A Princess of Mars (Chapter 23)

The suspensful conclusion to David Gerrold's tale of a mysterious journey through darkness. Winner of the 2013 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction.

Part two of David Gerrold's tale of a mysterious journey through darkness. Winner of the 2013 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction.

Writer David Gerrold takes us on an unsettling journey through darkness. Winner of the 2013 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction.

Above me shone the red eye of Mars holding her awful secret, forty-eight million miles away.

I traveled with awful velocity for my errand was a race against time with death.

A wild cry of exultation arose from the Heliumite squadron, and with redoubled ferocity they fell upon the Zodangan fleet.

"Zodanga has fallen," I cried. "Look!"

I fell beside a huge monster who was engaged with three antagonists, and as I glanced at his fierce face, filled with the light of battle, I recognized him ...

As I sped through the air the screeching of the bullets around me convinced me that only by a miracle could I escape ...

"Too late, too late," she grieved. "O my chieftain that was, and whom I thought dead, had you but returned one little hour before--but now it is too late, too late."