But Solan’s last loud exclamation was not ineffective, for after a moment about a dozen security guards rushed into the room. In the meantime, however, I had already anticipated twisting and breaking the big lever so that it could not redirect a strong current to a huge destructive magnetic tower.
When the guard soldiers suddenly arrived in the room, I had to try to hide in the first corridor that hit my path. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen to be the same one I already knew, but another, to the left of the previous one.
My enemies had probably either heard or guessed where I had left, for when I had only a short distance I heard voices coming from behind me. I didn’t want to stop fighting with these men at all, because at the moment I could get enough in the city of Kadabra, and elsewhere my fight could be of much more benefit to myself and my cause than to unnecessary killing deep under the palace.
But the pursuers were on my hocks, and when I didn’t know the way at first, it soon became clear to me that they would reach me if they didn’t manage to sneak into some hiding place until they had passed me. After that, I could then either go back the same way back to the tower or possibly get to the city in some way.
From the lever chamber, the corridor had risen considerably, but it remained flat and bright without twisting into the eyelids. As soon as my pursuers arrived at this straight point, they would see me clearly and it would be impossible for me to slip out of the hallway without being noticed.
Some distance from the two sides of the corridor several doors, and when they were all the same to me, I slipped in the first. The door opened into a small, brilliantly furnished chamber, which was apparently a waiting room for an agency or a reception room in a palace.
On the opposite wall was a door covered with heavy curtains, behind which was the sound of speech. I immediately went across the floor, tearing the curtains and looking into the more spacious room.
There was a party of fifty beautifully dressed court clerics, standing in front of the throne on which sat Salensus Oll. The Jeddak Jeddak was speaking at the moment.
“The moment is in hand,” he explained when I just arrived, “and although Okar’s enemies are inside the city gates, nothing should stop Salensus Olli’s will from being fulfilled. , who, according to the old custom, must be witnessing when a new queen is appointed to Okar.
“- The whole delivery will be made in a short moment, and then we will return to battle, with the current Princess of Helium remaining in the Queen’s tower to watch the destruction of her former countrymen and the power of her husband.”
He then turned to a courtier and quietly issued an order to him.
This one rushed to the small door at the other end of the room, opened its back to its back, and exclaimed, “Road to Dejah Thoris, the future queen of Okar!”
At the same time, two guard soldiers appeared, dragging a resisting bride to the altar. Dejah Thoris’ hands were still tied behind his back, apparently to prevent suicide.
Her fluffy hair and fluttering breasts testified that she had struggled, even in shackles, against the yellow intent.
Seeing him, Salensus Oll stood up with his drawn sword bare. Likewise, all the fifty chiefs raised their swords, forming an arch of honor under which a lovely creature-parka was dragged to judgment.
A cruel smile rippled through my lips as I thought of how the awakening of the hole awaited the ruler of Okar, and I swarmed the handle of my bloody sword with scabby fingers.
Looking at the throne towards the throne, with only a handful of priests stepping after Dejah Thoris and both guards, I saw a glimpse of a black face peeking behind the throne of Salensus Olli waiting for his bride, a glare from the wall-covering veil.
Currently, the guard soldiers were pulling up the steps leading to Princess Helium next to the tyrant Ocari, and my gaze and thoughts were attached exclusively to it. One of the priests opened the book, raised his hand, and began to sing the words of the solemn editorial. Salensus Oll held out his hand to grab the bride’s hand.
I had been going to wait until such an opportunity arose that I had some hope of success, for even if the whole delivery were completed, the marriage would still be void because I was alive. The most important thing for me, I thought, was to save Dejah Thoris – I wanted to take him out of the Salensus Olli Palace, if it could happen. The secondary consideration was whether it would occur before or after this false consecration.
But when I saw Salensus Olli stretching out her miserable hand toward the hand of my beloved princess, I could no longer restrain myself, and before Okari’s superiors guessed anything, I had anticipated between their few lines on the podium next to Dejah Thoris and Salensus Olli.
With the sword of my sword, I struck aside some shameful hand. I then grabbed Dejah Thoris’ belts and swung him behind me, placing myself against the curtains of the podium, ready to defy the tyranny of the North and his superior soldiers.
The Jeddak of Jeddah was an extraordinarily big, raw, and ruthless man. As he stood in front of me, much larger than I was, with a black beard and mustache rigidly raging, then I can well understand that a less hardened soldier might have trembled when he saw him.
Of the cattle, he escaped with a sword outstretched against me, but it is impossible for me to know if Salensus Was a good or a bad swordsman, for with Dejah Thoris behind my back I was no longer a human being, I was a superhuman, and no man could hold his side against me.
I just whispered, “For the Princess Helium!” and I buried my sword in the filthy heart of the corrupt ruler of Okari. With the pride looking pale and his faces long, the Salensus Oll twisted, his face twisted into a creepy grimace, at the base of the steps of his wedding platform.
For a moment there was silence of death in the wedding room. Then all fifty superiors attacked me. A fierce battle ensued, but I was on the right side standing above them on the podium, fighting for the most beautiful woman of the beautiful race.
And behind me echoed from Silver a singing graceful voice of Helium’s song of war, sung by the women of the people of Helium as their men marched to victory.
That alone would have inspired me to win, even if I had been faced with even more frightening superiority, and I certainly believe that I would have survived the yellow soldiers then, even if the wedding room at Kadabra Palace had been full of them. But unexpectedly, the fight stopped when I got help.
The battle was furiously fiery. Salensus Olli’s superiors rushed one after another to the stairs in front of the throne, but they always deviated back, for they were faced with the right hand, which seemed to have gained more skill after dealing with the Master Solan.
There was a movement behind me and the melodies of the war song fell silent, but just then a couple of okari people haunted me so dearly that I couldn’t turn to look there. Was Dejah Thoris going to be next to me to fight?
The heroine of a heroic celestial body! It would have been very in keeping with her nature if she had grabbed her sword and sat beside me, for though the women of Mars are not taught warlike tricks, their spirits are warlike, and I know countless times that they have been involved in blood feuds.
But he was not heard, and I was glad of it, for I would have had to be two times more careful to protect him, too, before I had been forced back into a safe place. He must have been thinking of some cunning plot, I guessed, and I was still taking it in the sure belief that my divine princess was behind me.
I had been fighting the superiorities of Okar for at least half an hour, and none of them had gained a foothold on the podium I was on. Then all my surviving opponents suddenly organized for the last, ferocious, desperate attack. But as they were just preparing to flee against me, the door at the other end of the room flew open and a messed-up, wild-looking messenger rushed in.
“Jeddakien jeddak!” he gasped. “Where is the Jeddah of the Jeddahs? The city has been overthrown, the herds behind the ice wall have taken it over. And just now the gate of the palace itself collapsed, and the soldiers of the south flood the holy area of the palace.
“- Where is Salensus Oll? Only he can re-encourage our shaky soldiers. Only he can now save Okar from destruction. Where is Salensus Oll?”
The nobles withdrew farther around the body of their ruler, and one of them showed his distorted face.
The envoy sighed in horror backwards as if he had been struck against his face.
“Then flee, Okar’s superior!” he would scream. “Nothing can save you. Listen! They’re coming!”
There were rubber-edged cries from the corridor, a fishing of metal fittings, and the chatter of swords.
Without further glance at me, who had been the seer of this sad scene, the superiors spun around and fled the room from another door. Almost at the same time a group of yellow soldiers appeared at the door from which the messenger had come. They retreated toward the room, rigidly defending themselves. They were haunted by a handful of red soldiers who slowly but surely forced them backwards.
From my high place, I saw the faces of my old friend Kantos Kani fighting over
. He led this small team that had infiltrated
the heart of the Palace of Salensus Olli.
I immediately realized that attacking the Okari people from behind would put them in a deep mess, so their resistance would soon be over. In the power of this thought, I jumped down from the podium, explaining to Dejah Thoris my intention with a word uttered over his shoulder without turning to look at him.
While I was still between him and the enemies as Kantos Kan’s soldier invaded the room, Dejah Thoris could not be in any danger, even though he was left alone on the throne.
I wanted to show myself to the Heliumers and inform them that their beloved princess was here too, for I was sure that knowledge would encourage them to do even more daring heroic deeds than they had already done, even though they must .
As I ran across the floor to attack the necks of the Cadabrians, a small door opened to my left, and to my surprise I saw Matai Shang, the father of the therns, and his daughter Phaidor peek inside.
They glanced quickly at the room. For a moment, they stared in horror at Salensus Olli’s lifeless body, the blood-red floor, the superiors who had fallen in heaps in front of the throne, me and the soldiers fighting at the door.
They were not even going to step in, just staring at the door, standing all over the room. After they had inspected the entire floor, a wild, furious look spread across Matai Shang’s face and a cold, cunning smile rippled through Phaidor’s lips.
Then they disappeared, but before that, the woman let out a roaring mockery of laughter against my face.
I didn’t understand then what caused Matai Shang’s rage and what Phaidor’s joy meant, but I was sure that both of them were bad omens for me.
Moments later, I was attacked by yellow soldiers, and when the red men of Helium saw me over the shoulders of their opponents, a loud shout echoed in the hallway, into which the noise of battle drowned for a short time.
“For the Prince of Helium!” they shouted. “For the Prince of Helium!” And as hungry lions attacked their prey, they attacked the shaky ranks of the soldiers of the North.
The yellow soldiers, caught between the two fires, fought desperately bravely, as those in an extremely hopeless position often do, and as I would have done if I had been in their place, trying to take as many enemies into the hut as I could.
The match was great, but the result seemed certain in advance. But suddenly a large group of yellow soldiers appeared at the bottom of the corridor behind the red men to help their comrades.
Now the parts had changed, and the Heliumians, in turn, were cramped between the enemies threatening the two. They were all forced to turn to defend themselves against the crushingly superior newcomers, so the remains of the Eckars in the throne room remained with me.
And they kept me warm. I got so tight that I could hardly hope to survive them anymore. They slowly forced me to retreat into the room, and when everyone had come in through the door, one of them closed it, lowering it in front of the latch, so it certainly cut off the road from the red men led by Kantos Kan.
It was a clever trick, for so I had to fight alone against a dozen enemies in a room where no one could help me, and there was no escape for the red men in the corridor if their new opponents made them too strong.
But there have been more powerful enemies against me than this time, and Kantos Kan knew the gun in his hand had cleared the way for even more dangerous satires than where he was now. So I wasn’t the slightest bit desperate when I started playing at the time.
My thoughts still revolved around Dejah Thoris, and I waited, longing for the end of the match and the moment when I could shut him in my arms and hear the words threatening love I had been longing for so many years again.
As long as the battle in the room continued, I never once had the opportunity to stealthily glance at the throne of the fallen ruler with Dejah Thoris next to him. I wondered why he no longer excited me by singing Helium’s war song. But all I needed to do was know that I fought for him to do my best.
A detailed description of a bloody match would go a long way. We moved from the door across the room, fighting all the way to the foot of the throne, before my last opponent sank to the floor after my heart pierced his heart.
Exclaiming with joy, I then turned around to press my princess into my open arms, waiting for the kiss I missed for a triple reward for the bloody matches I had endured as I rushed her star from the South Pole to the North Pole.
A happy exclamation died to my lips, my arms fluttered reluctantly to my sides, and as after the death blow I hopped up the stairs leading to the throne.
Dejah Thoris was missing.
