The Gods of Mars Read online

  CHAPTER V

  CORRIDORS OF PERIL

  How long I slept upon the floor of the storeroom I do not know, but itmust have been many hours.

  I was awakened with a start by cries of alarm, and scarce were my eyesopened, nor had I yet sufficiently collected my wits to quite realizewhere I was, when a fusillade of shots rang out, reverberating throughthe subterranean corridors in a series of deafening echoes.

  In an instant I was upon my feet. A dozen lesser therns confronted usfrom a large doorway at the opposite end of the storeroom from which wehad entered. About me lay the bodies of my companions, with theexception of Thuvia and Tars Tarkas, who, like myself, had been asleepupon the floor and thus escaped the first raking fire.

  As I gained my feet the therns lowered their wicked rifles, their facesdistorted in mingled chagrin, consternation, and alarm.

  Instantly I rose to the occasion.

  "What means this?" I cried in tones of fierce anger. "Is Sator Throgto be murdered by his own vassals?"

  "Have mercy, O Master of the Tenth Cycle!" cried one of the fellows,while the others edged toward the doorway as though to attempt asurreptitious escape from the presence of the mighty one.

  "Ask them their mission here," whispered Thuvia at my elbow.

  "What do you here, fellows?" I cried.

  "Two from the outer world are at large within the dominions of thetherns. We sought them at the command of the Father of Therns. Onewas white with black hair, the other a huge green warrior," and herethe fellow cast a suspicious glance toward Tars Tarkas.

  "Here, then, is one of them," spoke Thuvia, indicating the Thark, "andif you will look upon this dead man by the door perhaps you willrecognize the other. It was left for Sator Throg and his poor slavesto accomplish what the lesser therns of the guard were unable to do--wehave killed one and captured the other; for this had Sator Throg givenus our liberty. And now in your stupidity have you come and killed allbut myself, and like to have killed the mighty Sator Throg himself."

  The men looked very sheepish and very scared.

  "Had they not better throw these bodies to the plant men and thenreturn to their quarters, O Mighty One?" asked Thuvia of me.

  "Yes; do as Thuvia bids you," I said.

  As the men picked up the bodies I noticed that the one who stooped togather up the late Sator Throg started as his closer scrutiny fell uponthe upturned face, and then the fellow stole a furtive, sneaking glancein my direction from the corner of his eye.

  That he suspicioned something of the truth I could have sworn; but thatit was only a suspicion which he did not dare voice was evidenced byhis silence.

  Again, as he bore the body from the room, he shot a quick but searchingglance toward me, and then his eyes fell once more upon the bald andshiny dome of the dead man in his arms. The last fleeting glimpse thatI obtained of his profile as he passed from my sight without thechamber revealed a cunning smile of triumph upon his lips.

  Only Tars Tarkas, Thuvia, and I were left. The fatal marksmanship ofthe therns had snatched from our companions whatever slender chancethey had of gaining the perilous freedom of the world without.

  So soon as the last of the gruesome procession had disappeared the girlurged us to take up our flight once more.

  She, too, had noted the questioning attitude of the thern who had borneSator Throg away.

  "It bodes no good for us, O Prince," she said. "For even though thisfellow dared not chance accusing you in error, there be those abovewith power sufficient to demand a closer scrutiny, and that, Prince,would indeed prove fatal."

  I shrugged my shoulders. It seemed that in any event the outcome ofour plight must end in death. I was refreshed from my sleep, but stillweak from loss of blood. My wounds were painful. No medicinal aidseemed possible. How I longed for the almost miraculous healing powerof the strange salves and lotions of the green Martian women. In anhour they would have had me as new.

  I was discouraged. Never had a feeling of such utter hopelessness comeover me in the face of danger. Then the long flowing, yellow locks ofthe Holy Thern, caught by some vagrant draught, blew about my face.

  Might they not still open the way of freedom? If we acted in time,might we not even yet escape before the general alarm was sounded? Wecould at least try.

  "What will the fellow do first, Thuvia?" I asked. "How long will it bebefore they may return for us?"

  "He will go directly to the Father of Therns, old Matai Shang. He mayhave to wait for an audience, but since he is very high among thelesser therns, in fact as a thorian among them, it will not be longthat Matai Shang will keep him waiting.

  "Then if the Father of Therns puts credence in his story, another hourwill see the galleries and chambers, the courts and gardens, filledwith searchers."

  "What we do then must be done within an hour. What is the best way,Thuvia, the shortest way out of this celestial Hades?"

  "Straight to the top of the cliffs, Prince," she replied, "and thenthrough the gardens to the inner courts. From there our way will liewithin the temples of the therns and across them to the outer court.Then the ramparts--O Prince, it is hopeless. Ten thousand warriorscould not hew a way to liberty from out this awful place.

  "Since the beginning of time, little by little, stone by stone, havethe therns been ever adding to the defences of their stronghold. Acontinuous line of impregnable fortifications circles the outer slopesof the Mountains of Otz.

  "Within the temples that lie behind the ramparts a million fighting-menare ever ready. The courts and gardens are filled with slaves, withwomen and with children.

  "None could go a stone's throw without detection."

  "If there is no other way, Thuvia, why dwell upon the difficulties ofthis. We must face them."

  "Can we not better make the attempt after dark?" asked Tars Tarkas."There would seem to be no chance by day."

  "There would be a little better chance by night, but even then theramparts are well guarded; possibly better than by day. There arefewer abroad in the courts and gardens, though," said Thuvia.

  "What is the hour?" I asked.

  "It was midnight when you released me from my chains," said Thuvia."Two hours later we reached the storeroom. There you slept forfourteen hours. It must now be nearly sundown again. Come, we will goto some nearby window in the cliff and make sure."

  So saying, she led the way through winding corridors until at a suddenturn we came upon an opening which overlooked the Valley Dor.

  At our right the sun was setting, a huge red orb, below the westernrange of Otz. A little below us stood the Holy Thern on watch upon hisbalcony. His scarlet robe of office was pulled tightly about him inanticipation of the cold that comes so suddenly with darkness as thesun sets. So rare is the atmosphere of Mars that it absorbs verylittle heat from the sun. During the daylight hours it is alwaysextremely hot; at night it is intensely cold. Nor does the thinatmosphere refract the sun's rays or diffuse its light as upon Earth.There is no twilight on Mars. When the great orb of day disappearsbeneath the horizon the effect is precisely as that of theextinguishing of a single lamp within a chamber. From brilliant lightyou are plunged without warning into utter darkness. Then the moonscome; the mysterious, magic moons of Mars, hurtling like monstermeteors low across the face of the planet.

  The declining sun lighted brilliantly the eastern banks of Korus, thecrimson sward, the gorgeous forest. Beneath the trees we saw feedingmany herds of plant men. The adults stood aloft upon their toes andtheir mighty tails, their talons pruning every available leaf and twig.It was then that I understood the careful trimming of the trees whichhad led me to form the mistaken idea when first I opened my eyes uponthe grove that it was the playground of a civilized people.

  As we watched, our eyes wandered to the rolling Iss, which issued fromthe base of the cliffs beneath us. Presently there emerged from themountain a canoe laden with lost souls from the outer world. Therewere a dozen of them. All were of t
he highly civilized and culturedrace of red men who are dominant on Mars.

  The eyes of the herald upon the balcony beneath us fell upon the doomedparty as soon as did ours. He raised his head and leaning far out overthe low rail that rimmed his dizzy perch, voiced the shrill, weird wailthat called the demons of this hellish place to the attack.

  For an instant the brutes stood with stiffly erected ears, then theypoured from the grove toward the river's bank, covering the distancewith great, ungainly leaps.

  The party had landed and was standing on the sward as the awful hordecame in sight. There was a brief and futile effort of defence. Thensilence as the huge, repulsive shapes covered the bodies of theirvictims and scores of sucking mouths fastened themselves to the fleshof their prey.

  I turned away in disgust.

  "Their part is soon over," said Thuvia. "The great white apes get theflesh when the plant men have drained the arteries. Look, they arecoming now."

  As I turned my eyes in the direction the girl indicated, I saw a dozenof the great white monsters running across the valley toward the riverbank. Then the sun went down and darkness that could almost be feltengulfed us.

  Thuvia lost no time in leading us toward the corridor which winds backand forth up through the cliffs toward the surface thousands of feetabove the level on which we had been.

  Twice great banths, wandering loose through the galleries, blocked ourprogress, but in each instance Thuvia spoke a low word of command andthe snarling beasts slunk sullenly away.

  "If you can dissolve all our obstacles as easily as you master thesefierce brutes I can see no difficulties in our way," I said to thegirl, smiling. "How do you do it?"

  She laughed, and then shuddered.

  "I do not quite know," she said. "When first I came here I angeredSator Throg, because I repulsed him. He ordered me to be thrown intoone of the great pits in the inner gardens. It was filled with banths.In my own country I had been accustomed to command. Something in myvoice, I do not know what, cowed the beasts as they sprang to attack me.

  "Instead of tearing me to pieces, as Sator Throg had desired, theyfawned at my feet. So greatly were Sator Throg and his friends amusedby the sight that they kept me to train and handle the terriblecreatures. I know them all by name. There are many of them wanderingthrough these lower regions. They are the scavengers. Many prisonersdie here in their chains. The banths solve the problem of sanitation,at least in this respect.

  "In the gardens and temples above they are kept in pits. The thernsfear them. It is because of the banths that they seldom venture belowground except as their duties call them."

  An idea occurred to me, suggested by what Thuvia had just said.

  "Why not take a number of banths and set them loose before us aboveground?" I asked.

  Thuvia laughed.

  "It would distract attention from us, I am sure," she said.

  She commenced calling in a low singsong voice that was half purr. Shecontinued this as we wound our tedious way through the maze ofsubterranean passages and chambers.

  Presently soft, padded feet sounded close behind us, and as I turned Isaw a pair of great, green eyes shining in the dark shadows at ourrear. From a diverging tunnel a sinuous, tawny form crept stealthilytoward us.

  Low growls and angry snarls assailed our ears on every side as wehastened on and one by one the ferocious creatures answered the call oftheir mistress.

  She spoke a word to each as it joined us. Like well-schooled terriers,they paced the corridors with us, but I could not help but note thelathering jowls, nor the hungry expressions with which they eyed TarsTarkas and myself.

  Soon we were entirely surrounded by some fifty of the brutes. Twowalked close on either side of Thuvia, as guards might walk. The sleeksides of others now and then touched my own naked limbs. It was astrange experience; the almost noiseless passage of naked human feetand padded paws; the golden walls splashed with precious stones; thedim light cast by the tiny radium bulbs set at considerable distancesalong the roof; the huge, maned beasts of prey crowding with low growlsabout us; the mighty green warrior towering high above us all; myselfcrowned with the priceless diadem of a Holy Thern; and leading theprocession the beautiful girl, Thuvia.

  I shall not soon forget it.

  Presently we approached a great chamber more brightly lighted than thecorridors. Thuvia halted us. Quietly she stole toward the entranceand glanced within. Then she motioned us to follow her.

  The room was filled with specimens of the strange beings that inhabitthis underworld; a heterogeneous collection of hybrids--the offspringof the prisoners from the outside world; red and green Martians and thewhite race of therns.

  Constant confinement below ground had wrought odd freaks upon theirskins. They more resemble corpses than living beings. Many aredeformed, others maimed, while the majority, Thuvia explained, aresightless.

  As they lay sprawled about the floor, sometimes overlapping oneanother, again in heaps of several bodies, they suggested instantly tome the grotesque illustrations that I had seen in copies of Dante'sINFERNO, and what more fitting comparison? Was this not indeed averitable hell, peopled by lost souls, dead and damned beyond all hope?

  Picking our way carefully we threaded a winding path across thechamber, the great banths sniffing hungrily at the tempting prey spreadbefore them in such tantalizing and defenceless profusion.

  Several times we passed the entrances to other chambers similarlypeopled, and twice again we were compelled to cross directly throughthem. In others were chained prisoners and beasts.

  "Why is it that we see no therns?" I asked of Thuvia.

  "They seldom traverse the underworld at night, for then it is that thegreat banths prowl the dim corridors seeking their prey. The thernsfear the awful denizens of this cruel and hopeless world that they havefostered and allowed to grow beneath their feet. The prisoners evensometimes turn upon them and rend them. The thern can never tell fromwhat dark shadow an assassin may spring upon his back.

  "By day it is different. Then the corridors and chambers are filledwith guards passing to and fro; slaves from the temples above come byhundreds to the granaries and storerooms. All is life then. You didnot see it because I led you not in the beaten tracks, but throughroundabout passages seldom used. Yet it is possible that we may meet athern even yet. They do occasionally find it necessary to come hereafter the sun has set. Because of this I have moved with such greatcaution."

  But we reached the upper galleries without detection and presentlyThuvia halted us at the foot of a short, steep ascent.

  "Above us," she said, "is a doorway which opens on to the innergardens. I have brought you thus far. From here on for four miles tothe outer ramparts our way will be beset by countless dangers. Guardspatrol the courts, the temples, the gardens. Every inch of theramparts themselves is beneath the eye of a sentry."

  I could not understand the necessity for such an enormous force ofarmed men about a spot so surrounded by mystery and superstition thatnot a soul upon Barsoom would have dared to approach it even had theyknown its exact location. I questioned Thuvia, asking her what enemiesthe therns could fear in their impregnable fortress.

  We had reached the doorway now and Thuvia was opening it.

  "They fear the black pirates of Barsoom, O Prince," she said, "fromwhom may our first ancestors preserve us."

  The door swung open; the smell of growing things greeted my nostrils;the cool night air blew against my cheek. The great banths sniffed theunfamiliar odours, and then with a rush they broke past us with lowgrowls, swarming across the gardens beneath the lurid light of thenearer moon.

  Suddenly a great cry arose from the roofs of the temples; a cry ofalarm and warning that, taken up from point to point, ran off to theeast and to the west, from temple, court, and rampart, until it soundedas a dim echo in the distance.

  The great Thark's long-sword leaped from its scabbard; Thuvia shrankshuddering to my side.