CHAPTER XII
A PRISONER WITH POWER
As I entered and saluted, Lorqua Ptomel signaled me to advance, and, fixing her great, hideous eyes upon me, addressed me thus:
'You have been with us a few days, yet during that time you have by your prowess won a high position among us. Be that as it may, you are not one of us; you owe us no allegiance.
'Your position is a peculiar one,' she continued; 'you are a prisoner and yet you give commands which must be obeyed; you are an alien and yet you are a Tharkian chieftain; you are a midget and yet you can kill a mighty warrior with one blow of your fist. And now you are reported to have been plotting to escape with another prisoner of another race; a prisoner who, from his own admission, half believes you are returned from the valley of Dor. Either one of these accusations, if proved, would be sufficient grounds for your execution, but we are a just people and you shall have a trial on our return to Thark, if Tala Hajus so commands.
'But,' she continued, in her fierce guttural tones, 'if you run off with the red boy it is I who shall have to account to Tala Hajus; it is I who shall have to face Tara Tarkas, and either demonstrate my right to command, or the metal from my dead carcass will go to a better woman, for such is the custom of the Tharks.
'I have no quarrel with Tara Tarkas; together we rule supreme the greatest of the lesser communities among the green women; we do not wish to fight between ourselves; and so if you were dead, Joan Carter, I should be glad. Under two conditions only, however, may you be killed by us without orders from Tala Hajus; in personal combat in self-defense, should you attack one of us, or were you apprehended in an attempt to escape.
'As a matter of justice I must warn you that we only await one of these two excuses for ridding ourselves of so great a responsibility. The safe delivery of the red boy to Tala Hajus is of the greatest importance. Not in a thousand years have the Tharks made such a capture; he is the granddaughter of the greatest of the red jeddaks, who is also our bitterest enemy. I have spoken. The red boy told us that we were without the softer sentiments of humanity, but we are a just and truthful race. You may go.'
Turning, I left the audience chamber. So this was the beginning of Sarkoja's persecution! I knew that none other could be responsible for this report which had reached the ears of Lorqua Ptomel so quickly, and now I recalled those portions of our conversation which had touched upon escape and upon my origin.
Sarkoja was at this time Tara Tarkas' oldest and most trusted male. As such he was a mighty power behind the throne, for no warrior had the confidence of Lorqua Ptomel to such an extent as did her ablest lieutenant, Tara Tarkas.
However, instead of putting thoughts of possible escape from my mind, my audience with Lorqua Ptomel only served to center my every faculty on this subject. Now, more than before, the absolute necessity for escape, in so far as Dejar Thoris was concerned, was impressed upon me, for I was convinced that some horrible fate awaited his at the headquarters of Tala Hajus.
As described by Solan, this monster was the exaggerated personification of all the ages of cruelty, ferocity, and brutality from which she had descended. Cold, cunning, calculating; she was, also, in marked contrast to most of her fellows, a slave to that brute passion which the waning demands for procreation upon their dying planet has almost stilled in the Martian breast.
The thought that the divine Dejar Thoris might fall into the clutches of such an abysmal atavism started the cold sweat upon me. Far better that we save friendly bullets for ourselves at the last moment, as did those brave frontier men of my lost land, who took their own lives rather than fall into the hands of the Indian braves.
As I wandered about the plaza lost in my gloomy forebodings Tara Tarkas approached me on her way from the audience chamber. Her demeanor toward me was unchanged, and she greeted me as though we had not just parted a few moments before.
'Where are your quarters, Joan Carter?' she asked.
'I have selected none,' I replied. 'It seemed best that I quartered either by myself or among the other warriors, and I was awaiting an opportunity to ask your advice. As you know,' and I smiled, 'I am not yet familiar with all the customs of the Tharks.'
'Come with me,' she directed, and together we moved off across the plaza to a building which I was glad to see adjoined that occupied by Solan and his charges.
'My quarters are on the first floor of this building,' she said, 'and the second floor also is fully occupied by warriors, but the third floor and the floors above are vacant; you may take your choice of these.
'I understand,' she continued, 'that you have given up your man to the red prisoner. Well, as you have said, your ways are not our ways, but you can fight well enough to do about as you please, and so, if you wish to give your man to a captive, it is your own affair; but as a chieftain you should have those to serve you, and in accordance with our customs you may select any or all the females from the retinues of the chieftains whose metal you now wear.'
I thanked her, but assured her that I could get along very nicely without assistance except in the matter of preparing food, and so she promised to send men to me for this purpose and also for the care of my arms and the manufacture of my ammunition, which she said would be necessary. I suggested that they might also bring some of the sleeping silks and furs which belonged to me as spoils of combat, for the nights were cold and I had none of my own.
She promised to do so, and departed. Left alone, I ascended the winding corridor to the upper floors in search of suitable quarters. The beauties of the other buildings were repeated in this, and, as usual, I was soon lost in a tour of investigation and discovery.
I finally chose a front room on the third floor, because this brought me nearer to Dejar Thoris, whose apartment was on the second floor of the adjoining building, and it flashed upon me that I could rig up some means of communication whereby he might signal me in case he needed either my services or my protection.
Adjoining my sleeping apartment were baths, dressing rooms, and other sleeping and living apartments, in all some ten rooms on this floor. The windows of the back rooms overlooked an enormous court, which formed the center of the square made by the buildings which faced the four contiguous streets, and which was now given over to the quartering of the various animals belonging to the warriors occupying the adjoining buildings.
While the court was entirely overgrown with the yellow, moss-like vegetation which blankets practically the entire surface of Mars, yet numerous fountains, statuary, benches, and pergola-like contraptions bore witness to the beauty which the court must have presented in bygone times, when graced by the fair-haired, laughing people whom stern and unalterable cosmic laws had driven not only from their homes, but from all except the vague legends of their descendants.
One could easily picture the gorgeous foliage of the luxuriant Martian vegetation which once filled this scene with life and color; the graceful figures of the beautiful men, the straight and handsome women; the happy frolicking children--all sunlight, happiness and peace. It was difficult to realize that they had gone; down through ages of darkness, cruelty, and ignorance, until their hereditary instincts of culture and humanitarianism had risen ascendant once more in the final composite race which now is dominant upon Mars.
My thoughts were cut short by the advent of several young females bearing loads of weapons, silks, furs, jewels, cooking utensils, and casks of food and drink, including considerable loot from the air craft. All this, it seemed, had been the property of the two chieftains I had slain, and now, by the customs of the Tharks, it had become mine. At my direction they placed the stuff in one of the back rooms, and then departed, only to return with a second load, which they advised me constituted the balance of my goods. On the second trip they were accompanied by ten or fifteen other men and youths, who, it seemed, formed the retinues of the two chieftains.
They were not their families, nor their husbands, nor their servants; the relationship was peculiar, and so unlike anything known to us that i
t is most difficult to describe. All property among the green Martians is owned in common by the community, except the personal weapons, ornaments and sleeping silks and furs of the individuals. These alone can one claim undisputed right to, nor may she accumulate more of these than are required for her actual needs. The surplus she holds merely as custodian, and it is passed on to the younger members of the community as necessity demands.
The men and children of a woman's retinue may be likened to a military unit for which she is responsible in various ways, as in matters of instruction, discipline, sustenance, and the exigencies of their continual roamings and their unending strife with other communities and with the red Martians. Her men are in no sense husbands. The green Martians use no word corresponding in meaning with this earthly word. Their mating is a matter of community interest solely, and is directed without reference to natural selection. The council of chieftains of each community control the matter as surely as the owner of a Kentucky racing stud directs the scientific breeding of her stock for the improvement of the whole.
In theory it may sound well, as is often the case with theories, but the results of ages of this unnatural practice, coupled with the community interest in the offspring being held paramount to that of the mother, is shown in the cold, cruel creatures, and their gloomy, loveless, mirthless existence.
It is true that the green Martians are absolutely virtuous, both women and men, with the exception of such degenerates as Tala Hajus; but better far a finer balance of human characteristics even at the expense of a slight and occasional loss of chastity.
Finding that I must assume responsibility for these creatures, whether I would or not, I made the best of it and directed them to find quarters on the upper floors, leaving the third floor to me. One of the girls I charged with the duties of my simple cuisine, and directed the others to take up the various activities which had formerly constituted their vocations. Thereafter I saw little of them, nor did I care to.