John Norman Gor 22 Dancer of Gor

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.Icould see the men there, at the tables.It was a broad, low-Page 114ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlceilinged room, with pillars.It was dimly lit, mostly with tharlarion-oil lamps, hung on chains from the ceiling.There were some fifty tables inthe room, tables at which, if not placed adjacently to one another, generallyfour men might sit.Some men, too, were sitting about the walls, leaningagainst them.There was a crowd in the tavern tonight.I had heard theeighteenth bar struck some time ago.It would soon be the height of the evening, the time ore the specialentertainment, an entertainment in which I had a prominent role.There had even been some handbills distributed by boys about the city, andothers, I had heard, had been tacked up on public boards.There had been signs painted too, I gathered, here and there among similarsigns, usually on poorer streets, or in alleys, where magistrates, lessinclined to object, were also less prone to patrol.To be sure, most of my master s clientele came from such areas.I looked out.The bells I had heard were apparently on Tupita.I wondered how many of the men out there had come for the specialentertainment this evening.Some, I was sure.I did not care much for Tupita, and she did not care much for me.I saw her kneeling beside a man, pouring him paga.She was naked, like theother girls on the floor.Hendow liked his women, or at least his paga slaves,on the floor, that way.Too, in the168lower paga taverns it is not uncommon.Tupita knelt back from him.I think she was afraid of him.I hoped he would take he in an alcove and puther through her paces! I heard the sound of a blow, probably with the back ofa hand, and a cry of pain and saw, to one side, to the right, Ilene, struckback to her left thigh, looking up, frightened, at one of the men, now on hisfeet.He took her by the arm, pulling her to her feet, conducting her then,she stumbling, hurried, to one of the alcoves.Perhaps she would be furtherpunished there.Though Ilene is an Earth-girl name, Ilene was Gorean.Such names are sometimesgiven to Gorean girls, sometimes to inform them, to their horror, that theyare not to be as low and succulent, and helpless, and luscious as Earthfemales in Gorean bondage.I was, incidentally, the only Earth girl in thehouse.I drew back my head and leaned back again, breathing deeply, againstthe wall, to the left of the threshold, as one would enter it.I was afraid ofsuch men!I again closed my eyes.I could hardly stand.Tonight I was to dance before me, such men! I felt ill.I had danced hitherto only before Teibar, and his men, at the library, andonce or twice before the men in the house of my training, and, of course,here, in my lessons, before some men, in particular, the musicians, and somemen from the house, who, from time to time, would pause to watch me.But I hadnever danced before Hendow, my own master.Mirus had seen me several times,though, and he, I am sure, had conveyed reports to my master.Mirus, when I had knelt before him at the end of my lessons, seemed generally,on the whole, a nd particularly lately, quite pleased with my progress.Ireceived such intelligences with extreme relief, kneeling before him, for Idid not wish to be whipped.Sometimes, in my lessons, as I danced, I could seeMirus, and other men of the house, watching me, their eyes alight.Sometimes they licked their lips, almost as though I might be food.Yesterday, at the conclusion of my last lesson, when in a swirl of music, Ihad lowered myself to the floor, in a dancer s posture of abject submissionbefore men, I had heard several of them cry out with approval, and striketheir left shoulders repeatedly, fiercely, with the palms of their hands.Theyhad then crowded about me.On my knees, rising, I had been conscious of theirlegs, and whips, about me.What whips I could I seized to me and kissed,hastily, in fear.I had been afraid they would beat me.But Marvelous! andPage 115ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html Superb! I heard.Mirus was then, almost by force, pushing them away169from me, and ordering them to return to their duties.Grumbling theydisbanded, leaving the room.When we were alone, after even the musicians hadleft, and I was still at his feet, I looked up at him.it was he, first among these men, second only to Hendow, my master, whom Imust most strive to please. Master? I asked. You have talent, he said,dryly. Thank you, Master, I said.I put down my head and kissed his feet,delicately, in deference and gratitude.He then turned away from me, rather suddenly I thought. Master! I called to him.He stopped, and looked back. Yes? he said. May I speak? I asked. Yes, he said. When am I to be put forth upon the floor? I asked. You have not been told? he asked. No, Master, I said. Tomorrow night, he said.He then left.I remained kneeling there for a long time, in the practice room.Tomorrow night I would go forth upon the floor.I trembled.SurelyI was not yet ready! Yet that judgment, one as to my readiness, was not mineto make.It lay rather in the province of masters.They had judged me ready.To be sure, I would be ready only as a new girl is ready.I would be ready,in effect, simply to begin, to begin to become a female slave.Could I trulybe ready to begin, Iwondered.I recalled the faces of the men from a few minutes ago.Yes, I thought, perhaps the masters are right.Perhaps I am ready for thatbeginning.I trembled, looking down at the floor.How they had looked at me,so eagerly, so excitedly, relishing me, reveling in what they saw, and knowingthat I, the dancer, was collared, that Icould be owned.Mirus, I recalled, had almost had to drive them away from me,almost as one might force lions from meat.Mirus, too, I recalled, had himselfturned away from me, at the end, when we were alone, with a sudden abruptness.I now thought Iunderstood that.He, too, I suspected, like the others, had found me notwithout interest.Indeed, the first question he had addressed to me in thishouse, when he had unroped the blanket from about me, and I was before him,naked, my wrists manacled behind my back, was whether or not I was whitesilk [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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