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I am Carthoris of Helium, Prince of the house of Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium, and son of John Carter, Warlord of Mars, and of his wife, Dejah Thoris." "'Ptarth'?" repeated the man. "'Helium'?" He shook his head. "I never have heard of these places, nor did I know that there dwelt upon Barsoom a race of thy strange colour. Where may these cities lie, of which you speak?
It occurred to him to test his father's sentiments upon the subject, and so he told a tale of capturing one who claimed to know the whereabouts of Thuvia of Ptarth. "And if you command it, Sire," he said, "I will go and capture her fetching her here to Dusar." Nutus frowned and shook his head.
Even Carthoris of Helium began to feel the terrible strain upon his nerves. If he could but know how and whence the hand of death was to strike, he could meet it unafraid, but to suffer longer the hideous tension of this blighting ignorance of the plans of their assassins was telling upon him grievously. Thuvia of Ptarth drew quite close to him.
They spoke of many things of Hastor, and Helium, and Ptarth, and finally the conversation reminded Tara of Gathol. "You have served there?" she asked. "Yes," replied Turan. "I met Gahan the Jed of Gathol at my father's palace," she said, "the very day before the storm snatched me from Helium he was a presumptuous fellow, magnificently trapped in platinum and diamonds.
"To you I entrust the return of my retinue to Ptarth," he said. "There my son rules ably in my absence. The Prince of Helium shall not go alone into the land of his enemies. I have spoken. Farewell!" Straight toward the north, day and night, our destination compass led us after the fleeing flier upon which it had remained set since I first attuned it after leaving the thern fortress.
There was no other order given. Every man upon the craft had evidently been well schooled in each detail of that night's work. Silently the dark hull crept beneath the cathedral arches of the dark and silent grove. Thuvia of Ptarth, gazing toward the east, saw the blacker blot against the blackness of the trees as the craft topped the buttressed garden wall.
"My father's friend and Ptarth's most puissant ally." The young man looked at her intently for a moment before he spoke again. "You love him, Thuvia of Ptarth?" he asked. "I am promised to him," she replied simply. He did not press her. "He is of Barsoom's noblest blood and mightiest fighters," mused Carthoris.
From our loftiest tower we have never seen another city than Lothar." Carthoris pointed toward the north-east. "In that direction lie Helium and Ptarth," he said. "Helium is over eight thousand haads from Lothar, while Ptarth lies nine thousand five hundred haads north-east of Helium." On Barsoom the AD is the basis of linear measurement.
"But why, then, your cringing manner of approaching the throne?" "Tario demands it. He is jealous of me. He only awaits the slightest excuse to feed me to Komal. He fears that I may some day usurp his power." Carthoris suddenly sprang from the table. "Jav!" he exclaimed. "I am a beast! Here I have been eating my fill, while the Princess of Ptarth may perchance be still without food.
A good rule that, and only relaxed by courtesy in favour of the retinue of visiting royalty from a friendly foreign power. It was late in the morning of the next day that a giant serving man in the harness of the house of a great Ptarth noble passed out into the city from the palace gates.
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