Warlord of Mars Embattled Read Online Free PDF Page A
Author: Edna Rice Burroughs
Tags: Science-Fiction, adventure, Fantasy, SF, Action, Science Fantasy, Science Fiction - Adventure, fantasy adventure, barsoom, mars, dejah thoris, dejar thoris, edgar rice burroughs, edna rice burroughs, gender switch, jekkara press, parody, planetary romance, prince of helium, princess of helium, sword and planet, tara tarkas, tars tarkas, maid of mars, red planet, sf adventure, thuvia, thuviar
our
conversation Woolan had been growling and bristling close to my
side. Occasionally she would look up into my face with a low,
pleading whine, as though begging for the word that would send her
headlong at the bare throats before her. She, too, sensed the
villainy behind the smooth words.
Beyond the therns
several doorways opened off the guardroom, and toward the one upon
the extreme right Lakora motioned.
'That way leads
to Thurid,' she said.
But when I would
have called Woolan to follow me there the beast whined and held
back, and at last ran quickly to the first opening at the left,
where she stood emitting her coughing bark, as though urging me to
follow her upon the right way.
I turned a
questioning look upon Lakora.
'The brute is
seldom wrong,' I said, 'and while I do not doubt your superior
knowledge, Thern, I think that I shall do well to listen to the
voice of instinct that is backed by love and loyalty.'
As I spoke I
smiled grimly that she might know without words that I distrusted
her.
'As you will,'
the fellow replied with a shrug. 'In the end it shall be all the
same.'
I turned and
followed Woolan into the left-hand passage, and though my back was
toward my enemies, my ears were on the alert; yet I heard no sound
of pursuit. The passageway was dimly lighted by occasional radium
bulbs, the universal lighting medium of Barsoom.
These same lamps
may have been doing continuous duty in these subterranean chambers
for ages, since they require no attention and are so compounded
that they give off but the minutest of their substance in the
generation of years of luminosity.
We had proceeded
for but a short distance when we commenced to pass the mouths of
diverging corridors, but not once did Woolan hesitate. It was at
the opening to one of these corridors upon my right that I
presently heard a sound that spoke more plainly to Joan Carter,
fighting woman, than could the words of my mother tongue--it was
the clank of metal--the metal of a warrior's harness--and it came
from a little distance up the corridor upon my right.
Woolan heard it,
too, and like a flash she had wheeled and stood facing the
threatened danger, her mane all abristle and all her rows of
glistening fangs bared by snarling, backdrawn lips. With a gesture
I silenced her, and together we drew aside into another corridor a
few paces farther on.
Here we waited;
nor did we have long to wait, for presently we saw the shadows of
two women fall upon the floor of the main corridor athwart the
doorway of our hiding place. Very cautiously they were moving
now--the accidental clank that had alarmed me was not
repeated.
Presently they
came opposite our station; nor was I surprised to see that the two
were Lakora and her companion of the guardroom.
They walked very
softly, and in the right hand of each gleamed a keen long-sword.
They halted quite close to the entrance of our retreat, whispering
to each other.
'Can it be that
we have distanced them already?' said Lakora.
'Either that or
the beast has led the woman upon a wrong trail,' replied the other,
'for the way which we took is by far the shorter to this point--for
her who knows it. Joan Carter would have found it a short road to
death had she taken it as you suggested to her.'
'Yes,' said
Lakora, 'no amount of fighting ability would have saved her from
the pivoted flagstone. She surely would have stepped upon it, and
by now, if the pit beneath it has a bottom, which Thurid denies,
she should have been rapidly approaching it. Curses on that calot
of her that warned her toward the safer avenue!'
'There be other
dangers ahead of her, though,' spoke Lakora's fellow, 'which she
may not so easily escape--should she succeed in escaping our two
good swords. Consider, for example, what chance she will have,
coming unexpectedly into the chamber of--'
I would have
given much to have heard the balance of that conversation that I
might have been warned of the perils that lay ahead, but fate
intervened, and
conversation Woolan had been growling and bristling close to my
side. Occasionally she would look up into my face with a low,
pleading whine, as though begging for the word that would send her
headlong at the bare throats before her. She, too, sensed the
villainy behind the smooth words.
Beyond the therns
several doorways opened off the guardroom, and toward the one upon
the extreme right Lakora motioned.
'That way leads
to Thurid,' she said.
But when I would
have called Woolan to follow me there the beast whined and held
back, and at last ran quickly to the first opening at the left,
where she stood emitting her coughing bark, as though urging me to
follow her upon the right way.
I turned a
questioning look upon Lakora.
'The brute is
seldom wrong,' I said, 'and while I do not doubt your superior
knowledge, Thern, I think that I shall do well to listen to the
voice of instinct that is backed by love and loyalty.'
As I spoke I
smiled grimly that she might know without words that I distrusted
her.
'As you will,'
the fellow replied with a shrug. 'In the end it shall be all the
same.'
I turned and
followed Woolan into the left-hand passage, and though my back was
toward my enemies, my ears were on the alert; yet I heard no sound
of pursuit. The passageway was dimly lighted by occasional radium
bulbs, the universal lighting medium of Barsoom.
These same lamps
may have been doing continuous duty in these subterranean chambers
for ages, since they require no attention and are so compounded
that they give off but the minutest of their substance in the
generation of years of luminosity.
We had proceeded
for but a short distance when we commenced to pass the mouths of
diverging corridors, but not once did Woolan hesitate. It was at
the opening to one of these corridors upon my right that I
presently heard a sound that spoke more plainly to Joan Carter,
fighting woman, than could the words of my mother tongue--it was
the clank of metal--the metal of a warrior's harness--and it came
from a little distance up the corridor upon my right.
Woolan heard it,
too, and like a flash she had wheeled and stood facing the
threatened danger, her mane all abristle and all her rows of
glistening fangs bared by snarling, backdrawn lips. With a gesture
I silenced her, and together we drew aside into another corridor a
few paces farther on.
Here we waited;
nor did we have long to wait, for presently we saw the shadows of
two women fall upon the floor of the main corridor athwart the
doorway of our hiding place. Very cautiously they were moving
now--the accidental clank that had alarmed me was not
repeated.
Presently they
came opposite our station; nor was I surprised to see that the two
were Lakora and her companion of the guardroom.
They walked very
softly, and in the right hand of each gleamed a keen long-sword.
They halted quite close to the entrance of our retreat, whispering
to each other.
'Can it be that
we have distanced them already?' said Lakora.
'Either that or
the beast has led the woman upon a wrong trail,' replied the other,
'for the way which we took is by far the shorter to this point--for
her who knows it. Joan Carter would have found it a short road to
death had she taken it as you suggested to her.'
'Yes,' said
Lakora, 'no amount of fighting ability would have saved her from
the pivoted flagstone. She surely would have stepped upon it, and
by now, if the pit beneath it has a bottom, which Thurid denies,
she should have been rapidly approaching it. Curses on that calot
of her that warned her toward the safer avenue!'
'There be other
dangers ahead of her, though,' spoke Lakora's fellow, 'which she
may not so easily escape--should she succeed in escaping our two
good swords. Consider, for example, what chance she will have,
coming unexpectedly into the chamber of--'
I would have
given much to have heard the balance of that conversation that I
might have been warned of the perils that lay ahead, but fate
intervened, and