READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

Tarzan on Mars
Holy Diadem which he wore on his brow, the rays of both
Thuria and Cluros were brilliantly reflected and augmented
so that a psychic beacon appeared to mark the generation of
his thoughts as he glowered at the world.
Ranas Ghol had named his destiny, he decided. From the
beginning of the Alliance, Tario knew that the regenerated
empires of Thern and First Born could be restrained from
destroying each other only until the Warlord had been overthrown.
Then, he was certain, Sardon Dhur and Zithad would
be at each other's throats.
In a sense, the weakening of these two would make it
easier for himself to occupy the seat of authority, but his
power would have been dissipated by a pyrrhic victory in
which the war machinery of all contenders, which he needed
for himself, including that of the Heliumetic Empire, would lie
in shards and smoldering shambles.
Rather would it be more logical and advantageous to
preserve their strength, he reasoned—but there was the
great dilemma. How to maintain the strength of his opposition
for his own use later and yet dominate them at the pinnacle of
their power?
Ranas Ghol had pointed out the only answer. He, Tario,
must become the prophesied Tharos Pthan.
He smiled with cold, thin lips as he assured himself that
this same idea had already occurred to Sardon Dhur and to
Zithad, as well. But he anticipated one advantage which the
other two would not enjoy.
Whoever Issus was going to be, Ranas Ghol had foreseen
that he, Tario, would know her first. And that was all that was
necessary. He would implant in her mind a powerful and
irresistible post-hypnotic suggestion. Them, after an entire
world had acclaimed her, she, herself, would recognize him
and declare him to be Tharos Pthan—just at the right psychological
moment when it would be too late for his competitors
to thwart the will of an adoring world.
128