Authors: John Norman
Tags: #Science Fiction, #Fiction, #General, #Fantasy, #Adventure, #Gor (Imaginary Place), #Cabot; Tarl (Fictitious Character), #Outer Space, #Nomads, #Outlaws
"What does it mean?" she asked.
"It means," I told her, "I am a slave girl."
"No!" she screamed. "No, no, not"
Kamchak nodded to the two riders mounted on kaiila.
"Take her to the wagon of Kutaituchik."
The two riders turned their kaiila and in a moment,
moving rapidly, the girl running between them, had turned
from the grassy lane and disappeared between the wagons.
Kamchak and I regarded one another.
"Did you note the collar she wore?" I asked.
He had not seemed to show much interest in the high,
thick leather collar that the girl had had sewn about her
neck.
"Of course," he said.
"I myself," I said, "have never seen such a collar."
"It is a message collar," said Kamchak. "Inside the leather,
sewn within, will be a message."
My look of amazement must have amused him, for he
laughed. "Come," he said, "let us go to the wagon of Kutai-
tuchik."
The wagon of Kutaituchik, called Ubar of the Tuchuks,
was drawn up on a large, flat-topped grassy hill, the highest
land in the camp.
Beside the wagon, on a great pole fixed in the earth, stood
the Tuchuk standard of the four bask horns.
The hundred, rather than eight, bask- that drew his wagon
had been unyoked; they were huge, red bask; their horns had
been polished and their coats glistened from the comb and
oils; their golden nose rings were set with jewels; necklaces of
precious stones hung from the polished horns.
The wagon itself was the largest in the camp, and the
largest wagon I had conceived possible; actually it was a vast
platform, set on numerous wheeled frames; though at the
edges of the platform, on each side, there were a dozen of
the large wheels such as are found on the much smaller
wagons; these latter wheels turned as the wagon moved and
supported weight, but could not of themselves have supported
the entire weight of that fantastic, wheeled palace of hide.
The hides that formed the dome were of a thousand
colors, and the smoke hole at the top must have stood more
than a hundred feet from the flooring of that vast platform. I
could well conjecture the riches, the loot and the furnishing
that would dazzle the interior of such a magnificent dwelling.
But I did not enter the wagon, for Kutaituchik held his
court outside the wagon, in the open air, on the flat-topped
grassy hill. A large dais had been built, vast and spreading,
but standing no more than a foot from the earth. This dais
41
_
42
NOMADS OF
was covered with dozens of thick rugs, sometimes four
and five deep.
There were many Tuchuks, and some others, crowded
about the dais, and, standing upon it, about Kutaituchik,
there were several men who, from their position on the dais
and their trappings, I judged to be of great importance.
Among these men, sitting cross-legged, was Kutaituchik,
called Ubar of the Tuchuks.
About Kutaituchik there were piled various goods, mostly
vessels of precious metal and strings and piles of jewels; there
was sills there from Tyros; silver from Thentis and Tharna;
tapestries from the mills of Ar; wines from Cos; dates from
the city of Tor. There were also, among the other goods, two
girls, blonde and blue-eyed, unclothed, chained; they had
perhaps been a gift to Kutaituchik; or had been the' daugh-
ters of enemies; they might have been from any city; both
were beautiful; one was sitting with her knees tucked under
her chin, her hands clasping her ankles, absently staring at
the jewels about her feet; the other lay indolently on her
side, incuriously regarding us, her weight on one elbow; 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 sensed that once this man might have ridden six
hundred pasangs in a day, living on a mouthful of water and
a handful of bask meat kept soft and warm between his
saddle and the back of the kaiila; that there might have been
few as swift with the quiva, as delicate with the lance, as
he; that he had known the wars and the winters of the
prairie; that he had met animals and men, as enemies, and
_
44
An!,
I'
f:
NOMADS 0F FOR
had lived; such a man did not need ceremony; such a man, I
sensed, was Kutaituchik, called Ubar of the Tuchuks.
And yet was I sad as I looked upon him, for I sensed that
for this man there could no longer be the saddle of the
kaiila, the whirling of the rope and bole, the hunt and the