Latest / Daily Sci-Fi Books / 10 - The God's of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs

Transcript

10 - The God's of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs · Daily Sci-Fi Books

0:00
Chapter ten, the prison isle of Shador. In the outer gardens, to
0:05
which the guard now escorted me, I found Exodar surrounded by a crowd of
0:09
noble blacks. They were reviling and cursing him. The men slapped his face,
0:14
the woman spat upon him. When I appeared, they turned their attentions
0:18
toward me. Ah, cried one, So this is the creature who overcame
0:22
the great Exodar bare handed. Let us see how it was done. Let
0:26
him find Third, suggested, a beautiful woman, laughing. Third is a
0:30
noble detour. Let third show the dog what it means to face a real
0:34
man. Yes, third, Third cried A dozen voices. Here he is
0:40
now, exclaimed another, and, turning in the direction, indicated, I
0:44
saw a huge black, weighed down with resplendent ornaments and arms, advancing with
0:48
noble and gallant bearing toward us. What now, he cried? What would
0:53
you have? Thward? Quickly a dozen voices explain Thward turned toward Exodar,
0:59
his eyes narrowing to two nasty slits. Caelot, he hissed, Ever,
1:03
did I think you carried the heart of a psoric in your putrid breast?
1:08
Often have you bested me in the secret councils of Issus. But now in
1:12
the field of war, where men are truly gaged, your scabby heart hath
1:17
revealed its sores to all the world. Calot, I spurn you with my
1:21
foot, and with the words he turned to kick Exodar. My blood was
1:26
up for minutes. It had been boiling at the cowardly treatment that had been
1:30
according this once powerful comrade because he had fallen from the favor of Issus.
1:34
I had no love for Exodar, but I cannot stand the sight of cowardly
1:38
injustice and persecution without seeing red as through a haze of bloody mist, and
1:44
doing things on the impulse of the moment that I presume I never should do.
1:48
After mature deliberation, I was standing close beside Exodar, as through it
1:53
swung his foot for the cowardly kick. The degraded detor stood erect and motionless
1:57
as a carven image. He was prepared to take whatever his former comrades had
2:02
to offer in the way of insults and reproaches, and take them in manly
2:07
silence and stoism. But his third's foot swung, so did mine, and
2:12
I caught him a painful blow upon the shin bone that saved Exodar from this
2:15
added ignomy. For a moment there was tense silence. Then Thurid, with
2:21
a roar of rage, sprang for my throat, just as Exodar had done
2:24
upon the deck of the cruiser. The results were identical. I ducked beneath
2:30
his outstretched arms, and as he lunched past me, planted a terrific right
2:34
on the side of his jaw. The big fellow spun around like a top,
2:38
his knees gave beneath him, and he crumpled to the ground at my
2:40
feet. The Blacks gazed in astonishment, first at the still form of the
2:46
proud detour lying there in the ruby dust of the pathway, then at me,
2:50
as though they could not believe that such a thing could be. You
2:53
asked me to bind Thurid. I cried, behold, and then I stooped
2:58
beside the prostrate form, tore the harness from it, and bound the fellow's
3:01
arms and legs securely, as you have done to Exodar. Now, do
3:06
you, likewise, to Thurid, take him before Issus, bound in his
3:09
own harness, that she may see with her own eyes, that there be
3:13
one among you. Now who is greater than the first born? Who are
3:16
you? Whispered the woman who had first suggested that I attempt to bind Thurid.
3:23
I am a citizen of two worlds. Captain John Carter of Virginia,
3:27
Prince of the House of Tardos Mors Jeddak of Helium. Take this man to
3:30
your Goddess, as I have said, and tell her too that as I
3:35
have done to Exidar and Thurid, so also can I do to the mightiest
3:38
of her detours with naked hands, with long sword or with short sword.
3:43
I challenged the flower of her fighting men to combat. Come, said the
3:47
officer who was guarding me back to Shador. My orders are imperative. There
3:52
is to be no delay. Exodar, come you also. There was little
3:57
of disrespect in the tone that the man used in addressing either Exodar or myself.
4:01
It was evident that he felt less content for the former detor, since
4:04
he had witnessed the ease with which I disposed of the powerful Thurid. That
4:10
his respect for me was greater than it should have been for a slave was
4:13
quite apparent from the fact that during the balance of the return journey he walked
4:17
Or stood always behind me, a drawn short sword in his hand. The
4:21
return to the Sea of Omen was uneventful. We dropped down to the awful
4:26
shaft in the same car that had brought us to the surface. There we
4:30
entered the submarine, taking the long dive to the tunnel far beneath the upper
4:33
world, then through the tunnel and up again to the pool from which we
4:38
had had our first introduction to the wonderful passageway from Omean to the Temple of
4:43
Issus. From the aisle of the submarine, we were transported on a small
4:46
cruiser to the distant isle of Shador. Here we found a small stone prison
4:51
and a guard of a half a dozen blacks. There was no ceremony wasted
4:55
in completing our incarceration. One of the blacks opened the door of the prison
5:00
with a huge key. We walked in. The door closed behind us,
5:02
The lock grated, and with the sound there swept over me again that terrible
5:08
feeling of hopelessness that I had felt in the chamber of Mystery in the golden
5:11
cliff beneath the gardens of the Holy Thurns. Then tars Tarkas had been with
5:15
me, But now I was utterly alone in so far as friendly companionship was
5:20
concerned. I fell to wondering about the fate of the great Thark and of
5:25
his beautiful companion, the girl Thuvia. Even should they, by some miracle
5:29
have escaped and been received and spared by a friendly nation. What hope had
5:33
I of the succor which I knew they would gladly extend if it lay in
5:38
their power. They could not guess my whereabouts or my fate, for none
5:42
on all Barsoom even dreamed of such a place as this, Nor would it
5:46
have advantaged me any had they known the exact location of my prison, For
5:51
who could hope to penetrate to this buried sea in the face of the mighty
5:56
navy of the first born? No, my case was hopeless. Well I
6:00
would make the best of it, And rising, I swept aside the brooding
6:03
despair that had been endeavoring to claim me with the idea of exploring my prison,
6:09
I started to look around. Exodar sat with bowed head upon a low
6:14
stone bench near the center of the room in which we were. He had
6:17
not spoken since Issus had degraded him. The building was roofless, the walls
6:23
rising to a height of about thirty feet. Half Way up were a couple
6:27
of small, heavily barred windows. The prison was divided into several rooms by
6:30
partitions twenty feet high. There was no one in the room which we occupied,
6:35
but two doors which led to other rooms were opened. I entered one
6:39
of these rooms, but found it vacant. Thus I continued through several of
6:43
the chambers, until in the last one I found a young red Martian boy
6:46
sleeping upon the stone bench, which constituted the only furniture of any of the
6:50
prison cells. Evidently he was the only other prisoner. As he slept,
6:56
I leaned over and looked at him. There was something strangely familiar about his
7:00
face, and yet I could not place him. His features were very regular,
7:03
and like the proportions of his graceful limbs and body, beautiful in the
7:08
extreme. He was very light in color for a red man, but in
7:12
other respects he seemed a typical specimen of this handsome race. I did not
7:15
awaken him, for sleep in prison is such a priceless boon that I have
7:19
seen men transformed into raging brutes when robbed by one of their fellow prisoners of
7:25
a few precious moments of it. Returning to my own cell, I found
7:29
Exodar still sitting in the same position in which I had left him. Man,
7:33
I cried, it will profit you nothing to mope. Thus it were
7:36
no disgrace to be bested by John Carter. You have seen that in the
7:42
ease with which I accounted for thurid you knew it before, when on the
7:46
cruiser's deck you saw me slay three of your comrades. I would that you
7:49
had despatched me at the same time. He said, come, come,
7:54
I cried, there is hope yet neither of us is dead. We are
7:57
great fighters. Why not win to free He looked at me in amazement.
8:01
You know not of what you speak, he replied. Issus is omnipotent.
8:07
Issus is omniscient. She hears now the words you speak. She knows the
8:11
thoughts you think. It is sacrilege even to dream of breaking her commands.
8:18
Rot Exodar, I ejaculated impatiently. He sprang to his feet in horror.
8:22
The curse of Issus will fall upon you, he cried. In another instant.
8:26
You will be smitten down, rithing to your death in horrible agony.
8:31
Do you believe that, Exodar, I asked, of course, who would
8:35
dare doubt? I doubt, yes, And further I deny, I said,
8:41
why, Exodar, you tell me that she even knows my thoughts?
8:45
The Red men have all had that power for ages, and another wonderful power.
8:50
They can shut their minds so that none may read their thoughts. I
8:52
learned the first secret years ago. The other I never had to learn,
8:56
since upon all barsoom is none who can what passes in the secret chambers of
9:01
my brain. Your Goddess cannot read my thoughts, nor can she read yours
9:05
when you are out of sight, unless you will it. Had she been
9:09
able to read mine, I am afraid that her pride would have suffered a
9:13
rather severe shock when I turned, at her command to gaze upon the holy
9:16
vision of her radiant face. What do you mean, he whispered in an
9:20
affrighted voice, so low that I could scarcely hear him. I mean that
9:26
I thought her the most repulsive and vilely hideous creature my eyes ever had rested
9:30
upon. For a moment, he eyed me in horror, stricken amazement,
9:33
and then with a cry of blasphemer he sprang upon me. I did not
9:39
wish to strike him again, nor was it necessary, since he was unarmed
9:43
and therefore quite harmless to me. As he came, I grasped his left
9:46
wrist with my left hand, and, swinging my right arm about his left
9:50
shoulder, caught him beneath the chin with my elbow and bore him backward across
9:54
my thigh. There he hung helpless for a moment, glaring up at me
9:58
in impotent rage. Exodar, I said, let us be friends for a
10:03
year. Possibly we may be forced to live together in the narrow confines of
10:07
this tiny room. I am sorry to have offended you, but I could
10:11
not dream that one who had suffered from cruel injustice of Issus still could believe
10:16
her divine. I will say a few more words, Exodar, with no
10:20
intent to wound your feelings further, but rather that you may give thought to
10:24
the fact that while we live, we are still more the arbiters of our
10:28
own fate than is any god. Issus you see, has not struck me
10:33
dead, nor is she rescuing her faithful Exodar from the clutches of the unbeliever
10:37
who defamed her fair beauty. No, Exidar, your Issus is a mortal
10:43
old woman once out of her clutches, and she cannot harm you. With
10:46
your knowledge of this strange land and my knowledge of the outer world, two
10:50
such fighting men as you and I should be able to win our way to
10:54
freedom, even though we died in the attempt. Would not our memories be
10:58
fairer than as though we remained in servile fear to be butchered by a cruel
11:03
and unjust tyrant. Call her goddess or mortal as you will. As I
11:07
finished, I raised Exoter to his feet and released him. He did not
11:13
renew the attack upon me, nor did he speak. Instead, he walked
11:16
toward the bench, and, sinking down upon it, remained lost in deep
11:20
thought for hours. A long time afterward, I heard a soft sound at
11:24
the doorway leading to one of the other apartments, and looking up, beheld
11:28
the red Martian youth gazing intently at us. Koor. I cried, after
11:33
the Red Martian manner of greeting Kowor, He replied, what do you hear?
11:37
I await my death, I presume, I replied, with a weary
11:41
smile. He too smiled, a brave and winning smile. I also,
11:46
he said, mine will come soon. I looked upon the radiant beauty of
11:50
Issus nearly a year since it has always been a source of keen. Wonder
11:54
to me that I did not drop dead at the first sight of that hideous
11:56
countenance and her belly by my first ancestor. But never was there so grotesque
12:03
a figure in all the universe that they should call such a one Goddess of
12:07
life, eternal Goddess of Death, mother of the Nearer Moon, and fifty
12:11
other equally impossible titles. Is quite beyond me. How came you here,
12:18
I asked, It is very simple. I was flying a one man air
12:22
scout far to the south when the brilliant idea occurred to me that I should
12:26
like to search for the lost Sea of Chorus, which tradition places near to
12:30
the South Pole. I must have inherited from my father a wild lust for
12:33
adventure, as well as a hollow where my bump of reverence should be.
12:39
I had reached the area of eternal ice when my prop propeller jammed, and
12:43
I dropped to the ground to make repairs. Before I knew it, the
12:46
air was black with fliers, and a hundred of those first born devils were
12:50
leaping to the ground. All about me with drawn swords they made for me.
12:54
But before I went down beneath them, they had tasted of the steel
12:58
my father's sword, and I had gain even such an account of myself,
13:01
as I know, would have pleased my sire, had he lived to witness
13:03
it. Your father is dead, I asked. He died before the shell
13:07
broke. To let me step out into a world that has been very good
13:11
to me. But for the sorrow that I have never the honor to know
13:15
my father, I have been very happy. My only sorrow now is that
13:18
my mother must mourn me as she has for ten long years mourned my father.
13:22
Who was your father? I asked. He was about to reply when
13:26
the outer door of our prison opened, and a burly guard entered and ordered
13:30
him to his own quarters for the night, locking the door after him as
13:33
he passed through into the further chamber. It is Issius's wish that you two
13:39
be confined in the same room, said the guard, when he had returned
13:43
to oursells. This cowardly slave of a slave is to serve you well,
13:46
he said to me, indicating Exodar with a wave of his hand. If
13:50
he does not you are to beat him into submission. It is Ishus's wish
13:56
that you heap upon him every indignity and degradation of which you can can.
14:01
With these words, he left us. Exodar still sat with his face buried
14:05
in his hands. I walked aside and placed my hand upon his shoulder.
14:09
Exodar, I said, you have heard the commands of Issus, but you
14:13
need not fear that I should attempt to put them into execution. You are
14:16
a brave man, Exodar. It is your own affair if you wish to
14:20
be persecuted and humiliated. But were I you, I should assert my manhood
14:26
and defy my enemies. I have been thinking very hard, John Carter,
14:31
he said, of all the new ideas you gave me a few hours since,
14:35
little by little, I have been piecing together the things that you said
14:39
which sounded blasphemous to me, then with the things that I have seen in
14:43
my past life and dared not even think about for fear of bringing down upon
14:46
me the wrath of Issus. I believe now that she is a fraud,
14:52
no more divine than you or I more. I am willing to concede that
14:56
the first born are no holier than the holy thurns, nor the holy theurns
15:01
more holy than the red men. The whole fabric of our religion is based
15:05
on superstitious belief in lies that have been foisted upon us for ages by those
15:09
directly above us, to whose personal profit and aggrandizement it was to have us
15:13
continue to believe as they wished us to believe. I am ready to cast
15:18
off the ties that have bound me. I am ready to defy Issus herself.
15:22
But what will it avail us be the first born gods or mortals.
15:26
They are a powerful race, and we are as fast in their clutches as
15:31
though we were already dead. There is no escape. I have escaped from
15:35
bad plights in the past, my friend, I replied, Nor while life
15:39
is in me, shall I despair of escaping from the Isle of Shador and
15:43
the sea of Omean. But we cannot escape even from the four walls of
15:48
our prison. Urged Exodar. Test this flint like surface, he cried,
15:52
smiting the solid rock that confined us. And look upon this polished surface.
15:56
None could cling to it to reach the top. I smiled. That is
16:02
the least of our troubles. Exodar, I replied, I will guarantee to
16:06
scale the wall and take you with me, if you will help with your
16:10
knowledge of the customs here to appoint the best time for the attempt, and
16:14
guide me to the shaft that lets from the dome of this abysmal sea to
16:18
the light of God's pure air above. Night time is the best and offers
16:22
the only slender chance we have. For then men sleep, and only a
16:26
dozing watch nods in the tops of the battleship. No watch is kept upon
16:30
the cruisers in the smaller craft. The watchers upon the larger vessels see to
16:36
all about them. It is night now, But I exclaimed, it is
16:40
not dark. How can it be night? Then he smiled, you forget,
16:45
He said that we are far below ground. The light of the sun
16:48
never penetrates here. There are no moons and no stars reflected in the bosom
16:52
of Omean. The phosphorate light you now see pervading this great subtraining vault emanates
17:00
from the rocks that form its dome. It is always thus upon Omean,
17:03
just as the billows are always as you see them, rolling, ever rolling
17:07
over a windless sea. At the appointed hour of night, upon the world
17:11
above. The men whose duties hold them here sleep, But the light is
17:15
ever the same. It will make escape more difficult, I said, And
17:19
then I shrugged my shoulders. For what pray is the pleasure of doing any
17:23
easy thing? Let us sleep on it to night, said Exodar. A
17:29
plan may come with our awakening. So we threw ourselves upon the hard stone
17:33
floor of our prison and slept the sleep of tired men. End of Chapter ten.