CHAPTER VII
THE PHANTOM BOWMEN
As Jav leaped toward him Carthoris laid his hand upon the hilt ofhis long-sword. The Lotharian halted. The great apartment wasempty save for the four at the dais, yet as Jav stepped back fromthe menace of the Heliumite's threatening attitude the latter foundhimself surrounded by a score of bowmen.
From whence had they sprung? Both Carthoris and Thuvia lookedtheir astonishment.
Now the former's sword leaped from its scabbard, and at the sameinstant the bowmen drew back their slim shafts.
Tario had half raised himself upon one elbow. For the first timehe saw the full figure of Thuvia, who had been concealed behindthe person of Carthoris.
"Enough!" cried the jeddak, raising a protesting hand, but atthat very instant the sword of the Heliumite cut viciously at itsnearest antagonist.
As the keen edge reached its goal Carthoris let the point fall tothe floor, as with wide eyes he stepped backward in consternation,throwing the back of his left hand across his brow. His steelhad cut but empty air--his antagonist had vanished--there were nobowmen in the room!
"It is evident that these are strangers," said Tario to Jav. "Letus first determine that they knowingly affronted us before we takemeasures for punishment."
Then he turned to Carthoris, but ever his gaze wandered to theperfect lines of Thuvia's glorious figure, which the harness of aBarsoomian princess accentuated rather than concealed.
"Who are you," he asked, "who knows not the etiquette of the courtof the last of jeddaks?"
"I am Carthoris, Prince of Helium," replied the Heliumite. "Andthis is Thuvia, Princess of Ptarth. In the courts of our fathersmen do not prostrate themselves before royalty. Not since the FirstBorn tore their immortal goddess limb from limb have men crawledupon their bellies to any throne upon Barsoom. Now think you thatthe daughter of one mighty jeddak and the son of another would sohumiliate themselves?"
Tario looked at Carthoris for a long time. At last he spoke.
"There is no other jeddak upon Barsoom than Tario," he said. "Thereis no other race than that of Lothar, unless the hordes of Torquasmay be dignified by such an appellation. Lotharians are white;your skins are red. There are no women left upon Barsoom. Yourcompanion is a woman."
He half rose from the couch, leaning far forward and pointing anaccusing finger at Carthoris.
"You are a lie!" he shrieked. "You are both lies, and you dare tocome before Tario, last and mightiest of the jeddaks of Barsoom,and assert your reality. Some one shall pay well for this, Jav,and unless I mistake it is yourself who has dared thus flippantlyto trifle with the good nature of your jeddak.
"Remove the man. Leave the woman. We shall see if both be lies.And later, Jav, you shall suffer for your temerity. There be fewof us left, but--Komal must be fed. Go!"
Carthoris could see that Jav trembled as he prostrated himself oncemore before his ruler, and then, rising, turned toward the Princeof Helium.
"Come!" he said.
"And leave the Princess of Ptarth here alone?" cried Carthoris.
Jav brushed closely past him, whispering:
"Follow me--he cannot harm her, except to kill; and that he can dowhether you remain or not. We had best go now--trust me."
Carthoris did not understand, but something in the urgency of theother's tone assured him, and so he turned away, but not without aglance toward Thuvia in which he attempted to make her understandthat it was in her own interest that he left her.
For answer she turned her back full upon him, but not without firstthrowing him such a look of contempt that brought the scarlet tohis cheek.
Then he hesitated, but Jav seized him by the wrist.
"Come!" he whispered. "Or he will have the bowmen upon you, andthis time there will be no escape. Did you not see how futile isyour steel against thin air!"
Carthoris turned unwillingly to follow. As the two left the roomhe turned to his companion.
"If I may not kill thin air," he asked, "how, then, shall I fearthat thin air may kill me?"
"You saw the Torquasians fall before the bowmen?" asked Jav.
Carthoris nodded.
"So would you fall before them, and without one single chance forself-defence or revenge."
As they talked Jav led Carthoris to a small room in one of thenumerous towers of the palace. Here were couches, and Jav bid theHeliumite be seated.
For several minutes the Lotharian eyed his prisoner, for suchCarthoris now realized himself to be.
"I am half convinced that you are real," he said at last.
Carthoris laughed.
"Of course I am real," he said. "What caused you to doubt it? Canyou not see me, feel me?"
"So may I see and feel the bowmen," replied Jav, "and yet we allknow that they, at least, are not real."
Carthoris showed by the expression of his face his puzzlement ateach new reference to the mysterious bowmen--the vanishing soldieryof Lothar.
"What, then, may they be?" he asked.
"You really do not know?" asked Jav.
Carthoris shook his head negatively.
"I can almost believe that you have told us the truth and that youare really from another part of Barsoom, or from another world. Buttell me, in your own country have you no bowmen to strike terrorto the hearts of the green hordesmen as they slay in company withthe fierce banths of war?"
"We have soldiers," replied Carthoris. "We of the red race areall soldiers, but we have no bowmen to defend us, such as yours.We defend ourselves."
"You go out and get killed by your enemies!" cried Jav incredulously.
"Certainly," replied Carthoris. "How do the Lotharians?"
"You have seen," replied the other. "We send out our deathlessarchers--deathless because they are lifeless, existing only in theimaginations of our enemies. It is really our giant minds thatdefend us, sending out legions of imaginary warriors to materializebefore the mind's eye of the foe.
"They see them--they see their bows drawn back--they see theirslender arrows speed with unerring precision toward their hearts.And they die--killed by the power of suggestion."
"But the archers that are slain?" exclaimed Carthoris. "You callthem deathless, and yet I saw their dead bodies piled high uponthe battlefield. How may that be?"
"It is but to lend reality to the scene," replied Jav. "We picturemany of our own defenders killed that the Torquasians may not guessthat there are really no flesh and blood creatures opposing them.
"Once that truth became implanted in their minds, it is the theoryof many of us, no longer would they fall prey to the suggestionof the deadly arrows, for greater would be the suggestion of thetruth, and the more powerful suggestion would prevail--it is law."
"And the banths?" questioned Carthoris. "They, too, were butcreatures of suggestion?"
"Some of them were real," replied Jav. "Those that accompaniedthe archers in pursuit of the Torquasians were unreal. Like thearchers, they never returned, but, having served their purpose,vanished with the bowmen when the rout of the enemy was assured.
"Those that remained about the field were real. Those we loosedas scavengers to devour the bodies of the dead of Torquas. Thisthing is demanded by the realists among us. I am a realist. Tariois an etherealist.
"The etherealists maintain that there is no such thing asmatter--that all is mind. They say that none of us exists, exceptin the imagination of his fellows, other than as an intangible,invisible mentality.
"According to Tario, it is but necessary that we all unite inimagining that there are no dead Torquasians beneath our walls,and there will be none, nor any need of scavenging banths."
"You, then, do not hold Tario's beliefs?" asked Carthoris.
"In part only," replied the Lotharian. "I believe, in fact I know,that there are some truly ethereal creatures. Tario is one, I amconvinced. He has no existence except in the imaginations of hispeople.
"Of course, it is the contention of a
ll us realists that alletherealists are but figments of the imagination. They contendthat no food is necessary, nor do they eat; but any one of the mostrudimentary intelligence must realize that food is a necessity tocreatures having actual existence."
"Yes," agreed Carthoris, "not having eaten to-day I can readilyagree with you."
"Ah, pardon me," exclaimed Jav. "Pray be seated and satisfy yourhunger," and with a wave of his hand he indicated a bountifullyladen table that had not been there an instant before he spoke. Ofthat Carthoris was positive, for he had searched the room diligentlywith his eyes several times.
"It is well," continued Jav, "that you did not fall into the handsof an etherealist. Then, indeed, would you have gone hungry."
"But," exclaimed Carthoris, "this is not real food--it was not herean instant since, and real food does not materialize out of thinair."
Jav looked hurt.
"There is no real food or water in Lothar," he said; "nor has therebeen for countless ages. Upon such as you now see before you havewe existed since the dawn of history. Upon such, then, may youexist."
"But I thought you were a realist," exclaimed Carthoris.
"Indeed," cried Jav, "what more realistic than this bounteous feast?It is just here that we differ most from the etherealists. Theyclaim that it is unnecessary to imagine food; but we have foundthat for the maintenance of life we must thrice daily sit down tohearty meals.
"The food that one eats is supposed to undergo certain chemicalchanges during the process of digestion and assimilation, theresult, of course, being the rebuilding of wasted tissue.
"Now we all know that mind is all, though we may differ in theinterpretation of its various manifestations. Tario maintainsthat there is no such thing as substance, all being created fromthe substanceless matter of the brain.
"We realists, however, know better. We know that mind has thepower to maintain substance even though it may not be able to createsubstance--the latter is still an open question. And so we knowthat in order to maintain our physical bodies we must cause allour organs properly to function.
"This we accomplish by materializing food-thoughts, and by partakingof the food thus created. We chew, we swallow, we digest. All ourorgans function precisely as if we had partaken of material food.And what is the result? What must be the result? The chemicalchanges take place through both direct and indirect suggestion,and we live and thrive."
Carthoris eyed the food before him. It seemed real enough. Helifted a morsel to his lips. There was substance indeed. Andflavour as well. Yes, even his palate was deceived.
Jav watched him, smiling, as he ate.
"Is it not entirely satisfying?" he asked.
"I must admit that it is," replied Carthoris. "But tell me, howdoes Tario live, and the other etherealists who maintain that foodis unnecessary?"
Jav scratched his head.
"That is a question we often discuss," he replied. "It is thestrongest evidence we have of the non-existence of the etherealists;but who may know other than Komal?"
"Who is Komal?" asked Carthoris. "I heard your jeddak speak ofhim."
Jav bent low toward the ear of the Heliumite, looking fearfullyabout before he spoke.
"Komal is the essence," he whispered. "Even the etherealistsadmit that mind itself must have substance in order to transmit toimaginings the appearance of substance. For if there really wasno such thing as substance it could not be suggested--what neverhas been cannot be imagined. Do you follow me?"
"I am groping," replied Carthoris dryly.
"So the essence must be substance," continued Jav. "Komal is theessence of the All, as it were. He is maintained by substance.He eats. He eats the real. To be explicit, he eats the realists.That is Tario's work.
"He says that inasmuch as we maintain that we alone are real weshould, to be consistent, admit that we alone are proper food forKomal. Sometimes, as to-day, we find other food for him. He isvery fond of Torquasians."
"And Komal is a man?" asked Carthoris.
"He is All, I told you," replied Jav. "I know not how to explainhim in words that you will understand. He is the beginning andthe end. All life emanates from Komal, since the substance whichfeeds the brain with imaginings radiates from the body of Komal.
"Should Komal cease to eat, all life upon Barsoom would cease to be.He cannot die, but he might cease to eat, and, thus, to radiate."
"And he feeds upon the men and women of your belief?" cried Carthoris.
"Women!" exclaimed Jav. "There are no women in Lothar. The lastof the Lotharian females perished ages since, upon that cruel andterrible journey across the muddy plains that fringed the half-driedseas, when the green hordes scourged us across the world to thisour last hiding-place--our impregnable fortress of Lothar.
"Scarce twenty thousand men of all the countless millions of ourrace lived to reach Lothar. Among us were no women and no children.All these had perished by the way.
"As time went on, we, too, were dying and the race fast approachingextinction, when the Great Truth was revealed to us, that mind isall. Many more died before we perfected our powers, but at lastwe were able to defy death when we fully understood that death wasmerely a state of mind.
"Then came the creation of mind-people, or rather the materializationof imaginings. We first put these to practical use when theTorquasians discovered our retreat, and fortunate for us it wasthat it required ages of search upon their part before they foundthe single tiny entrance to the valley of Lothar.
"That day we threw our first bowmen against them. The intentionwas purely to frighten them away by the vast numbers of bowmen whichwe could muster upon our walls. All Lothar bristled with the bowsand arrows of our ethereal host.
"But the Torquasians did not frighten. They are lower than thebeasts--they know no fear. They rushed upon our walls, and standingupon the shoulders of others they built human approaches to thewall tops, and were on the very point of surging in upon us andoverwhelming us.
"Not an arrow had been discharged by our bowmen--we did but causethem to run to and fro along the wall top, screaming taunts andthreats at the enemy.
"Presently I thought to attempt the thing--THE GREAT THING. I centredall my mighty intellect upon the bowmen of my own creation--eachof us produces and directs as many bowmen as his mentality andimagination is capable of.
"I caused them to fit arrows to their bows for the first time. Imade them take aim at the hearts of the green men. I made thegreen men see all this, and then I made them see the arrows fly,and I made them think that the points pierced their hearts.
"It was all that was necessary. By hundreds they toppled fromour walls, and when my fellows saw what I had done they were quickto follow my example, so that presently the hordes of Torquas hadretreated beyond the range of our arrows.
"We might have killed them at any distance, but one rule of war wehave maintained from the first--the rule of realism. We do nothing,or rather we cause our bowmen to do nothing within sight of theenemy that is beyond the understanding of the foe. Otherwise theymight guess the truth, and that would be the end of us.
"But after the Torquasians had retreated beyond bowshot, they turnedupon us with their terrible rifles, and by constant popping at usmade life miserable within our walls.
"So then I bethought the scheme to hurl our bowmen through thegates upon them. You have seen this day how well it works. Forages they have come down upon us at intervals, but always with thesame results."
"And all this is due to your intellect, Jav?" asked Carthoris. "Ishould think that you would be high in the councils of your people."
"I am," replied Jav, proudly. "I am next to Tario."
"But why, then, your cringing manner of approaching the throne?"
"Tario demands it. He is jealous of me. He only awaits theslightest excuse to feed me to Komal. He fears that I may someday usurp his power."
Carthoris suddenly sprang from the table.
"Jav!" he exclaimed. "I am a beast! Here I have been eating myfill, while the Princess of Ptarth may perchance be still withoutfood. Let us return and find some means of furnishing her withnourishment."
The Lotharian shook his head.
"Tario would not permit it," he said. "He will, doubtless, makean etherealist of her."
"But I must go to her," insisted Carthoris. "You say that thereare no women in Lothar. Then she must be among men, and if thisbe so I intend to be near where I may defend her if the need arises."
"Tario will have his way," insisted Jav. "He sent you away andyou may not return until he sends for you."
"Then I shall go without waiting to be sent for."
"Do not forget the bowmen," cautioned Jav.
"I do not forget them," replied Carthoris, but he did not tellJav that he remembered something else that the Lotharian had letdrop--something that was but a conjecture, possibly, and yet onewell worth pinning a forlorn hope to, should necessity arise.
Carthoris started to leave the room. Jav stepped before him,barring his way.
"I have learned to like you, red man," he said; "but do not forgetthat Tario is still my jeddak, and that Tario has commanded thatyou remain here."
Carthoris was about to reply, when there came faintly to the earsof both a woman's cry for help.
With a sweep of his arm the Prince of Helium brushed the Lotharianaside, and with drawn sword sprang into the corridor without.