CHAPTER XI
THE CHOICE OF TARA
The dazzling sunlight of Barsoom clothed Manator in an aureole ofsplendor as the girl and her captors rode into the city through TheGate of Enemies. Here the wall was some fifty feet thick, and the sidesof the passageway within the gate were covered with parallel shelves ofmasonry from bottom to top. Within these shelves, or long, horizontalniches, stood row upon row of small figures, appearing like tiny,grotesque statuettes of men, their long, black hair falling below theirfeet and sometimes trailing to the shelf beneath. The figures werescarce a foot in height and but for their diminutive proportions mighthave been the mummified bodies of once living men. The girl noticedthat as they passed, the warriors saluted the figures with their spearsafter the manner of Barsoomian fighting men in extending a militarycourtesy, and then they rode on into the avenue beyond, which ran, wideand stately, through the city toward the east.
On either side were great buildings wondrously wrought. Paintings ofgreat beauty and antiquity covered many of the walls, their colorssoftened and blended by the suns of ages. Upon the pavement the life ofthe newly-awakened city was already afoot. Women in brillianttrappings, befeathered warriors, their bodies daubed with paint;artisans, armed but less gaily caparisoned, took their various waysupon the duties of the day. A giant zitidar, magnificent in richharness, rumbled its broad-wheeled cart along the stone pavement towardThe Gate of Enemies. Life and color and beauty wrought together apicture that filled the eyes of Tara of Helium with wonder and withadmiration, for here was a scene out of the dead past of dying Mars.Such had been the cities of the founders of her race before Throxeus,mightiest of oceans, had disappeared from the face of a world. And frombalconies on either side men and women looked down in silence upon thescene below.
The people in the street looked at the two prisoners, especially at thehideous Ghek, and called out in question or comment to their guard; butthe watchers upon the balconies spoke not, nor did one so much as turna head to note their passing. There were many balconies on eachbuilding and not a one that did not hold its silent party of richlytrapped men and women, with here and there a child or two, but even thechildren maintained the uniform silence and immobility of their elders.As they approached the center of the city the girl saw that even theroofs bore companies of these idle watchers, harnessed and bejeweled asfor some gala-day of laughter and music, but no laughter broke fromthose silent lips, nor any music from the strings of the instrumentsthat many of them held in jeweled fingers.
And now the avenue widened into an immense square, at the far end ofwhich rose a stately edifice gleaming white in virgin marble among thegaily painted buildings surrounding it and its scarlet sward andgaily-flowering, green-foliaged shrubbery. Toward this U-Dor led hisprisoners and their guard to the great arched entrance before which aline of fifty mounted warriors barred the way. When the commander ofthe guard recognized U-Dor the guardsmen fell back to either sideleaving a broad avenue through which the party passed. Directly insidethe entrance were inclined runways leading upward on either side. U-Dorturned to the left and led them upward to the second floor and down along corridor. Here they passed other mounted men and in chambers uponeither side they saw more. Occasionally there was another runwayleading either up or down. A warrior, his steed at full gallop, dashedinto sight from one of these and raced swiftly past them upon someerrand.
Nowhere as yet had Tara of Helium seen a man afoot in this greatbuilding; but when at a turn, U-Dor led them to the third floor shecaught glimpses of chambers in which many riderless thoats were pennedand others adjoining where dismounted warriors lolled at ease or playedgames of skill or chance and many there were who played at jetan, andthen the party passed into a long, wide hall of state, as magnificentan apartment as even a princess of mighty Helium ever had seen. Thelength of the room ran an arched ceiling ablaze with countless radiumbulbs. The mighty spans extended from wall to wall leaving the vastfloor unbroken by a single column. The arches were of white marble,apparently quarried in single, huge blocks from which each arch was cutcomplete. Between the arches, the ceiling was set solid about theradium bulbs with precious stones whose scintillant fire and color andbeauty filled the whole apartment. The stones were carried down thewalls in an irregular fringe for a few feet, where they appeared tohang like a beautiful and gorgeous drapery against the white marble ofthe wall. The marble ended some six or seven feet from the floor, thewalls from that point down being wainscoted in solid gold. The flooritself was of marble richly inlaid with gold. In that single room was avast treasure equal to the wealth of many a large city.
But what riveted the girl's attention even more than the fabuloustreasure of decorations were the files of gorgeously harnessed warriorswho sat their thoats in grim silence and immobility on either side ofthe central aisle, rank after rank of them to the farther walls, and asthe party passed between them she could not note so much as the flickerof an eyelid, or the twitching of a thoat's ear.
"The Hall of Chiefs," whispered one of her guard, evidently noting herinterest. There was a note of pride in the fellow's voice and somethingof hushed awe. Then they passed through a great doorway into thechamber beyond, a large, square room in which a dozen mounted warriorslolled in their saddles.
As U-Dor and his party entered the room, the warriors came quicklyerect in their saddles and formed a line before another door upon theopposite side of the wall. The padwar commanding them saluted U-Dorwho, with his party, had halted facing the guard.
"Send one to O-Tar announcing that U-Dor brings two prisoners worthy ofthe observation of the great jeddak," said U-Dor; "one because of herextreme beauty, the other because of his extreme ugliness."
"O-Tar sits in council with the lesser chiefs," replied the lieutenant;"but the words of U-Dor the dwar shall be carried to him," and heturned and gave instructions to one who sat his thoat behind him.
"What manner of creature is the male?" he asked of U-Dor. "It cannot bethat both are of one race."
"They were together in the hills south of the city," explained U-Dor,"and they say that they are lost and starving."
"The woman is beautiful," said the padwar. "She will not long gobegging in the city of Manator," and then they spoke of othermatters--of the doings of the palace, of the expedition of U-Dor, untilthe messenger returned to say that O-Tar bade them bring the prisonersto him.
They passed then through a massive doorway, which, when opened,revealed the great council chamber of O-Tar, Jeddak of Manator, beyond.A central aisle led from the doorway the full length of the great hall,terminating at the steps of a marble dais upon which a man sat in agreat throne-chair. Upon either side of the aisle were ranged rows ofhighly carved desks and chairs of skeel, a hard wood of great beauty.Only a few of the desks were occupied--those in the front row, justbelow the rostrum.
At the entrance U-Dor dismounted with four of his followers who formeda guard about the two prisoners who were then conducted toward the footof the throne, following a few paces behind U-Dor. As they halted atthe foot of the marble steps, the proud gaze of Tara of Helium restedupon the enthroned figure of the man above her. He sat erect withoutstiffness--a commanding presence trapped in the barbaric splendor thatthe Barsoomian chieftain loves. He was a large man, the perfection ofwhose handsome face was marred only by the hauteur of his cold eyes andthe suggestion of cruelty imparted by too thin lips. It needed nosecond glance to assure the least observing that here indeed was aruler of men--a fighting jeddak whose people might worship but notlove, and for whose slightest favor warriors would vie with one anotherto go forth and die. This was O-Tar, Jeddak of Manator, and as Tara ofHelium saw him for the first time she could not but acknowledge acertain admiration for this savage chieftain who so virilelypersonified the ancient virtues of the God of War.
U-Dor and the jeddak interchanged the simple greetings of Barsoom, andthen the former recounted the details of the discovery and capture ofthe prisoners. O-Tar scrutinized them both intently during U-Dor'snarratio
n of events, his expression revealing naught of what passed inthe brain behind those inscrutable eyes. When the officer had finishedthe jeddak fastened his gaze upon Ghek.
"And you," he asked, "what manner of thing are you? From what country?Why are you in Manator?"
"I am a kaldane," replied Ghek; "the highest type of created creatureupon the face of Barsoom; I am mind, you are matter. I come fromBantoom. I am here because we were lost and starving."
"And you!" O-Tar turned suddenly on Tara. "You, too, are a kaldane?"
"I am a princess of Helium," replied the girl. "I was a prisoner inBantoom. This kaldane and a warrior of my own race rescued me. Thewarrior left us to search for food and water. He has doubtless falleninto the hands of your people. I ask you to free him and give us foodand drink and let us go upon our way. I am a granddaughter of a jeddak,the daughter of a jeddak of jeddaks, The Warlord of Barsoom. I ask onlythe treatment that my people would accord you or yours."
"Helium," repeated O-Tar. "I know naught of Helium, nor does the Jeddakof Helium rule Manator. I, O-Tar, am Jeddak of Manator. I alone rule. Iprotect my own. You have never seen a woman or a warrior of Manatorcaptive in Helium! Why should I protect the people of another jeddak?It is his duty to protect them. If he cannot, he is weak, and hispeople must fall into the hands of the strong. I, O-Tar, am strong. Iwill keep you. That--" he pointed at Ghek--"can it fight?"
"It is brave," replied Tara of Helium, "but it has not the skill atarms which my people possess."
"There is none then to fight for you?" asked O-Tar. "We are a justpeople," he continued without waiting for a reply, "and had you one tofight for you he might win to freedom for himself and you as well."
"But U-Dor assured me that no stranger ever had departed from Manator,"she answered.
O-Tar shrugged. "That does not disprove the justice of the laws ofManator," replied O-Tar, "but rather that the warriors of Manator areinvincible. Had there come one who could defeat our warriors that onehad won to liberty."
"And you fetch my warrior," cried Tara haughtily, "you shall see suchswordplay as doubtless the crumbling walls of your decaying city neverhave witnessed, and if there be no trick in your offer we are alreadyas good as free."
O-Tar smiled more broadly than before and U-Dor smiled, too, and thechiefs and warriors who looked on nudged one another and whispered,laughing. And Tara of Helium knew then that there was trickery in theirjustice; but though her situation seemed hopeless she did not cease tohope, for was she not the daughter of John Carter, Warlord of Barsoom,whose famous challenge to Fate, "I still live!" remained the oneirreducible defense against despair? At thought of her noble sire thepatrician chin of Tara of Helium rose a shade higher. Ah! if he butknew where she was there were little to fear then. The hosts of Heliumwould batter at the gates of Manator, the great green warriors of JohnCarter's savage allies would swarm up from the dead sea bottoms lustingfor pillage and for loot, the stately ships of her beloved navy wouldsoar above the unprotected towers and minarets of the doomed city whichonly capitulation and heavy tribute could then save.
But John Carter did not know! There was only one other to whom shemight hope to look--Turan the panthan; but where was he? She had seenhis sword in play and she knew that it had been wielded by a masterhand, and who should know swordplay better than Tara of Helium, who hadlearned it well under the constant tutorage of John Carter himself.Tricks she knew that discounted even far greater physical prowess thanher own, and a method of attack that might have been at once the envyand despair of the cleverest of warriors. And so it was that herthoughts turned to Turan the panthan, though not alone because of theprotection he might afford her. She had realized, since he had left herin search of food, that there had grown between them a certaincomradeship that she now missed. There had been that about him whichseemed to have bridged the gulf between their stations in life. Withhim she had failed to consider that he was a panthan or that she was aprincess--they had been comrades. Suddenly she realized that she missedhim for himself more than for his sword. She turned toward O-Tar.
"Where is Turan, my warrior?" she demanded.
"You shall not lack for warriors," replied the jeddak. "One of yourbeauty will find plenty ready to fight for her. Possibly it shall notbe necessary to look farther than the jeddak of Manator. You please me,woman. What say you to such an honor?"
Through narrowed lids the Princess of Helium scrutinized the Jeddak ofManator, from feathered headdress to sandaled foot and back tofeathered headdress.
"'Honor'!" she mimicked in tones of scorn. "I please thee, do I? Thenknow, swine, that thou pleaseth me not--that the daughter of JohnCarter is not for such as thou!"
A sudden, tense silence fell upon the assembled chiefs. Slowly theblood receded from the sinister face of O-Tar, Jeddak of Manator,leaving him a sickly purple in his wrath. His eyes narrowed to two thinslits, his lips were compressed to a bloodless line of malevolence. Fora long moment there was no sound in the throne room of the palace atManator. Then the jeddak turned toward U-Dor.
"Take her away," he said in a level voice that belied his appearance ofrage. "Take her away, and at the next games let the prisoners and thecommon warriors play at Jetan for her."
"And this?" asked U-Dor, pointing at Ghek.
"To the pits until the next games," replied O-Tar.
"So this is your vaunted justice!" cried Tara of Helium; "that twostrangers who have not wronged you shall be sentenced without trial?And one of them is a woman. The swine of Manator are as just as theyare brave."
"Away with her!" shouted O-Tar, and at a sign from U-Dor the guardsformed about the two prisoners and conducted them from the chamber.
Outside the palace, Ghek and Tara of Helium were separated. The girlwas led through long avenues toward the center of the city and finallyinto a low building, topped by lofty towers of massive construction.Here she was turned over to a warrior who wore the insignia of a dwar,or captain.
"It is O-Tar's wish," explained U-Dor to this one, "that she be keptuntil the next games, when the prisoners and the common warriors shallplay for her. Had she not the tongue of a thoat she had been a worthystake for our noblest steel," and U-Dor sighed. "Perhaps even yet I maywin a pardon for her. It were too bad to see such beauty fall to thelot of some common fellow. I would have honored her myself."
"If I am to be imprisoned, imprison me," said the girl. "I do notrecall that I was sentenced to listen to the insults of every low-bornboor who chanced to admire me."
"You see, A-Kor," cried U-Dor, "the tongue that she has. Even so andworse spoke she to O-Tar the jeddak."
"I see," replied A-Kor, whom Tara saw was with difficulty restraining asmile. "Come, then, with me, woman," he said, "and we shall find a safeplace within The Towers of Jetan--but stay! what ails thee?"
The girl had staggered and would have fallen had not the man caught herin his arms. She seemed to gather herself then and bravely sought tostand erect without support. A-Kor glanced at U-Dor. "Knew you thewoman was ill?" he asked.
"Possibly it is lack of food," replied the other. "She mentioned, Ibelieve, that she and her companions had not eaten for several days."
"Brave are the warriors of O-Tar," sneered A-Kor; "lavish theirhospitality. U-Dor, whose riches are uncounted, and the brave O-Tar,whose squealing thoats are stabled within marble halls and fed fromtroughs of gold, can spare no crust to feed a starving girl."
The black haired U-Dor scowled. "Thy tongue will yet pierce thy heart,son of a slave!" he cried. "Once too often mayst thou try the patienceof the just O-Tar. Hereafter guard thy speech as well as thy towers."
"Think not to taunt me with my mother's state," said A-Kor. "'Tis theblood of the slave woman that fills my veins with pride, and my onlyshame is that I am also the son of thy jeddak."
"And O-Tar heard this?" queried U-Dor.
"O-Tar has already heard it from my own lips," replied A-Kor; "this,and more."
He turned upon his heel, a supporting arm still around the wai
st ofTara of Helium and thus he half led, half carried her into The Towersof Jetan, while U-Dor wheeled his thoat and galloped back in thedirection of the palace.
Within the main entrance to The Tower of Jetan lolled a half-dozenwarriors. To one of these spoke A-Kor, keeper of the towers. "FetchLan-O, the slave girl, and bid her bring food and drink to the upperlevel of the Thurian tower," then he lifted the half-fainting girl inhis arms and bore her along the spiral, inclined runway that led upwardwithin the tower.
Somewhere in the long ascent Tara lost consciousness. When it returnedshe found herself in a large, circular chamber, the stone walls ofwhich were pierced by windows at regular intervals about the entirecircumference of the room. She was lying upon a pile of sleeping silksand furs while there knelt above her a young woman who was forcingdrops of some cooling beverage between her parched lips. Tara of Heliumhalf rose upon an elbow and looked about. In the first moments ofreturning consciousness there were swept from the screen ofrecollection the happenings of many weeks. She thought that she awokein the palace of The Warlord at Helium. Her brows knit as shescrutinized the strange face bending over her.
"Who are you?" she asked, and, "Where is Uthia?"
"I am Lan-O the slave girl," replied the other. "I know none by thename of Uthia."
Tara of Helium sat erect and looked about her. This rough stone was notthe marble of her father's halls. "Where am I?" she asked.
"In The Thurian Tower," replied the girl, and then seeing that theother still did not understand she guessed the truth. "You are aprisoner in The Towers of Jetan in the city of Manator," she explained."You were brought to this chamber, weak and fainting, by A-Kor, Dwar ofThe Towers of Jetan, who sent me to you with food and drink, for kindis the heart of A-Kor."
"I remember, now," said Tara, slowly. "I remember; but where is Turan,my warrior? Did they speak of him?"
"I heard naught of another," replied Lan-O; "you alone were brought tothe towers. In that you are fortunate, for there be no nobler man inManator than A-Kor. It is his mother's blood that makes him so. She wasa slave girl from Gathol."
"Gathol!" exclaimed Tara of Helium. "Lies Gathol close by Manator?"
"Not close, yet still the nearest country," replied Lan-O. "Abouttwenty-two degrees* east, it lies."
* Approximately 814 Earth Miles.
"Gathol!" murmured Tara, "Far Gathol!"
"But you are not from Gathol," said the slave girl; "your harness isnot of Gathol."
"I am from Helium," said Tara.
"It is far from Helium to Gathol," said the slave girl, "but in ourstudies we learned much of the greatness of Helium, we of Gathol, so itseems not so far away."
"You, too, are from Gathol?" asked Tara.
"Many of us are from Gathol who are slaves in Manator," replied thegirl. "It is to Gathol, nearest country, that the Manatorians look forslaves most often. They go in great numbers at intervals of three orseven years and haunt the roads that lead to Gathol, and thus theycapture whole caravans leaving none to bear warning to Gathol of theirfate. Nor do any ever escape from Manator to carry word of us back toGahan our jed."
Tara of Helium ate slowly and in silence. The girl's words arousedmemories of the last hours she had spent in her father's palace and thegreat midday function at which she had met Gahan of Gathol. Even nowshe flushed as she recalled his daring words.
Upon her reveries the door opened and a burly warrior appeared in theopening--a hulking fellow, with thick lips and an evil, leering face.The slave girl sprang to her feet, facing him.
"What does this mean, E-Med?" she cried, "was it not the will of A-Korthat this woman be not disturbed?"
"The will of A-Kor, indeed!" and the man sneered. "The will of A-Kor iswithout power in The Towers of Jetan, or elsewhere, for A-Kor lies nowin the pits of O-Tar, and E-Med is dwar of the Towers."
Tara of Helium saw the face of the slave girl pale and the terror inher eyes.