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Updated: May 29, 2025
The maid's cheek darkened beneath the satin of her transparent skin, and the eyes of Astok, Prince of Dusar, darkened, too, as he read that which passed unspoken between the two in the royal gardens of the jeddak. "And thou to me," he snapped at Carthoris, answering the young man's challenge. The guard still surrounded Astok. It was a difficult position for the young officer who commanded it.
Little wonder that he did not know him. During the evening Vas Kor announced that on the morrow they should depart north toward Dusar, picking up recruits at various stations along the way. In a great field behind the house a flier lay a fair-sized cruiser-transport that would accommodate many men, yet swift and well armed also.
As a matter of fact Astok was a trifle awed by the proportions of the conflict which his abduction of the Ptarthian princess had induced, nor was he over comfortable with the weight of responsibility which the possession of such a prisoner entailed. His one thought was to get her to Dusar, and there let his father assume the responsibility.
That night he took formal leave of Thuvan Dihn, and though no mention was made of the happening within the garden, it was plain to see through the cold mask of the jeddak's courtesy that only the customs of royal hospitality restrained him from voicing the contempt he felt for the Prince of Dusar. Carthoris was not present at the leave-taking, nor was Thuvia.
At their head was Astok of Dusar, and as he saw the two he had thought so safely in his power slipping from his grasp, he danced with rage and chagrin, shaking his fists and hurling abuse and vile insults at them. With her bow inclined upward at a dizzy angle, the Thuria shot meteor-like into the sky.
"Refuse to wed me willingly, and Dusar would be laid waste should ever the truth be known to Ptarth and Kaol and Helium. They would raze our cities, leaving not one stone upon another. They would scatter our peoples across the face of Barsoom from the frozen north to the frozen south, hunting them down and slaying them, until this great nation remained only as a hated memory in the minds of men.
That you succeeded in shifting the guilt upon the Prince of Helium was fortunate, and a masterly move of strategy; but were the girl to know the truth and ever return to her father's court, all Dusar would have to pay the penalty, and to have her here a prisoner amongst us would be an admission of guilt from the consequences of which naught could save us.
He could not guess that within a few hours he would be blessing the fate that had thrown him into the service of Dusar. "Ah!" exclaimed Hal Vas. "Here is my father now. Kaor! Vas Kor. Here is one you will be glad to meet a doughty panthan " He hesitated. "Turjun," interjected Carthoris, seizing upon the first appellation that occurred to him.
HE must pay the penalty; and who better than Vas Kor could lead the Prince of Helium to Astok of Dusar? Faintly out of the night there came to Carthoris's ears the purring of a distant motor. He scanned the heavens.
Carthoris' flier had not touched the ground before he had sprung from its deck to race after the swift thoat, whose eight long legs were sending it down the avenue at the rate of an express train; but the men of Dusar who still remained alive had no mind to permit so valuable a capture to escape them. They had lost the girl.
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