READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

Tarzan on Mars
power as mine was fore-ordained?"
He sprang to the window and looked out upon the
moonlit planet, at the thousand eyes of the night below, which
were the campfires of the uniting armies of conquest.
"Yes!" he exclaimed. "Ranas Ghol has seen it written on
the pages of the future!" He could not tell the others the
truth, because it was not meant for him to reveal it beforehand!
Ah, what a subtle devil was Ranas Ghol! Now Tario
perceived the full meaning of the Zumorian's words when he
announces to the Sacred Council that "Tario will provide us
with our Issus."
Then he staggered visible when he recalled those other
cryptic words: "I believe that the Holy Diadem will provide
the answer—but only in the hands of Tario."
With the tears of an overpowering emotion in his eyes,
as though he were Narcissus confronted with his own image
incarnate, Tario sat on his sleeping silks, momentarily
humbled before the magnificent spectacle of himself.
Tario—Tharos Pthan—Guardian of Heaven, Warden of the
Sacred Worlds, mate to Issus, and ruler of all the jeddaks of
the outer world! A touch of petit mal flecked the corners of
his mouth as the crystallization of his single purpose gripped
him.
Now! Now he would create her!
He tore the Holy Diadem from his head and placed it in
his trembling hands before him where he could gaze directly
into the glowing depths of the Star of Issus. And there, with
all his terrible mental powers augmented a thousandfold, he
conjured up the memory of the she-phantom of Lothar.
* * *
La, High Priestess of the Flaming God, held in her hands
the Great Star of Issus, the original Holy Diadem of legend—and
knew it not.
As though awakened from a thousand millennia of
slumber, the wicked thing seemed to glare of her in peremp-
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