The Chessmen of Mars
one of them ever dropped his egotism and broke it it would take a week
to fumigate Helium. Her father liked normal people--people who knew too
little and people who knew too much were equally a bore. Tara of Helium
was like her father in this respect and like him, too, she was both
sane and normal.
Outside of her personal danger there was much in this strange world
that interested her. The rykors aroused her keenest pity, and vast
conjecture. How and from what form had they evolved? She asked Ghek.
"Sing to me again and I will tell you," he said. "If Luud would let me
have you, you should never die. I should keep you always to sing to me."
The girl marvelled at the effect her voice had upon the creature.
Somewhere in that enormous brain there was a chord that was touched by
melody. It was the sole link between herself and the brain when
detached from the rykor. When it dominated the rykor it might have
other human instincts; but these she dreaded even to think of. After
she had sung she waited for Ghek to speak. For a long time he was
silent, just looking at her through those awful eyes.
"I wonder," he said presently, "if it might not be pleasant to be of
your race. Do you all sing?"
"Nearly all, a little," she said; "but we do many other interesting and
enjoyable things. We dance and play and work and love and sometimes we
fight, for we are a race of warriors."
"Love!" said the kaldane. "I think I know what you mean; but we,
fortunately, are above sentiment--when we are detached. But when we
dominate the rykor--ah, that is different, and when I hear you sing and
look at your beautiful body I know what you mean by love. I could love
you."
The girl shrank from him. "You promised to tell me the origin of the
rykor," she reminded him.
"Ages ago," he commenced, "our bodies were larger and our heads
smaller. Our legs were very weak and we could not travel fast or far.
There was a stupid creature that went upon four legs. It lived in a
hole in the ground, to which it brought its food, so we ran our burrows
into this hole and ate the food it brought; but it did not bring enough
for all--for itself and all the kaldanes that lived upon it, so we had
also to go abroad and get food. This was hard work for our weak legs.
Then it was that we commenced to ride upon the backs of these primitive
rykors. It took many ages, undoubtedly, but at last came the time when
the kaldane had found means to guide the rykor, until presently the
latter depended entirely upon the superior brain of his master to guide
him to food. The brain of the rykor grew smaller as time went on. His
ears went and his eyes, for he no longer had use for them--the kaldane
saw and heard for him. By similar steps the rykor came to go upon its
hind feet that the kaldane might be able to see farther. As the brain
shrank, so did the head. The mouth was the only feature of the head
that was used and so the mouth alone remains. Members of the red race
fell into the hands of our ancestors from time to time. They saw the
beauties and the advantages of the form that nature had given the red
race over that which the rykor was developing into. By intelligent
crossing the present rykor was achieved. He is really solely the
product of the super-intelligence of the kaldane--he is our body, to do
with as we see fit, just as you do what you see fit with your body,
only we have the advantage of possessing an unlimited supply of bodies.
Do you not wish that you were a kaldane?"
For how long they kept her in the subterranean chamber Tara of Helium
did not know. It seemed a very long time. She ate and slept and watched
the interminable lines of creatures that passed the entrance to her
prison. There was a laden line passing from above carrying food, food,
food. In the other line they returned empty handed. When she saw them
she knew that it was daylight above. When they did not pass she knew it
was night, and that the banths were about devouring the rykors that had
been abandoned in the fields the previous day. She commenced to grow
pale and thin. She did not like the food they gave her--it was not
suited to her kind--nor would she have eaten overmuch palatable food,
for the fear of becoming fat. The idea of plumpness had a new
significance here--a horrible significance.
Ghek noted that she was growing thin and white. He spoke to her about
it and she told him that she could not thrive thus beneath the
ground--that she must have fresh air and sunshine, or she would wither
and die. Evidently he carried her words to Luud, since it was not long
after that he told her that the king had ordered that she be confined
in the tower and to the tower she was taken. She had hoped against hope
that this very thing might result from her conversation with Ghek. Even
to see the sun again was something, but now there sprang to her breast
a hope that she had not dared to nurse before, while she lay in the
terrible labyrinth from which she knew she could never have found her
way to the outer world; but now there was some slight reason to hope.
At least she could see the hills and if she could see them might there
not come also the opportunity to reach them? If she could have but ten
minutes--just ten little minutes! The flier was still there--she knew
that it must be. Just ten minutes and she would be free--free forever
from this frightful place; but the days wore on and she was never
alone, not even for half of ten minutes. Many times she planned her
escape. Had it not been for the banths it had been easy of
accomplishment by night. Ghek always detached his body then and sank
into what seemed a semi-comatose condition. It could not be said that
he slept, or at least it did not appear like sleep, since his lidless
eyes were unchanged; but he lay quietly in a corner. Tara of Helium
enacted a thousand times in her mind the scene of her escape. She would
rush to the side of the rykor and seize the sword that hung in its
harness. Before Ghek knew what she purposed, she would have this and
then before he could give an alarm she would drive the blade through
his hideous head. It would take but a moment to reach the enclosure.
The rykors could not stop her, for they had no brains to tell them that
she was escaping. She had watched from her window the opening and
closing of the gate that led from the enclosure out into the fields and
she knew how the great latch operated. She would pass through and make
a quick dash for the hill. It was so near that they could not overtake
her. It was so easy! Or it would have been but for the banths! The
banths at night and the workers in the fields by day.
Confined to the tower and without proper exercise or food, the girl
failed to show the improvement that her captors desired. Ghek
questioned her in an effort to learn why it was that she did not grow
round and plump; that she did not even look as well as when they had
captured her. His concern was prompted by repeated inquiries on the
part of Luud and finally resulted in suggesting to Tara of Helium a
plan whereby she might find a new opportunity of escape.
"I am accustomed to walking in the fresh air and the sunlight," she
told Ghek. "I cannot become as I was before if I am to be always shut
away in this one chamber, breathing poor air and getting no proper
exercise. Permit me to go out in the fields every day and walk about
while the sun is shining. Then, I am sure, I shall become nice and fat."
"You would run away," he said.
"But how could I if you were always with me?" she asked. "And even if I
wished to run away where could I go? I do not know even the direction
of Helium. It must be very far. The very first night the banths would
get me, would they not?"
"They would," said Ghek. "I will ask Luud about it."
The following day he told her that Luud had said that she was to be
taken into the fields. He would try that for a time and see if she
improved.
"If you do not grow fatter he will send for you anyway," said Ghek;
"but he will not use you for food."
Tara of Helium shuddered.
That day and for many days thereafter she was taken from the tower,
through the enclosure and out into the fields. Always was she alert for
an opportunity to escape; but Ghek was always close by her side. It was
not so much his presence that deterred her from making the attempt as
the number of workers that were always between her and the hills where
the flier lay. She could easily have eluded Ghek, but there were too
many of the others. And then, one day, Ghek told her as he accompanied
her into the open that this would be the last time.
"Tonight you go to Luud," he said. "I am sorry as I shall not hear you
sing again."
"Tonight!" She scarce breathed the word, yet it was vibrant with horror.
She glanced quickly toward the hills. They were so close! Yet between
were the inevitable workers--perhaps a score of them.
"Let us walk over there?" she said, indicating them. "I should like to
see what they are doing."
"It is too far," said Ghek. "I hate the sun. It is much pleasanter here
where I can stand beneath the shade of this tree."
"All right," she agreed; "then you stay here and I will walk over. It
will take me but a minute."
"No," he answered. "I will go with you. You want to escape; but you are
not going to."
"I cannot escape," she said.
"I know it," agreed Ghek; "but you might try. I do not wish you to try.
Possibly it will be better if we return to the tower at once. It would
go hard with me should you escape."
Tara of Helium saw her last chance fading into oblivion. There would
never be another after today. She cast about for some pretext to lure
him even a little nearer to the hills.
"It is very little that I ask," she said. "Tonight you will want me to
sing to you. It will be the last time, if you do not let me go and see
what those kaldanes are doing I shall never sing to you again."
Ghek hesitated. "I will hold you by the arm all the time, then," he
said.
"Why, of course, if you wish," she assented. "Come!"
The two moved toward the workers and the hills. The little party was
digging tubers from the ground. She had noted this and that nearly
always they were stooped low over their work, the hideous eyes bent
upon the upturned soil. She led Ghek quite close to them, pretending
that she wished to see exactly how they did the work, and all the time
he held her tightly by her left wrist.
"It is very interesting," she said, with a sigh, and then, suddenly;
"Look, Ghek!" and pointed quickly back in the direction of the tower.
The kaldane, still holding her turned half away from her to look in the
direction she had indicated and simultaneously, with the quickness of a
banth, she struck him with her right fist, backed by every ounce of
strength she possessed--struck the back of the pulpy head just above
the collar. The blow was sufficient to accomplish her design,
dislodging the kaldane from its rykor and tumbling it to the ground.
Instantly the grasp upon her wrist relaxed as the body, no longer
controlled by the brain of Ghek, stumbled aimlessly about for an
instant before it sank to its knees and then rolled over on its back;
but Tara of Helium waited not to note the full results of her act. The
instant the fingers loosened upon her wrist she broke away and dashed
toward the hills. Simultaneously a warning whistle broke from Ghek's
lips and in instant response the workers leaped to their feet, one
almost in the girl's path. She dodged the outstretched arms and was
away again toward the hills and freedom, when her foot caught in one of
the hoe-like instruments with which the soil had been upturned and
which had been left, half imbedded in the ground. For an instant she
ran on, stumbling, in a mad effort to regain her equilibrium, but the