The Gods of Mars Read online

  CHAPTER X

  THE PRISON ISLE OF SHADOR

  In the outer gardens to which the guard now escorted me, I found Xodarsurrounded by a crowd of noble blacks. They were reviling and cursinghim. The men slapped his face. The women spat upon him.

  When I appeared they turned their attentions toward me.

  "Ah," cried one, "so this is the creature who overcame the great Xodarbare-handed. Let us see how it was done."

  "Let him bind Thurid," suggested a beautiful woman, laughing. "Thuridis a noble Dator. Let Thurid show the dog what it means to face a realman."

  "Yes, Thurid! Thurid!" cried a dozen voices.

  "Here he is now," exclaimed another, and turning in the directionindicated I saw a huge black weighed down with resplendent ornamentsand arms advancing with noble and gallant bearing toward us.

  "What now?" he cried. "What would you of Thurid?"

  Quickly a dozen voices explained.

  Thurid turned toward Xodar, his eyes narrowing to two nasty slits.

  "Calot!" he hissed. "Ever did I think you carried the heart of a sorakin your putrid breast. Often have you bested me in the secret councilsof Issus, but now in the field of war where men are truly gauged yourscabby heart hath revealed its sores to all the world. Calot, I spurnyou with my foot," and with the words he turned to kick Xodar.

  My blood was up. For minutes it had been boiling at the cowardlytreatment they had been according this once powerful comrade because hehad fallen from the favour of Issus. I had no love for Xodar, but Icannot stand the sight of cowardly injustice and persecution withoutseeing red as through a haze of bloody mist, and doing things on theimpulse of the moment that I presume I never should do after maturedeliberation.

  I was standing close beside Xodar as Thurid swung his foot for thecowardly kick. The degraded Dator stood erect and motionless as acarven image. He was prepared to take whatever his former comrades hadto offer in the way of insults and reproaches, and take them in manlysilence and stoicism.

  But as Thurid's foot swung so did mine, and I caught him a painful blowupon the shin bone that saved Xodar from this added ignominy.

  For a moment there was tense silence, then Thurid, with a roar of ragesprang for my throat; just as Xodar had upon the deck of the cruiser.The results were identical. I ducked beneath his outstretched arms,and as he lunged past me planted a terrific right on the side of hisjaw.

  The big fellow spun around like a top, his knees gave beneath him andhe crumpled to the ground at my feet.

  The blacks gazed in astonishment, first at the still form of the proudDator lying there in the ruby dust of the pathway, then at me as thoughthey could not believe that such a thing could be.

  "You asked me to bind Thurid," I cried; "behold!" And then I stoopedbeside the prostrate form, tore the harness from it, and bound thefellow's arms and legs securely.

  "As you have done to Xodar, now do you likewise to Thurid. Take himbefore Issus, bound in his own harness, that she may see with her owneyes that there be one among you now who is greater than the FirstBorn."

  "Who are you?" whispered the woman who had first suggested that Iattempt to bind Thurid.

  "I am a citizen of two worlds; Captain John Carter of Virginia, Princeof the House of Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium. Take this man to yourgoddess, as I have said, and tell her, too, that as I have done toXodar and Thurid, so also can I do to the mightiest of her Dators.With naked hands, with long-sword or with short-sword, I challenge theflower of her fighting-men to combat."

  "Come," said the officer who was guarding me back to Shador; "my ordersare imperative; there is to be no delay. Xodar, come you also."

  There was little of disrespect in the tone that the man used inaddressing either Xodar or myself. It was evident that he felt lesscontempt for the former Dator since he had witnessed the ease withwhich I disposed of the powerful Thurid.

  That his respect for me was greater than it should have been for aslave was quite apparent from the fact that during the balance of thereturn journey he walked or stood always behind me, a drawn short-swordin his hand.

  The return to the Sea of Omean was uneventful. We dropped down theawful shaft in the same car that had brought us to the surface. Therewe entered the submarine, taking the long dive to the tunnel farbeneath the upper world. Then through the tunnel and up again to thepool from which we had had our first introduction to the wonderfulpassageway from Omean to the Temple of Issus.

  From the island of the submarine we were transported on a small cruiserto the distant Isle of Shador. Here we found a small stone prison anda guard of half a dozen blacks. There was no ceremony wasted incompleting our incarceration. One of the blacks opened the door of theprison with a huge key, we walked in, the door closed behind us, thelock grated, and with the sound there swept over me again that terriblefeeling of hopelessness that I had felt in the Chamber of Mystery inthe Golden Cliffs beneath the gardens of the Holy Therns.

  Then Tars Tarkas had been with me, but now I was utterly alone in sofar as friendly companionship was concerned. I fell to wondering aboutthe fate of the great Thark, and of his beautiful companion, the girl,Thuvia. Even should they by some miracle have escaped and beenreceived and spared by a friendly nation, what hope had I of thesuccour which I knew they would gladly extend if it lay in their power.

  They could not guess my whereabouts or my fate, for none on all Barsoomeven dream of such a place as this. Nor would it have advantaged meany had they known the exact location of my prison, for who could hopeto penetrate to this buried sea in the face of the mighty navy of theFirst Born? No: my case was hopeless.

  Well, I would make the best of it, and, rising, I swept aside thebrooding despair that had been endeavouring to claim me. With the ideaof exploring my prison, I started to look around.

  Xodar sat, with bowed head, upon a low stone bench near the centre ofthe room in which we were. He had not spoken since Issus had degradedhim.

  The building was roofless, the walls rising to a height of about thirtyfeet. Half-way up were a couple of small, heavily barred windows. Theprison was divided into several rooms by partitions twenty feet high.There was no one in the room which we occupied, but two doors which ledto other rooms were opened. I entered one of these rooms, but found itvacant. Thus I continued through several of the chambers until in thelast one I found a young red Martian boy sleeping upon the stone benchwhich constituted the only furniture of any of the prison cells.

  Evidently he was the only other prisoner. As he slept I leaned overand looked at him. There was something strangely familiar about hisface, and yet I could not place him.

  His features were very regular and, like the proportions of hisgraceful limbs and body, beautiful in the extreme. He was very lightin colour for a red man, but in other respects he seemed a typicalspecimen of this handsome race.

  I did not awaken him, for sleep in prison is such a priceless boon thatI have seen men transformed into raging brutes when robbed by one oftheir fellow-prisoners of a few precious moments of it.

  Returning to my own cell, I found Xodar still sitting in the sameposition in which I had left him.

  "Man," I cried, "it will profit you nothing to mope thus. It were nodisgrace to be bested by John Carter. You have seen that in the easewith which I accounted for Thurid. You knew it before when on thecruiser's deck you saw me slay three of your comrades."

  "I would that you had dispatched me at the same time," he said.

  "Come, come!" I cried. "There is hope yet. Neither of us is dead. Weare great fighters. Why not win to freedom?"

  He looked at me in amazement.

  "You know not of what you speak," he replied. "Issus is omnipotent.Issus is omniscient. She hears now the words you speak. She knows thethoughts you think. It is sacrilege even to dream of breaking hercommands."

  "Rot, Xodar," I ejaculated impatiently.

  He sprang to his feet in horror.

  "The curse of Issu
s will fall upon you," he cried. "In another instantyou will be smitten down, writhing to your death in horrible agony."

  "Do you believe that, Xodar?" I asked.

  "Of course; who would dare doubt?"

  "I doubt; yes, and further, I deny," I said. "Why, Xodar, you tell methat she even knows my thoughts. The red men have all had that powerfor ages. And another wonderful power. They can shut their minds sothat none may read their thoughts. I learned the first secret yearsago; the other I never had to learn, since upon all Barsoom is none whocan read what passes in the secret chambers of my brain.

  "Your goddess cannot read my thoughts; nor can she read yours when youare out of sight, unless you will it. Had she been able to read mine,I am afraid that her pride would have suffered a rather severe shockwhen I turned at her command to 'gaze upon the holy vision of herradiant face.'"

  "What do you mean?" he whispered in an affrighted voice, so low that Icould scarcely hear him.

  "I mean that I thought her the most repulsive and vilely hideouscreature my eyes ever had rested upon."

  For a moment he eyed me in horror-stricken amazement, and then with acry of "Blasphemer" he sprang upon me.

  I did not wish to strike him again, nor was it necessary, since he wasunarmed and therefore quite harmless to me.

  As he came I grasped his left wrist with my left hand, and, swinging myright arm about his left shoulder, caught him beneath the chin with myelbow and bore him backward across my thigh.

  There he hung helpless for a moment, glaring up at me in impotent rage.

  "Xodar," I said, "let us be friends. For a year, possibly, we may beforced to live together in the narrow confines of this tiny room. I amsorry to have offended you, but I could not dream that one who hadsuffered from the cruel injustice of Issus still could believe herdivine.

  "I will say a few more words, Xodar, with no intent to wound yourfeelings further, but rather that you may give thought to the fact thatwhile we live we are still more the arbiters of our own fate than isany god.

  "Issus, you see, has not struck me dead, nor is she rescuing herfaithful Xodar from the clutches of the unbeliever who defamed her fairbeauty. No, Xodar, your Issus is a mortal old woman. Once out of herclutches and she cannot harm you.

  "With your knowledge of this strange land, and my knowledge of theouter world, two such fighting-men as you and I should be able to winour way to freedom. Even though we died in the attempt, would not ourmemories be fairer than as though we remained in servile fear to bebutchered by a cruel and unjust tyrant--call her goddess or mortal, asyou will."

  As I finished I raised Xodar to his feet and released him. He did notrenew the attack upon me, nor did he speak. Instead, he walked towardthe bench, and, sinking down upon it, remained lost in deep thought forhours.

  A long time afterward I heard a soft sound at the doorway leading toone of the other apartments, and, looking up, beheld the red Martianyouth gazing intently at us.

  "Kaor," I cried, after the red Martian manner of greeting.

  "Kaor," he replied. "What do you here?"

  "I await my death, I presume," I replied with a wry smile.

  He too smiled, a brave and winning smile.

  "I also," he said. "Mine will come soon. I looked upon the radiantbeauty of Issus nearly a year since. It has always been a source ofkeen wonder to me that I did not drop dead at the first sight of thathideous countenance. And her belly! By my first ancestor, but neverwas there so grotesque a figure in all the universe. That they shouldcall such a one Goddess of Life Eternal, Goddess of Death, Mother ofthe Nearer Moon, and fifty other equally impossible titles, is quitebeyond me."

  "How came you here?" I asked.

  "It is very simple. I was flying a one-man air scout far to the southwhen the brilliant idea occurred to me that I should like to search forthe Lost Sea of Korus which tradition places near to the south pole. Imust have inherited from my father a wild lust for adventure, as wellas a hollow where my bump of reverence should be.

  "I had reached the area of eternal ice when my port propeller jammed,and I dropped to the ground to make repairs. Before I knew it the airwas black with fliers, and a hundred of these First Born devils wereleaping to the ground all about me.

  "With drawn swords they made for me, but before I went down beneaththem they had tasted of the steel of my father's sword, and I had givensuch an account of myself as I know would have pleased my sire had helived to witness it."

  "Your father is dead?" I asked.

  "He died before the shell broke to let me step out into a world thathas been very good to me. But for the sorrow that I had never thehonour to know my father, I have been very happy. My only sorrow nowis that my mother must mourn me as she has for ten long years mournedmy father."

  "Who was your father?" I asked.

  He was about to reply when the outer door of our prison opened and aburly guard entered and ordered him to his own quarters for the night,locking the door after him as he passed through into the furtherchamber.

  "It is Issus' wish that you two be confined in the same room," said theguard when he had returned to our cell. "This cowardly slave of aslave is to serve you well," he said to me, indicating Xodar with awave of his hand. "If he does not, you are to beat him intosubmission. It is Issus' wish that you heap upon him every indignityand degradation of which you can conceive."

  With these words he left us.

  Xodar still sat with his face buried in his hands. I walked to hisside and placed my hand upon his shoulder.

  "Xodar," I said, "you have heard the commands of Issus, but you neednot fear that I shall attempt to put them into execution. You are abrave man, Xodar. It is your own affair if you wish to be persecutedand humiliated; but were I you I should assert my manhood and defy myenemies."

  "I have been thinking very hard, John Carter," he said, "of all the newideas you gave me a few hours since. Little by little I have beenpiecing together the things that you said which sounded blasphemous tome then with the things that I have seen in my past life and dared noteven think about for fear of bringing down upon me the wrath of Issus.

  "I believe now that she is a fraud; no more divine than you or I. MoreI am willing to concede--that the First Born are no holier than theHoly Therns, nor the Holy Therns more holy than the red men.

  "The whole fabric of our religion is based on superstitious belief inlies that have been foisted upon us for ages by those directly aboveus, to whose personal profit and aggrandizement it was to have uscontinue to believe as they wished us to believe.

  "I am ready to cast off the ties that have bound me. I am ready todefy Issus herself; but what will it avail us? Be the First Born godsor mortals, they are a powerful race, and we are as fast in theirclutches as though we were already dead. There is no escape."

  "I have escaped from bad plights in the past, my friend," I replied;"nor while life is in me shall I despair of escaping from the Isle ofShador and the Sea of Omean."

  "But we cannot escape even from the four walls of our prison," urgedXodar. "Test this flint-like surface," he cried, smiting the solidrock that confined us. "And look upon this polished surface; nonecould cling to it to reach the top."

  I smiled.

  "That is the least of our troubles, Xodar," I replied. "I willguarantee to scale the wall and take you with me, if you will help withyour knowledge of the customs here to appoint the best time for theattempt, and guide me to the shaft that lets from the dome of thisabysmal sea to the light of God's pure air above."

  "Night time is the best and offers the only slender chance we have, forthen men sleep, and only a dozing watch nods in the tops of thebattleships. No watch is kept upon the cruisers and smaller craft.The watchers upon the larger vessels see to all about them. It isnight now."

  "But," I exclaimed, "it is not dark! How can it be night, then?"

  He smiled.

  "You forget," he said, "that we are far below ground. The light of the
sun never penetrates here. There are no moons and no stars reflectedin the bosom of Omean. The phosphorescent light you now see pervadingthis great subterranean vault emanates from the rocks that form itsdome; it is always thus upon Omean, just as the billows are always asyou see them--rolling, ever rolling over a windless sea.

  "At the appointed hour of night upon the world above, the men whoseduties hold them here sleep, but the light is ever the same."

  "It will make escape more difficult," I said, and then I shrugged myshoulders; for what, pray, is the pleasure of doing an easy thing?

  "Let us sleep on it to-night," said Xodar. "A plan may come with ourawakening."

  So we threw ourselves upon the hard stone floor of our prison and sleptthe sleep of tired men.