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09 - Thuvia, Maid of Mars (version 3) by Edgar Rice Burroughs · Thuvia, Maid of Mars (version 3)

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  Speaker 1: Chapter nine of Thuvia Made of Mars by Edgar Rice Burrough's.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Thuvia Made
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  Speaker 1: of Mars, Chapter nine, The battle in the Plain. The
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  Speaker 1: distance from the bottom of the funnel to the floor
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  Speaker 1: of the chamber beneath it could not have been great,
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  Speaker 1: for all 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
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  Speaker 1: girl scarce had his feet touched the rough stone flagging
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  Speaker 1: of this new chamber than his sword flashed out, ready
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  Speaker 1: for instant use. But though the room was lighted, there
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  Speaker 1: was no sign of enemy about. Carthoris looked toward Jav.
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  Speaker 1: The man was pasty white with fear. What is to
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  Speaker 1: be our fate, asked the heliumite. Tell me, man, shake
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  Speaker 1: off your terror long enough to tell me so I
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  Speaker 1: may be 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. From thence
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  Speaker 1: will he come upon us. Lay aside your puny sword, fool,
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  Speaker 1: It will but enrage him the more and make our
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  Speaker 1: sufferings the worse. Carthoris smiled, gripping his longsword the more firmly. Presently,
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  Speaker 1: Jav gave a horrified moan. At the same time, pointing
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  Speaker 1: toward the door he has come, he whimpered. Carthoris and
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  Speaker 1: Thuvia looked in the direction the Lotharian had indicated, expecting
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  Speaker 1: to see some strange and fearful creature in human form,
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  Speaker 1: But to their astonishment, they saw the broad head and
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  Speaker 1: great main shoulders of a huge back, the largest that
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  Speaker 1: either had ever seen. Slowly and with dignity, the mighty
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  Speaker 1: beast advanced into the room. Jav had fallen to the
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  Speaker 1: floor and was wriggling his body in the same servile
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  Speaker 1: manner that he had adopted toward Tario. He spoke to
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  Speaker 1: the fierce beast as he would have spoken to a
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  Speaker 1: human being, pleading with it for mercy. Carthoris stepped between
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  Speaker 1: Thuvia and the banth his sword ready to contest, the
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  Speaker 1: beast victory over them. Thuvia turned toward Jav. Is this
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  Speaker 1: comal your God? She asked. Jav nodded affirmatively. The girl smiled,
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  Speaker 1: and then, brushing past Carthoris, she stepped swiftly toward the
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  Speaker 1: growling carnivore. In low, firm tones, she spoke to it,
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  Speaker 1: as she had spoken to the bans of the Golden
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  Speaker 1: Cliffs and the scavengers before the walls of Lothar. The
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  Speaker 1: beast ceased its growling with lowered head and catlike purr,
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  Speaker 1: it came slinking to the girl's feet. Thuvia turned toward Carthoris.
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  Speaker 1: It is but a bath, 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. Jaf 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 Komo 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: dare chance offending Komo 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 hesitate
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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 Komo for ages. The enemies of
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  Speaker 1: Tario have been hurled to this pit to fill his maw,
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  Speaker 1: for Como 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 Coomol 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 comoal is fed in public, explained 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 the
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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 have any power to harm us. Another
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  Speaker 1: door led to a flight of steps 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 sign of a human being. Yet all about
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  Speaker 1: our evidences of a mighty population, jav sighed, Poor Lotha,
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  Speaker 1: He said, it is indeed a city of ghosts. There
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  Speaker 1: are scarce a thousand of us left, who once were
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  Speaker 1: numbered in the millions. Our great city is peopled by
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  Speaker 1: 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 avenue, 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 fear 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 nodded their assent, more out
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  Speaker 1: of courtesy than because they fully grasped the import of
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  Speaker 1: 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 naught 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. They but 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 antiquity, 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 keys at the city's edge.
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  Speaker 1: Brave men they ah, 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 be. With
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  Speaker 1: their passing passed 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, so we trained not our youth in
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  Speaker 1: warlike ways. Thus followed our undoing. For when the seas
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  Speaker 1: dried and the green hordes encroached upon us, we could
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  Speaker 1: do naught but flee. But we remembered the seafaring bowmen
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  Speaker 1: of the days of our glory. It is the memory
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  Speaker 1: of these which we hurl upon our enemies as jaff
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  Speaker 1: ceased speaking, the picture faded, and once more the three
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  Speaker 1: took up their way toward the distant gates along deserted avenues.
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  Speaker 1: Twice they sighted Lotharians of flesh and blood. At sight
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  Speaker 1: of them and the huge bath, which they must have
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  Speaker 1: recognized as comal, the citizens turned and fled. They will
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  Speaker 1: carry word of our flight to Tario, cried Jav, and
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  Speaker 1: soon he will send his bowman after us. Let us
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  Speaker 1: hope that our theory is correct, and that their shafts
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  Speaker 1: are powerless against minds cognizant of their unreality. Otherwise we
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  Speaker 1: are doomed. Explain red Man to the woman the truth
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  Speaker 1: that I have explained to you, that she may meet
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  Speaker 1: the arrows with a stronger counter suggestion of immunity. Carthoris
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  Speaker 1: did as Jav bid him, but they came to the
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  Speaker 1: great gates without sign of pursuit developing. Here, Jav set
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  Speaker 1: in motion the mechanism that rolled the huge wheelike gait aside,
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  Speaker 1: and a moment later the three, accompanied by the bath,
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  Speaker 1: stepped out into the plane before Lothar Scarce had they
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  Speaker 1: covered a hundred yards when the sound of many men
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  Speaker 1: shouting arose behind them. As they turned, they saw a
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  Speaker 1: company of bowmen debouching upon the plane from the gate
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  Speaker 1: through which they had but just passed. Upon the wall
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  Speaker 1: above the gate were a number of Lotharians, among whom
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  Speaker 1: Jav recognized Tario. The Jeddaks stood glaring at them, evidently
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  Speaker 1: 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 their charge. Suddenly, an inspiration came to Carthoris. Hurl
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  Speaker 1: your own bowmen against Tarios, 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: battalion 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 set
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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 an 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 plain 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 leapt 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 laid 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 outstretched 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 forgot 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 search for the
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  Speaker 1: passage through the cliffs. She had dropped back in surprise
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  Speaker 1: and disappointment, for she knew that there was no reason
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  Speaker 1: why she should not have accompanied him. Certainly, she should
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  Speaker 1: have been safer with him than left here alone with
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  Speaker 1: the Lotharian, and Jav watched the two and smiled his
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  Speaker 1: cunning smile. When Carthoris had disappeared within the wood, Thuvia
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  Speaker 1: seated herself apathetically upon the scarlet sward to watch the
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  Speaker 1: seemingly interminable struggles of the bowmen. The long afternoon dragged
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  Speaker 1: its weary way toward darkness, and still the imaginary legions
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  Speaker 1: charged and retreated. The sun was about to set when
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  Speaker 1: Tario commenced to withdraw his troops slowly toward the city.
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  Speaker 1: His plan for a cessation of hostilities through the night
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  Speaker 1: evidently met with Jav's entire approval, for he caused his
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  Speaker 1: forces to form themselves in orderly utans and marched just
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  Speaker 1: within the edge of the wood, where they were soon
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  Speaker 1: busily engaged in preparing their evening meal and spreading down
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  Speaker 1: their sleeping silks and furs for the night, Thuvia could
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  Speaker 1: scarce repress a smile as she noted the scrupulous care
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  Speaker 1: with which Jav's imaginary men attended to each tiny detail
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  Speaker 1: of deportment, as truly as if they had been real.
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  Speaker 1: Flesh and blood. Sentries were posted between the camp and
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  Speaker 1: the city. Off officers clanked hither and thither, issuing commands
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  Speaker 1: and seeing to it that they were properly carried out.
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  Speaker 1: Thuvia turned toward Jav. Why is it, she asked, that
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  Speaker 1: you observe such careful nicety in the regulation of your creatures,
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  Speaker 1: when Tario knows quite as well as you that they
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  Speaker 1: are but figments of your brain? Why not permit them
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  Speaker 1: simply to dissolve into thin air until you again require
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  Speaker 1: their futile service. You do not understand them, replied Jav.
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  Speaker 1: While they exist, they are real. I do but call
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  Speaker 1: them into being now and in a way direct their
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  Speaker 1: general actions. But thereafter, until I dissolve them, they are
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  Speaker 1: as actual as you or I. Their officers command them
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  Speaker 1: under my guidance. I am the general, that is all,
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  Speaker 1: and the psychological effect upon the enemy is far greater
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  Speaker 1: than were I to treat them merely as substanceless vagaries, then, too,
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  Speaker 1: continued the Lotharian. There is always the hope, which with
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  Speaker 1: us is little short of belief, that some day these
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  Speaker 1: materializations will merge into the real that they will remain
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  Speaker 1: some of them after we have dissolved their fellows, and
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  Speaker 1: that thus we shall have discovered a means for perpetuating
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  Speaker 1: our dying race. Some there are who claim already to
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  Speaker 1: have accomplished the thing. It is generally supposed that the
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  Speaker 1: etherealists have quite a few among their number who are
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  Speaker 1: permanent materializations. It is even said that such as Tario,
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  Speaker 1: But that cannot be, for he existed before we had
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  Speaker 1: discovered the full possibilities of suggestion. There are others among
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  Speaker 1: us who insist that none of us is real, that
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  Speaker 1: we could not have existed all these ages without material
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  Speaker 1: food and water, had we ourselves been material. Although I
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  Speaker 1: am a realist, I rather incline toward this belief myself.
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  Speaker 1: It seems well and sensibly based upon the belief that
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  Speaker 1: our ancient forebears developed before their extinction such wondrous mentalities,
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  Speaker 1: that some of the stronger minds among them lived after
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  Speaker 1: the death of their bodies, that we are but the
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  Speaker 1: deathless minds. Of individuals long dead, it would appear possible.
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  Speaker 1: And yet, in so far as I am concerned, I
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  Speaker 1: have all the attributes of corporeal existence. I eat, I sleep,
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  Speaker 1: He paused, casting a meaning look upon the girl I love.
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  Speaker 1: Thuvia could not mistake the palpable meaning of his words
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  Speaker 1: and expression. She turned away with a little shrug of
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  Speaker 1: disgust that was not lost upon the Lotharian. He came
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  Speaker 1: close to her and seized her arm. Why not Jave,
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  Speaker 1: he cried, Who more honorable than the second of the
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  Speaker 1: world's most ancient race, Your Heliumite, he has gone. He
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  Speaker 1: has deserted you to your fate. To save him, Come
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  Speaker 1: be Javes. Thuvia of Ptarth rose to her full height,
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  Speaker 1: her lifted shoulder turned toward the man. Her haughty chin
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  Speaker 1: upraised a scornful twist to her lips. You lie, she
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  Speaker 1: said quietly. The Heliumite knows less of disloyalty than he
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  Speaker 1: knows of fear, And of fear he is as ignorant
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  Speaker 1: as the unhatched young. Then where is he? Totted the Lotharian,
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  Speaker 1: I tell you he has fled the valley. He has
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  Speaker 1: left you to your fate. But Jav will see that
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  Speaker 1: it is a pleasant one. Tomorrow we shall return into
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  Speaker 1: Lothar at the head of my victorious army, and I
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  Speaker 1: 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 wood close behind them. End of
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  Speaker 1: chapter nine.