Dancer of Gor

"Good," said Pietro Vacchi, turning his tharlarion.

I was suddenly plunged into terror.

"You may break position, Tuka," said Aulus. "What is wrong?" "Nothing, Master," I said, in terror.

I did not want to go to the mercenaries" camp. It was not merely that I feared such men but that Mirus, I knew, was from Brundisium. Indeed, he and Hendow, my former master, had grown up together there. They had known one another since childhood. On the last night I had seen him in the tavern Mirus had told me that he and Hendow would die for one another.

I rose to my feet. Only too clearly was Aulus going to accompany the captain to his camp.

"Master," I begged, pressing myself against the side of Aulus" s tharlarion, looking up at him, "please do not take me to the camp of the mercenaries, please! Please!"

"Why?" he asked.

"I fear one who may be in the camp," I said.

"Who?" he asked.

"Mirus, from Brundisium," I wept.

"If he is from Brundisium," he said, "he is probably on his way back there now." I looked up at him, tears in my eyes. What he said, of course, might be true. I did not know.

"Do not be afraid," he said.

"Please, Master," I said. "Do not take me to the camp!"

"Was he on your chain?" he asked.

"Yes, Master," I said.

"If it were his intention to hurt you," he said, "he could have done it then." "Please do not take me to the camp!" I begged.

"Do you really think I am going to send you back to Venna?" he asked. "Please, please!" I begged.

"I, and many others, Vacchi, will be there to protect you," he said. "Please, Master!" I begged.

"Do not embarrass me," he said.

"Come along, Aulus!" called Pietro Vacchi, looking back over his should. "Bring you men, and do not neglect, too, to bring the wagon, with the coins!" "We are coming," called Aulus.

"Please, Master!" I wept, putting my hands to his boot, "Please, Master!"

Then I saw him draw forth a tharlarion whip. "No," I begged, "please!" the lash cut down at me! I felt its blow. I had been whipped! I covered my head and eyes and, terrified, turning about, rushed to the end of the chain, but there, caught by the collar, pulling against the stirrup. I was brought up short, half choked, terrified. Then he reeled me in, gathering lengths of the chain in his hand. He then, as I stood there, naked, trembling, put the whip again to me, three times, and then another lash, for good measure. I was then sobbing, and weeping, wildly. He then cast loose the chain and moved his tharlarion forward, to ride with Pietro Vacchi. I hastily, whipped, stumbled after him.

"Tonight," said Pietro Vacchi, as though he might not have noted my beating, "you will be entertained as though you might be a Ubar!"

"The hospitality of Pietro Vacchi is well known," said Aulus.

I hoped, wildly, that Mirus would not be in the camp of Pietro Vacchi. I hoped he would have already set out for Brundisium. Surely he would not be expecting me to be brought to the camp.

"I have picked up a gentlewoman from Ar," said Pietro Vacchi. "Perhaps you would enjoy enlightening her on what it is to be a female."

"However I may be of service," said Aulus.

"And your little Tuka is a pretty one," said Vacchi.

"She is only a slave," said Aulus, "but she is, of course, yours for the evening."

"Excellent!" said Pietro Vacchi.

I hurried along beside the tharlarion of Aulus, his stirrup chain on my neck. "Ho, Lad!" called Vacchi, holding in his tharlarion. "This is not the way to Brundisium!" he addressed a tall fellow in the shadows, making his way northward on the Viktel Aria.

The figure in the shadows lifted his head.

I had quickly knelt, as soon as the progress of the tharlarion had been arrested, with my head down to the stones of the Vitkel Aria. I did not want to be recognized. The figure in the shadows had been one I could not mistake. The tharlarion began their trek again, southward, toward the camp of Vacchi, the men of Aulus, and the wagon, with its box of coins, following.

There had been no mistaking the figure in the shadows. Too, it had been going north, not west, or northwest, toward Brundisium. It had been going north on the Vitkel Aria, toward Venna, in the vicinity of which lay the camp of the black chain of Ionicus.

I grasped the chain with two hands. I could not get it off my neck.

Surely in the darkness I had not been recognized. Surely I would have seemed then only another slave, only another soft, pretty thing, of no account, kneeling on the road, kneeling in the darkness, its head down, its neck chained to a master" s stirrup.

I dared not look back.

How formidable the figure had seemed, so tall, so broad-shouldered, so purposeful, so menacing, in its remnants of a work tunic. But, now, too, I was sure it was armed. Over its left shoulder, there had been slung a strap, from which had hung a scabbard, the attitude of which had suggested only too clearly that it was weighted with a blade.

"Perhaps, earlier in the evening," Aulus was saying, "before you are ready for her in your tent, you might put her before your men."