Maia (Beklan Empire 1)

"Now you listen to me carefully, banzi," said Occula, drawing her down to sit beside her on a bench by the pool. "You look good enough to eat--every lustful Leopard's little lump of loveliness. A few jaded palates are goin' to be tickled up no end, I wouldn' wonder. You look exactly what you are, my dearest--the pretty peasant-girl the goddess took a fancy to immortalize. Now for Cran's sake-- no, for Kantza-Merada's sake, for I'm serious--remember this and doan' forget it! You're not goin' to a country dance or a festival in Meerzat to find yourself a nice boy. You're workin'! You're Piggy-wig's personal property, got it? You're there to do whatever he wants, and so that he can show you off same as that damn' fountain of his. If you forget that and let some rich man take you off into a corner without his permission--in fact, if you treat your master disrespectfully in any way at all--he can have you whipped or sold or anything he likes. And from what I've seen of this fat brute he'd be quite likely to. Now, do you understand?"

"Yes, Occula. But what do I do if another man--some powerful man--comes and asks--well, you know--"

"You answer, "That's for my master to say." No one's more powerful than Sencho, anyway. Now this is the other thing. If you get any chance to oblige him or please him or do somethin' of your own accord before he tells you, take it. Whatever you think he wants, do it. Now you do see, banzi, do you?"

"What does she see?" asked Meris, coming into the room in a cloud of lime perfume. "Her deldas sticking out? Occula, can you fix these blasted earrings for me? I can't get the pins out on the other side of the lobes."

The Belishban girl's shining, black hair was coiled round her head in thick braids fastened with gold combs, leaving her olive-skinned, dark-eyed face to speak, as it were, for itself. It certainly did that, thought Maia. Her striking beauty had a sulky, lascivious quality, as though, sated with luxury, she were now determined to refuse herself to everyone, except to a man who could make her feel differently about it. She was wearing a thin necklace of plaited gold, gold bracelets on her bare arms, and a close fitting robe of jade-green, gathered at the waist with a gold belt and falling to her ankles. The general effect was provocative in the last degree.

"You look like a trap ready to go off any minute," said Occula. "Jus' keep still while I slip 'em in."

"Are you girls ready?" called Terebinthia from the other side of the bead curtains. "Remember, you have to get everything prepared and be waiting by the High Counselor's couch when he arrives. Meris, by this time you ought to know everything that has to be done. Mind you tell Maia, and see she doesn't make any mistakes."

"Very well, saiyett," answered Meris. "Have you seen my cloak anywhere?"

"I have it here," replied Terebinthia, "and Maia's too."

No other Beklan noble left his house so rarely as Sencho. Detesting exertion, or any interruption of his pleasures beyond what was necessary for the maintenance of his power and influence, he never visited the premises of merchants or craftsmen, but made them--as he had made Lalloc--bring their wares to him. When summoned by Durakkon he was obliged to obey, if only for the sake of appearance, but otherwise--and this seclusion was an important constituent of his power and of the fear he inspired--he attended only the greater religious ceremonies and perhaps half a dozen parties and banquets a year-- those of the Sacred Queen and the other principal rulers.

Accordingly he did not keep litter-slaves, having little employment for them, but was accustomed, when he went abroad, to make use of soldiers. This evening he had ordered no fewer than twenty, under a tryzatt. Six of these, with two more for torch-bearers, were to carry the girls in a closed litter, arriving at the Lord General's house half an hour before Sencho himself.

Terebinthia, as mindful as any good huntsman or shepherd of her responsibility for her master's property, had ordered the big litter to be set down in the outer lobby of the women's quarters and left there. Once the girls had got into it, she closed and pinned the curtains and then called the soldiers back.

Having reminded them of their orders not to speak to the girls and to take every care to carry them smoothly despite the mud, rain and falling dusk, she accompanied them as far as the gate, where old Jarvil, the porter, was waiting with the torch-bearers.

The distance to Kembri-B'sai's house was about three-quarters of a mile. Nevertheless, the journey lasted half an hour, for as they approached the gates they fell in with any number of other litters, the bearers jostling and pressing forward upon one another in the gathering darkness, all eager to get out of the rain.

"Silly bastards!" said Meris, holding on to a strut of the litter and peering out through a chink in the curtains. "Why isn't there someone to keep all these damn' turds in order and let them in one or two at a time? Look, there's two lots actually come to blows over there! Thank Cran we've got soldiers! That's one consideration for belonging to Sencho, anyway."

" 'Tis awful stuffy, isn't it?" said Maia. " 'Nough to make anyone take on bad. Hope it isn't much further."

"When the barons and the big shearnas start arriving later, their litter-bearers'll all be properly directed," said Meris, "but of course that'd be too much trouble to take over the likes of us. Oh, look! One of those torch-bearers isn't half a fine, big fellow, can you see?"

At this moment the tryzatt, standing outside, apologized to them for the delay and inconvenience, which he was now, he said, going to cut short. Thereupon, raising a cry of "Way for the High Counselor's girls!" he strode ahead of them, the litter following through the surrounding darkness and hubbub. The close air, their own exhaled breath in the confined space, the continual dipping and lurching as the soldiers lost their step in the crowd and the incessant drumming of the rain on the roof were beginning to make Maia turn sick and faint, when suddenly the noise subsided and she saw the glow of lamplight between the curtains. A moment later the litter was put down and she heard the orders of the tryzatt as he collected his men and left.

"Can we get out now?" she asked Meris, her curiosity and eagerness mounting as she realized that they must have arrived.

"Not yet," replied the Belishban girl. "You have to wait till the head steward or the saiyett comes and opens your litter. There'll be someone like Terebinthia, only not such a bitch--well, she couldn't be, could she? It isn't very long, as a rule."

A minute later the curtains were drawn apart by a smiling, fair-haired woman of about thirty-five, dressed in a sky-blue robe fastened with two emerald brooches.

"You must be U-Sencho's girls?" asked this lady, on whose shoulder Maia now saw the cognizance of a chained leopard in gold.

"Yes, saiyett," replied Meris, taking the hand extended to help her out of the litter.

"It's nice to see the High Counselor's doing himself as well as usual," smiled the other, evidently wishing to say something hospitable and pleasant. "Have you been to the Lord General's Rains banquet before?"

"Yes, once; with General Han-Glat, saiyett," said Meris, "before I joined U-Sencho's household."

"Oh, you've been with General Han-Glat?" said she, with a rather knowing smile. " I see. And what about this lass?" she went on, giving her hand to Maia in turn. Then, as Maia stepped out and the lamplight fell on her, "Oh, what a pretty girl! But you're only a child! How old are you?"

"Fifteen, saiyett."

"And of course you haven't been here before, have you?"

"I've only been in Bekla just a short time, saiyett: I don't know a great lot about anything much."

"Oh, you're charming! From Tonilda, aren't you? What's your name?"

"Maia, saiyett. Yes, from Lake Serrelind."

"How nice! Well, I've got a lot to see to, so I can't stay talking any longer now, I'm afraid. Will you both be making your way upstairs?"

"Told you she'd be better than Terebinthia, didn't I?" said Meris, as they picked their way to the foot of the staircase between the litters filling the covered courtyard.

"No one's ever spoke to me like that before," answered Maia. "I mean, 's if I was a young lady. I thought we was

slaves?"

"We are," said Meris, "and I shouldn't forget it if I were you. But we're the High Counselor's bed-slaves. For all she knows we might have influence with him, you see, and she's not taking any chances."

Maia made no further reply, being so much startled by their surroundings that she had scarcely heard what Meris had said. It was not her way to think ahead or try to imagine what a place would be like before she saw it, but she had always had a very lively apprehension of what was before her eyes.

Looking round now, she felt sheer astonishment, mingled with something not unlike fear. Although darkness had fallen, the staircase was brilliant-- brighter than day, or so it seemed to her, for the sources of light were so close. There were innumerable lamps-- more, thought Maia, than she could possibly have seen before in all her days. Some, suspended by silver chains, where hanging in clusters from the high ceiling; others, all the way up the staircase, projected from the wall on copper brackets. At the top of the flight stood two bronze candelabra, fashioned to resemble sestuaga trees with their white spikes of bloom. The blooms were lighted candles-- more than a hundred to each tree--and beside them stood two pretty girls, costumed as leopards in golden silk embroidered with black spots, whose tasks were to tend and replace the candles, welcome guests and--probably most important--simply to look beautiful. One of these, catching Maia's eye, gave her a friendly smile, which made her feel a little less nervous.

The staircase itself was of green-veined marble, with broad, shallow steps and a balustrade made of some gleaming, black wood unknown to Maia, which had been polished with a resinous oil, sharp and fresh to the smell. Putting one hand on this, she felt its glossy smoothness, with never a hint of a splinter, and saw her forearm reflected in a surface dark as a forest pool.

There were any number of girls both above and below them; blonde, fair-skinned Yeldashay; a little group of Ortelgans, talking together in their own tongue; two Belishbans, distinguishable by their accent like Meris's; an arrestingly lovely girl in a robe of pale gray, embroidered with the corn-sheaves of Sarkid; two broad-nosed, plaited-black-haired Deelguy, dressed in characteristically bright-colored style, with necklaces of coins and gold hoops in their ears. All these and many more were climbing the stairs with a kind of leisurely eagerness. Suddenly Maia realized what underlay this poised, controlled yet confident excitement. "Every single one of them's here," she thought, "because she's so out-of-ordinary beautiful that she belongs to a rich man in the upper city; and she knows it." And then, with a kind of incredulous jolt to her thoughts, "And-- I'm one of them!"

The spacious landing on the first story was laid out to represent a glade. The greensward was a carpet of thick pile, varying from level, smooth expanses to slumps and patches three or four inches high, all inter-woven with clusters of flowers; some from the life--primulas, white anemones and purple trails of vetch--others fancifully imagined. Upon this stood bushes and shrubs of bronze and green copper, their flowers and fruit carved from quartz, beryl and many other kinds of semiprecious stones, which sparkled in the lamplight. Among them, here and there, were life-size silver pheasants, quails, partridges and hares, watched from a little distance by a crafty, golden fox and a white marble ermine half concealed in the undergrowth.

Through the midst of this make-believe game-park a path speckled with embroidered daisies led to a pool in which real goldfish were swimming among lilies and scented rushes. The fountain group at its center represented a naked couple, almost life-size. The boy, his head thrown back ecstatically, reclined on his side among the reeds, while the caressive hand of the laughing girl kneeling beside him appeared to be causing the fountain to play in spurting, intermittent jets. Maia, blushing, and equally unable either to gaze naturally at the. fountain or to look away from it, noticed that most of the girls around her hardly spared it a glance.

Passing the pool, she unexpectedly saw that beyond, at the far end of the hall, rose a second staircase. It had never entered Maia's head that any house could consist of more than two stories. Yet so it was.

They were now going to ascend again; and it must be safe, for the stairs were crowded not only with girls but with male slaves in crimson uniform, one on each side all the way up, facing inward and holding silver candelabra. There were no lamps here, so that the candles formed a kind of tunnel of light leading upward through the lofty dimness above and around. Peering through this, Maia could glimpse expanses of painted walls-- beasts and hunters, forests and falling water--all lying in shadowy gloom beyond the slaves' extended arms and the lambent, yellow flames.

At the top of the staircase stood a brazier of charcoal, tended by two more leopard-maids. From time to time one of these threw a pinch of incense on the glowing fuel, so that a thin cloud of scented smoke filled the landing and drifted down towards the girls as they came up. But indeed there was such a confusion of perfumes, both from the girls themselves and from the masses of lilies, jasmine, trepsis, planella and tiare banked about the staircase, that Maia felt quite overcome, and stopped for a moment, leaning on the balustrade. Meris, a step or two above her, looked round impatiently. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing!" answered Maia, laughing. "Just lucky it's my nose and not my eyes; reckon I'd be blinded else!"

Beyond the brazier, she and Meris found themselves in a broad corridor. This was open along its inner side, being flanked only by fluted, gilded columns. Within and a little below these lay the dining-hall itself which, passing through the colonnade and descending two or three shallow steps, they now entered.

After the flamboyance and display below, the hall at once impressed Maia with its calmer, restrained atmosphere; as though here, decoration and the delight of the eye were intended to become adjunct, subordinate to other pleasures. Over eighty feet long--by far the largest room Maia had ever been in--it contained no pictorial or statuary decoration whatever, being beautified almost solely by the quality and variety of its woodwork. The smooth, narrow planks of the floor were a light tan color, waxed and polished, while the long steps by which the girls had descended from the outer corridor were of the same black, gleaming wood as the balustrades on the lower staircase. The colonnade extended along only two sides of the hall, the other two being panelled with five or six kinds of wood differing not only in color but in grain: one resembling concentric ripples and maculate with knots; another brown, regular and close as honeycomb; and yet another very dark, but with a polished surface which, like starlings' wings, revealed its damascene intricacies only when seen in a strong light. All these were contrasted in bold patterns: lightning-like zig-zags of pale against dark; luteous chevrons recessed in bevelled surfaces of chestnut; showers of dark stars minutely inlaid with patterned slips of white bone, so that they seemed to twinkle along the hollow-chamfered cornices. Above the lamps, the transoms spanning the vault were encrusted with fragments of fluorspar fine as gravel, which from the high dusk of the roof returned a faint glitter, like an echo of the light below.

The illumination here was more subdued than that on the staircases, for while there were indeed a great many lamps, all were in baskets of silver filigree, the effect of which was to perforate the light, so that it fell like petals over the tables and couches. Here and there, but particularly round the Lord General's table, this was augmented by foliated candelabra, forming pools of greater luminescence to emphasize the grandeur of the chief dignitaries.

In the center of the hall, within a low, curving marble surround, lay another lily pool--the work of Fleitil.

This had no central fountain, but more than fifty tiny jets, arranged symmetrically over the surface and barely clear of it, kept the water in continual, light movement with a rippling and pattering as of raindrops.

From the bed a copper cylinder, in the form of an erect, swaying serpent, rose through the pool and on up to its outlet in the vault of the roof. This was in fact a flue, for the pool was floored with glass (the lilies being potted), and below it was a chamber in which lamps had been placed

to illuminate the water from below and make it sparkle among the lily-leaves.

Along the shorter wall, three doors led to the kitchens. These had been wedged open, and through them slaves were coming and going, putting their finishing touches to the preparations for the banquet. The long, oak tables and benches were interspersed with couches, for throughout the empire at this time it remained a matter of local custom--or simply of personal choice--whether one ate sitting or reclining, and a particularly prolonged and enjoyable dinner might well begin with the first and conclude with the second. Upon a dais at one end stood the Lord General's table, surrounded with ferns and scented shrubs in leaden troughs. All the tables were scattered with fresh flowers, which two slaves were sprinkling with water. Silver caldrons filled with different kinds of wine stood at the foot of the steps below the shorter colonnade, and a steward was inspecting these and removing any motes or flies which he found before covering them with muslin and placing beside each a bronze dipper and jug.

A great many girls were now entering, and Maia noticed that almost all, as they came through the colonnade and down the steps, made their way towards a tall, grave man wearing a Leopard cognizance on a crimson uniform like that of the slaves on the staircase. This, she guessed, must be the chief steward, for as each girl spoke to him, presumably giving her master's name, he would consult some sort of list or plan which he was holding, before directing her to one or another of the tables.