Free The Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

respect for her, or contempt. Only one of them
spoke immediately.
    "She will have to be fattened more," he said.
    The girl's eyes went wide with horror. She turned upon her
captor. "Do these frightful creatures intend to devour me?" she
cried.
    "That is for Luud to say," he replied, and then he leaned closer
so that his mouth was near her ear. "That noise you made which
you called song pleased me," he whispered, "and I will repay you
by warning you not to antagonize these kaldanes. They are very
powerful. Luud listens to them. Do not call them frightful. They
are very handsome. Look at their wonderful trappings, their gold,
their jewels."
    "Thank you," she said. "You called them kaldanes—what does that
mean?"
    "We are all kaldanes," he replied.
    "You, too?" and she pointed at him, her slim finger directed
toward his chest.
    "No, not this," he explained, touching his body; "this is a
rykor; but this," and he touched his head, "is a kaldane. It is
the brain, the intellect, the power that directs all things. The
rykor," he indicated his body, "is nothing. It is not so much
even as the jewels upon our harness; no, not so much as the
harness itself. It carries us about. It is true that we would
find difficulty getting along without it; but it has less value
than harness or jewels because it is less difficult to
reproduce." He turned again to the other kaldanes. "Will you
notify Luud that I am here?" he asked.
    "Sept has already gone to Luud. He will tell him," replied one.
"Where did you find this rykor with the strange kaldane that
cannot detach itself?"
    The girl's captor narrated once more the story of her capture. He
stated facts just as they had occurred, without embellishment,
his voice as expressionless as his face, and his story was
received in the same manner that it was delivered. The creatures
seemed totally lacking in emotion, or, at least, the capacity to
express it. It was impossible to judge what impression the story
made upon them, or even if they heard it. Their protruding eyes
simply stared and occasionally the muscles of their mouths opened
and closed. Familiarity did not lessen the horror the girl felt
for them. The more she saw of them the more repulsive they
seemed. Often her body was shaken by convulsive shudders as she
looked at the kaldanes, but when her eyes wandered to the
beautiful bodies and she could for a moment expunge the heads
from her consciousness the effect was soothing and refreshing,
though when the bodies lay, headless, upon the floor they were
quite as shocking as the heads mounted on bodies. But by far the
most grewsome and uncanny sight of all was that of the heads
crawling about upon their spider legs. If one of these should
approach and touch her Tara of Helium was positive that she
should scream, while should one attempt to crawl up her
person—ugh! the very idea induced a feeling of faintness.
    Sept returned to the chamber. "Luud will see you and the captive.
Come!" he said, and turned toward a door opposite that through
which Tara of Helium had entered the chamber. "What is your
name?" His question was directed to the girl's captor.
    "I am Ghek, third foreman of the fields of Luud," he answered.
    "And hers?"
    "I do not know."
    "It makes no difference. Come!"
    The patrician brows of Tara of Helium went high. It made no
difference, indeed! She, a princess of Helium; only daughter of
The Warlord of Barsoom!
    "Wait!" she cried. "It makes much difference who I am. If you are
conducting me into the presence of your jed you may announce The
Princess Tara of Helium, daughter of John Carter, The Warlord of
Barsoom."
    "Hold your peace!" commanded Sept. "Speak when you are spoken to.
Come with me!"
    The anger of Tara of Helium all but choked her. "Come,"
admonished Ghek, and took her by the arm, and Tara of Helium
came. She was naught but a prisoner. Her rank and titles meant
nothing to these inhuman monsters. They led her through a short,
S-shaped passageway into a chamber entirely lined