Dancer of Gor

"Yes," he said, "she is pretty."

"Yes," said Aulus.

"She has her knees nicely placed, too," he said.

"She is that sort of slave," said Aulus.

I blushed, but I knew that before a man such as that before me now, on the tharlarion, my knees belonged apart, widely apart.

"She is a three-tarsk girl," said the fellow.

"She cost Ionicus five, and a tarsk bit," said Aulus.

"And a tarsk bit?" asked the fellow.

"Yes," said Aulus.

"Then she was a lure girl," he said.

"Yes," said Aulus.

"Is she negotiable?" asked the fellow.

"All slaves are negotiable," said Aulus.

"Some of my men are not too fond of lure girls," he said. "I think that I would let you keep her. They might kill her."

I had to keep my head back. I was very frightened.

"That would be a tragic waste of slave meat," he said.

"I would think so," said Aulus.

"What do you call her?" asked the fellow.

"Tuka," said Aulus.

"I have taken five chains," said the fellow. "I spared the guards. You may have them back, if you wish. There were two hundred and fifty men, exactly on the chains. I am recruiting one hundred and seventy-seven of them. Some I am freeing, because they are from Brundisium, whose Home Stone, before my outlawry, was mine. The rest I will sell back to you for, I think, something in the neighborhood of what you paid for them."

"You are turning back the genuine prisoners, of course," said Aulus. "Not all of them," said the fellow. "Some of them can handle weapons. They will stay with me."

"Of what numbers are we speaking?" said Aulus.

"Five were from Brundisium," said the fellow.

"Then," said Aulus, "if you are recruiting one hundred and seventy-seven, and releasing five, from Brundisium, who may, or may not take service with you, then we are talking about less than seventy men."

"Sixty-eight, to be exact," said the fellow.

"Yes," said Aulus. "You have been very zealous in your recruiting, it seems. Can we not do a little better than that?"

"The one hundred and seventy-seven have already taken the campaign oath," he said.

"Then that is that," said Aulus. "What about the five from Brundisium." "They are from Brundisium," he said.

"Of course," said Aulus.

"A silver tarsk apiece," said the fellow.

"That seems high," said Aulus.

"It is an average praetor" s price," he said. To be sure, some serving shorter sentences, would presumably go for less, and some, more dangerous fellows, perhaps, serving longer sentences, might go for more. "Too," he said, "I expect you pay to much, or more, for the fellows you get from illicit suppliers." "True," said Aulus. This was the first inkling I had had of what the fellows I had helped to entrap in Argentum might have brought Tyrrhenius. I, twice, had gone for at least five times as much. To be sure, once was because Tyrrhenius had wanted to pick up a good lure girl and once was because Ionicus, or perhaps his agent, acting on a standing policy, had wanted, as a joke, to put me at the service of men I had trapped. If it were not for such things I did not know what I would be likely to sell for, perhaps two silver tarsks. I did not know. Still I was a dancer, and we tend to bring higher prices. We are useful not only in brothels, cabarets, taverns, public pleasure gardens, and such, but wherever there are strong men, wherever there are men who enjoy seeing a woman move before them excitingly, and beautifully, and as a total female. Indeed, it is said some of the finest and most sensuous dancers are private slaves who perform in delicious secrecy, and totally, for a single master. We, and our uses, of course, may also be rented out for private dinner parties, for banquets and feasts, and such. Some of us, too, serve as imbonded camp followers, and will count as part of the loot should the camp fall into enemy hands. Some of us serve, too, in remote army posts, where we are kept to relieve the tedium of the troops. Some, too, of course, as would be expected, serve in the houses of rich men and even in the palaces of the Ubars, where we commonly dance for them at their suppers, entertaining them and their guests. Dancers have many uses on Gor, both public and private. I suppose this is only to be expected, given the vitality, the masculinity, the strength of Gorean males. Any female taken to Gor, I suppose, must expect to learn at least the rudiments of slave dance. "Very well," said Aulus, "sixty-eight silver tarsks. That is cheaper than going about, trying to replace these fellows in other ways. Too, the Vennans are eager to get on with their work."

I had not heard them say anything about the female work slaves. Surely Tupita, too, for example, would have fallen into the hands of this fellow, this mercenary captain, Pietro Vacchi. As a slave, of course, I did not dare speak. What if they saw fit to have me trampled by one of the tharlarions?

It was getting darker now. I wanted to go back to the camp. I felt very helpless, kneeling there, naked, chained to the stirrup.

"I shall return with you to your camp, to pick up the sixty-eight men," said Aulus.