The Chessmen of Mars
shone from openings in the tower; but there was no sign of guard or
waking inmate. Clinging to the rope Gahan lowered himself within the
enclosure, where he had his first close view of the creatures lying
there in what he had thought sleep. With a half smothered exclamation
of horror the man drew back from the headless bodies of the rykors. At
first he thought them the corpses of decapitated humans like himself,
which was quite bad enough; but when he saw them move and realized that
they were endowed with life, his horror and disgust became even greater.
Here then was the explanation of the thing he had witnessed that
afternoon, when Tara of Helium had struck the head from her captor and
Gahan had seen the head crawl back to its body. And to think that the
pearl of Helium was in the power of such hideous things as these. Again
the man shuddered, but he hastened to make fast the flier, clamber
again to its deck and lower it to the floor of the enclosure. Then
he strode toward a door in the base of the tower, stepping lightly
over the recumbent forms of the unconscious rykors, and crossing
the threshold disappeared within.
CHAPTER VIII
CLOSE WORK
Ghek, in his happier days third foreman of the fields of Luud, sat
nursing his anger and his humiliation. Recently something had awakened
within him the existence of which he had never before even dreamed. Had
the influence of the strange captive woman aught to do with this unrest
and dissatisfaction? He did not know. He missed the soothing influence
of the noise she called singing. Could it be that there were other
things more desirable than cold logic and undefiled brain power? Was
well balanced imperfection more to be sought after then, than the high
development of a single characteristic? He thought of the great,
ultimate brain toward which all kaldanes were striving. It would be
deaf, and dumb, and blind. A thousand beautiful strangers might sing
and dance about it, but it could derive no pleasure from the singing or
the dancing since it would possess no perceptive faculties. Already had
the kaldanes shut themselves off from most of the gratifications of the
senses. Ghek wondered if much was to be gained by denying themselves
still further, and with the thought came a question as to the whole
fabric of their theory. After all perhaps the girl was right; what
purpose could a great brain serve sealed in the bowels of the earth?
And he, Ghek, was to die for this theory. Luud had decreed it. The
injustice of it overwhelmed him with rage. But he was helpless. There
was no escape. Beyond the enclosure the banths awaited him; within, his
own kind, equally as merciless and ferocious. Among them there was no
such thing as love, or loyalty, or friendship--they were just brains.
He might kill Luud; but what would that profit him? Another king would
be loosed from his sealed chamber and Ghek would be killed. He did not
know it but he would not even have the poor satisfaction of satisfied
revenge, since he was not capable of feeling so abstruse a sentiment.
Ghek, mounted upon his rykor, paced the floor of the tower chamber in
which he had been ordered to remain. Ordinarily he would have accepted
the sentence of Luud with perfect equanimity, since it was but the
logical result of reason; but now it seemed different. The stranger
woman had bewitched him. Life appeared a pleasant thing--there were
great possibilities in it. The dream of the ultimate brain had receded
into a tenuous haze far in the background of his thoughts.
At that moment there appeared in the doorway of the chamber a red
warrior with naked sword. He was a male counterpart of the prisoner
whose sweet voice had undermined the cold, calculating reason of the
kaldane.
"Silence!" admonished the newcomer, his straight brows gathered in an
ominous frown and the point of his longsword playing menacingly before
the eyes of the kaldane. "I seek the woman, Tara of Helium. Where is
she? If you value your life speak quickly and speak the truth."
If he valued his life! It was a truth that Ghek had but just learned.
He thought quickly. After all, a great brain is not without its uses.
Perhaps here lay escape from the sentence of Luud.
"You are of her kind?" he asked. "You come to rescue her?"
"Yes."
"Listen, then. I have befriended her, and because of this I am to die.
If I help you to liberate her, will you take me with you?"
Gahan of Gathol eyed the weird creature from crown to foot--the perfect
body, the grotesque head, the expressionless face. Among such as these
had the beautiful daughter of Helium been held captive for days and
weeks.
"If she lives and is unharmed," he said, "I will take you with us."
"When they took her from me she was alive and unharmed," replied Ghek.
"I cannot say what has befallen her since. Luud sent for her."
"Who is Luud? Where is he? Lead me to him." Gahan spoke quickly in
tones vibrant with authority.
"Come, then," said Ghek, leading the way from the apartment and down a
stairway toward the underground burrows of the kaldanes. "Luud is my
king. I will take you to his chambers."
"Hasten!" urged Gahan.
"Sheathe your sword," warned Ghek, "so that should we pass others of my
kind I may say to them that you are a new prisoner with some likelihood
of winning their belief."
Gahan did as he was bid, but warning the kaldane that his hand was ever
ready at his dagger's hilt.
"You need have no fear of treachery," said Ghek. "My only hope of life
lies in you."
"And if you fail me," Gahan admonished him, "I can promise you as sure
a death as even your king might guarantee you."
Ghek made no reply, but moved rapidly through the winding subterranean
corridors until Gahan began to realize how truly was he in the hands of
this strange monster. If the fellow should prove false it would profit
Gahan nothing to slay him, since without his guidance the red man might
never hope to retrace his way to the tower and freedom.
Twice they met and were accosted by other kaldanes; but in both
instances Ghek's simple statement that he was taking a new prisoner to
Luud appeared to allay all suspicion, and then at last they came to the
ante-chamber of the king.
"Here, now, red man, thou must fight, if ever," whispered Ghek. "Enter
there!" and he pointed to a doorway before them.
"And you?" asked Gahan, still fearful of treachery.
"My rykor is powerful," replied the kaldane. "I shall accompany you and
fight at your side. As well die thus as in torture later at the will of
Luud. Come!"
But Gahan had already crossed the room and entered the chamber beyond.
Upon the opposite side of the room was a circular opening guarded by
two warriors. Beyond this opening he could see two figures struggling
upon the floor, and the fleeting glimpse he had of one of the faces
suddenly endowed him with the strength of ten warriors and the ferocity
of a wounded banth. It was Tara of Helium, fighting for her honor or
her life.
The warriors, startled by the unexpected appearance of a red man, stood
for a moment in dumb amazement, and in that moment Gahan of Gathol was
upon them, and one was down, a sword-thrust through its heart.
"Strike at the heads," whispered the voice of Ghek in Gahan's ear. The
latter saw the head of the fallen warrior crawl quickly within the
aperture leading to the chamber where he had seen Tara of Helium in the
clutches of a headless body. Then the sword of Ghek struck the kaldane
of the remaining warrior from its rykor and Gahan ran his sword through
the repulsive head.
Instantly the red warrior leaped for the aperture, while close behind
him came Ghek.
"Look not upon the eyes of Luud," warned the kaldane, "or you are lost."
Within the chamber Gahan saw Tara of Helium in the clutches of a mighty
body, while close to the wall upon the opposite side of the apartment
crouched the hideous, spider-like Luud. Instantly the king realized the
menace to himself and sought to fasten his eyes upon the eyes of Gahan,
and in doing so he was forced to relax his concentration upon the rykor
in whose embraces Tara struggled, so that almost immediately the girl
found herself able to tear away from the awful, headless thing.
As she rose quickly to her feet she saw for the first time the cause of
the interruption of Luud's plans. A red warrior! Her heart leaped in
rejoicing and thanksgiving. What miracle of fate had sent him to her?
She did not recognize him, though, this travel-worn warrior in the
plain harness which showed no single jewel. How could she have guessed
him the same as the scintillant creature of platinum and diamonds that
she had seen for a brief hour under such different circumstances at the
court of her august sire?
Luud saw Ghek following the strange warrior into the chamber. "Strike
him down, Ghek!" commanded the king. "Strike down the stranger and your
life shall be yours."
Gahan glanced at the hideous face of the king.
"Seek not his eyes," screamed Tara in warning; but it was too late.
Already the horrid hypnotic gaze of the king kaldane had seized upon
the eyes of Gahan. The red warrior hesitated in his stride. His sword
point drooped slowly toward the floor. Tara glanced toward Ghek. She
saw the creature glaring with his expressionless eyes upon the broad
back of the stranger. She saw the hand of the creature's rykor creeping
stealthily toward the hilt of its dagger.
And then Tara of Helium raised her eyes aloft and poured forth the
notes of Mars' most beautiful melody, The Song of Love.
Ghek drew his dagger from its sheath. His eyes turned toward the
singing girl. Luud's glance wavered from the eyes of the man to the
face of Tara, and the instant that the latter's song distracted his
attention from his victim, Gahan of Gathol shook himself and as with a
supreme effort of will forced his eyes to the wall above Luud's hideous
head. Ghek raised his dagger above his right shoulder, took a single
quick step forward, and struck. The girl's song ended in a stifled
scream as she leaped forward with the evident intention of frustrating
the kaldane's purpose; but she was too late, and well it was, for an
instant later she realized the purpose of Ghek's act as she saw the
dagger fly from his hand, pass Gahan's shoulder, and sink full to the
guard in the soft face of Luud.
"Come!" cried the assassin, "we have no time to lose," and started for
the aperture through which they had entered the chamber; but in his
stride he paused as his glance was arrested by the form of the mighty
rykor lying prone upon the floor--a king's rykor; the most beautiful,
the most powerful, that the breeders of Bantoom could produce. Ghek
realized that in his escape he could take with him but a single rykor,
and there was none in Bantoom that could give him better service than
this giant lying here. Quickly he transferred himself to the shoulders
of the great, inert hulk. Instantly the latter was transformed to a
sentient creature, filled with pulsing life and alert energy.
"Now," said the kaldane, "we are ready. Let whoso would revert to
nothingness impede me." Even as he spoke he stooped and crawled into
the chamber beyond, while Gahan, taking Tara by the arm, motioned her
to follow. The girl looked him full in the eyes for the first time.
"The Gods of my people have been kind," she said; "you came just in
time. To the thanks of Tara of Helium shall be added those of The
Warlord of Barsoom and his people. Thy reward shall surpass thy
greatest desires."
Gahan of Gathol saw that she did not recognize him, and quickly he
checked the warm greeting that had been upon his lips.
"Be thou Tara of Helium or another," he replied, "is immaterial, to
serve thus a red woman of Barsoom is in itself sufficient reward."