CHAPTER IV – Thu­via, Maid of Mars begins with Thu­via awak­en­ing aboard a Mar­t­ian craft, its crew now dis­guised in the col­ors of Heli­um rather than Dusar. Though this shift rais­es hope that her cap­tor may be Cartho­ris, the men’s silence and veiled respons­es offer no real reas­sur­ance. The ves­sel’s route ends at a life­less Mar­t­ian city—one of many aban­doned relics that dot Barsoom’s landscape—suggesting that her arrival is part of a much dark­er scheme. The crum­bling palace where she is con­fined reveals whis­pers of ancient great­ness, but her con­fine­ment car­ries only unease. Eaves­drop­ping from her cham­ber, Thu­via learns of the cap­tors’ plot to lure an unknown pur­suer, a trap built upon her pres­ence.

Three nights pass in tense cap­tiv­i­ty, each moment spent among dust-cov­ered ruins and fad­ing murals of long-dead civ­i­liza­tions. On the third night, she is led to the desert­ed plaza and left alone beneath the stars. The emp­ty expanse, haunt­ed by silence and the mem­o­ry of lost empires, becomes a stage for her next ordeal. Just as the city seems to sleep, a mas­sive fig­ure emerges from the shadows—Thar Ban, a Green Mar­t­ian from Torquas, seizes her, mis­tak­ing her vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty as oppor­tu­ni­ty. Before she can cry out, she is whisked into the night, just as a sec­ond fli­er descends from the sky. It is Cartho­ris, track­ing her cap­tors with deter­mi­na­tion and anger burn­ing behind his steady focus.

The prince of Heli­um opens fire upon the flee­ing par­ty, dis­abling their fli­er and scat­ter­ing the false Heli­u­mites. Aboard his own ship, Cartho­ris is injured in the strug­gle but unde­terred. His pur­suit of Thu­via and Thar Ban, though slowed by mechan­i­cal dam­age, becomes more des­per­ate as the ter­rain grows unfor­giv­ing. With his fli­er fail­ing, he descends into the end­less plains on foot, trail­ing the faint signs of his quar­ry through dust and for­got­ten Mar­t­ian val­leys. His only guide becomes a banth—one of Barsoom’s fiercest predators—whose path sug­gests it, too, fol­lows the same scent.

The chase leads him into rocky high­lands, where the red dust of Mars grows thin, and the land­scape becomes a maze of stone and silence. The banth sud­den­ly van­ish­es before a cliff­side wall, and Cartho­ris, sens­ing some­thing con­cealed, begins to inves­ti­gate. Behind a thick­et of stone and lichen, he dis­cov­ers the entrance to a dark­ened tun­nel carved into the cliffs—a place untouched by wind or time. Though uncer­tain what waits with­in, the pas­sage feels like the only clue left in a world of van­ish­ing trails and shift­ing sand.

Inside the tun­nel, he is enveloped by shad­ow and silence, but the air holds the scent of life—faint, dis­tant, and mixed with the wild musk of the banth. Though his injuries slow him, Cartho­ris moves care­ful­ly, his blade ready and heart steady, dri­ven by more than duty. For all Thuvia’s silence and sus­pi­cion, he remains con­vinced of her courage and believes that sav­ing her is worth every per­il this labyrinth may hold.

The chap­ter cap­tures the essence of Barsoom’s allure: a com­bi­na­tion of dead­ly won­der, for­got­ten cities, and the raw emo­tions of its heroes. Carthoris’s resolve, even in the face of injury and uncer­tain­ty, reflects the lega­cy of John Carter and the endur­ing qual­i­ties of Heli­um’s war­riors. Thu­via, though a pris­on­er, remains sharp and resilient, embody­ing more than just the damsel trope. Her calm obser­va­tion of events and her strate­gic mind hint that she is far from help­less, despite her sit­u­a­tion.

As this chap­ter clos­es, the mys­tery deepens—the ruins hide not only phys­i­cal threats but the motives of polit­i­cal ene­mies intent on ignit­ing war through decep­tion. The wilder­ness of Mars is more than back­drop; it is a liv­ing part of the con­flict, ampli­fy­ing ten­sion and iso­lat­ing heroes in their pri­vate bat­tles. Cartho­ris and Thu­via are now clos­er to each oth­er in fate, yet the dis­tance of mis­un­der­stand­ing and the designs of ene­mies still loom. Their sep­a­rate paths are des­tined to col­lide once more—through dark­ness, dust, and the fire of Barsoom’s burn­ing heart.