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"
But why should they feel contempt for those who have suffered the misfortune of
falling 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 mother was a high 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 from the others. His
chivalry is of a gentler form, though not even his worst enemy has dared question
his courage, while his skill with the sword, and the spear, and the thoat is
famous throughout the length and breadth of Manator."
"
"
What think you they will do with him?" asked Tara of Helium.
Sentence him to the games," replied Lan-O. "If O-Tar be not greatly angered he
may be sentenced to but a single game, 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 who was under a
sentence from O-Tar."
"What are the games? I do not understand," said Tara "I have heard them speak
of playing 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. "Come to the
window," and together the two approached an aperture facing toward the east.
Below her Tara of Helium saw a great field entirely surrounded by the low
building, 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 woman--some slave of exceptional beauty. O-Tar himself might have played
for you had you not angered him, but now you will be played for in an open game
by slaves and criminals, and you will belong to the side that wins--not to a single
warrior, but to all who survive the game."
112
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