Latest / Classic Sci Fi Books - Daily / 10 - Thuvia, Maid of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapter ten, car Komak the Bowman. As Carthoris moved through
- 0:08Speaker 1: the forest toward the distant cliffs, with Thuvia's hand still
- 0:12Speaker 1: pressed tight in his, he wondered a little at the
- 0:15Speaker 1: girl's continued silence. Yet the contact of her cool palm
- 0:19Speaker 1: against his was so pleasant that he feared to break
- 0:23Speaker 1: the spell of her new found reliance in him by
- 0:26Speaker 1: speaking onward. Through the dim wood they passed until the
- 0:31Speaker 1: shadows of the quick coming Martian night commenced to close
- 0:34Speaker 1: down upon them. Then it was that Carthoris turned to
- 0:39Speaker 1: speak to the girl at his side. They must plan
- 0:43Speaker 1: together for the future. It was his idea to pass
- 0:46Speaker 1: through the cliffs at once if they could locate the passage,
- 0:49Speaker 1: and he was quite positive that they were now close
- 0:52Speaker 1: to it, but he wanted her assent to the proposition.
- 0:57Speaker 1: As his eyes rested upon her, he was struck by
- 1:00Speaker 1: her strangely ethereal appearance. She seemed suddenly to have dissolved
- 1:05Speaker 1: into the tenuous substance of a dream, and as he
- 1:08Speaker 1: continued to gaze upon her, she faded slowly from his sight.
- 1:14Speaker 1: For an instant he was dumbfounded, and then the whole
- 1:17Speaker 1: truth flashed suddenly upon him. Jave had caused him to
- 1:22Speaker 1: believe that Thuvia was accompanying him through the wood, while
- 1:25Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, he had detained the girl
- 1:28Speaker 1: for himself. Carthoris was horrified. He cursed himself for his stupidity.
- 1:36Speaker 1: And yet he knew that the fiendish power which the
- 1:39Speaker 1: Lotharian had invoked to confuse him might have deceived any
- 1:44Speaker 1: scarce had he realized the truth, than he had started
- 1:48Speaker 1: to retrace his steps toward Lothar. But now he moved
- 1:51Speaker 1: at a trot, the earthly fuse that he had inherited
- 1:55Speaker 1: from his father, carrying him swiftly over the soft carpet
- 1:58Speaker 1: of fallen leaves and rank grass. Thuria's brilliant light flooded
- 2:05Speaker 1: the plain before the walled city of Lothar. As Carthoris
- 2:08Speaker 1: broke from the wood, opposite the great gate that had
- 2:11Speaker 1: given the fugitives egress from the city earlier in the day.
- 2:16Speaker 1: At first he saw no indication that there was another
- 2:19Speaker 1: than himself anywhere about. The plain was deserted, No myriad
- 2:25Speaker 1: bowman camped now beneath the overhanging verdure of the giant trees,
- 2:30Speaker 1: no gory heaps of torture, dead, defaced the beauty of
- 2:34Speaker 1: the scarlet sward. All was silence, all was peace. The Heliumite, scarce,
- 2:43Speaker 1: pausing at the forest's verge, pushed on across the plain
- 2:47Speaker 1: toward the city, when presently he descried a huddled form
- 2:51Speaker 1: in the grass at his feet. It was the body
- 2:54Speaker 1: of a man, lying prone. Carthoris turned the figure over
- 3:00Speaker 1: upon its back. It was Jav, but torn and mangled,
- 3:05Speaker 1: almost beyond recognition. The prince bent low to note if
- 3:10Speaker 1: any spark of life remained, and as he did so,
- 3:13Speaker 1: the lids raised and dull, suffering eyes looked up into his.
- 3:19Speaker 1: The Princess of Ptarth, cried, Carthoris, where is she? Answer me?
- 3:24Speaker 1: Man or I complete the work that another has so
- 3:26Speaker 1: well begun? Comal, muttered Jav. He sprang upon me and
- 3:34Speaker 1: would have devoured me but for the girl. Then they
- 3:38Speaker 1: went away together into the wood, the girl in the
- 3:42Speaker 1: great banth her fingers twined in his tawny mane. Which
- 3:49Speaker 1: way went, they asked, Carthoris, there, replied Jav faintly, toward
- 3:56Speaker 1: the passage through the cliffs. The Prince of Helium waited
- 4:01Speaker 1: to hear no more, but, springing to his feet, raced
- 4:05Speaker 1: back again into the forest. It was dawn when he
- 4:09Speaker 1: reached the mouth of the dark tunnel that would lead
- 4:12Speaker 1: him to the other world. Beyond this valley of ghostly
- 4:15Speaker 1: memories and strange hypnotic influences and menaces. Within the long,
- 4:22Speaker 1: dark passages, he met with no accident or obstacle, coming
- 4:26Speaker 1: at last into the light of day beyond the mountains,
- 4:30Speaker 1: and no great distance from the southern verge of the
- 4:33Speaker 1: domains of the Torcasians, not more than one hundred fifty
- 4:37Speaker 1: hid at most from the boundary of Torcas to the
- 4:41Speaker 1: city of Anthor is, a distance of some two hundred hides,
- 4:45Speaker 1: so that the Heliumite had before him a journey of
- 4:48Speaker 1: more than one hundred and fifty earth miles between him
- 4:51Speaker 1: and Anthor. He could at best but hazard a chance
- 4:55Speaker 1: guess that toward Anthor, Thuvia would take her flight. There
- 5:00Speaker 1: lay the nearest water, and there might be expected some
- 5:04Speaker 1: day a rescuing party from her father's empire. For Carthoris
- 5:08Speaker 1: knew thuvon Din well enough to know that he would
- 5:11Speaker 1: leave no stone unturned until he had tracked down the
- 5:15Speaker 1: truth as to his daughter's abduction and learned all that
- 5:19Speaker 1: there might be to learn of her whereabouts. He realized,
- 5:23Speaker 1: of course, that the trick which had laid suspicion upon
- 5:27Speaker 1: him would greatly delay the discovery of the truth. But
- 5:31Speaker 1: little did he guess to what vast proportions had the
- 5:34Speaker 1: results of the villainy of Astok of Dusar already grown.
- 5:39Speaker 1: Even as he emerged from the mouth of the passage
- 5:42Speaker 1: to look across the foothills in the direction of Anthor,
- 5:45Speaker 1: a Ptarth battle fleet was winging its majestic way slowly
- 5:49Speaker 1: toward the twin cities of Helium, while from far distant
- 5:53Speaker 1: Cowl raced another mighty armada to join forces with its ally.
- 5:59Speaker 1: He did not know that, in the face of the
- 6:01Speaker 1: circumstantial evidence against him, even his own people had commenced
- 6:05Speaker 1: to entertain suspicions that he might have stolen the princess
- 6:09Speaker 1: of Ptarth. He did not know of the lengths to
- 6:13Speaker 1: which the Dusarians had gone to disrupt the friendship and
- 6:16Speaker 1: alliance which existed between the three great powers of the
- 6:19Speaker 1: Eastern Hemisphere, Helium, Ptarth, and Cowl. How Dusarian emissaries had
- 6:28Speaker 1: found employment in important posts in the foreign offices of
- 6:31Speaker 1: the three great nations, and how through these men messages
- 6:36Speaker 1: from one Jeddak to another were altered and garbled, until
- 6:40Speaker 1: the patience and pride of the three rulers and former
- 6:43Speaker 1: friends could no longer endure the humiliations and insults contained
- 6:48Speaker 1: in these falsified papers. Not any of this he knew,
- 6:54Speaker 1: nor did he know how. Even to the last John Carter,
- 6:57Speaker 1: Warlord of Mars, had refered fused to permit the Jeddak
- 7:01Speaker 1: of Helium to declare war against either Ptarth or Cowl,
- 7:06Speaker 1: because of his implicit belief in his son, and that
- 7:09Speaker 1: eventually all would be satisfactorily explained. And now two great
- 7:15Speaker 1: fleets were moving upon Helium, while the Dusarian spies at
- 7:19Speaker 1: the court of Tardos Moors saw to that the Twin
- 7:22Speaker 1: Cities remained in ignorance of their danger. War had been
- 7:27Speaker 1: declared by thuvan Din, but the messenger who had been
- 7:31Speaker 1: dispatched with the proclamation had been a Dusarian, who had
- 7:34Speaker 1: seen to it that no word of warning reached the
- 7:37Speaker 1: Twin Cities of the approach of a hostile fleet. For
- 7:42Speaker 1: several days, diplomatic relations had been severed between Helium and
- 7:46Speaker 1: her two most powerful neighbors, and with the departure of
- 7:49Speaker 1: the ministers had come a total cessation of wireless communication
- 7:53Speaker 1: between the disputants, as is usual upon Barsoom. But of
- 7:59Speaker 1: all this Carthoris was ignorant. All that interested him at
- 8:04Speaker 1: present was the finding of Thuvia of ptarth. Her trail
- 8:09Speaker 1: beside that of the huge banth had been well marked
- 8:12Speaker 1: to the tunnel and was once more visible leading southward
- 8:15Speaker 1: into the foothills. As he followed rapidly downward toward the
- 8:20Speaker 1: dead sea bottom, where he knew he must lose the
- 8:23Speaker 1: spoor in the resilient ochre vegetation, he was suddenly surprised
- 8:28Speaker 1: to see a naked man approaching him from northeast. As
- 8:32Speaker 1: the fellow drew closer, Carthoris halted to await his coming.
- 8:37Speaker 1: He knew that the man was unarmed, and that he
- 8:40Speaker 1: was apparently a Lotharian, for his skin was white and
- 8:43Speaker 1: his hair auburn. He approached the heliumite without sign of fear,
- 8:49Speaker 1: and when quite close, called out the cheery Barsoomian cowor
- 8:53Speaker 1: of greeting. Who are you, asked Carthoris, I am car
- 8:59Speaker 1: komak Odwar of the bowmen, replied the other, A strange
- 9:04Speaker 1: thing has happened to me, For ages, Tario has been
- 9:07Speaker 1: bringing me into existence as he has needed the service
- 9:11Speaker 1: of the army of his mind. Of all the bowmen,
- 9:14Speaker 1: it has been car Komak who has been the oftenest materialized.
- 9:19Speaker 1: For a long time, Tario has been concentrating his mind
- 9:23Speaker 1: upon my permanent materialization. It has been an obsession with
- 9:27Speaker 1: him that some day this thing could be accomplished and
- 9:31Speaker 1: the future of Lothar assured. He asserted that matter was
- 9:35Speaker 1: nonexistent except in the imagination of man, that all was mental,
- 9:41Speaker 1: and so he believed that by persisting in his suggestion,
- 9:45Speaker 1: he could eventually make of me a permanent suggestion in
- 9:48Speaker 1: the minds of all creatures. Yesterday he succeeded. But at
- 9:54Speaker 1: such a time it must have come all unknown to him,
- 9:58Speaker 1: as it came to me without my mind knowledge, as
- 10:01Speaker 1: with my horde of yelling bowmen. I pursued the fleeing
- 10:04Speaker 1: Torquasians back to their Ochre plains. As darkness settled and
- 10:09Speaker 1: the time came for us to fade once more into
- 10:12Speaker 1: thin air, I suddenly found myself alone upon the edge
- 10:16Speaker 1: of the great plain which lies yonder at the foot
- 10:18Speaker 1: of the low hills. My men were gone back to
- 10:21Speaker 1: the nothingness from which they had sprung, But I remained
- 10:26Speaker 1: naked and unarmed. At first I could not understand, but
- 10:31Speaker 1: at last came a realization of what had occurred. Tario's
- 10:35Speaker 1: long suggestion had at last prevailed, and kar Komak had
- 10:39Speaker 1: become a reality in the world of men. But my
- 10:43Speaker 1: harness and my weapons had faded away from my fellows,
- 10:47Speaker 1: leaving me naked and unarmed in a hostile country far
- 10:50Speaker 1: from Lothar. You wish to return to Lothar, asked Carthoris. No,
- 10:57Speaker 1: replied kar Komak quickly. I have no love for Tario,
- 11:02Speaker 1: being a creature of his mind. I know him too well.
- 11:06Speaker 1: He is cruel and tyrannical, a master I have no
- 11:10Speaker 1: desire to serve. Now that he has succeeded in accomplishing
- 11:14Speaker 1: my permanent materialization, he will be unbearable, and he will
- 11:19Speaker 1: go on until he has filled Lothar with his creatures.
- 11:23Speaker 1: I wonder if he has succeeded as well with the
- 11:25Speaker 1: Maid of Lothar. I thought there were no women there,
- 11:29Speaker 1: said Carthoris. In a hidden apartment in the palace of Tario,
- 11:34Speaker 1: replied kar Komak. The Jeddak has maintained the suggestion of
- 11:38Speaker 1: a beautiful girl, hoping that some day she would become permanent.
- 11:44Speaker 1: I have seen her there. She is wonderful. But for
- 11:49Speaker 1: her sake I hope that Tario succeeds not so well
- 11:53Speaker 1: with her as he has with me. Now, red Man,
- 11:57Speaker 1: I have told you of myself, what of you? Carthoris
- 12:02Speaker 1: liked the face and manner of the bowman. There had
- 12:05Speaker 1: been no sign of doubt or fear in his expression
- 12:08Speaker 1: as he had approached the heavily armed Heliumite, and he
- 12:11Speaker 1: had spoken directly and to the point. So the Prince
- 12:14Speaker 1: of Helium told the bowmen of Lothar who he was
- 12:18Speaker 1: and what adventure had brought him to this far country, good,
- 12:22Speaker 1: exclaimed the other. When he had done, kar Komak will
- 12:26Speaker 1: accompany you. Together we shall find the Princess of Ptarth,
- 12:30Speaker 1: and with you kar Komak will return to the world
- 12:32Speaker 1: of men, such a world as he knew in the
- 12:36Speaker 1: long gone past, when the ships of mighty Lothar plowed
- 12:40Speaker 1: angry throx Us, and the roaring surf beat against the
- 12:44Speaker 1: barrier of these parched and dreary hills. What mean, you, asked, Carthoris,
- 12:52Speaker 1: Had you really a former actual existence? Most assuredly replied,
- 12:58Speaker 1: kar Komak. In my day I commanded the fleets of Lothar,
- 13:03Speaker 1: mightiest of all the fleets that sailed the five salt seas.
- 13:08Speaker 1: Wherever men lived upon Barsoom, there was the name of Karkomac,
- 13:13Speaker 1: known and respected. Peaceful were the land races in those
- 13:17Speaker 1: distant days. Only the seafarers were warriors. But now has
- 13:23Speaker 1: the glory of the past faded. Nor did I think
- 13:26Speaker 1: until I met you that there remained upon Barsoom a
- 13:30Speaker 1: single person of your own mold, who lived and loved
- 13:34Speaker 1: and fought as did the ancient seafarers of my time. Ah,
- 13:40Speaker 1: But it will seem good to see men once again
- 13:43Speaker 1: real men. Never had I much respect for the landsmen
- 13:47Speaker 1: of my day. They remained in their walled cities, wasting
- 13:52Speaker 1: their time and play, depending for their protection entirely upon
- 13:56Speaker 1: the sea race, and the poor creatures who remained the
- 14:01Speaker 1: Tarios and Javs of Lothar are even worse than their
- 14:05Speaker 1: ancient forebears. Carthoris was a trifle skeptical as to the
- 14:10Speaker 1: wisdom of permitting the stranger to attach himself to him.
- 14:14Speaker 1: There was always the chance that he was, but the
- 14:17Speaker 1: essence of some hypnotic treachery which Tario or Jav was
- 14:21Speaker 1: attempting to exert upon the heliumite. And yet so sincere
- 14:26Speaker 1: had been the manner and the words of the bowmen,
- 14:29Speaker 1: so much the fighting man did he seem, but Carthoris
- 14:33Speaker 1: could not find it in his heart to doubt him.
- 14:36Speaker 1: The outcome of the matter was that he gave the
- 14:38Speaker 1: naked odwar leave to accompany him, and together they set
- 14:42Speaker 1: out upon the spoor of Thuvia and comal down to
- 14:47Speaker 1: the Ochre Sea bottom. The trail led there it disappeared,
- 14:51Speaker 1: as Carthoris had known that it would, But where it
- 14:54Speaker 1: entered the plane, its direction had been toward Anthor, and
- 14:58Speaker 1: so toward Anthor the two turned their faces. It was
- 15:03Speaker 1: a long and tedious journey, fraught with many dangers. The
- 15:07Speaker 1: bowmen could not travel at the pace set by Carthoris,
- 15:10Speaker 1: whose muscles carried him with great rapidity over the face
- 15:14Speaker 1: of the small planet, the force of gravity of which
- 15:17Speaker 1: exerts so much less retarding power than that of the Earth.
- 15:21Speaker 1: Fifty miles a day is a fair average for a Barsoomian,
- 15:25Speaker 1: but the son of John Carter might easily have covered
- 15:28Speaker 1: a hundred or more miles had he cared to desert
- 15:31Speaker 1: his new found comrade. All the way, they were in
- 15:35Speaker 1: constant danger of discovery by roving bands of Torquasians, and
- 15:40Speaker 1: especially was this true before they reached the boundary of Torcas.
- 15:45Speaker 1: Good fortune was with them, however, and although they sighted
- 15:48Speaker 1: two detachments of the Savage Green Men, they were not
- 15:52Speaker 1: themselves seen. And so they came, upon the morning of
- 15:57Speaker 1: the third day, within sight of the glistening domes of
- 16:00Speaker 1: distant Anthor. Throughout the journey, Carthoris had ever strained his
- 16:05Speaker 1: eyes ahead in search of Thuvia and the Great Banth,
- 16:09Speaker 1: but not till now had he seen aught to give
- 16:11Speaker 1: him hope. This morning, far ahead, half way between themselves
- 16:18Speaker 1: and Anthor, the men saw two tiny figures moving toward
- 16:22Speaker 1: the city. For a moment they watched them intently. Then Carthoris, convinced,
- 16:30Speaker 1: leaped forward at a rapid run, kar Komak, following as
- 16:34Speaker 1: swiftly as he could. The Heliumite shouted to attract the
- 16:38Speaker 1: girl's attention, and presently he was rewarded by seeing her
- 16:41Speaker 1: turn and stand looking toward him. At her side, the
- 16:45Speaker 1: Great Banth stood with up pricked ears, watching the approaching man.
- 16:51Speaker 1: Not yet could Thuvia of Ptarth have recognized Carthoris, though
- 16:56Speaker 1: that it was he, She must have been convinced, for
- 16:58Speaker 1: she waited there for him without sign of fear. Presently
- 17:03Speaker 1: he saw her point toward the northeast beyond him. Without
- 17:07Speaker 1: slackening his pace, he turned his eyes in the directions
- 17:11Speaker 1: she indicated, racing silently over the thick vegetation. Not half
- 17:16Speaker 1: a mile behind came a score of fierce green warriors,
- 17:20Speaker 1: charging him upon their mighty thoats. To their right was
- 17:24Speaker 1: kar Komak, naked and unarmed, yet running valiantly toward Carthoris
- 17:29Speaker 1: and shouting warning, as though he too had but just
- 17:32Speaker 1: discovered the silent menacing company that moved so swiftly forward
- 17:37Speaker 1: with couched spears and ready long swords. Carthoris shouted to
- 17:42Speaker 1: the Lotharian, warning him back, for he knew that he
- 17:45Speaker 1: could but uselessly sacrifice his life by placing himself, all unarmed,
- 17:51Speaker 1: in the path of the cruel and relentless savages. But
- 17:55Speaker 1: Krkomak never hesitated. With shouts of encouragement to his new friend,
- 18:00Speaker 1: he hurried onward toward the Prince of Helium. The red
- 18:04Speaker 1: Man's heart leaped in response to this exhibition of courage
- 18:07Speaker 1: and self sacrifice. He regretted now that he had not
- 18:11Speaker 1: thought to give kar Komac one of his swords, but
- 18:14Speaker 1: it was too late to attempt it, for should he
- 18:17Speaker 1: wait for the Lotharian to overtake him or return to
- 18:20Speaker 1: meet him, the Torcasians would reach Thuvia of Ptarth before
- 18:24Speaker 1: he could do so. Even as it was, it would
- 18:28Speaker 1: be nip and tuck as to who came first to
- 18:31Speaker 1: her side. Again, he turned his face in her direction,
- 18:35Speaker 1: and now from Anthor Way, he saw a new force
- 18:39Speaker 1: hastening toward them, two medium sized war craft, and even
- 18:44Speaker 1: at the distance they still were from him, he discerned
- 18:47Speaker 1: the device of Dusar upon their boughs. Now, indeed seemed
- 18:53Speaker 1: little hope for Thuvia of Ptarth, with savage warriors of
- 18:57Speaker 1: the Hordes of Torcas charging toward her from one direction,
- 19:01Speaker 1: and no less implacable enemies in the form of the
- 19:04Speaker 1: creatures of Astok, Prince of Dusar, bearing down upon her
- 19:08Speaker 1: from another. While only a banth, a red warrior, and
- 19:13Speaker 1: an unarmed bowman were near to defend her. Her plight
- 19:16Speaker 1: was quite hopeless, and her cause already lost ere ever,
- 19:20Speaker 1: it was contested. As Thuvia saw Carthoris approaching, she felt
- 19:27Speaker 1: again that unaccountable sensation of entire relief from responsibility and
- 19:32Speaker 1: fear that she had experienced upon a former occasion. Nor
- 19:37Speaker 1: could she account for it. While her mind still tried
- 19:40Speaker 1: to convince her heart that the Prince of Helium had
- 19:42Speaker 1: been instrumental in her abduction from her father's court, she
- 19:47Speaker 1: only knew that she was glad when he was by
- 19:49Speaker 1: her side, and that with him there all things seemed possible,
- 19:55Speaker 1: even such impossible things as escape from her present predicament.
- 20:01Speaker 1: Now he had stopped panting before her, A brave smile
- 20:05Speaker 1: of encouragement lit his face. Courage, my princess, he whispered
- 20:12Speaker 1: to the Girl's memory flashed the occasion upon which he
- 20:15Speaker 1: had used those same words in the throne room of
- 20:19Speaker 1: Tario of Lothar, as they had commenced to slip down
- 20:22Speaker 1: the sinking marble floor toward an unknown fate. Then she
- 20:28Speaker 1: had not chiden him for the use of that familiar salutation,
- 20:33Speaker 1: nor did she chide him now, though she was promised
- 20:36Speaker 1: to another. She wondered at herself, flushing at her own turpitude,
- 20:42Speaker 1: for upon barsoom. It is a shameful thing for a
- 20:46Speaker 1: woman to listen to those two words from another than
- 20:49Speaker 1: her husband or her betrothed. Carthoris saw her flush of mortification,
- 20:55Speaker 1: and in an instant regretted his words. There was but
- 20:59Speaker 1: a moment before the Green warriors would be upon them.
- 21:02Speaker 1: Forgive me, said the man in a low voice. Let
- 21:06Speaker 1: my great love be my excuse that and the belief
- 21:11Speaker 1: that I have but a moment more of life. And
- 21:14Speaker 1: with the words he turned to meet the foremost of
- 21:17Speaker 1: the Green warriors. The fellow was charging with couched spear,
- 21:21Speaker 1: but Carthoris leaped to one side, and as the great
- 21:25Speaker 1: foat and its rider hurtled harmlessly past him, he swung
- 21:29Speaker 1: his long sword in a mighty cut that clove the
- 21:31Speaker 1: green carcass in twain. At the same moment, kar Komac
- 21:37Speaker 1: leaped with bare hands, clawing at the leg of another
- 21:40Speaker 1: of the huge riders. The balance of the horde raced
- 21:43Speaker 1: into close quarters, dismounting the better to wield their favorite
- 21:47Speaker 1: long swords. The Dusarian fliers touched the soft carpet of
- 21:51Speaker 1: the ochre clad sea bottom, disgorging fifty fighting men from
- 21:55Speaker 1: their bowels and into the swirling sea of cutting slag,
- 22:00Speaker 1: lashing swords, sprang comal the Great banth end of chapter
- 22:07Speaker 1: ten