The Chessmen of Mars
"He is right," said a deep voice. It was the voice of U-Thor, the great
jed of Manatos. O-Tar looked at him and scowled; but there came voices
from other portions of the chamber seconding the demand for justice.
"Then know, though you shall die anyway," cried O-Tar, "that all three
are convicted of Corphalism and that as only a jeddak may slay such as
you in safety you are about to be honored with the steel of O-Tar."
"Fool!" cried Turan. "Know you not that in the veins of this woman
flows the blood of ten thousand jeddaks--that greater than yours is her
power in her own land? She is Tara, Princess of Helium,
great-granddaughter of Tardos Mors, daughter of John Carter, Warlord of
Barsoom. She cannot be a Corphal. Nor is this creature Ghek, nor am I.
And you would know more, I can prove my right to be heard and to be
believed if I may have word with the Princess Haja of Gathol, whose son
is my fellow prisoner in the pits of O-Tar, his father."
At this U-Thor rose to his feet and faced O-Tar. "What means this?" he
asked. "Speaks the man the truth? Is the son of Haja a prisoner in thy
pits, O-Tar?"
"And what is it to the jed of Manatos who be the prisoners in the pits
of his jeddak?" demanded O-Tar, angrily.
"It is this to the jed of Manatos," replied U-Thor in a voice so low as
to be scarce more than a whisper and yet that was heard the whole
length and breadth of the great throne room of O-Tar, Jeddak of
Manator. "You gave me a slave woman, Haja, who had been a princess in
Gathol, because you feared her influence among the slaves from Gathol.
I have made of her a free woman, and I have married her and made her
thus a princess of Manatos. Her son is my son, O-Tar, and though thou
be my jeddak, I say to you that for any harm that befalls A-Kor you
shall answer to U-Thor of Manatos."
O-Tar looked long at U-Thor, but he made no reply. Then he turned again
to Turan. "If one be a Corphal," he said, "then all of you be Corphals,
and we know well from the things that this creature has done," he
pointed at Ghek, "that he is a Corphal, for no mortal has such powers
as he. And as you are all Corphals you must all die." He took another
step downward, when Ghek spoke.
"These two have no such powers as I," he said. "They are but ordinary,
brainless things such as yourself. I have done all the things that your
poor, ignorant warriors have told you; but this only demonstrates that
I am of a higher order than yourselves, as is indeed the fact. I am a
kaldane, not a Corphal. There is nothing supernatural or mysterious
about me, other than that to the ignorant all things which they cannot
understand are mysterious. Easily might I have eluded your warriors and
escaped your pits; but I remained in the hope that I might help these
two foolish creatures who have not the brains to escape without help.
They befriended me and saved my life. I owe them this debt. Do not slay
them--they are harmless. Slay me if you will. I offer my life if it
will appease your ignorant wrath. I cannot return to Bantoom and so I
might as well die, for there is no pleasure in intercourse with the
feeble intellects that cumber the face of the world outside the valley
of Bantoom."
"Hideous egotist," said O-Tar, "prepare to die and assume not to
dictate to O-Tar the jeddak. He has passed sentence and all three of
you shall feel the jeddak's naked steel. I have spoken!"
He took another step downward and then a strange thing happened. He
paused, his eyes fixed upon the eyes of Ghek. His sword slipped from
nerveless fingers, and still he stood there swaying forward and back. A
jed rose to rush to his side; but Ghek stopped him with a word.
"Wait!" he cried. "The life of your jeddak is in my hands. You believe
me a Corphal and so you believe, too, that only the sword of a jeddak
may slay me, therefore your blades are useless against me. Offer harm
to any one of us, or seek to approach your jeddak until I have spoken,
and he shall sink lifeless to the marble. Release the two prisoners and
let them come to my side--I would speak to them, privately. Quick! do
as I say; I would as lief as not slay O-Tar. I but let him live that I
may gain freedom for my friends--obstruct me and he dies."
The guards fell back, releasing Tara and Turan, who came close to
Ghek's side.
"Do as I tell you and do it quickly," whispered the kaldane. "I cannot
hold this fellow long, nor could I kill him thus. There are many minds
working against mine and presently mine will tire and O-Tar will be
himself again. You must make the best of your opportunity while you
may. Behind the arras that you see hanging in the rear of the throne
above you is a secret opening. From it a corridor leads to the pits of
the palace, where there are storerooms containing food and drink. Few
people go there. From these pits lead others to all parts of the city.
Follow one that runs due west and it will bring you to The Gate of
Enemies. The rest will then lie with you. I can do no more; hurry
before my waning powers fail me--I am not as Luud, who was a king. He
could have held this creature forever. Make haste! Go!"
CHAPTER XV
THE OLD MAN OF THE PITS
"I shall not desert you, Ghek," said Tara of Helium, simply.
"Go! Go!" whispered the kaldane. "You can do me no good. Go, or all I
have done is for naught."
Tara shook her head. "I cannot," she said.
"They will slay her," said Ghek to Turan, and the panthan, torn between
loyalty to this strange creature who had offered its life for him, and
love of the woman, hesitated but a moment, then he swept Tara from her
feet and lifting her in his arms leaped up the steps that led to the
throne of Manator. Behind the throne he parted the arras and found the
secret opening. Into this he bore the girl and down a long, narrow
corridor and winding runways that led to lower levels until they came
to the pits of the palace of O-Tar. Here was a labyrinth of passages
and chambers presenting a thousand hiding-places.
As Turan bore Tara up the steps toward the throne a score of warriors
rose as though to rush forward to intercept them. "Stay!" cried Ghek,
"or your jeddak dies," and they halted in their tracks, waiting the
will of this strange, uncanny creature.
Presently Ghek took his eyes from the eyes of O-Tar and the jeddak
shook himself as one who would be rid of a bad dream and straightened
up, half dazed still.
"Look," said Ghek, then, "I have given your jeddak his life, nor have I
harmed one of those whom I might easily have slain when they were in my
power. No harm have I or my friends done in the city of Manator. Why
then should you persecute us? Give us our lives. Give us our liberty."
O-Tar, now in command of his faculties, stooped and regained his sword.
In the room was silence as all waited to hear the jeddak's answer.
"Just are the laws of Manator," he said at last. "Perhaps, after all,
there is truth in the words of the stranger. Return him then to the
pits and pursue the others and capture them. Through the mercy of O-Tar
they shall be permitted to win their freedom upon the Field of Jetan,
in the coming games."
Still ashen was the face of the jeddak as Ghek was led away and his
appearance was that of a man who had been snatched from the brink of
eternity into which he has gazed, not with the composure of great
courage, but with fear. There were those in the throne room who knew
that the execution of the three prisoners had but been delayed and the
responsibility placed upon the shoulders of others, and one of those
who knew was U-Thor, the great jed of Manatos. His curling lip
betokened his scorn of the jeddak who had chosen humiliation rather
than death. He knew that O-Tar had lost more of prestige in those few
moments than he could regain in a lifetime, for the Martians are
jealous of the courage of their chiefs--there can be no evasions of
stern duty, no temporizing with honor. That there were others in the
room who shared U-Thor's belief was evidenced by the silence and the
grim scowls.
O-Tar glanced quickly around. He must have sensed the hostility and
guessed its cause, for he went suddenly angry, and as one who seeks by
the vehemence of his words to establish the courage of his heart he
roared forth what could be considered as naught other than a challenge.
"The will of O-Tar, the jeddak, is the law of Manator," he cried, "and
the laws of Manator are just--they cannot err. U-Dor, dispatch those
who will search the palace, the pits, and the city, and return the
fugitives to their cells.
"And now for you, U-Thor of Manatos! Think you with impunity to
threaten your jeddak--to question his right to punish traitors and
instigators of treason? What am I to think of your own loyalty, who
takes to wife a woman I have banished from my court because of her
intrigues against the authority of her jeddak and her master? But O-Tar
is just. Make your explanations and your peace, then, before it is too
late."
"U-Thor has nothing to explain," replied the jed of Manatos; "nor is he
at war with his jeddak; but he has the right that every jed and every
warrior enjoys, of demanding justice at the hands of the jeddak for
whomsoever he believes to be persecuted. With increasing rigor has the
jeddak of Manator persecuted the slaves from Gathol since he took to
himself the unwilling Princess Haja. If the slaves from Gathol have
harbored thoughts of vengeance and escape 'tis no more than might be
expected from a proud and courageous people. Ever have I counselled
greater fairness in our treatment of our slaves, many of whom, in their
own lands, are people of great distinction and power; but always has
O-Tar, the jeddak, flouted with arrogance my every suggestion. Though
it has been through none of my seeking that the question has arisen now
I am glad that it has, for the time was bound to come when the jeds of
Manator would demand from O-Tar the respect and consideration that is
their due from the man who holds his high office at their pleasure.
Know, then, O-Tar, that you must free A-Kor, the dwar, forthwith or
bring him to fair trial before the assembled jeds of Manator. I have
spoken."
"You have spoken well and to the point, U-Thor," cried O-Tar, "for you
have revealed to your jeddak and your fellow jeds the depth of the
disloyalty that I have long suspected. A-Kor already has been tried and
sentenced by the supreme tribunal of Manator--O-Tar, the jeddak; and
you too shall receive justice from the same unfailing source. In the
meantime you are under arrest. To the pits with him! To the pits with
U-Thor the false jed!" He clapped his hands to summon the surrounding
warriors to do his bidding. A score leaped forward to seize U-Thor.
They were warriors of the palace, mostly; but two score leaped to
defend U-Thor, and with ringing steel they fought at the foot of the
steps to the throne of Manator where stood O-Tar, the jeddak, with
drawn sword ready to take his part in the melee.
At the clash of steel, palace guards rushed to the scene from other
parts of the great building until those who would have defended U-Thor
were outnumbered two to one, and then the jed of Manatos slowly
withdrew with his forces, and fighting his way through the corridors
and chambers of the palace came at last to the avenue. Here he was
reinforced by the little army that had marched with him into Manator.
Slowly they retreated toward The Gate of Enemies between the rows of
silent people looking down upon them from the balconies and there,
within the city walls, they made their stand.
In a dimly-lighted chamber beneath the palace of O-Tar the jeddak,
Turan the panthan lowered Tara of Helium from his arms and faced her.
"I am sorry, Princess," he said, "that I was forced to disobey your