Edgar Rice Burroughs - Mars Chronicles 03 - Warlord of Mars.pdf

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Burroughs, Edgar Rice - Mars Chronicles 03 - Warlord of Mars
11 The Pity of Plenty
12 "Follow the Rope!"
13 The Magnet Switch
14 The Tide of Battle
15 Rewards
16 The New Ruler.
that beloved heart? Time only would reveal the truth.
Six hundred and eighty-seven Martian days must come and go
before the cell's door would again come opposite the tunnel's end
where last I had seen my ever-beautiful Dejah Thoris.
Half of them had passed, or would on the morrow, yet vivid in my
memory, obliterating every event that had come before or after,
there remained the last scene before the gust of smoke blinded my
eyes and the narrow slit that had given me sight of the interior of
her cell closed between me and the Princess of Helium for a long
Martian year.
As if it were yesterday, I still saw the beautiful face of Phaidor,
daughter of Matai Shang, distorted with jealous rage and hatred as
she sprang forward with raised dagger upon the woman I loved.
I saw the red girl, Thuvia of Ptarth, leap forward to prevent the
hideous deed.
The smoke from the burning temple had come then to blot out
the tragedy, but in my ears rang the single shriek as the knife fell.
Then silence, and when the smoke had cleared, the revolving temple
had shut off all sight or sound from the chamber in which the three
beautiful women were imprisoned.
Much there had been to occupy my attention since that terrible
moment; but never for an instant had the memory of the thing
faded, and all the time that I could spare from the numerous duties
that had devolved upon me in the reconstruction of the government
of the First Born since our victorious fleet and land forces had
overwhelmed them, had been spent close to the grim shaft that held
the mother of my boy, Carthoris of Helium.
The race of blacks that for ages had worshiped Issus, the false
deity of Mars, had been left in a state of chaos by my revealment of
her as naught more than a wicked old woman. In their rage they
had torn her to pieces..From the high pinnacle of their egotism the
First Born had been
in it; but I would have none of it. My heart could never be with the
race that had heaped indignities upon my princess and my son.
At my suggestion Xodar became Jeddak of the First Born. He
had been a dator, or prince, until Issus had degraded him, so that
his fitness for the high office bestowed was unquestioned.
The peace of the Valley Dor thus assured, the green warriors
dispersed to their desolate sea bottoms, while we of Helium
returned to our own country. Here again was a throne offered me,
since no word had been received from the missing Jeddak of
Helium, Tardos Mors, grandfather of Dejah Thoris, or his son, Mors
Kajak, Jed of Helium, her father.
Over a year had elapsed since they had set out to explore the
northern hemisphere in search of Carthoris, and at last their
disheartened people had accepted as truth the vague rumors of
their death that had filtered in from the frozen region of the pole.
Once again I refused a throne, for I would not believe that the
mighty Tardos Mors, or his no less redoubtable son, was dead.
"Let one of their own blood rule you until they return," I said to
the assembled nobles of Helium, as I addressed them from the
Pedestal of Truth beside the Throne of Righteousness in the Temple
of Reward, from the very spot where I had stood a year before when
Zat Arras pronounced the sentence of death upon me.
As I spoke I stepped forward and laid my hand upon the
shoulder of Carthoris where he stood in the front rank of the circle
of nobles about me.
As one, the nobles and the people lifted their voices in a long
cheer of approbation. Ten thousand swords sprang on high from as
many scabbards, and the glorious fighting men of ancient Helium
hailed Carthoris Jeddak of Helium.
His tenure of office was to be for life or until his great-grandfather,
or grandfather, should return. Having thus.satisfactorily arranged
this important duty for Helium, I started the
ten short, muscular legs; but to me he was the embodiment of love
and loyalty.
The figure ahead was that of the black dator of the First Born,
Thurid, whose undying enmity I had earned that time I laid him low
with my bare hands in the courtyard of the Temple of Issus, and
bound him with his own harness before the noble men and women
who had but a moment before been extolling his prowess.
Like many of his fellows, he had apparently accepted the new
order of things with good grace, and had sworn fealty to Xodar, his
new ruler; but I knew that he hated me, and I was sure that in his
heart he envied and hated Xodar, so I had kept a watch upon his
comings and goings, to the end that of late I had become convinced
that he was occupied with some manner of intrigue.
Several times I had observed him leaving the walled city of the
First Born after dark, taking his way out into the cruel and horrible
Valley Dor, where no honest business could lead any man.
Tonight he moved quickly along the edge of the forest until well
beyond sight or sound of the city, then he turned across the
crimson sward toward the shore of the Lost Sea of Korus.
The rays of the nearer moon, swinging low across the valley,
touched his jewel-incrusted harness with a thousand changing
lights and glanced from the glossy ebony of his smooth hide. Twice
he turned his head back toward the forest, after the manner of one
who is upon an evil errand, though he must have felt quite safe
from pursuit.
I did not dare follow him there beneath the moonlight, since it
best suited my plans not to interrupt his--I wished him to reach his
destination unsuspecting, that I might learn just where that
destination lay and the business that awaited the night prowler
there..So it was that I remained hidden until after Thurid had
disappeared over the edge of the steep bank beside the sea a
quarter of a mile away. Then, with Woola following, I hastened

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