CHAPTER XIV – Thu­via, Maid of Mars con­tin­ues with Thu­via impris­oned in the bleak tow­er of Astok, where her resolve is test­ed by fear and iso­la­tion. Each pass­ing moment reveals how lit­tle regard Astok has for hon­or, and Thu­via, despite her cir­cum­stances, refus­es to be cowed by his pres­ence. With­out a weapon or ally near­by, she relies on her men­tal strength, recall­ing the courage of men like Kulan Tith and Cartho­ris of Heli­um to anchor her spir­it and sharp­en her will to resist.

Astok, blind­ed by obses­sion and inse­cu­ri­ty, hopes to break Thuvia’s defi­ance, but she meets his threats with scorn. Her impris­on­ment is not mere­ly physical—it is an emo­tion­al test that fur­ther high­lights her resilience. Even in con­fine­ment, she clings to dig­ni­ty, choos­ing silence over sub­mis­sion when faced with Astok’s demands, her mind con­stant­ly search­ing for a path to free­dom, how­ev­er impos­si­ble it seems.

The stakes rise when Vas Kor arrives, press­ing for Thuvia’s death to elim­i­nate com­pli­ca­tions in Dusar­i­an pol­i­tics. As ten­sion builds, Cartho­ris appears like a shad­ow reborn, seiz­ing the moment with strate­gic pre­ci­sion. His arrival turns fear into action, and with­in moments, he chal­lenges Astok’s author­i­ty, defeat­ing the guards with calm bru­tal­i­ty and cal­cu­lat­ed skill, his blade clear­ing a path through dan­ger as they attempt to flee.

Thu­via, though ini­tial­ly stunned, does not hes­i­tate to fol­low, her trust in Cartho­ris as much a reflec­tion of his val­or as it is of her intu­ition. Their escape aboard the Thuria is a per­ilous gam­ble, one com­pli­cat­ed by their need to evade Astok’s sol­diers who swarm the land­ing plat­form. Cartho­ris maneu­vers the ship with prac­ticed hands, his focus split between defend­ing their lives and nav­i­gat­ing their course to safe­ty in the Mar­t­ian skies above.

As they soar away from Dusar, a new chal­lenge emerges when a Kao­lian war­ship is spot­ted below, under siege by green Mar­tians. Cartho­ris imme­di­ate­ly rec­og­nizes the ves­sel and learns that Kulan Tith, a friend and ruler of Kaol, is trapped aboard. With­out hes­i­ta­tion, he alters their route, not to save him­self or Thu­via, but to hon­or a bond between kingdoms—choosing duty even at great per­son­al risk.

This deci­sion earns Thuvia’s unspo­ken admi­ra­tion. Cartho­ris, already dis­tin­guished by his prowess, now reveals a self­less­ness that places oth­ers above his own desires, even when the con­se­quences might mean cap­ture or death. It is in this moment that his hero­ism tran­scends skill and becomes a mat­ter of char­ac­ter, reveal­ing why Helium’s war­riors are both feared and revered across Bar­soom.

The assault on the green war­riors is swift and effi­cient. Cartho­ris and Thu­via, along­side a hand­ful of Kao­lian sur­vivors, repel the ene­my long enough to res­cue the imper­iled crew. In the chaos, the part­ner­ship between Thu­via and Cartho­ris deepens—not just roman­ti­cal­ly, but in mutu­al respect forged through shared per­il. Their actions res­cue more than men; they restore trust between their peo­ples.

By the chapter’s end, the skies are qui­et again, though the cost of the bat­tle is not small. The dam­aged war­ship drifts silent­ly, a sym­bol of sac­ri­fice and sol­i­dar­i­ty. Carthoris’s choice to inter­vene, when escape had been with­in reach, sig­nals that his loy­al­ty to hon­or will always out­weigh per­son­al gain—a trait that defines him and dis­tin­guish­es him from the self-serv­ing nobles of Barsoom’s frac­tured alliances.

This chap­ter serves as both a cli­max and a com­pass for the story’s tra­jec­to­ry. It merges roman­tic ten­sion, Mar­t­ian pol­i­tics, and relent­less action into a seam­less arc that ele­vates both Thu­via and Cartho­ris as cen­tral fig­ures not just in sur­vival, but in shap­ing the fate of their world. Their escape is more than physical—it is sym­bol­ic of a deep­er awak­en­ing, one where per­son­al courage must con­front a plan­et gripped by war, betray­al, and divid­ed loy­al­ties.