Warlord of Mars Embattled (19 page)

Then the old
woman rose from the table, shaking her fist at the closed door. Now
she raised her voice, and her words came distinctly.

'Fool!' she
muttered. 'Think you that for your happiness Sola will give up her
life? If you escaped, Salensa Oll would know that only through my
connivance could you have succeeded. Then would she send for me.
What would you have me do? Reduce the city and myself to ashes? No,
fool, there is a better way--a better way for Sola to keep thy
money and be revenged upon Salensa Oll.'

She laughed in a
nasty, cackling note.

'Poor fool! You
may throw the great switch that will give you the freedom of the
air of Okar, and then, in fatuous security, go on with thy red
prince to the freedom of--death. When you have passed beyond this
chamber in your flight, what can prevent Sola replacing the switch
as it was before your vile hand touched it? Nothing; and then the
Guardian of the North will claim you and your man, and Salensa Oll,
when she sees your dead bodies, will never dream that the hand of
Sola had aught to do with the thing.'

Then her voice
dropped once more into mutterings that I could not translate, but I
had heard enough to cause me to guess a great deal more, and I
thanked the kind Providence that had led me to this chamber at a
time so filled with importance to Dejar Thoris and myself as
this.

But how to pass
the old woman now! The cord, almost invisible upon the floor,
stretched straight across the apartment to a door upon the far
side.

There was no
other way of which I knew, nor could I afford to ignore the advice
to 'follow the rope.' I must cross this room, but however I should
accomplish it undetected with that old woman in the very center of
it baffled me.

Of course I might
have sprung in upon her and with my bare hands silenced her
forever, but I had heard enough to convince me that with her alive
the knowledge that I had gained might serve me at some future
moment, while should I kill her and another be stationed in her
place Thurid would not come hither with Dejar Thoris, as was quite
evidently her intention.

As I stood in the
dark shadow of the tunnel's end racking my brain for a feasible
plan the while I watched, catlike, the old woman's every move, she
took up the money-pouch and crossed to one end of the apartment,
where, bending to her knees, she fumbled with a panel in the
wall.

Instantly I
guessed that here was the hiding place in which she hoarded her
wealth, and while she bent there, her back toward me, I entered the
chamber upon tiptoe, and with the utmost stealth essayed to reach
the opposite side before she should complete her task and turn
again toward the room's center.

Scarcely thirty
steps, all told, must I take, and yet it seemed to my overwrought
imagination that that farther wall was miles away; but at last I
reached it, nor once had I taken my eyes from the back of the old
miser's head.

She did not turn
until my hand was upon the button that controlled the door through
which my way led, and then she turned away from me as I passed
through and gently closed the door.

For an instant I
paused, my ear close to the panel, to learn if she had suspected
aught, but as no sound of pursuit came from within I wheeled and
made my way along the new corridor, following the rope, which I
coiled and brought with me as I advanced.

But a short
distance farther on I came to the rope's end at a point where five
corridors met. What was I to do? Which way should I turn? I was
nonplused.

A careful
examination of the end of the rope revealed the fact that it had
been cleanly cut with some sharp instrument. This fact and the
words that had cautioned me that danger lay beyond the KNOTS
convinced me that the rope had been severed since my friend had
placed it as my guide, for I had but passed a single knot, whereas
there had evidently been two or more in the entire length of the
cord.

Now, indeed, was
I in a pretty fix, for neither did I know which avenue to follow
nor when danger lay directly in my path; but there was nothing else
to be done than follow one of the corridors, for I could gain
nothing by remaining where I was.

So I chose the
central opening, and passed on into its gloomy depths with a prayer
upon my lips.

The floor of the
tunnel rose rapidly as I advanced, and a moment later the way came
to an abrupt end before a heavy door.

I could hear
nothing beyond, and, with my accustomed rashness, pushed the portal
wide to step into a room filled with yellow warriors.

The first to see
me opened her eyes wide in astonishment, and at the same instant I
felt the tingling sensation in my finger that denoted the presence
of a friend of the ring.

Then others saw
me, and there was a concerted rush to lay hands upon me, for these
were all members of the palace guard--men familiar with my
face.

The first to
reach me was the wearer of the mate to my strange ring, and as she
came close she whispered: 'Surrender to me!' then in a loud voice
shouted: 'You are my prisoner, white woman,' and menaced me with
her two weapons.

And so Joan
Carter, Princess of Helium, meekly surrendered to a single
antagonist. The others now swarmed about us, asking many questions,
but I would not talk to them, and finally my captor announced that
she would lead me back to my cell.

An officer
ordered several other warriors to accompany her, and a moment later
we were retracing the way I had just come. My friend walked close
beside me, asking many silly questions about the country from which
I had come, until finally her fellows paid no further attention to
her or her gabbling.

Gradually, as she
spoke, she lowered her voice, so that presently she was able to
converse with me in a low tone without attracting attention. Her
ruse was a clever one, and showed that Talu had not misjudged the
woman's fitness for the dangerous duty upon which she was
detailed.

When she had
fully assured herself that the other guardswomen were not
listening, she asked me why I had not followed the rope, and when I
told her that it had ended at the five corridors she said that it
must have been cut by someone in need of a piece of rope, for she
was sure that 'the stupid Kadabrans would never have guessed its
purpose.'

Before we had
reached the spot from which the five corridors diverge my
Marentinian friend had managed to drop to the rear of the little
column with me, and when we came in sight of the branching ways she
whispered:

'Run up the first
upon the right. It leads to the watchtower upon the south wall. I
will direct the pursuit up the next corridor,' and with that she
gave me a great shove into the dark mouth of the tunnel, at the
same time crying out in simulated pain and alarm as she threw
herself upon the floor as though I had felled her with a
blow.

From behind the
voices of the excited guardswomen came reverberating along the
corridor, suddenly growing fainter as Talu's spy led them up the
wrong passageway in fancied pursuit.

As I ran for my
life through the dark galleries beneath the palace of Salensa Oll I
must indeed have presented a remarkable appearance had there been
any to note it, for though death loomed large about me, my face was
split by a broad grin as I thought of the resourcefulness of the
nameless hero of Marentina to whom I owed my life.

Of such stuff are
the women of my beloved Helium, and when I meet another of their
kind, of whatever race or color, my heart goes out to her as it did
now to my new friend who had risked her life for me simply because
I wore the mate to the ring her ruler had put upon her
finger.

The corridor
along which I ran led almost straight for a considerable distance,
terminating at the foot of a spiral runway, up which I proceeded to
emerge presently into a circular chamber upon the first floor of a
tower.

In this apartment
a dozen red slaves were employed polishing or repairing the weapons
of the yellow women. The walls of the room were lined with racks in
which were hundreds of straight and hooked swords, javelins, and
daggers. It was evidently an armory. There were but three warriors
guarding the workers.

My eyes took in
the entire scene at a glance. Here were weapons in plenty! Here
were sinewy red warriors to wield them!

And here now was
Joan Carter, Princess of Helium, in need both of weapons and
warriors!

As I stepped into
the apartment, guards and prisoners saw me
simultaneously.

Close to the
entrance where I stood was a rack of straight swords, and as my
hand closed upon the hilt of one of them my eyes fell upon the
faces of two of the prisoners who worked side by side.

One of the guards
started toward me. 'Who are you?' she demanded. 'What do you
here?'

'I come for
Tardoa Mors, Jeddak of Helium, and her daughter, Mora Kajak,' I
cried, pointing to the two red prisoners, who had now sprung to
their feet, wide-eyed in astonished recognition.

'Rise, red women!
Before we die let us leave a memorial in the palace of Okar's
tyrant that will stand forever in the annals of Kadabra to the
honor and glory of Helium,' for I had seen that all the prisoners
there were women of Tardoa Mors's navy.

Then the first
guardswoman was upon me and the fight was on, but scarce did we
engage ere, to my horror, I saw that the red slaves were shackled
to the floor.

THE MAGNET
SWITCH

The guardswomen
paid not the slightest attention to their wards, for the red women
could not move over two feet from the great rings to which they
were padlocked, though each had seized a weapon upon which she had
been engaged when I entered the room, and stood ready to join me
could they have but done so.

The yellow women
devoted all their attention to me, nor were they long in
discovering that the three of them were none too many to defend the
armory against Joan Carter. Would that I had had my own good
long-sword in my hand that day; but, as it was, I rendered a
satisfactory account of myself with the unfamiliar weapon of the
yellow woman.

At first I had a
time of it dodging their villainous hook-swords, but after a minute
or two I had succeeded in wresting a second straight sword from one
of the racks along the wall, and thereafter, using it to parry the
hooks of my antagonists, I felt more evenly equipped.

The three of them
were on me at once, and but for a lucky circumstance my end might
have come quickly. The foremost guardswoman made a vicious lunge
for my side with her hook after the three of them had backed me
against the wall, but as I sidestepped and raised my arm her weapon
but grazed my side, passing into a rack of javelins, where it
became entangled.

Before she could
release it I had run her through, and then, falling back upon the
tactics that have saved me a hundred times in tight pinches, I
rushed the two remaining warriors, forcing them back with a perfect
torrent of cuts and thrusts, weaving my sword in and out about
their guards until I had the fear of death upon them.

Then one of them
commenced calling for help, but it was too late to save
them.

They were as
putty in my hands now, and I backed them about the armory as I
would until I had them where I wanted them--within reach of the
swords of the shackled slaves. In an instant both lay dead upon the
floor. But their cries had not been entirely fruitless, for now I
heard answering shouts and the footfalls of many women running and
the clank of accouterments and the commands of officers.

'The door! Quick,
Joan Carter, bar the door!' cried Tardoa Mors.

Already the guard
was in sight, charging across the open court that was visible
through the doorway.

A dozen seconds
would bring them into the tower. A single leap carried me to the
heavy portal. With a resounding bang I slammed it shut.

'The bar!'
shouted Tardoa Mors.

I tried to slip
the huge fastening into place, but it defied my every
attempt.

'Raise it a
little to release the catch,' cried one of the red
women.

I could hear the
yellow warriors leaping along the flagging just beyond the door. I
raised the bar and shot it to the right just as the foremost of the
guardswomen threw herself against the opposite side of the massive
panels.

The barrier
held--I had been in time, but by the fraction of a second
only.

Now I turned my
attention to the prisoners. To Tardoa Mors I went first, asking
where the keys might be which would unfasten their
fetters.

'The officer of
the guard has them,' replied the Jeddak of Helium, 'and she is
among those without who seek entrance. You will have to force
them.'

Most of the
prisoners were already hacking at their bonds with the swords in
their hands. The yellow women were battering at the door with
javelins and axes.

I turned my
attention to the chains that held Tardoa Mors. Again and again I
cut deep into the metal with my sharp blade, but ever faster and
faster fell the torrent of blows upon the portal.