She was silent for a time, but then suddenly burst out "Fornis! Oh, Cran, she really frightens me! I'm lucky to be here myself; did you know that?"
"No, I never," said Maia. "How could I?"
"Well, I just wondered whether Sednil might have told you anything: about how he came to be doing five years as a branded man, I mean. Poor lad, he's doing it for me, that's the plain truth. But what could I do? I had no choice, else I'd be dead."
"How ever was that, then?" asked Maia.
"It was all along of that Randronoth, the governor of Lapan," said Nennaunir. "He's well-known to have a fancy for very young girls: did you know?"
Maia laughed. "I ought to: I had to spend the night with him once, when he was staying at Sencho's. Sencho offered him his choice and I was the one he picked. He didn't half have a go at me an' all!"
"Ah, yes: Randronoth wouldn't miss the chance of a girl like you. Well, then, you may perhaps know as well, do you, that the Leopards have had their doubts about him for some time? He's not entirely trusted, only they've never been able to prove anything. He really only held on to his governorship this last year or so by keeping in with Sencho. What'll happen to him now is anybody's guess.
"But I was going to tell you about Queen Fornis and Sednil, wasn't I? It happened more than two years ago, when I was still living in the lower city. I'd had a lover for some time before--an officer--but he'd been killed in bat-tle, and after that I had quite a struggle for a bit. For some reason no one rich or powerful seemed to fancy me. In fact I was seriously thinking of selling myself to Lalloc, if only he'd promise to place me in some wealthy household up here. And it was during that bad time that I took up with Sednil. He's a Palteshi, you know, like me, and we'd first met in Fornis's army, when we were just banzis. He was working for a jewel-merchant in the lower city, but he used to make a bit extra by--well, by helping to get people interested in me--traders coming up to Bekla and so on. We lived together. Sednil was always very good about money; almost too good, really. He'd take money direct from men for introducing them to me--he regarded that as payment for work he'd done himself, you see--but he'd never take a meld of mine. He was terribly proud that way; he used to say he'd rather starve. Still, there was no danger of that, because what with the jewel-merchant and the tips from my visitors he was doing reasonably well.
"He was a lot of comfort in those days, was Sednil, and he was no fool. Saw things straight, you know, and often gave me good advice."
"Ah, he gave me some, too," replied Maia. "What you'd call down-to-earth."
Nennaunir nodded. "Well, one time Randronoth had come up from Lapan to see Fornis and the Leopards on state business, and the next evening he was drinking with some of his own men down in 'The Serpent.' He's always been very free-and-easy among his own men, has Randronoth. And it was while he was there that Sednil fell in with him and managed to get him interested in me. Of course I fairly jumped at it; it was much the best opportunity I'd ever had in my life. Well, you know how it is, don't you? Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This did: I gave him a simply marvelous time; he really wondered which way the moon was going round. Actually, that was when I turned the corner, because later, when I'd got too old to suit his taste, he recommended me to several people in the upper city. But that isn't what I was going to tell you, That night, when he was feeling really contented and satisfied--and still a bit tipsy, too--he gave me a huge great ring he had--for a present, you know. I tried to refuse it, because I was afraid he'd only regret it later and that'd cost me more than the ring could possibly be worth; but he was very insistent and in the end I decided the easiest thing would be to take it.
"It wasn't a girl's ring at all: only a man could possibly have worn it. It was made like a coiled silver dragon with a great ruby in its mouth half as big as your little fingernail. So I thought, "Well, if ever he asks for it back he can have it--always the honest shearna, that's me--and if he doesn't, I'll hang on to it for a year or so and then sell it. So next morning, off he goes as happy as a stag in autumn and I slept for the rest of the day. I'd left the ring lying on my dressing-table.
"Well, early that afternoon Master Sednil came in--he had a key, of course--and the first thing he saw was the ring. He'd never have taken it to sell--not without asking me--but it struck him as absolutely marvelous, and he couldn't resist putting it on and wearing it when he went back to the jewel-merchant's a bit later. He was going to show it off to him, you see. I never woke up until after he'd gone, and even then I didn't miss the ring. I had no idea at all what he'd done.
"Well, he was crossing the Caravan Market when as luck would have it he ran right into that woman of Queen Fomis's--you know, Ashaktis. Apparently the ring--and no one could possibly have mistaken it for any other--had originally been given to Randronoth by Fornis herself; and Ashaktis recognized it. And before Sednil knew what was happening she'd called two of the market officers--they all knew her, of course--and had him arrested and dragged up in front of Fornis.
"Fornis never even asked him what he had to say for himself. She just sent for Randronoth and asked him. Well, naturally, he wasn't going to say he'd given away the Sacred Queen's present to a shearna in the lower city. He said he'd lost it: must have dropped it in the street.
"Sednil was frightened to death, of course. He simply told the queen the truth about where he'd found the ring and asked for me as a witness. But meanwhile Randronoth had got to me first, and I won't tell you how much he gave me to swear I knew nothing whatever about it. I took it, and I've never looked back. But before you think too badly of me, Maia, let me tell you I wouldn't have kept quiet if the Sacred Queen had sentenced Sednil to hang, or to the Gelt mines. I thought he might even be let off altogether--after all, Randronoth hadrgot the ring back--but Fornis was cruel as a cat. You could see she was enjoying it. She had him branded in the hand then and there, and she stayed herself to watch it done; and then she gave him five years' forced service--more than any city magistrate would have given him. And from that day to this I've been doing everything I can, not just to make it easier for him, but to get him set free. Only I daren't try too hard. Fornis-- oh, believe me, no girl's safe who risks displeasing Fornis! There've been several girls she's taken a dislike to who've simply vanished. That's why I'm saying, Maia, for Cran's sake be careful!"
"Nan," broke in Maia, "tell me, where's Occula?"
"Occula?" answered Nennaunir. "They took her to the temple for questioning--oh, weeks ago now. That's all I know. She may be dead. But if she is dead, she certainly wasn't publicly executed. Either she's still alive in the tem-ple, or else they killed her there."
"No," said Maia. "No, Nan. I can't tell you how I know-- I daren't--but I know for a fact that she was sent for out of the temple by the Sacred Queen."
"Then all I can say is, Cran and Airtha help her!" replied Nennaunir.
Maia began to cry.
55: "WHERE IS OCCULA?"
"I haven't been able to find out anything at all, miss," said Ogma.
It was three days later. Maia, during the night after Nennaunir's visit, had lain awake for several hours, fretting over Occula. Might she perhaps already have died in the hands of the temple authorities, before Ashaktis had brought the queen's message to the chief priest? That would account for no one having seen her or heard anything of her. It seemed more probable, though, that she had been sent to the queen: and if so, then either she was still with her, or else the queen, finding her not to her liking, had dismissed her as she had dismissed Maia. Either that, or else the queen had--what had been her own phrase? "got rid of her".
Maia forced herself to look at the matter calmly. She knew intuitively that she could not go to Fornis and inquire what had become of Occula. This--especially in the light of the warnings she had had from Sessendris and Nennaunir--would be not only useless but dangerous. Besides, Fornis herself had assured her that if ever she were to disclose one word of what had passed between them, she should hang. The idea of alluding to
it, even obliquely and in private, to this ruthless, cruel woman--and in the dark there rose before her inward sight the mane of glowing, red hair and the dominating, ice-green eyes--frightened her very much: for though Maia knew that she had all Bekla at her feet, she also knew very well that she lacked sophistication and experience, and was not at all sure how far she could safely go in asserting herself. She had been strongly advised to avoid doing anything likely to bring herself to the queen's notice; and with this advice all her own instincts accorded.
Occula, of course, had had many admirers among the young Leopards. Before the murder of the High Counselor she had been--with Terebinthia's connivance--much in demand. But (and this again was Maia's instinctive guess) since the murder and her arrest and disappearance, things had changed. Neither Shend-Lador and his friends, when they had come to see her, nor Sarget, had made any reference to Occula, though none of them could possibly have forgotten that she and Maia had been together in Sencho's household The plain inference was that it was no longer felt to be entirely wise to recall Occula or show any interest in her. Wryly, Maia remembered one of Occula's own favorite maxims. "Never get ill, banzi, and never get into trouble: before you know where you are the water's up to your venda and the bastards are all runnin' like rats."
Besides, if--as she surely would--the queen were to learn that she had been inquiring about Occula in the upper city, notwithstanding that she knew very well whither she had last been summoned, this would be as ill-received and therefore as risky as knocking on the queen's front door.
Early next morning she had taken the only practicable step she could think of. Calling Ogma in before the time at which she herself was usually woken, she took her into her confidence, omitting mention only of her own relationship with the queen. She told her of her anxiety for Occula's life, of her virtual certainty that Form's had taken her from the temple to her own house; of the warnings she had received to keep herself out of the queen's eye; and of the consequent impossibility of pursuing inquiries on her own account.
"Ogma, dear, do you think you could try to find out something? I mean, do you know any of the queen's servants, or perhaps someone who does?"
"No, that I don't, miss, I'm afraid. I was hardly ever out of the High Counselor's house, you see, and in those days I never went into the lower city. That's why it makes all the difference bein' here with you, only now I--"
"Where's Terebinthia, do you know?" interrupted Maia.
"Oh, she cut and run, miss. Didn't you know? Lord Elvair-ka-Virrion helped her to get out of Bekla quick-- he'd paid her a lot, you see, for letting him take Miss Milvushina away with him before she could be sent down to the temple with the rest of us. Yes, the temple people were too late to catch the saiyett. When they asked about her, she'd already gone. I seem to remember she said something about she meant to go south--down Belishba way: that's where she came from, you know. They still want her for letting Miss Milvushina go, only they don't know where she is. Ah, well, but Terebinthia, she was always that artful, wasn't she, miss?"
Nicely set up with all our lygols, thought Maia, letting Ogma run on for a while. And she's one person who probably could have helped me--specially if I'd made it worth her while. She'd have known some girl in Fornis's households--or if she hadn't, she could probably have found me one without exciting suspicion. But Ogma? Looking at the ill-favored, half-crippled girl, not particularly intelligent, clean or tidy; one of the countless army of decent, stupid drudges content to look to their betters for a little security in return for scrubbing the world's floors all their lives, she realized the total impracticability of sending her off to make a friend among Fornis's servants and then discreetly ask about Occula. The very idea was absurd. She tried to imagine Ogma going about to delude Ashaktis. It recalled to her one of old Drigga's most hilarious and delightful stories, in which the ox, while intending to deceive the monkey, unwittingly reveals to that perspicacious animal everything which he supposes he is keeping cleverly concealed.
"Something amuse you, miss?" asked Ogma, with an air of resentment against she could not tell what.
Like most people of her sort, the notion that others might be laughing at her was never very far from poor Ogma's mind.
"Oh, I was only just thinking of old Terebinthia," replied Maia. "That time when the High Counselor told her to--" and hurriedly invented the rest of the episode, to the delight of Ogma, who naturally, had hated the saiyett-- a domestic tyrant if ever there was one.
"Well, Ogma, dear, when you're out shopping, just ask around the market and so on, as if you were gossiping about the murder, but don't let on to anyone as it was me was wanted you to, d'you see? I know you were nearly as fond of Occula as what I was, and you must want to find out what's happened to her as much as I do. But just make it look like natural curiosity--don't go trying to get hold of anyone in the queen's house or anything o' that. Only we could both land up in trouble then."
Perhaps these last words of hers had frightened poor Ogma a little too effectively, thought Maia now, listening to the total blank which was all she had to report after three days among the shops and stalls.
She might not have been trying particularly hard. Yet the more sinister explanation would not leave Maia's mind: that Occula might have died weeks ago, her body disposed of in some way no doubt well-established between Fornis and Ashaktis, her name no longer spoken, any mark she had made on Bekla obliterated--another item from the High Counselor's liquidated household.
"I haven't been able to find out anything at all." And there was something about the way Ogma spoke which seemed to Maia to carry the meaning "And don't ask me to try any more." Yes, for sure she'd frightened her too much with her talk of the queen; but no more than she'd frightened herself. Fair's fair, she thought; I can't blame her.
But I'll be damned if I'll give it up myself. My Occula! My darling Occula, who saved me from that bastard Genshed and gave me back something to live for, and taught me all I've learned and even took care to send me out of the way before Sencho was killed, although she was half-crazy with fear on her own account! Occula, the only one who ever really loved me; except for--oh, how I wish I could tell her about Zenka! If she's alive, does she know--has she heard--about me? She can't not have. Then why hasn't she tried to send me some message? And thus once again the all-too-likely explanation returned upon poor Maia.
"Ogma, will you tell Jarvil, please, to ask for my soldiers to come this afternoon, as soon as it begins to get cool? I'm going to the temple to see the chief priest, tell them."
Maia took this committal decision as unreflectingly as she had plunged into the Valderra. It was like mucking out the cows: the thing had got to be done and that was all there was to it. The thought that she could still desist, and the implication of what she was going to do--these notions crossed her mind only momentarily, to be brushed aside. How closely Fornis might be in the chief priest's confidence was something that it hardly occurred to her to consider, just as on the river bank she had given herself no time to think.
Having arrived at the temple precinct and been deferentially handed down from her jekzha by Brero, one of her soldiers, she climbed the broad steps to the portico watched by a small crowd, some of whom had followed her from the Caravan Market. The Tamarrik water-clock was just upon four hours after noon and even as she alighted, the purple-lacquered kynat released its silver ball to roll down the spiral and be caught in his cup by the divine child. Once she would have stopped to watch. Nowadays her public status required an air of more detachment and composure. Without turning her head, she passed between the two center columns and, as the acolyte seated at the bronze doors rose and bowed, gave him her most gracious smile (he was no eunuch, she sensed) and asked to see the chief priest.
Nothing could have been more courteous than her reception. A senior priest escorted her up a staircase to a pleasant, cool room on the south side of the temple, sent a slave for serrardoes, thrilsa and Yeldashay, and sat down to converse with her un
til the chief priest should appear. Maia, who not unnaturally felt herself to have gained a good deal in poise and self-confidence since the days of Sencho, replied to him with what she hoped was restraint and assurance about her own health, the waterways of Suba, the iniquities of the Chalcon rebels and the certainty of their early defeat by Elvair-ka-Virrion. At length the bead curtains at the doorway clashed lightly (reminding her on the instant of Terebinthia: she nearly found herself springing to her feet) and the chief priest entered, followed by an attendant, who remained standing by the door. The other priest bowed and left them.
Apart from Durakkon, this was Maia's first encounter, since her return, with any leading representative of the Leopard regime. There was no least trace of hostility, but nevertheless she began almost at once to sense that certain atmosphere of which Nennaunir had warned her. Last year she had been just a little girl for the basting, no one's enemy, a nobody whom there was no reason to harm. Now, the chief priest--who had last seen her trembling, dishevelled and filthy from days of imprisonment--was plainly wondering, behind his careful air of being honored by a visit from the city's beautiful heroine, what she wanted from him and what her real purpose might be. Quite early on in the conversation he contrived to stress the salutary and beneficial detachment of the temple from imperial politics and the value to the city of a priestly order of integrity which served Cran first and the secular rulers second. Maia could not help wondering whether, if he really supposed that she had wanted to sound out his view about herself as a possible successor to the Sacred Queen, she would have been quite such a fool as to come and do it face-to-face in a formal interview of this kind.
"My Guardian," she said, using the correct and formal style of address to the chief priest by ordinary citizens, "it's only a small matter I've come to ask you about. You'll no doubt remember the black girl, Occula, who was brought here the day before I came myself to be--er--prepared for my journey to Suba. You know, I expect, that she and I were close friends: we were in the High Counselor's household together. Now that I've recovered my health, naturally I want to take up with my friends again. May I ask you whether Occula's still here in the temple, and if not, where she is?"