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"Safe, possibly, from other hands, but not from her own," said Gahan. "She will
never become Jeddara of Manator--first will she destroy herself."
"She would do that?" asked I-Gos.
"She will, unless you can get word to her that I still live and that there is yet
hope," replied Gahan.
"I cannot get word to her," said I-Gos. "The quarters of his women O-Tar guards
with jealous hand. Here are his most trusted slaves and warriors, yet even so,
thick among them are countless spies, so that no man knows which be which. No
shadow falls within those chambers that is not marked by a hundred eyes."
Gahan stood gazing at the lighted windows of the high tower in the upper
chambers of which Tara of Helium was confined. "I will find a way, I-Gos," he
said.
"There is no way," replied the old man.
For some time they stood upon the roof beneath the brilliant stars and hurtling
moons of dying Mars, laying their plans against the time that Tara of Helium
should be brought from the high tower to the throne room of O-Tar. It was then,
and then alone, argued I-Gos, that any hope of rescuing her might be
entertained. Just how far he might trust the other Gahan did not know, and so
he kept to himself the knowledge of the plan that he had forwarded to Floran and
Val Dor by Ghek, but he assured the ancient taxidermist that if he were sincere
in his oft-repeated declaration that O-Tar should be denounced and superseded
he would have his opportunity on the night that the jeddak sought to wed the
Heliumetic princess.
"Your time shall come then, I-Gos," Gahan assured the other, "and if you have
any party that thinks as you do, prepare them for the eventuality that will
succeed O-Tar's presumptuous attempt to wed the daughter of The Warlord.
Where shall I see you again, and when? I go now to speak with Tara, Princess of
Helium."
"I like your boldness," said I-Gos; "but it will avail you naught. You will not speak
with Tara, Princess of Helium, though doubtless the blood of many Manatorians
will drench the floors of the women's quarters before you are slain."
Gahan smiled. "I shall not be slain. Where and when shall we meet? But you may
find me in O-Mai's chamber at night. That seems the safest retreat in all Manator
for an enemy of the jeddak in whose palace it lies. I go!"
"And may the spirits of your ancestors surround you," said I-Gos.
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