![]() So great was the love of the people of Helium for the mate of John Carter it amounted practically to worship, as though she were indeed the goddess that she looked. Thus always, solely at the command of their own hearts, did the warriors of Helium greet Dejah Thoris, whose deathless beauty had more than once brought them to bloody warfare with other nations of Barsoom. As she neared them Tara of Helium turned toward her with a smile and a happy greeting, while her guards knelt with bowed heads in willing and voluntary adoration of the beloved of Helium. As she left her apartments to make her way to the gardens where the guests were congregating, two warriors, the insignia of the House of the Prince of Helium upon their harness, followed a few paces behind her, grim reminders that the assassin's blade may never be ignored upon Barsoom, where, in a measure, it counterbalances the great natural span of human life, which is estimated at not less than a thousand years.Īs they neared the entrance to the garden another woman, similarly guarded, approached them from another quarter of the great palace. In another half hour her hair was dried and built into the strange, but becoming, coiffure of her station her leathern trappings, encrusted with gold and jewels, had been adjusted to her figure and she was ready to mingle with the guests that had been bidden to the midday function at the palace of The Warlord. Typical of the life of the princess was the simple elegance of her bath-no retinue of useless slaves, no pomp, no idle waste of precious moments. Presently she emerged and gave herself into the hands of the slave girl, who rubbed the body of her mistress with a sweet smelling semi-liquid substance contained in a golden urn, until the glowing skin was covered with a foamy lather, then a quick plunge into the pool, a drying with soft towels, and the bath was over. With the silken ease of the seal she swam, now at the surface, now below, her smooth muscles rolling softly beneath her clear skin-a wordless song of health and happiness and grace. Finding the water to her liking, the girl swam leisurely to and fro about the pool. Slowly she descended the steps to the water, the temperature of which she tested with a symmetrical foot, undeformed by tight shoes and high heels-a lovely foot, as God intended that feet should be and seldom are. Tara of Helium removed the scarf from about her and handed it to the slave. A glass dome let in the sunlight, which flooded the interior, glancing from the polished white of the marble walls and the procession of bathers and fishes, which, in conventional design, were inlaid with gold in a broad band that circled the room. Golden stanchions supported a chain of gold encircling it and leading down into the water on either side of marble steps. ![]() Preceding the daughter of The Warlord she opened the door of an adjoining room where lay the bath-a gleaming pool of scented water in a marble basin. "The bath is ready, Tara of Helium," the girl responded, her eyes still twinkling with merriment, for she well knew that in the heart of her mistress was no anger that could displace the love of the princess for her slave. "That tongue of yours will bring you to some misadventure yet." ![]() "But Carthoris is hunting in the north with Talu, Jeddak of Okar," Uthia reminded her. It is his friendship for Carthoris that brings him thus often to the palace of my father." "He is the friend of my brother, Carthoris, and so he is here much but not to see me. "It is not plain to me," said Tara of Helium. "It is so plain to all that he worships you," she replied. "And why, Uthia," she added, "do you look thus and smile when you mention the name of Djor Kantos?" "The bath, then, Uthia," said her mistress. "I have seen Kantos Kan, Overlord of the Navy, and Prince Soran of Ptarth, and Djor Kantos, son of Kantos Kan," she shot a roguish glance at her mistress as she mentioned Djor Kantos' name, "and-oh, there were others, many have come." "Yes, Tara of Helium, they come," replied the slave. "Are my father's guests arriving?" asked the princess. ![]() With a wooden stick she tapped upon the bronze disc, lightly, and presently the summons was answered by a slave girl, who entered, smiling, to be greeted similarly by her mistress. A scarf of silken gossamer crossing over one shoulder was wrapped about her body her black hair was piled high upon her head. Her carriage was that of health and physical perfection-the effortless harmony of faultless coordination. TARA of Helium rose from the pile of silks and soft furs upon which she had been reclining, stretched her lithe body languidly, and crossed toward the center of the room, where, above a large table, a bronze disc depended from the low ceiling.
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