"A silver tarsk!" he cried.
"Done!" I said. I had not really expected anything like that. Klio, redeemed through Ephialtes, had only cost me thirty copper tarsks. Perhaps I should have held out for more, seeing the eagerness of the fellow, but, after all, I was taken by surprise at the splendid offer, and even opportunistic greediness has its limits, particularly when surprised.
"On all fours," I said to Klio.
Immediately she went to all fours.
"A silver tarsk," I said.
It was placed in my palm and I put it in my pouch. I then removed my leash and collar from her neck. I had not even returned the leash and collar to my pouch before I heard a decisive click and a small cry from Klio. She looked up, collared, a slave, at her Master.
"She dances, the leash dance well, does she not?" I asked.
"I will improve her in it," he said, grimly.
Klio quickly bent her head, unbidden to his feet, and kissed them.
"Share her," said a fellow.
"Let her dance again," said another, "not in the leash."
"Proffer her to the arms of each of us," said another, "in turn."
"She is mine," said the fellow.
"We are your comrades in arms," said another.
"True!" said another.
"Have no fear," said the tall fellow, "I will share the slave, and my good fortune, with you, but do not forget that in the end it is I alone to whom she belongs, that it is mine alone whose slave she is."
The men crowded around Klio now, and I could hardly see her among them. Even the fellow from the low wooden platform, which page him a vantage over the top of the trench, had joined them
{Renegades of Gor, pages 170 - 178}
Tether | Thong | Tile | Training to Dance | Tuka's Dance |
Veil | Virgin | Whip
