XIII A Desperate Deed
E-Med crossed the tower chamber toward Tara of Helium and the slave girl, Lan-O. He seized the former roughly by a shoulder. «Stand!» he commanded. Tara struck his hand from her and rising, backed away.
«Lay not your hand upon the person of a princess of Helium, beast!» she warned.
E-Med laughed. «Think you that I play at jetan for you without first knowing something of the stake for which I play?» he demanded. «Come here!»
The girl drew herself to her full height, folding her arms across her breast, nor did E-Med note that the slim fingers of her right hand were inserted beneath the broad leather strap of her harness where it passed over her left shoulder.
«And O-Tar learns of this you shall rue it, E-Med,» cried the slave girl; «there be no law in Manator that gives you this girl before you shall have won her fairly.»
«What cares O-Tar for her fate?» replied E-Med. «Have I not heard? Did she not flout the great jeddak, heaping abuse upon him? By my first ancestor, I think O-Tar might make a jed of the man who subdued her,» and again he advanced toward Tara.
«Wait!» said the girl in low, even tone. «Perhaps you know not what you do. Sacred to the people of Helium are the persons of the women of Helium. For the honor of the humblest of them would the great jeddak himself unsheathe his sword. The greatest nations of Barsoom have trembled to the thunders of war in defense of the person of Dejah Thoris, my mother. We are but mortal and so may die; but we may not be defiled. You may play at jetan for a princess of Helium, but though you may win the match, never may you claim the reward. If thou wouldst possess a dead body press me too far, but know, man of Manator, that the blood of The Warlord flows not in the veins of Tara of Helium for naught. I have spoken.»
«I know naught of Helium and O-Tar is our warlord,» replied E-Med; «but I do know that I would examine more closely the prize that I shall play for and win. I would test the lips of her who is to be my slave after the next games; nor is it well, woman, to drive me too far to anger.» His eyes narrowed as he spoke, his visage taking on the semblance of that of a snarling beast. «If you doubt the truth of my words ask Lan-O, the slave girl.»
«He speaks truly, O woman of Helium,» interjected Lan-O. «Try not the temper of E-Med, if you value your life.»
But Tara of Helium made no reply. Already had she spoken. She stood in silence now facing the burly warrior who approached her. He came close and then quite suddenly he seized her and, bending, tried to draw her lips to his.
Lan-O saw the woman from Helium half turn, and with a quick movement jerk her right hand from where it had lain upon her breast. She saw the hand shoot from beneath the arm of E-Med and rise behind his shoulder and she saw in the hand a long, slim blade. The lips of the warrior were drawing closer to those of the woman, but they never touched them, for suddenly the man straightened, stiffly, a shriek upon his lips, and then he crumpled like an empty fur and lay, a shrunken heap, upon the floor. Tara of Helium stooped and wiped her blade upon his harness.
Lan-O, wide-eyed, looked with horror upon the corpse. «For this we shall both die,» she cried.
«And who would live a slave in Manator?» asked Tara of Helium.
«I am not so brave as thou,» said the slave girl, «and life is sweet and there is always hope.»
«Life is sweet,» agreed Tara of Helium, «but honor is sacred. But do not fear. When they come I shall tell them the truth-that you had no hand in this and no opportunity to prevent it.»
For a moment the slave girl seemed to be thinking deeply. Suddenly her eyes lighted. «There is a way, perhaps,» she said, «to turn suspicion from us. He has the key to this chamber upon him. Let us open the door and drag him out-maybe we shall find a place to hide him.»
«Good!» exclaimed Tara of Helium, and the two immediately set about the matter Lan-O had suggested. Quickly they found the key and unlatched the door and then, between them, they half carried, half dragged, the corpse of E-Med from the room and down the stairway to the next level where Lan-O said there were vacant chambers. The first door they tried was unlatched, and through this the two bore their grisly burden into a small room lighted by a single window. The apartment bore evidence of having been utilized as a living-room rather than as a cell, being furnished with a degree of comfort and even luxury. The walls were paneled to a height of about seven feet from the floor, while the plaster above and the ceiling were decorated with faded paintings of another day.
As Tara's eyes ran quickly over the interior her attention was drawn to a section of paneling that seemed to be separated at one edge from the piece next adjoining it. Quickly she crossed to it, discovering that one vertical edge of an entire panel projected a half-inch beyond the others. There was a possible explanation which piqued her curiosity, and acting upon its suggestion she seized upon the projecting edge and pulled outward. Slowly the panel swung toward her, revealing a dark aperture in the wall behind.
«Look, Lan-O!» she cried. «See what I have found-a hole in which we may hide the thing upon the floor.»
Lan-O joined her and together the two investigated the dark aperture, finding a small platform from which a narrow runway led downward into Stygian darkness. Thick dust covered the floor within the doorway, indicating that a great period of time had elapsed since human foot had trod it-a secret way, doubtless, unknown to living Manatorians. Here they dragged the corpse of E-Med, leaving it upon the platform, and as they left the dark and forbidden closet Lan-O would have slammed to the panel had not Tara prevented.
«Wait!» she said, and fell to examining the door frame and the stile.
«Hurry!» whispered the slave girl. «If they come we are lost.»
«It may serve us well to know how to open this place again,» replied Tara of Helium, and then suddenly she pressed a foot against a section of the carved base at the right of the open panel. «Ah!» she breathed, a note of satisfaction in her tone, and closed the panel until it fitted snugly in its place. «Come!» she said and turned toward the outer doorway of the chamber.
They reached their own cell without detection, and closing the door Tara locked it from the inside and placed the key in a secret pocket in her harness.
«Let them come,» she said. «Let them question us! What could two poor prisoners know of the whereabouts of their noble jailer? I ask you, Lan-O, what could they?»
«Nothing,» admitted Lan-O, smiling with her companion.
«Tell me of these men of Manator,» said Tara presently. «Are they all like E-Med, or are some of them like A-Kor, who seemed a brave and chivalrous character?»
«They are not unlike the peoples of other countries,» replied Lan-O. «There be among them both good and bad. They are brave warriors and mighty. Among themselves they are not without chivalry and honor, but in their dealings with strangers they know but one law-the law of might. The weak and unfortunate of other lands fill them with contempt and arouse all that is worst in their natures, which doubtless accounts for their treatment of us, their slaves.»
«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.»