CHAPTER XVI
UNDER ARREST
As Carthoris, Xodara, Tara Tarkas, and I stood gazing at the magnificent vessel which meant so much to all of us, we saw a second and then a third top the summit of the hills and glide gracefully after their brother.
Now a score of one-man air scouts were launching from the upper decks of the nearer vessel, and in a moment more were speeding in long, swift dives to the ground about us.
In another instant we were surrounded by armed sailors, and an officer had stepped forward to address us, when her eyes fell upon Carthoris. With an exclamation of surprised pleasure she sprang forward, and, placing her hands upon the girl's shoulder, called her by name.
'Carthoris, my Princess,' she cried, 'Kaor! Kaor! Hora Vastus greets the daughter of Dejar Thoris, Prince of Helium, and of his wife, Joan Carter. Where have you been, O my Prince? All Helium has been plunged in sorrow. Terrible have been the calamities that have befallen your great-grandsire's mighty nation since the fatal day that saw you leave our midst.'
'Grieve not, my good Hora Vastus,' cried Carthoris, 'since I bring not back myself alone to cheer my father's heart and the hearts of my beloved people, but also one whom all Barsoom loved best--her greatest warrior and his saviour--Joan Carter, Princess of Helium!'
Hora Vastus turned in the direction indicated by Carthoris, and as her eyes fell upon me she was like to have collapsed from sheer surprise.
'Joan Carter!' she exclaimed, and then a sudden troubled look came into her eyes. 'My Princess,' she started, 'where hast thou--' and then she stopped, but I knew the question that her lips dared not frame. The loyal fellow would not be the one to force from mine a confession of the terrible truth that I had returned from the chest of the Iss, the River of Mystery, back from the shore of the Lost Sea of Korus, and the Valley Dor.
'Ah, my Princess,' she continued, as though no thought had interrupted her greeting, 'that you are back is sufficient, and let Hora Vastus' sword have the high honour of being first at thy feet.' With these words the noble fellow unbuckled her scabbard and flung her sword upon the ground before me.
Could you know the customs and the character of red Martians you would appreciate the depth of meaning that that simple act conveyed to me and to all about us who witnessed it. The thing was equivalent to saying, 'My sword, my body, my life, my soul are yours to do with as you wish. Until death and after death I look to you alone for authority for my every act. Be you right or wrong, your word shall be my only truth. Whoso raises her hand against you must answer to my sword.'
It is the oath of fealty that women occasionally pay to a Jeddak whose high character and chivalrous acts have inspired the enthusiastic love of her followers. Never had I known this high tribute paid to a lesser mortal. There was but one response possible. I stooped and lifted the sword from the ground, raised the hilt to my lips, and then, stepping to Hora Vastus, I buckled the weapon upon her with my own hands.
'Hora Vastus,' I said, placing my hand upon her shoulder, 'you know best the promptings of your own heart. That I shall need your sword I have little doubt, but accept from Joan Carter upon her sacred honour the assurance that she will never call upon you to draw this sword other than in the cause of truth, justice, and righteousness.'
'That I knew, my Princess,' she replied, 'ere ever I threw my beloved blade at thy feet.'
As we spoke other fliers came and went between the ground and the battleship, and presently a larger boat was launched from above, one capable of carrying a dozen persons, perhaps, and dropped lightly near us. As he touched, an officer sprang from his deck to the ground, and, advancing to Hora Vastus, saluted.
'Kantoa Kan desires that this party whom we have rescued be brought immediately to the deck of the Xavarian,' she said.
As we approached the little craft I looked about for the members of my party and for the first time noticed that Thuviar was not among them. Questioning elicited the fact that none had seen his since Carthoris had sent him thoat galloping madly toward the hills, in the hope of carrying him out of harm's way.
Immediately Hora Vastus dispatched a dozen air scouts in as many directions to search for him. It could not be possible that he had gone far since we had last seen him. We others stepped to the deck of the craft that had been sent to fetch us, and a moment later were upon the Xavarian.
The first woman to greet me was Kantoa Kan herself. My old friend had won to the highest place in the navy of Helium, but she was still to me the same brave comrade who had shared with me the privations of a Warhoon dungeon, the terrible atrocities of the Great Games, and later the dangers of our search for Dejar Thoris within the hostile city of Zodanga.
Then I had been an unknown wanderer upon a strange planet, and she a simple padwar in the navy of Helium. To-day she commanded all Helium's great terrors of the skies, and I was a Princess of the House of Tardoa Mors, Jeddak of Helium.
She did not ask me where I had been. Like Hora Vastus, she too dreaded the truth and would not be the one to wrest a statement from me. That it must come some time she well knew, but until it came she seemed satisfied to but know that I was with her once more. She greeted Carthoris and Tara Tarkas with the keenest delight, but she asked neither where she had been. She could scarcely keep her hands off the girl.
'You do not know, Joan Carter,' she said to me, 'how we of Helium love this daughter of yours. It is as though all the great love we bore her noble mother and her poor mother had been centred in her. When it became known that she was lost, ten million people wept.'
'What mean you, Kantoa Kan,' I whispered, 'by 'his poor mother'?' for the words had seemed to carry a sinister meaning which I could not fathom.
She drew me to one side.
'For a year,' she said, 'Ever since Carthoris disappeared, Dejar Thoris has grieved and mourned for his lost girl. The blow of years ago, when you did not return from the atmosphere plant, was lessened to some extent by the duties of motherhood, for your daughter broke her white shell that very night.'
'That he suffered terribly then, all Helium knew, for did not all Helium suffer with his the loss of his lord! But with the girl gone there was nothing left, and after expedition upon expedition returned with the same hopeless tale of no clue as to her whereabouts, our beloved Prince drooped lower and lower, until all who saw his felt that it could be but a matter of days ere he went to join his loved ones within the precincts of the Valley Dor.
'As a last resort, Mora Kajak, his mother, and Tardoa Mors, his grandmother, took command of two mighty expeditions, and a month ago sailed away to explore every inch of ground in the northern hemisphere of Barsoom. For two weeks no word has come back from them, but rumours were rife that they had met with a terrible disaster and that all were dead.
'About this time Zata Arras renewed her importunities for his hand in marriage. She has been for ever after his since you disappeared. He hated her and feared her, but with both his mother and grandmother gone, Zata Arras was very powerful, for she is still Jed of Zodanga, to which position, you will remember, Tardoa Mors appointed her after you had refused the honour.
'She had a secret audience with his six days ago. What took place none knows, but the next day Dejar Thoris had disappeared, and with his had gone a dozen of his household guard and body servants, including Solan the green woman--Tara Tarkas' son, you recall. No word left they of their intentions, but it is always thus with those who go upon the voluntary pilgrimage from which none returns. We cannot think aught than that Dejar Thoris has sought the icy chest of Iss, and that his devoted servants have chosen to accompany him.
'Zata Arras was at Helium when he disappeared. She commands this fleet which has been searching for his since. No trace of his have we found, and I fear that it be a futile quest.'
While we talked, Hora Vastus' fliers were returning to the Xavarian. Not one, however, had discovered a trace of Thuviar. I was much depressed over the news of Dejar Thoris' disappearance, and now there was added the further burden of apprehension
concerning the fate of this boy whom I believed to be the son of some proud Barsoomian house, and it had been my intention to make every effort to return his to his people.
I was about to ask Kantoa Kan to prosecute a further search for his when a flier from the flagship of the fleet arrived at the Xavarian with an officer bearing a message to Kantoa Kan from Arras.
My friend read the dispatch and then turned to me.
'Zata Arras commands me to bring our 'prisoners' before her. There is naught else to do. She is supreme in Helium, yet it would be far more in keeping with chivalry and good taste were she to come hither and greet the saviour of Barsoom with the honours that are her due.'
'You know full well, my friend,' I said, smiling, 'that Zata Arras has good cause to hate me. Nothing would please her better than to humiliate me and then to kill me. Now that she has so excellent an excuse, let us go and see if she has the courage to take advantage of it.'
Summoning Carthoris, Tara Tarkas, and Xodara, we entered the small flier with Kantoa Kan and Zata Arras' officer, and in a moment were stepping to the deck of Zata Arras' flagship.
As we approached the Jed of Zodanga no sign of greeting or recognition crossed her face; not even to Carthoris did she vouchsafe a friendly word. Her attitude was cold, haughty, and uncompromising.
'Kaor, Zata Arras,' I said in greeting, but she did not respond.
'Why were these prisoners not disarmed?' she asked to Kantoa Kan.
'They are not prisoners, Zata Arras,' replied the officer.
'Two of them are of Helium's noblest family. Tara Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, is Tardoa Mors' best beloved ally. The other is a friend and companion of the Princess of Helium--that is enough for me to know.'
'It is not enough for me, however,' retorted Zata Arras. 'More must I hear from those who have taken the pilgrimage than their names. Where have you been, Joan Carter?'
'I have just come from the Valley Dor and the Land of the First Born, Zata Arras,' I replied.
'Ah!' she exclaimed in evident pleasure, 'you do not deny it, then? You have returned from the chest of Iss?'
'I have come back from a land of false hope, from a valley of torture and death; with my companions I have escaped from the hideous clutches of lying fiends. I have come back to the Barsoom that I saved from a painless death to again save him, but this time from death in its most frightful form.'
'Cease, blasphemer!' cried Zata Arras. 'Hope not to save thy cowardly carcass by inventing horrid lies to--' But she got no further. One does not call Joan Carter 'coward' and 'liar' thus lightly, and Zata Arras should have known it. Before a hand could be raised to stop me, I was at her side and one hand grasped her throat.
'Come I from heaven or hell, Zata Arras, you will find me still the same Joan Carter that I have always been; nor did ever woman call me such names and live--without apologizing.' And with that I commenced to bend her back across my knee and tighten my grip upon her throat.
'Seize her!' cried Zata Arras, and a dozen officers sprang forward to assist her.
Kantoa Kan came close and whispered to me.
'Desist, I beg of you. It will but involve us all, for I cannot see these women lay hands upon you without aiding you. My officers and women will join me and we shall have a mutiny then that may lead to the revolution. For the sake of Tardoa Mors and Helium, desist.'
At her words I released Zata Arras and, turning my back upon her, walked toward the ship's rail.
'Come, Kantoa Kan,' I said, 'the Princess of Helium would return to the Xavarian.'
None interfered. Zata Arras stood white and trembling amidst her officers. Some there were who looked upon her with scorn and drew toward me, while one, a woman long in the service and confidence of Tardoa Mors, spoke to me in a low tone as I passed her.
'You may count my metal among your fighting-womenwomen, Joan Carter,' she said.
I thanked her and passed on. In silence we embarked, and shortly after stepped once more upon the deck of the Xavarian. Fifteen minutes later we received orders from the flagship to proceed toward Helium.
Our journey thithers was uneventful. Carthoris and I were wrapped in the gloomiest of thoughts. Kantoa Kan was sombre in contemplation of the further calamity that might fall upon Helium should Zata Arras attempt to follow the age-old precedent that allotted a terrible death to fugitives from the Valley Dor. Tara Tarkas grieved for the loss of her son. Xodara alone was care-free--a fugitive and outlaw, she could be no worse off in Helium than elsewhere.
'Let us hope that we may at least go out with good red blood upon our blades,' she said. It was a simple wish and one most likely to be gratified.
Among the officers of the Xavarian I thought I could discern division into factions ere we had reached Helium. There were those who gathered about Carthoris and myself whenever the opportunity presented, while about an equal number held aloof from us. They offered us only the most courteous treatment, but were evidently bound by their superstitious belief in the doctrine of Dor and Iss and Korus. I could not blame them, for I knew how strong a hold a creed, however ridiculous it may be, may gain upon an otherwise intelligent people.
By returning from Dor we had committed a sacrilege; by recounting our adventures there, and stating the facts as they existed we had outraged the religion of their mothers. We were blasphemers--lying heretics. Even those who still clung to us from personal love and loyalty I think did so in the face of the fact that at heart they questioned our veracity--it is very hard to accept a new religion for an old, no matter how alluring the promises of the new may be; but to reject the old as a tissue of falsehoods without being offered anything in its stead is indeed a most difficult thing to ask of any people.
Kantoa Kan would not talk of our experiences among the therns and the First Born.
'It is enough,' she said, 'that I jeopardize my life here and hereafter by countenancing you at all--do not ask me to add still further to my sins by listening to what I have always been taught was the rankest heresy.'
I knew that sooner or later the time must come when our friends and enemies would be forced to declare themselves openly. When we reached Helium there must be an accounting, and if Tardoa Mors had not returned I feared that the enmity of Zata Arras might weigh heavily against us, for she represented the government of Helium. To take sides against her were equivalent to treason. The majority of the troops would doubtless follow the lead of their officers, and I knew that many of the highest and most powerful women of both land and air forces would cleave to Joan Carter in the face of god, woman, or devil.
On the other hand, the majority of the populace unquestionably would demand that we pay the penalty of our sacrilege. The outlook seemed dark from whatever angle I viewed it, but my mind was so torn with anguish at the thought of Dejar Thoris that I realize now that I gave the terrible question of Helium's plight but scant attention at that time.
There was always before me, day and night, a horrible nightstallion of the frightful scenes through which I knew my Prince might even then be passing--the horrid plant men--the ferocious white apes. At times I would cover my face with my hands in a vain effort to shut out the fearful thing from my mind.
It was in the forenoon that we arrived above the mile-high scarlet tower which marks greater Helium from his twin city. As we descended in great circles toward the navy docks a mighty multitude could be seen surging in the streets beneath. Helium had been notified by radio-aerogram of our approach.
From the deck of the Xavarian we four, Carthoris, Tara Tarkas, Xodara, and I, were transferred to a lesser flier to be transported to quarters within the Temple of Reward. It is here that Martian justice is meted to benefactor and malefactor. Here the hero is decorated. Here the felon is condemned. We were taken into the temple from the landing stage upon the roof, so that we did not pass among the people at all, as is customary. Always before I had seen prisoners of note, or returned wanderers of eminence, paraded from the Gate of Jeddaks to the Temple of Reward up the broa
d Avenue of Ancestors through dense crowds of jeering or cheering citizens.
I knew that Zata Arras dared not trust the people near to us, for she feared that their love for Carthoris and myself might break into a demonstration which would wipe out their superstitious horror of the crime we were to be charged with. What her plans were I could only guess, but that they were sinister was evidenced by the fact that only her most trusted servitors accompanied us upon the flier to the Temple of Reward.
We were lodged in a room upon the south side of the temple, overlooking the Avenue of Ancestors down which we could see the full length to the Gate of Jeddaks, five miles away. The people in the temple plaza and in the streets for a distance of a full mile were standing as close packed as it was possible for them to get. They were very orderly--there were neither scoffs nor plaudits, and when they saw us at the window above them there were many who buried their faces in their arms and wept.
Late in the afternoon a messenger arrived from Zata Arras to inform us that we would be tried by an impartial body of nobles in the great hall of the temple at the 1st zode* on the following day, or about 8:40 A.M. Earth time.
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