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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twelve of Thuvia Made of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
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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 twelve. To save Dusar, Thuvia of Ptarth,
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  Speaker 1: battling for more than life against the lust of Jav,
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  Speaker 1: cast a quick glance over her shoulder toward the forest
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  Speaker 1: from which had rumbled the fierce growl. Jav looked too.
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  Speaker 1: What they saw filled each with apprehension. It was Komal,
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  Speaker 1: the banth god, rushing wide jawed upon them. Which had
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  Speaker 1: he chosen for his prey? Or was it to be both?
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  Speaker 1: They had not long to wait, for Though the Lotharian
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  Speaker 1: attempted to hold the girl between himself and the terrible fangs,
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  Speaker 1: the great beast found him at last. Then, shrieking, he
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  Speaker 1: attempted to fly toward Lothar, after pushing Thuvia bodily into
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  Speaker 1: the face of the man eater, but his flight was
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  Speaker 1: of short duration. In a moment, Coolmar was upon him,
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  Speaker 1: rending his throat and chest with demoniacal fury. The girl
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  Speaker 1: reached their side a moment later, but it was with
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  Speaker 1: difficulty that she tore the mad beast from its prey,
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  Speaker 1: still growling and casting hungry glances back upon jav, the
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  Speaker 1: bath at last permitted itself to be led away into
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  Speaker 1: the wood. With her giant protector by her side, Thuvia
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  Speaker 1: set forth to find the passage through the cliffs that
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  Speaker 1: she might attempt the seemingly impossible feat of reaching far
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  Speaker 1: distant Ptarth across the more than seventeen thousand hods of
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  Speaker 1: savage Barsoom. She could not believe that Carthoris had deliberately
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  Speaker 1: deserted her, and so she kept a constant watch for him.
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  Speaker 1: But as she bore too far to the north in
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  Speaker 1: her search for the tunnel, she passed the Heeni mite
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  Speaker 1: as he was returning to Lothar in search of her.
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  Speaker 1: Thuvia of Ptarth, having difficulty in determining the exact status
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  Speaker 1: of the Prince of Helium in her heart, she could
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  Speaker 1: not admit even to herself that she loved him, and
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  Speaker 1: yet she had permitted him to apply to her that
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  Speaker 1: term of endearment and possession to which a Barsoomian maid
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  Speaker 1: should turn deaf ears when voiced by other lips than
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  Speaker 1: those of her husband or fiancee. My Princess Kulan Tith
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  Speaker 1: Jeddak of Kaole, to whom she was affianced, commanded her
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  Speaker 1: respect and admiration. Had it been that she had surrendered
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  Speaker 1: to her father's wishes because of pique, that the handsome
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  Speaker 1: Heliumite had not taken advantage of his visits to her
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  Speaker 1: father's court to push the suit for her hand, that
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  Speaker 1: she had been quite sure he had contemplated since that
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  Speaker 1: distant day the two had sat together upon the carved
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  Speaker 1: seat within the gorgeous garden of the Jeddaks that graced
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  Speaker 1: the inner courtyard of the Palace of salensus Ole at Cadabra.
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  Speaker 1: Did she love Kulan Tis bravely? She tried to believe
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  Speaker 1: that she did, But all the while her eyes wandered
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  Speaker 1: through the coming darkness for the figure of a clean
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  Speaker 1: limbed fighting man, black haired and gray eyed. Black was
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  Speaker 1: the hair of Kulan Tith, but his eyes were brown.
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  Speaker 1: It was almost dark when she found the entrance to
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  Speaker 1: the tunnel safely. She passed through to the hills beyond,
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  Speaker 1: and here, under the bright light of Mars two moons,
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  Speaker 1: she halted to plan her future action. Should she wait
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  Speaker 1: here in the hope that Carthoris would return in search
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  Speaker 1: of her or should she continue her way northeast toward Ptarth.
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  Speaker 1: Where first would Carthoris have gone after leaving the valley
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  Speaker 1: of Lothar. Her parched throat and dry tongue gave her
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  Speaker 1: the answer, toward an Thor and water well. She too
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  Speaker 1: would go first to an Thor, where she might find
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  Speaker 1: more than the water she needed. With Komal by her side,
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  Speaker 1: she felt little fear, for he would protect her from
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  Speaker 1: all other savage beasts. Even the great white apes would
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  Speaker 1: flee the mighty bath in terror. Men only need she fear.
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  Speaker 1: But she must take this and many other chances before
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  Speaker 1: she could hope to reach her father's court again. When
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  Speaker 1: at last Carthoris found her only to be struck down
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  Speaker 1: by the long sword of a green man, Thuvia prayed
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  Speaker 1: that the same fate might overtake her. The sight of
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  Speaker 1: the red warriors leaping from their fliers had, for a
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  Speaker 1: moment filled her with renewed hope, hope that Carthoris of
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  Speaker 1: Helium might be only stunned and that they would rescue him.
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  Speaker 1: But when she saw the Dusarian meddle upon their harness,
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  Speaker 1: and that they sought only to escape with her alone
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  Speaker 1: from the charging Torquasians. She gave up. Komal too was dead,
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  Speaker 1: dead across the body of the Heliumite. She was indeed alone.
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  Speaker 1: Now there was none to protect her. The Dusarian warriors
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  Speaker 1: dragged her to the deck of the nearest fire. All
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  Speaker 1: about them the Green warriors surged in an attempt to
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  Speaker 1: wrest her from the red. At last, those who had
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  Speaker 1: not died in the conflict gained the decks of the
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  Speaker 1: two craft. The engines throbbed and purred, the propeller's whorred
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  Speaker 1: quickly the swift boat shot heavenward. Thuvia of Ptarth glanced
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  Speaker 1: about her. A man stood near, smiling down into her face.
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  Speaker 1: With a gasp of recognition, she looked full into his eyes,
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  Speaker 1: and then, with a little moan of terror and understanding,
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  Speaker 1: she buried her face in her hands and sank to
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  Speaker 1: the polished skiellwood deck. It was Astok, Prince of Dusar,
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  Speaker 1: who bent above her. Swift were the fliers of Astok
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  Speaker 1: of Dusar, and great the need for reaching his father's
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  Speaker 1: court as quickly as possible. For the fleets of war
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  Speaker 1: of Helium and Tarth and Kaole were scattered far and
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  Speaker 1: wide above Barsoom nor would it go well with Astok
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  Speaker 1: of Dusar should any one of them discover Thuvia of Ptarth,
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  Speaker 1: a prisoner upon his own vessel. On Thor lies in
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  Speaker 1: fifty south latitude and forty east of Hortz, the deserted
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  Speaker 1: seat of ancient Barsoomian culture and learning, while Dusar lies
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  Speaker 1: fifteen degrees north of the equator and twenty degrees east
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  Speaker 1: from Hortz. Great though the distance is, the fliers covered
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  Speaker 1: it without a stop. Long before they had reached their destination,
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  Speaker 1: Thuvia of Ptarth had learned several things that cleared up
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  Speaker 1: the doubts that had assailed her mind for many days.
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  Speaker 1: Scarce had they risen above on Thor that she recognized
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  Speaker 1: one of the crew as a member of the crew
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  Speaker 1: of that other flier that had borne her from her
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  Speaker 1: father's gardens to Onhor. The presence of Astok upon the
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  Speaker 1: craft settled the whole question. She had been stolen by
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  Speaker 1: emissaries of the Dusarian Prince Carthoris of Helium had had
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  Speaker 1: nothing to do with it, nor did Astok deny the charge.
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  Speaker 1: When she accused him, he only smiled and pleaded his
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  Speaker 1: love for her. I would sooner mate with a white ape,
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  Speaker 1: she cried. When he would have urged his suit, Astoc
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  Speaker 1: glowered sullenly upon her. You shall mate with me Thuvi
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  Speaker 1: of Ptarth, he growled, Or by your first ancestor, you
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  Speaker 1: shall have your preference and mate with a white ape.
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  Speaker 1: The girl made no reply, nor could he draw her
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  Speaker 1: into a conversation. During the balance of the journey. As
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  Speaker 1: a matter of fact, Astok was a trifle awed by
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  Speaker 1: the proportions of the conflict which his abduction of the
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  Speaker 1: Tarthian princess had induced, nor was he over comfortable with
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  Speaker 1: the weight of responsibility which the possession of such a
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  Speaker 1: prisoner entailed. His one thought was to get her to Dusar,
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  Speaker 1: and there let his father assume the responsibility. In the meantime,
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  Speaker 1: he would be as careful as possible to do nothing
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  Speaker 1: to affront her, lest they all might be captured, and
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  Speaker 1: he have to account for his treatment of the girl
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  Speaker 1: to one of the great Jeddaks, whose interests centered in her.
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  Speaker 1: And so at last they came to Dusar, where Astok
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  Speaker 1: hid his prisoner in a secret room high in the
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  Speaker 1: east tower of his own palace. He had sworn his
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  Speaker 1: men to silence in the matter of the identity of
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  Speaker 1: the girl. For until he had seen his father, Nutus
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  Speaker 1: Jeddak of Dusar, he dared not let any one know
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  Speaker 1: whom he had brought with him from the south. But
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  Speaker 1: when he appeared in the great audience chamber before the
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  Speaker 1: cruel lipped man who was his sire, he found his
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  Speaker 1: courage oozing, and he dared not speak of the princess
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  Speaker 1: hid within his palace. It occurred to him to test
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  Speaker 1: his father's sentiments upon the subject, and so he told
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  Speaker 1: a tale of capturing one who claimed to know the
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  Speaker 1: whereabouts of Thuvia of Ptarth. And if you command it, sire,
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  Speaker 1: he said, I will go and capture her, fetching her
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  Speaker 1: here to Dusar. Nutus frowned and shook his head. You
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  Speaker 1: have done enough already to set Tarth and Kaol in Helium,
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  Speaker 1: all three upon us at once, should they learn your
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  Speaker 1: part in the theft of the Tarth princess. That you
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  Speaker 1: succeeded in shifting the guilt upon the Prince of Helium
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  Speaker 1: was fortunate and a masterly move of strategy. But were
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  Speaker 1: the girl to know the truth and ever returned to
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  Speaker 1: her father's court, all Dusar would have to pay the penalty,
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  Speaker 1: and to have her here a prisoner amongst us would
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  Speaker 1: be an admission of guilt from the consequences of which
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  Speaker 1: naught could save us. It would cost me my throne,
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  Speaker 1: asked Hoc, and that I have no mind to lose.
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  Speaker 1: If we had her here, The elder man suddenly commenced
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  Speaker 1: to muse, repeating the phrase again and again. If we
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  Speaker 1: had her here, Astok, he exclaimed fiercely. Ah, if we
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  Speaker 1: but had her here and none knew that she was here,
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  Speaker 1: can you not guess? Men, the guilt of Dusar might
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  Speaker 1: be forever buried with her bones, he concluded in a low,
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  Speaker 1: savage whisper. Astoc, Prince of Dusar, shuddered. Week He was yes,
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  Speaker 1: and wicked too, but the suggestion that his father's words
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  Speaker 1: implied turned him cold with horror. Cruel to their enemies
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  Speaker 1: are the men of Mars, But the word enemies is
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  Speaker 1: commonly interpreted to mean men only. Assassination runs riot in
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  Speaker 1: the great Barsoomian cities. Yet to murder a woman is
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  Speaker 1: a crime so unthinkable that even the most hardened of
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  Speaker 1: the paid assassins would shrink from you in horror. Should
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  Speaker 1: you suggest such a thing to him. Nutas was apparently
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  Speaker 1: oblivious to his son's all to patent terror at his Presently,
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  Speaker 1: he continued, you say that you know where the girl
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  Speaker 1: lies hid, since she was stolen from your people at Nhor.
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  Speaker 1: Should she be found by any one of the three powers,
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  Speaker 1: her unsupported story would be sufficient to turn them all
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  Speaker 1: against us. There is but one way, Astoc, cried the
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  Speaker 1: older man. You must return at once to her hiding
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  Speaker 1: place and fetch her hither in all secrecy, and look,
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  Speaker 1: you here would turn not to Dusar without her upon
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  Speaker 1: pain of death. Astok, Prince of Dusar, well knew his
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  Speaker 1: royal father's temper. He knew that in the tyrant's heart
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  Speaker 1: there pulsed no single throb of love for any creature.
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  Speaker 1: Astoc's mother had been a slave woman. Nutus had never
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  Speaker 1: loved her. He had never loved another. In youth, he
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  Speaker 1: had tried to find a bride at the courts of
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  Speaker 1: several of his powerful neighbors, but their women would have
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  Speaker 1: none of him. After a dozen daughters of his own
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  Speaker 1: nobility had sought self destruction rather than wed him, he
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  Speaker 1: had given up. And then it had been that he
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  Speaker 1: had legally wed one of his slaves that he might
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  Speaker 1: have a son to stand among the jeds. When Nutus
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  Speaker 1: died and a new Jeddak was chosen, Slowly Astok withdrew
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  Speaker 1: from the presence of his father. With white face and
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  Speaker 1: shaking limbs. He made his way to his own palace.
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  Speaker 1: As he crossed the courtyard, his glance chanced to wander
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  Speaker 1: to the great East Tower, looming high against the azure
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  Speaker 1: of the sky. At sight of it, beads of sweat
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  Speaker 1: broke out upon his brow. Issus, no other hand than
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  Speaker 1: his could be trusted to do the horrid thing with
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  Speaker 1: his own fingers. He must crush the life from that
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  Speaker 1: perfect throat, or plunge the silent blade into the red,
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  Speaker 1: red heart, her heart, the heart that he had hoped
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  Speaker 1: would brim with love for him. But had it done so,
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  Speaker 1: he recalled the haughty contempt with which his protestations of
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  Speaker 1: love had been received. He went cold, and then hot
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  Speaker 1: to the memory of it. His compunctions cooled as the
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  Speaker 1: self satisfaction of a near revenge crowded out the finer
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  Speaker 1: instincts that had, for a moment asserted themselves the good
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  Speaker 1: that he had inherited from the slave woman was once
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  Speaker 1: again submerged in the bad blood that had come down
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  Speaker 1: to him from his royal sire. As in the end,
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  Speaker 1: it always was a cold smile supplanted the terror that
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  Speaker 1: had dilated his eyes. He turned his steps toward the tower.
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  Speaker 1: He would see her before he sat out upon the
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  Speaker 1: journey that was to blind his father to the fact
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  Speaker 1: that the girl was already in Dusar. Quietly he passed
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  Speaker 1: in through the secret way, ascending a spiral runway to
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  Speaker 1: the apartment in which the Princess of Tarth was immured.
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  Speaker 1: As he entered the room, he saw the girl leaning
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  Speaker 1: upon the sill of the east casement, gazing out across
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  Speaker 1: the rooftops of Dusar toward distant Tarth. He hated Tarth.
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  Speaker 1: The thought of it filled him with rage. Why not
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  Speaker 1: finish her now and have it done with? At the
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  Speaker 1: sound of his step, she turned quickly toward him. Ah,
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  Speaker 1: how beautiful she was. His sudden determination faded beneath the
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  Speaker 1: glorious light of her wondrous beauty. He would wait until
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  Speaker 1: he had returned from his little journey of deception. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: there might be some other way, then, some other hand
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  Speaker 1: to strike the blow with that face with those eyes
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  Speaker 1: before him. He could never do it. Of that, he
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  Speaker 1: was positive he had always gloried in the cruelty of
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  Speaker 1: his nature. But Issus he was not that cruel No
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  Speaker 1: another must be found, one whom he could trust. He
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  Speaker 1: was still looking at her as she stood there before him,
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  Speaker 1: meeting his gaze steadily and unafraid. He felt the hot
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  Speaker 1: passion of his love mounting higher and higher. Why not
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  Speaker 1: sue once more? If she would relent, all might yet
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  Speaker 1: be well. Even if his father could not be persuaded,
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  Speaker 1: They could fly to Ptarth, laying all the blame of
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  Speaker 1: the knavery and intrigue that had thrown four great nations
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  Speaker 1: into war upon the shoulders of Nutus. And who was
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  Speaker 1: there that would doubt the justice of the charge? Thuvia?
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  Speaker 1: He said, I come once again for the last time,
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  Speaker 1: to lay my heart at your feet. Tarth and Kaole
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  Speaker 1: and Dusar are battling with helium because of you wed me, Thuvia,
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  Speaker 1: and all may yet be as it should be. The
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  Speaker 1: girl shook her head. Wait, he commanded, before she could speak,
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  Speaker 1: know the truth. Before you speak words that may seal
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  Speaker 1: not only your own fate, but that of the thousands
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  Speaker 1: of warriors who battle because of you. Refuse to wed
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  Speaker 1: me willingly, and Dusar would be laid waste. Should ever
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  Speaker 1: the truth be known to Tarth and Chaole and Helium,
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  Speaker 1: they would raise our cities, leaving not one stone upon another.
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  Speaker 1: They would scatter our peoples across the face of Barsoom,
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  Speaker 1: from the frozen north to the frozen south, hunting them
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  Speaker 1: down and slaying them, until this great nation remain only
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  Speaker 1: as a hated memory in the minds of men. But
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  Speaker 1: while they are exterminating the Dusarians, countless thousands of their
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  Speaker 1: own warriors must perish, and all because of the stubbornness
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  Speaker 1: of a single woman who would not wed the prince
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  Speaker 1: who loves her. Refuse Thuvia of Ptarth, and there remains
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  Speaker 1: but a single alternative. No man must ever know your fate.
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  Speaker 1: Only a handful of loyal servitors besides my royal father
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  Speaker 1: and myself know that you were stolen from the gardens
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  Speaker 1: of thuvan Din by Astok, Prince of Dusar, or that
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  Speaker 1: to day you be imprisoned in my palace. Refuse Thuvia
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  Speaker 1: of Ptarth, and you must die to save Dusar. There
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  Speaker 1: is no other way nutas the Jeddak has so decreed,
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  Speaker 1: I have spoken for a long moment. The girl let
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  Speaker 1: her level gaze rest full upon the face of Astok
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  Speaker 1: of Dusar. Then she spoke, and though the words were few,
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  Speaker 1: the unimpassioned tone carried unfathomable depths of cold contempt. Better
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  Speaker 1: all that you have threatened, she said, than you. Then
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  Speaker 1: she turned her back upon him and went to stand
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  Speaker 1: once more before the east window, gazing with sad eyes
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  Speaker 1: toward distance Tarth. Astok wheeled and left the room, returning
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  Speaker 1: after a short interval of time with food and drink. Here,
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  Speaker 1: he said, is sustenance until I return again. The next
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  Speaker 1: to enter this apartment will be your executioner. Command yourself
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  Speaker 1: to your ancestors, Thuvia of Ptarth, for within a few
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  Speaker 1: days you shall be with them. Then he was gone.
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  Speaker 1: Half an hour later, he was interviewing an officer high
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  Speaker 1: in the navy of Dusar. Whither went Vaskor, he asked,
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  Speaker 1: He is not at his palace south to the great
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  Speaker 1: waterway that skirts Torquas replied the other, his son hal
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  Speaker 1: Vas is dwar of the road there, and thither has
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  Speaker 1: Vaskor gone to enlist recruits? Among the workers on the farms, good,
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  Speaker 1: said Astok, and a half hour more found him rising
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  Speaker 1: above Dusar in his swiftest flier, end of Chapter twelve.