Part 8 (1/2)
”Nothing,” ad with her companion
”Tell me of these men of Manator,” said Tara presently ”Are they all like E-Med, or are some of them like A-Kor, who seemed a brave and chivalrous character?”
”They are not unlike the peoples of other countries,” replied Lan-O ”There be ahty A themselves they are not without chivalry and honor, but in their dealings with strangers they know but one law--the law of ht The weak and unfortunate of other lands fill them with contempt and arouse all that is worst in their natures, which doubtless accounts for their treatment of us, their slaves”
”But why should they feel conte into their hands?” queried Tara
”I do not know,” said Lan-O; ”A-Kor says that he believes that it is because their country has never been invaded by a victorious foe In their stealthy raids never have they been defeated, because they have never waited to face a powerful force; and so they have come to believe themselves invincible, and the other peoples are held in contempt as inferior in valor and the practice of arms”
”Yet A-Kor is one of them,” said Tara
”He is a son of O-Tar, the jeddak,” replied Lan-O; ”but his h born Gatholian, captured and made slave by O-Tar, and A-Kor boasts that in his veins runs only the blood of his mother, and indeed is he different froh not even his worst enee, while his skill with the sword, and the spear, and the thoat is fath and breadth of Manator”
”What think you they will do with hiaered he ame, in which case he may come out alive; but if O-Tar wishes really to dispose of him he will be sentenced to the entire series, and no warrior has ever survived the full ten, or rather none as under a sentence froames? I do not understand,” said Tara ”I have heard the at jetan, but surely no one can be killed at jetan We play it often at home”
”But not as they play it in the arena at Manator,” replied Lan-O ”Coether the two approached an aperture facing toward the east
Below her Tara of Heliu, and the lofty towers of which that in which she was imprisoned was but a unit About the arena were tiers of seats; but the a thing that caught her attention was a gigantic jetan board laid out upon the floor of the arena in great squares of alternate orange and black
”Here they play at jetan with living pieces They play for great stakes and usually for a woht have played for you had you not angered hia to the side that wins--not to a single warrior, but to all who survive the game”
The eyes of Tara of Helium flashed, but she made no comment
”Those who direct the play do not necessarily take part in it,” continued the slave girl, ”but sit in those two great thrones which you see at either end of the board and direct their pieces froer?” asked Tara of Helium ”If a piece be taken it is merely removed from the board--this is a rule of jetan as old almost as the civilization of Barsooreat arena with living men, that rule is altered,” explained Lan-O ”When a warrior ispiece, the two battle to the death for possession of the square and the one that is successful advantages by the move Each is caparisoned to simulate the piece he represents and in addition he wears that which indicates whether he be slave, a warrior serving a sentence, or a volunteer If serving a sentence the nua the moves knohich pieces to risk and which to conserve, and further than this, a ned hiaa”
”Do those who direct the play ever actually take part in it?” asked Tara
”Oh, yes,” said Lan-O ”Often when tarriors, even of the highest class, hold a grievance against one another O-Tar compels them to settle it upon the arena Then it is that they take active part and with draords direct their own players from the position of Chief They pick their own players, usually the best of their oarriors and slaves, if they be powerful men who possess such, or their friends may volunteer, or they areat chiefs themselves are slain”
”It is within this amphitheater that the justice of Manator is ely,” replied Lan-O
”How, then, through such justice, could a prisoner win his liberty?” continued the girl froames his liberty would be his,” replied Lan-O
”But none ever survives?” queried Tara ”And if a woates of Manator ever has survived ten gairl ”They are permitted to offer the at jetan Of course they a are increased, since theyto liberty”
”But a woman,” insisted Tara; ”how hed ”Very simply,” she cried derisively ”She has but to find a warrior ill fight through ten consecutive games for her and survive”
”'Just are the laws of Manator,'” quoted Tara, scornfully
Then it was that they heard footsteps outside their cell and a moment later a key turned in the lock and the door opened A warrior faced them
”Hast seen E-Med the dwar?” he asked
”Yes,” replied Tara, ”he was here solanced quickly about the bare chaly first at Tara of Heliuirl, Lan-O The puzzled expression upon his face increased He scratched his head ”It is strange,” he said ”A score of h there is but a single exit, and that well guarded, no man has seen him pass out”
Tara of Helium hid a yaith the back of a shapely hand ”The Princess of Heliury, fellow,” she drawled; ”tell your master that she would eat”
It was an hour later that food was brought, an officer and several warriors acco the bearer The forn that aught amiss had occurred there The wound that had sent E-Med the dwar to his ancestors had not bled, fortunately for Tara of Heliu upon Tara, ”you were the last to see E-Med the dwar Answer me now and answer me truthfully Did you see him leave this room?”
”I did,” answered Tara of Heliuo from here?”
”How should I know? Think you that I can pass through a locked door of skeel?” the girl's tone was scornful
”Of that we do not know,” said the officer ”Strange things have happened in the cell of your companion in the pits of Manator Perhaps you could pass through a locked door of skeel as easily as he perforly more impossible feats”
”Whom do you mean,” she cried; ”Turan the panthan? He lives, then? Tell me, is he here in Manator unhar which calls itself Ghek the kaldane,” replied the officer
”But Turan! Tell ht of him?” Tara's tone was insistent and she leaned a little forward toward the officer, her lips slightly parted in expectancy
Into the eyes of the slave girl, Lan-O, atching her, there crept a soft light of understanding; but the officer ignored Tara's question--as the fate of another slave to hirowled, ”and if E-Med be not found soon O-Tar himself may take a hand in this I warn you, wo the spirits of the wicked dead gains evilcalled Ghek to be, that lest you return E-Med, O-Tar will have no irl ”I am a princess of Helium, as I have told you all a score of times Even if the fabled Corphals existed, as none but the norant now believes, the lore of the ancients tells us that they entered only into the bodies of wicked criminals of the lowest class Man of Manator, thou art a fool, and thy jeddak and all his people,” and she turned her royal back upon the padwar, and gazed through theacross the Field of Jetan and the roofs of Manator through the low hills and the rolling country and freedom
”And you know so much of Corphals, then,” he cried, ”you know that while no common man dare harm them they may be slain by the hand of a jeddak with iain, for all his threats and rage, for she kne that none in all Manator dared harm her save O-Tar, the jeddak, and after a while the padwar left, taking hislooking out upon the city of Manator, and wondering what s Fate held in store for her She was standing thus in silent meditation when there rose to her the strains of martialwar tru notes of foot-soldiers' , and Lan-O, standing at an opposite , looking toward the west, motioned Tara to join her Now they could see across roofs and avenues to The Gate of Ene into the city
”The Great Jed is co trumpets, the city of Manator It is U-Thor, Jed of Manatos, second city of Manator They call hith and breadth of Manator, and because the people love him, O-Tar hates hiht provocation to inflauess; for the people of Manator worshi+p the great O-Tar, though they do not love him U-Thor they love, but he is not the jeddak,” and Tara understood, as only a Martian may, how much that simple statement encompassed
The loyalty of a Martian to his jeddak is almost an instinct, and second not even to the instinct of self-preservation at that Nor is this strange in a race whose religion includes ancestor worshi+p, and where faes and a jeddak sits upon the saenitors have occupied for, perhaps, hundreds of thousands of years, and rules the descendants of the same people that his forebears ruled Wicked jeddaks have been dethroned, but seldom are they replaced by other than ives to the jeds the right to select whoood, then?” asked Tara of Helium
”There be none nobler,” replied Lan-O ”In Manatos none but wicked criminals who deserve death are forced to play at jetan, and even then the play is fair and they have their chance for freedom Volunteers may play, but the moves are not necessarily to the death--a wound, and even so the issue There they look upon jetan as a martial sport--here it is but butchery And U-Thor is opposed to the ancient slave raids and to the policy that keeps Manator forever isolated from the other nations of Barsooe”
The two girls watched the colu up the broad avenue froeous, barbaric procession of painted warriors in jewel-studded harness and waving feathers; vicious, squealing thoats caparisoned in rich trappings; far above their heads the long lances of their riders bore fluttering pennons; foot-soldiers swinging easily along the stone pave forth no sound; and at the rear of each utan a train of painted chariots, drawn bythe equipment of the company to which they were attached Utan after utan entered through the great gate, and even when the head of the column reached the palace of O-Tar they were not all within the city
”I have been here irl, Lan-O; ”but never have I seen even The Great Jed bring so h half-closed eyes Tara of Heliu to i to the rescue of their princess That splendid figure upon the great thoat ht be John Carter, himself, Warlord of Barsoom, and behind him utan after utan of the veterans of the eain and saw the host of painted, befeathered barbarians, and sighed But yet she watched, fascinated by the roups of silent figures upon the balconies No waving silks; no cries of welcome; no showers of flowers and jewels such as would have eant into the twin cities of her birth
”The people do not seem friendly to the warriors of Manatos,” she ren froirl looked at her in surprise ”It cannot be that you do not know!” she exclai open and an officer stood before theirl, Tara, is summoned to the presence of O-Tar, the jeddak!” he announced