READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

Tarzan on Mars
however, the myriad arrows were shot at both themselves
and at the giant birds as well. The two men concentrated on
the knowledge that the arrows were merely psychic phenomena
and therefore would inflict no harm, and so the phantom
shafts sped through them without damage. But not so with
the malagors, which screamed in alarm and beat their mighty
wings in a futile effort to escape.
Talu's mount staggered in mid-air, gravely wounded by
a dozen shafts. John Carter saw the bearded Okarian jeddak
carried to the base of Zumor's walls, where he clung to a
precarious ledge as his malagor fell away into the three-mile
abyss below.
The Warlord instantly turned his mount into a swift dive
in order to get beneath the line of fire. But, as he did so, a
hidden sniper within the fortress itself fired at him with a
radium rifle. The projectile just grazed the bird's huge talons
and exploded several yards beyond. The flash and concussion
blinded and stunned both bird and man, and they plummeted
together toward the Lake of Darkness.
Only moments befoer it reached the surface of the lake,
the malagor rallied in a burst of energy, beating its wings
wildly to break the fall, and in that same instant John Carter
saw two struggling bodies plunge past him and hit unyielding
stone, but the other clove the surface in a perfect dive.
Then he and his mount struck, not hard, but swiftly
enough to carry them deep down into chilling darkness,
where a giant current smote them and carried them toward
the whirlpool.
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