The Chessmen of Mars Read online

  CHAPTER VIII

  CLOSE WORK

  Ghek, in his happier days third foreman of the fields of Luud, satnursing his anger and his humiliation. Recently something had awakenedwithin him the existence of which he had never before even dreamed. Hadthe influence of the strange captive woman aught to do with this unrestand dissatisfaction? He did not know. He missed the soothing influenceof the noise she called singing. Could it be that there were otherthings more desirable than cold logic and undefiled brain power? Waswell balanced imperfection more to be sought after then, than the highdevelopment of a single characteristic? He thought of the great,ultimate brain toward which all kaldanes were striving. It would bedeaf, and dumb, and blind. A thousand beautiful strangers might singand dance about it, but it could derive no pleasure from the singing orthe dancing since it would possess no perceptive faculties. Already hadthe kaldanes shut themselves off from most of the gratifications of thesenses. Ghek wondered if much was to be gained by denying themselvesstill further, and with the thought came a question as to the wholefabric of their theory. After all perhaps the girl was right; whatpurpose could a great brain serve sealed in the bowels of the earth?

  And he, Ghek, was to die for this theory. Luud had decreed it. Theinjustice of it overwhelmed him with rage. But he was helpless. Therewas no escape. Beyond the enclosure the banths awaited him; within, hisown kind, equally as merciless and ferocious. Among them there was nosuch thing as love, or loyalty, or friendship--they were just brains.He might kill Luud; but what would that profit him? Another king wouldbe loosed from his sealed chamber and Ghek would be killed. He did notknow it but he would not even have the poor satisfaction of satisfiedrevenge, since he was not capable of feeling so abstruse a sentiment.

  Ghek, mounted upon his rykor, paced the floor of the tower chamber inwhich he had been ordered to remain. Ordinarily he would have acceptedthe sentence of Luud with perfect equanimity, since it was but thelogical result of reason; but now it seemed different. The strangerwoman had bewitched him. Life appeared a pleasant thing--there weregreat possibilities in it. The dream of the ultimate brain had recededinto a tenuous haze far in the background of his thoughts.

  At that moment there appeared in the doorway of the chamber a redwarrior with naked sword. He was a male counterpart of the prisonerwhose sweet voice had undermined the cold, calculating reason of thekaldane.

  "Silence!" admonished the newcomer, his straight brows gathered in anominous frown and the point of his longsword playing menacingly beforethe eyes of the kaldane. "I seek the woman, Tara of Helium. Where isshe? If you value your life speak quickly and speak the truth."

  If he valued his life! It was a truth that Ghek had but just learned.He thought quickly. After all, a great brain is not without its uses.Perhaps here lay escape from the sentence of Luud.

  "You are of her kind?" he asked. "You come to rescue her?"

  "Yes."

  "Listen, then. I have befriended her, and because of this I am to die.If I help you to liberate her, will you take me with you?"

  Gahan of Gathol eyed the weird creature from crown to foot--the perfectbody, the grotesque head, the expressionless face. Among such as thesehad the beautiful daughter of Helium been held captive for days andweeks.

  "If she lives and is unharmed," he said, "I will take you with us."

  "When they took her from me she was alive and unharmed," replied Ghek."I cannot say what has befallen her since. Luud sent for her."

  "Who is Luud? Where is he? Lead me to him." Gahan spoke quickly intones vibrant with authority.

  "Come, then," said Ghek, leading the way from the apartment and down astairway toward the underground burrows of the kaldanes. "Luud is myking. I will take you to his chambers."

  "Hasten!" urged Gahan.

  "Sheathe your sword," warned Ghek, "so that should we pass others of mykind I may say to them that you are a new prisoner with some likelihoodof winning their belief."

  Gahan did as he was bid, but warning the kaldane that his hand was everready at his dagger's hilt.

  "You need have no fear of treachery," said Ghek. "My only hope of lifelies in you."

  "And if you fail me," Gahan admonished him, "I can promise you as surea death as even your king might guarantee you."

  Ghek made no reply, but moved rapidly through the winding subterraneancorridors until Gahan began to realize how truly was he in the hands ofthis strange monster. If the fellow should prove false it would profitGahan nothing to slay him, since without his guidance the red man mightnever hope to retrace his way to the tower and freedom.

  Twice they met and were accosted by other kaldanes; but in bothinstances Ghek's simple statement that he was taking a new prisoner toLuud appeared to allay all suspicion, and then at last they came to theante-chamber of the king.

  "Here, now, red man, thou must fight, if ever," whispered Ghek. "Enterthere!" and he pointed to a doorway before them.

  "And you?" asked Gahan, still fearful of treachery.

  "My rykor is powerful," replied the kaldane. "I shall accompany you andfight at your side. As well die thus as in torture later at the will ofLuud. Come!"

  But Gahan had already crossed the room and entered the chamber beyond.Upon the opposite side of the room was a circular opening guarded bytwo warriors. Beyond this opening he could see two figures strugglingupon the floor, and the fleeting glimpse he had of one of the facessuddenly endowed him with the strength of ten warriors and the ferocityof a wounded banth. It was Tara of Helium, fighting for her honor orher life.

  The warriors, startled by the unexpected appearance of a red man, stoodfor a moment in dumb amazement, and in that moment Gahan of Gathol wasupon them, and one was down, a sword-thrust through its heart.

  "Strike at the heads," whispered the voice of Ghek in Gahan's ear. Thelatter saw the head of the fallen warrior crawl quickly within theaperture leading to the chamber where he had seen Tara of Helium in theclutches of a headless body. Then the sword of Ghek struck the kaldaneof the remaining warrior from its rykor and Gahan ran his sword throughthe repulsive head.

  Instantly the red warrior leaped for the aperture, while close behindhim came Ghek.

  "Look not upon the eyes of Luud," warned the kaldane, "or you are lost."

  Within the chamber Gahan saw Tara of Helium in the clutches of a mightybody, while close to the wall upon the opposite side of the apartmentcrouched the hideous, spider-like Luud. Instantly the king realized themenace to himself and sought to fasten his eyes upon the eyes of Gahan,and in doing so he was forced to relax his concentration upon the rykorin whose embraces Tara struggled, so that almost immediately the girlfound herself able to tear away from the awful, headless thing.

  As she rose quickly to her feet she saw for the first time the cause ofthe interruption of Luud's plans. A red warrior! Her heart leaped inrejoicing and thanksgiving. What miracle of fate had sent him to her?She did not recognize him, though, this travel-worn warrior in theplain harness which showed no single jewel. How could she have guessedhim the same as the scintillant creature of platinum and diamonds thatshe had seen for a brief hour under such different circumstances at thecourt of her august sire?

  Luud saw Ghek following the strange warrior into the chamber. "Strikehim down, Ghek!" commanded the king. "Strike down the stranger and yourlife shall be yours."

  Gahan glanced at the hideous face of the king.

  "Seek not his eyes," screamed Tara in warning; but it was too late.Already the horrid hypnotic gaze of the king kaldane had seized uponthe eyes of Gahan. The red warrior hesitated in his stride. His swordpoint drooped slowly toward the floor. Tara glanced toward Ghek. Shesaw the creature glaring with his expressionless eyes upon the broadback of the stranger. She saw the hand of the creature's rykor creepingstealthily toward the hilt of its dagger.

  And then Tara of Helium raised her eyes aloft and poured forth thenotes of Mars' most beautiful melody, The Song of Love.

  Ghek drew his dagger from its sheath. His eyes turned t
oward thesinging girl. Luud's glance wavered from the eyes of the man to theface of Tara, and the instant that the latter's song distracted hisattention from his victim, Gahan of Gathol shook himself and as with asupreme effort of will forced his eyes to the wall above Luud's hideoushead. Ghek raised his dagger above his right shoulder, took a singlequick step forward, and struck. The girl's song ended in a stifledscream as she leaped forward with the evident intention of frustratingthe kaldane's purpose; but she was too late, and well it was, for aninstant later she realized the purpose of Ghek's act as she saw thedagger fly from his hand, pass Gahan's shoulder, and sink full to theguard in the soft face of Luud.

  "Come!" cried the assassin, "we have no time to lose," and started forthe aperture through which they had entered the chamber; but in hisstride he paused as his glance was arrested by the form of the mightyrykor lying prone upon the floor--a king's rykor; the most beautiful,the most powerful, that the breeders of Bantoom could produce. Ghekrealized that in his escape he could take with him but a single rykor,and there was none in Bantoom that could give him better service thanthis giant lying here. Quickly he transferred himself to the shouldersof the great, inert hulk. Instantly the latter was transformed to asentient creature, filled with pulsing life and alert energy.

  "Now," said the kaldane, "we are ready. Let whoso would revert tonothingness impede me." Even as he spoke he stooped and crawled intothe chamber beyond, while Gahan, taking Tara by the arm, motioned herto follow. The girl looked him full in the eyes for the first time."The Gods of my people have been kind," she said; "you came just intime. To the thanks of Tara of Helium shall be added those of TheWarlord of Barsoom and his people. Thy reward shall surpass thygreatest desires."

  Gahan of Gathol saw that she did not recognize him, and quickly hechecked the warm greeting that had been upon his lips.

  "Be thou Tara of Helium or another," he replied, "is immaterial, toserve thus a red woman of Barsoom is in itself sufficient reward."

  As they spoke the girl was making her way through the aperture afterGhek, and presently all three had quitted the apartments of Luud andwere moving rapidly along the winding corridors toward the tower. Ghekrepeatedly urged them to greater speed, but the red men of Barsoom werenever keen for retreat, and so the two that followed him moved all tooslowly for the kaldane.

  "There are none to impede our progress," urged Gahan, "so why tax thestrength of the Princess by needless haste?"

  "I fear not so much opposition ahead, for there are none there who knowthe thing that has been done in Luud's chambers this night; but thekaldane of one of the warriors who stood guard before Luud's apartmentescaped, and you may count it a truth that he lost no time in seekingaid. That it did not come before we left is due solely to the rapiditywith which events transpired in the king's* room. Long before we reachthe tower they will be upon us from behind, and that they will come innumbers far superior to ours and with great and powerful rykors I wellknow."

  * I have used the word king in describing the rulers or chiefs of theBantoomian swarms, since the word itself is unpronounceable in English,nor does jed or jeddak of the red Martian tongue have quite the samemeaning as the Bantoomian word, which has practically the samesignificance as the English word queen as applied to the leader of aswarm of bees.--J. C.

  Nor was Ghek's prophecy long in fulfilment. Presently the sounds ofpursuit became audible in the distant clanking of accouterments and thewhistling call to arms of the kaldanes.

  "The tower is but a short distance now," cried Ghek. "Make haste whileyet you may, and if we can barricade it until the sun rises we may yetescape."

  "We shall need no barricades for we shall not linger in the tower,"replied Gahan, moving more rapidly as he realized from the volume ofsound behind them the great number of their pursuers.

  "But we may not go further than the tower tonight," insisted Ghek."Beyond the tower await the banths and certain death."

  Gahan smiled. "Fear not the banths," he assured them. "Can we but reachthe enclosure a little ahead of our pursuers we have naught to fearfrom any evil power within this accursed valley."

  Ghek made no reply, nor did his expressionless face denote eitherbelief or skepticism. The girl looked into the face of the manquestioningly. She did not understand.

  "Your flier," he said. "It is moored before the tower."

  Her face lighted with pleasure and relief. "You found it!" sheexclaimed. "What fortune!"

  "It was fortune indeed," he replied. "Since it not only told that youwere a prisoner here; but it saved me from the banths as I was crossingthe valley from the hills to this tower into which I saw them take youthis afternoon after your brave attempt at escape."

  "How did you know it was I?" she asked, her puzzled brows scanning hisface as though she sought to recall from past memories some scene inwhich he figured.

  "Who is there but knows of the loss of the Princess Tara of Helium?" hereplied. "And when I saw the device upon your flier I knew at once,though I had not known when I saw you among them in the fields a shorttime earlier. Too great was the distance for me to make certain whetherthe captive was man or woman. Had chance not divulged the hiding placeof your flier I had gone my way, Tara of Helium. I shudder to think howclose was the chance at that. But for the momentary shining of the sunupon the emblazoned device on the prow of your craft, I had passed onunknowing."

  The girl shuddered. "The Gods sent you," she whispered reverently.

  "The Gods sent me, Tara of Helium," he replied.

  "But I do not recognize you," she said. "I have tried to recall you,but I have failed. Your name, what may it be?"

  "It is not strange that so great a princess should not recall the faceof every roving panthan of Barsoom," he replied with a smile.

  "But your name?" insisted the girl.

  "Call me Turan," replied the man, for it had come to him that if Taraof Helium recognized him as the man whose impetuous avowal of love hadangered her that day in the gardens of The Warlord, her situation mightbe rendered infinitely less bearable than were she to believe him atotal stranger. Then, too, as a simple panthan* he might win a greaterdegree of her confidence by his loyalty and faithfulness and a place inher esteem that seemed to have been closed to the resplendent Jed ofGathol.

  * Soldier of Fortune; free-lance warrior.

  They had reached the tower now, and as they entered it from thesubterranean corridor a backward glance revealed the van of theirpursuers--hideous kaldanes mounted upon swift and powerful rykors. Asrapidly as might be the three ascended the stairways leading to theground level, but after them, even more rapidly, came the minions ofLuud. Ghek led the way, grasping one of Tara's hands the more easily toguide and assist her, while Gahan of Gathol followed a few paces intheir rear, his bared sword ready for the assault that all realizedmust come upon them now before ever they reached the enclosure and theflier.

  "Let Ghek drop behind to your side," said Tara, "and fight with you."

  "There is but room for a single blade in these narrow corridors,"replied the Gatholian. "Hasten on with Ghek and win to the deck of theflier. Have your hand upon the control, and if I come far enough aheadof these to reach the dangling cable you can rise at my word and I canclamber to the deck at my leisure; but if one of them emerges firstinto the enclosure you will know that I shall never come, and you willrise quickly and trust to the Gods of our ancestors to give you a fairbreeze in the direction of a more hospitable people."

  Tara of Helium shook her head. "We will not desert you, panthan," shesaid.

  Gahan, ignoring her reply, spoke above her head to Ghek. "Take her tothe craft moored within the enclosure," he commanded. "It is our onlyhope. Alone, I may win to its deck; but have I to wait upon you two atthe last moment the chances are that none of us will escape. Do as Ibid." His tone was haughty and arrogant--the tone of a man who hascommanded other men from birth, and whose will has been law. Tara ofHelium was both angered and vexed. She was not accustomed to beingeither commanded or ignored, b
ut with all her royal pride she was nofool, and she knew the man was right, that he was risking his life tosave hers, so she hastened on with Ghek as she was bid, and after thefirst flush of anger she smiled, for the realization came to her thatthis fellow was but a rough untutored warrior, skilled not in the finerusages of cultured courts. His heart was right, though; a brave andloyal heart, and gladly she forgave him the offense of his tone andmanner. But what a tone! Recollection of it gave her sudden pause.Panthans were rough and ready men. Often they rose to positions of highcommand, so it was not the note of authority in the fellow's voice thatseemed remarkable; but something else--a quality that was indefinable,yet as distinct as it was familiar. She had heard it before when thevoice of her great-grandsire, Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium, had risenin command; and in the voice of her grandfather, Mors Kajak, the jed;and in the ringing tones of her illustrious sire, John Carter, Warlordof Barsoom, when he addressed his warriors.

  But now she had no time to speculate upon so trivial a thing, forbehind her came the sudden clash of arms and she knew that Turan, thepanthan, had crossed swords with the first of their pursuers. As sheglanced back he was still visible beyond a turn in the stairway, sothat she could see the quick swordplay that ensued. Daughter of aworld's greatest swordsman, she knew well the finest points of the art.She saw the clumsy attack of the kaldane and the quick, sure return ofthe panthan. As she looked down from above upon his almost naked body,trapped only in the simplest of unadorned harness, and saw the play ofthe lithe muscles beneath the red-bronze skin, and witnessed the quickand delicate play of his sword point, to her sense of obligation wasadded a spontaneous admission of admiration that was but the naturaltribute of a woman to skill and bravery and, perchance, some trifle tomanly symmetry and strength.

  Three times the panthan's blade changed its position--once to fend asavage cut; once to feint; and once to thrust. And as he withdrew itfrom the last position the kaldane rolled lifeless from its stumblingrykor and Turan sprang quickly down the steps to engage the nextbehind, and then Ghek had drawn Tara upward and a turn in the stairwayshut the battling panthan from her view; but still she heard the ringof steel on steel, the clank of accouterments and the shrill whistlingof the kaldanes. Her heart moved her to turn back to the side of herbrave defender; but her judgment told her that she could serve him bestby being ready at the control of the flier at the moment he reached theenclosure.