Dancer of Gor

"Yes, Master," I said. "I am the slut Tuka."

"I thought so," he said. "You have many friends on the chain."

"Protect me," I begged. "Protect me!"

"Perhaps," he smiled.

"I will serve you as abjectly as the lowest slut on Gor," I wept.

"You must so serve anyway," he laughed. "You are a slave."

"Yes, Master," I moaned.

"The guards have heard that you were an excellent lure girl," he said. "They suspect, thusly, that you might be rather good. They are looking forward to trying you out."

"Yes, Master," I said. I would try to serve with perfection.

We were now ascending the rise toward the square tent, the overseer" s tent. Behind it, and to the left, at the foot of the hill, on the low ground, in a soft area, were the pens for the female work slaves. I could see a corner of them as we climbed the hill.

"I was told, Master," I said, "that I was sold to my master, Ionicus, for five silver tarsks and a tarsk bit."

"I have heard that," he said.

"Is that not a high price to pay for a female work slave?" I asked. "It would be quite high, under normal circumstances, for a normal work slave," he said, amused. "But my employer, Ionicus, enjoys a good joke. He is the sort of man who will pay high, to be amused."

I see," I whispered.

"Stop here," he called to the coffle. We had now ascended the rise, and were on a flat, open space, before the tent.

"This, ladies," said he, "is the tent of the overseer. Much may depend on how you please him."

Murmurs of fear coursed through the chain.

"You will be removed from the coffle, and taken before him, one by one," he said. "It is my advice that you open your tunics."

One by one, beginning with the first girl, we were removed from the coffle. As each of us was removed from the coffle, we briefly crouched down, so that we might reach the upper part of our tunics with our chained hands, the chain joining our hands chained, in turn, to our ankle chain. We then pulled open our tunics. "Let me help you," said the guard. I stood up, before him, the collar gone now from my neck. He jerked the sides of the tunic apart, and then pulled it down, back over my shoulders. "Excellent!" he said.

24 In the Work Camp

"Let me carry water to them," she said. Her legs were excellent. She had a long mane of dark hair. it was no wonder she had once served in a tavern. The brief, clinging work tunic well revealed her. Our feet were covered to the ankles in the sand.

I stepped back. I would not dispute the labor with her. I feared to approach this group of fifty men.

"No," said the guard, grinning. "Tuka."

Ten days now I had been with the "black chain of Ionicus." Never before, however, had I been assigned to this crew. Two girls, commonly, are assigned to each crew. The "black chain," as a whole, consisted of several such groups, most of some fifty men. The other chains of Ionicus, the "red chain," the "yellow chain," and so on, were at other locations, not in the neighborhood of Venna. Ionicus was on of the major masters of work chains. He himself resided, I understood, in Telenus, the capital of Cos, where his company had its headquarters. His work chains, however, were politically neutral, understood under merchant law as hirable instruments. They might, accordingly, and sometimes did, work for both sides in given conflicts. The tarsk of gold is the symbol of such men.

I looked down into the area where the men labored. The men were bagging sand, later to be used in the making of mortar. The Vennans were concerned to repair and heighten their walls.

"Do you hesitate?" asked the guard.

"No Master, of course not, Master!" I said.

"Beware," said the other girl.