Maia (Beklan Empire 1)

Now she felt afraid to have spoken out sharply. His bad opinion might well do her harm. "I'm sorry, my lord: I didn't mean to speak out of turn. Yes, I've very much enjoyed meeting you and Lord Eud-Ecachlon, and so has my friend, I'm sure."

"Your friend? Oh, the black girl--where is she?"

"With Lord Eud-Ecachlon."

He threw back his head for a moment, expelling his breath with a sound suggestive of contempt.

"For money, I suppose."

"Well, yes, he'll give her a lygol, my lord, I expect, don't you? It's the custom, after all."

"Oh, naturally! Everything in Bekla's to be bought and sold, isn't it? After all, they paid Durakkon to murder Senda-na-Say, didn't they? And Karnat's price was Suba."

Maia looked quickly over her shoulder. " T'ain't rightly for me to say it, my lord, but p'raps you ought to be more careful, just. I wouldn't want you to speak out of turn and end up in trouble."

"You're right, of course, Maia. Foolish to let one's tongue run away to no purpose except the relief of feelings better suppressed. Well, and so they brought you up from Serrelind to Bekla to learn a trade. Are you learning it?"

His sarcasm was plain. She bit her lip.

"What else can I do, my lord? What's the good o' talking to me like that?"

"None, I dare say. But I'm one person who's not going to advance your education. You'll get no lygol out of me."

She blushed with anger, wondering how far a slave-girl could safely go in retorting to such an insult.

Suddenly he stopped in his pacing and turned to face her. "Would you like to see me again?"

He seemed to be expecting a serious answer. She could not tell what to make of it and, confused, could find no reply. After a few moments she sat down on a bench against the wall. He made no move to join her, merely leaning against a pillar and looking unsmilingly down at her as he waited for his answer.

This extraordinary man, she thought, had just spoken to her with contempt and decisively rejected her.

And now, in the next breath, he was apparently asking to see her again.

Inexplicable--and infuriating--he might be; but one thing she realized immediately. However badly the evening had gone for her and however galling his behavior, he had now--whatever the reason--made it possible for her after all to tell Elvair-ka-Virrion that she had not altogether failed. In the light of this, her feelings of personal dislike for him mattered nothing.

She stood up, smiling. "Yes, very much, my lord: I'll look forward to it."

"Where shall I find you, then?"

"At the High Counselor's."

He stared at her as though taken by surprise and utterly disgusted. "You belong to him?"

"Yes, my lord: I thought you knew."

He shook his head without a word.

"The truth is, my lord, the High Counselor often leaves such matters to our saiyett. I think perhaps you might be able to come to an arrangement with her without troubling him."

"I dare say," replied Bayub-Otal. "But he knows too much. He's a man everyone fears. Anyway, here's your friend's two hundred meld."

"Why, you can give it to her yourself, my lord," said Maia. "Here she comes, look, and Lord Eud-Ecachlon with her."

Occula, scarlet-plumed, and Eud-Ecachlon--plucked, one might say--came down the corridor together, arms round each other's waists. It was clear that Eud-Ecachlon was feeling contented. He greeted Bayub-Otal with a smile and at once fell to praising Occula in a manner implying that he too had acquitted himself in no mean fashion. Occula, having allowed him to run on for a time and corroborated him whenever he seemed to be expecting it, at length put her lips to his cheek and asked whether he would now be so good as to escort her friend and herself to the lower courtyard, where a jekzha--so she believed--was awaiting them; and then return to convey thanks and farewells on their behalf to Lord Elvair-ka-Virrion.

"For the truth is, my lord," she explained, "that after what you've given me I shan't want any more for a week, and I'd rather not be put to the embarrassment of refusing anyone else."

Eud-Ecachlon, smirking with satisfaction, gave her a purse containing her lygol and readily undertook to do as she asked; and forthwith Occula, having sought out and paid the drummer and relieved Bayub-Otal of both her two hundred meld and Maia, made their departure.

Once in the jekzha, however, she drew down the rain-curtain and leant back, fanning the humid air and gripping Maia's hand like a child seeking comfort in the dark.

"I'm nackered, banzi! Tell you the truth, it was as much as I could do to give that Urtan dolt what he wanted. Never mind: we've got his lygol and two hundred meld on top. I shan' say anythin' to Terebinthia about that: she'll never find out. You didn't tell anyone, did you?"

"No, darling; there's no one but us and the Urtans knows anything about it."

"I saw you talkin' to Bayub-Otal, but I couldn' for the life of me make out whether you'd done anythin' or not. How did you get on?"

"Well, tell you the truth, Occula, I'm blest if I know."

And therewith Maia proceeded to tell of Bayub-Otal's odd behavior.

"Well, that is a rum go!" said the black girl. "Didn' want to do anythin' an' then asks whether you'd like to see him again? They certainly do come all sorts, doan' they, banzi? Only thing I can think of, he didn' feel like it tonight but reckoned he might some other time."

"Oh, I do just about hope so! Only you see, Occula, Elvair-ka-Virrion told me tonight--I was sent upstairs to him as soon as we arrived, you know--"

"Were you, banzi? Cran's zard, I wondered where you'd got to! Was it a success?"

"Oh, yes! He enjoyed it, and so did I. I reckon he's nice! But then he told me--you know, afterwards--that I was to go and join the Urtans and make Bayub-Otal like me and want to see me again."

Occula whistled. "So that's what it's all about! They've got their suspicions about Bayub-Otal, have they? And they're hopin' he may let some cat out of the bag to you?"

"But if they want information so badly, why can't they get it from Sencho? I thought he was supposed to know about everyone all over the empire?"

"I doan' know, banzi, but if you ask me, it's like I told you--Kembri doesn' trust him anymore. So Elvair-ka-Virrion gav

e you a good bastin' and then went on straight away to tell you to get Bayub-Otal into bed? I reckon that was a dirty trick, even if we are slave-girls. He might have wrapped it up a bit nicer than that."

"No, Occula, that's just it. He told me I wasn't to let Bayub-Otal have anything, not on any account. I was to refuse him, but try to make him want to see me again."

"And you say he means to?"

"Well, I don't rightly know. When I told him we belonged to Sencho, you could see he didn't like that at all. It seemed to sort of change his mind, like."

"Well, at that rate we can only wait and see," said Occula. "But I shouldn' break your heart if nothin' comes of it. You'd be best out of this Urtan lark, I reckon. Plenty of people'll soon be interested in you without the risk of that--whatever it may be."

"But Occula, listen! Those young Leopards I was talking to while you were with Eud-Ecachlon--there wasn't one of them particularly interested in me. It was you they were all asking about."

"Ah, but then they'd all just had a bit of yum-yum, hadn' they? If we were still there now, you wouldn' have to wait long." Occula paused. "Yes, well, I daresay my act may have got them interested. It was meant to. We must think up somethin' for you, too, banzi. You see, however pretty a girl is, for the upper city she really needs more than just looks: she needs somethin' to make them think she's out of the ordinary. These Leopards help themselves to the cream and leave the milk for the lower city. Up here, just pretty girls are ten meld a dozen. Look at Meris--she was pretty enough. But you just compare her with Nennaunir. D'you know what Nennaunir's like? She's like a story people want to hear again and again-- because they keep findin' new things in it. She's a clever girl, too: Terebinthia told me about some big Leopard she was with who asked her to advise him about his money, and apparently she did it so well that he made a fortune and gave her a bastin' great lump of it to keep for herself."

"Can't see me ever doing anything like that," said Maia.

"Nor me neither. But I can make people see knives that aren' there: well, sometimes, anyway--you know, when they've all had a few drinks. But we've got to find somethin' distinctive for you. Well, of course! We'll make you a dancer!"