Astok glowered sullenly upon her.
"You shall mate with me, Thuvia of Ptarth," he growled, "or, by your first ancestor, you shall have your preference--and mate with a white ape."The girl made no reply, nor could he draw her into conversation during the balance of the journey.
As a matter of fact Astok was a trifle awed by the proportions of the conflict which his abduction of the Ptarthian princess had induced, nor was he over comfortable with the weight of responsibility which the possession of such a prisoner entailed.
His one thought was to get her to Dusar, and there let his father assume the responsibility. In the meantime he would be as careful as possible to do nothing to affront her, lest they all might be captured and he have to account for his treatment of the girl to one of the great jeddaks whose interest centred in her.
And so at last they came to Dusar, where Astok hid his prisoner in a secret room high in the east tower of his own palace. He had sworn his men to silence in the matter of the identity of the girl, for until he had seen his father, Nutus, Jeddak of Dusar, he dared not let any one know whom he had brought with him from the south.
But when he appeared in the great audience chamber before the cruel-lipped man who was his sire, he found his courage oozing, and he dared not speak of the princess hid within his palace. 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.
"You have done enough already to set Ptarth and Kaol and Helium all three upon us at once should they learn your part in the theft of the Ptarth princess.
That you succeeded in shifting the guilt upon the Prince of Helium was fortunate, and a masterly move of strategy;but were the girl to know the truth and ever return to her father's court, all Dusar would have to pay the penalty, and to have her here a prisoner amongst us would be an admission of guilt from the consequences of which naught could save us. It would cost me my throne, Astok, and that I have no mind to lose.
"If we had her here--" the elder man suddenly commenced to muse, repeating the phrase again and again.
"If we had her here, Astok," he exclaimed fiercely.
"Ah, if we but had her here and none knew that she was here!
Can you not guess, man? The guilt of Dusar might be for ever buried with her bones," he concluded in a low, savage whisper.
Astok, Prince of Dusar, shuddered.
Weak he was; yes, and wicked, too; but the suggestion that his father's words implied turned him cold with horror.
Cruel to their enemies are the men of Mars; but the word "enemies" is commonly interpreted to mean men only.
Assassination runs riot in the great Barsoomian cities;yet to murder a woman is a crime so unthinkable that even the most hardened of the paid assassins would shrink from you in horror should you suggest such a thing to him.
Nutus was apparently oblivious to his son's all-too-patent terror at his suggestion. Presently he continued:
"You say that you know where the girl lies hid, since she was stolen from your people at Aaanthor.
Should she be found by any one of the three powers, her unsupported story would be sufficient to turn them all against us.
"There is but one way, Astok," cried the older man.
"You must return at once to her hiding-place and fetch her hither in all secrecy. And, look you here!
Return not to Dusar without her, upon pain of death!"Astok, Prince of Dusar, well knew his royal father's temper.
He knew that in the tyrant's heart there pulsed no single throb of love for any creature.
Astok's mother had been a slave woman. Nutus had never loved her. He had never loved another. In youth he had tried to find a bride at the courts of several of his powerful neighbours, but their women would have none of him.
After a dozen daughters of his own nobility had sought self-destruction rather than wed him he had given up.
And then it had been that he had legally wed one of his slaves that he might have a son to stand among the jeds when Nutus died and a new jeddak was chosen.
Slowly Astok withdrew from the presence of his father.
With white face and shaking limbs he made his way to his own palace. As he crossed the courtyard his glance chanced to wander to the great east tower looming high against the azure of the sky.
At sight of it beads of sweat broke out upon his brow.
Issus! No other hand than his could be trusted to do the horrid thing. With his own fingers he must crush the life from that perfect throat, or plunge the silent blade into the red, red heart.
