Read Online Nomads of Gor by John Norman - Free Book Online Page B

there
             was a yellow stain about her mouth where she had been fed
             some fruit; both girls wore the Sirilc, a light chain favored for
             female slaves by many Gorean masters; it consists of a
             Turian-type collar, a loose, rounded circle of steel, to which a
             light, gleaming chain is attached; should the girl stand, the
             chain, dangling from her collar, falls to the floor; it is about
             ten or twelve inches longer than is required to reach from
             her collar to her ankles; to this chain, at the natural fall of
             her wrists, is attached a pair of slave bracelets; at the end of
             the chain there is attached another device, a set of linked
             ankle rings, which, when closed about her ankles, lifts a
             portion of the slack chain from the floor; the Sirit is an
             incredibly graceful thing and designed to enhance the beauty
             of its wearer; perhaps it should only be added that the slave
             bracelets and the ankle rings may be removed from the chain
             and used separately; this also, of course, permits the Sirik to
             function as a slave leash.
             At the edge of the dais Kamchak and I had stopped,
             where our sandals were removed and our feet washed by
             Turian slaves, men in the Kes, who might once have been
              officers of the city.
             We mounted the dais and approached the seemingly som-
             nolent figure seated upon it.
             Although the dais was resplendent, and the rugs upon it
      even more resplendent, I saw that beneath Kutaituchik, over
      these rugs, had been spread a simple, worn, tattered robe o f
      gray boskhide. It was upon this simple robe that he sat. It
      was undoubtedly that of which Kamchak had spoken, the
      robe upon which sits the Ubar of the Tuchuks, that simple
      robe which is his throne.
      Kutaituchik lifted his head and regarded us; his eyes
      seemed sleepy; he was bald, save for a black knot of hair
      that emerged from the back of his shaven skull; he was a
      broad-backed man, with small legs; his eyes bore the epican-
      thic fold; his skin was a tinged, yellowish brown; though he
      was stripped to the waist, there was about his shoulders a
      rich, ornamented robe of the red bask, bordered with jewels;
      about his neck, on a chain decorated with sleen teeth, there
      hung a golden medallion, bearing the sign of the four bask
      horns; he wore furred boots, wide leather trousers, and a red
      sash, in which was thrust a quiva. Beside him, coiled, perhaps
      as a symbol of power, lay a bask whip. Kutaituchik absently
      reached into a small golden box near his right knee and drew
      out a string of rolled kanda leaf.
      The roots of the kanda plant, which grows largely in desert
      regions on Gor, are extremely toxic, but, surprisingly, the
      rolled leaves of this plant, which are relatively innocuous, are
      formed into strings and, chewed or sucked, are much favored
      by many Goreans, particularly in the southern hemisphere,
      where the leaf is more abundant.
      Kutaituchik, not taking his eyes off us, thrust one end of
      the green kanda string in the left side of his mouth and, very
      slowly, began to chew it. He said nothing, nor did Kamchak.
      We simply sat near him, cross-legged. I was conscious that
      only we three on that dais were sitting. I was pleased that
      there were no prostrations or grovelings involved in ape
      preaching the august presence of the exalted Kutaituchik. I
      gathered that once, in his earlier years, he might have been a
      rider of the kaiila, that he might have been skilled with the
      bow and lance, and the quiva; such a man would not need
      ceremony; I