Maia (Beklan Empire 1)

Nennaunir shook her head and looked serious. "It won't do you any good, Maia--not in the long run it won't-- doing eccentric things like going about on foot in the upper city. I mean that as a friend. You've got a position to keep up, my lass. You can't just take it into your head to go strolling up the Trepsis Avenue in the twilight, loaded with diamonds. People may even start thinking you're a human being. Get in here with me, come on."

Meekly Maia obeyed, settling herself comfortably beside Nennaunir as the man went on. The shearna seemed drenched in kepris--in the confined space of the jekzha it was quite overpowering--and this reminded Maia that she herself had forgotten to put on any scent. Never mind, she thought. There's sure to be some flowers; I can always pick up a jasmine wreath or something.

"I called round for you, as a matter of fact," said Nennaunir, "and Ogma told me what you'd done, so I was looking out for you. That girl, by the way," she went on after a few moments, "I don't think she's quite what you need, Maia, to be honest. Please don't take this the wrong way, but a girl as young as you are needs someone sharper and--well, knowledgeable about people and affairs and what's going on. It's a great pity you couldn't have kept that woman Terebinthia to look after you. I'm sure she'd have been delighted, if only it had been put to her."

"Shemight have been, but I shouldn't."

"Why, was she a bitch?"

"Hard as nails and mean with it. The house-slaves all hated her; always sniffing about. I used to feel she was like water round a boat: you always had to be taking care to keep her outside, kind of. Oh, no, Nan, I couldn't never have done with her--not after I'd had to obey her at Sencho's and do what she told me. Surely you can see that?"

"Well, p'raps. But all the same, Maia, just you and that poor little club-footed ninny together in that house--I'm not happy about it. Oh, I'm sure she's first-rate in the market; and she cooks a nice meal, I don't say she doesn't. But the upper city's a tricky place, and she's not at all the right sort to be personal slave to a young and inexperienced girl shot up into a big public position. I warned you only the other day: there's all kinds of unscrupulous people who'd like to make use of you; to say nothing of possible enemies. You ought to get yourself someone older and shrewder, someone who can see what's what and keep you straight. I wish I had, years ago; I'll tell you that."

"I'll think about it, Nan: really I will." Maia, like most of us when some more experienced friend criticizes arrangements which we had thought suitable enough but now begin to have sneaking doubts about, felt resentful, but had no wish to fall out with a good friend like Nennaunir.

"For instance," went on Nennaunir, turning her sleek, shining head and looking Maia over appraisingly, "Terebinthia would never have let you go to a barrarz dressed like that. Whose idea was that--yours or Ogma's?"

"Mine. Whatever's wrong with it? I wore this at Sarget's party in the Barons' Palace and--"

"I know, darling. I was there--remember? But it's not right for a barrarz."

"What is a barrarz? Elvair was on saying that--'a barrarz'"

Nennaunir silently drove one fist twice into the other palm, like a girl tried close to the point of outburst.

"So Ogma didn't know about a barrarz? Honestly--"

"Don't be cross, Nan: just tell me. There's a first time for everything, you know."

"First time?" replied the shearna. "I'm worried about you, that's all. There can be situations where a girl only has to be wrong once, you know."

"But is a barrarz one of them?"

Nennaunir burst into soft, happy laughter.

"No, fortunately not. Of course you'll do very well as you are, Maia dear. I didn't mean to be a cat, truly. You're very lucky--you'll always look marvelous; for quite a few years, anyway. I heard you met King Karnat dressed in nothing but your shift and a bunch of golden lilies. Is that true?"

Maia stared. "How on earth did you know that? I never told a soul!"

"Oh, news travels, dear; news travels." Then, before Maia could question her further, she went on, "Anyway, a barrarz: Cran help me, I should know! I've been to enough of them. It's the custom in Bekla--and elsewhere, for that matter--the night before soldiers are leaving on active service, for the commander to give a party for his officers--and some of the tryzatts too, sometimes. Well, it's apt to become a pretty rowdy affair, as you can imagine. They boast and shout and sing and drink themselves silly and naturally they generally get to basting the girls as well. The thing is, they're usually in a mood to be pretty open-handed--you know, ready to spend what they've got be-fore they go. Many a good lygol I've had at a barrarz, though I admit I generally earned it right enough. I lost my virginity at a barrarz, actually--the one Kembri and Han-Glat gave in Dari-Paltesh before they marched on Bekla seven years ago."

"So how do you dress for a barrarz, then?"

"Like a soldier's doxy, dear. At an upper city barrarz as classy as this one's going to be, it's fancy dress, really; but my job's to amuse people, after all."

Leaning back in the jekzha, she opened the azure cloak.

The flimsy, pale-green robe she was wearing beneath it was not only transparent, but in some curious way seemed less to cover than to display and intensify the smooth white-ness of her body. Crowning each of her breasts was a slightly convex silver figure, about two inches high, representing a laughing cherub. At their groins the craftsman had left holes in the silver, and through these Nennaunir had drawn her nipples. At her waist, beneath and not outside the robe, was a silver girdle, its clasp fashioned in the likeness of a naked nymph leaning backwards, half-reclining on her elbows. The aperture between her lustrous, updrawn thighs was superimposed lipon Nennaunir's navel.

"Clever workmanship, isn't it?" said the shearna, drawing Maia's forefinger down to feel the smooth, weighty quality of the silver.

"But will all the girls be got up this kind of style?" asked Maia.

"Oh, no, I shouldn't think so," replied Nennaunir. "I just thought it'd be fun to wear these tonight: I got them in Ikat about two years ago. But here I've been chattering away and giving you all sorts of bad advice, and I nearly forgot what I really wanted to talk about--why I came round for you. Listen--this is terribly important. I believe a real chance has come up to get Sednil out of the temple; that is, for you to, if only you'll give it a try. Will you, dearest Maia? It would mean everything to me, and I'll always do you a good turn if ever I can."

"Meget him out?" said Maia. "How?"

Nennaunir paused for a few moments, gazing across the road at a wide, sloping bank of scented tigris, over which the moths were darting and hovering like tiny humming-birds. At length she said, "You told me you once spent the night with Randronoth, when you were still at Sen-cho's."

"Yes, I did," said Maia. "What about it?"

"Tell me, how did you get on with him?"

"Well, I don't just rightly know how to answer that," said Maia. "He didn't half enjoy himself, and he said as much, both to me and to old Sencho; but then men like that generally do enjoy their selves, don't they, whether you do or not? I mean, they don't bother much about any give-an'-take. Far as I was concerned, it was all just part of what we had to do, like."