Maia (Beklan Empire 1)

Maia sat up on the edge of her bed and smiled at her. "My name's Maia: I come from Tonilda."

"Come from Delda, did you say?" answered the girl. "Great Cran, you look like it, too! Stack 'em on the shelf at night, do you?"

Her disagreeable, sneering manner made it impossible to take this as either a joke or a compliment. Still, I'd better be careful, thought Maia. She's too big for me. Besides, for all I know her friends may be in any minute.

"What d'you want to quarrel for?" she said. "Aren't we both in enough trouble as it is?"

"You may be," returned the girl. "Speak for yourself. Going to have a big belly as well, are you?"

"I didn't mean that--"

"What's in that box?" interrupted the girl, walking up to the bed and looking down at it.

"You let that alone!" said Maia sharply. "That's Ocula's box--my friend's. She'll be back directly."

"Boccula's ox?" said the girl, mimicking her Tonildan accent and blowing three or four apple pips over her. "Well, then, dear, I'm afraid darling Shockula's in for a bit of an ock." She laughed briefly at this witticism, stooped and flung back the lid.

Maia grasped her wrist. "I said, let it alone!"

The girl, easily twisting her wrist free, stuffed her apple core down Maia's neck just as Occula, a towel round her waist, came back into the room carrying her orange metlan and an iron frying-pan.

"Banzi," she said, "I found this outside. Why doan' we--" Seeing the girl standing over her opened box, she stopped. "What's goin' on? Did you open that or did she?"

"She did," panted Maia. "I tried to stop her--"

"This'll stop her," said Occula, and without a moment's hesitation hit the girl over the head with the frying-pan, which rang like a gong.

The girl staggered and went down on the floor, but was up again in a moment, spittle dribbling down her chin. Occula, having quickly tossed her metlan and the frying-pan to Maia, was waiting as she rushed at her. They closed and Maia was horrified to see her friend go down under the girl's much heavier weight.

While they lay struggling on the floor, three or four more girls came running into the room and gathered round, shouting excitedly.

Occula, lying beneath the girl, clutched her tightly about with her arms and legs. "Now hit her, banzi, hard!"

Maia, swinging back the frying-pan in both hands, hit the back of the girl's head as hard as she could.

The girl collapsed across Occula's body just as Vartou came rushing into the hall.

"What's all this basting row?"

There was instant silence. It was plain that all the girls were afraid of her.

Vartou stooped and without the least effort lifted Occula's assailant bodily, threw her across Maia's bed and slapped her face. She would probably have gone on to deal with Occula in the same way, but the black girl was already up, shutting her box and getting dressed as though nothing had happened.

"And what the hell d'you think you're doing?" said Vartou, turning towards her.

"Gettin' dressed, saiyett."

"I'll give you getting dressed, you black trollop!"

Standing over Occula, she fixed her with a terrifying stare, which the black girl met unwaveringly.

"Get up!" said Vartou at length, turning back to the other girl, who instantly obeyed her, albeit in a somewhat dazed manner. "Now, listen. I don't want to hear anything from either of you about who started this: you can save your damned breath. If you weren't both due to be seen by U-Lalloc tomorrow I'd thrash you both within an inch of your dirty little lives. But there are ways of hurting girls without leaving any mark on them, and if there's any more trouble that's What'll happen, d'you see?"

"Yes, saiyett," replied Occula. "May I please be allowed to put my box in a safe place? Then I dare say you woan' be put to the trouble of havin' to defend me again."

"You've got a blasted sight too much to say for yourself," said Vartou. "Since you're so particular, you can take it back to my room now, you and your precious friend; and you can draw the rations as well. Time you did some work, both of you."

Both girls were astonished by the issued rations. There was about half a pound of lean meat for each girl in the hall; fresh vegetables, milk, bread, cheese and fruit. They had to make two trips.

"Perhaps you see now, do you," said Vartou sourly, "how much better you're treated here than you deserve? Everything's to be cleared away and clean by the time I come round; if it's not, there'll be trouble." Then, suddenly, to Occula, "You seem to have your wits about you, black or not. That's a rough lot of girls--rougher than most. You'd better help to keep them in order, d'you see?"

"Very well, saiyett."

An hour and a half later Maia, bathed and dressed, her ankle tightly bandaged over a cold compress, was lying on her bed digesting a heavy meal in a state as close to satisfaction as she had known since the commencement of her misfortunes five days before. As not infrequently happens when two tough characters have had a scrap and cooled off, Occula and the cast-eyed girl had become guardedly friendly. The latter, while helping Maia to cook the supper, had unbent to the extent of telling her that her name was Chia and that she had arrived, two weeks before, in a slave quota from Urtah.

"And the curse of the Streels on that bastard of an elder who picked on me," she added. "He had a down on my father, Surdad did. I wasn't well when we started and it was all of sixty miles. Once we got here I went down delirious--didn't know where I was for four or five days. That's why I haven't been sold yet, see? I'm supposed to be getting my health back. You'll be all right," she said, looking enviously at Maia. "Don't know why you're here, really. Girls like you don't become slaves as a rule--not where I come from, anyway. Who d'you think's going to want me? Washing-up girl in some pot-house'll be about the size of it, I dare say."

Maia had felt sorry for her and invited her to sit down and eat with Occula and herself, which she seemed glad enough to do.

Now they had all three dragged their beds side by side and were chatting in the fading evening light.

"You know, dearest," said Maia to Occula, "I thought you were going to say some more to Zuno 'bout that young prince--nobleman--whatever he was. Don't you think he might buy us, if Lalloc was to put it to him?"

"Well, he might," said Occula, "but I'm not goin' to, all the same. If Lalloc's already got his own ideas for sellin' us, it woan'

do us any good to start havin' our own. And then again, that's only a young man, even if he is a high-up Leopard. Young men like that doan' usually buy girls. In a city like this they doan' need to. And s'pose he did, then p'raps he suddenly goes off to a war or somethin'-- decides to cut down on his household while he's gone and sells you off. Oh, no, he's not at all the sort of man we ought to be hopin' for."

"Then what is?"

"Well--if we're lucky--an older man's house, where girls are kept as part of the household--you know, for style as much as for pleasure: that's often the way in a rich house; I've seen it. Then we know where we are and what's expected of us, and once we've found our feet we can start lookin' round for friends and opportunities to better ourselves. Tell you the truth, banzi, I can tell you what I doan' like the idea of, even if I can't tell you 'zactly what I do: and I just didn' altogether fancy your prince. Bit too good to be true, somehow. Sort of--I doan' know--well, unreliable. I could be wrong. It's only a hunch. But one thing's for sure--it's no good actin' as if we weren't Lalloc's property, because we are."

She turned to Chia. "What was that you said before supper--somethin' about the curse of the Streels?"

Chia colored. "I shouldn't have said it."

"What is the curse of the Streels?"

"I can't tell you. No Urtan can tell you. Forget I said it."

"Can you put it on people?"

"Great Shakkarn, no! It's something far, far more dreadful. But don't worry, Occula; you'll never come to the Streels."

Occula received this in silence. At length, shrugging her shoulders as though to dismiss the subject, she said, "By the way, banzi, I doan' want anyone else to know where I come from or to hear the story I told you the other night. All right?"

Maia nodded.

"Oh, can you tell stories?" asked Chia. "You're a sort of trained entertainer, aren't you? You've worked in a pleasure-house, haven't you? Did you tell stories there?"

Occula laughed, as though relieved by the change of subject brought about through what she had said to Maia being taken up in this way. "Oh, Cran! I know plenty of stories."

"Come on, then, tell us one now! Tell us about Lespa, or one of the other goddesses." And thereupon, without waiting for Occula's assent, Chia called out to the rest of the room, "Occula's going to tell a story!"