"09 - Synthetic Men of Mars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Burroughs Edgar Rice)

thought that if she knew it, any burden of apprehension she might be carrying
would be lightened.
As I approached her, with the intention of entering into conversation with her,
the officer who had questioned us in the guardroom entered the compound with two
other officers and several hormads. They gathered us together, and the two
officers accompanying the officer of the guard looked us over. "Not a bad lot,"
said one.
The other shrugged. "The jeds will take the best of them, and Ras Thavas will
grumble about the material he is getting. He always does."
"They don't want the girl, do they?" asked the officer of the guard.
"Our orders were to bring the prisoners," replied one of the others.
"I should like to keep the girl," said the officer of the guard.
"Who wouldn't?" demanded the other with a laugh. "If she had the face of an
ulsio you might get her; but the good looking ones go to the jeds, and she is
more than good looking."
Janai was standing next to me, and I could almost feel her shudder. Moved by a
sudden impulse, I pressed her hand; and for an instant she clung to mine,
instinctively groping for protection; then she dropped it and flushed.
"I wish I might help you," I said.
"You are kind. I understand, but no one can help. You are only better off in
that you are a man. The worst they will do to you is kill you."
The hideous hormads surrounded us, and we were marched back through the
guardroom and out into the avenue. John Carter asked an officer where we were
being taken.
"To the Council of the Seven Jeds," he said. "There it will be determined what
disposition is to be made of you. Some of you will go into the culture vats.
Those of you who are fortunate will be retained to train and officer troops as I
was. It's not much to look forward to, but it's better than death."
"What is the Council of the Seven Jeds?" asked The Warlord.
"They are the rulers of Morbus. They are the seven hormads whose brains
developed normally and who wrested control from Ras Thavas. Each one aspired to
rule; and as none would give up what he considered his rights, they proclaimed
themselves all jeds, and rule conjointly."
At a little distance from our prison we came to a large building before the
entrance to which was a guard of hormad warriors commanded by a couple of
officers. There was a brief parley here, and then we were taken into the
building and along a long corridor to a large chamber before the doorway to
which we were detained for a few minutes by another detail of guardsmen. When
the door was opened we saw a number of hormads and officers standing about and
at the far end of the room a raised dais on which seven red men were seated on
carved chairs. These were evidently the seven jeds, but they did not look like
the hormads we had previously seen. On the contrary they were quite normal and
most of them fine looking men.
We were taken to the foot of the dais; and here they looked us over, asking
about the same questions that the officer of the guard had asked us when we were
admitted to the prison. They discussed us at some length, as men might discuss a
number of thoats or calots they were considering purchasing. Several of them
seemed much interested in Janai, and finally three of them laid claim to her.
This started an altercation which ended in a vote being taken as to which of
them would get her, but as there was never a majority in favor of any one man,