READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

Tarzan on Mars
visions of things, loves, passions, powers and events which
loomed silently and titanically but ever just beyond the semblance
of shape and form. The crumbling items of once
exquisitely carved and polished wood inlaid with gems and
jade and mother of pearl, the ponderous golden chests and the
intimate artifacts of a queenly woman's boudoir—all these
plucked softly at her inner memory.
Was that the clarion ring of a hundred trumpets announcing
her approach through marble halls? Was this the clang and
clash of sword and shield?—the proud battle cry of a million
warriors carving out the destiny of the master nation of the
world? And— hark!—was this the wind of Time, or was it the
crescendo roar of dark and terrible waters blotting out the
light of day, crumbling the mighty walls of cities and washing
palaces and golden temples forever into the black and the cold
abyss?
She shook her head, frightened by her imaginings. She
must find that for which she had entered this place. Groping
through the dust and debris that once had been precious
splendor, her hands finally touched a flat, square box of polished
platinum. Inside, covered with the crumbled dust of
once beautiful silk cushions, she found the diadem.
Trembling unaccountably now, and filled with indefinable
anticipations of long sought revelation, La carried the heavy,
priceless piece of jewelry to a room where a shaft of moonlight
could be found. And there she gazed at the central
stone—into that giant, weirdly scintillating eye of antiquity,
as though it were some magic crystal that would unfold to her
a vision of all the unknowable things that ever had been or
were to come. As though awakened from a thousand millennia
of slumber, the wicked thing seemed to quicken slowly with
an inner glow of lambent life. It seemed to glare at her in
preemptory command, dominating her mind and soul, calling
to her out of the dimness of incalculable time and space.
Slowly, La saw the glowing pool of light in her hand
47