The stars were clear, yet Maia, in the solitude, was suddenly overcome by foreboding and dread. Not far away shone the lamps of other houses; the houses of the wealthy, the powerful--yes, and the cunning and ruthless. There came back to her the memory of how once, when she was a little girl delirious with fever, she had lain and watched the walls of the hut ripple, melt and dissolve into smiles-- expanses of horrible, silent smiles, merging and reopening until she could bear it no longer and started up in screaming terror. "The heroine of the empire" Durakkon had called her, himself placing round her neck those diamonds, worth more than all the money her father and mother had ever made in their lives. And the retinue of courtiers and officers attending him--oh, how they had smiled and smiled!
Zenka, she thought; Zenka who had made her laugh with delight like a child at a fair, who had taken her with him--the only man who ever had--into a world of joyous, mutual understanding, his love-making the natural expression of his feeling, his delight in her company and his longing to please and protect her.
What would she not give to have him standing beside her now and to feel his arm round her waist? O Lespa! she thought, if only I knew Occula was safe, I'd set out barefoot for the Valderra tomorrow and find him, wherever he is. And Nasada--if only I could just find that good old, straight-talking Na-sada, he'd know what to do! Ah, to have to go all the way to the Suban marshes to find a man you can trust to tell you the truth!
She heard the sound of a cough, and turned quickly to recognize the bulky outline of the slave-dealer in the dark.
"U-Lalloc?"
"Oh, yoss, little saiyett, you think I'm not comming? No, I wouldn't let onnything going wrong, you don't hov to worry!"
His voice held a kind of jocular, conspiratorial familiarity which she found unpleasant. This was the kind of company, she thought bitterly, which she was now compelled to seek, simply to gain the innocent end of finding her Occula. She wondered how often he arranged clandestine matters of one kind or another in return for money. What grimy tunnel was this along which she was being obliged to creep towards her friend; and to what extent had she put herself in this man's power? Well, either I'll soon have an old head on young shoulders, she thought, or else no head at all.
She still had little idea whereabouts, among the lawns and gardens of the upper city, the Sacred Queen's house might lie. She had last come to it in a state of sleepless exhaustion, and when leaving next day had been in no mood to look about her. She was surprised, therefore, after they had been walking for what seemed less than a quarter of an hour--during which they had met very few passers-by--when the slave-dealer, stopping at the corner of a walled lane, turned to her.
"You put this cloak on now--pull up the hood, yoss, thot's right. You're a girl I'm bringing to soil--no one to see, I'm saying only Zuno ask I bring you for the queen, all right? Then later you're not there, the rest jost think you don't suit, thot's it."
After a minute or two, as she walked on beside him up the lane, he suddenly said, "Genshed; this man in Puhra; he treat you bad?"
Maia stiffened. To her the night when she had cowered from Genshed's knife, to be rescued by Occula in the nick of time, was like something from a vanished world--a world which, thankfully, she would never know again. She had no least wish to make Lalloc a confidant of that mem-ory.
The slave-dealer, however, apparently had his own reasons for persisting. "Occula say he treat you bad. She toll Zuno now she's good friends with the queen, she's gotting him killed."
"So she is alive? She's alive? U-Lalloc, Occula's alive? That's what you're saying? She's alive?"
"Well, you toll her I sond Genshed away. I don't like what he did to you, it's right against all the rules. Still, I don't like he's killed, because thot maybe makes it harder gotting other men for the work, you know? But you toll her he's gone all right: he's gone so he don't be gotting killed."
She plucked his sleeve. "So she is alive?"
But now they were coming under an arch at the far end of the lane, into a courtyard surrounded by doorways and lit by three or four smoky torches stuck in brackets round the walls. A rotten-sweet smell of garbage, pebbly cobbles underfoot, a distant clatter of dishes, a puff of steam from an open window, a woman's sudden, impatient cry broken short. Yes, this must be their destination all right; the back-quarters of a wealthy house; and little enough it seemed to have in common with the palace to which Ashaktis had brought her that morning in early spring.
Lalloc stopped again. "Now; you jost simple country girl. You don't know onnything what's hoppening.You put the hood found your face, look down at the ground, thot's right."
He went over to one of the doors and knocked. She followed, eyes on the ground. The grinding of a key in the lock, the rattle of a bolt. "You toll Zuno I come like he's saying. Confidential business."
Still looking down, she let herself be led through the door, up three or four steps and into a small, stone-floored room smelling of oil, corn and sacking. They waited in silence, and she could once more hear from a distance the sounds of the kitchen and scullery. Then the door opened and Zuno's voice said, "U-Lalloc! A most pleasant--ah-- surprise. I don't remember that we had any arrangement tonight, but if I can be of any help to you, sir--"
Overcome by a sudden determination to get on with it and be damned, Maia flung back the hood and raised her head to face Zuno. Elegant as ever, not a hair out of place, his livery gleaming in the lamplight, he looked at her blankly for a moment before his eyes widened with surprise.
"Maia!"
She lost no time. "Zuno, I've come to see Occula. I've come because she's my dearest friend and for no other reason at all. Will you help me?"
She had expected him to prevaricate, to demur, perhaps to need bribing, but to her surprise he showed no least hesitation.
"What you're asking is dangerous, not only for you and Occula but for me too. But I will do it. Fortunately the queen is at Lord Durakkon's tonight. Half an hour, saiyett, and no more, you understand? Come with me."
Hooded once more, she followed him through the door, up a flight of stairs, along a corridor, up another flight. Suddenly she knew where they were. This was the upper gallery where she had walked with Form's, had taken her in her arms and kissed her. And this--ah, this was the door of the very room in which she had woken and whence Ashaktis had taken her to the bath.
They entered. The room was unchanged, quiet and luxurious, its spacious length dim in the lamplight. A moth which had flown into one of the lamps lay struggling and crawling on the floor.
Occula, dressed in a long, dark-red robe embroidered with gold flowers, was lying on the bed. Her eyes were closed, their silvered lids, which matched the lacquer on her finger-and toe-nails, glittering faintly in the soft light. As Zuno tapped gently on the tiles with his staff she opened her eyes, sat up quickly and looked round at them.
"Banzi!"
Falling on her knees beside the bed, Maia flung her arms round Occula and pressed her face against her shoulder. For long moments she was aware only of Occula's flesh against her cheek; the singular, just-perceptibly granular quality, as of some fine fabric; the remembered smell, sharp and light, like clean coal. As though she were an infant or an animal, these sensations filled her entirely, mindlessly; self-sufficient, comforting and reassuring. Occula, too, was clearly beyond speaking, only rocking her gently to and fro and uttering soft, wordless murmurs of endearment. When at length they released each other, Zuno had gone and the door was closed.
"Is he--he won't--you trust him?" faltered Maia, her fear and anxiety returning once more, inescapable as flies.
Occula only nodded abstractedly, holding her at arm's length by the shoulders and looking at her as though hardly believing in her real presence. Then, with a quick smile, she said "Doan" worry, he's a better lad than you might suppose, banzi. We hold each other up. Oh, Kantza-Mer-ada be thanked for the sight of you! I tried to send you a message--oh, weeks ago. Did you ever get it?"
Maia shook her
head.
"Bastards!" said Occula. "Anyway, you're here now. Come on, take that cloak off; lie down and make yourself comfortable. Cran and Airtha, look at your thigh! What was that? The Valderra?"
"Ah."
"Tell me everythin': I've only heard what they've all been sayin'. I doan' even know how you got into Suba. I suppose Kembri fixed it somehow, did he? But then how the hell did you--"
Maia interrupted her. "No, no, all that'll have to wait, darling. There's so little time. You don't have to worry about me: I'm the one as has to worry 'bout you. Are you safe here, Occula? Only I know I'm the one as got you here: I spoke to the queen, see, 'cos I knew I had to get you out of the temple somehow. Only I've been wondering ever since--"
She stopped, for Occula was staring at her open-mouthed.
"So it was you, banzi! You did it! The rotten bitch, why didn' she ever tell me! And why to Cran didn' I ever think of it for myself? Oh, my precious banzi--"
Only once or twice before had Maia seen her so much softened, so stripped by emotion of her normal air of tough self-possession.
"But how did you get the chance, banzi! Who did you speak to?"
Maia told her of her first sight of Fornis on the night of the murder, of the queen's caprice which had briefly taken her out of Kembri's hands, and of what had followed.
"So you didn' fancy it?" asked the black girl, when she had finished.
"No, I didn't," answered Maia. "Nor I couldn't do it, neither--what she wanted. She soon enough got that all right."