THE TIDE OF BATTLE
But Solan's last loud cry had not been without effect, for a momentlater a dozen guardsmen burst into the chamber, though not beforeI had so bent and demolished the great switch that it could not beagain used to turn the powerful current into the mighty magnet ofdestruction it controlled.
The result of the sudden coming of the guardsmen had been to compelme to seek seclusion in the first passageway that I could find,and that to my disappointment proved to be not the one with whichI was familiar, but another upon its left.
They must have either heard or guessed which way I went, for I hadproceeded but a short distance when I heard the sound of pursuit.I had no mind to stop and fight these men here when there wasfighting aplenty elsewhere in the city of Kadabra--fighting thatcould be of much more avail to me and mine than useless life-takingfar below the palace.
But the fellows were pressing me; and as I did not know the way atall, I soon saw that they would overtake me unless I found a placeto conceal myself until they had passed, which would then give mean opportunity to return the way I had come and regain the tower,or possibly find a way to reach the city streets.
The passageway had risen rapidly since leaving the apartment ofthe switch, and now ran level and well lighted straight into thedistance as far as I could see. The moment that my pursuers reachedthis straight stretch I would be in plain sight of them, with nochance to escape from the corridor undetected.
Presently I saw a series of doors opening from either side of thecorridor, and as they all looked alike to me I tried the firstone that I reached. It opened into a small chamber, luxuriouslyfurnished, and was evidently an ante-chamber off some office oraudience chamber of the palace.
On the far side was a heavily curtained doorway beyond which Iheard the hum of voices. Instantly I crossed the small chamber,and, parting the curtains, looked within the larger apartment.
Before me were a party of perhaps fifty gorgeously clad nobles ofthe court, standing before a throne upon which sat Salensus Oll.The Jeddak of Jeddaks was addressing them.
"The allotted hour has come," he was saying as I entered theapartment; "and though the enemies of Okar be within her gates,naught may stay the will of Salensus Oll. The great ceremony mustbe omitted that no single man may be kept from his place in thedefenses other than the fifty that custom demands shall witnessthe creation of a new queen in Okar.
"In a moment the thing shall have been done and we may return tothe battle, while she who is now the Princess of Helium looks downfrom the queen's tower upon the annihilation of her former countrymenand witnesses the greatness which is her husband's."
Then, turning to a courtier, he issued some command in a low voice.
The addressed hastened to a small door at the far end of the chamberand, swinging it wide, cried: "Way for Dejah Thoris, future Queenof Okar!"
Immediately two guardsmen appeared dragging the unwilling bride towardthe altar. Her hands were still manacled behind her, evidently toprevent suicide.
Her disheveled hair and panting bosom betokened that, chained thoughshe was, still had she fought against the thing that they would doto her.
At sight of her Salensus Oll rose and drew his sword, and the swordof each of the fifty nobles was raised on high to form an arch,beneath which the poor, beautiful creature was dragged toward herdoom.
A grim smile forced itself to my lips as I thought of the rudeawakening that lay in store for the ruler of Okar, and my itchingfingers fondled the hilt of my bloody sword.
As I watched the procession that moved slowly toward the throne--aprocession which consisted of but a handful of priests, who followedDejah Thoris and the two guardsmen--I caught a fleeting glimpseof a black face peering from behind the draperies that covered thewall back of the dais upon which stood Salensus Oll awaiting hisbride.
Now the guardsmen were forcing the Princess of Helium up the fewsteps to the side of the tyrant of Okar, and I had no eyes and nothoughts for aught else. A priest opened a book and, raising hishand, commenced to drone out a sing-song ritual. Salensus Ollreached for the hand of his bride.
I had intended waiting until some circumstance should give me areasonable hope of success; for, even though the entire ceremonyshould be completed, there could be no valid marriage while Ilived. What I was most concerned in, of course, was the rescuingof Dejah Thoris--I wished to take her from the palace of SalensusOll, if such a thing were possible; but whether it were accomplishedbefore or after the mock marriage was a matter of secondary import.
When, however, I saw the vile hand of Salensus Oll reach out forthe hand of my beloved princess I could restrain myself no longer,and before the nobles of Okar knew that aught had happened I hadleaped through their thin line and was upon the dais beside DejahThoris and Salensus Oll.
With the flat of my sword I struck down his polluting hand; andgrasping Dejah Thoris round the waist, I swung her behind me as,with my back against the draperies of the dais, I faced the tyrantof the north and his roomful of noble warriors.
The Jeddak of Jeddaks was a great mountain of a man--a coarse,brutal beast of a man--and as he towered above me there, his fierceblack whiskers and mustache bristling in rage, I can well imaginethat a less seasoned warrior might have trembled before him.
With a snarl he sprang toward me with naked sword, but whetherSalensus Oll was a good swordsman or a poor I never learned; forwith Dejah Thoris at my back I was no longer human--I was a superman,and no man could have withstood me then.
With a single, low: "For the Princess of Helium!" I ran my bladestraight through the rotten heart of Okar's rotten ruler, and beforethe white, drawn faces of his nobles Salensus Oll rolled, grinningin horrible death, to the foot of the steps below his marriagethrone.
For a moment tense silence reigned in the nuptial-room. Then thefifty nobles rushed upon me. Furiously we fought, but the advantagewas mine, for I stood upon a raised platform above them, and Ifought for the most glorious woman of a glorious race, and I foughtfor a great love and for the mother of my boy.
And from behind my shoulder, in the silvery cadence of that dearvoice, rose the brave battle anthem of Helium which the nation'swomen sing as their men march out to victory.
That alone was enough to inspire me to victory over even greaterodds, and I verily believe that I should have bested the entireroomful of yellow warriors that day in the nuptial chamber of thepalace at Kadabra had not interruption come to my aid.
Fast and furious was the fighting as the nobles of Salensus Ollsprang, time and again, up the steps before the throne only to fallback before a sword hand that seemed to have gained a new wizardryfrom its experience with the cunning Solan.
Two were pressing me so closely that I could not turn when I hearda movement behind me, and noted that the sound of the battle anthemhad ceased. Was Dejah Thoris preparing to take her place besideme?
Heroic daughter of a heroic world! It would not be unlike her tohave seized a sword and fought at my side, for, though the womenof Mars are not trained in the arts of war, the spirit is theirs,and they have been known to do that very thing upon countlessoccasions.
But she did not come, and glad I was, for it would have doubled myburden in protecting her before I should have been able to forceher back again out of harm's way. She must be contemplating somecunning strategy, I thought, and so I fought on secure in the beliefthat my divine princess stood close behind me.
For half an hour at least I must have fought there against thenobles of Okar ere ever a one placed a foot upon the dais where Istood, and then of a sudden all that remained of them formed belowme for a last, mad, desperate charge; but even as they advancedthe door at the far end of the chamber swung wide and a wild-eyedmessenger sprang into the room.
"The Jeddak of Jeddaks!" he cried. "Where is the Jeddak of Jeddaks?The city has fallen before the hordes from beyond the barrier, andbut now the great gate of the palace itself has been forced andthe warriors of the south are pouring into its sacr
ed precincts.
"Where is Salensus Oll? He alone may revive the flagging courageof our warriors. He alone may save the day for Okar. Where isSalensus Oll?"
The nobles stepped back from about the dead body of their ruler,and one of them pointed to the grinning corpse.
The messenger staggered back in horror as though from a blow inthe face.
"Then fly, nobles of Okar!" he cried, "for naught can save you.Hark! They come!"
As he spoke we heard the deep roar of angry men from the corridorwithout, and the clank of metal and the clang of swords.
Without another glance toward me, who had stood a spectator ofthe tragic scene, the nobles wheeled and fled from the apartmentthrough another exit.
Almost immediately a force of yellow warriors appeared in thedoorway through which the messenger had come. They were backingtoward the apartment, stubbornly resisting the advance of a handfulof red men who faced them and forced them slowly but inevitablyback.
Above the heads of the contestants I could see from my elevatedstation upon the dais the face of my old friend Kantos Kan. He wasleading the little party that had won its way into the very heartof the palace of Salensus Oll.
In an instant I saw that by attacking the Okarians from the rearI could so quickly disorganize them that their further resistancewould be short-lived, and with this idea in mind I sprang fromthe dais, casting a word of explanation to Dejah Thoris over myshoulder, though I did not turn to look at her.
With myself ever between her enemies and herself, and with KantosKan and his warriors winning to the apartment, there could be nodanger to Dejah Thoris standing there alone beside the throne.
I wanted the men of Helium to see me and to know that their belovedprincess was here, too, for I knew that this knowledge would inspirethem to even greater deeds of valor than they had performed in thepast, though great indeed must have been those which won for thema way into the almost impregnable palace of the tyrant of the north.
As I crossed the chamber to attack the Kadabrans from the rear asmall doorway at my left opened, and, to my surprise, revealed thefigures of Matai Shang, Father of Therns and Phaidor, his daughter,peering into the room.
A quick glance about they took. Their eyes rested for a moment,wide in horror, upon the dead body of Salensus Oll, upon the bloodthat crimsoned the floor, upon the corpses of the nobles who hadfallen thick before the throne, upon me, and upon the battlingwarriors at the other door.
They did not essay to enter the apartment, but scanned its everycorner from where they stood, and then, when their eyes had soughtits entire area, a look of fierce rage overspread the featuresof Matai Shang, and a cold and cunning smile touched the lips ofPhaidor.
Then they were gone, but not before a taunting laugh was throwndirectly in my face by the woman.
I did not understand then the meaning of Matai Shang's rage orPhaidor's pleasure, but I knew that neither boded good for me.
A moment later I was upon the backs of the yellow men, and as thered men of Helium saw me above the shoulders of their antagonistsa great shout rang through the corridor, and for a moment drownedthe noise of battle.
"For the Prince of Helium!" they cried. "For the Prince of Helium!"and, like hungry lions upon their prey, they fell once more uponthe weakening warriors of the north.
The yellow men, cornered between two enemies, fought with thedesperation that utter hopelessness often induces. Fought as Ishould have fought had I been in their stead, with the determinationto take as many of my enemies with me when I died as lay withinthe power of my sword arm.
It was a glorious battle, but the end seemed inevitable, whenpresently from down the corridor behind the red men came a greatbody of reenforcing yellow warriors.
Now were the tables turned, and it was the men of Helium who seemeddoomed to be ground between two millstones. All were compelled toturn to meet this new assault by a greatly superior force, so thatto me was left the remnants of the yellow men within the throneroom.
They kept me busy, too; so busy that I began to wonder if indeedI should ever be done with them. Slowly they pressed me back intothe room, and when they had all passed in after me, one of themclosed and bolted the door, effectually barring the way againstthe men of Kantos Kan.
It was a clever move, for it put me at the mercy of a dozen menwithin a chamber from which assistance was locked out, and it gavethe red men in the corridor beyond no avenue of escape should theirnew antagonists press them too closely.
But I have faced heavier odds myself than were pitted against methat day, and I knew that Kantos Kan had battled his way from ahundred more dangerous traps than that in which he now was. So itwas with no feelings of despair that I turned my attention to thebusiness of the moment.
Constantly my thoughts reverted to Dejah Thoris, and I longed forthe moment when, the fighting done, I could fold her in my arms,and hear once more the words of love which had been denied me forso many years.
During the fighting in the chamber I had not even a single chanceto so much as steal a glance at her where she stood behind me besidethe throne of the dead ruler. I wondered why she no longer urgedme on with the strains of the martial hymn of Helium; but I did notneed more than the knowledge that I was battling for her to bringout the best that is in me.
It would be wearisome to narrate the details of that bloody struggle;of how we fought from the doorway, the full length of the room tothe very foot of the throne before the last of my antagonists fellwith my blade piercing his heart.
And then, with a glad cry, I turned with outstretched arms to seizemy princess, and as my lips smothered hers to reap the reward thatwould be thrice ample payment for the bloody encounters throughwhich I had passed for her dear sake from the south pole to thenorth.
The glad cry died, frozen upon my lips; my arms dropped limp andlifeless to my sides; as one who reels beneath the burden of amortal wound I staggered up the steps before the throne.
Dejah Thoris was gone.