The Gods of Mars Revoked (18 page)

'Freedom,
forsooth. The only freedom for us death. None who enters the
domains of the First Born ever leave. If we prove able fighters we
are permitted to fight often. If we are not mighty fighters--' She
shrugged her shoulders. 'Sooner or later we die in the
arena.'

'And you have
fought often?' I asked.

'Very often,' she
replied. 'It is my only pleasure. Some hundred black devils have I
accounted for during nearly a year of the rites of Issus. My mother
would be very proud could he only know how well I have maintained
the traditions of my mother's prowess.'

'Your mother must
have been a mighty warrior!' I said. 'I have known most of the
warriors of Barsoom in my time; doubtless I knew her. Who was
she?'

'My mothers
was--'

'Come, calots!'
cried the rough voice of a guard. 'To the slaughter with you,' and
roughly we were hustled to the steep incline that led to the
chambers far below which let out upon the arena.

The amphitheatre,
like all I had ever seen upon Barsoom, was built in a large
excavation. Only the highest seats, which formed the low wall
surrounding the pit, were above the level of the ground. The arena
itself was far below the surface.

Just beneath the
lowest tier of seats was a series of barred cages on a level with
the surface of the arena. Into these we were herded. But,
unfortunately, my youthful friend was not of those who occupied a
cage with me.

Directly opposite
my cage was the throne of Issus. Here the horrid creature squatted,
surrounded by a hundred slave maidens sparkling in jewelled
trappings. Brilliant cloths of many hues and strange patterns
formed the soft cushion covering of the dais upon which they
reclined about him.

On four sides of
the throne and several feet below it stood three solid ranks of
heavily armed soldiery, elbow to elbow. In front of these were the
high dignitaries of this mock heaven--gleaming blacks bedecked with
precious stones, upon their foreheads the insignia of their rank
set in circles of gold.

On both sides of
the throne stretched a solid mass of humanity from top to bottom of
the amphitheatre. There were as many men as women, and each was
clothed in the wondrously wrought harness of her station and her
house. With each black was from one to three slaves, drawn from the
domains of the therns and from the outer world. The blacks are all
'noble.' There is no peasantry among the First Born. Even the
lowest soldier is a god, and has her slaves to wait upon
her.

The First Born do
no work. The women fight--that is a sacred privilege and duty; to
fight and die for Issus. The men do nothing, absolutely nothing.
Slaves wash them, slaves dress them, slaves feed them. There are
some, even, who have slaves that talk for them, and I saw one who
sat during the rites with closed eyes while a slave narrated to his
the events that were transpiring within the arena.

The first event
of the day was the Tribute to Issus. It marked the end of those
poor unfortunates who had looked upon the divine glory of the god a
full year before. There were ten of them--splendid beauties from
the proud courts of mighty Jeddaks and from the temples of the Holy
Therns. For a year they had served in the retinue of Issus; to-day
they were to pay the price of this divine preferment with their
lives; tomorrow they would grace the tables of the court
functionaries.

A huge black
entered the arena with the young men. Carefully she inspected them,
felt of their limbs and poked them in the ribs. Presently she
selected one of their number whom she led before the throne of
Issus. She addressed some words to the god which I could not hear.
Issus nodded his head. The black raised her hands above her head in
token of salute, grasped the boy by the wrist, and dragged his from
the arena through a small doorway below the throne.

'Issus will dine
well to-night,' said a prisoner beside me.

'What do you
mean?' I asked.

'That was his
dinner that old Thabis is taking to the kitchens. Didst not note
how carefully she selected the plumpest and tenderest of the
lot?'

I growled out my
curses on the monster sitting opposite us on the gorgeous
throne.

'Fume not,'
admonished my companion; 'you will see far worse than that if you
live even a month among the First Born.'

I turned again in
time to see the gate of a nearby cage thrown open and three
monstrous white apes spring into the arena. The girls shrank in a
frightened group in the centre of the enclosure.

One was on his
knees with imploring hands outstretched toward Issus; but the
hideous deity only leaned further forward in keener anticipation of
the entertainment to come. At length the apes spied the huddled
knot of terror-stricken maidens and with demoniacal shrieks of
bestial frenzy, charged upon them.

A wave of mad
fury surged over me. The cruel cowardliness of the power-drunk
creature whose malignant mind conceived such frightful forms of
torture stirred to their uttermost depths my resentment and my
womanhood. The blood-red haze that presaged death to my foes swam
before my eyes.

The guard lolled
before the unbarred gate of the cage which confined me. What need
of bars, indeed, to keep those poor victims from rushing into the
arena which the edict of the gods had appointed as their death
place!

A single blow
sent the black unconscious to the ground. Snatching up her
long-sword, I sprang into the arena. The apes were almost upon the
maidens, but a couple of mighty bounds were all my earthly muscles
required to carry me to the centre of the sand-strewn
floor.

For an instant
silence reigned in the great amphitheatre, then a wild shout arose
from the cages of the doomed. My long-sword circled whirring
through the air, and a great ape sprawled, headless, at the feet of
the fainting girls.

The other apes
turned now upon me, and as I stood facing them a sullen roar from
the audience answered the wild cheers from the cages. From the tail
of my eye I saw a score of guards rushing across the glistening
sand toward me. Then a figure broke from one of the cages behind
them. It was the youth whose personality so fascinated
me.

She paused a
moment before the cages, with upraised sword.

'Come, women of
the outer world!' she shouted. 'Let us make our deaths worth while,
and at the back of this unknown warrior turn this day's Tribute to
Issus into an orgy of revenge that will echo through the ages and
cause black skins to blanch at each repetition of the rites of
Issus. Come! The racks without your cages are filled with
blades.'

Without waiting
to note the outcome of her plea, she turned and bounded toward me.
From every cage that harboured red women a thunderous shout went up
in answer to her exhortation. The inner guards went down beneath
howling mobs, and the cages vomited forth their inmates hot with
the lust to kill.

The racks that
stood without were stripped of the swords with which the prisoners
were to have been armed to enter their allotted combats, and a
swarm of determined warriors sped to our support.

The great apes,
towering in all their fifteen feet of height, had gone down before
my sword while the charging guards were still some distance away.
Close behind them pursued the youth. At my back were the young
girls, and as it was in their service that I fought, I remained
standing there to meet my inevitable death, but with the
determination to give such an account of myself as would long be
remembered in the land of the First Born.

I noted the
marvellous speed of the young red woman as she raced after the
guards. Never had I seen such speed in any Martian. Her leaps and
bounds were little short of those which my earthly muscles had
produced to create such awe and respect on the part of the green
Martians into whose hands I had fallen on that long-gone day that
had seen my first advent upon Mars.

The guards had
not reached me when she fell upon them from the rear, and as they
turned, thinking from the fierceness of her onslaught that a dozen
were attacking them, I rushed them from my side.

In the rapid
fighting that followed I had little chance to note aught else than
the movements of my immediate adversaries, but now and again I
caught a fleeting glimpse of a purring sword and a lightly
springing figure of sinewy steel that filled my heart with a
strange yearning and a mighty but unaccountable pride.

On the handsome
face of the girl a grim smile played, and ever and anon she threw a
taunting challenge to the foes that faced her. In this and other
ways her manner of fighting was similar to that which had always
marked me on the field of combat.

Perhaps it was
this vague likeness which made me love the girl, while the awful
havoc that her sword played amongst the blacks filled my soul with
a tremendous respect for her.

For my part, I
was fighting as I had fought a thousand times before--now
sidestepping a wicked thrust, now stepping quickly in to let my
sword's point drink deep in a foeman's heart, before it buried
itself in the throat of her companion.

We were having a
merry time of it, we two, when a great body of Issus' own guards
were ordered into the arena. On they came with fierce cries, while
from every side the armed prisoners swarmed upon them.

For half an hour
it was as though all hell had broken loose. In the walled confines
of the arena we fought in an inextricable mass--howling, cursing,
blood-streaked demons; and ever the sword of the young red woman
flashed beside me.

Slowly and by
repeated commands I had succeeded in drawing the prisoners into a
rough formation about us, so that at last we fought formed into a
rude circle in the centre of which were the doomed
maids.

Many had gone
down on both sides, but by far the greater havoc had been wrought
in the ranks of the guards of Issus. I could see messengers running
swiftly through the audience, and as they passed the nobles there
unsheathed their swords and sprang into the arena. They were going
to annihilate us by force of numbers--that was quite evidently
their plan.

I caught a
glimpse of Issus leaning far forward upon his throne, his hideous
countenance distorted in a horrid grimace of hate and rage, in
which I thought I could distinguish an expression of fear. It was
that face that inspired me to the thing that followed.

Quickly I ordered
fifty of the prisoners to drop back behind us and form a new circle
about the maidens.

'Remain and
protect them until I return,' I commanded.

Then, turning to
those who formed the outer line, I cried, 'Down with Issus! Follow
me to the throne; we will reap vengeance where vengeance is
deserved.'

The youth at my
side was the first to take up the cry of 'Down with Issus!' and
then at my back and from all sides rose a hoarse shout, 'To the
throne! To the throne!'

As one woman we
moved, an irresistible fighting mass, over the bodies of dead and
dying foes toward the gorgeous throne of the Martian deity. Hordes
of the doughtiest fighting-womenwomen of the First Born poured from
the audience to check our progress. We mowed them down before us as
they had been paper women.

'To the seats,
some of you!' I cried as we approached the arena's barrier wall.
'Ten of us can take the throne,' for I had seen that Issus' guards
had for the most part entered the fray within the arena.

On both sides of
me the prisoners broke to left and right for the seats, vaulting
the low wall with dripping swords lusting for the crowded victims
who awaited them.

In another moment
the entire amphitheatre was filled with the shrieks of the dying
and the wounded, mingled with the clash of arms and triumphant
shouts of the victors.

Side by side the
young red woman and I, with perhaps a dozen others, fought our way
to the foot of the throne. The remaining guards, reinforced by the
high dignitaries and nobles of the First Born, closed in between us
and Issus, who sat leaning far forward upon his carved sorapus
bench, now screaming high-pitched commands to his following, now
hurling blighting curses upon those who sought to desecrate his
godhood.

The frightened
slaves about his trembled in wide-eyed expectancy, knowing not
whether to pray for our victory or our defeat. Several among them,
proud daughters no doubt of some of Barsoom's noblest warriors,
snatched swords from the hands of the fallen and fell upon the
guards of Issus, but they were soon cut down; glorious martyrs to a
hopeless cause.

The women with us
fought well, but never since Tara Tarkas and I fought out that
long, hot afternoon shoulder to shoulder against the hordes of
Warhoon in the dead sea bottom before Thark, had I seen two women
fight to such good purpose and with such unconquerable ferocity as
the young red woman and I fought that day before the throne of
Issus, God of Death, and of Life Eternal.

Woman by woman
those who stood between us and the carven sorapus wood bench went
down before our blades. Others swarmed in to fill the breach, but
inch by inch, foot by foot we won nearer and nearer to our
goal.