Dancer of Gor

by John Norman

  Fulvius stepped back a few steps, and turned to look. Sempronius, half turned, was watching something. He removed his blade from his sheath. I heard, too, to my left, and behind me, the blade of Callisthenes leave its sheath.

  I tried to rise up a bit on my knees, but, tied as I was, wrists to ankles, I could not do so. I could see little more than the high grass from where I was.

  "You could not find him," said Mirus. "But it seems he has found you."

  I could then see, approaching over the grass, a solitary figure.

  "It is a brigand," said Fulvius. "He is masked."

  I gasped. I feared for a moment I might die. My heart began to beat wildly. I did not wish to faint. I suddenly felt great heat, helpless heat in my belly. It seemed my thighs flamed. I was bound helplessly. My responses were suitable for a slave. I hoped the men could not smell me. Then I was terrified.

  "His features are well concealed," said Callisthenes.

  "Fan out," said Fulvius. "Callisthenes to my left, Sempronius on the right."

  The stranger moved toward Fulvius.

  Suddenly, menacingly.

  Fulvius set himself.

  Blades clashed, briefly, ringing sharply, brightly, in the green meadow.

  I could not even follow the movements of the steel, so swift they were.

  Both Callisthenes and Sempronius, after having been arrested for a moment, startled, almost in shock, at the abruptness, the swiftness, of the stranger's attack, hurried toward the swordsmen, but then they stopped. The stranger had moved swiftly back, warily. Before him Fulvius had fallen. He was on all fours, with his head down. He trembled. He spat and coughed blood. Then he sank to the grass. He slowly rolled to his back. The sword left his hand. Then he stared upward, at the sky, but did not see it.

  Tela screamed, only now seeming to comprehend what had been done.

  The stranger had not permitted them to take him between them, Fulvius engaging him, Callisthenes and Sempronius seeking their openings from the sides. He had moved too quickly, before they could close their simple formation, before they could join their forces. Even Fulvius, whom I knew from before was a master of defense, had not been able to stand before him. I do not think steel had crossed more than three or four times before the stranger had leapt back, and then backed away.

  I shuddered.

  I felt terror before this man, this swordsman, this fighter. I had not known one could handle steel like that. It had been an awesome exhibition of prowess. I was shaken, even at the thought of it. For a brief moment I wanted desperately to run away. But I was bound.

  The stranger motioned with his sword that Callisthenes and Sempronius should move together. Reluctantly they did so, carefully keeping blade room between them. Their leader was gone. They could form no plan, it seemed, between them as to who should hold, who should seek an opening. Neither cared, it seemed, to advance. It there was an initiative here, or some advantage, oddly enough it seemed to lie on the side of the stranger, not the pair of them. They kept their eyes on him. Fulvius, I suspect, had been a very fine swordsman. Certainly Sempronius, earlier, had acknowledged his supremacy among them, with the blade. Yet Fulvius had lasted hardly an exchange with the stranger. This could not fail but weigh with them. Too, I did not doubt but what in their minds were the fates of their fellows, Alcinous and Portus, back at the wagon.

  I looked about.

  The other girls, too, were dumbfounded. I think they, even Gorean girls, in a culture where the knife and sword were familiar, common weapons, had never seen anything like this. Mirus, even, seemed stunned. He had lowered his own sword. Tupita, near him, white-faced, held him, supporting him.

  I regarded the stranger. He was tall, very tall. He was broad-shouldered and narrow-waisted. He had long, bronzed arms. His hands were very large. I trembled. He held a steel sword, where such things made law. He was tall, fierce and hard. I was very small, and soft and weak. It was only the swords of Callisthenes and Sempronius which separated him from me. I saw myself then, noting his eyes in the mask, the subject of his gaze. I saw the point of his sword. He, looking at me, moved it, slightly. Inwardly I laughed with joy. I swiftly, in response to his gesture, as I could, spread my knees before him. Callisthenes, first, then Sempronius, hurled their swords, blade first, into the earth at their feet. The handles, upright, were visible in the grass. We belonged to the stranger! I looked wildly at him.

  He motioned Callisthenes and Sempronius away from their weapons.

  Callisthenes, I suspect, was not a fine swordsman. He had expressed some relief or satisfaction at their earlier inability to locate the stranger. I think he had not really wanted to meet up with him, he who had slain his fellows, Alcinous and Portus. Sempronius, probably more skilled, had been wounded.

  He ordered Callisthenes and Sempronius to stand to the side. He then approached Mirus. Mirus thrust Tupita behind him, and held his sword, ready to defend himself and the slave. The stranger then, with a decisive movement, sheathed his sword. It cracked into the sheath. Mirus grinned, and lowered his sword. Then, overcome with his exhaustion, his weakness, the loss of blood, he sat down in the grass.

  The stranger came to the rail and examined Cara, and then Mina, and then Tela. "You are well curved," he said to Tela. "Thank you, Master," she said. Instantly I hated Tela. Then he came to stand before me. "You, too, are well curved," he said. "Thank you, Master!" I said. I cast a glance at Tela. "And you look well, tied so helplessly," he said. "Thank you, Master!" I said. I cast another glance at Tela. He had said two things to me, and only one to her! But when I looked back he had turned away from me! I squirmed in my bonds. I wanted to cry out "Master!" to him, but I did not dare. I did not want to be whipped. Did he think I could not recognize him in his mask? Did he not remember me?

  We remained bound for several Ahn, until well after dark. In this time he had walked Callisthenes and Sempronius before him, back toward the trees, in which direction, it seemed, lay the slave wagon. There they had apparently buried three bodies, those of Licinius, who had been slain by Hendow, and Alcinous and Portus, victims, it seems, of his own blade. Too, from the wagon, or its vicinity, they retrieved supplies. These, however, were not immediately fed to us. Sempronius and Callisthenes first busied themselves, under the stranger's supervision, with burying what humans lay about. The strange beasts were left for jards. Borko, however, was buried beside Hendow. The graves of the men had swords thrust in the earth, that they might thus be marked. Mirus scratched a board, taken from the ruins of the buildings about, which he fixed on the common grave of Borko and Hendow. I cannot read Gorean. Mirus told Tupita it said, "Borko and Hendow. Hendow was of Brundisium. He was my friend." Most Gorean graves, incidentally, are not marked even in so simple a fashion. Most Goreans do not care for such things. They believe that it is a man's deeds which truly live after him, and that the difference, great or small, which they make in the world, the difference which he made, for having been there, is what is important. No matter how insignificant or tiny one is, in the Gorean belief, one is an ineradicable part of history. That can never be taken from anyone. That is better, they believe, than scratched wood or marked stone. There would be no pyres. Such might attract the attention of men about, or perhaps of tarnsmen aflight, even as far away as Venna.

  "Shall we now dig two more?" asked Sempronius.

  "For whom?" asked the stranger.

  "For ourselves," said Sempronius, indicating himself and Callisthenes.

  "No," said the stranger. "Wash. Perform the customary purifications."

  Sempronius and Callisthenes looked at one another. "Very well," said Sempronius.

  After they had washed and performed the rites we were fed. Of slaves only Tupita was permitted to feed herself. She also fed Mina and Cara. I was fed by Sempronius, Tela by Callisthenes. The stranger did this perhaps to torture them, I supposed, that they might be so close to half-naked female slaves and yet be forbidden to so much as touch them.

  After we had been fe
d, and Callisthenes and Sempronius, too, had partaken of food, the stranger directed them to put us in coffle, with the exception of Tupita. He also specified the exact positions we would occupy in this coffle. Accordingly, in a given order, we were roped together by the neck. Mina, Cara and Tela were then freed of the rail, and all our ankles were untied. Mina and Cara, of course, still wore their shackles. Though it was with joyful relief that I felt my ankles at last freed from my wrists and could get up, though in pain, and stretch my legs, my hands still bound behind me, it was with chagrin that I considered my position on the coffle. I was last! Last! Did he think I did not recognize him in the mask? Did he not remember me? Did he not even know who I was, he of all men! To be sure, Tela was before me, and she had led a much larger coffle entering the work camp of Ionicus near Venna, that of the black chain. Mina and Cara were ahead of us. And Mina was first on the coffle! How proud she seemed! Look at her, so beautiful, so proud to be first!

  Callisthenes and Sempronius supported Mirus between them, and helped him toward the woods. Tupita followed, closely. After them came the stranger. He paused, on his way, to pick up the swords of Callisthenes and Sempronius. He had also taken the blanket and the silver, and purses, which had been on it. The bodies, too, I gathered, of those who had been about had been relieved of what coins or valuables they might have carried. The coins of Hendow the stranger had given to Mirus. He was, then, truly a brigand! A masked brigand! But how he could handle a sword! How he had fought!

  The group now made its way toward the woods. We, Mina, Cara, Tela and I, in coffle, followed it. It did not even seem that they were paying any attention, to see if we came or not. We followed them, of course, docilely, like tethered animals! But, of course, we were tethered animals. We were slaves.

  I looked back in the moonlight once, at the grave of Borko and Hendow. I could see the hilt of Hendow's sword there, and, behind it, the narrow board fixed in the earth by Mirus, that simple, crude marker, not bearing much of a message, really, little more than the data that Hendow had been of Brundisium, and had had a friend.

  I cried on the way to the woods.

  30

  The Slave Wagon

  I sat up.

  I could not believe what he apparently intended to do to me. Yet I suppose it was not anything that unusual for a slave.

  The three moons were full. It was late. We were now in the woods. The slave wagon was not far away. The tharlarion, unhitched, but tethered, browsed among the trees, pulling at herbs in the grass, lifting its neck to nibble at wide leaves.

  Cords encircled my ankles. I could not bring my legs together. My ankles were tied at the insides of two saplings, about a yard apart. My hands were no longer tied behind me. They were braceleted there. This was far more comfortable. On the other hand whereas before I had had only to contend helplessly with simple binding fiber I was now the prisoner of clasping steel.

  Surely he did not intend to put me through this! Did he not recognize me!

  Was I to be treated only as another slave?

  I, sitting up in this awkward position, jerked at the bracelets, sensed the sudden straightening of the linkage, heard the small metal noise, and felt the occasioned cruelty of the bands on my wrists. In struggling I could only hurt myself. The choice was mine. In the end, whether I struggled or not, whether I hurt myself or not, I would still be held, and perfectly. I cried out with frustration.

  "What is wrong, Tuka?" asked Tela.

  She was secured identically as I was, a few feet to my right, her ankles fastened with cords, on the insides of two saplings, about a yard apart, her wrists braceleted behind her. She had risen up on her elbows, her head turned, to look at me, in the moonlight.

  "Oh, be quiet!" I said.

  "Very well," she said.

  "I am sorry, Tela!" I said.

  "It is all right," she said. "What is wrong?"

  "Nothing," I said. "Nothing!"

  Tela, undoubtedly puzzled by what she must take to be my strange behavior, lay back on the leaves.

  I, sitting up, jerked at the bracelets again. Again I felt pain. Again I had hurt myself. I sobbed with frustration. Was that all I was to him, only another slave?

  I could see the small campfire by the wagon. Back from it a bit, to the left, Tupita was tending Mirus. About the fire, were the stranger, still masked, and, unarmed, Callisthenes and Sempronius. Their blades were hung on the side of the closed slave wagon. They were talking, and passing a bota about, which probably contained paga.

  Mira and Cara, still in their shackles and manacles, from the chain of Ionicus, had been put in the slave wagon, which was locked. The slave wagon was little more in effect than a large iron box, secured on a wagon frame. Its door, in the back, was reached by a short flight of broad, wooden stairs. In the upper portion of the door there was a small aperture, about a half inch in height and six inches long, which was fitted with a sliding panel. It was now shut, latched. It could not be opened from the inside. In the bottom of the door there was a larger opening, about three inches in height and a foot in width, through which pans of water or food could be slipped into the wagon, without opening the main door. That, too, had its panel which, too, was now latched. It, too, could not be opened from the inside.

  The stranger had now screwed shut the lid on the bota.

  He had showed them hospitality. They had, so to speak, "shared his kettle."

  They rose to their feet.

  Earlier in the evening, in the frontward portion of the meadow, near the ruins of the long, low building, indeed, only a few feet in front of the rail, to which at that time Tela, Mina and Cara had still been fastened, Sempronius had fed me. Callisthenes had similarly put nourishment in the mouth of Tela, even as she was at the rail, neck-roped there. I had wondered if the stranger had permitted Callisthenes and Sempronius to feed us, half-naked slaves, in order to have them in proximity to us, whom they might not touch, as a torture for them, Gorean males.

  The men were coming in this direction.

  Now it seemed, however, that I had misread his intent.

  Sempronius crouched before me. "Lie down," he said.

  I obeyed.

  How tightly my ankles were bound with cord! How closely my wrists were enclosed in steel!

  He removed the belt and cloth I wore.

  He then began, kneeling beside me, to caress me. I regarded him with dismay, twisting. It was his intention that I should be hot, and open, to him! I must resist! I must try to resist! What if the stranger should see! But men had changed my body. I now needed their touch, more so than I had ever dreamed could be possible, even in my moments of most frustrated passion on Earth. Let it be acknowledged straightforwardly and honestly. I had been made a slave.

  "What is wrong?" asked Sempronius, puzzled.

  "Nothing, Master," I said, firmly.

  Sempronius had been permitted earlier in the evening to feed the slave Tuka, as Callisthenes had Tela. Tuka had knelt before him, clad only in a slave strip and belt of rolled cloth, her wrists crossed and bound behind her back, fastened closely to her crossed, bound ankles. He had put food in her mouth, and she must eat. But, as Tuka understood now, this had not been to torture him. Rather, if anything, it had been to bring him into her proximity, to excite him, to whet his appetite, to give him a foretaste of the delights which might, if he wished, await him. And, too, from the woman's point of view, she so helpless, so close to him, so much at his mercy, unable to defend herself, or even to feed herself, dependent on him for her very food, this produced a sense of distinct unease, and arousal.

  I heard Tela, under the touch of Callisthenes, cry out, softly, to my right.

  Sempronius knew what he was doing. I tried to steel myself, and think of other things. I turned my head to the side.

  I heard Tela gasp with pleasure.

  I suddenly hated being a slave! Was this possible? That I should be so casually put, so cordially put, in the liberality of a Gorean host, at the disposal of guests? But
of course it was possible! I was only a slave! But why would he do this to me, to me? Was I truly to him only this, only another slave, to be put without a second thought to the purposes of guests, merely another amenity or convenience to them, as might be a napkin or finger bowl, or a comfort, such as a blanket, or an extra cushion for his couch?

  I must not let Tela's cries arouse me. I must try not to hear them! What pleasure she must be enduring!

  Perhaps the stranger did not recognize me?

  "Oh!" I said, suddenly, softly.

  Sempronius chuckled.

  I knew then, and so did he, that he would conquer me.

  "Is she satisfactory?" asked the stranger, standing behind Sempronius.

  I looked up, wildly, at the stranger.

  "It seems she will prove so," said Sempronius.

  The stranger held, coiled in his right hand, a slave whip. "If you are not fully satisfied," he said, "let me know."

  "Very well," said Sempronius.

  I knew then that the stranger would whip me if I were not pleasing.

  But I began, unable to help myself, to squirm beneath the touch of Sempronius.

  "You are a hot slave," said Sempronius to me.

  It was he, I recalled, who had regarded me, more than once in the meadow, he before whom I had, with a slave's awareness, a slave's tact and wisdom, a slave's sensitivity and need, understanding herself to be looked upon by a male, twice widened my knees. To be sure, he was a Gorean male, and looking upon him, I became heated. How could it be otherwise? I was a slave. What they do to us! How they make us theirs! Doubtless he had been curious as to what it might be to have me in his arms! Had the stranger sensed this? Was that why he had had him feed me, when I had knelt before him, bound hand and foot? Doubtless he had been curious to know what it might be to have me in his arms! He was now to know! Was that all I was to the stranger, only a slave, no different from any other slave, only another meaningless slave?

  "Oh, oh," I moaned, softly.

  "Are you not pleased?" he asked.