| 123 | 124 | 125 | 126 | 127 |
| 1 | 50 | 99 | 149 | 198 |
|
www.freeclassicebooks.com
"
He is right," said a deep voice. It was the voice of U-Thor, the great jed of
Manatos. O-Tar looked at him and scowled; but there came voices from other
portions of the chamber seconding the demand for justice.
"
Then know, though you shall die anyway," cried O-Tar, "that all three are
convicted of Corphalism and that as only a jeddak may slay such as you in safety
you are about to be honored with the steel of O-Tar."
"Fool!" cried Turan. "Know you not that in the veins of this woman flows the blood
of ten thousand jeddaks--that greater than yours is her power in her own land?
She is Tara, Princess of Helium, great-granddaughter of Tardos Mors, daughter of
John Carter, Warlord of Barsoom. She cannot be a Corphal. Nor is this creature
Ghek, nor am I. And you would know more, I can prove my right to be heard and
to be believed if I may have word with the Princess Haja of Gathol, whose son is
my fellow prisoner in the pits of O-Tar, his father."
At this U-Thor rose to his feet and faced O-Tar. "What means this?" he asked.
"Speaks the man the truth? Is the son of Haja a prisoner in thy pits, O-Tar?"
"And what is it to the jed of Manatos who be the prisoners in the pits of his
jeddak?" demanded O-Tar, angrily.
It is this to the jed of Manatos," replied U-Thor in a voice so low as to be scarce
"
more than a whisper and yet that was heard the whole length and breadth of the
great throne room of O-Tar, Jeddak of Manator. "You gave me a slave woman,
Haja, who had been a princess in Gathol, because you feared her influence
among the slaves from Gathol. I have made of her a free woman, and I have
married her and made her thus a princess of Manatos. Her son is my son, O-Tar,
and though thou be my jeddak, I say to you that for any harm that befalls A-Kor
you shall answer to U-Thor of Manatos."
O-Tar looked long at U-Thor, but he made no reply. Then he turned again to
Turan. "If one be a Corphal," he said, "then all of you be Corphals, and we know
well from the things that this creature has done," he pointed at Ghek, "that he is
a Corphal, for no mortal has such powers as he. And as you are all Corphals you
must all die." He took another step downward, when Ghek spoke.
"These two have no such powers as I," he said. "They are but ordinary, brainless
things such as yourself. I have done all the things that your poor, ignorant
warriors have told you; but this only demonstrates that I am of a higher order
than yourselves, as is indeed the fact. I am a kaldane, not a Corphal. There is
nothing supernatural or mysterious about me, other than that to the ignorant all
things which they cannot understand are mysterious. Easily might I have eluded
your warriors and escaped your pits; but I remained in the hope that I might help
125
Page
Quick Jump
|