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.

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.

As they neared the entrance to the garden another woman, similarly
guarded, approached them from another quarter of the great palace. 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. 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. 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.

The mother and daughter exchanged the gentle, Barsoomian, "kaor" of
greeting and kissed. Then together they entered the gardens where the
guests were. A huge warrior drew his short-sword and struck his metal
shield with the flat of it, the brazen sound ringing out above the
laughter and the speech.

"The Princess comes!" he cried. "Dejah Thoris! The Princess comes! Tara
of Helium!" Thus always is royalty announced. The guests arose; the two
women inclined their heads; the guards fell back upon either side of
the entrance-way; a number of nobles advanced to pay their respects;
the laughing and the talking were resumed and Dejah Thoris and her
daughter moved simply and naturally among their guests, no suggestion
of differing rank apparent in the bearing of any who were there, though
there was more than a single Jeddak and many common warriors whose only
title lay in brave deeds, or noble patriotism. Thus it is upon Mars
where men are judged upon their own merits rather than upon those of
their grandsires, even though pride of lineage be great.

Tara of Heli