"When was that, then, my lord?"
"When you were about eight or nine years old. That's to say, when the Leopards came to power."
Maia recalled what Occula had told her. "When the Sacred Queen first came to Bekla, my lord?"
"Ah, yes, the Sacred Queen! Fornis of Paltesh! Have you ever seen her?"
"No, my lord, that I never."
"Well, I dare say you will before long. She was the only daughter of the High Baron of Paltesh, and when she became Sacred Queen-when Senda-na-Say was murdered and the Leopards made Durakkon High Baron of Bekla-King Harnat crossed the Zhairgen and took Suba for Terekenalt. Fornis had told him that Baltesh would offer no resistance. In return, he was to take no further advantage of the civil disturbances caused by the Leopard revolt. It was a very good bargain-for him. He knew Urtah couldn't resist him unsupported."
Stopping beside Maia, Bayub-Otal half-sat on the edge of the table and stared down at her bleakly, covering his mutilated hand with his other sleeve.
"But if you were the rightful heir of Suba, my lord," said Maia, "then why-" She stopped, overcome with embarrassment. Would he give her the same answer as Kem-bri? How did he see it? she could not help wondering.
"Why haven't they killed me? That's what you mean, isn't it?"
She nodded dumbly.
"Oh, no, Maia; why bother to make a martyr, when you've already got something much better-an ineffective, contemptible loser on public display? The High Baron's bastard son, who can't even draw a bow or cut up a chicken?-a fellow not worth the killing; unless he starts making a nuisance of himself, of course. Perhaps if I were to cross the Valderra into Suba-oh, yes, if I were just to go home, as any ordinary man's free to go-that might be grounds for putting me to death, I dare say. But the dancing-girl's dispossessed son, a man who can't even see any way to avenge his own honor, left free to kick his heels-
to take to drink, perhaps, or chasing worthless girls; to be a laughing-stock behind his back-"
Maia was genuinely moved to see tears in his eyes. She put a hand on his arm.
"What's the good, my lord? Trouble-the whole world's full of trouble; worse nor yours, and mine too. But we're here in a clean, warm room. We're not hungry or cold or ill. You've money, and wine-yes, and me, too, if you want. Far as we know, neither of us is goin' to die just yet. There's thousands as that'd be more than enough for."
He touched her forehead with his lips. "Yes, of course."
"Listen, my lord. There's a girl with me now in the High Counselor's house. You talk about loss and trouble-"
She began to tell him about Milvushina, but after a time he stopped her, resuming his restless pacing.
"Strange things happen, don't they? An enslaved girl's loved honorably for years, by a High Baron; and a baron's daughter's enslaved and becomes the victim of a filthy libertine."
" 'Tis all a dream, my lord. That's what old Drigga used to say-her as told the stories back home. When Lespa wakes us-"
"Now do you understand why I don't feel inclined to go to bed with you-or with any girl? Do you think I'd buy a girl's body, or compel a girl to bed with me, after what I've told you; yes, and after what you've just told me? This whole city's full of wretched girls yielding to men because they've no choice. And wouldn't those men love to see me become as dissolute as themselves?"
"You take it too hard, my lord, that you do. It's pleasure and comfort, after all. Where's the harm, long as the girl's willing-?"
"Yes, for a lygol!" He spat the word. "Where's the dignity, the sincerity, in what they're doing?" He pointed upward. "Where my father bedded, there he loved. And where he loved, there he honored and cherished." His voice rose. "I'm speaking of the sense of responsibility that ought to go with desire for a woman."
"And d'you know what I reckon, my lord? I reckon you're just cutting off your nose to spite your face. There's thousands have lost everything and had to make the best of what's left. You should, too."
"I will: when Suba's free. I have a sacred duty to my people, you see. But that's enough of such talk." He smiled
into her eyes, his pale, rather fine features (did he take something after his mother? she wondered) seeming to express amusement at the futility of his own outburst. "You told me you dance, sometimes. Will you dance for me now?"
"Oh, I'd not have the face, my lord; not after what you told me-about your mother, I mean."
"If I were to tell you to take off your clothes and go to bed with me, I suppose you'd raise no objection at all. Yet you're reluctant just to dance. I find that rather depressing."
"One's difficult and I'd do it badly. "Pother's easy and I'd do it well."
"All in a day's work, eh?"
• "I know how to give pleasure, my lord. Ask anyone you like! You can start with Lord Eud-Ecachlon, and-"
"I don't think I'll bother," interrupted Bayub-Otal bleakly. "But I will trouble you to dance for me: I've a particular reason. Please go and ask them to send in a hinnarist."
Maia could only obey. When she returned Haubas, Ka-Roton and the two shearnas had come back downstairs. As they lolled half-dressed in one corner of the room, yawning and barely attentive, Maia did her best to tell the accompanist what she wanted and then, sadly devoid of any real confidence, entered upon the reppa of the sen-guela, which depicted Lespa's apotheosis to become the consort of Shakkarn and divine mistress of stars and dreams.
As she danced, unable for a moment to discard her awareness of the inadequate space, of the spent, drowsy Urtans and the indifferent hinnarist with whom she had not rehearsed, Maia had never felt so clumsy, so incapable of forgetting herself or of becoming in her heart the god-. dess whom she was supposed to be representing. She had forgotten to ask for the floor to be swept, and once, treading unexpectedly on a broken nutshell, she stumbled and could barely control a cry of pain. Yet Bayub-Otal, watching gravely, gave no sign of disappointment. As she came to the close-the beautiful, beneficent young goddess gazing down upon her sleeping earth-people between the clouds invisibly spread below her-dismally aware that she was two beats ahead of the hinnari, she felt full of chagrin. It was the first time she had danced for anyone but Occula, and a sorry go she had made of it.
"Maia," said Bayub-Otal after a few moments, "I can tell what you're feeling. Will you believe me if I tell you that you're a great deal better than you suppose? Given the opportunity, I'll prove it to you before much longer."
She made no reply, but he seemed to expect none and, having paid and dismissed the hinnarist, opened a shutter upon the Caravan Market.
"It's late," he said, as the clock-lanterns opened and shone for midnight, "but there's still no rain for the moment. You have to go back to the upper city, don't you? I'll go with you as far as the Peacock Gate. Then you can take the jekzha on and I'll walk back."
Out of the tail of her eye, Maia saw Haubas glance at Ka-Roton and Ka-Roton shrug.
"Just as you wish, my lord."
They went out into the colonnade while the landlord's boy ran for a jekzha. As they were getting into it Maia caught a glimpse, in the shadows, of a solitary girl-no doubt the same one whose importuning voice she had heard earlier in the evening. She looked haggard, dingy and considerably older than Maia.
"Is that your lygol?" asked Terebinthia grimly. "Are you sure you haven't been tampering with it?"
"When did I ever tamper with a lygol, saiyett?" said Maia. "They're Urtans. Why do I have to go with them?"
"You needn't again," replied Terebinthia, "if they can't do better than that."
36: A SIGN FOR OCCULA
"When are you going to take the field, then?" asked Du-rakkon. With any luck, he thought, and if Melekril were really ending (for sometimes the rainy season would appear to be over, only to resume for as long as two weeks), Kembri might leave Bekla within the next few days and remain several months with the army.
He wondered, not for the first time, what good he had ever done anyone throughout the empire by seizing the lordship of Be
kla. As for himself, fear and anxiety never left him. He was surrounded by and dependent upon men
whom he disliked and despised-men who had corrupted the city and alienated many parts of the provinces. Day in and day out, simply to maintain power, he lent his name to a regime of intrigue, double-dealing and subterfuge. He had accomplished nothing of what he had first intended: this bore no resemblance-none-r-to the benevolent rule with which he had planned to replace Senda-na-Say's.
"Give the roads a few days to dry," answered Kembri, "and I'll take the Tonildan and Beklan regiments to the Valderra to join Sendekar."
"Has Sencho found out anything yet about Karnat's whereabouts and plans?"
"The truth is," said Kembri, "that Sencho's becoming less and less useful. It was only to be expected, I suppose. Lately, apparently, he hasn't even been capable of seeing his own men or hearing their reports. Anything could be brewing and we might not hear about it until too late, simply because he's sick or dying."
"Is he dying?" asked Durakkon.
"His saiyett won't say a word one way or the other. One of his girls-a Tonildan-is reporting to me, and she thinks not; but she's only a child and she could be wrong-she admits it herself. As far as I can make out, he seems to have become completely dependent on the black girl-you know, the one all the younger men are talking about."
"The sorceress?" asked Durakkon. "Didn't she do some extraordinary sort of act with a knife-someone told me-"
"I don't know," replied Kembri shortly. "I wasn't there. She certainly seems to have acquired some extraordinary sort of influence over Sencho. The Tonildan's been with Bayub-Otal a couple of times. He seems to fancy her in some way of his own. I've told her to do everything she can to win his confidence. If only he'll talk freely to her, we might learn a great deal about Urtah-and Suba too; more than Sencho's likely to find out for us in his present condition. She's here now, without Sencho's knowledge. That's one advantage of him being sick, at least."
"Well, we'd better have her in then, I suppose," said Durakkon, with an air of distaste.
"I think not," replied Kembri. "If we do, at least one person-my saiyett-is going to know that you and I talked to her together, and possibly draw conclusions. No, I'll have her taken into a bedroom: nobody's going to wonder
about that. There's one with a concealed screen, so you can easily come and hear what she's got to say."
A few minutes later Durakkon, seated in darkness behind the screen and looking into the lamp-lit room, saw the girl come in. He remembered, now, having noticed her at the Rains banquet-a golden-haired lass, strikingly beautiful. Raising her palm to her forehead, she stood before the Lord General in an attitude of expectant submission.
"You won't be here long today," said Kembri, "and don't try to do what you did last time, or I shall be angry; do you understand?"
"Yes, my lord."
"You've been with Bayub-Otal again?"
"Yes, my lord."
"Were you alone with him?"
"Well, quite a while I was, my lord, yes."
"Did he say anything about Suba?"
"He said he'd not be able to take life easy, my lord, till Suba was free; on account of he had a sacred duty to his people."
"Nothing more?"
"No, my lord."
"You didn't think of asking him what he meant by that, or how he intended to go about it?"
"Well, I would have, my lord; only then he broke off the talk himself, see, and made me dance; and after that he said we'd go home, so I never had the chance to ask him any more, like."
"Well, that's useful information as far as it goes," said Kembri. "How is the High Counselor today?"
"About the same, my lord, I reckon: kind of sleepy, like. Not himself at all. It's like as if he was bewitched, sort of."
"What else did you talk about with Bayub-Otal?"
"He was on telling me about his father and mother."
"That old tale again," said Kembri.
"Well, I thought 'twas very sad, my lord, the way he told it to me."
"I'm sure it was," said Kembri drily. "You enjoyed listening to him, then?"
"Well, reckon I did, my lord, yes. He told me how he'd grown up in Suba and how he'd been promised the rule
of it by his father; and then how it had been given to this King Karnat."
"It's time you understood a little more about this matter now, Maia," said Kembri. "If Bayub-Otal wanted Suba badly enough, he might-mightn't he-offer to rule it as some sort of vassal of King Karnat? Offer to pay him tribute and so on, if only he'd let him rule the country his father promised him?"
"I s'pose he might, my lord." She frowned, plainly perplexed and out of her depth: then suddenly laughed, showing her white, even teeth in the lamplight. "More 'n I'd want, I know that! Strikes me 's nothin' but a peck of trouble-"
"Never mind," said Kembri brusquely. "King Karnat, if he were to give Bayub-Otal the rule of Suba, would want him to give something in return. And it might be something we wouldn't want Karnat to have, mightn't it?"
The girl frowned again. "Don't see what he's got to give him, my lord."
"He could order his Subans to fight for Karnat," said Kembri. "He could persuade them that it would be in their own best interests to help Karnat to conquer Paltesh or even Bekla itself, in return for giving them back their freedom. Now tell me, did Bayub-Otal tell you where he'd been since he was last in Bekla?"
"No, my lord. Nor I didn't see how I could ask him without him getting suspicious of me, like."
"He didn't tell you he'd been across the Valderra, or gone into Suba, or anything like that?"
"No, my lord."
"Now that you know what I've explained to you, can you remember him saying anything that makes you think he might be in touch with King Karnat?"
"No, my lord. But you see, he kept on saying he expected I was going to tell everything to the High Counselor, so he wasn't going to say anything as everyone didn't know already. He was very much on his guard, as you might say."
"Did he bed you?" asked Kembri,
"No, my lord. He told me-well, he kind of said as he didn't go in for such things, like, on account of his father and mother an' that-"
Kembri waved a hand. "All right. Now listen, Maia. I want you to get to know him still better. Tell him you go
along with these ideas of his and that you think he's a sadly-wronged man. You must get still further into his confidence. Tell him you hate the Leopards, hate being a slave and so on. But don't overdo it, or he'll get suspicious. You're to go on being a simple, country girl. But above all, get him to talk about Suba. Tell him it sounds a wonderful place-that you'd love to go there-anything you like. He's up to something or other; of that we're certain. Find out what it is, Maia, and from that day you shall be a free woman. Do you understand?"
The girl's face lit up. "So soon, my lord?"
"So soon. But don't try making anything up for my benefit, or saying what you think I might want to hear: I should only find out in the end. Now there's your lygol. What are you going to say to your saiyett?"
"Why, as the governor of Lapan basted me, my lord."
She gave him a mischievous smile, but Kembri only nodded and turned away. The girl raised her palm and went out.
When the door had closed behind her Durakkon came forward into the room.
"I can't see that that poor girl's found out anything of importance to us about Bayub-Otal."
"What I suspect is this," said Kembri. "He's been secretly in touch with Karnat, who's promised him the rule of Suba in return for getting the Subans to fight on his side; helping him to cross the Valderra and attack us. From his point of view it's a case of half a loaf being better than no bread. But there could be more to it than that. For instance, suppose Sencho knows about it too, and Bayub-Otal's the go-between? Sencho agrees with Karnat to give us misleading information and so on. Karnat crosses the Valderra with Suban help, conquers Bekla, puts us out of the way and then gives Sencho all he wants
to gorge and baste himself to death-pensions him off. Meanwhile Bayub-Otal retains the rule of Suba as a vassal of Karnat and
everyone's happy." "Oh, this vile busir
business of playing games with people's lives!" burst out Durakkon. "To think there was a time when I believed the Leopards were going to bring prosperity and happiness to the common people!"
To this Kembri did not trouble to answer. "Well, let's hope this girl can find out something more. We've nothing whatever to lose by letting her try."
"She seemed a nice little thing," said Durakkon. "You mean to free her, then, when she's done her job, and send her back to Tonilda?"
"Well, if she finds out anything of real importance, of course, she'll probably have to be done away with," answered Kembri. "These people outlive their usefulness, you know, once they're known to have been agents; and once they know more than we want to risk them talking about elsewhere." He shrugged. "There are always plenty more where she came from, after all. But now, another thing, sir. I beg you, please, while I'm absent from Bekla, and as long as the High Counselor's still not himself, to make sure of obtaining frequent reports about the state of affairs in Chalcon: and particularly as regards Santil-ke-Erketlis. There's not a doubt that in spite of our killing Enka-Mordet, he's still a very real danger. Here's a report I received only this morning, for instance, about a man named Tharrin-"
Upon her return Maia, pushing open the door that led to the women's quarters, was startled to see Milvushina standing in the passage immediately behind it. Before she could speak the Chalcon girl took her by the wrist.
"Maia, listen-"
"What's up, then?" Maia, alarmed, replied sharply.
"It's Occula. I've been waiting for you-"
"What about Occula?" Then, in sudden panic, "He hasn't sold her?" Her voice rose, and Milvushina hastily motioned her to silence.
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