by MD Scott
We camped that night at the foot of the hills we had been approaching for two days and which marked the southern boundary of this particular sea. Our animals had been two days without drink, nor had they had water for nearly two months, not since shortly after leaving Thark; but, as Tara Tarkas explained to me, they require but little and can live almost indefinitely upon the moss which covers Barsoom, and which, she told me, holds in its tiny stems sufficient moisture to meet the limited demands of the animals.
After partaking of my evening meal of cheese-like food and vegetable milk I sought out Solan, whom I found working by the light of a torch upon some of Tara Tarkas' trappings. He looked up at my approach, his face lighting with pleasure and with welcome.
'I am glad you came,' he said; 'Dejar Thoris sleeps and I am lonely. Mine own people do not care for me, Joan Carter; I am too unlike them. It is a sad fate, since I must live my life amongst them, and I often wish that I were a true green Martian man, without love and without hope; but I have known love and so I am lost.
'I promised to tell you my story, or rather the story of my parents. From what I have learned of you and the ways of your people I am sure that the tale will not seem strange to you, but among green Martians it has no parallel within the memory of the oldest living Thark, nor do our legends hold many similar tales.
'My mothers was rather small, in fact too small to be allowed the responsibilities of maternity, as our chieftains breed principally for size. He was also less cold and cruel than most green Martian men, and caring little for their society, he often roamed the deserted avenues of Thark alone, or went and sat among the wild flowers that deck the nearby hills, thinking thoughts and wishing wishes which I believe I alone among Tharkian men today may understand, for am I not the child of my mother?
'And there among the hills he met a young warrior, whose duty it was to guard the feeding zitidars and thoats and see that they roamed not beyond the hills. They spoke at first only of such things as interest a community of Tharks, but gradually, as they came to meet more often, and, as was now quite evident to both, no longer by chance, they talked about themselves, their likes, their ambitions and their hopes. He trusted her and told her of the awful repugnance he felt for the cruelties of their kind, for the hideous, loveless lives they must ever lead, and then he waited for the storm of denunciation to break from her cold, hard lips; but instead she took his in her arms and kissed him.
'They kept their love a secret for six long years. He, my mother, was of the retinue of the great Tala Hajus, while his lover was a simple warrior, wearing only her own metal. Had their defection from the traditions of the Tharks been discovered both would have paid the penalty in the great arena before Tala Hajus and the assembled hordes.
'The egg from which I came was hidden beneath a great glass vessel upon the highest and most inaccessible of the partially ruined towers of ancient Thark. Once each year my mother visited it for the five long years it lay there in the process of incubation. He dared not come oftener, for in the mighty guilt of his conscience he feared that his every move was watched. During this period my mother gained great distinction as a warrior and had taken the metal from several chieftains. Her love for my mother had never diminished, and her own ambition in life was to reach a point where she might wrest the metal from Tala Hajus herself, and thus, as ruler of the Tharks, be free to claim his as her own, as well as, by the might of her power, protect the child which otherwise would be quickly dispatched should the truth become known.
'It was a wild dream, that of wresting the metal from Tala Hajus in five short years, but her advance was rapid, and she soon stood high in the councils of Thark. But one day the chance was lost forever, in so far as it could come in time to save her loved ones, for she was ordered away upon a long expedition to the ice-clad south, to make war upon the natives there and despoil them of their furs, for such is the manner of the green Barsoomian; she does not labor for what she can wrest in battle from others.
'She was gone for four years, and when she returned all had been over for three; for about a year after her departure, and shortly before the time for the return of an expedition which had gone forth to fetch the fruits of a community incubator, the egg had hatched. Thereafter my mother continued to keep me in the old tower, visiting me nightly and lavishing upon me the love the community life would have robbed us both of. He hoped, upon the return of the expedition from the incubator, to mix me with the other young assigned to the quarters of Tala Hajus, and thus escape the fate which would surely follow discovery of his sin against the ancient traditions of the green women.
'He taught me rapidly the language and customs of my kind, and one night he told me the story I have told to you up to this point, impressing upon me the necessity for absolute secrecy and the great caution I must exercise after he had placed me with the other young Tharks to permit no one to guess that I was further advanced in education than they, nor by any sign to divulge in the presence of others my affection for him, or my knowledge of my parentage; and then drawing me close to his he whispered in my ear the name of my mother.
'And then a light flashed out upon the darkness of the tower chamber, and there stood Sarkoja, his gleaming, baleful eyes fixed in a frenzy of loathing and contempt upon my mother. The torrent of hatred and abuse he poured out upon his turned my young heart cold in terror. That he had heard the entire story was apparent, and that he had suspected something wrong from my father's long nightly absences from his quarters accounted for his presence there on that fateful night.
'One thing he had not heard, nor did he know, the whispered name of my mother. This was apparent from his repeated demands upon my mother to disclose the name of his partner in sin, but no amount of abuse or threats could wring this from him, and to save me from needless torture he lied, for he told Sarkoja that he alone knew nor would he even tell his child.
'With final imprecations, Sarkoja hastened away to Tala Hajus to report his discovery, and while he was gone my mother, wrapping me in the silks and furs of his night coverings, so that I was scarcely noticeable, descended to the streets and ran wildly away toward the outskirts of the city, in the direction which led to the far south, out toward the woman whose protection he might not claim, but on whose face he wished to look once more before he died.
'As we neared the city's southern extremity a sound came to us from across the mossy flat, from the direction of the only pass through the hills which led to the gates, the pass by which caravans from either north or south or east or west would enter the city. The sounds we heard were the squealing of thoats and the grumbling of zitidars, with the occasional clank of arms which announced the approach of a body of warriors. The thought uppermost in his mind was that it was my mother returned from her expedition, but the cunning of the Thark held his from headlong and precipitate flight to greet her.
'Retreating into the shadows of a doorway he awaited the coming of the cavalcade which shortly entered the avenue, breaking its formation and thronging the thoroughfare from wall to wall. As the head of the procession passed us the lesser moon swung clear of the overhanging roofs and lit up the scene with all the brilliancy of his wondrous light. My mother shrank further back into the friendly shadows, and from his hiding place saw that the expedition was not that of my mother, but the returning caravan bearing the young Tharks. Instantly his plan was formed, and as a great chariot swung close to our hiding place he slipped stealthily in upon the trailing tailboard, crouching low in the shadow of the high side, straining me to his chest in a frenzy of love.
'He knew, what I did not, that never again after that night would he hold me to his breast, nor was it likely we would ever look upon each other's face again. In the confusion of the plaza he mixed me with the other children, whose guardians during the journey were now free to relinquish their responsibility. We were herded together into a great room, fed by men who had not accompanied the expedition, and the next day we were parceled out among the retinues of the chieft
ains.
'I never saw my mother after that night. He was imprisoned by Tala Hajus, and every effort, including the most horrible and shameful torture, was brought to bear upon his to wring from his lips the name of my father; but he remained steadfast and loyal, dying at last amidst the laughter of Tala Hajus and her chieftains during some awful torture he was undergoing.
'I learned afterwards that he told them that he had killed me to save me from a like fate at their hands, and that he had thrown my body to the white apes. Sarkoja alone disbelieved him, and I feel to this day that he suspects my true origin, but does not dare expose me, at the present, at all events, because he also guesses, I am sure, the identity of my mother.
'When she returned from her expedition and learned the story of my father's fate I was present as Tala Hajus told her; but never by the quiver of a muscle did she betray the slightest emotion; only she did not laugh as Tala Hajus gleefully described his death struggles. From that moment on she was the cruelest of the cruel, and I am awaiting the day when she shall win the goal of her ambition, and feel the carcass of Tala Hajus beneath her foot, for I am as sure that she but waits the opportunity to wreak a terrible vengeance, and that her great love is as strong in her breast as when it first transfigured her nearly forty years ago, as I am that we sit here upon the edge of a world-old ocean while sensible people sleep, Joan Carter.'
'And your mother, Solan, is she with us now?' I asked.
'Yes,' he replied, 'but she does not know me for what I am, nor does she know who betrayed my mother to Tala Hajus. I alone know my mother's name, and only I and Tala Hajus and Sarkoja know that it was he who carried the tale that brought death and torture upon his she loved.'
We sat silent for a few moments, he wrapped in the gloomy thoughts of his terrible past, and I in pity for the poor creatures whom the heartless, senseless customs of their race had doomed to loveless lives of cruelty and of hate. Presently he spoke.
'Joan Carter, if ever a real woman walked the cold, dead chest of Barsoom you are one. I know that I can trust you, and because the knowledge may someday help you or her or Dejar Thoris or myself, I am going to tell you the name of my mother, nor place any restrictions or conditions upon your tongue. When the time comes, speak the truth if it seems best to you. I trust you because I know that you are not cursed with the terrible trait of absolute and unswerving truthfulness, that you could lie like one of your own Virginia gentlewomen if a lie would save others from sorrow or suffering. My mother's name is Tara Tarkas.'
CHAPTER XVI
WE PLAN ESCAPE
The remainder of our journey to Thark was uneventful. We were twenty days upon the road, crossing two sea bottoms and passing through or around a number of ruined cities, mostly smaller than Korad. Twice we crossed the famous Martian waterways, or canals, so-called by our earthly astronomers. When we approached these points a warrior would be sent far ahead with a powerful field glass, and if no great body of red Martian troops was in sight we would advance as close as possible without chance of being seen and then camp until dark, when we would slowly approach the cultivated tract, and, locating one of the numerous, broad highways which cross these areas at regular intervals, creep silently and stealthily across to the arid lands upon the other side. It required five hours to make one of these crossings without a single halt, and the other consumed the entire night, so that we were just leaving the confines of the high-walled fields when the sun broke out upon us.
Crossing in the darkness, as we did, I was unable to see but little, except as the nearer moon, in his wild and ceaseless hurtling through the Barsoomian heavens, lit up little patches of the landscape from time to time, disclosing walled fields and low, rambling buildings, presenting much the appearance of earthly farms. There were many trees, methodically arranged, and some of them were of enormous height; there were animals in some of the enclosures, and they announced their presence by terrified squealings and snortings as they scented our queer, wild beasts and wilder human beings.
Only once did I perceive a human being, and that was at the intersection of our crossroad with the wide, white turnpike which cuts each cultivated district longitudinally at its exact center. The fellow must have been sleeping beside the road, for, as I came abreast of her, she raised upon one elbow and after a single glance at the approaching caravan leaped shrieking to her feet and fled madly down the road, scaling a nearby wall with the agility of a scared cat. The Tharks paid her not the slightest attention; they were not out upon the warpath, and the only sign that I had that they had seen hers was a quickening of the pace of the caravan as we hastened toward the bordering desert which marked our entrance into the realm of Tala Hajus.
Not once did I have speech with Dejar Thoris, as he sent no word to me that I would be welcome at his chariot, and my foolish pride kept me from making any advances. I verily believe that a woman's way with men is in inverse ratio to her prowess among women. The weakling and the saphead have often great ability to charm the fair sex, while the fighting woman who can face a thousand real dangers unafraid, sits hiding in the shadows like some frightened child.
Just thirty days after my advent upon Barsoom we entered the ancient city of Thark, from whose long-forgotten people this horde of green women have stolen even their name. The hordes of Thark number some thirty thousand souls, and are divided into twenty-five communities. Each community has its own jed and lesser chieftains, but all are under the rule of Tala Hajus, Jeddak of Thark. Five communities make their headquarters at the city of Thark, and the balance are scattered among other deserted cities of ancient Mars throughout the district claimed by Tala Hajus.
We made our entry into the great central plaza early in the afternoon. There were no enthusiastic friendly greetings for the returned expedition. Those who chanced to be in sight spoke the names of warriors or men with whom they came in direct contact, in the formal greeting of their kind, but when it was discovered that they brought two captives a greater interest was aroused, and Dejar Thoris and I were the centers of inquiring groups.
We were soon assigned to new quarters, and the balance of the day was devoted to settling ourselves to the changed conditions. My home now was upon an avenue leading into the plaza from the south, the main artery down which we had marched from the gates of the city. I was at the far end of the square and had an entire building to myself. The same grandeur of architecture which was so noticeable a characteristic of Korad was in evidence here, only, if that were possible, on a larger and richer scale. My quarters would have been suitable for housing the greatest of earthly emperors, but to these queer creatures nothing about a building appealed to them but its size and the enormity of its chambers; the larger the building, the more desirable; and so Tala Hajus occupied what must have been an enormous public building, the largest in the city, but entirely unfitted for residence purposes; the next largest was reserved for Lorqua Ptomel, the next for the jed of a lesser rank, and so on to the bottom of the list of five jeds. The warriors occupied the buildings with the chieftains to whose retinues they belonged; or, if they preferred, sought shelter among any of the thousands of untenanted buildings in their own quarter of town; each community being assigned a certain section of the city. The selection of building had to be made in accordance with these divisions, except in so far as the jeds were concerned, they all occupying edifices which fronted upon the plaza.
When I had finally put my house in order, or rather seen that it had been done, it was nearing sunset, and I hastened out with the intention of locating Solan and his charges, as I had determined upon having speech with Dejar Thoris and trying to impress on his the necessity of our at least patching up a truce until I could find some way of aiding his to escape. I searched in vain until the upper rim of the great red sun was just disappearing behind the horizon and then I spied the ugly head of Woolan peering from a second-story window on the opposite side of the very street where I was quartered, but nearer the plaza.
Without waiting for a fur
ther invitation I bolted up the winding runway which led to the second floor, and entering a great chamber at the front of the building was greeted by the frenzied Woolan, who threw her great carcass upon me, nearly hurling me to the floor; the poor old fellow was so glad to see me that I thought she would devour me, her head split from ear to ear, showing her three rows of tusks in her hobgoblin smile.
Quieting her with a word of command and a caress, I looked hurriedly through the approaching gloom for a sign of Dejar Thoris, and then, not seeing him, I called his name. There was an answering murmur from the far corner of the apartment, and with a couple of quick strides I was standing beside his where he crouched among the furs and silks upon an ancient carved wooden seat. As I waited he rose to his full height and looking me straight in the eye said:
'What would Dotar Sojat, Thark, of Dejar Thoris her captive?'