A Princess of Mars Rethroned
Page 20
CHAPTER XIX
BATTLING IN THE ARENA
Slowly I regained my composure and finally essayed again to attempt to remove the keys from the dead body of my former jailer. But as I reached out into the darkness to locate it I found to my horror that it was gone. Then the truth flashed on me; the owners of those gleaming eyes had dragged my prize away from me to be devoured in their neighboring lair; as they had been waiting for days, for weeks, for months, through all this awful eternity of my imprisonment to drag my dead carcass to their feast.
For two days no food was brought me, but then a new messenger appeared and my incarceration went on as before, but not again did I allow my reason to be submerged by the horror of my position.
Shortly after this episode another prisoner was brought in and chained near me. By the dim torch light I saw that she was a red Martian and I could scarcely await the departure of her guards to address her. As their retreating footsteps died away in the distance, I called out softly the Martian word of greeting, kaor.
'Who are you who speaks out of the darkness?' she answered
'Joan Carter, a friend of the red women of Helium.'
'I am of Helium,' she said, 'but I do not recall your name.'
And then I told her my story as I have written it here, omitting only any reference to my love for Dejar Thoris. She was much excited by the news of Helium's prince and seemed quite positive that he and Solan could easily have reached a point of safety from where they left me. She said that she knew the place well because the defile through which the Warhoon warriors had passed when they discovered us was the only one ever used by them when marching to the south.
'Dejar Thoris and Solan entered the hills not five miles from a great waterway and are now probably quite safe,' she assured me.
My fellow prisoner was Kantoa Kan, a padwar (lieutenant) in the navy of Helium. She had been a member of the ill-fated expedition which had fallen into the hands of the Tharks at the time of Dejar Thoris' capture, and she briefly related the events which followed the defeat of the battleships.
Badly injured and only partially manned they had limped slowly toward Helium, but while passing near the city of Zodanga, the capital of Helium's hereditary enemies among the red women of Barsoom, they had been attacked by a great body of war vessels and all but the craft to which Kantoa Kan belonged were either destroyed or captured. Her vessel was chased for days by three of the Zodangan war ships but finally escaped during the darkness of a moonless night.
Thirty days after the capture of Dejar Thoris, or about the time of our coming to Thark, her vessel had reached Helium with about ten survivors of the original crew of seven hundred officers and women. Immediately seven great fleets, each of one hundred mighty war ships, had been dispatched to search for Dejar Thoris, and from these vessels two thousand smaller craft had been kept out continuously in futile search for the missing prince.
Two green Martian communities had been wiped off the face of Barsoom by the avenging fleets, but no trace of Dejar Thoris had been found. They had been searching among the northern hordes, and only within the past few days had they extended their quest to the south.
Kantoa Kan had been detailed to one of the small one-man fliers and had had the misfortune to be discovered by the Warhoons while exploring their city. The bravery and daring of the woman won my greatest respect and admiration. Alone she had landed at the city's boundary and on foot had penetrated to the buildings surrounding the plaza. For two days and nights she had explored their quarters and their dungeons in search of her beloved prince only to fall into the hands of a party of Warhoons as she was about to leave, after assuring herself that Dejar Thoris was not a captive there.
During the period of our incarceration Kantoa Kan and I became well acquainted, and formed a warm personal friendship. A few days only elapsed, however, before we were dragged forth from our dungeon for the great games. We were conducted early one morning to an enormous amphitheater, which instead of having been built upon the surface of the ground was excavated below the surface. It had partially filled with debris so that how large it had originally been was difficult to say. In its present condition it held the entire twenty thousand Warhoons of the assembled hordes.
The arena was immense but extremely uneven and unkempt. Around it the Warhoons had piled building stone from some of the ruined edifices of the ancient city to prevent the animals and the captives from escaping into the audience, and at each end had been constructed cages to hold them until their turns came to meet some horrible death upon the arena.
Kantoa Kan and I were confined together in one of the cages. In the others were wild calots, thoats, mad zitidars, green warriors, and men of other hordes, and many strange and ferocious wild beasts of Barsoom which I had never before seen. The din of their roaring, growling and squealing was deafening and the formidable appearance of any one of them was enough to make the stoutest heart feel grave forebodings.
Kantoa Kan explained to me that at the end of the day one of these prisoners would gain freedom and the others would lie dead about the arena. The winners in the various contests of the day would be pitted against each other until only two remained alive; the victor in the last encounter being set free, whether animal or woman. The following morning the cages would be filled with a new consignment of victims, and so on throughout the ten days of the games.
Shortly after we had been caged the amphitheater began to fill and within an hour every available part of the seating space was occupied. Daka Kova, with her jeds and chieftains, sat at the center of one side of the arena upon a large raised platform.
At a signal from Daka Kova the doors of two cages were thrown open and a dozen green Martian females were driven to the center of the arena. Each was given a dagger and then, at the far end, a pack of twelve calots, or wild dogs were loosed upon them.
As the brutes, growling and foaming, rushed upon the almost defenseless men I turned my head that I might not see the horrid sight. The yells and laughter of the green horde bore witness to the excellent quality of the sport and when I turned back to the arena, as Kantoa Kan told me it was over, I saw three victorious calots, snarling and growling over the bodies of their prey. The men had given a good account of themselves.
Next a mad zitidar was loosed among the remaining dogs, and so it went throughout the long, hot, horrible day.
During the day I was pitted against first women and then beasts, but as I was armed with a long-sword and always outclassed my adversary in agility and generally in strength as well, it proved but child's play to me. Time and time again I won the applause of the bloodthirsty multitude, and toward the end there were cries that I be taken from the arena and be made a member of the hordes of Warhoon.
Finally there were but three of us left, a great green warrior of some far northern horde, Kantoa Kan, and myself.
The other two were to battle and then I to fight the conqueror for the liberty which was accorded the final winner.
Kantoa Kan had fought several times during the day and like myself had always proven victorious, but occasionally by the smallest of margins, especially when pitted against the green warriors. I had little hope that she could best her giant adversary who had mowed down all before her during the day. The fellow towered nearly sixteen feet in height, while Kantoa Kan was some inches under six feet. As they advanced to meet one another I saw for the first time a trick of Martian swordswomanship which centered Kantoa Kan's every hope of victory and life on one cast of the dice, for, as she came to within about twenty feet of the huge fellow she threw her sword arm far behind her over her shoulder and with a mighty sweep hurled her weapon point foremost at the green warrior. It flew true as an arrow and piercing the poor devil's heart laid her dead upon the arena.
Kantoa Kan and I were now pitted against each other but as we approached to the encounter I whispered to her to prolong the battle until nearly dark in the hope that we might find some means of escape. The horde evidently guessed that we had no hearts
to fight each other and so they howled in rage as neither of us placed a fatal thrust. Just as I saw the sudden coming of dark I whispered to Kantoa Kan to thrust her sword between my left arm and my body. As she did so I staggered back clasping the sword tightly with my arm and thus fell to the ground with her weapon apparently protruding from my bosom . Kantoa Kan perceived my coup and stepping quickly to my side she placed her foot upon my neck and withdrawing her sword from my body gave me the final death blow through the neck which is supposed to sever the jugular vein, but in this instance the cold blade slipped harmlessly into the sand of the arena. In the darkness which had now fallen none could tell but that she had really finished me. I whispered to her to go and claim her freedom and then look for me in the hills east of the city, and so she left me.
When the amphitheater had cleared I crept stealthily to the top and as the great excavation lay far from the plaza and in an untenanted portion of the great dead city I had little trouble in reaching the hills beyond.