And again, during her flight from the temples of the Holy Therns with Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, she had seen them, with their weird and ghostly inmates, the great white apes of Barsoom.
Among the therns there is no marriage or giving in marriage, as among the lower orders of the outer world.
Here let them land and teach the Holy Therns such a lesson in ferocious warfare as they will not forget for countless ages.
Kantos Kan would not talk of our experiences among the therns and the First Born.
It was thus that one did escape the therns in bygone times; but none has ever escaped the First Born," said Xodar, with a touch of pride in his voice.
We know that the valley is not sacred; we know that the Holy Therns are not holy; that they are a race of cruel and heartless mortals, knowing no more of the real life to come than we do.
Yet they never carry their expeditions to a point, as one might readily believe it was in their power to do, where the extermination of the race of therns is threatened.
Her decrees are borne to the therns written in blood upon a strange parchment.
The therns worshipped the hideous plant men and the apes, or at least they reverenced them as the abodes of the departed spirits of their own dead.
As we passed at a dizzy height over the narrow domains of the therns the flash of powder far below bore mute witness to the ferocity of the battle that still raged along that cruel frontier.
Do you understand now, O Prince," she said, "why a million warriors guard the domains of the Holy Therns by day and by night?
The fatal marksmanship of the therns had snatched from our companions whatever slender chance they had of gaining the perilous freedom of the world without.
The therns were so engaged with their terrible assailants that now, if ever, escape should be comparatively easy.
The therns on their side would hasten to rescue the girl, and in an instant the two would be swallowed in the vortex of a maelstrom of yelling devils, hacking and hewing at one another, like fiends incarnate.
Was it then Holy Therns who felt the weight of John Carter's hand?
The certainty of coming battle made him smile a little, the way John Carter would smile if he were here in the Valley Dor ready to attack the white Therns and their Plant Men.
With the others he read of all that I had done within the circle of the Otz Mountains where the Holy Thernsand the First Born had held sway.
Beyond the therns several doorways opened off the guardroom, and toward the one upon the extreme right Lakor motioned.
Thurid and the therns could not have come this way.
As he passed through the boat that had been occupied by Thurid and the therns he emitted a single low growl, and when he came beside me upon the ledge and my hand rested upon his neck I felt his short mane bristling with anger.
With her were Thuvia of Ptarth, Phaidor, daughter of Matai Shang, and Thurid, and the Father of Therns, and the three lesser therns that had accompanied them.
Faint rumors of the atrocities reported to have been committed by the therns upon those who for countless ages have floated down the mighty Iss came to my ears.
They, he said, had always been known to the Holy Therns and were devout and faithful followers of the ancient cult.
For an instant Thurid hesitated, and then, as though fearing that the Father ofTherns would escape him with the Princess of Helium, he, too, dashed from the balcony in their wake.
There were savage, green warriors from the dead sea bottoms of the south, and a handful of white-skinned therns who had renounced their religion and sworn allegiance to Xodar.
To one of these the hekkador of the Holy Therns had no difficulty in approaching, and by its means the party was safely lowered to the ground.
The navies of Helium and the First Born had cleared the fortresses and the temples of the therns when they had refused to surrender and accept the new order of things that had swept their false religion from long-suffering Mars.
As they came nearer I heard the voices of Thurid and the Father of Therns raised in argument.
As the lesser Barsoomians of the outer world have been lured by you to the terrible Valley Dor, so may it be that the therns themselves have been lured by the First Born to an equally horrid fate," I suggested.
Since the beginning of time, little by little, stone by stone, have the therns been ever adding to the defences of their stronghold.
The therns fear the awful denizens of this cruel and hopeless world that they have fostered and allowed to grow beneath their feet.
A dozen lesser therns confronted us from a large doorway at the opposite end of the storeroom from which we had entered.
I exclaimed; "but, man, is not there where lie the domains of the thernsfrom which I but just escaped?
It was left for Sator Throg and his poor slaves to accomplish what the lesser therns of the guard were unable to do--we have killed one and captured the other; for this had Sator Throg given us our liberty.
I had no quarrel with the therns before, but can you wonder that I feel no great love for them now?
The therns must have caught and translated the message almost as soon as did we, for they immediately renewed hostilities when they realized that we were soon to be set upon by other enemies.
This time it was to confirm our worst fears--half the guards at the gate that night had been therns disguised as red men.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "therns" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
