“We do not want such a hideous creature in the guards,” he said.
I looked around at the other hormads in the chamber, and really couldn’t see much to choose from between them and me. They were all hideous monsters. What difference could it make that I was a little more hideous? Of course there was nothing for me to do; and, much disappointed, I stepped back from the line.
Five of the seven remaining were little better than halfwits, and they were eliminated. The other two might have been high grade morons at the best, but they were accepted. The Third Jed spoke to an officer. “Where is the hormad I sent for?” he demanded. “Tor-dur-bar.”
“I am Tor-dur-bar,” I said.
“Come here,” said the Third Jed, and again I stepped to the foot of the dais.
“One of my guardsmen says you are the strongest person in Morbus,” continued the Third Jed. “Are you?”
“I don’t know,” I replied. “I am very strong.”
“He says that you can toss a man to the ceiling and catch him again. Let me see you do it.”
I picked up one of the rejected hormads and threw him as high as I could. I learned then that I didn’t know my own strength. The room was quite lofty, but the creature hit the ceiling with a dull thud and fell back into my arms unconscious. The seven jeds and the others in the room looked at me with astonishment.
“He may not be beautiful,” said the Third Jed, “but I shall take him for my guard.”
The jed who had waved me aside objected. “Guardsmen must be intelligent,” he said. “This creature looks as though it had no brains at all.”
“We shall see,” said another jed, and then they commenced to fire questions at me. Of course they were simple questions that the most ignorant of red men could have answered easily, for the questioners had only the brains and experience of hormads after all.
“He is very intelligent,” said the Third Jed. “He answers all our questions easily. I insist upon having him.”
“We shall draw lots for him,” said the First Jed.
“We shall do nothing of the kind,” stormed the Third Jed. “He belongs to me. It was I who sent for him. None of the rest of you had ever heard of him.”
“We shall take a vote on it,” said the Fourth Jed.
The Fifth Jed, who had rejected me, said nothing. He just sat there scowling. I had made a fool of him by proving myself so desirable that many jeds wished me.
“Come,” said the Seventh Jed, “let’s take a vote to see whether we award him to the Third Jed or draw lots for him.”
“Don’t waste time,” said the Third Jed, “for I am going to take him anyway.” He was a big man, larger than any of his fellows.
“You are always making trouble,” growled the First Jed.
“It is the rest of you that are making trouble,” retorted the Third Jed, “by trying to deprive me of what is rightfully mine.”
“The Third Jed is right,” said the Second Jed. “None of the rest of us have any claim on this hormad. We were willing to see him rejected until the Third Jed proved that he would make a desirable guardsman.”
They wrangled on for a long time, but finally gave in to the Third Jed. Now I had a new master. He put me in charge of one of his own officers and I was taken away to be initiated into the duties of a guardsman in the palace of the seven jeds of Morbus.
The officer conducted me to a large guard-room where there were many other hormad warriors. Teeaytan-ov was among them, and he lost no time in claiming credit for having me chosen for the guards. One of the first things I was taught was that I was to fight and die, if necessary, in defense of the Third Jed. I was given the insignia of the guard to wear around my neck, and then an officer undertook to train me in the use of a long-sword. I had to pretend to a little awkwardness lest he discover that I was more familiar with the weapon than he. He complimented me upon my aptitude, and said that he would give me daily instruction thereafter.
I found my fellow guardsmen a stupid, egotistical lot of morons. They were all jealous of one another and of the seven jeds who were only hormads after all with the bodies of red men. I discovered that only fear held them in leash, for they were just intelligent enough to resent their lot and to envy the officers and jeds who had power and authority. The soil was ripe for mutiny or revolution. It was just an undercurrent that one sensed if he had intelligence, for they feared spies and informers too much to voice their true feeling aloud.
I chafed now at every delay that kept me from searching for Janai. I did not dare make any inquiries concerning her, as that would immediately have aroused suspicion; nor did I dare go poking about the palace until I knew more of its customs and its life.
The following day I was taken with a detachment of guardsmen beyond the walls of the city out among the crowded villages of the common hormads. Here I saw thousands of monstrous creatures, stupid and sullen, with no pleasures beyond eating and sleeping, and just enough intelligence ordinarily to make them dissatisfied with their lot. There were many, of course, with less brains and no more imagination than beasts. These alone were contented.
I saw envy and hate in the glances that many of them cast upon us and our officers, and there were growling murmurs after we had passed that followed us like the low moaning of the wind in the wake of a flier. I came to the conclusion that the Seven Jeds of Morbus were going to find many obstacles in the way of their grandiose plan to conquer a world with these creatures, and the most insurmountable of all would be the creatures themselves.
At last I learned the ways of the palace and how to find my way about, and the first time I was off duty I commenced a systematic search for Janai. I always moved quickly, as though I was on some important errand; so when I met officers or hormads they paid no attention to me.
One day, as I came to the end of a corridor, a hormad stepped from the doorway and confronted me. “What are you doing here?” he demanded. “Don’t you know that these are the quarters of the women and that no one is allowed here except those who guard them?”
“You are one of the guards?” I asked.
“Yes; now be on your way, and don’t come back here again.”
“It must be a very important post, guarding the women,” I said.
He swelled perceptibly. “It is, indeed. Only the most trustworthy warriors are chosen.”
“Are the women very beautiful?” I asked.
“Very,” he said.
“I certainly envy you. I wish that I might be a guard here, too. It would make me happy to see these beautiful women. I have never seen one. Just to get a glimpse of them would be wonderful.”
“Well,” he said, “perhaps it would do no harm to let you have a little glimpse. You seem to be a very intelligent fellow. What is your name?”
“I am Tor-dur-bar,” I said. “I am in the guard of the Third Jed.”
“You are Tor-dur-bar, the strongest man in Morbus?” he demanded.
“Yes, I am he.”
“I have heard of you. Every one is talking about you, and how you threw a hormad up against the ceiling of the council chamber so hard that you killed him. I shall be very glad to let you have a look at the women, but don’t tell anybody that I did so.”
“Of course not,” I assured him.
He stepped to the door at the end of the corridor and swung it open. Beyond was a large chamber in which were several women and a number of the sexless hormads who were evidently their servants.
“You may step in,” said the guard; “they will think you are another guard.”
I entered the room and looked quickly about, and as I did so my heart leaped to my throat, for there, at the far end of the room, was Janai. Forgetful of everything else, I started to cross toward her. I forgot the guard. I forgot that I was a hideous monster. I forgot everything but that here was the woman I loved and here was I. The guard overtook me and laid a hand upon my shoulder.
“Hey! Where are you going?” he demanded.
Then I came to myse
lf. “I wanted to get a closer look at them,” I said. “I wanted to see what it was that the jeds saw in women.”
“Well, you have seen enough. I don’t see what they see in them, myself. Come now, you must get out.”
As he spoke the door by which we had entered swung open again, and the Third Jed entered. The guard shrivelled in terror. “Quick!” he gasped. “Mingle with the servants. Pretend you are one of them. Perhaps he will not notice you.”
I crossed quickly toward Janai and kneeled before her. “What do you want?” she demanded. “What are you doing here, hormad? You are not one of our servants.”
“I have a message for you,” I whispered. I touched her with my hand. I could not help it. I could scarcely resist the tremendous urge I felt to take her in my arms. She shrank from me, an expression of loathing and disgust upon her face.
“Do not touch me, hormad,” she said, “or I shall call the guard.”
Then I remembered the hideous monster that I was, and I drew away from her. “Do not call the guard until you have heard my message,” I begged.
“There is no one here to send me any message I would care to hear,” she said.
“There is Vor Daj,” I said. “Have you forgotten him?”
I waited breathlessly to note her reaction.
“Vor Daj!” she breathed in a whisper. “He has sent you to me?”
“Yes. He told me to find you. He did not know but that you were dead. He told me that if I found you I was to tell you that day and night he was searching for some plan whereby he might take you away from Morbus.”
“There can be no hope,” she said, “but tell him that I have not forgotten him and never shall. Every day I think of him, and now every day I shall bless him for thinking of me and wishing to help me.”
I was about to say more to her, to tell her that Vor Daj loved her, so that I might see whether that pleased her or not; but then I heard a loud voice demand, “What are you doing here?” and turning I saw that the First Jed had entered the room and was confronting the Third Jed accusingly.
“I have come after my slave woman,” replied the latter. “What are you going to do about it?”
“These women have not been distributed by the Council. You have no right to any of them. If you need more slaves, order some additional hormads. Come on, get out of here!”
For answer, the Third Jed crossed the room and seized Janai by one arm. “Come with me, woman,” he ordered, and started to drag her toward the door; then the First Jed whipped out his sword and blocked the way. The sword of the Third Jed flashed from its scabbard, and the two men engaged, which necessitated the Third Jed’s relinquishing his hold on Janai.
The duel was a rare spectacle of poor swordsmanship, but they skipped about the room so much and cut and slashed so terrifically in all directions that the other occupants of the chamber had to keep constantly on the move to avoid injury. I tried always to keep between them and Janai, and presently I found myself near the door with the girl close beside me. The attention of the guard as well as all others in the room was riveted upon the two combatants, and the door was just behind us. Nowhere could Janai be in greater danger than here. Perhaps never again would I have such an opportunity to get her out of these quarters in which she was a prisoner. Where I could take her, I did not know; but to get her out of here would be something. If, in some way, I could smuggle her into the laboratory I was sure that John Carter and Ras Thavas would find some place to hide her. Bending my ugly face close to her beautiful one, I whispered, “Come with me,” but she shrank away. “Please don’t be afraid of me,” I begged. “I am doing this for Vor Daj, because he is my friend. I want to try to help you.”
“Very well,” she said, without further hesitation.
I looked hurriedly about the room. No one was paying any attention to us. Every eye was centered upon the combatants. I took Janai’s hand, and together we slipped through the doorway out into the corridor beyond.
chapter XI
WAR OF THE SEVEN JEDS
NOW THAT WE were out of the room where Janai had been imprisoned I hadn’t the slightest idea where to take her. The suspicions of the first person who saw us together would be aroused. I asked Janai if she knew any place where I might hide her safely until I could find a way to get her out of the palace. She said that she did not. She knew only the room in which she had been imprisoned.
I hurried her down the corridor along which I had come, but at the head of the ramp leading to the floor below I saw two officers ascending. There was a door at my left; and as we had to get out of sight immediately, I opened it and hurried Janai into the room beyond, which, fortunately, was vacant. It was evidently a storeroom, for there were sacks and boxes piled along the walls. At the far end of the room was a window, and in one of the side walls another door.
I waited until I heard the officers pass along the corridor; then I opened the door in the side wall to see what lay beyond. There was another room in one corner of which was a pile of sleeping silks and furs. Everything was covered with dust, indicating that the room had not been occupied for a considerable time. In a curtained alcove was a bath, and from hooks along the wall hung the trappings of a warrior, even to his weapons. The former occupant must have left, expecting to return; and my guess was that he had been an officer who had gone out on some expedition and been killed, for the trappings and weapons that had been left behind were such as a fighting man wears upon dress occasions.
“We have stumbled upon an excellent place for you to hide,” I said. “Keep the door to this room locked; there is a bolt on this side. I shall bring you food when I can, and just as soon as it is possible I’ll get you to a safer place.”
“Perhaps Vor Daj will come to see me,” she suggested. “Be sure to tell him where I am.”
“He would come if he could; but he is in the laboratory building, and cannot get out. Would you like to see him very much?” I couldn’t resist asking her that.
“Very much, indeed,” she said.
“He will be glad to know that, and until he can come I’ll do the best I can to help you.”
“Why are you so kind to me?” she asked. “You seem very different from the other hormads I have seen.”
“I am Vor Daj’s friend,” I said. “I will do anything I can for him and for you. You are no longer afraid of me?”
“No. I was at first, but not now.”
“You need never be afraid of me. There is nothing that I would not do for you, even to laying down my life for you.”
“I thank you, even though I do not understand,” she said.
“Some day you will understand, but not yet. Now I must be going. Be brave, and don’t give up hope.”
“Good-by,—Oh, I do not even know your name.”
“I am called Tor-dur-bar,” I said.
“Oh, now I remember you. Your head was cut off in the fight in which Vor Daj and Dotar Sojat were captured. I remember that then you promised to be Vor Daj’s friend. Now you have a new body.”
“I wish they might have given me a new face as well,” I said, simulating a smile with my hideous great mouth.
“It is enough that you have a good heart,” she said.
“It is enough for me that you think so, Janai; and now good-by.”
As I passed through the outer room I examined the sacks and boxes piled there, and was overjoyed to discover that they contained food. I hastened to acquaint Janai with this good news; then I left her and returned to the guard-room.
My fellow guardsmen were most uninteresting companions. Like most stupid people they talked principally about themselves and were great braggarts. Food was also a very important topic of conversation with them, and they would spend hours telling of the great quantities of animal tissue they had eaten upon various occasions. When there was no officer around they aired their grievances against the authority of the jeds; but this they did fearfully, as there was always the danger of spies or informers. Promotions to easier b
erths and larger allowances of animal tissue were the rewards for informing on one’s fellows.
I had been back but a short time when an officer entered the room and ordered us to strap on our weapons and accompany him. He marched us to a very large room in the quarters of the Third Jed, to whom we belonged; and there I found that all the armed retainers of the jed were gathered. There was much whispering and speculation. The officers appeared unusually serious, and the atmosphere seemed charged with nervous apprehension.
Presently the Third Jed entered the room accompanied by his four principal dwars. He had been bleeding from several wounds which had been bandaged. I knew where he had acquired them, and I wondered how the First Jed had fared. The Third Jed mounted a dais and addressed us.
“You will accompany me to the Council of the Seven Jeds,” he said. “It is your duty to see that no harm befalls me. Obey your officers. If you are loyal, you will receive an extra allowance of food and many privileges. I have spoken.”
We were marched to the council chamber which was jammed with the armed hormads of the personal bodyguards of the seven jeds. The air was tense with suppressed excitement. Even the stupidest hormads seemed infected by it. Six jeds sat upon the dais. The First Jed was swathed in bandages that were red with blood. The throne of the Third Jed was empty. Surrounding our jed, we shouldered our way to the foot of the dais; but he did not mount to the throne. Instead, he stood on the floor facing the six jeds; and his voice and his manner were truculent as he addressed them.
“You sent warriors to arrest me,” he said. “They are dead. There is no one in Morbus with the power or authority to arrest me. There are some among you who would like to be jeddak and rule the rest of us. The First Jed would like to be jeddak. The time has come for us to determine which one is fit to be jeddak, for I agree with others of you that seven men cannot rule as well as one. Divided authority is no authority.”
The Collected John Carter of Mars (Volume 3) Page 30