The Chessmen of Mars
stars while man was still but a budding idea within His mind.
Ghek descended into the burrow at a steep incline for some ten feet,
when he found himself in an elaborate and delightful network of
burrows! The kaldane was elated. This indeed was life! He moved rapidly
and fearlessly and he went as straight to his goal as you could to the
kitchen of your own home. This goal lay at a low level in a spheroidal
cavity about the size of a large barrel. Here, in a nest of torn bits
of silk and fur lay six baby ulsios.
When the mother returned there were but five babies and a great
spider-like creature, which she immediately sprang to attack only to be
met by powerful chelae which seized and held her so that she could not
move. Slowly they dragged her throat toward a hideous mouth and in a
little moment she was dead.
Ghek might have remained in the nest for a long time, since there was
ample food for many days; but he did not do so. Instead he explored the
burrows. He followed them into many subterranean chambers of the city
of Manator, and upward through walls to rooms above the ground. He
found many ingeniously devised traps, and he found poisoned food and
other signs of the constant battle that the inhabitants of Manator
waged against these repulsive creatures that dwelt beneath their homes
and public buildings.
His exploration revealed not only the vast proportions of the network
of runways that apparently traversed every portion of the city, but the
great antiquity of the majority of them. Tons upon tons of dirt must
have been removed, and for a long time he wondered where it had been
deposited, until in following downward a tunnel of great size and
length he sensed before him the thunderous rush of subterranean waters,
and presently came to the bank of a great, underground river, tumbling
onward, no doubt, the length of a world to the buried sea of Omean.
Into this torrential sewer had unthinkable generations of ulsios pushed
their few handsful of dirt in the excavating of their vast labyrinth.
For only a moment did Ghek tarry by the river, for his seemingly
aimless wanderings were in reality prompted by a definite purpose, and
this he pursued with vigor and singleness of design. He followed such
runways as appeared to terminate in the pits or other chambers of the
inhabitants of the city, and these he explored, usually from the safety
of a burrow's mouth, until satisfied that what he sought was not there.
He moved swiftly upon his spider legs and covered remarkable distances
in short periods of time.
His search not being rewarded with immediate success, he decided to
return to the pit where his rykor lay chained and look to its wants. As
he approached the end of the burrow that terminated in the pit he
slackened his pace, stopping just within the entrance of the runway
that he might scan the interior of the chamber before entering it. As
he did so he saw the figure of a warrior appear suddenly in an opposite
doorway. The rykor sprawled upon the table, his hands groping blindly
for more food. Ghek saw the warrior pause and gaze in sudden
astonishment at the rykor; he saw the fellow's eyes go wide and an
ashen hue replace the copper bronze of his cheek. He stepped back as
though someone had struck him in the face. For an instant only he stood
thus as in a paralysis of fear, then he uttered a smothered shriek and
turned and fled. Again was it a catastrophe that Ghek, the kaldane,
could not smile.
Quickly entering the room he crawled to the table top and affixed
himself to the shoulders of his rykor, and there he waited; and who may
say that Ghek, though he could not smile, possessed not a sense of
humor? For a half-hour he sat there, and then there came to him the
sound of men approaching along corridors of stone. He could hear their
arms clank against the rocky walls and he knew that they came at a
rapid pace; but just before they reached the entrance to his prison
they paused and advanced more slowly. In the lead was an officer, and
just behind him, wide-eyed and perhaps still a little ashen, the
warrior who had so recently departed in haste. At the doorway they
halted and the officer turned sternly upon the warrior. With upraised
finger he pointed at Ghek.
"There sits the creature! Didst thou dare lie, then, to thy dwar?"
"I swear," cried the warrior, "that I spoke the truth. But a moment
since the thing groveled, headless, upon this very table! And may my
first ancestor strike me dead upon the spot if I speak other than a
true word!"
The officer looked puzzled. The men of Mars seldom if ever lie. He
scratched his head. Then he addressed Ghek. "How long have you been
here?" he asked.
"Who knows better than those who placed me here and chained me to a
wall?" he returned in reply.
"Saw you this warrior enter here a few minutes since?"
"I saw him," replied Ghek.
"And you sat there where you sit now?" continued the officer.
"Look thou to my chain and tell me then where else might I sit!" cried
Ghek. "Art the people of thy city all fools?"
Three other warriors pressed behind the two in front, craning their
necks to view the prisoner while they grinned at the discomfiture of
their fellow. The officer scowled at Ghek.
"Thy tongue is as venomous as that of the she-banth O-Tar sent to The
Towers of Jetan," he said.
"You speak of the young woman who was captured with me?" asked Ghek,
his expressionless monotone and face revealing naught of the interest
he felt.
"I speak of her," replied the dwar, and then turning to the warrior who
had summoned him: "return to thy quarters and remain there until the
next games. Perhaps by that time thy eyes may have learned not to
deceive thee."
The fellow cast a venomous glance at Ghek and turned away. The officer
shook his head. "I do not understand it," he muttered. "Always has
U-Van been a true and dependable warrior. Could it be--?" he glanced
piercingly at Ghek. "Thou hast a strange head that misfits thy body,
fellow," he cried. "Our legends tell us of those ancient creatures that
placed hallucinations upon the mind of their fellows. If thou be such
then maybe U-Van suffered from thy forbidden powers. If thou be such
O-Tar will know well how to deal with thee." He wheeled about and
motioned his warriors to follow him.
"Wait!" cried Ghek. "Unless I am to be starved, send me food."
"You have had food," replied the warrior.
"Am I to be fed but once a day?" asked Ghek. "I require food oftener
than that. Send me food."
"You shall have food," replied the officer. "None may say that the
prisoners of Manator are ill-fed. Just are the laws of Manator," and he
departed.
No sooner had the sounds of their passing died away in the distance
than Ghek clambered from the shoulders of his rykor, and scurried to
the burrow where he had hidden the key. Fetching it he unlocked the
fetter from about the creature's ankle, locked it empty and carried the
key farther down into the burrow. Then he returned to his place upon
his brainless servitor. After a while he heard footsteps approaching,
whereupon he rose and passed into another corridor from that down which
he knew the warrior was coming. Here he waited out of sight, listening.
He heard the man enter the chamber and halt. He heard a muttered
exclamation, followed by the jangle of metal dishes as a salver was
slammed upon a table; then rapidly retreating footsteps, which quickly
died away in the distance.
Ghek lost no time in returning to the chamber, recovering the key,
relocking the rykor to his chain. Then he replaced the key in the
burrow and squatting on the table beside his headless body, directed
its hands toward the food. While the rykor ate Ghek sat listening for
the scraping sandals and clattering arms that he knew soon would come.
Nor had he long to wait. Ghek scrambled to the shoulders of his rykor
as he heard them coming. Again it was the officer who had been summoned
by U-Van and with him were three warriors. The one directly behind him
was evidently the same who had brought the food, for his eyes went wide
when he saw Ghek sitting at the table and he looked very foolish as the
dwar turned his stern glance upon him.
"It is even as I said," he cried. "He was not here when I brought his
food."
"But he is here now," said the officer grimly, "and his fetter is
locked about his ankle. Look! it has not been opened--but where is the
key? It should be upon the table at the end opposite him. Where is the
key, creature?" he shouted at Ghek.
"How should I, a prisoner, know better than my jailer the whereabouts
of the key to my fetters?" he retorted.
"But it lay here," cried the officer, pointing to the other end of the
table.
"Did you see it?" asked Ghek.
The officer hesitated. "No but it must have been there," he parried.
"Did you see the key lying there?" asked Ghek, pointing to another
warrior.
The fellow shook his head negatively. "And you? and you?" continued the
kaldane addressing the others.
They both admitted that they never had seen the key. "And if it had
been there how could I have reached it?" he continued.
"No, he could not have reached it," admitted the officer; "but there
shall be no more of this! I-Zav, you will remain here on guard with
this prisoner until you are relieved."
I-Zav looked anything but happy as this intelligence was transmitted to
him, and he eyed Ghek suspiciously as the dwar and the other warriors
turned and left him to his unhappy lot.
CHAPTER XIII
A DESPERATE DEED
E-Med crossed the tower chamber toward Tara of Helium and the slave
girl, Lan-O. He seized the former roughly by a shoulder. "Stand!" he
commanded. Tara struck his hand from her and rising, backed away.
"Lay not your hand upon the person of a princess of Helium, beast!" she
warned.
E-Med laughed. "Think you that I play at jetan for you without first
knowing something of the stake for which I play?" he demanded. "Come
here!"
The girl drew herself to her full height, folding her arms across her
breast, nor did E-Med note that the slim fingers of her right hand were
inserted beneath the broad leather strap of her harness where it passed
over her left shoulder.
"And O-Tar learns of this you shall rue it, E-Med," cried the slave
girl; "there be no law in Manator that gives you this girl before you
shall have won her fairly."
"What cares O-Tar for her fate?" replied E-Med. "Have I not heard? Did
she not flout the great jeddak, heaping abuse upon him? By my first
ancestor, I think O-Tar might make a jed of the man who subdued her,"
and again he advanced toward Tara.
"Wait!" said the girl in low, even tone. "Perhaps you know not what you
do. Sacred to the people of Helium are the persons of the women of
Helium. For the honor of the humblest of them would the great jeddak
himself unsheathe his sword. The greatest nations of Barsoom have
trembled to the thunders of war in defense of the person of Dejah
Thoris, my mother. We are but mortal and so may die; but we may not be
defiled. You may play at jetan for a princess of Helium, but though you
may win the match, never may you claim the reward. If thou wouldst
possess a dead body press me too far, but know, man of Manator, that
the blood of The Warlord flows not in the veins of Tara of Helium for
naught. I have spoken."
"I know naught of Helium and O-Tar is our warlord," replied E-Med; "but
I do know that I would examine more closely the prize that I shall play
for and win. I would test the lips of her who is to be my slave after
the next games; nor is it well, woman, to drive me too far to anger."
His eyes narrowed as he spoke, his visage taking on the semblance of
that of a snarling beast. "If you doubt the truth of my words ask
Lan-O, the slave girl."