READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

Tarzan on Mars
Tarnath!"
Dim memories assailed Kar Komak—memories which
were borrowed from the mind of Tario. A ghostly suggestion
of awesome antiquity and mystery carried over.
"Tarnath," he muttered, dazedly. "What is Tarnath?"
For answer, the black-skinned padwar grasped him
roughly and pulled him to his feet. "Look!" he exclaimed. "Let
your own eyes bring you the answer! see for yourself,
panthan, where your next and final allegiance must lie!—for
to serve any other cause now than that of the Holy Alliance
and Sacred Issus is to serve defeat, and to suffer damnation of
the soul!"
Thus it was that Kar Komak was permitted to look upon
the results of ten long years of uninterrupted preparations at
Tarnath. He saw below him the forested valley, which
seemed to sink gradually into a dizzying abyss as it led to the
massive, looming Escarpment.
Down there, to his amazement, he made out vast troop
encampments and open air factories where aerial battle craft
were being assembled. Most astonishing of all, he discerned
a large party of giant green warrior riding on their swift thoats
straight through the largest encampment of red men!
Above the valley, beyond its walls, he could make out
many more vast military camps. In the sky near the pinnacle
of the Escarpment his startled gaze disclosed for the first
time a gigantic fleet of first line battle craft, and far beyond,
near the horizon, he made out a long, thin line of ships which
numbered in the thousands.
"And all of this," said his guard, "is but the surface detail!
Mighty is the Alliance! In every city and nation the people are
ready to rise in their righteous wrath against the Warlord who
had denied a world—upon which he was never born—its
sacred right to worship of Issus!"
Kar Komak cautiously probed the other's mind, and he
found there much more that he could not fathom entirely.
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