The Tide Of Battle

: Warlord Of Mars

But solan's last loud cry had not been without effect, for a moment

later a dozen guardsmen burst into the chamber, though not before

I had so bent and demolished the great switch that it could not be

again used to turn the powerful current into the mighty magnet of

destruction it controlled.



The result of the sudden coming of the guardsmen had been to compel

me to seek seclusion in the first passageway t
at I could find,

and that to my disappointment proved to be not the one with which

I was familiar, but another upon its left.



They must have either heard or guessed which way I went, for I had

proceeded but a short distance when I heard the sound of pursuit.

I had no mind to stop and fight these men here when there was

fighting aplenty elsewhere in the city of Kadabra--fighting that

could be of much more avail to me and mine than useless life-taking

far below the palace.



But the fellows were pressing me; and as I did not know the way at

all, I soon saw that they would overtake me unless I found a place

to conceal myself until they had passed, which would then give me

an opportunity to return the way I had come and regain the tower,

or possibly find a way to reach the city streets.



The passageway had risen rapidly since leaving the apartment of

the switch, and now ran level and well lighted straight into the

distance as far as I could see. The moment that my pursuers reached

this straight stretch I would be in plain sight of them, with no

chance to escape from the corridor undetected.



Presently I saw a series of doors opening from either side of the

corridor, and as they all looked alike to me I tried the first

one that I reached. It opened into a small chamber, luxuriously

furnished, and was evidently an ante-chamber off some office or

audience chamber of the palace.



On the far side was a heavily curtained doorway beyond which I

heard the hum of voices. Instantly I crossed the small chamber,

and, parting the curtains, looked within the larger apartment.



Before me were a party of perhaps fifty gorgeously clad nobles of

the court, standing before a throne upon which sat Salensus Oll.

The Jeddak of Jeddaks was addressing them.



"The allotted hour has come," he was saying as I entered the

apartment; "and though the enemies of Okar be within her gates,

naught may stay the will of Salensus Oll. The great ceremony must

be omitted that no single man may be kept from his place in the

defenses other than the fifty that custom demands shall witness

the creation of a new queen in Okar.



"In a moment the thing shall have been done and we may return to

the battle, while she who is now the Princess of Helium looks down

from the queen's tower upon the annihilation of her former countrymen

and witnesses the greatness which is her husband's."



Then, turning to a courtier, he issued some command in a low voice.



The addressed hastened to a small door at the far end of the chamber

and, swinging it wide, cried: "Way for Dejah Thoris, future Queen

of Okar!"



Immediately two guardsmen appeared dragging the unwilling bride toward

the altar. Her hands were still manacled behind her, evidently to

prevent suicide.



Her disheveled hair and panting bosom betokened that, chained though

she was, still had she fought against the thing that they would do

to her.



At sight of her Salensus Oll rose and drew his sword, and the sword

of each of the fifty nobles was raised on high to form an arch,

beneath which the poor, beautiful creature was dragged toward her

doom.



A grim smile forced itself to my lips as I thought of the rude

awakening that lay in store for the ruler of Okar, and my itching

fingers fondled the hilt of my bloody sword.



As I watched the procession that moved slowly toward the throne--a

procession which consisted of but a handful of priests, who followed

Dejah Thoris and the two guardsmen--I caught a fleeting glimpse

of a black face peering from behind the draperies that covered the

wall back of the dais upon which stood Salensus Oll awaiting his

bride.



Now the guardsmen were forcing the Princess of Helium up the few

steps to the side of the tyrant of Okar, and I had no eyes and no

thoughts for aught else. A priest opened a book and, raising his

hand, commenced to drone out a sing-song ritual. Salensus Oll

reached for the hand of his bride.



I had intended waiting until some circumstance should give me a

reasonable hope of success; for, even though the entire ceremony

should be completed, there could be no valid marriage while I

lived. What I was most concerned in, of course, was the rescuing

of Dejah Thoris--I wished to take her from the palace of Salensus

Oll, if such a thing were possible; but whether it were accomplished

before or after the mock marriage was a matter of secondary import.



When, however, I saw the vile hand of Salensus Oll reach out for

the hand of my beloved princess I could restrain myself no longer,

and before the nobles of Okar knew that aught had happened I had

leaped through their thin line and was upon the dais beside Dejah

Thoris and Salensus Oll.



With the flat of my sword I struck down his polluting hand; and

grasping Dejah Thoris round the waist, I swung her behind me as,

with my back against the draperies of the dais, I faced the tyrant

of the north and his roomful of noble warriors.



The Jeddak of Jeddaks was a great mountain of a man--a coarse,

brutal beast of a man--and as he towered above me there, his fierce

black whiskers and mustache bristling in rage, I can well imagine

that a less seasoned warrior might have trembled before him.



With a snarl he sprang toward me with naked sword, but whether

Salensus Oll was a good swordsman or a poor I never learned; for

with Dejah Thoris at my back I was no longer human--I was a superman,

and no man could have withstood me then.



With a single, low: "For the Princess of Helium!" I ran my blade

straight through the rotten heart of Okar's rotten ruler, and before

the white, drawn faces of his nobles Salensus Oll rolled, grinning

in horrible death, to the foot of the steps below his marriage

throne.



For a moment tense silence reigned in the nuptial-room. Then the

fifty nobles rushed upon me. Furiously we fought, but the advantage

was mine, for I stood upon a raised platform above them, and I

fought for the most glorious woman of a glorious race, and I fought

for a great love and for the mother of my boy.



And from behind my shoulder, in the silvery cadence of that dear

voice, rose the brave battle anthem of Helium which the nation's

women sing as their men march out to victory.



That alone was enough to inspire me to victory over even greater

odds, and I verily believe that I should have bested the entire

roomful of yellow warriors that day in the nuptial chamber of the

palace at Kadabra had not interruption come to my aid.



Fast and furious was the fighting as the nobles of Salensus Oll

sprang, time and again, up the steps before the throne only to fall

back before a sword hand that seemed to have gained a new wizardry

from its experience with the cunning Solan.



Two were pressing me so closely that I could not turn when I heard

a movement behind me, and noted that the sound of the battle anthem

had ceased. Was Dejah Thoris preparing to take her place beside

me?



Heroic daughter of a heroic world! It would not be unlike her to

have seized a sword and fought at my side, for, though the women

of Mars are not trained in the arts of war, the spirit is theirs,

and they have been known to do that very thing upon countless

occasions.



But she did not come, and glad I was, for it would have doubled my

burden in protecting her before I should have been able to force

her back again out of harm's way. She must be contemplating some

cunning strategy, I thought, and so I fought on secure in the belief

that my divine princess stood close behind me.



For half an hour at least I must have fought there against the

nobles of Okar ere ever a one placed a foot upon the dais where I

stood, and then of a sudden all that remained of them formed below

me for a last, mad, desperate charge; but even as they advanced

the door at the far end of the chamber swung wide and a wild-eyed

messenger sprang into the room.



"The Jeddak of Jeddaks!" he cried. "Where is the Jeddak of Jeddaks?

The city has fallen before the hordes from beyond the barrier, and

but now the great gate of the palace itself has been forced and

the warriors of the south are pouring into its sacred precincts.



"Where is Salensus Oll? He alone may revive the flagging courage

of our warriors. He alone may save the day for Okar. Where is

Salensus Oll?"



The nobles stepped back from about the dead body of their ruler,

and one of them pointed to the grinning corpse.



The messenger staggered back in horror as though from a blow in

the face.



"Then fly, nobles of Okar!" he cried, "for naught can save you.

Hark! They come!"



As he spoke we heard the deep roar of angry men from the corridor

without, and the clank of metal and the clang of swords.



Without another glance toward me, who had stood a spectator of

the tragic scene, the nobles wheeled and fled from the apartment

through another exit.



Almost immediately a force of yellow warriors appeared in the

doorway through which the messenger had come. They were backing

toward the apartment, stubbornly resisting the advance of a handful

of red men who faced them and forced them slowly but inevitably

back.



Above the heads of the contestants I could see from my elevated

station upon the dais the face of my old friend Kantos Kan. He was

leading the little party that had won its way into the very heart

of the palace of Salensus Oll.



In an instant I saw that by attacking the Okarians from the rear

I could so quickly disorganize them that their further resistance

would be short-lived, and with this idea in mind I sprang from

the dais, casting a word of explanation to Dejah Thoris over my

shoulder, though I did not turn to look at her.



With myself ever between her enemies and herself, and with Kantos

Kan and his warriors winning to the apartment, there could be no

danger to Dejah Thoris standing there alone beside the throne.



I wanted the men of Helium to see me and to know that their beloved

princess was here, too, for I knew that this knowledge would inspire

them to even greater deeds of valor than they had performed in the

past, though great indeed must have been those which won for them

a way into the almost impregnable palace of the tyrant of the north.



As I crossed the chamber to attack the Kadabrans from the rear a

small doorway at my left opened, and, to my surprise, revealed the

figures of Matai Shang, Father of Therns and Phaidor, his daughter,

peering into the room.



A quick glance about they took. Their eyes rested for a moment,

wide in horror, upon the dead body of Salensus Oll, upon the blood

that crimsoned the floor, upon the corpses of the nobles who had

fallen thick before the throne, upon me, and upon the battling

warriors at the other door.



They did not essay to enter the apartment, but scanned its every

corner from where they stood, and then, when their eyes had sought

its entire area, a look of fierce rage overspread the features

of Matai Shang, and a cold and cunning smile touched the lips of

Phaidor.



Then they were gone, but not before a taunting laugh was thrown

directly in my face by the woman.



I did not understand then the meaning of Matai Shang's rage or

Phaidor's pleasure, but I knew that neither boded good for me.



A moment later I was upon the backs of the yellow men, and as the

red men of Helium saw me above the shoulders of their antagonists

a great shout rang through the corridor, and for a moment drowned

the noise of battle.



"For the Prince of Helium!" they cried. "For the Prince of Helium!"

and, like hungry lions upon their prey, they fell once more upon

the weakening warriors of the north.



The yellow men, cornered between two enemies, fought with the

desperation that utter hopelessness often induces. Fought as I

should have fought had I been in their stead, with the determination

to take as many of my enemies with me when I died as lay within

the power of my sword arm.



It was a glorious battle, but the end seemed inevitable, when

presently from down the corridor behind the red men came a great

body of reenforcing yellow warriors.



Now were the tables turned, and it was the men of Helium who seemed

doomed to be ground between two millstones. All were compelled to

turn to meet this new assault by a greatly superior force, so that

to me was left the remnants of the yellow men within the throneroom.



They kept me busy, too; so busy that I began to wonder if indeed

I should ever be done with them. Slowly they pressed me back into

the room, and when they had all passed in after me, one of them

closed and bolted the door, effectually barring the way against

the men of Kantos Kan.



It was a clever move, for it put me at the mercy of a dozen men

within a chamber from which assistance was locked out, and it gave

the red men in the corridor beyond no avenue of escape should their

new antagonists press them too closely.



But I have faced heavier odds myself than were pitted against me

that day, and I knew that Kantos Kan had battled his way from a

hundred more dangerous traps than that in which he now was. So it

was with no feelings of despair that I turned my attention to the

business of the moment.



Constantly my thoughts reverted to Dejah Thoris, and I longed for

the moment when, the fighting done, I could fold her in my arms,

and hear once more the words of love which had been denied me for

so many years.



During the fighting in the chamber I had not even a single chance

to so much as steal a glance at her where she stood behind me beside

the throne of the dead ruler. I wondered why she no longer urged

me on with the strains of the martial hymn of Helium; but I did not

need more than the knowledge that I was battling for her to bring

out the best that is in me.



It would be wearisome to narrate the details of that bloody struggle;

of how we fought from the doorway, the full length of the room to

the very foot of the throne before the last of my antagonists fell

with my blade piercing his heart.



And then, with a glad cry, I turned with outstretched arms to seize

my princess, and as my lips smothered hers to reap the reward that

would be thrice ample payment for the bloody encounters through

which I had passed for her dear sake from the south pole to the

north.



The glad cry died, frozen upon my lips; my arms dropped limp and

lifeless to my sides; as one who reels beneath the burden of a

mortal wound I staggered up the steps before the throne.



Dejah Thoris was gone.



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