The Chessmen of Mars
all, she had been fortunate to fall into the hands of these strange
people, who might not only protect her from harm, but even aid her in
returning to Helium. That they were repulsive and uncanny she could not
forget, but if they meant her no harm she could, at least, overlook
their repulsiveness. Renewed hope aroused within her a spirit of
greater cheerfulness, and it was almost blithely now that she moved at
the side of her weird companion. She even caught herself humming a gay
little tune that was then popular in Helium. The creature at her side
turned its expressionless eyes upon her.
"What is that noise that you are making?" it asked.
"I was but humming an air," she replied.
"'Humming an air,'" he repeated. "I do not know what you mean; but do
it again, I like it."
This time she sang the words, while her companion listened intently.
His face gave no indication of what was passing in that strange head.
It was as devoid of expression as that of a spider. It reminded her of
a spider. When she had finished he turned toward her again.
"That was different," he said. "I liked that better, even, than the
other. How do you do it?"
"Why," she said, "it is singing. Do you not know what song is?"
"No," he replied. "Tell me how you do it."
"It is difficult to explain," she told him, "since any explanation of
it presupposes some knowledge of melody and of music, while your very
question indicates that you have no knowledge of either."
"No," he said, "I do not know what you are talking about; but tell me
how you do it."
"It is merely the melodious modulations of my voice," she explained.
"Listen!" and again she sang.
"I do not understand," he insisted; "but I like it. Could you teach me
to do it?"
"I do not know, but I shall be glad to try."
"We will see what Luud does with you," he said. "If he does not want
you I will keep you and you shall teach me to make sounds like that."
At his request she sang again as they continued their way along the
winding tunnel, which was now lighted by occasional bulbs which
appeared to be similar to the radium bulbs with which she was familiar
and which were common to all the nations of Barsoom, insofar as she
knew, having been perfected at so remote a period that their very
origin was lost in antiquity. They consist, usually, of a hemispherical
bowl of heavy glass in which is packed a compound containing what,
according to John Carter, must be radium. The bowl is then cemented
into a metal plate with a heavily insulated back and the whole affair
set in the masonry of wall or ceiling as desired, where it gives off
light of greater or less intensity, according to the composition of the
filling material, for an almost incalculable period of time.
As they proceeded they met a greater number of the inhabitants of this
underground world, and the girl noted that among many of these the
metal and harness were more ornate than had been those of the workers
in the fields above. The heads and bodies, however, were similar, even
identical, she thought. No one offered her harm and she was now
experiencing a feeling of relief almost akin to happiness, when her
guide turned suddenly into an opening on the right side of the tunnel
and she found herself in a large, well lighted chamber.
CHAPTER V
THE PERFECT BRAIN
The song that had been upon her lips as she entered died there--frozen
by the sight of horror that met her eyes. In the center of the chamber
a headless body lay upon the floor--a body that had been partially
devoured--while over and upon it crawled a half a dozen heads upon
their short, spider legs, and they tore at the flesh of the woman with
their chelae and carried the bits to their awful mouths. They were
eating human flesh--eating it raw!
Tara of Helium gasped in horror and turning away covered her eyes with
her palms.
"Come!" said her captor. "What is the matter?"
"They are eating the flesh of the woman," she whispered in tones of
horror.
"Why not?" he inquired. "Did you suppose that we kept the rykor for
labor alone? Ah, no. They are delicious when kept and fattened.
Fortunate, too, are those that are bred for food, since they are never
called upon to do aught but eat."
"It is hideous!" she cried.
He looked at her steadily for a moment, but whether in surprise, in
anger, or in pity his expressionless face did not reveal. Then he led
her on across the room past the frightful thing, from which she turned
away her eyes. Lying about the floor near the walls were half a dozen
headless bodies in harness. These she guessed had been abandoned
temporarily by the feasting heads until they again required their
services. In the walls of this room there were many of the small, round
openings she had noticed in various parts of the tunnels, the purpose
of which she could not guess.
They passed through another corridor and then into a second chamber,
larger than the first and more brilliantly illuminated. Within were
several of the creatures with heads and bodies assembled, while many
headless bodies lay about near the walls. Here her captor halted and
spoke to one of the occupants of the chamber.
"I seek Luud," he said. "I bring to Luud a creature that I captured in
the fields above."
The others crowded about to examine Tara of Helium. One of them
whistled, whereupon the girl learned something of the smaller openings
in the walls, for almost immediately there crawled from them, like
giant spiders, a score or more of the hideous heads. Each sought one of
the recumbent bodies and fastened itself in place. Immediately the
bodies reacted to the intelligent direction of the heads. They arose,
the hands adjusted the leather collars and put the balance of the
harness in order, then the creatures crossed the room to where Tara of
Helium stood. She noted that their leather was more highly ornamented
than that worn by any of the others she had previously seen, and so she
guessed that these must be higher in authority than the others. Nor was
she mistaken. The demeanor of her captor indicated it. He addressed
them as one who holds intercourse with superiors.
Several of those who examined her felt her flesh, pinching it gently
between thumb and forefinger, a familiarity that the girl resented. She
struck down their hands. "Do not touch me!" she cried, imperiously, for
was she not a princess of Helium? The expression on those terrible
faces did not change. She could not tell whether they were angry or
amused, whether her action had filled them with respect for her, or
contempt. Only one of them spoke immediately.
"She will have to be fattened more," he said.
The girl's eyes went wide with horror. She turned upon her captor. "Do
these frightful creatures intend to devour me?" she cried.
"That is for Luud to say," he replied, and then he leaned closer so
that his mouth was near her ear. "That noise you made which you called
song pleased me," he whispered, "and I will repay you by warning you
not to antagonize these kaldanes. They are very powerful. Luud listens
to them. Do not call them frightful. They are very handsome. Look at
their wonderful trappings, their gold, their jewels."
"Thank you," she said. "You called them kaldanes--what does that mean?"
"We are all kaldanes," he replied.
"You, too?" and she pointed at him, her slim finger directed toward his
chest.
"No, not this," he explained, touching his body; "this is a rykor; but
this," and he touched his head, "is a kaldane. It is the brain, the
intellect, the power that directs all things. The rykor," he indicated
his body, "is nothing. It is not so much even as the jewels upon our
harness; no, not so much as the harness itself. It carries us about. It
is true that we would find difficulty getting along without it; but it
has less value than harness or jewels because it is less difficult to
reproduce." He turned again to the other kaldanes. "Will you notify
Luud that I am here?" he asked.
"Sept has already gone to Luud. He will tell him," replied one. "Where
did you find this rykor with the strange kaldane that cannot detach
itself?"
The girl's captor narrated once more the story of her capture. He
stated facts just as they had occurred, without embellishment, his
voice as expressionless as his face, and his story was received in the
same manner that it was delivered. The creatures seemed totally lacking
in emotion, or, at least, the capacity to express it. It was impossible
to judge what impression the story made upon them, or even if they
heard it. Their protruding eyes simply stared and occasionally the
muscles of their mouths opened and closed. Familiarity did not lessen
the horror the girl felt for them. The more she saw of them the more
repulsive they seemed. Often her body was shaken by convulsive shudders
as she looked at the kaldanes, but when her eyes wandered to the
beautiful bodies and she could for a moment expunge the heads from her
consciousness the effect was soothing and refreshing, though when the
bodies lay, headless, upon the floor they were quite as shocking as the
heads mounted on bodies. But by far the most grewsome and uncanny sight
of all was that of the heads crawling about upon their spider legs. If
one of these should approach and touch her Tara of Helium was positive
that she should scream, while should one attempt to crawl up her
person--ugh! the very idea induced a feeling of faintness.
Sept returned to the chamber. "Luud will see you and the captive.
Come!" he said, and turned toward a door opposite that through which
Tara of Helium had entered the chamber. "What is your name?" His
question was directed to the girl's captor.
"I am Ghek, third foreman of the fields of Luud," he answered.
"And hers?"
"I do not know."
"It makes no difference. Come!"
The patrician brows of Tara of Helium went high. It made no difference,
indeed! She, a princess of Helium; only daughter of The Warlord of
Barsoom!
"Wait!" she cried. "It makes much difference who I am. If you are
conducting me into the presence of your jed you may announce The
Princess Tara of Helium, daughter of John Carter, The Warlord of
Barsoom."
"Hold your peace!" commanded Sept. "Speak when you are spoken to. Come
with me!"
The anger of Tara of Helium all but choked her. "Come," admonished
Ghek, and took her by the arm, and Tara of Helium came. She was naught
but a prisoner. Her rank and titles meant nothing to these inhuman
monsters. They led her through a short, S-shaped passageway into a
chamber entirely lined with the white, tile-like material with which
the interior of the light wall was faced. Close to the base of the
walls were numerous smaller apertures, circular in shape, but larger
than those of similar aspect that she had noted elsewhere. The majority
of these apertures were sealed. Directly opposite the entrance was one
framed in gold, and above it a peculiar device was inlaid in the same
precious metal.
Sept and Ghek halted just within the room, the girl between them, and
all three stood silently facing the opening in the opposite wall. On
the floor beside the aperture lay a headless male body of almost heroic
proportions, and on either side of this stood a heavily armed warrior,
with drawn sword. For perhaps five minutes the three waited and then
something appeared in the opening. It was a pair of large chelae and
immediately thereafter there crawled forth a hideous kaldane of
enormous proportions. He was half again as large as any that Tara of
Helium had yet seen and his whole aspect infinitely more terrible. The
skin of the others was a bluish gray--this one was of a little bluer
tinge and the eyes were ringed with bands of white and scarlet, as was
its mouth.
From each nostril a band of white and one of scarlet extended outward