At the Earth's Core

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

  IV

  DIAN THE BEAUTIFUL

  When our guards aroused us from sleep we were much refreshed. Theygave us food. Strips of dried meat it was, but it put new life andstrength into us, so that now we too marched with high-held heads, andtook noble strides. At least I did, for I was young and proud; butpoor Perry hated walking. On earth I had often seen him call a cab totravel a square--he was paying for it now, and his old legs wobbled sothat I put my arm about him and half carried him through the balance ofthose frightful marches.

  The country began to change at last, and we wound up out of the levelplain through mighty mountains of virgin granite. The tropical verdureof the lowlands was replaced by hardier vegetation, but even here theeffects of constant heat and light were apparent in the immensity ofthe trees and the profusion of foliage and blooms. Crystal streamsroared through their rocky channels, fed by the perpetual snows whichwe could see far above us. Above the snowcapped heights hung masses ofheavy clouds. It was these, Perry explained, which evidently servedthe double purpose of replenishing the melting snows and protectingthem from the direct rays of the sun.

  By this time we had picked up a smattering of the bastard language inwhich our guards addressed us, as well as making good headway in therather charming tongue of our co-captives. Directly ahead of me in thechain gang was a young woman. Three feet of chain linked us togetherin a forced companionship which I, at least, soon rejoiced in. For Ifound her a willing teacher, and from her I learned the language of hertribe, and much of the life and customs of the inner world--at leastthat part of it with which she was familiar.

  She told me that she was called Dian the Beautiful, and that shebelonged to the tribe of Amoz, which dwells in the cliffs above theDarel Az, or shallow sea.

  "How came you here?" I asked her.

  "I was running away from Jubal the Ugly One," she answered, as thoughthat was explanation quite sufficient.

  "Who is Jubal the Ugly One?" I asked. "And why did you run away fromhim?"

  She looked at me in surprise.

  "Why DOES a woman run away from a man?" she answered my question withanother.

  "They do not, where I come from," I replied. "Sometimes they run afterthem."

  But she could not understand. Nor could I get her to grasp the factthat I was of another world. She was quite as positive that creationwas originated solely to produce her own kind and the world she livedin as are many of the outer world.

  "But Jubal," I insisted. "Tell me about him, and why you ran away tobe chained by the neck and scourged across the face of a world."

  "Jubal the Ugly One placed his trophy before my father's house. It wasthe head of a mighty tandor. It remained there and no greater trophywas placed beside it. So I knew that Jubal the Ugly One would come andtake me as his mate. None other so powerful wished me, or they wouldhave slain a mightier beast and thus have won me from Jubal. My fatheris not a mighty hunter. Once he was, but a sadok tossed him, and neveragain had he the full use of his right arm. My brother, Dacor theStrong One, had gone to the land of Sari to steal a mate for himself.Thus there was none, father, brother, or lover, to save me from Jubalthe Ugly One, and I ran away and hid among the hills that skirt theland of Amoz. And there these Sagoths found me and made me captive."

  "What will they do with you?" I asked. "Where are they taking us?"

  Again she looked her incredulity.

  "I can almost believe that you are of another world," she said, "forotherwise such ignorance were inexplicable. Do you really mean thatyou do not know that the Sagoths are the creatures of the Mahars--themighty Mahars who think they own Pellucidar and all that walks or growsupon its surface, or creeps or burrows beneath, or swims within itslakes and oceans, or flies through its air? Next you will be tellingme that you never before heard of the Mahars!"

  I was loath to do it, and further incur her scorn; but there was noalternative if I were to absorb knowledge, so I made a clean breast ofmy pitiful ignorance as to the mighty Mahars. She was shocked. Butshe did her very best to enlighten me, though much that she said was asGreek would have been to her. She described the Mahars largely bycomparisons. In this way they were like unto thipdars, in that to thehairless lidi.

  About all I gleaned of them was that they were quite hideous, hadwings, and webbed feet; lived in cities built beneath the ground; couldswim under water for great distances, and were very, very wise. TheSagoths were their weapons of offense and defense, and the races likeherself were their hands and feet--they were the slaves and servantswho did all the manual labor. The Mahars were the heads--thebrains--of the inner world. I longed to see this wondrous race ofsupermen.

  Perry learned the language with me. When we halted, as we occasionallydid, though sometimes the halts seemed ages apart, he would join in theconversation, as would Ghak the Hairy One, he who was chained justahead of Dian the Beautiful. Ahead of Ghak was Hooja the Sly One. Hetoo entered the conversation occasionally. Most of his remarks weredirected toward Dian the Beautiful. It didn't take half an eye to seethat he had developed a bad case; but the girl appeared totallyoblivious to his thinly veiled advances. Did I say thinly veiled?There is a race of men in New Zealand, or Australia, I have forgottenwhich, who indicate their preference for the lady of their affectionsby banging her over the head with a bludgeon. By comparison with thismethod Hooja's lovemaking might be called thinly veiled. At first itcaused me to blush violently although I have seen several Old Years outat Rectors, and in other less fashionable places off Broadway, and inVienna, and Hamburg.

  But the girl! She was magnificent. It was easy to see that sheconsidered herself as entirely above and apart from her presentsurroundings and company. She talked with me, and with Perry, and withthe taciturn Ghak because we were respectful; but she couldn't even seeHooja the Sly One, much less hear him, and that made him furious. Hetried to get one of the Sagoths to move the girl up ahead of him in theslave gang, but the fellow only poked him with his spear and told himthat he had selected the girl for his own property--that he would buyher from the Mahars as soon as they reached Phutra. Phutra, it seemed,was the city of our destination.

  After passing over the first chain of mountains we skirted a salt sea,upon whose bosom swam countless horrid things. Seal-like creaturesthere were with long necks stretching ten and more feet above theirenormous bodies and whose snake heads were split with gaping mouthsbristling with countless fangs. There were huge tortoises too,paddling about among these other reptiles, which Perry said werePlesiosaurs of the Lias. I didn't question his veracity--they mighthave been most anything.

  Dian told me they were tandorazes, or tandors of the sea, and that theother, and more fearsome reptiles, which occasionally rose from thedeep to do battle with them, were azdyryths, or sea-dyryths--Perrycalled them Ichthyosaurs. They resembled a whale with the head of analligator.

  I had forgotten what little geology I had studied at school--about allthat remained was an impression of horror that the illustrations ofrestored prehistoric monsters had made upon me, and a well-definedbelief that any man with a pig's shank and a vivid imagination could"restore" most any sort of paleolithic monster he saw fit, and takerank as a first class paleontologist. But when I saw these sleek,shiny carcasses shimmering in the sunlight as they emerged from theocean, shaking their giant heads; when I saw the waters roll from theirsinuous bodies in miniature waterfalls as they glided hither andthither, now upon the surface, now half submerged; as I saw them meet,open-mouthed, hissing and snorting, in their titanic and interminablewarring I realized how futile is man's poor, weak imagination bycomparison with Nature's incredible genius.

  And Perry! He was absolutely flabbergasted. He said so himself.

  "David," he remarked, after we had marched for a long time beside thatawful sea. "David, I used to teach geology, and I thought that Ibelieved what I taught; but now I see that I did not believe it--thatit is impossible for man to believe such things as these unless he seesthem
with his own eyes. We take things for granted, perhaps, becausewe are told them over and over again, and have no way of disprovingthem--like religions, for example; but we don't believe them, we onlythink we do. If you ever get back to the outer world you will findthat the geologists and paleontologists will be the first to set youdown a liar, for they know that no such creatures as they restore everexisted. It is all right to IMAGINE them as existing in an equallyimaginary epoch--but now? poof!"

  At the next halt Hooja the Sly One managed to find enough slack chainto permit him to worm himself back quite close to Dian. We were allstanding, and as he edged near the girl she turned her back upon him insuch a truly earthly feminine manner that I could scarce repress asmile; but it was a short-lived smile for on the instant the Sly One'shand fell upon the girl's bare arm, jerking her roughly toward him.

  I was not then familiar with the customs or social ethics whichprevailed within Pellucidar; but even so I did not need the appealinglook which the girl shot to me from her magnificent eyes to influencemy subsequent act. What the Sly One's intention was I paused not toinquire; but instead, before he could lay hold of her with his otherhand, I placed a right to the point of his jaw that felled him in histracks.

  A roar of approval went up from those of the other prisoners and theSagoths who had witnessed the brief drama; not, as I later learned,because I had championed the girl, but for the neat and, to them,astounding method by which I had bested Hooja.

  And the girl? At first she looked at me with wide, wondering eyes, andthen she dropped her head, her face half averted, and a delicate flushsuffused her cheek. For a moment she stood thus in silence, and thenher head went high, and she turned her back upon me as she had uponHooja. Some of the prisoners laughed, and I saw the face of Ghak theHairy One go very black as he looked at me searchingly. And what Icould see of Dian's cheek went suddenly from red to white.

  Immediately after we resumed the march, and though I realized that insome way I had offended Dian the Beautiful I could not prevail upon herto talk with me that I might learn wherein I had erred--in fact I mightquite as well have been addressing a sphinx for all the attention Igot. At last my own foolish pride stepped in and prevented my makingany further attempts, and thus a companionship that without myrealizing it had come to mean a great deal to me was cut off.Thereafter I confined my conversation to Perry. Hooja did not renewhis advances toward the girl, nor did he again venture near me.

  Again the weary and apparently interminable marching became a perfectnightmare of horrors to me. The more firmly fixed became therealization that the girl's friendship had meant so much to me, themore I came to miss it; and the more impregnable the barrier of sillypride. But I was very young and would not ask Ghak for the explanationwhich I was sure he could give, and that might have made everything allright again.

  On the march, or during halts, Dian refused consistently to noticeme--when her eyes wandered in my direction she looked either over myhead or directly through me. At last I became desperate, anddetermined to swallow my self-esteem, and again beg her to tell me howI had offended, and how I might make reparation. I made up my mindthat I should do this at the next halt. We were approaching anotherrange of mountains at the time, and when we reached them, instead ofwinding across them through some high-flung pass we entered a mightynatural tunnel--a series of labyrinthine grottoes, dark as Erebus.

  The guards had no torches or light of any description. In fact we hadseen no artificial light or sign of fire since we had enteredPellucidar. In a land of perpetual noon there is no need of lightabove ground, yet I marveled that they had no means of lighting theirway through these dark, subterranean passages. So we crept along at asnail's pace, with much stumbling and falling--the guards keeping up asingsong chant ahead of us, interspersed with certain high notes whichI found always indicated rough places and turns.

  Halts were now more frequent, but I did not wish to speak to Dian untilI could see from the expression of her face how she was receiving myapologies. At last a faint glow ahead forewarned us of the end of thetunnel, for which I for one was devoutly thankful. Then at a suddenturn we emerged into the full light of the noonday sun.

  But with it came a sudden realization of what meant to me a realcatastrophe--Dian was gone, and with her a half-dozen other prisoners.The guards saw it too, and the ferocity of their rage was terrible tobehold. Their awesome, bestial faces were contorted in the mostdiabolical expressions, as they accused each other of responsibilityfor the loss. Finally they fell upon us, beating us with their spearshafts, and hatchets. They had already killed two near the head of theline, and were like to have finished the balance of us when theirleader finally put a stop to the brutal slaughter. Never in all mylife had I witnessed a more horrible exhibition of bestial rage--Ithanked God that Dian had not been one of those left to endure it.

  Of the twelve prisoners who had been chained ahead of me each alternateone had been freed commencing with Dian. Hooja was gone. Ghakremained. What could it mean? How had it been accomplished? Thecommander of the guards was investigating. Soon he discovered that therude locks which had held the neckbands in place had been deftly picked.

  "Hooja the Sly One," murmured Ghak, who was now next to me in line."He has taken the girl that you would not have," he continued, glancingat me.

  "That I would not have!" I cried. "What do you mean?"

  He looked at me closely for a moment.

  "I have doubted your story that you are from another world," he said atlast, "but yet upon no other grounds could your ignorance of the waysof Pellucidar be explained. Do you really mean that you do not knowthat you offended the Beautiful One, and how?"

  "I do not know, Ghak," I replied.

  "Then shall I tell you. When a man of Pellucidar intervenes betweenanother man and the woman the other man would have, the woman belongsto the victor. Dian the Beautiful belongs to you. You should haveclaimed her or released her. Had you taken her hand, it would haveindicated your desire to make her your mate, and had you raised herhand above her head and then dropped it, it would have meant that youdid not wish her for a mate and that you released her from allobligation to you. By doing neither you have put upon her the greatestaffront that a man may put upon a woman. Now she is your slave. Noman will take her as mate, or may take her honorably, until he shallhave overcome you in combat, and men do not choose slave women as theirmates--at least not the men of Pellucidar."

  "I did not know, Ghak," I cried. "I did not know. Not for allPellucidar would I have harmed Dian the Beautiful by word, or look, oract of mine. I do not want her as my slave. I do not want her asmy--" but here I stopped. The vision of that sweet and innocent facefloated before me amidst the soft mists of imagination, and where I hadon the second believed that I clung only to the memory of a gentlefriendship I had lost, yet now it seemed that it would have beendisloyalty to her to have said that I did not want Dian the Beautifulas my mate. I had not thought of her except as a welcome friend in astrange, cruel world. Even now I did not think that I loved her.

  I believe Ghak must have read the truth more in my expression than inmy words, for presently he laid his hand upon my shoulder.

  "Man of another world," he said, "I believe you. Lips may lie, butwhen the heart speaks through the eyes it tells only the truth. Yourheart has spoken to me. I know now that you meant no affront to Dianthe Beautiful. She is not of my tribe; but her mother is my sister.She does not know it--her mother was stolen by Dian's father who camewith many others of the tribe of Amoz to battle with us for ourwomen--the most beautiful women of Pellucidar. Then was her fatherking of Amoz, and her mother was daughter of the king of Sari--to whosepower I, his son, have succeeded. Dian is the daughter of kings,though her father is no longer king since the sadok tossed him andJubal the Ugly One wrested his kingship from him. Because of herlineage the wrong you did her was greatly magnified in the eyes of allwho saw it. She will never forgive you."

  I asked Ghak
if there was not some way in which I could release thegirl from the bondage and ignominy I had unwittingly placed upon her.

  "If ever you find her, yes," he answered. "Merely to raise her handabove her head and drop it in the presence of others is sufficient torelease her; but how may you ever find her, you who are doomed to alife of slavery yourself in the buried city of Phutra?"

  "Is there no escape?" I asked.

  "Hooja the Sly One escaped and took the others with him," replied Ghak."But there are no more dark places on the way to Phutra, and once thereit is not so easy--the Mahars are very wise. Even if one escaped fromPhutra there are the thipdars--they would find you, and then--" theHairy One shuddered. "No, you will never escape the Mahars."

  It was a cheerful prospect. I asked Perry what he thought about it;but he only shrugged his shoulders and continued a longwinded prayer hehad been at for some time. He was wont to say that the only redeemingfeature of our captivity was the ample time it gave him for theimprovisation of prayers--it was becoming an obsession with him. TheSagoths had begun to take notice of his habit of declaiming throughoutentire marches. One of them asked him what he was saying--to whom hewas talking. The question gave me an idea, so I answered quicklybefore Perry could say anything.

  "Do not interrupt him," I said. "He is a very holy man in the worldfrom which we come. He is speaking to spirits which you cannot see--donot interrupt him or they will spring out of the air upon you and rendyou limb from limb--like that," and I jumped toward the great brutewith a loud "Boo!" that sent him stumbling backward.

  I took a long chance, I realized, but if we could make any capital outof Perry's harmless mania I wanted to make it while the making wasprime. It worked splendidly. The Sagoths treated us both with markedrespect during the balance of the journey, and then passed the wordalong to their masters, the Mahars.

  Two marches after this episode we came to the city of Phutra. Theentrance to it was marked by two lofty towers of granite, which guardeda flight of steps leading to the buried city. Sagoths were on guardhere as well as at a hundred or more other towers scattered about overa large plain.