Dancer of Gor

by John Norman

  "I love to dance, Master," I said, "but even if I did not, yes, I would dance and beg for it!"

  "Are you any good at bringing the whip to a man in your teeth?" he asked.

  "Yes, Master," I said.

  "But are you not a woman of Earth?" he asked.

  "Once I was a woman of Earth," I said. "Now I am only a Gorean slave."

  "In the baths," he said, "I have seen the names of slaves and taverns scrawled on the walls."

  "Oh?" I said, uneasily.

  "And sometimes they are ranked in order of someone's opinion as to their desirability," he said.

  "I see," I said.

  "May I speak, Master?" asked Tupita, with an almost catlike movement of her body. I thought I must learn to do that.

  "Yes," he said.

  "Were slaves in the tavern of Hendow so ranked?" she asked.

  "Yes," he smiled.

  "And did the name of Tupita not head the list?" she asked, glancing meaningfully at me.

  "No," he said.

  "Who was first?" she asked.

  "Inger," he said.

  "My name then was second," she said.

  "No," said he, "it was third."

  "And who was second?" she asked, angrily.

  "Doreen," he smiled.

  "The fellow who wrote the names up was surely mistaken," she said, angrily.

  "I can give you my opinion on that," he said, "at some later date. I have used you before. You are quite good. Even excellent. There is no doubt about it. But tonight I shall try something different. I shall try the dancer, Doreen."

  "Thank you, Master!" I breathed, happily. Tonight I had searched hard for a use master. It was the middle of the week, when business is slower. Many men receive their hiring fees at the end of the week. Too, tonight, it seemed that many of the men had come to the tavern only to drink and talk, and some, too, near the walls, where it was quieter, to play kaissa, a Gorean board game. I did not care for kaissa. Men grew so absorbed in it, it seemed, that they could be totally oblivious even of a beautiful slave whimpering on her belly near them. Because of kaissa we had to sometimes wait hours for attentions! Too, I had come to the floor late, Tupita having assigned me cleaning duties in the slave area. This had happened before.

  "To be sure, Tupita," he said, giving her head a shake, "such estimations are often quite subjective. It is wise not to take them seriously. The woman who is one's man pudding may, for one reason or another, having sometimes little to do with her, be only another man's porridge."

  This I had learned was true. Slaves, and even some whom I regarded as objectively quite beautiful, even marvelous, were sometimes rated very differently by different men. Why, for example, does one man bid gold for a girl that another man would not buy with copper? Perhaps because one man sees that the girl is worth gold, and the other does not. Who knows?

  "But I have been waiting for you this evening!" said Tupita.

  "Belly to another tonight," he said, "slave."

  "Yes, Master," she said, angrily, and rose up, and, with an angry look at me, hurried away, in a jangle of bells.

  I looked up at him, gratefully. He was very strong and handsome, and I was a slave. I wanted his touch.

  "She is angry," he said, looking after Tupita.

  "Yes, Master," I said.

  "Shall I call her back to be whipped?" he asked.

  "Please, no, Master," I said. "It is only that she desired you."

  "She is first girl, is she not?" he asked.

  "Yes, Master," I said.

  "Are you not afraid?" he asked.

  I shrugged. "Many times," I said, "particularly in my first weeks here, she took men from me."

  He looked down at me. "I do not think she can do that so easily any more," he said.

  I looked down. "Perhaps not, Master," I said. "I do not know." To be sure, this was not the first man I had taken from Tupita. Normally, however, to be perfectly honest, she still took them from me. It is not unknown, of course, for slaves to compete for the attentions of masters.

  "Are you not afraid?" he asked.

  "No," I said, "not really. If she hurts me too much, or makes it so I cannot dance, or go out on the floor, our master would not be pleased."

  "I see," he said.

  Too, though I did not think it would have been appropriate to say so, I thought that I was becoming more popular with the customers. Too, I knew I was popular with several of my master's men, such as Mirus, and I thought, too, sometimes, that even my master might like me, a little. That, of course, frightened me, for he was large, and gross and loathsome. These things, I thought, would give Tupita at least a bit of pause when she might be tempted to use the switch or bastinado on me.

  "But you must be apprehensive," he said. "She is first girl."

  "Yes, Master," I said. "I am a little afraid."

  "Why then have you approached me?" he asked. "Why have you undertaken these risks? Why have you rendered obeisance? Why have you rendered slave ministrations, with your lips and tongue, to my feet and ankles? Why have you knelt here? Why do you look up at me, as you do? Why do you tremble?"

  "Because I want your touch," I said.

  He looked down at me.

  "I cannot help myself," I said.

  "Why?" he asked.

  "Because I am a woman, and a slave," I whispered.

  "Precede me to the alcove," he said.

  "Yes, Master," I said eagerly, gratefully. I then rose up and preceded him to the alcove, hurrying, the slave bells jangling on my ankle.

  13

  The Passageways;

  Intrigues

  I hurried back, elatedly, through the beaded curtain, fleeing, laughing, from the dancing floor. I had scrambled on my knees for the coins flung to the floor, seizing them, thrusting them hastily, so many of them, with one hand, into the lifted, bunched portion, held by my other hand, of the dancing skirt, a lovely, swirling skirt, scarlet, open on the right, of diaphanous dancing silk. I had been permitted a scarlet halter of the same material. My midriff, like my right thigh, was bared. The skirt was low on my hips. I wore a double belt of threaded, jangling coins, one strand high, one low, as with the corded belt of metal pieces I had worn in my virgin dance, weeks ago. I also wore a triple necklace of coins, together with necklaces of slave beads, of both glass and wood. These coins, all of them, would be counted by Mirus when I disrobed. On my left ankle were bound slave bells. My right ankle wore several anklets. I was barefoot. On my wrists were bracelets. On my upper left arm was a coiled armlet. A ruby, held by a chain, was at my forehead. Wound in and about my hair were strands of pearls.

  "It is a good house tonight," said Mirus, who was waiting for me.

  "Yes, Master!" I said, happily. I could hear the men still calling out and pounding at their shoulders with appreciation. I looked at Mirus. Should I hurry back through the curtain?

  "No," said he "Stay here."

  "Yes, Master," I said.

  "Here," he said, holding open the sack. I emptied the coins from the dancing silk into the sack, and smoothed the skirt.

  "You dance well," he said.

  "Thank you, Master!" I said, happily. On Earth I had never dreamed that I would dance as a slave before masters.

  "You have done much for the tavern of Hendow," he said.

  "I am pleased, if I have been found pleasing," I said. I gave the ruby on its chain, from my forehead, to Mirus. He put it in his wallet. I then began to unwind the strands of pearls from my hair.

  "Receipts are up twenty percent from a month ago," he said.

  "I am pleased," I said. I handed the pearls to Mirus, who put them, as he had the chain and ruby, in his wallet.

  "You are finding yourself now as a dancer," he said.

  "I have been in the arms of men," I laughed, "men such as you, Master, who know how to turn a girl into a woman, and a woman into a slave."

  "I think," he said, "you may be one of the finest dancers in Brundisium."

  This startled
me.

  "You are really quite good," he said.

  "Thank you, Master," I said.

  "Hendow's investment in you was a sound one," he said. "You are paying off well for him."

  "I am pleased to hear that," I said. I was also relieved to hear it. I did not know what would have been done to me, had it been otherwise. I supposed I might have been muchly whipped.

  "But you still have many things to learn," he said.

  "It is my hope that master will consent to teach me some of them," I said.

  "Sassy she-tarsk," he said.

  I laughed, but I was not altogether joking. Mirus was one of those men of a sort to whom, when my needs were enough on me, I could crawl, pleading. And he knew that, the brute. Certainly I had crawled to him enough! And, when my needs were enough upon me, of course, I was ready to crawl to any man, pleading, perhaps even to one of Earth, but they, probably, to my frustration, disappointment, and agony, would not know what to do with a slave. I was pleased to be on Gor, where men well understood the handling of embonded females. I lifted the necklaces from my neck. I gave that of coins to Mirus, which he put on top of the coins in the sack, and I put the others in the box which was on the floor, just within the curtain.

  "You are coming along well in your slavery, Doreen," he said.

  "Thank you, Master," I said. I looked at him. He made me feel hot between the thighs. I was only a slave.

  "You were beautiful tonight, Doreen," said Ina, hurrying by in slave bells.

  "Thank you," I said.

  Too, Ina wore a snatch of diaphanous yellow silk. The girls in Hendow's tavern now often went silked on the floor, not naked, as before. "We are becoming quite fashionable," had said Sita, reaching eagerly for her tiny bit of silk. Tupita had, however, only cast me a glance of hatred. To be sure, she did not refuse her own bit of silk. In most paga taverns, of course, the girls are silked. Usually it is only in the meanest, the cheapest and lowest of taverns that the girls serve naked, much as would the females of a conquered city at the victory feast of their conquerors, now, or soon to be, their masters. Slave silk, and certainly that sort which is commonly worn in paga taverns and upon occasion in brothels, when the girls are permitted clothing there, is generally diaphanous. It leaves little doubt as to the beauty of the slave. Some girls claim they would rather be naked, claiming that such silk makes them "more naked than naked," but most girls, and I think, even those, too, who speak in such a way, are grateful for even the wisp of gossamer shielding it provides against the imperious appraisals of masters, even though it must be pulled away or discarded instantly at a man's whim. Too, I think most girls know that they are very beautiful in such silk, and this, I suspect, is why they love it, and treasure it so. Free women, on Gor, it seems, are frightened even to look upon such material, apparently finding it scandalously offensive, or somehow profoundly disturbing to them, let alone let it touch their body. Some free women, captured, when such stuff is thrown to them, profess to prefer death to putting it on, but when this choice is that which is actually offered to them they put it on quickly enough. Too, such women, it is said, make excellent slaves. But Goreans believe, of course, that any woman, properly handled, becomes an excellent slave. I think this may be true. It is true, at any rate, in my case. There are a large number of ways in which slave silk is worn. It can be worn, for example, on the shoulder or off the shoulder, with high necklines or plunging necklines, in open or closed garments, tightly or flowingly, and in various lengths. Sometimes it is put on the girl only in halters and G-strings, or mere G-strings. Sometimes it is done, too, in strips wound about her body. The tying of slave girdles, with such silk, and otherwise, to emphasize the girl's figure and make clear her bondage, is an art in itself. Often, too, and as usually in paga taverns, it is worn in brief tunics. Most of these are partable or wraparound tunics. Such may be removed gracefully. Some tunics, however, like some regular slave tunics, have a disrobing loop, usually at the left shoulder, where it may easily be reached by both a right-handed master and a right-handed slave. A tug on the disrobing loop drops the tunic to the girl's ankles, also gracefully.

  I sat down on the tiles there within the hall, near the beaded curtain, at the feet of Mirus, easily, as a slave girl, thinking nothing of it, sits at the feet of a man, and slipped the anklets from my right ankle, putting them in the box to my left.

  Mirus was looking down at me, and I glanced up at him, and then looked down again, shyly.

  I decided to pretend not to notice how he was looking at me.

  I felt briefly like a pet at his feet, and then I supposed that in a sense I was a pet, and that all we girls were, at least in a sense, pets, slave pets.

  But we were a thousand times more than mere pets, we were slaves, total slaves.

  I put my bracelets in the box, and then the armlet from my upper left arm.

  I tried to undo the thong on the bells on my left ankle. The knots were tight, drawn by a man's hand. I fought with them. My fingers were small and weak.

  "Let me help you," said Mirus, and crouched down, near me.

  He had put the bells on me. It is often men who put slave bells on their girls. Such bells are indicative of bondage. Accordingly I suppose it makes sense that they might enjoy putting them on us, like brands and collars. Some men even dress their girls, and, always, the girl's choices of such things as garb, cosmetics, perfume, jewelry, and such, and, indeed, her entire ensemble, are subject to the master's approval. Indeed, most often, whether in only a simple tunic, before she hurries forth to shop, or in luscious slave silk and exciting adornments, before she is to welcome and serve her master's guests, displaying herself as one of his treasures, she is expected to present herself before him, for his inspection. She is owned.

  He held my ankle. His hands were very strong. I put down my head, so that he might not see my eyes.

  He then, in a moment or two, had the thong loose, and, its loops unwound, five of them, dropped it, with its strung bells, in the box.

  But his hands then were on my ankles.

  I looked at him.

  "Are you naked beneath the silk?" he asked.

  "Yes, Master," I smiled. He knew that. Indeed, as the silk was diaphanous, he could, for most practical purposes, see that.

  "Slave naked?" he asked.

  "Yes, Master," I said. This, somehow, is a far more disturbing, or meaningful, admission than the first. Somehow the nakedness of a slave seems far more naked than the nakedness of a free woman. Doubtless this has to do with her being a property, and owned. Too, 'slave naked' suggests being naked naked, so to speak, being helplessly naked, as a slave is helplessly naked. It has, sometimes, too, the connotation of being vulnerably, and arousably, naked, as a slave is helplessly, vulnerably, and arousably naked.

  He looked at me.

  "Yes, Master," I whispered. "Beneath the silk that is the way I am naked, slave naked."

  I felt slave arousal. I could not help myself. Long ago, now, weeks ago, men had lit slave fires in my belly.

  I was aroused, and as a slave.

  To be sure, I had no understanding, at that time, of what could become the fuller impact of these things. I was still, at that time, in effect, a new slave.

  Then he removed his hands from my ankles.

  "Master?" I asked.

  "Stand," he said. We both stood. "Belt," he said.

  I reached behind me to undo the double belt of coins, with its two loops, one high, one low. The coins on the belt, as well as those on the necklace, would be counted by Mirus.

  "You look well with your hands behind your back," he said.

  I looked up.

  "Your hands are now bound behind your back," he said.

  "Yes, Master," I said. I must now keep my hands or wrists in contact with one another, and behind my back. I was now "bound by the master's will." I could not separate my hands or wrists from one another now without permission. There are many ways, of course, of "binding by the master's will." The behind
-the-back position is one of the simplest and loveliest. This exposes the girl, frames the beauty of her breasts and makes her helpless. That the bond is a "will bond," too, makes clear to her the power of the master over her. Another common bond of this sort is when the girl must kneel, grasping her ankles. Another is when she is forced to sit and reach forward between her legs, passing the right arm from inside the right thigh to outside and beneath the right calf, to grasp the right ankle from the outside, and the left arm from inside the left thigh to outside and beneath the left calf, to grasp the left ankle in the same way. In this position she is helpless and cannot rise. Too, after a time, it becomes apparent to her that she also cannot close her legs. A girl may be kept in such bonds for hours. Too, of course, she may be tied in such positions. There are also, of course, different ways of decreeing such bonds. For example, with the behind-the-back-hands-tied bond in which I had been placed I could have been informed, but had not been, that my shoulders were pulled tightly back, which, of course, forces the breasts forward for the pleasure, or attentions, of the master.

  "I think I shall find it difficult to remove the belt," I smiled, "bound as I am."

  He stood close to me, and put his arms about me. "I shall remove it," he said.

  Tupita came then through the beaded curtain. She glanced at me. She was not pleased to see me in the arms of Mirus, who was a desirable male, and first among my master's men. She looked at me in hatred. She did not think twice about the position of my hands. She could see I had been "bound by the master's will." It could have been done as easily to her, at a word.

  She came close to Mirus. She licked at his shoulder. "Will you call for me tonight?" she asked.

  "No," he said. "Return to the floor."

  "Yes, Master," she said, and, with a look of fury, cast at me, slipped back through the curtain.

  "You are good for Tupita," he told me. "Because of you she is becoming more attentive and more desperate to please."

  "I am attentive and desperate to please," I said.

  "Yes," he said, "but not because of her."

  "No, Master," I said.

  "Because you are a slave," he said.