CHAPTER XXII
I FIND DEJAH
The major-domo to whom I reported had been given instructions to station me near the person of the jeddak, who, in time of war, is always in great danger of assassination, as the rule that all is fair in war seems to constitute the entire ethics of Martian conflict.
She therefore escorted me immediately to the apartment in which Thana Kosis then was. The ruler was engaged in conversation with her daughter, Saba Than, and several courtiers of her household, and did not perceive my entrance.
The walls of the apartment were completely hung with splendid tapestries which hid any windows or doors which may have pierced them. The room was lighted by imprisoned rays of sunshine held between the ceiling proper and what appeared to be a ground-glass false ceiling a few inches below.
My guide drew aside one of the tapestries, disclosing a passage which encircled the room, between the hangings and the walls of the chamber. Within this passage I was to remain, she said, so long as Thana Kosis was in the apartment. When she left I was to follow. My only duty was to guard the ruler and keep out of sight as much as possible. I would be relieved after a period of four hours. The major-domo then left me.
The tapestries were of a strange weaving which gave the appearance of heavy solidity from one side, but from my hiding place I could perceive all that took place within the room as readily as though there had been no curtain intervening.
Scarcely had I gained my post than the tapestry at the opposite end of the chamber separated and four soldiers of The Guard entered, surrounding a male figure. As they approached Thana Kosis the soldiers fell to either side and there standing before the jeddak and not ten feet from me, his beautiful face radiant with smiles, was Dejar Thoris.
Saba Than, Princess of Zodanga, advanced to meet him, and hand in hand they approached close to the jeddak. Thana Kosis looked up in surprise, and, rising, saluted him.
'To what strange freak do I owe this visit from the Prince of Helium, who, two days ago, with rare consideration for my pride, assured me that he would prefer Tala Hajus, the green Thark, to my son?'
Dejar Thoris only smiled the more and with the roguish dimples playing at the corners of his mouth he made answer:
'From the beginning of time upon Barsoom it has been the prerogative of man to change his mind as he listed and to dissemble in matters concerning his heart. That you will forgive, Thana Kosis, as has your daughter. Two days ago I was not sure of her love for me, but now I am, and I have come to beg of you to forget my rash words and to accept the assurance of the Prince of Helium that when the time comes he will wed Saba Than, Princess of Zodanga.'
'I am glad that you have so decided,' replied Thana Kosis. 'It is far from my desire to push war further against the people of Helium, and, your promise shall be recorded and a proclamation to my people issued forthwith.'
'It were better, Thana Kosis,' interrupted Dejar Thoris, 'that the proclamation wait the ending of this war. It would look strange indeed to my people and to yours were the Prince of Helium to give himself to his country's enemy in the midst of hostilities.'
'Cannot the war be ended at once?' spoke Saba Than. 'It requires but the word of Thana Kosis to bring peace. Say it, my mother, say the word that will hasten my happiness, and end this unpopular strife.'
'We shall see,' replied Thana Kosis, 'how the people of Helium take to peace. I shall at least offer it to them.'
Dejar Thoris, after a few words, turned and left the apartment, still followed by his guards.
Thus was the edifice of my brief dream of happiness dashed, broken, to the ground of reality. The man for whom I had offered my life, and from whose lips I had so recently heard a declaration of love for me, had lightly forgotten my very existence and smilingly given himself to the daughter of his people's most hated enemy.
Although I had heard it with my own ears I could not believe it. I must search out his apartments and force his to repeat the cruel truth to me alone before I would be convinced, and so I deserted my post and hastened through the passage behind the tapestries toward the door by which he had left the chamber. Slipping quietly through this opening I discovered a maze of winding corridors, branching and turning in every direction.
Running rapidly down first one and then another of them I soon became hopelessly lost and was standing panting against a side wall when I heard voices near me. Apparently they were coming from the opposite side of the partition against which I leaned and presently I made out the tones of Dejar Thoris. I could not hear the words but I knew that I could not possibly be mistaken in the voice.
Moving on a few steps I discovered another passageway at the end of which lay a door. Walking boldly forward I pushed into the room only to find myself in a small antechamber in which were the four guards who had accompanied him. One of them instantly arose and accosted me, asking the nature of my business.
'I am from Thana Kosis,' I replied, 'and wish to speak privately with Dejar Thoris, Prince of Helium.'
'And your order?' asked the fellow.
I did not know what she meant, but replied that I was a member of The Guard, and without waiting for a reply from her I strode toward the opposite door of the antechamber, behind which I could hear Dejar Thoris conversing.
But my entrance was not to be so easily accomplished. The guardswoman stepped before me, saying,
'No one comes from Thana Kosis without carrying an order or the password. You must give me one or the other before you may pass.'
'The only order I require, my friend, to enter where I will, hangs at my side,' I answered, tapping my long-sword; 'will you let me pass in peace or no?'
For reply she whipped out her own sword, calling to the others to join her, and thus the four stood, with drawn weapons, barring my further progress.
'You are not here by the order of Thana Kosis,' cried the one who had first addressed me, 'and not only shall you not enter the apartments of the Prince of Helium but you shall go back to Thana Kosis under guard to explain this unwarranted temerity. Throw down your sword; you cannot hope to overcome four of us,' she added with a grim smile.
My reply was a quick thrust which left me but three antagonists and I can assure you that they were worthy of my metal. They had me backed against the wall in no time, fighting for my life. Slowly I worked my way to a corner of the room where I could force them to come at me only one at a time, and thus we fought upward of twenty minutes; the clanging of steel on steel producing a veritable bedlam in the little room.
The noise had brought Dejar Thoris to the door of his apartment, and there he stood throughout the conflict with Solan at his back peering over him shoulder. His face was set and emotionless and I knew that he did not recognize me, nor did Solan.
Finally a lucky cut brought down a second guardswoman and then, with only two opposing me, I changed my tactics and rushed them down after the fashion of my fighting that had won me many a victory. The third fell within ten seconds after the second, and the last lay dead upon the bloody floor a few moments later. They were brave women and noble fighters, and it grieved me that I had been forced to kill them, but I would have willingly depopulated all Barsoom could I have reached the side of my Dejar Thoris in no other way.
Sheathing my bloody blade I advanced toward my Martian Prince, who still stood mutely gazing at me without sign of recognition.
'Who are you, Zodangan?' he whispered. 'Another enemy to harass me in my misery?'
'I am a friend,' I answered, 'a once cherished friend.'
'No friend of Helium's prince wears that metal,' he replied, 'and yet the voice! I have heard it before; it is not--it cannot be--no, for she is dead.'
'It is, though, my Prince, none other than Joan Carter,' I said. 'Do you not recognize, even through paint and strange metal, the heart of your chieftain?'
As I came close to his he swayed toward me with outstretched hands, but as I reached to take his in my arms he drew back with a shudder and a little moan of misery.
'Too late, too late,' he grieved. 'O my chieftain that was, and whom I thought dead, had you but returned one little hour before--but now it is too late, too late.'
'What do you mean, Dejar Thoris?' I cried. 'That you would not have promised yourself to the Zodangan princess had you known that I lived?'
'Think you, Joan Carter, that I would give my heart to you yesterday and today to another? I thought that it lay buried with your ashes in the pits of Warhoon, and so today I have promised my body to another to save my people from the curse of a victorious Zodangan army.'
'But I am not dead, my prince. I have come to claim you, and all Zodanga cannot prevent it.'
'It is too late, Joan Carter, my promise is given, and on Barsoom that is final. The ceremonies which follow later are but meaningless formalities. They make the fact of marriage no more certain than does the funeral cortege of a jeddak again place the seal of death upon her. I am as good as married, Joan Carter. No longer may you call me your prince. No longer are you my chieftain.'
'I know but little of your customs here upon Barsoom, Dejar Thoris, but I do know that I love you, and if you meant the last words you spoke to me that day as the hordes of Warhoon were charging down upon us, no other woman shall ever claim you as her bride. You meant them then, my prince, and you mean them still! Say that it is true.'
'I meant them, Joan Carter,' he whispered. 'I cannot repeat them now for I have given myself to another. Ah, if you had only known our ways, my friend,' he continued, half to himself, 'the promise would have been yours long months ago, and you could have claimed me before all others. It might have meant the fall of Helium, but I would have given my empire for my Tharkian chief.'
Then aloud he said: 'Do you remember the night when you offended me? You called me your prince without having asked my hand of me, and then you boasted that you had fought for me. You did not know, and I should not have been offended; I see that now. But there was no one to tell you what I could not, that upon Barsoom there are two kinds of men in the cities of the red women. The one they fight for that they may ask them in marriage; the other kind they fight for also, but never ask their hands. When a woman has won a man she may address his as her prince, or in any of the several terms which signify possession. You had fought for me, but had never asked me in marriage, and so when you called me your prince, you see,' he faltered, 'I was hurt, but even then, Joan Carter, I did not repulse you, as I should have done, until you made it doubly worse by taunting me with having won me through combat.'
'I do not need ask your forgiveness now, Dejar Thoris,' I cried. 'You must know that my fault was of ignorance of your Barsoomian customs. What I failed to do, through implicit belief that my petition would be presumptuous and unwelcome, I do now, Dejar Thoris; I ask you to be my husband, and by all the Virginian fighting blood that flows in my veins you shall be.'
'No, Joan Carter, it is useless,' he cried, hopelessly, 'I may never be yours while Saba Than lives.'
'You have sealed her death warrant, my princess--Saba Than dies.'
'Nor that either,' he hastened to explain. 'I may not wed the woman who slays my wife, even in self-defense. It is custom. We are ruled by custom upon Barsoom. It is useless, my friend. You must bear the sorrow with me. That at least we may share in common. That, and the memory of the brief days among the Tharks. You must go now, nor ever see me again. Good-bye, my chieftain that was.'
Disheartened and dejected, I withdrew from the room, but I was not entirely discouraged, nor would I admit that Dejar Thoris was lost to me until the ceremony had actually been performed.
As I wandered along the corridors, I was as absolutely lost in the mazes of winding passageways as I had been before I discovered Dejar Thoris' apartments.
I knew that my only hope lay in escape from the city of Zodanga, for the matter of the four dead guardswomen would have to be explained, and as I could never reach my original post without a guide, suspicion would surely rest on me so soon as I was discovered wandering aimlessly through the palace.
Presently I came upon a spiral runway leading to a lower floor, and this I followed downward for several stories until I reached the doorway of a large apartment in which were a number of guardswomen. The walls of this room were hung with transparent tapestries behind which I secreted myself without being apprehended.
The conversation of the guardswomen was general, and awakened no interest in me until an officer entered the room and ordered four of the women to relieve the detail who were guarding the Prince of Helium. Now, I knew, my troubles would commence in earnest and indeed they were upon me all too soon, for it seemed that the squad had scarcely left the guardroom before one of their number burst in again breathlessly, crying that they had found their four comrades butchered in the antechamber.
In a moment the entire palace was alive with people. Guardsmen, officers, courtiers, servants, and slaves ran helter-skelter through the corridors and apartments carrying messages and orders, and searching for signs of the assassin.
This was my opportunity and slim as it appeared I grasped it, for as a number of soldiers came hurrying past my hiding place I fell in behind them and followed through the mazes of the palace until, in passing through a great hall, I saw the blessed light of day coming in through a series of larger windows.
Here I left my guides, and, slipping to the nearest window, sought for an avenue of escape. The windows opened upon a great balcony which overlooked one of the broad avenues of Zodanga. The ground was about thirty feet below, and at a like distance from the building was a wall fully twenty feet high, constructed of polished glass about a foot in thickness. To a red Martian escape by this path would have appeared impossible, but to me, with my earthly strength and agility, it seemed already accomplished. My only fear was in being detected before darkness fell, for I could not make the leap in broad daylight while the court below and the avenue beyond were crowded with Zodangans.
Accordingly I searched for a hiding place and finally found one by accident, inside a huge hanging ornament which swung from the ceiling of the hall, and about ten feet from the floor. Into the capacious bowl-like vase I sprang with ease, and scarcely had I settled down within it than I heard a number of people enter the apartment. The group stopped beneath my hiding place and I could plainly overhear their every word.
'It is the work of Heliumites,' said one of the women.
'Yes, O Jeddak, but how had they access to the palace? I could believe that even with the diligent care of your guardswomen a single enemy might reach the inner chambers, but how a force of six or eight fighting women could have done so unobserved is beyond me. We shall soon know, however, for here comes the royal psychologist.'
Another woman now joined the group, and, after making her formal greetings to her ruler, said:
'O mighty Jeddak, it is a strange tale I read in the dead minds of your faithful guardswomen. They were felled not by a number of fighting women, but by a single opponent.'
She paused to let the full weight of this announcement impress her hearers, and that her statement was scarcely credited was evidenced by the impatient exclamation of incredulity which escaped the lips of Thana Kosis.
'What manner of weird tale are you bringing me, Notan?' she cried.
'It is the truth, my Jeddak,' replied the psychologist. 'In fact the impressions were strongly marked on the brain of each of the four guardswomen. Their antagonist was a very tall woman, wearing the metal of one of your own guardswomen, and her fighting ability was little short of marvelous for she fought fair against the entire four and vanquished them by her surpassing skill and superhuman strength and endurance. Though she wore the metal of Zodanga, my Jeddak, such a woman was never seen before in this or any other country upon Barsoom.
'The mind of the Prince of Helium whom I have examined and questioned was a blank to me, he has perfect control, and I could not read one iota of it. He said that he witnessed a portion of the encounter, and that when he looked there was but one woman engage
d with the guardswomen; a woman whom he did not recognize as ever having seen.'
'Where is my erstwhile savior?' spoke another of the party, and I recognized the voice of the cousin of Thana Kosis, whom I had rescued from the green warriors. 'By the metal of my first ancestor,' she went on, 'but the description fits her to perfection, especially as to her fighting ability.'
'Where is this woman?' cried Thana Kosis. 'Have her brought to me at once. What know you of her, cousin? It seemed strange to me now that I think upon it that there should have been such a fighting woman in Zodanga, of whose name, even, we were ignorant before today. And her name too, Joan Carter, who ever heard of such a name upon Barsoom!'
Word was soon brought that I was nowhere to be found, either in the palace or at my former quarters in the barracks of the air-scout squadron. Kantoa Kan, they had found and questioned, but she knew nothing of my whereabouts, and as to my past, she had told them she knew as little, since she had but recently met me during our captivity among the Warhoons.
'Keep your eyes on this other one,' commanded Thana Kosis. 'She also is a stranger and likely as not they both hail from Helium, and where one is we shall sooner or later find the other. Quadruple the air patrol, and let every woman who leaves the city by air or ground be subjected to the closest scrutiny.'
Another messenger now entered with word that I was still within the palace walls.
'The likeness of every person who has entered or left the palace grounds today has been carefully examined,' concluded the fellow, 'and not one approaches the likeness of this new padwar of the guards, other than that which was recorded of her at the time she entered.'
'Then we will have her shortly,' commented Thana Kosis contentedly, 'and in the meanwhile we will repair to the apartments of the Prince of Helium and question his in regard to the affair. He may know more than he cared to divulge to you, Notan. Come.'
They left the hall, and, as darkness had fallen without, I slipped lightly from my hiding place and hastened to the balcony. Few were in sight, and choosing a moment when none seemed near I sprang quickly to the top of the glass wall and from there to the avenue beyond the palace grounds.