As soon as he dismissed me I hurried to the apartment where I had left Janai, and my heart was in my mouth for fear that I should not find her there. I had to be careful that no one saw me enter the storeroom that led to her hiding place, for I did not want Ay-mad ever to discover that I had known all along where she was hidden. Fortunately the corridor was empty, and I entered the storeroom unseen. Going to the door of Janai’s room, I knocked. There was no answer.
“Janai!” I called. “It is I, Tor-dur-bar. Are you there?”
Then I heard the bolt being withdrawn, and the door swung open. There she stood!
My heart almost stopped for very relief. And she was so beautiful! It seemed that each new time I saw her she had become more beautiful.
“You are back,” she said. “I began to fear that you would never come. Do you bring word from Vor Daj?”
So she was thinking of Vor Daj! On such slight sustenance does love thrive. I entered the room and closed the door.
“Vor Daj sends greetings,” I said. “He thinks of nothing but you and your welfare.”
“But he cannot come to me?”
“No. He is a prisoner in the laboratory building, but he has charged me to look after you. Now I can do so better than before for many changes have taken place in Morbus since I last saw you. I am an odwar now, and my influence with the new jeddak is considerable.”
“I have been hearing sounds of fighting,” she said. “Tell me what has happened.”
I told her briefly and that the Third Jed was now jeddak. “Then I am lost,” she said, “for he is all powerful.”
“Perhaps that is your salvation,” I told her. “To reward me for the services I had rendered him, the new jeddak made me an odwar and promised to grant me any favor I asked.”
“And what did you ask of him?”
“You.”
I could almost feel the shudder that ran through her frame as she looked at my hideous face and deformed body. “Please!” she begged. “You said you were my friend, that you were the friend of Vor Daj. He would not wish you to have me, I am sure.”
“I only asked for you that I might protect you for Vor Daj,” I said.
“How does Vor Daj know that I would have him?” she demanded.
“He doesn’t know. He only hopes that I may protect you from others. I have not said, have I, that Vor Daj wishes you for himself?” I could not resist saying that just to match her seeming indifference to Vor Daj. Her chin went up a little, and that pleased me. I know something of women and their reactions.
“What did the Third Jed say when you asked for me?” she inquired.
“He is jeddak now, and he calls himself Ay-mad,” I explained, “He said that you would not have me; so I have come to lay the whole matter before you. It is for you to decide. I think that Vor Daj loves you. You must choose between him and Ay-mad. Ay-mad will ask you to make the choice between him and me; but the choice will really be between him and Vor Daj, only Ay-mad won’t know that. If you choose me, Ay-mad will be insulted and angry; but I believe that he will keep his bargain. Then I shall take you to quarters near my own and protect you until such time as you and Vor Daj can escape from Morbus. I can also assure you that Vor Daj will hold you to no promise afterward. His only thought now is to help you.”
“I was sure that he would be like that,” she said, “and you may be sure that when the choice is given me I shall choose you rather than Ay-mad.”
“Even though by choosing him you could become a jeddara?” I asked.
“Even so,” she said.
XIII. John Carter Disappears
After leaving Janai I went at once to the laboratory building to find John Carter and learn what he knew of the disappearance of Ras Thavas. Janai and I had decided that she should remain where she was for a few days so that Ay-mad’s suspicions would not be aroused by my finding her too easily. I had determined to institute a search during which she should be found by someone else, though I would be close at hand to prevent any miscarriage of our plans.
One of the first persons I met on entering the laboratory building was Tun Gan.
At sight of me he flew into a rage. “I thought I told you to keep out of my sight,” he blustered. “Do you want to go to the incinerator?”
I pointed to my badge of office, which he evidently had not noticed. “You wouldn’t send one of the jeddak’s odwars to the incinerator, would you?” I inquired.
He was dumfounded. “You an odwar?” he demanded.
“Why not?” I asked.
“But you are only a hormad.”
“Perhaps, but I am also an odwar. I could have you sent to the incinerator or the vats, but I don’t intend to. I have your body; so we should be friends. What do you say?”
“All right,” he agreed. What else could he do? “But I don’t understand how you got to be an odwar with that awful-looking face and your deformed body.”
“Don’t forget that they were your face and body once,” I reminded him. “And also don’t forget that you couldn’t get anywhere with them. It takes more than a face or body to get places—it takes a brain that is good for something beside thinking of food.”
“I still can’t understand why you should be made an odwar when there are such fine-looking men as I to choose from.”
“Well, never mind. That isn’t what I came here to discuss. I have been placed in full charge of the laboratory building. I have come to talk with John Carter. Do you know where he is?”
“No. Neither does any one else. He disappeared at the same time Ras Thavas did.”
That was a new blow. John Carter gone! But on second thought the fact gave me renewed hope. If they were both gone and nobody knew what had become of them, it seemed to me quite possible that they had found the means to escape together. I was certain John Carter would never desert me. If he were gone of his own free will, he would return. He’d never leave me housed in this awful carcass.
“Has no one any idea of what became of them?” I asked.
“They may have been sliced up and thrown into one of the vats,” said Tun Gan.
“Some of the older hormads have been getting out of hand, and Ras Thavas had threatened them with the incinerator. They might have done it to save themselves or just to be revenged upon him.”
“I’m going to Ras Thavas’s study,” I said. “Come with me.”
I found the study in about the same condition I had last seen it. There was nothing to indicate that a struggle of any kind had taken place, not a clue that pointed to any solution of the mystery. I was completely baffled.
“When were they last seen?”
“About three days ago. One of the hormads said he saw them coming up from the pits. I don’t know why they were there. No one goes there any more since they stopped storing bodies, and no prisoners are kept there. They use the pits beneath some of the other buildings for them.”
“Were the pits searched?”
“Yes, but no trace of them was found.”
“Wait here a minute,” I said. I wanted to go into the small laboratory and have a look at my body. I wanted to be sure it was safe, but I didn’t wish Tun Gan to see it. I had an idea that he would suspect something if he saw my body. He wasn’t very brilliant, but it wouldn’t have taken much intelligence to guess what had become of the brain of Vor Daj.
Tun Gan waited for me in the study. I knew where the key to the small laboratory was hidden, because Ras Thavas had shown me; and I was soon turning it in the lock. A moment later I stepped into the room, and then I got another shock—my body had disappeared!
My knees became so weak that I collapsed onto a bench, and there I sat with my head in my hands. My body gone! With it had gone my last hope of winning Janai.
It was unthinkable that I could win her with this awful face and grotesque body.
I wouldn’t have wanted to win her like that. I couldn’t have had any respect for her or for any other woman who could have chosen such an abominable creature as I.