by MD Scott
A moment later searching parties were scouring the ancient pile in search of them, and my cup of happiness was full when I saw them being escorted into the room by a cheering guard of honor.
Thuviar's first act was to rush to the side of Dejar Thoris, and I needed no better proof of the love these two bore for each other than the sincerity with which they embraced.
Looking down upon that crowded chamber stood the silent and empty throne of Okar.
Of all the strange scenes it must have witnessed since that long-dead age that had first seen a Jeddak of Jeddaks take her seat upon it, none might compare with that upon which it now looked down, and as I pondered the past and future of that long-buried race of black smooth yellow women I thought that I saw a brighter and more useful existence for them among the great family of friendly nations that now stretched from the south pole almost to their very doors.
Twenty-two years before I had been cast, naked and a stranger, into this strange and savage world. The hand of every race and nation was raised in continual strife and warring against the women of every other land and color. Today, by the might of my sword and the loyalty of the friends my sword had made for me, black woman and white, red woman and green rubbed shoulders in peace and good-fellowship. All the nations of Barsoom were not yet as one, but a great stride forward toward that goal had been taken, and now if I could but cement the fierce yellow race into this solidarity of nations I should feel that I had rounded out a great lifework, and repaid to Mars at least a portion of the immense debt of gratitude I owed his for having given me my Dejar Thoris.
And as I thought, I saw but one way, and a single woman who could insure the success of my hopes. As is ever the way with me, I acted then as I always act--without deliberation and without consultation.
Those who do not like my plans and my ways of promoting them have always their swords at their sides wherewith to back up their disapproval; but now there seemed to be no dissenting voice, as, grasping Talu by the arm, I sprang to the throne that had once been Salensa Oll's.
'Warriors of Barsoom,' I cried, 'Kadabra has fallen, and with his the hateful tyrant of the north; but the integrity of Okar must be preserved. The red women are ruled by red jeddaks, the green warriors of the ancient seas acknowledge none but a green ruler, the First Born of the south pole take their law from black Xodara; nor would it be to the interests of either yellow or red woman were a red jeddak to sit upon the throne of Okar.
'There be but one warrior best fitted for the ancient and mighty title of Jeddak of Jeddaks of the North. Women of Okar, raise your swords to your new ruler--Talu, the rebel princess of Marentina!'
And then a great cry of rejoicing rose among the free women of Marentina and the Kadabran prisoners, for all had thought that the red women would retain that which they had taken by force of arms, for such had been the way upon Barsoom, and that they should be ruled henceforth by an alien Jeddak.
The victorious warriors who had followed Carthoris joined in the mad demonstration, and amidst the wild confusion and the tumult and the cheering, Dejar Thoris and I passed out into the gorgeous garden of the jeddaks that graces the inner courtyard of the palace of Kadabra.
At our heels walked Woolan, and upon a carved seat of wondrous beauty beneath a bower of purple blooms we saw two who had preceded us--Thuviar of Ptarth and Carthoris of Helium.
The handsome head of the handsome youth was bent low above the beautiful face of her companion. I looked at Dejar Thoris, smiling, and as I drew his close to me I whispered: 'Why not?'
Indeed, why not? What matter ages in this world of perpetual youth?
We remained at Kadabra, the guests of Talu, until after her formal induction into office, and then, upon the great fleet which I had been so fortunate to preserve from destruction, we sailed south across the ice-barrier; but not before we had witnessed the total demolition of the grim Guardian of the North under orders of the new Jeddak of Jeddaks.
'Henceforth,' she said, as the work was completed, 'the fleets of the red women and the black are free to come and go across the ice-barrier as over their own lands.
'The Carrion Caves shall be cleansed, that the green women may find an easy way to the land of the yellow, and the hunting of the sacred apt shall be the sport of my nobles until no single specimen of that hideous creature roams the frozen north.'
We bade our yellow friends farewell with real regret, as we set sail for Ptarth. There we remained, the guest of Thuva Dihn, for a month; and I could see that Carthoris would have remained forever had she not been a Princess of Helium.
Above the mighty forests of Kaol we hovered until word from Kula Tith brought us to her single landing-tower, where all day and half a night the vessels disembarked their crews. At the city of Kaol we visited, cementing the new ties that had been formed between Kaol and Helium, and then one long-to-be-remembered day we sighted the tall, thin towers of the twin cities of Helium.
The people had long been preparing for our coming. The sky was gorgeous with gaily trimmed fliers. Every roof within both cities was spread with costly silks and tapestries.
Gold and jewels were scattered over roof and street and plaza, so that the two cities seemed ablaze with the fires of the hearts of the magnificent stones and burnished metal that reflected the brilliant sunlight, changing it into countless glorious hues.
At last, after twelve years, the royal family of Helium was reunited in their own mighty city, surrounded by joy-mad millions before the palace gates. Men and children and mighty warriors wept in gratitude for the fate that had restored their beloved Tardoa Mors and the divine prince whom the whole nation idolized. Nor did any of us who had been upon that expedition of indescribable danger and glory lack for plaudits.
That night a messenger came to me as I sat with Dejar Thoris and Carthoris upon the roof of my city palace, where we had long since caused a lovely garden to be made that we three might find seclusion and quiet happiness among ourselves, far from the pomp and ceremony of court, to summon us to the Temple of Reward--'where one is to be judged this night,' the summons concluded.
I racked my brain to try and determine what important case there might be pending which could call the royal family from their palaces on the eve of their return to Helium after years of absence; but when the jeddak summons no woman delays.
As our flier touched the landing stage at the temple's top we saw countless other craft arriving and departing. In the streets below a great multitude surged toward the great gates of the temple.
Slowly there came to me the recollection of the deferred doom that awaited me since that time I had been tried here in the Temple by Zata Arras for the sin of returning from the Valley Dor and the Lost Sea of Korus.
Could it be possible that the strict sense of justice which dominates the women of Mars had caused them to overlook the great good that had come out of my heresy? Could they ignore the fact that to me, and me alone, was due the rescue of Carthoris, of Dejar Thoris, of Mora Kajak, of Tardoa Mors?
I could not believe it, and yet for what other purpose could I have been summoned to the Temple of Reward immediately upon the return of Tardoa Mors to her throne?
My first surprise as I entered the temple and approached the Throne of Righteousness was to note the women who sat there as judges. There was Kula Tith, Jeddak of Kaol, whom we had but just left within her own palace a few days since; there was Thuva Dihn, Jeddak of Ptarth--how came she to Helium as soon as we?
There was Tara Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, and Xodara, Jeddak of the First Born; there was Talu, Jeddak of Jeddaks of the North, whom I could have sworn was still in her ice-bound hothouse city beyond the northern barrier, and among them sat Tardoa Mors and Mora Kajak, with enough lesser jeds and jeddaks to make up the thirty-one who must sit in judgment upon their fellow-man.
A right royal tribunal indeed, and such a one, I warrant, as never before sat together during all the history of ancient Mars.
As I entered, silence fell upon the gre
at concourse of people that packed the auditorium. Then Tardoa Mors arose.
'Joan Carter,' she said in her deep, martial voice, 'take your place upon the Pedestal of Truth, for you are to be tried by a fair and impartial tribunal of your fellow-men.'
With level eye and high-held head I did as she bade, and as I glanced about that circle of faces that a moment before I could have sworn contained the best friends I had upon Barsoom, I saw no single friendly glance--only stern, uncompromising judges, there to do their duty.
A clerk rose and from a great book read a long list of the more notable deeds that I had thought to my credit, covering a long period of twenty-two years since first I had stepped the ocher sea bottom beside the incubator of the Tharks. With the others she read of all that I had done within the circle of the Otz Mountains where the Holy Therns and the First Born had held sway.
It is the way upon Barsoom to recite a woman's virtues with her sins when she is come to trial, and so I was not surprised that all that was to my credit should be read there to my judges--who knew it all by heart--even down to the present moment. When the reading had ceased Tardoa Mors arose.
'Most righteous judges,' she exclaimed, 'you have heard recited all that is known of Joan Carter, Princess of Helium--the good with the bad. What is your judgment?'
Then Tara Tarkas came slowly to her feet, unfolding all her mighty, towering height until she loomed, a green-bronze statue, far above us all. She turned a baleful eye upon me--she, Tara Tarkas, with whom I had fought through countless battles; whom I loved as a sister.
I could have wept had I not been so mad with rage that I almost whipped my sword out and had at them all upon the spot.
'Judges,' she said, 'there can be but one verdict. No longer may Joan Carter be Princess of Helium'--he paused--'but instead let her be Jeddak of Jeddaks, Warlord of Barsoom!'
As the thirty-one judges sprang to their feet with drawn and upraised swords in unanimous concurrence in the verdict, the storm broke throughout the length and breadth and height of that mighty building until I thought the roof would fall from the thunder of the mad shouting.
Now, at last, I saw the grim humor of the method they had adopted to do me this great honor, but that there was any hoax in the reality of the title they had conferred upon me was readily disproved by the sincerity of the congratulations that were heaped upon me by the judges first and then the nobles.
Presently fifty of the mightiest nobles of the greatest courts of Mars marched down the broad Aisle of Hope bearing a splendid car upon their shoulders, and as the people saw who sat within, the cheers that had rung out for me paled into insignificance beside those which thundered through the vast edifice now, for he whom the nobles carried was Dejar Thoris, beloved Prince of Helium.
Straight to the Throne of Righteousness they bore him, and there Tardoa Mors assisted his from the car, leading his forward to my side.
'Let a world's most beautiful man share the honor of his wife,' she said.
Before them all I drew my husband close to me and kissed his upon the lips.
THE END
Artwork by Mark Sebastian
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markjsebastian/316528592/
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JEKKARA PRESS
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Also by Jekkara press
The Adventures of Bulays and Ghaavn currently include:
01 Blood Demons of Titan - Tara Loughead
The warriors Bulays and Ghaavn hunt demons and their master through the dim and dusty streets of Barnes, on Titan. Can they stop him before he completes a devastating ritual?
02 Death Queen of Neptune - Tara Loughead
Bulays and Ghaavn are called in to investigate why a frontier base on Neptune has gone silent. Ice monsters and an ancient, beautiful evil await.
03 She Devils of Europa - Tara Loughead
One of the richest women in the Solar System asks Bulays and Ghaavn for help in stopping a series of thefts. There is a mystery to solve at the most
expensive resort in existence, The Europa. Larceny, magic and dancing await, in an all expenses paid evening.
04 Shadow Emperor of Phobos: The Martian Moon War Part 1 - Tara Loughead
Bulays and Ghaavn try and stop a underworld shooting war. First they must get past a Martian Shadowcat, employ surprising combat techniques, and try and reason with Ghaavn's criminal mentor.
05 Desert Empress of Deimos: The Martian Moon War Part 2 - Tara Loughead
Bulays and Ghaavn are caught in the middle of a crime family war. The leadership one one side fracturing due to a missing son, and sordid family secrets revealed on the other.
06 Heart Breakers of Hyperion - Tara Loughead
Aliens from outer space are stealing parts of our women. And all of our men. Bulays and Ghaavn
have to go undercover in the notorious brothel Madame Khan's to stop it. With Emar, the Death Queen of Neptune as their Mistress!
07 The Gebriahl Setup – Tara Loughead
Is it one mission too many as someone finally gets the drop on Bulays and Ghaavn in an ambush? Plus, what happens when the Death Queen of Neptune goes to a wedding?
08 Vampire Masters of Mercury - Tara Loughead
Someone is killing the Thermpires of the Twilight Belt, on Mercury. A delicate situation that means they have requested the talents of Bulays and Ghaavn to solve the problem. And where is her cousin, Bulayd?
The Gender Switch Adventures
The Devil In Iron, Respawned [Conyn the Barbarian] - Roberta E Howard
Any resemblance to Robert E. Howard's Conan is completely intentional. A resurrected demon menaces Conyn on an island fortress, along with other monsters.
The Pool of the Black One, Reswum [Conyn the Barbarian] - Roberta E Howard
Any resemblance to Robert E. Howard's Conan is completely intentional. Conyn, a pirate, puts herself in charge and investigates a strange island with mystic waters.
Jewels of Gwahlur, Reboxed [Conyn the Barbarian] - Roberta E. Howard
Any resemblance to Robert E. Howard's Conan is completely intentional. Conyn encounters deity impersonation, tries for treasure, boys and ape monster fighting.
Queen of the Black Coast, Recrowned [Conyn the Barbarian] - Roberta E. Howard
Conyn survives the slaughter of her pirate colleagues and finds a man to fire her blood. Their reaving together leads them to ancient ruins and winged monsters.
Red Nails, Polished [Conyn the Barbarian] - Roberta E. Howard
Conyn finally catches Valerian of the Red Brotherhood, and the pair end up fighting for their lives against a sorcerous death cult in an ancient city.
Beyond the Black River, Recrossed [Conyn the Barbarian] by Roberta E. Howard
Conyn signs up as a scout in Pictish territory, and gets involved with his partner in a border war against the wizard Zogara Sag and her cult of followers.
Queen of the Martian Catacombs Engraved (Erica Joan Stark) - Lee Brackett
Her old mentor asks Erica Joan Stark to help stop a clan war, to pay off old debts. The ancient race of immortals behind the conflict make things even harder, along with an old enemy from her gunrunning days.
Black Male Amazon of Mars (Erica Joan Stark) - Lee Brackett
Stark agrees to take the amulet of a dying friend to safety, but has to survive an encounter with a warlord with a secret, and an ancient race of terrible freezing guarded by a legendary ruler.
Enchantress of Venus Dispelled (Erica Joan Stark) - Lee Brackett
Stark must cross the Seas of Venus to fin
d a missing friend. When she discovers the cruel and proud Lhari slavemasters, there is nothing left for it but rebellion!
The Tree of Life, Revisited (Norawest Smith) - Cathan L. Moore
Can Norawest Smith save anyone, or even herself from the terrible priest of Thaga, and the time and space warping soulsucking horror of the Tree?