CHAPTER XXV
THE LOOTING OF ZODANGA
As the great gate where I stood swung open my fifty Tharks, headed byTars Tarkas himself, rode in upon their mighty thoats. I led them tothe palace walls, which I negotiated easily without assistance. Onceinside, however, the gate gave me considerable trouble, but I finallywas rewarded by seeing it swing upon its huge hinges, and soon myfierce escort was riding across the gardens of the jeddak of Zodanga.
As we approached the palace I could see through the great windows ofthe first floor into the brilliantly illuminated audience chamber ofThan Kosis. The immense hall was crowded with nobles and their women,as though some important function was in progress. There was not aguard in sight without the palace, due, I presume, to the fact that thecity and palace walls were considered impregnable, and so I came closeand peered within.
At one end of the chamber, upon massive golden thrones encrusted withdiamonds, sat Than Kosis and his consort, surrounded by officers anddignitaries of state. Before them stretched a broad aisle lined oneither side with soldiery, and as I looked there entered this aisle atthe far end of the hall, the head of a procession which advanced to thefoot of the throne.
First there marched four officers of the jeddak's Guard bearing a hugesalver on which reposed, upon a cushion of scarlet silk, a great goldenchain with a collar and padlock at each end. Directly behind theseofficers came four others carrying a similar salver which supported themagnificent ornaments of a prince and princess of the reigning house ofZodanga.
At the foot of the throne these two parties separated and halted,facing each other at opposite sides of the aisle. Then came moredignitaries, and the officers of the palace and of the army, andfinally two figures entirely muffled in scarlet silk, so that not afeature of either was discernible. These two stopped at the foot ofthe throne, facing Than Kosis. When the balance of the procession hadentered and assumed their stations Than Kosis addressed the couplestanding before him. I could not hear his words, but presently twoofficers advanced and removed the scarlet robe from one of the figures,and I saw that Kantos Kan had failed in his mission, for it was SabThan, Prince of Zodanga, who stood revealed before me.
Than Kosis now took a set of the ornaments from one of the salvers andplaced one of the collars of gold about his son's neck, springing thepadlock fast. After a few more words addressed to Sab Than he turnedto the other figure, from which the officers now removed theenshrouding silks, disclosing to my now comprehending view DejahThoris, Princess of Helium.
The object of the ceremony was clear to me; in another moment DejahThoris would be joined forever to the Prince of Zodanga. It was animpressive and beautiful ceremony, I presume, but to me it seemed themost fiendish sight I had ever witnessed, and as the ornaments wereadjusted upon her beautiful figure and her collar of gold swung open inthe hands of Than Kosis I raised my long-sword above my head, and, withthe heavy hilt, I shattered the glass of the great window and spranginto the midst of the astonished assemblage. With a bound I was on thesteps of the platform beside Than Kosis, and as he stood riveted withsurprise I brought my long-sword down upon the golden chain that wouldhave bound Dejah Thoris to another.
In an instant all was confusion; a thousand drawn swords menaced mefrom every quarter, and Sab Than sprang upon me with a jeweled daggerhe had drawn from his nuptial ornaments. I could have killed him aseasily as I might a fly, but the age-old custom of Barsoom stayed myhand, and grasping his wrist as the dagger flew toward my heart I heldhim as though in a vise and with my long-sword pointed to the far endof the hall.
"Zodanga has fallen," I cried. "Look!"
All eyes turned in the direction I had indicated, and there, forgingthrough the portals of the entranceway rode Tars Tarkas and his fiftywarriors on their great thoats.
A cry of alarm and amazement broke from the assemblage, but no word offear, and in a moment the soldiers and nobles of Zodanga were hurlingthemselves upon the advancing Tharks.
Thrusting Sab Than headlong from the platform, I drew Dejah Thoris tomy side. Behind the throne was a narrow doorway and in this Than Kosisnow stood facing me, with drawn long-sword. In an instant we wereengaged, and I found no mean antagonist.
As we circled upon the broad platform I saw Sab Than rushing up thesteps to aid his father, but, as he raised his hand to strike, DejahThoris sprang before him and then my sword found the spot that made SabThan jeddak of Zodanga. As his father rolled dead upon the floor thenew jeddak tore himself free from Dejah Thoris' grasp, and again wefaced each other. He was soon joined by a quartet of officers, and,with my back against a golden throne, I fought once again for DejahThoris. I was hard pressed to defend myself and yet not strike downSab Than and, with him, my last chance to win the woman I loved. Myblade was swinging with the rapidity of lightning as I sought to parrythe thrusts and cuts of my opponents. Two I had disarmed, and one wasdown, when several more rushed to the aid of their new ruler, and toavenge the death of the old.
As they advanced there were cries of "The woman! The woman! Strikeher down; it is her plot. Kill her! Kill her!"
Calling to Dejah Thoris to get behind me I worked my way toward thelittle doorway back of the throne, but the officers realized myintentions, and three of them sprang in behind me and blocked mychances for gaining a position where I could have defended Dejah Thorisagainst an army of swordsmen.
The Tharks were having their hands full in the center of the room, andI began to realize that nothing short of a miracle could save DejahThoris and myself, when I saw Tars Tarkas surging through the crowd ofpygmies that swarmed about him. With one swing of his mighty longswordhe laid a dozen corpses at his feet, and so he hewed a pathway beforehim until in another moment he stood upon the platform beside me,dealing death and destruction right and left.
The bravery of the Zodangans was awe-inspiring, not one attempted toescape, and when the fighting ceased it was because only Tharksremained alive in the great hall, other than Dejah Thoris and myself.
Sab Than lay dead beside his father, and the corpses of the flower ofZodangan nobility and chivalry covered the floor of the bloody shambles.
My first thought when the battle was over was for Kantos Kan, andleaving Dejah Thoris in charge of Tars Tarkas I took a dozen warriorsand hastened to the dungeons beneath the palace. The jailers had allleft to join the fighters in the throne room, so we searched thelabyrinthine prison without opposition.
I called Kantos Kan's name aloud in each new corridor and compartment,and finally I was rewarded by hearing a faint response. Guided by thesound, we soon found him helpless in a dark recess.
He was overjoyed at seeing me, and to know the meaning of the fight,faint echoes of which had reached his prison cell. He told me that theair patrol had captured him before he reached the high tower of thepalace, so that he had not even seen Sab Than.
We discovered that it would be futile to attempt to cut away the barsand chains which held him prisoner, so, at his suggestion I returned tosearch the bodies on the floor above for keys to open the padlocks ofhis cell and of his chains.
Fortunately among the first I examined I found his jailer, and soon wehad Kantos Kan with us in the throne room.
The sounds of heavy firing, mingled with shouts and cries, came to usfrom the city's streets, and Tars Tarkas hastened away to direct thefighting without. Kantos Kan accompanied him to act as guide, thegreen warriors commencing a thorough search of the palace for otherZodangans and for loot, and Dejah Thoris and I were left alone.
She had sunk into one of the golden thrones, and as I turned to her shegreeted me with a wan smile.
"Was there ever such a man!" she exclaimed. "I know that Barsoom hasnever before seen your like. Can it be that all Earth men are as you?Alone, a stranger, hunted, threatened, persecuted, you have done in afew short months what in all the past ages of Barsoom no man has everdone: joined together the wild hordes of the sea bottoms and broughtthem to fight as allies of a red Martian people."
"The answer is easy, Dejah Thoris," I replied smiling. "It was not Iwho did it, it was love, love for Dejah Thoris, a power that would workgreater miracles than this you have seen."
A pretty flush overspread her face and she answered,
"You may say that now, John Carter, and I may listen, for I am free."
"And more still I have to say, ere it is again too late," I returned."I have done many strange things in my life, many things that wiser menwould not have dared, but never in my wildest fancies have I dreamed ofwinning a Dejah Thoris for myself--for never had I dreamed that in allthe universe dwelt such a woman as the Princess of Helium. That youare a princess does not abash me, but that you are you is enough tomake me doubt my sanity as I ask you, my princess, to be mine."
"He does not need to be abashed who so well knew the answer to his pleabefore the plea were made," she replied, rising and placing her dearhands upon my shoulders, and so I took her in my arms and kissed her.
And thus in the midst of a city of wild conflict, filled with thealarms of war; with death and destruction reaping their terribleharvest around her, did Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, true daughterof Mars, the God of War, promise herself in marriage to John Carter,Gentleman of Virginia.
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