Llana of Gathol bs-10 Read online

  A short distance from us was a little river; and, beyond it, a forest came down to its edge. We crossed to the river on the scarlet sward, close-cropped by grazing herds and starred by many flowers of unearthly beauty.

  A short distance down the river a herd of thoats was grazing. They were the beef variety, which is exceptionally good eating; and Pan Dan Chee suggested that we cross the river so that he could take advantage of the concealment of the forest to approach close enough to make a kill.

  The river was simply alive with fish, and as we waded across I speared several with my long-sword.

  "At least we shall have fish for dinner," I said, "and if Pan Dan Chee is lucky, we shall have a steak."

  "And in the forest I see fruits and nuts," said Llana. "What a banquet we shall have!"

  "Wish me luck," said Pan Dan Chee, as he entered the forest to work his way down toward the thoats.

  Llana and I were watching, but we did not see the young Orovaran again until he leaped from the forest and hurled something at the nearest thoat, a young bull.

  The beast screamed, ran a few feet, staggered and fell, while the rest of the herd galloped off.

  "How did he do that?" asked Llana.

  "I don't know," I said, "he did it so quickly that I couldn't see what it was he threw. It was certainly not a spear because he hasn't one, and if it had been his sword we could have seen it."

  "It looked like a little stick," said Llana.

  We saw Pan Dan Chee cutting steaks from his kill; and presently he was back with us, carrying enough meat for a dozen men.

  "How did you kill that thoat?" demanded Llana.

  "With my dagger," replied Pan Dan Chee.

  "It was marvellous," I said, "but where did you learn it?"

  "Dagger throwing is a form of sport in Horz. We are all good at it, but I happen to have won the Jeddak's trophy for the last three years; so I was pretty sure of my ground when I offered to get you a thoat, although I had never before used it to kill game. Very, very rarely is there a duel in Horz; and when there is, the contestants usually choose daggers, unless one of them is far more proficient than the other."

  While Pan Dan Chee and I were making fire and cooking the fish and steaks, Llana gathered fruits and nuts; so that we had a delicious meal, and when night came we lay down on the soft sward and slept.

  Chapter 4

  We slept late, for we had been very tired the night before. I speared some fresh fish, and we had fish and steaks and fruit and nuts again for breakfast. Then we started toward the trail that led out of the valley.

  "It is going to be an awful climb," said Pan Dan Chee.

  "Oh, I wish we didn't have to make it," said Llana; "I hate to leave this beautiful spot."

  My attention was suddenly attracted toward the lower end of the valley.

  "Maybe you won't have to leave it, Llana," I said. "Look!"

  Both she and Pan Dan Chee turned and looked in the direction I had indicated, to see two hundred warriors mounted on thoats. The men were ebony black, and I wondered if they could be the notorious Black Pirates of Barsoom that I had first met and fought many years ago at the South Pole-the people who called themselves the First Born.

  They galloped up and surrounded us; their spears couched, ready for any emergency.

  "Who are you?" demanded their leader. "What are you doing in the Valley of the First Born?"

  "We came down the trail to avoid a horde of green men," I replied. "We were just leaving. We came in peace; we do not want war, but we are still three swords ready to give a good account of ourselves."

  "You will have to come to Kamtol with us," said the leader.

  "The city?" I asked. He nodded.

  I whipped my sword from its scabbard.

  "Stop!" he said. "We are two hundred; you are three. If you come to the city there would be at least a chance that you won't be killed; if you stay here and fight you will be killed."

  I shrugged. "It is immaterial to me," I said. "Llana of Gathol wishes to see the city, and I would just as leave fight. Pan Dan Chee, what do you and Llana say?"

  "I would like to see the city," said Llana, "but I will fight if you fight. Perhaps," she added, "they will not be unkind to us."

  "You will have to give up your arms," said the leader.

  I didn't like that and I hesitated.

  "It is that or death," said the leader. "Come! I can't stand here all day."

  Well, resistance was futile; and it seemed foolish to sacrifice our lives if there were the remotest hope that we might be well received in Kamtol, and so we were taken on the backs of three thoats behind their riders and started for the beautiful white city.

  The ride to the city was uneventful, but it gave me an excellent opportunity to examine our captors more closely. They were unquestionably of the same race as Xodar, Dator of the First Born of Barsoom, to give him his full title, who had been first my enemy and then my friend during my strange adventures among the Holy Therns. They are an exceptionally handsome race, clean-limbed and powerful, with intelligent faces and features of such exquisite chiseling that Adonis himself might have envied them. I am a Virginian; and it may seem strange for me to say so, but their black skins, resembling polished ebony, add greatly to their beauty. The harness and metal of our captors was identical with that worn by the Black Pirates whose acquaintance I had made upon the Golden Cliffs above the Valley Dor.

  My admiration of these people did not blind me to the fact that they are a cruel and ruthless race and that our life expectancy was reduced to a minimum by our capture.

  Kamtol did not belie its promise. It was as beautiful on closer inspection as it had been at a distance. Its pure white outer wall is elaborately carved, as are the facades on many of its buildings. Graceful towers rise above its broad avenues, which, when we entered the city, were filled with people. Among the blacks, we saw a number of red men performing menial tasks. It was evident that they were slaves, and their presence suggested the fate which might await us.

  I cannot say that I looked forward with any great amount of enthusiasm to the possibility that John Carter, Prince of Helium, Warlord of Mars, might become a street cleaner or a garbage collector. One thing that I noticed particularly in Kamtol was that the residences could not be raised on cylindrical columns, as is the case in most modern Martian cities, where assassination has been developed to a fine art and where assassins' guilds flourish openly, and their members swagger through the streets like gangsters once did in Chicago.

  Heavily guarded, we were taken to a large building and there we were separated.

  I was taken to an apartment and seated in a chair with my back toward a strange-looking machine, the face of which was covered with innumerable dials. A number of heavily insulated cables ran from various parts of the apparatus; metal bands at the ends of these cables were clamped about my wrists, my ankles, and my neck, the latter clamp pressing against the base of my skull; then something like a strait-jacket was buckled tightly around me, and I had a sensation as of countless needles touching my spine for almost its full length. I thought that I was to be electrocuted, but it seemed to me that they took a great deal of unnecessary pains to destroy me. A simple sword thrust would have done it much more quickly.

  An officer, who was evidently in charge of the proceedings, came and stood in front of me. "You are about to be examined," he said, "you will answer all questions truthfully;" then he signalled to an attendant who threw a switch on the apparatus.

  So I was not to be electrocuted, but examined. For what, I could not imagine. I felt a very gentle tingling throughout my entire body, and then they commenced to hurl questions at me.

  There were six men. Sometimes they questioned me singly and sometimes all at once. At such times, of course, I could not answer very intelligently because I could not hear the questions fully. Sometimes they spoke soothingly to me, and again they shouted at me angrily; often they heaped insults upon me. They let me rest for a few moments, and t
hen a slave entered the apartment with a tray of very tempting food which he offered to me. As I was about to take it, it was snatched away; and my tormentors laughed at me. They jabbed me with sharp instruments until the blood flowed, and then they rubbed the wounds with a burning caustic, after which they applied a salve that instantly relieved the pain. Again I rested and again food was offered me. When I made no move to attempt to take it, they insisted; and, much to my surprise, let me eat it.

  By this time I had come to the conclusion that we had been captured by a race of sadistic maniacs, and what happened next assured me that I was right, My torturers all left the apartment. I sat there for several minutes wondering at the whole procedure and why they couldn't have tortured me without attaching me to that amazing contraption. I was facing a door in the opposite wall, and suddenly the door flew open and a huge banth leaped into the room with a horrid roar.

  This, I thought, is the end, as the great carnivore came racing at me. As suddenly as he had entered the room, he came to a stop a few feet from me, and so instantly that he was thrown to the floor at my feet. It was then that I saw that he was secured by a chain just a little too short to permit him to reach me. I had had all the sensations of impending death-a most refined form of torture. However, if that had been their purpose they had failed, for I do not fear death.

  The banth was dragged out of the apartment by his chain and the door closed; then the examining board re-entered smiling at me in the most kindly way.

  "That is all," said the officer in charge; "the examination is over."

  Chapter 5

  After the paraphernalia had been removed from me, I was turned over to my guard and taken to the pits, such as are to be found in every Martian city, ancient or modern. These labyrinthine corridors and chambers are used for storage purposes and for the incarceration of prisoners, their only other tenants being the repulsive ulsio.

  I was chained to the wall in a large cell in which there was another prisoner, a red Martian; and it was not long until Llana of Gathol and Pan Dan Chee were brought in and chained near me.

  "I see you survived the examination," I said.

  "What in the world do they expect to learn from such an examination as that?" demanded Llana. "It was stupid and silly."

  "Perhaps they wanted to find out if they could scare us to death," suggested Pan Dan Chee.

  "I wonder how long they will keep us in these pits," said Llana.

  "I have been here a year," said the red man. "Occasionally I have been taken out and put to work with other slaves belonging to the jeddak, but until someone buys me I shall remain here."

  "Buys you! What do you mean?" asked Pan Dan Chee.

  "All prisoners belong to the jeddak," replied the red man, "but his nobles or officers may buy them if they wish another slave. I think he is holding me at too high a price, for a number of nobles have looked at me and said that they would like to have me."

  He was silent for a moment and then he said, "You will pardon my curiosity, but two of you do not look like Barsoomians at all, and I am wondering from what part of the world you come. Only the woman is typical of Barsoom; both you men have white skin and one of you black hair and the other yellow."

  "You have heard of the Orovars?" I asked.

  "Certainly," he replied, "but they have been extinct for ages.

  "Nevertheless, Pan Dan Chee here is an Orovar. There is a small colony of them that has survived in a deserted Orovar city."

  And you?" he asked; "you are no Orovar, with that black hair."

  "No," I said, "I am from another world-Jasoom."

  "Oh," he exclaimed, "can it be that you are John Carter?"

  "Yes; and you?"

  "My name is Jad-han. I am from Amhor."

  "Amhor?" I said. "I know a girl from Amhor. Her name is Janai."

  "What do you know of Janai?" he demanded.

  "You knew her?" I asked.

  "She was my sister; she has been dead for years. While I was out of the country on a long trip, Jal Had, Prince of Amhor, employed Ganturn Gur, the assassin, to kill my father because he objected to Jal Had as a suitor for Janai's hand. Then I returned to Amhor, Janai had fled; and later I learned of her death. In order to escape assassination myself, I was forced to leave the city; and after wandering about for some time I was captured by the First Born. But tell me, what did you know of Janai?"

  "I know that she is not dead," I replied. "She is mated with one of my most trusted officers and is safe in Helium."

  Jad-han was overcome with happiness when he learned that his sister still lived.

  "Now," he said, "if I could escape from here and return to Amhor to avenge my father, I would die happy."

  "Your father has been avenged," I told him. "Jal Had is dead."

  "I am sorry that it was not given to me to kill him," said Jad-han.

  "You have been here a year," I said, "and you must know something of the customs of the people. Can you tell us what fate may lie in store for us?"

  "There are several possibilities," he replied. "You may be worked as slaves, in which event you will be treated badly, but may be permitted to live for years; or you may be saved solely for the games which are held in a great stadium. There you will fight with men or beasts for the edification of the First Born. On the other hand, you may be summarily executed at any moment. All depends upon the mental vagaries of Doxus, Jeddak of The First Born, who I think is a little mad."

  "If the silly examination they gave us is any criterion," said Llana, "they are all mad."

  "Don't be too sure of that," Jad-han advised. "If you realized the purpose of that examination, you would understand that it was never devised by any unsound mind. Did you see the dead men as you entered the valley?"

  "Yes, but what have they to do with the examination?"

  "They took that same examination; that is why they lie dead out there."

  "I do not understand," I said. "Please explain."

  "The machines to which you were connected recorded hundreds of your reflexes; and automatically recorded your own individual nerve index, which is unlike that of any other creature in the world.

  "The master machine, which you did not see and never will, generates short wave vibrations which can be keyed exactly to your individual nerve index. When that is done you have such a severe paralytic stroke that you die almost instantly."

  "But why all that just to destroy a few slaves?" demanded Pan Dan Chee.

  "It is not for that alone," explained Jad-han. "Perhaps that was one of the initial purposes to prevent prisoners from escaping and spreading word of this beautiful valley on a dying planet. You can imagine that almost any country would wish to possess it. But it has another purpose; it keeps Doxus supreme.

  "Every adult in the valley has had his nerve index recorded, and is at the mercy of his jeddak. You don't have to leave the valley to be exterminated. An enemy of the jeddak might be sitting in his own home some day, when the thing would find him out and destroy him. Doxus is the only adult in Kamtol whose index has not been recorded; and he and one other man, Myr-lo, are the only ones who know exactly where the master machine is located, or how to operate it. It is said to be very delicate and that it can be irreparably damaged in an instant-and can never be replaced."

  "Why couldn't it be replaced?" asked Llana.

  "The inventor of it is dead," replied Jad-han. "It is said that he hated Doxus because of the purpose to which the jeddak had put his invention and that Doxus had him assassinated through fear of him. Myr-lo, who succeeded him, has not the genius to design another such machine."

  Chapter 6

  That night, after Llana had fallen asleep, Jad-han, Pan Dan Chee, and I were conversing in whispers; so as not to disturb her.

  "It is too bad," said Jad-han, who had been looking at the sleeping girl; "it is too bad that she is so beautiful."

  "What do you mean?" asked Pan Dan Chee.

  "This afternoon you asked me what your fate might be; and I
told you what the possibilities might be, but those were the possibilities for you two men. For the girl-" He looked sorrowfully at Llana and shook his head; he did not need to say more.

  The next day a number of the First Born came down into our cell to examine us, as one might examine cattle that one purposed buying. Among them was one of the jeddak's officers, upon whom devolved the duty of selling prisoners into slavery for the highest amounts he could obtain.

  One of the nobles immediately took a fancy to Llana and made an offer for her.

  They haggled over the price for some time, but in the end the noble got her.

  Pan Dan Chee and I were grief-stricken as they led Llana of Gathol away, for we knew that we should never see her again. Although her father is Jed of Gathol, in her veins flows the blood of Helium; and the women of Helium know how to act when an unkind Providence reserves for them the fate for which we knew Llana of Gathol was intended.

  "Oh! to be chained to a wall and without a sword when a thing like this happens," exclaimed Pan Dan Chee.

  "I know how you feel," I said; "but we are not dead yet, Pan Dan Chee; and our chance may come yet."

  "If it does, we will make them pay," he said.

  Two nobles were bidding for me, and at last I was knocked down to a dator named Xaxak. My fetters were removed, and the jeddak's agent warned me to be a good and docile slave.

  Xaxak had a couple of warriors with him, and they walked on either side of me as we left the pits. I was the object of considerable curiosity, as we made our way toward Xaxak's palace, which stood near that of the jeddak. My white skin and gray eyes always arouse comment in cities where I am not known. Of course, I am bronzed by exposure to the sun, but even so my skin is not the copper red of the red men of Barsoom.

  Before I was to be taken to the slaves' quarters of the palace, Xaxak questioned me. "What is your name?" he asked.