Free John Carter by Stuart Moore Page A

away.
    Dejah kept after him. “I didn’t run. I escaped.”
    He swung his thoat around. “Why don’t you just marry him and help your people?”
    â€œI can’t do that to them.”
    â€œDo what? Let them live?”
    â€œA life of oppression? That is not living.”
    â€œ Death is not living.”
    â€œBut they don’t have to die.”
    â€œRight. You can marry Sab Than.”
    â€œOr you can help us— uhhh !”
    He heard Dejah trip and turned to see her sprawled face down on the sand. Swearing, he pulled his thoat to a halt, then jumped down to help her.
    He reached out a hand, but she slapped it away.
    Sola circled on her own thoat, keeping her distance.
    Slowly Dejah stood up and stared at the ground. When she spoke, there was steel in her voice.
    â€œIf you had the means to save others—to save those you cared most about—would you not take any action to do that?”
    â€œNo good will come of me fighting your war.”
    â€œI would lay down my life for Helium. But I will not sell my soul.” She looked down again. “Yes, I ran away. I was afraid, weak. Maybe I should have just married him. But I feared it would mean the end of Barsoom.”
    She took both his shoulders in her firm, lovely hands.
    â€œI tell you true, John Carter of Earth. There are no Gates of Iss. They are not real.”
    â€œI’m sorry, Princess.” He held up the medallion, almost apologetically. “But this is real, and it brought me here. If it can bring me home again…I’ve got to try.”
    They looked into each other’s eyes for a long moment. A strange thought came to Carter: if she can understand my sorrow, then maybe I can understand hers.
    Together, hand in hand, they walked back to his thoat.

T HE CITY of Zodanga was on the move. Stalking along on countless gigantic legs, shaking the desert beneath a thousand tons of iron and stone. Crushing all that lay before it, leaving a deep trench in its wake.
    Sab Than strode across the open-air expanse of the Royal Hangar. To the airmen preparing his personal flier he looked fearless, almost as powerful as the Therns themselves. But Matai Shang’s consciousness still buzzed within Sab’s mind, constantly reminding him who held the true power here.
    A general approached, nervous. “Sire. Prudence demands you take an escort with you.”
    â€œNo,” Matai Shang said in Sab’s mind. His tone of voice brooked no argument.
    â€œI will go alone,” Sab said aloud.
    â€œBut Jeddak—”
    â€œIn one stroke, I can end a thousand years of civil war and bring Helium to her knees forever. But my general , in his superior wisdom, objects?”
    The general withdrew, mumbling apologies.
    As Sab Than mounted the flier, he whispered to Matai Shang. “I’m even starting to talk like you.”
    The Thern made no reply.
    The flier rose up into the sky, leaving the spires of Zodanga behind. “I have doubts about this plan,” Sab said. “The princess is still missing. And that white ape…”
    â€œDon’t concern yourself with them.”
    Then a switch seemed to open in Sab Than’s brain, and suddenly he saw what Matai Shang saw. A dozen images at once: the city of Zodanga on its scuttling legs. Sab Than’s own flier, seen from the ground as it climbed into the sky. Tardos Mors, his eyes dark as he prepared for a royal wedding. A long view of the blue-spired city of Helium, twin halves divided by a deep, unbridgeable chasm.
    And then, just for a moment, an image of the open desert: Dejah Thoris, a Thark female, and the white ape called Carter winding their way down a deep trench toward the River Iss.
    They’re everywhere , Sab realized, the Therns. And whatever one of them sees, all the others see too, through their brothers’ eyes.
    Matai Shang broke the connection. Sab blinked, startled and disoriented. The flier lurched