On the far side was a heavily curtained doorway beyond which I
heard the hum of voices. Instantly I crossed the small chamber,
and, parting the curtains, looked within the larger apartment.
Before me were a party of perhaps fifty gorgeously clad nobles of
the court, standing before a throne upon which sat Salensus Oll.
The Jeddak of Jeddaks was addressing them.
"The allotted hour has come," he was saying as I entered the
apartment; "and though the enemies of Okar be within her gates,
naught may stay the will of Salensus Oll. The great ceremony must
be omitted that no single man may be kept from his place in the
defenses other than the fifty that custom demands shall witness
the creation of a new queen in Okar.
"In a moment the thing shall have been done and we may return to
the battle, while she who is now the Princess of Helium looks down
from the queen's tower upon the annihilation of her former countrymen
and witnesses the greatness which is her husband's."
Then, turning to a courtier, he issued some command in a low voice.
The addressed hastened to a small door at the far end of the chamber
and, swinging it wide, cried: "Way for Dejah Thoris, future Queen
of Okar!"
Immediately two guardsmen appeared dragging the unwilling bride toward
the altar. Her hands were still manacled behind her, evidently to
prevent suicide.
Her disheveled hair and panting bosom betokened that, chained though
she was, still had she fought against the thing that they would do
to her.
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