Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

'Where is she? Answer me, man, or I complete the work that another has so well begun.' 'The Princess of Ptarth!' cried Carthoris. The prince bent low to note if any spark of life remained, and as he did so the lids raised and dull, suffering eyes looked up into his. It was Jav, but torn and mangled almost beyond recognition. Carthoris turned the figure over upon its back. The Heliumite, scarce pausing at the forest's verge, pushed on across the plain toward the city, when presently he descried a huddled form in the grass at his feet. No gory heaps of tortured dead defaced the beauty of the scarlet sward. No myriad bowmen camped now beneath the overhanging verdure of the giant trees. Thuria's brilliant light flooded the plain before the walled city of Lothar as Carthoris broke from the wood opposite the great gate that had given the fugitives egress from the city earlier in the day.Īt first he saw no indication that there was another than himself anywhere about. Scarce had he realized the truth than he had started to retrace his steps toward Lothar, but now he moved at a trot, the Earthly thews that he had inherited from his father carrying him swiftly over the soft carpet of fallen leaves and rank grass. He cursed himself for his stupidity, and yet he knew that the fiendish power which the Lotharian had invoked to confuse him might have deceived any. Jav had caused him to believe that Thuvia was accompanying him through the wood while, as a matter of fact, he had detained the girl for himself!Ĭarthoris was horrified. She seemed suddenly to have dissolved into the tenuous substance of a dream, and as he continued to gaze upon her, she faded slowly from his sight.įor an instant he was dumbfounded, and then the whole truth flashed suddenly upon him. It was his idea to pass through the cliffs at once if they could locate the passage, and he was quite positive that they were now close to it but he wanted her assent to the proposition.Īs his eyes rested upon her, he was struck by her strangely ethereal appearance. Then it was that Carthoris turned to speak to the girl at his side. Onward through the dim wood they passed until the shadows of the quick coming Martian night commenced to close down upon them. Previous Chapter Next Chapter Chapter X: Kar Komak, the BowmanĪs Carthoris moved through the forest toward the distant cliffs with Thuvia's hand still tight pressed in his, he wondered a little at the girl's continued silence, yet the contact of her cool palm against his was so pleasant that he feared to break the spell of her new-found reliance in him by speaking.

Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs