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09 - Thuvia, Maid of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs · Classic Sci Fi Books - Daily

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  Speaker 1: Chapter nine, the battle in the Plain. The distance from
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  Speaker 1: the bottom of the funnel to the floor of the
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  Speaker 1: chamber beneath it could not have been great, for all
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  Speaker 1: three of the victims of Tario's wrath alighted unscathed. Carthoris,
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  Speaker 1: still clasping Thuvia tightly to his breast, came to the
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  Speaker 1: ground catlike upon his feet, breaking the shock for the girl.
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  Speaker 1: Scarce had his feet touched the rough stone flagging of
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  Speaker 1: this new chamber than his sword flashed out, ready for
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  Speaker 1: instant use. But though the room was lighted, there was
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  Speaker 1: no sign of enemy about. Carthoris turned toward Jav. The
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  Speaker 1: man was pasty white with fear. What is to be
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  Speaker 1: our fate, asked the Heliumite. Tell me, man, shake off
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  Speaker 1: your terror long enough to tell me so I may
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  Speaker 1: be prepared to sell my life and that of the
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  Speaker 1: Princess of Ptarth as dearly as possible. Comal whispered Jav.
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  Speaker 1: We are to be devoured by comal, your deity, asked Carthoris.
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  Speaker 1: The Lotharian nodded his head. Then he pointed toward a
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  Speaker 1: low doorway at one end of the chamber.
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  Speaker 2: From thence will he come upon us? Lay aside your
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  Speaker 2: puny sword, fool, it will but enrage him the more
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  Speaker 2: and make our sufferings the worse. Carthoris smiled, gripping his
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  Speaker 2: longsword the more firmly. Presently, Jav gave a horrified moan.
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  Speaker 2: At the same time, pointing toward the door he has come,
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  Speaker 2: he whimpered. Carthoris and Thuvia looked in the direction the
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  Speaker 2: Lotharian had indicated, expecting to see some strange and fearful
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  Speaker 2: creature in human form, But to their astonishment, they saw
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  Speaker 2: the broad head and great maned shoulders of a huge banth,
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  Speaker 2: the largest that either had ever seen. Slowly and with dignity,
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  Speaker 2: the mighty beast advanced into the room. Jav had fallen
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  Speaker 2: to the floor and was wriggling his body in the
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  Speaker 2: same servile manner that he had adopted toward Tario. He
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  Speaker 2: spoke to the fierce beasts as he would have spoken
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  Speaker 2: to a human being, pleading with it for mercy. Carthoris
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  Speaker 2: stepped between Thuvia and the banth, his sword, ready to
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  Speaker 2: contest the beast's victory over them. Thuvia turned toward Jav.
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  Speaker 2: Is this comal, your god?
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  Speaker 1: She asked. Jav nodded, affirmatively. The girl smiled, and then,
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  Speaker 1: brushing past Carthoris, she stepped swiftly toward the growling carnivore.
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  Speaker 1: In low, firm tones, she spoke to it, as she
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  Speaker 1: had spoken to the banths of the Golden Cliffs and
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  Speaker 1: the scavengers before the walls of Lothar. The beast ceased
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  Speaker 1: its growling with lowered head and cat like purr, It
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  Speaker 1: came slinking to the girl's feet. Thuvia turned toward Carthoris.
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  Speaker 1: It is but a banth, she said, We have nothing
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  Speaker 1: to fear from it. Carthoris smiled. I did not fear it,
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  Speaker 1: he replied, for I too believed it to be only
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  Speaker 1: a banth, and I have my long sword. Jav sat
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  Speaker 1: up and gazed at the spectacle before him, the slender
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  Speaker 1: girl weaving her fingers in the tawny mane of the
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  Speaker 1: huge creature that he had thought divine, while Koman rubbed
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  Speaker 1: his hideous snout against her side. So this is your God,
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  Speaker 1: laughed Thuvia. Jav looked bewildered. He scarce knew whether he
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  Speaker 1: dared chance offending comal or not, For so strong is
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  Speaker 1: the power of superstition that, even though we know that
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  Speaker 1: we have been reverencing a sham. Yet still we has
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  Speaker 1: to admit the validity of our new found convictions. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: he said, this is Komal for ages. The enemies of
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  Speaker 1: Tario have been hurled into his pit to fill his maw,
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  Speaker 1: for Komal must be fed. Is there any way out
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  Speaker 1: of this chamber to the avenues of the city, asked Carthoris.
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  Speaker 1: Jav shrugged. I do not know, he replied. Never have
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  Speaker 1: I been here before, nor ever have I cared to
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  Speaker 1: do so. Come, suggested Thuvia. Let us explore there must
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  Speaker 1: be a way out. Together, the three approached the doorway
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  Speaker 1: through which Comal had entered the apartment that was to
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  Speaker 1: have witnessed their deaths. Beyond was a low roofed lair
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  Speaker 1: with a small door at the far end. This, to
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  Speaker 1: their delight, opened to the lifting of an ordinary latch,
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  Speaker 1: letting them into a circular arena surrounded by tiers of seats.
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  Speaker 1: Here is where Comal is fed in public, explained the Jav.
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  Speaker 1: Had Tario dared, it would have been here that our
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  Speaker 1: fates had been sealed, but he feared too much, thy
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  Speaker 1: keen blade red man, and so he hurled us all
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  Speaker 1: downward to the pit I did not know how closely
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  Speaker 1: connected were the two chambers. Now we may easily reach
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  Speaker 1: the avenues and the city gates. Only the bowmen may
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  Speaker 1: dispute the right of way, and knowing their secret, I
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  Speaker 1: doubt that they will have power to harm us. Another
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  Speaker 1: door led to a flight of stairs that rose from
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  Speaker 1: the arena level upward through the seats to an exit
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  Speaker 1: at the back of the hall. Beyond this was a straight,
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  Speaker 1: broad corridor running directly through the palace to the gardens
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  Speaker 1: at the side. No one appeared to question them as
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  Speaker 1: they advanced, mighty comal pacing by the girl's side. Where
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  Speaker 1: are the people of the palace, the Jeddak's retinue asked Carthoris.
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  Speaker 1: Even in the city streets as we came through, I
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  Speaker 1: scarce saw a sign of a human being. Yet all
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  Speaker 1: about are the evidences of a mighty population, jav sighed,
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  Speaker 1: Poor Lothar, he said, it is indeed a city of ghosts.
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  Speaker 1: There are scarce a thousand of us left who once
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  Speaker 1: were numbered in the millions. Our great city is peopled
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  Speaker 1: by the creatures of our own imaginings. For our own needs,
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  Speaker 1: we do not take the trouble to materialize these peoples
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  Speaker 1: of our brain. Yet they are apparent to us even now.
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  Speaker 1: I see great throngs lining the avenues, hastening to and
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  Speaker 1: fro in the round of their duties. I see women
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  Speaker 1: and children laughing on the balconies. These we are forbidden
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  Speaker 1: to materialize. But yet I see them. They are here.
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  Speaker 1: But why not, he mused, No longer need I vir tario.
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  Speaker 1: He has done his worst and failed. Why not indeed,
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  Speaker 1: stay friends, he continued, Would you see Lothar in all
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  Speaker 1: her glory? Carthoris and Thuvia not of their assent, more
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  Speaker 1: out of courtesy than because they fully grasped the import
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  Speaker 1: of his mutterings. Jav gazed at them penetratingly for an instant, then,
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  Speaker 1: with a wave of his hand, cried, Look. The sight
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  Speaker 1: that met them was awe inspiring. Where before there had
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  Speaker 1: been nought but deserted pavements and scarlet swards, yawning windows
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  Speaker 1: and tenantless doors, now swarmed a countless multitude of happy,
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  Speaker 1: laughing people. It is the past, said Jav in a
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  Speaker 1: low voice. They do not see us, but they live
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  Speaker 1: the old, dead past of ancient Lothar, the dead and
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  Speaker 1: crumbled Lothar of antiquequity which stood upon the shore of Throxus,
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  Speaker 1: mightiest of the five oceans. See those fine upstanding men
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  Speaker 1: swinging along the broad avenue. See the young girls and
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  Speaker 1: the women smile upon them. See the men greet them
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  Speaker 1: with love and respect. Those be seafarers coming up from
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  Speaker 1: their ships which lie at the quays at the city's edge.
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  Speaker 1: Brave men, they, oh, But the glory of Lothar has faded.
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  Speaker 1: See their weapons, they alone bore arms, for they crossed
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  Speaker 1: the five seas to strange places where dangers were. With
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  Speaker 1: their passing past the martial spirit of the Lotharians, leaving
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  Speaker 1: as the ages rolled by a race of spineless cowards.
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  Speaker 1: We hated war, and so we trained not our youth
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  Speaker 1: in warlike ways. Thus follow our undoing. For when the
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  Speaker 1: seas dried and the green hordes encroached upon us, we
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  Speaker 1: could do nought but flee. But we remembered the seafaring
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  Speaker 1: bowmen of the days of our glory. It is the
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  Speaker 1: memory of these which we hurl upon our enemies. As
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  Speaker 1: Jav ceased speaking, the picture faded, and once more the
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  Speaker 1: three took up their way toward the distant city gates
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  Speaker 1: along deserted avenues twice they sighted Lotharians of flesh and blood.
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  Speaker 1: At sight of them and the huge banth, which they
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  Speaker 1: must have recognized as comal, the citizens turned and fled.
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  Speaker 1: They will carry word of our flight to Tario, cried Jav,
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  Speaker 1: and soon he will send his bowmen after us. Let
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  Speaker 1: us hope that our theory is correct, and that their
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  Speaker 1: shafts are powerless against minds cognizant of their unreality. Otherwise
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  Speaker 1: we are doomed. Explain red man to the woman the
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  Speaker 1: truths that I have explained to you, that she may
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  Speaker 1: meet the arrows with a stronger counter suggestion of immunity.
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  Speaker 1: Carthoris did as Jav bid him, but they came to
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  Speaker 1: the great gates without sign of pursuit developing. Here, Jav
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  Speaker 1: said in motion the mechanism that rolled the huge wheel
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  Speaker 1: like gait aside, and a moment later the three, accompanied
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  Speaker 1: by the banf, stepped out into the plain before Lothar Scarce.
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  Speaker 1: Had they covered a hundred yards when the sound of
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  Speaker 1: many men shouting rose behind them. As they turned, they
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  Speaker 1: saw a company of bowmen debuching upon the plain from
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  Speaker 1: the gate through which they had but just passed. Upon
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  Speaker 1: the wall above the gate. There were a number of Lotharians,
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  Speaker 1: among whom Jav recognized. Tario the Jeddak stood glaring at them,
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  Speaker 1: evidently concentrating all the forces of his trained mind upon them.
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  Speaker 1: That he was making a supreme effort to render his
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  Speaker 1: imaginary creatures deadly was apparent. Jav turned white and commenced
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  Speaker 1: to tremble. At the crucial moment he appeared to lose
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  Speaker 1: the courage of his conviction. The great banth turned back
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  Speaker 1: toward the advancing bowmen and growled. Carthoris placed himself between
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  Speaker 1: Thuvia and the enemy, and, facing them, awaited the outcome
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  Speaker 1: of the charge. Suddenly, an inspiration came to Carthoris. Hurl
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  Speaker 1: your own bowmen against Tario's, he cried to Jav. Let
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  Speaker 1: us see a materialized battle between two mentalities. The suggestion
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  Speaker 1: seemed to hearten the Lotharian, and in another moment, the
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  Speaker 1: three stood behind solid ranks of huge bowmen who hurled
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  Speaker 1: taunts and menaces at the advancing company emerging from the
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  Speaker 1: walled city. Jav was a new man. The moment his
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  Speaker 1: battalions stood between him and Tario, one could almost have
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  Speaker 1: sworn the man believed these creatures of his strange hypnotic
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  Speaker 1: power to be real flesh and blood. With hoarse battle cries,
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  Speaker 1: they charged the bowmen of Tario. Barbed shafts flew, thick
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  Speaker 1: and fast men fell, and the ground was red with gore.
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  Speaker 1: Carthoris and Thuvia had difficulty in reconciling the reality of
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  Speaker 1: it all with their knowledge of the truth. They saw
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  Speaker 1: Utan after Utan march from the gate in perfect step
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  Speaker 1: to reinforce the outnumbered company which Tario had first sent
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  Speaker 1: forth to arrest them. They saw Jav's forces grow correspondingly,
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  Speaker 1: until all about them rolled a sea of fighting, cursing warriors,
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  Speaker 1: and the dead lay in heaps about the field. Jav
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  Speaker 1: and Tario seemed to have forgotten all else, beside the
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  Speaker 1: struggling bowmen that surged to and fro filling the broad
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  Speaker 1: field between the forest and the city. The wood loomed
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  Speaker 1: close behind Thuvia and Carthoris. The latter cast a glance
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  Speaker 1: toward Jav. Come, he whispered to the girl. Let them
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  Speaker 1: fight out their empty battle. Neither evidently has power to
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  Speaker 1: harm the other. They are like two controversialists hurling words
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  Speaker 1: at one another. While they are engaged, we may as
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  Speaker 1: well be devoting our energies to an attempt to find
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  Speaker 1: the passage through the cliffs to the plane beyond. As
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  Speaker 1: he spoke, Jav, turning from the battle, for an instant,
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  Speaker 1: caught his words. He saw the girl move to accompany
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  Speaker 1: the Heliumite. A cunning look leaped to the Lotharian's eyes.
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  Speaker 1: The thing that lay beyond that look had been deep
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  Speaker 1: in his heart since first he had lain eyes upon
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  Speaker 1: Thuvia of Ptarth. He had not recognized it, however, until
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  Speaker 1: now that she seemed about to pass out of his existence.
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  Speaker 1: He centered his mind upon the Heliumite and the girl.
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  Speaker 1: For an instant, Carthoris saw Thuvia of Ptarth step forward
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  Speaker 1: with outstriking hand. He was surprised at this sudden softening
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  Speaker 1: toward him, and it was with a full heart that
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  Speaker 1: he let his fingers close upon hers. As together they
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  Speaker 1: turned away from Forgotten Lothar into the woods and bent
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  Speaker 1: their steps toward the distant mountains. As the Lotharian had
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  Speaker 1: turned toward them, Thuvia had been surprised to hear Carthoris
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  Speaker 1: suddenly voice a new plan. Remain here with Jav. She
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  Speaker 1: had heard him say, while I go to search for
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  Speaker 1: the passage through the cliffs. She had dropped back in
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  Speaker 1: surprise and disappointment, for she knew that there was no
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  Speaker 1: reason why she should not have accompanied him. Certainly, she
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  Speaker 1: should have been safer with him than left here alone
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  Speaker 1: with the Lotharian, and Jav watched the two and smiled
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  Speaker 1: his cunning smile. When Carthoris had disappeared within the wood,
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  Speaker 1: Thuvia seated herself apathetically upon the scarlet sward to watch
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  Speaker 1: the seemingly interminable struggles of the bowmen. The long afternoon
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  Speaker 1: dragged its weary way toward darkness, and still the imaginary
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  Speaker 1: legions charged and retreated. The sun was about to set
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  Speaker 1: when Tario commenced to withdraw his troops slowly toward the city.
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  Speaker 1: His plan for cessation of hostilities through the night evidently
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  Speaker 1: met with Jav's entire approval, for he caused his forces
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  Speaker 1: to form themselves in orderly utons and marched just within
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  Speaker 1: the edge of the wood, where they were soon busily
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  Speaker 1: engaged in preparing their evening meal and spreading down their
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  Speaker 1: sleeping silks and furs for the night. Thuvia could scarce
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  Speaker 1: repress a smile as she noted the scrupulous care with
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  Speaker 1: which Jav's imaginary men attended to each tiny detail of
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  Speaker 1: deportment as truly as if they had been flesh and blood.
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  Speaker 1: Centuries were posted between the camp and the city. Officers
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  Speaker 1: clanked hither and thither, issuing commands and seeing to it
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  Speaker 1: that they were properly carried out. Thuvia turned toward Jav.
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  Speaker 1: Why is it, she asked, that you observe such careful
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  Speaker 1: nicety in the regulation of your creatures, when Tario knows
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  Speaker 1: quite as well as you that they are but figments
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  Speaker 1: of your brain? Why not prevent them simply to dissolve
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  Speaker 1: into thin air until you again require their futile service.
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  Speaker 1: You do not understand them, replied Jav. While they exist,
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  Speaker 1: they are real. I do but call them into being
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  Speaker 1: now and in a way direct their general actions. But thereafter,
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  Speaker 1: until I dissolve them, they are as actual as you
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  Speaker 1: or I. Their officers command them under my guidance. I
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  Speaker 1: am the general, that is all, And the psychological effect
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  Speaker 1: upon the enemy is far greater than were I to
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  Speaker 1: treat them merely as substanceless vagaries. Then, too, continued the Letharian,
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  Speaker 1: there is always the hope, which with us is little
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  Speaker 1: short of belief, that some day these materializations will merge
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  Speaker 1: into the real that they will remain some of them
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  Speaker 1: after we have dissolved their fellows, and that thus we
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  Speaker 1: shall have discovered a means for perpetuating our dying race.
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  Speaker 1: Some there are who claim already to have accomplished the thing.
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  Speaker 1: It is generally supposed that the etherealists have quite a
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  Speaker 1: few among their number who are permanent materializations. It is
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  Speaker 1: even said that such is Tario, but that cannot be,
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  Speaker 1: for he existed before we have discovered the full possibilities
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  Speaker 1: of suggestion. There are others among us who insist that
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  Speaker 1: none of us is real, though we could not have
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  Speaker 1: existed all these ages without material food and water, had
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  Speaker 1: we ourselves been material. Although I am a realist, I
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  Speaker 1: rather incline towards this belief myself. It seems well and
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  Speaker 1: sensibly based upon the belief that our ancient forebears developed
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  Speaker 1: before their extinction such wondrous mentalities, that some of the
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  Speaker 1: stronger minds among them lived after the death of their bodies.
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  Speaker 1: That we are but the deathless minds of individuals long dead,
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  Speaker 1: it would appear possible. And yet, in so far as
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  Speaker 1: I am concerned, I have all the attributes of corporeal existence.
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  Speaker 1: I sleep, I eat, He paused, casting a meaning look
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  Speaker 1: upon the girl I love. Thuvia could not mistake the
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  Speaker 1: palpable meaning of his words and expression. She turned away
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  Speaker 1: with a little shrug of disgust that was not lost
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  Speaker 1: upon the Lotharian. He came close to her and seized
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  Speaker 1: her arm. Why not, Jev, he cried, cood, more honorable
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  Speaker 1: than the second of the world's most ancient race, Your Heliumite,
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  Speaker 1: he is gone. He has deserted you to your fate
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  Speaker 1: to save himself. Come be, Javs. Thuvia of Ptarth rose
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  Speaker 1: to her full height, her lifted shoulders turned toward the man.
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  Speaker 1: Her haughty chin upraised a scornful twist to her lips.
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  Speaker 1: You lie, she said quietly. The Heliumite knows less of
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  Speaker 1: disloyalty than he knows of fear, and of fear, he
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  Speaker 1: is as ignorant as the unhatched young. Then where is he?
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  Speaker 1: Taunted the Lotharian, I tell you, he has fled the valley.
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  Speaker 1: He has left you to your fate. But Jev will
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  Speaker 1: see that it is a pleasant one. Tomorrow we shall
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  Speaker 1: return into Lothar, the head of my victorious army, and
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  Speaker 1: I shall be Jeddak, and you shall be my consort. Come,
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  Speaker 1: and he attempted to crush her to his breast. The
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  Speaker 1: girl struggled to free herself, striking at the man with
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  Speaker 1: her metal armlets. Yet still he drew her toward him,
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  Speaker 1: until both were suddenly startled by a hideous growl that
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  Speaker 1: rumbled from the dark woods close behind them. End of
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  Speaker 1: chapter nine.