"The Master Assassin of Mars-- Chapter 8: The Man Who Makes Murder!"
Taken aboard the vast sky-barge manned by the treasonous Guild of Assassins, John is chained, but not altogether subdued. Carter kills a few unlucky souls while Dejah watches on, forced to feign indifference, as the Guild has assumed that she is Daria, the assassin charged to murder John.
To play along, John bundles his ersatz-assassin spouse over his shoulder, then launches into contrived, choreographed ballet of battle to fool the cabal of killers. During the mock-combat, JC uses his telepathy to mind-meld with Dejah, so to analyze the chain of events that led up to this point. John gets distracted by a titbit of information from Dejah's mind and is shot down by the assassins.
His duty for the night ended, outside Tardos Mors's palace gates, Kantos Kan checks in with the relief guard. Pleasantries are exchanged, but Surbus has a darker agenda. Here nestles a snake in the garden of Helium, as it occurs that Surbus too, owes his allegiance to the Guild of Assassins.
Back on board the sky-barge, John is pushed about the deck like a rag doll as various Guild members train and hone their deadly skills. Dejah dons slinky scarlet garments befitting the assassin Daria, who she now impersonates.
To test she is still fully deserving of Guild membership after the apparent failure of her primary mission to kill John Carter, she gets pitted against four female warriors. Dejah proves their equal, and superior, by dispatching them with relative ease.
However, there's always a fly in the ointment; the irritant in question: founder of the Guild, Tal Mordin himself, is also in attendance. He recognizes what all the others fail to see; that Daria is really Dejah Thoris in masquerade. Mordin seeks to match the subterfuge by summoning up another test for Dejah to overcome, in the shape of a savage Thark warrior.