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

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Chapter thirteen, A break for liberty. Exodar listened in incredulous astonishment to my
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narration of the events which had transpired within the arena at the rights of Issus.
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He could scarce conceive, even though he had already professed a doubt as
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to the deity of Issus, that one could threaten her with a sword in
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hand and not be blasted into a thousand fragments by the mere fury of her
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divine wrath. It is the final proof, he said, at last,
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no more is needed to completely shatter the last remnant of my superstitious belief in
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the divinity of Issus. She is only a wicked old woman, wielding a
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mighty power for evil through mechanation that have kept her own people in all barsoom,
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in religious ignorance for ages. She is still all powerful here, however,
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I replied, so it behooves us to leave at the first moment that
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appears at all propitious. I hope that you may find a propitious moment,
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he said, with a laugh, for it is certain that in all my
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life I have never seen one in which a prisoner of the first born might
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escape to night. Will do as well as any, I replied, it
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will soon be night, said Exodar, How may I aid in the adventure?
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Can you swim? I asked him. No, slimy Sillion that haunts
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the depths of Chorus is more at home in water than is Exodar. He
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replied, good, the Red One, in all probability, cannot swim,
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I said, since there is scarce enough water in all their domains to float
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the tiniest craft. One of us therefore will have to support him through the
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sea to the craft we select. I had hoped that we might make the
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entire distance below the surface, but I fear that the Red youth could not
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thus perform the trip. Even the bravest of the brave among them are terrorized
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at the mere thought of deep water, for it has been ages since their
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forebears saw a lake, a river, or a sea. The Red One
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is to accompany us, asked Exodar, Yes, it is well. Three
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swords are better than two, especially when the third is as mighty as this
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fellows. I have seen him battle in the arena at the rights of Issus
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many times. Never until I saw you fight had I seen one who seemed
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unconquerable, even in the face of great odds. One might think you to
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master and pupil, or father and son. Come to recall his face.
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There is a resemblance between you. It is very marked. When you fight,
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there is the same grim smile, the same maddening contempt for your adversary,
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apparent in every movement of your bodies and in every changing expression of your
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faces. Be that as it may, Exodar, he is a great fighter.
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I think that we will make a trio difficult to overcome. And if
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my friend Tars Tarkas Jeddak of Thark were but one of us, we could
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fight our way from one end of Barsoom to the other, even though the
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whole world were pitted against us. It will be said, Exodar, when
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they find from whence you have come. That is but one of the superstitions
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which Issus has foisted upon a credulous humanity. She works through the holy Theurns,
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who are as ignorant of her real self as are the arssumiums of the
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outer world. Her decrees are born to the Therns, written in blood upon
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a strange parchment. The poor, deluded fools think that they are receiving the
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revelations of a Goddess through some supernatural agency, since they find these messages upon
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their guarded altars, to which none could have accessed without detection, I myself
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have borne these messages for Issus for many years. There is a long tunnel
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from the Temple of Issus to the principal temple of Matai Shang. It was
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dug ages ago by the slaves of the first Born, in such utter secrecy
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that no thern ever guessed its existence. The Terns, for their part,
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have temples dotted about the entire civilized world. Here, priests whom the people
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never see, communicate the doctrine of the mysterious river Ish, the Valley Door,
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and the Lost Sea of Chorus, to persuade the poor, deluded creatures
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to take the voluntary pilgrimage that swells the wealth of the Holy Thens and adds
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to the number of their slaves. Thus, the terns are used as the
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principal means for electing the wealth and labor that the first born wrest from them
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as they need it. Occasionally, the first born themselves make raids upon the
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outer world. It is then that they capture many females of the royal houses
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of the Red Men and take the newest in battleships and the trained artisans who
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build them, that they may copy what they cannot create. We are a
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non productive race, priding ourselves upon our non productiveness. It is criminal for
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a first born to labor or invent. That is the work of the law
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orders, who live merely that the first born may enjoy long lives of luxury
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and idleness. With us. Fighting is all that counts. Were it not
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for that, there would be more of the first born than all the creatures
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of Barsoom could support. For in so far as I know, none of
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us ever dies in natural death. Our females would live forever but for the
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fact that we tire of them and remove them to make place for others.
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Issus alone, of all this protected against death, she has lived for countless
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ages. Would not the other Barsoomians live forever but for the doctor of the
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voluntary pilgrimage which drags them to the bosom of ish at Or before their thousandth
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year, I asked him, I feel now that there is no doubt but
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that they are precisely the same species of creature as the first born, And
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I hope that I shall live to fight for them in atonement of the sins
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I have committed against them through the ignorance born of generations of false teaching.
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As he ceased speaking, a weird call rang out across the waters of Omean.
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I had heard it at the same time the previous evening, and knew
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that it marked the ending of the day, when the men of Omeans spread
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their silks upon the deck of battleship and cruiser and fall into the dreamless sleep
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of Mars. Our guard entered to inspect us for the last time before the
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new day broke upon the world above. His duty was soon performed, and
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the heavy door of our prison clothes behind him, we were alone for the
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night. I gave him time to return to his quarters, as Exoter said
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he probably would do. Then I sprang to the grated window and surveyed the
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nearby waters. At a little distance from the island, a quarter of mile
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perhaps lay a monster battleship, while between her and the shore were a number
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of smaller cruisers and one man scouts. Upon the battleship alone was there a
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watch. I could see him plainly in the upper works of the ship,
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and as I watched, I saw him spread his sleeping silks upon the tiny
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platform in which he was stationed. Soon he threw himself at full length upon
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his couch. The discipline on Omean was lax, indeed, but it is
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not to be wondered at. Since no enemy guessed the existence upon Barsoom of
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such a fleet, or even of the First Born, or the sea of
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Omean, Why indeed should they maintain a watch. Presently I dropped to the
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floor again and talked with Exedar, describing the various craft I had seen.
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There is one there, he said, my personal property, built to carry
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five men. That is the swiftest of the swift. If we can board
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her, we can at least make a memorable run for liberty. And then
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he went on to describe to me the equipment of the boat, her engines,
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and all that went to make the flier that she was. In his
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explanation I recognized a trick of gearing that Kantos Khan had taught me that time
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we sailed under false names in the navy of Zodanga, beneath sad than the
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Prince. And I knew then that the Firstborn had stolen it from the ships
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of Helium, For only they are thus geared, and I knew too that
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Exoter spoke the truth when he louted the speed of his little craft. For
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nothing that cleaves the thin air of Mars can approximate the speed of the ships
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of Helium. We decided to wait for an hour at least until all the
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stragglers had sought their silks. In the meantime, I was to fetch the
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red Youth to our cell, so that we would be in readiness to make
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our rash break for freedom. Together. I sprang to the top of our
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partition wall and pulled myself up on to it. There I found a flat
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surface about a foot in width, and along this I walked until I came
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to the cell in which I saw the boy sitting upon his bench. He
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had been leaning back against the wall, looking up at the glowing dome above
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Omean, and when he spied me balancing upon the partition wall above him,
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his eyes opened wide in astonishment. Then a wide grin of appreciative understanding spread
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across his countenance. As I stooped to drop to the floor beside him,
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he motioned me to wait, and, coming close below me, whispered,
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catch my hand. I can almost leap to the top of that wall myself.
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I have tried it many times, and each day I come a little
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closer. Some day I should have been able to make it. I lay
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upon my belly across the wall and reached my hand far down toward him.
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With a little run from the center of the cell. He sprang up until
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I grasped his outstretched hand, and thus I pulled him to the wall's top
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beside me. You are the first jumper I ever saw among the red men
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of Barsoom, I said, He smiled. It is not strange. I
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will tell you why when we have more time together. We returned to the
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cell in which exit Aar sat, descending to talk with him until the hour
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had passed. There we made our plans for the immediate future, binding ourselves
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by a solemn oath to fight to the death for one another against whatsoever enemy
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should confront us. For we knew that even should we succeed in escaping the
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first Born, we might still have a whole world against us. The power
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of religious superstition is mighty. It was agreed that I should navigate the craft
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after we had reached her, and that if we made the outer world in
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safety, we should attempt to reach Helium without a stop. Why Helium,
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asked the red youth. I am a prince of Helium, I replied.
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He gave me a peculiar look, but said nothing further on the subject.
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I wondered at the time what the significance of his expression might be, But
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in the press of other matters, it soon left my mind, nor did
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I have occasion to think of it again until later come, I said at
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length, Now is as good a time as any. Let us go.
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Another moment found me at the top of the partition wall again, with the
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boy beside me. Unbuckling my harness, I snapped it together with a single
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long strap, which I lowered to the waiting exod below. He grasped the
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end and was soon sitting beside us. How simple, he laughed. The
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balance should be even simpler, I replied. Then I raised myself to the
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top of the outer wall the prison, just so that I could peer over
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and locate the passing sentry. For a matter of five minutes I waited,
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and then he came in sight on his slow and snail like beat about the
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structure. I watched him until he made the turn at the end of the
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building, which carried him out of sight of the side of the prison that
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was to witness our dash for freedom. The moment his form disappeared, I
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grasped Exodar and drew him to the top of the wall. Placing one end
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of my harness strap in his hands. I lowered him quickly to the ground
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below. Then the boy grasped the strap and slid down to Exodar's side.
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In accordance with our arrangement, they did not wait for me, but walked
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slowly toward the water, a matter of a hundred yards, directly past the
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guard house filled with sleeping soldiers. They had taken scarce a dozen steps when
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I too, dropped to the ground and followed them leisurely toward the shore.
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As I passed the guard house, the thought of all the good blades lying
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there gave me pause, for if ever men were to have need of swords,
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it was my companions and I on the perilous trip upon which we were
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about to embark. I glanced towards Exodar and the youth and saw that they
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had slipped over the edge of the dock into the water. In accordance with
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our plan, they were to remain there clinging to the metal rings which studded
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the concrete like substance of the dock at the water's level, with only their
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mouths and noses above the surface of the sea until I should join them.
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The lure of the swords within the guard house was strong upon me, and
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I hesitated a moment, half inclined to risk the attempt to take the few
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we needed. That he who hesitates is lost proved itself a true aphorism in
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this instant, For another moment saw me creeping stealthily toward the door of the
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guard house. Gently, I pressed it open a crack enough to discover a
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dozen blacks stretched upon their silks in profound slumber. At the far side of
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the room, a rack held the swords and firearms of the men. Wearily,
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I pushed the door a trifle wider to admit my body. A hinge
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gave out a resentful groan, One of the men stirred, and my heart
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stood still. I cursed myself for a fool to have thus jeopardized our chances
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for escape. But there was nothing for it now but to see the adventure
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through with the spring as swift and as noiseless as a tiger's I lit beside
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the guardsman, who had moved. My hands hovered about his throat, awaiting
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the moment that his eyes should open. For what seemed an eternity to my
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overwrought nerves, I remained poised. Thus, Then the fellow turned again upon
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his side and resumed the even respiration of deep slumber. Carefully, I picked
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my way between and over the soldiers until I had gained the rack at the
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far side of the room. Here I turned to survey the sleeping men.
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All were quiet. Their regular breathing rose and fell in a soothing rhythm that
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seemed to me the sweetest music I ever had heard. Gingerly, I drew
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a long sword from the rack. The scraping of the scabbard against its holder
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as I withdrew it sounded like the filing of a cast iron with a great
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rasp, and I looked to see the room immediately filled with alarmed and attacking
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guardsmen, but none stirred. The second sword I withdrew noiselessly, but the
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third clanked in its scabbard with a frightful din. I knew that it must
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awaken some of the men at least, and was on the point of forestalling
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their attack by a rapid charge for the doorway, when again, to my
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intense surprise, not a black moved. Either they were wondrous heavy sleepers or
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else The noises that I made were really much less than they seemed to me.
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I was about to leave the rack when my attention was attracted by the
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revolvers. I knew that I could not carry more than one away with me,
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for I was already too heavily laden to move quietly with any degree of
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safety or speed. As I took one of them from its pin, my
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eye fell for the first time on an open window beside the rack. Ah.
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Here was a splendid means of escape, for it let directly upon the
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dock, not twenty feet from the water's edge. And as I congratulated myself,
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I heard the door opposite me open, and there, looking me full
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in the face, stood the officer of the guard. He evidently took in
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the situation at a glance and appreciated the gravity of it as quickly as I,
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for our revolvers came up simultaneously, and the sounds of the two reports
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were as one. As we touched the buttons on the grips that exploded the
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cartridges. I felt the wind of his bullet as it whizzed passed my ear,
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and at the same instant I saw him crumple to the ground where I
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hit him. I do not know nor if I killed him, for scarce
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had he started to collapse. When I was through the window at my rear.
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In another second, the waters of Omean closed above my head, and
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the three of us were making for the little flier a hundred yards away.
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Exodar was burdened with the boy, and I with the three long swords the
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revolver I had dropped, so that while we were both strong swimmers, it
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seemed to me that we moved at a snail's pace through the water. I
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was swimming entirely beneath the surface, but Exodar was compelled to rise often to
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let the youth breathe. So it was a wonder that we were not discovered
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long before we were. In fact, we reached the boat's side, and
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we were all aboard before the watch upon the battleship, aroused by the shots,
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detected us. Then an alarm gun bellowed from a ship's bow, its
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deep boom reverberating in deafening tones beneath the rocky dome of Omean. Instantly the
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sleeping thousands were awake. The decks of a thousand monster craft teemed with fighting
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men. For an alarm on Omean was a thing of rare occurrence. We
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cast away before the sound of the first gun had died, and another second
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saw us rising swiftly from the surface of the sea. I lay at full
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length along the deck, with the levers and the buttons of control before me.
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Exodar and the Boy were stretched directly behind me. Prone also that we
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might offer as little resistance to the air as possible. Rise high, whispered
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Exodar. They dare not fire their heavy guns toward the dome. The fragments
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of the shells would drop back among their own craft. If we are high
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enough, our keel plates will protect us from rifle fire. I did as
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Ebaye. Below us, we could see the men leaping into the water by
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hundreds and striking out for the small cruisers and the one man fliers that lay
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moored about the big ships. The larger craft were getting under way, following
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us rapidly, but not rising from the water. A little to your right,
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cried Exodar, for there are no points of compass upon Omean, where
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every direction is due north. The pandemonium that had broken out below us was
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deafening. Rifles cracked, Officers shouted orders, men yelled directions to one another
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from the water and from the decks of the myriad boats, while through all
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ran the purr of countless propellers, cutting water and air. I had not
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dared pull my speed lever to the highest for fear of overrunning the mouth of
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the shaft that passed from Omean's dome to the world above. But even so
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we were hitting a clip that I doubt has ever been equalled on the windless
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sea. The smaller fliers were commencing to rise towards us when Exodar shouted the
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shaft. The shaft dead ahead, and I saw the opening black and yawning
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in the glowing dome of this underworld. A man cruiser was rising directly in
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front to cut off our escape. It was the only vessel that stood in
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our way, but at the rate that it was traveling, it would come
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between us and the shaft in plenty of time to thwart our plans. It
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was rising at an angle of about forty five degrees dead ahead of us,
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with the evident intention of combing us with grappling hooks from above. As it
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skimmed low over our deck, there was but one forlorn hope for us,
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and I took it. It was useless to try to pass over her,
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for that would have allowed her to force us against the rocky dome above,
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and we were already too near that as it was. To have attempted to
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dive below her would have put us entirely at her mercy and precisely where she
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wanted us. On either side, a hundred other menacing craft were hastening toward
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us. The alternative was filled with risk. In fact, it was all
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risk, with but a slender chance of success. As we neared the cruiser,
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I rose as though to pass above her, so that she would do
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just what she did do rise at a deeper angle to force me still higher.
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Then, as we were almost upon her, I yelled to my companions
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to hold tight, and throwing the little vessel into her highest speed, I
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deflected her bows at the same instant, until we were running horizontally and at
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a terrific velocity, straight for the cruiser's keel. Her commander may have seen
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my intentions then, but it was too late. Almost at the instant of
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impact, I turned my bows upward, and then, with a shattering jolt,
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we were in collision. What I had hoped for happened. The cruiser,
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already tilted at a perilous angle, was carried completely over backward by the
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impact of my smaller vessel. Her crew fell twisting and screaming through the air
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to the water far below, while the cruiser, her propellers, still madly
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churning, dived swiftly head foremost after them to the bottom of the Sea of
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Omean. The collision crushed our steel boughs, and notwithstanding every effort on our
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part, came near to hurtling us from the deck. As it was,
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we landed in a wildly clutching heap at the very extremity of the flier,
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where Exodar and I succeeded in grasping the hand rail, But the boy would
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have plunged overboard had I not fortunately grasped his ankle, as he was already
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partially over unguided. Our vessel careened wildly in its mad flight, rising ever
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nearer the rocks above. It took but an instant, however, for me
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to regain the levers, and with the roof barely fifty feet above, I
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turned her nose once more into the horizontal plane and headed her again for the
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black mouth of the shaft. The collision had retarded our progress, and now
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a hundred swift scouts were close upon us. Exodar had told me that ascending
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the shaft by virtue of our repulsive rays alone would give our enemies their best
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chance to overtake us, since our propellers would be idle, and in rising
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we would be outclassed by many of our pursuers. The swifter craft are seldom
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equipped with large buoyancy tanks, since the added bulk of them tends to reduce
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a vessel's speed. As many boats were now quite close to us, it
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was in inevitable that we would be quickly overhauled in the shaft and captured or
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killed in short order. To me, there always seems a way to gain
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the opposite side of an obstacle. If one cannot pass over it, or
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below it, or around it, why then there is but a single alternative
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left, and that is to pass through it. I could not get around
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the fact that many of these other boats could rise faster than ours by the
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fact of their greater buoyancy. But I was none the less determined to reach
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the outer world far in advanced of them, or die death of my own
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choosing in event of failure, Reverse screamed, Exodar behind me, for the
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love of your first ancestor. Reverse, we are at the shaft. Hold
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tight, I screamed in reply. Grasp the boy and hold tight. We
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are going straight up the shaft. The words were scarce out of my mouth
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as we swept beneath the pitch black opening. I threw the bow hard up,
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dragged the speed lever to its last notch, and, clutching a stanchion
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with one hand and the steering wheel with the other, hung on like grim
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death, and can signed my soul to its author. I heard a little
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exclamation of surprise from exod, followed by a grim laugh. The boy laughed
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too, and said something which I could not catch. For the whistling of
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the wind of our awful speed. I looked above my head, hoping to
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catch the gleam of stars by which I could direct our course and hold the
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hurtling thing that bore us true to the center of the shaft. To have
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touched the side at the speed we were making would doubtless have resulted in instant
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death for us. All but not a star showed above, only utter and
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impenetrable darkness. Then I glanced below me, and there I saw a rapidly
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diminishing circle of light the mouth of the opening, above the phosphorescent radiance of
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Omean. By this I steered, endeavoring to keep the circle of light below
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me. Ever perfect, at best, it was but a slender cord that
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held us from destruction. And I think that I steered that night more by
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intuition and blind faith than by skill or reason. We were not long in
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the shaft, and possibly the very fact of our enormous speed saved us.
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For evidently we started in the right direction, and so quickly were we out
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again that we had no time to alter our course. Omean lies perhaps two
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miles below the surface crust of Mars. Our speed must have approximated two hundred
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miles an hour, for Martian flyers are swift, so that at most we
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were in the shaft not over forty seconds. We must have been out of
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it for some seconds before I realized that we had accomplished the impossible. Black
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darkness enshrouded all about us. There were neither moons nor stars. Never before
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had I seen such a thing upon Mars, and for the moment I was
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nonplussed. Then the explanation came to me. It was summer at the south
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pole, the ice cap was melting, and those meteoric phenomena clouds unknown upon
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the greater part of Barsoom were shutting out the light of Heaven from this portion
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of the planet. Fortunate, indeed it was for us, Nor did it
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take me long to grasp the opportunity for escape which this happy condition offered us.
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Keeping the boat's nose a stiff angle, I raised her for the impenetrable
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curtain which nature had hung above this dying world to shut us out from the
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sight of our pursuing enemies. We plunged through the cold camp fog without diminishing
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our speed, and in a moment emerged into the glorious light of the two
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moons and the million stars. I dropped into a horizontal course and headed due
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north. Our enemies were a good half hour behind us, with no conception
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of our direction. We had performed the miraculous and come through a thousand dangers,
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unscathed, we had escaped from the land of the First Born. No
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other prisoners in all the ages of Barsoom had done this thing. And now
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as I looked back upon it, it did not seem to have been so
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difficult. After all, I said as much to Exodur over my shoulder.
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It is very wonderful. Nevertheless, he replied, no one else could have
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accomplished it, but John Carter. At the sound of that name, the
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boy jumped to his feet. John Carter, he cried, John Carter.
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Why man, John Carter, Prince of Helium, has been dead for years,
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I am his End of Chapter thirteen,