CHAPTER XXV
THE LOOTING OF ZODANGA
As the great gate where I stood swung open my fifty Tharks, headed
by Tars Tarkas himself, rode in upon their mighty thoats. I led
them to the palace walls, which I negotiated easily without
assistance. Once inside, however, the gate gave me considerable
trouble, but I finally was rewarded by seeing it swing upon its
huge hinges, and soon my fierce escort was riding across the
gardens of the jeddak of Zodanga.
As we approached the palace I could see through the great windows of
the first floor into the brilliantly illuminated audience chamber
of Than Kosis. The immense hall was crowded with nobles and their
women, as though some important function was in progress. There was
not a guard in sight without the palace, due, I presume, to the fact
that the city and palace walls were considered impregnable, and so
I came close and peered within.
At one end of the chamber, upon massive golden thrones encrusted
with diamonds, sat Than Kosis and his consort, surrounded by
officers and dignitaries of state. Before them stretched a broad
aisle lined on either side with soldiery, and as I looked there
entered this aisle at the far end of the hall, the head of a
procession which advanced to the foot of the throne.
First there marched four officers of the jeddak's Guard bearing a
huge salver on which reposed, upon a cushion of scarlet silk, a
great golden chain with a collar and padlock at each end. Directly
behind these officers came four others carrying a similar salver
which supported the magnificent ornaments of a prince and princess
of the reigning house of Zodanga.
At the foot of the throne these two parties separated and halted,
facing each other at opposite sides of the aisle. Then came more
dignitaries, and the officers of the palace and of the army, and
finally two figures entirely muffled in scarlet silk, so that not
a feature of either was discernible. These two stopped at the
foot of the throne, facing Than Kosis. When the balance of the
procession had entered and assumed their stations Than Kosis
addressed the couple standing before him. I could not hear his
words, but presently two officers advanced and removed the scarlet
robe from one of the figures, and I saw that Kantos Kan had failed
in his mission, for it was Sab Than, Prince of Zodanga, who stood
revealed before me.
Than Kosis now took a set of the ornaments from one of the salvers
and placed one of the collars of gold about his son's neck,
springing the padlock fast. After a few more words addressed to
Sab Than he turned to the other figure, from which the officers
now removed the enshrouding silks, disclosing to my now
comprehending view Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium.
The object of the ceremony was clear to me; in another moment Dejah
Thoris would be joined forever to the Prince of Zodanga. It was an
impressive and beautiful ceremony, I presume, but to me it seemed
the most fiendish sight I had ever witnessed, and as the ornaments
were adjusted upon her beautiful figure and her collar of gold swung
open in the hands of Than Kosis I raised my long-sword above my
head, and, with the heavy hilt, I shattered the glass of the great
window and sprang into the midst of the astonished assemblage. With
a bound I was on the steps of the platform beside Than Kosis, and as
he stood riveted with surprise I brought my long-sword down upon the
golden chain that would have bound Dejah Thoris to another.
In an instant all was confusion; a thousand drawn swords menaced me
from every quarter, and Sab Than sprang upon me with a jeweled
dagger he had drawn from his nuptial ornaments. I could have killed
him as easily as I might a fly, but the age-old custom of Barsoom
stayed my hand, and grasping his wrist as the dagger flew toward my
heart I held him as though in a vise and with my long-sword pointed
to the far end of the hall.
"Zodanga has fallen," I cried. "Look!"
All eyes turned in the direction I had indicated, and there, forging
through the portals of the entranceway rode Tars Tarkas and his
fifty warriors on their great thoats.
A cry of alarm and amazement broke from the assemblage, but no word
of fear, and in a moment the soldiers and nobles of Zodanga were
hurling themselves upon the advancing Tharks.
Thrusting Sab Than headlong from the platform, I drew Dejah Thoris
to my side. Behind the throne was a narrow doorway and in this Than
Kosis now stood facing me, with drawn long-sword. In an instant we
were engaged, and I found no mean antagonist.
As we circled upon the broad platform I saw Sab Than rushing up the
steps to aid his father, but, as he raised his hand to strike, Dejah
Thoris sprang before him and then my sword found the spot that made
Sab Than jeddak of Zodanga. As his father rolled dead upon the
floor the new jeddak tore himself free from Dejah Thoris' grasp,
and again we faced each other. He was soon joined by a quartet of
officers, and, with my back against a golden throne, I fought once
again for Dejah Thoris. I was hard pressed to defend myself and yet
not strike down Sab Than and, with him, my last chance to win the
woman I loved. My blade was swinging with the rapidity of lightning
as I sought to parry the thrusts and cuts of my opponents. Two I
had disarmed, and one was down, when several more rushed to the aid
of their new ruler, and to avenge the death of the old.
As they advanced there were cries of "The woman! The woman!
Strike her down; it is her plot. Kill her! Kill her!"
Calling to Dejah Thoris to get behind me I worked my way toward the
little doorway back of the throne, but the officers realized my
intentions, and three of them sprang in behind me and blocked my
chances for gaining a position where I could have defended Dejah
Thoris against any army of swordsmen.
The Tharks were having their hands full in the center of the room,
and I began to realize that nothing short of a miracle could save
Dejah Thoris and myself, when I saw Tars Tarkas surging through the
crowd of pygmies that swarmed about him. With one swing of his
mighty longsword he laid a dozen corpses at his feet, and so he
hewed a pathway before him until in another moment he stood upon the
platform beside me, dealing death and destruction right and left.
The bravery of the Zodangans was awe-inspiring, not one attempted
to escape, and when the fighting ceased it was because only Tharks
remained alive in the great hall, other than Dejah Thoris and
myself.
Sab Than lay dead beside his father, and the corpses of the flower
of Zodangan nobility and chivalry covered the floor of the bloody
shambles.
My first thought when the battle was over was for Kantos Kan,
and leaving Dejah Thoris in charge of Tars Tarkas I took a dozen
warriors and hastened to the dungeons beneath the palace. The
jailers had all left to join the fighters in the throne room, so
we searched the labyrinthine prison without opposition.
I called Kantos Kan's name aloud in each new corridor and
compartment, and finally I was rewarded by hearing a faint response.
Guided by the sound, we soon found him helpless in a dark recess.
He was overjoyed at seeing me, and to know the meaning of the fight,
faint echoes of which had reached his prison cell. He told me that
the air patrol had captured him before he reached the high tower of
the palace, so that he had not even seen Sab Than.
We discovered that it would be futile to attempt to cut away the
bars and chains which held him prisoner, so, at his suggestion I
returned to search the bodies on the floor above for keys to open
the padlocks of his cell and of his chains.
Fortunately among the first I examined I found his jailer, and soon
we had Kantos Kan with us in the throne room.
The sounds of heavy firing, mingled with shouts and cries, came to
us from the city's streets, and Tars Tarkas hastened away to direct
the fighting without. Kantos Kan accompanied him to act as guide,
the green warriors commencing a thorough search of the palace for
other Zodangans and for loot, and Dejah Thoris and I were left
alone.
She had sunk into one of the golden thrones, and as I turned to her
she greeted me with a wan smile.
"Was there ever such a man!" she exclaimed. "I know that Barsoom
has never before seen your like. Can it be that all Earth men are
as you? Alone, a stranger, hunted, threatened, persecuted, you have
done in a few short months what in all the past ages of Barsoom no
man has ever done: joined together the wild hordes of the sea
bottoms and brought them to fight as allies of a red Martian
people."
"The answer is easy, Dejah Thoris," I replied smiling. "It was not
I who did it, it was love, love for Dejah Thoris, a power that would
work greater miracles than this you have seen."
A pretty flush overspread her face and she answered,
"You may say that now, John Carter, and I may listen, for I
am free."
"And more still I have to say, ere it is again too late," I
returned. "I have done many strange things in my life, many things
that wiser men would not have dared, but never in my wildest fancies
have I dreamed of winning a Dejah Thoris for myself--for never had I
dreamed that in all the universe dwelt such a woman as the Princess
of Helium. That you are a princess does not abash me, but that you
are you is enough to make me doubt my sanity as I ask you, my
princess, to be mine."
"He does not need to be abashed who so well knew the answer to his
plea before the plea were made," she replied, rising and placing her
dear hands upon my shoulders, and so I took her in my arms and
kissed her.
And thus in the midst of a city of wild conflict, filled with the
alarms of war; with death and destruction reaping their terrible
harvest around her, did Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, true
daughter of Mars, the God of War, promise herself in marriage to
John Carter, Gentleman of Virginia.
