READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

7 Arras—concealing draperies
Tarzan on Mars
leaped from hiding behind the arras 7 near the head of Tario's
bed. In their hands were their naked long swords. And their
harness told Kar Komak that they were from Tarnath.
How they had come here or what their purpose he could
not guess, but that they opposed his now and were bent on
murder rather than capture, he well knew by the single which
he read in their minds.
Instantly, he drew his long and short swords, but at the
same time he sought to impress upon them a vision of the
bowmen. Quickly, he became aware of the appalling fact that
only a remnant of their minds were left to them—and on such
as these he could work no subtleties of illusion! As well he
might have attempted to hypnotize a Kaolian sith 8 or a
slavering silian 9 from the Sea of Korus! Nor had these
lugubrious mental remnants of men any more fear of death
than such primordial monsters!
The three Tarnathians came upon him voicelessly,
already drawing back their gleaming blades for the death
thrust. With the instantaneousness of thought, it occurred to
him that in this glorious moment of fulfillment he could not
die, in fact— would not, however great his danger. It was
such a hideous irony of fate that it filled him with non-containable
rage.
Emitting a loud roar of defiance, Kar Komak smashed
two threatening blades aside with his short sword and swung
his long sword in an irresistible arc which lopped off the head
of one opponent and parted the face of the other. Almost simultaneously,
he arched out of the way of the third man's thrust
and whirled as the latter's body lunged past, burying his short
8 Sith—Hornet-like monster of the Kaloian Forest
9 Silian—slime reptile inhabiting the Sea of Korus
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