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When it dominated the rykor it might have other human instincts; but these she dreaded even to think of. After she had sung she waited for Ghek to speak. For a long time he was silent, just looking at her through those awful eyes. "I wonder," he said presently, "if it might not be pleasant to be of your race. Do you all sing?"
Then it was that we commenced to ride upon the backs of these primitive rykors. It took many ages, undoubtedly, but at last came the time when the kaldane had found means to guide the rykor, until presently the latter depended entirely upon the superior brain of his master to guide him to food. The brain of the rykor grew smaller as time went on.
The rykor had reached forth and seized her, and though she struggled the thing dragged her back into the room with Luud. It held her tight and drew her close, and then, to her horror, it commenced to caress her. "You see now," she heard Luud's dull voice, "the futility of revolt and its punishment."
His ears went and his eyes, for he no longer had use for them the kaldane saw and heard for him. By similar steps the rykor came to go upon its hind feet that the kaldane might be able to see farther. As the brain shrank, so did the head. The mouth was the only feature of the head that was used and so the mouth alone remains.
"And you?" asked Gahan, still fearful of treachery. "My rykor is powerful," replied the kaldane. "I shall accompany you and fight at your side. As well die thus as in torture later at the will of Luud. Come!" But Gahan had already crossed the room and entered the chamber beyond. Upon the opposite side of the room was a circular opening guarded by two warriors.
"Come!" cried the assassin, "we have no time to lose," and started for the aperture through which they had entered the chamber; but in his stride he paused as his glance was arrested by the form of the mighty rykor lying prone upon the floor a king's rykor; the most beautiful, the most powerful, that the breeders of Bantoom could produce.
"As I did with the rykor so can I do with you." Tara of Helium made no reply. Evidently no vocal reply was necessary. "You doubt my ability!" stated Luud, which was precisely the fact, though the girl had only thought it she had not said it. Luud crossed the room and lay down.
There the air-breathing rykor would perish as you would perish. There we have stored vast quantities of food in hermetically sealed chambers. It will last forever. Far beneath the surface is water that will flow for countless ages after the surface water is exhausted.
Near the opposite wall lay his rykor, its beautiful form trapped in gorgeous harness a dead thing without a guiding kaldane. Luud dismissed the warriors who had accompanied the prisoner. Then he sat with his terrible eyes fixed upon her and without speaking for some time. Tara of Helium could but wait. What was to come she could only guess. When it came would be sufficiently the time to meet it.
"There is an aperture just back of the rykor's mouth and directly over the upper end of his spinal column. Into this aperture I insert my tentacles and seize the spinal cord. Immediately I control every muscle of the rykor's body it becomes my own, just as you direct the movement of the muscles of your body. I feel what the rykor would feel if he had a head and brain.
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