, she had in well-developed form the
kindlier human characteristics of love, friendship, and
charity.

It was a sad and
sombre party that sat at the feast of welcome in the great dining
hall of the palace of the Princess of Helium that day. We were over
a hundred strong, not counting the members of my little court, for
Dejar Thoris and I had maintained a household consistent with our
royal rank.

The board,
according to red Martian custom, was triangular, for there were
three in our family. Carthoris and I presided in the centre of our
sides of the table--midway of the third side Dejar Thoris'
high-backed, carven chair stood vacant except for his gorgeous
wedding trappings and jewels which were draped upon it. Behind
stood a slave as in the days when her master had occupied his place
at the board, ready to do his bidding. It was the way upon Barsoom,
so I endured the anguish of it, though it wrung my heart to see
that silent chair where should have been my laughing and vivacious
Prince keeping the great hall ringing with his merry
gaiety.

At my right sat
Kantoa Kan, while to the right of Dejar Thoris' empty place Tara
Tarkas sat in a huge chair before a raised section of the board
which years ago I had had constructed to meet the requirements of
her mighty bulk. The place of honour at a Martian hoard is always
at the hostess's right, and this place was ever reserved by Dejar
Thoris for the great Thark upon the occasions that she was in
Helium.