Free The Gods of Mars Revoked by Edna Rice Burroughs Page A

Holy Thern, caught by some vagrant draught, blew about my
face.
    Might they not
still open the way of freedom? If we acted in time, might we not
even yet escape before the general alarm was sounded? We could at
least try.
    'What will the
fellow do first, Thuviar?' I asked. 'How long will it be before
they may return for us?'
    'She will go
directly to the Father of Therns, old Matain Shang. She may have to
wait for an audience, but since she is very high among the lesser
therns, in fact as a thorian among them, it will not be long that
Matain Shang will keep her waiting.
    'Then if the
Father of Therns puts credence in her story, another hour will see
the galleries and chambers, the courts and gardens, filled with
searchers.'
    'What we do then
must be done within an hour. What is the best way, Thuviar, the
shortest way out of this celestial Hades?'
    'Straight to the
top of the cliffs, Princess,' he replied, 'and then through the
gardens to the inner courts. From there our way will lie within the
temples of the therns and across them to the outer court. Then the
ramparts--O Princess, it is hopeless. Ten thousand warriors could
not hew a way to liberty from out this awful place.
    'Since the
beginning of time, little by little, stone by stone, have the
therns been ever adding to the defences of their stronghold. A
continuous line of impregnable fortifications circles the outer
slopes of the Mountains of Otz.
    'Within the
temples that lie behind the ramparts a million fighting-womenwomen
are ever ready. The courts and gardens are filled with slaves, with
men and with children.
    'None could go a
stone's throw without detection.'
    'If there is no
other way, Thuviar, why dwell upon the difficulties of this. We
must face them.'
    'Can we not
better make the attempt after dark?' asked Tara Tarkas. 'There
would seem to be no chance by day.'
    'There would be a
little better chance by night, but even then the ramparts are well
guarded; possibly better than by day. There are fewer abroad in the
courts and gardens, though,' said Thuviar.
    'What is the
hour?' I asked.
    'It was midnight
when you released me from my chains,' said Thuviar. 'Two hours
later we reached the storeroom. There you slept for fourteen hours.
It must now be nearly sundown again. Come, we will go to some
nearby window in the cliff and make sure.'
    So saying, he led
the way through winding corridors until at a sudden turn we came
upon an opening which overlooked the Valley Dor.
    At our right the
sun was setting, a huge red orb, below the western range of Otz. A
little below us stood the Holy Thern on watch upon her balcony. Her
scarlet robe of office was pulled tightly about her in anticipation
of the cold that comes so suddenly with darkness as the sun sets.
So rare is the atmosphere of Mars that it absorbs very little heat
from the sun. During the daylight hours it is always extremely hot;
at night it is intensely cold. Nor does the thin atmosphere refract
the sun's rays or diffuse its light as upon Earth. There is no
twilight on Mars. When the great orb of day disappears beneath the
horizon the effect is precisely as that of the extinguishing of a
single lamp within a chamber. From brilliant light you are plunged
without warning into utter darkness. Then the moons come; the
mysterious, magic moons of Mars, hurtling like monster meteors low
across the face of the planet.
    The declining sun
lighted brilliantly the eastern banks of Korus, the crimson sward,
the gorgeous forest. Baneath the trees we saw feeding many herds of
plant women. The adults stood aloft upon their toes and their
mighty tails, their talons pruning every available leaf and twig.
It was then that I understood the careful trimming of the trees
which had led me to form the mistaken idea when first I opened my
eyes upon the grove that it was the playground of a civilized
people.
    As we watched,
our eyes wandered to the rolling Iss, which issued from the base of
the cliffs beneath us. Presently there emerged