Maia (18 page)

again, and she looked down and there was another bloom on her foot; and this time she saw the hand that had put it there, and she recognized it by a scar on one of the fingers. She peeped under the altar cloth and there was Baltis, smilin', with his finger on his lips. The next moment he'd drawn her in under the cloth and was kissin' her so hard that she couldn' draw breath to utter a word.

"He was still kissin' her when one of the old women called out from the other end of the temple, 'Why, wherever have you got to, Lespa dear? Are you all right?'

"Baltis let her go then, and she put out her head and said, 'Oh, fine, saiyett, thank you! I was just havin' a look from inside, to see if the light would show any little holes I hadn't noticed. I'm just goin' to make a start now.'

"And then she tried to come out, but she couldn', or not altogether, because Baltis had his hands round her two ankles.

" 'Let me go! Baltis, sweetheart, let me go!' she whispered: and then she suddenly realized that she didn' want him to let her go. She was sick of always being made to send Baltis away, and of havin' him sent away just when she wanted to keep him with her; and now here he was, cracklin' like a summer fire in the gorse. Besides, pretty Lespa had a great sense of mischief even then-though as you know she's got an even bigger one now-and the situation amused her.

" 'I think the best way I can tackle this will be to get right down to it and make myself comfortable, saiyett, if that'll be all right,' she called. 'The cloth's rather too heavy to hold up for long, you see.' And the old girl called back, 'Yes, of course, dear, just do it in any comfortable position that suits you.' "

"Oo hoo! Oo hoo! I know what's coming!" bubbled Chia.

"Well, don't
tell
us, will you?" said Maia. "We simply can't imagine! Go on, Occula: never mind her."

"So then pretty Lespa rolls up her cloak and puts it behind her head, lies down with her head and shoulders just clear of the altar cloth and begins stitchin' the fringe back on the hem. But soon it was as much as she could do to stop herself cryin' out from-well, I suppose from- er-agitation: or it might be, disturbance. And perhaps she might have stood up and put an end to it, only that was no longer possible, you see, because by now the ladies

had worked their way rather further up the temple towards her; and under the altar cloth she was all disarranged-to say the least-and they'd have seen. Besides, she was very much in two minds, for that's fishin' country, is Suba, and Baltis had been ticklin' trout almost since he could walk. It's no good startlin' them, you know. They've got to be sort of hypnotized, so that they enjoy it.

"And then, all in a moment, she went 'Ah!' so loud that the two old ladies fairly jumped.

" 'Why, Whatever's the matter, dear?' called one of them. 'Have you hurt yourself?'

" 'Oh, no, no, saiyett-thank you!' answered Lespa, as well as she could for the delicious agony. 'I-er-I just caught my finger with the needle, that's all."

" 'Oh, poor thing! I'm so sorry!" said the old lady. "It gives you such a shock, doesn't it? to get a sudden prick like that: but it woan' go on hurtin' very long, you know. Is it bleedin'?'

" 'Well, no, only just a little, saiyett,' gasped Lespa. "It feels better already, thank you.' "

At this point the story-teller was obliged to pause, sitting unsmiling in the midst of her convulsed audience.

"Same old tripe, banzi," muttered the black girl under her breath to the hysterical Maia. "You'd really wonder, wouldn' you, sometimes? Do you want me to go on?" she enquired of the others in freezing tones.

"Yes! Yes!"

"Just as well I'm not down in the market, isn't it?" said Occula. "Then it'd be half-melds in the cup all round. You're gettin' this for free-same as Baltis did. All right, shut up then and I'll go on.

"And now, indeed, sweet Lespa could scarcely tell whether she was stitchin' for the god or the god was stitchin' her, for such exquisitely fine stitchin' was altogether outside her experience and quite carried her away. And indeed, we must believe that the god had lent Baltis some of his miraculous powers, for you'll agree that a young man that could eat strawberries and angle in a pool at once and the same time, and never make a sound either, must have had somethin' god-like in him. At all events, Lespa felt that she had something god-like in her, and more than she could well endure for pleasure, and she clasped the hem of the altar cloth close before her face and drew the thread back and forth, back and forth, all ways at once

and any way but the right one, and fairly bit her lip over the delicate task she'd undertaken.

"And then, suddenly, she cried aloud in all earnest, writhin' and moanin' where she lay under the altar, for she no longer knew where she was or what she was doin'.

"Now it so happened that at this moment the two good old souls were busy fastenin' some long strands of green ivy to hang right across the temple aisle from one column to another. One of them was up a ladder tyin' the ivy-trail as high as she could, while the other was steadyin' the foot of the ladder and makin' useless suggestions. And suddenly, in the middle of their labors, they heard Lespa cry out, and turned round to see her writhin' like a snake under a farmer's hoe.

" 'Oh, good gracious! Oh, dear Shakkarn!' they shrieked. 'Oh, the poor girl's been taken with a fit! What shall we do?'

" 'Help me down, dear, quick!' cried the one up the ladder. 'Doan' stop holdin' it till I'm down or it'll slip! I'll be as quick as I can, but I daren' risk a fall!'

"But Lespa's thrashin' and crowin' had thrown them into such a state that in fact it was a good half-minute before they'd got themselves into marchin' order and come up to the altar, where she was still lyin' on the floor. And by this time she was feelin' a little calmer, and so contented with herself and the world that she felt equal to anythin'.

" 'What is it, dear?' asked the first old lady. 'Have you been taken ill? Where do you feel the pain?'

" 'I'm so sorry, saiyett,' gasped Lespa, hurriedly pulling the altar-cloth together round her shoulders. 'It's the cramp! I've been taken with the cramp!'

" 'Oh, you poor thing! Give me your hands, dear, and I'll pull you up.'

"But they couldn' pull her up, and this was hardly sur-prisin', for Baltis was holdin' on to her legs and tryin' to put her clothes straight at the same time.

" 'I'll run and get the smith, or else that nice young Baltis who works for him,' said the second old girl. 'You stay here with her, dear, and I'll be back directly.' And off she ran.

"When she'd gone, Lespa said to the other one, 'Dear saiyett, would you be so very kind as to bring me a drink of water? I'm sure that would make me feel much better.'

" 'Yes, yes, of course dear,' says she, and hurried away to the stream outside. And when she came back with the water, there was sweet Lespa sittin' quietly on the steps in front of the altar, a little dishevelled but otherwise none the worse.

" 'Oh, it seems to have passed off, saiyett, thank goodness,' says she. 'I wonder, would you be so good as just to give me your arm into the fresh air for a few minutes? I'm sure I'll be quite all right then.'

"And while they were takin' a turn, young Baltis slipped out and got back to the forge unmissed, for the smith hadn' yet returned from his trip to the farm.

"As for Lespa, she was right as rain in no time, wouldn' you just know, and mended the altar cloth in half an hour. And that evenin', when she'd shorn her hair for the sacrifice, she went singin' about the kitchen and made a huge game pie to take to the feast the next day.

"Everyone swore it was a pie in a thousand, but then Lespa was so pretty that they'd have said as much if it had been made of pebbles topped off with a sheet of lead. And when the feast was finished and before the dancin' began, she told her parents to stay where they were and slipped back home again, like the good girl she was, to see to her old granny, who was too rheumaticky to do more than sit at the door and listen to the music.

" 'Well, dearest child,' quavered the old granny, 'did you make your sacrifice to Shakkarn?'

" 'Yes, that I did,' says she. "The finest sacrifice that ever a girl made to Shakkarn.'

" 'And did they like your pie?'

" 'Indeed they did, granny. And now I'm such a fine pastry-cook, believe me, I'll never be without a good rol-lin'-pin as long as I live.' "

"Now then, you girls," said Vartou, appearing in the doorway. "Off to bed with you, and if anyone disturbs me in the night without some very good reason, she'll just wish she hadn't, that's all. You, Chia, make sure the fire's out, too."

"Come on, banzi," said Occula, putting her arm round Maia as the woman shut and locked the heavy door behind her, "these beds are narrower than a bloody drain, but you can go back to your own later."

Maia hesitated. "Here? With all of them-" "Nothin' wrong with sharin' a bed," said the black girl. "And from all I can see, we're not the only ones. 'Sides, you doan' know where you might be tomorrow night, do you?"

After returning to her own bed Maia slept soundly and, waking an hour or two after dawn, found the fire already lit and three or four of the girls cooking breakfast. Occula, however, was still asleep and, when Maia brought her breakfast to her bed and woke her, showed no particular inclination to be up and stirring.

"I doan' think there's any particular hurry for us, banzi," she said, lying back and letting Maia feed her with new bread dipped in honey. "They'll send for us all right, but it woan' be for a while."

"How d'you know?" asked Maia.

"Oh, I just know. Try goin' in the bath-house and tell me what happens."

Maia, puzzled, followed her advice, and was immediately stopped in the cloister by Vartou, who sent her back with orders to wash up the breakfast plates and sweep the floor. About an hour later she called Maia and Occula and told them to bathe.

The stone trough in the bath-house had already been refilled with clean, scented water and Maia, trying it with her foot, found that it was delightfully warm-just right. After two of the best meals she had ever had in her life, separated by a long sleep in a comfortable bed, her normal appetite for pleasure was beginning, despite her troubles, to return. Without more ado she unrolled the bandage from her ankle, stripped and gave herself up to the water. After soaking for some time, she and Occula proceeded to amuse themselves by making use of every brush, vessel and unguent they could find in the room, soaping, scrubbing and rinsing each other until at length Vartou, flouncing in, ordered them to dry and get dressed.

"Do you girls mean to keep U-Lalloc waiting half the morning?" she snapped, pulling the wooden plug out of

the trough. "A fine way to start off on the right foot, I'm sure!"

"But
have
we been keepin' him waitin', saiyett?" asked Occula, smiling at her rather slyly. "I rather thought we'd been obligin' him."

"Your tongue's too long by half, miss," answered Var-tou. "Just you get on and do as I say, now, else you'll soon wish you had."

Maia had entirely forgotten about their impending inspection by Lalloc. Now, as she sat on her bed combing her hair, her hands began to tremble with apprehension and she could hardly restrain her tears. Occula came across the room, knelt on the floor in front of her and, reaching up, took her chin between her hands.

"Take it easy, banzi. They're not goin' to hurt us and there's plenty worse things-toothache, for instance. I'd rather this than toothache, wouldn' you?"

"But-but he'll want to see us naked-"

" 'Course not," replied Occula. "He's done that already, you goat!"

"When has he?"

"Why, in the damn' bath-house, of course! Didn' you notice that muslin panel in the wall, by the corner? Of course, you've never been in a pleasure-house, have you? They nearly always have them in one or two of the rooms. Some people like to watch other people, you know. Made me feel quite at home to see a muslin panel again."

"But did you
see
him there?"

"No, 'course npt; you can't; that's what the muslin's for. But I didn'
need
to. I just showed off for all I was worth. Come to think of it, it's rather lucky
I didn'
tell you, isn' it? Poor pet, you'd have been all elbows and knees, wouldn' you? What d'you think all that scented water and stuff were for? You doan' suppose they get all that ready for Urtan cows who squint, do you? That was for us-special. Cheer up, you woan' have to strip again-not jus' yet, anyway. And whatever happens, I'll be there."

When they came into Vartou's room, Maia immediately got another surprise. Insofar as she had thought about Lalloc, she had imagined someone middle-aged and stout, bearded and wearing a robe. The man sitting at Vartou's table, however, was no more than twenty-eight or thirty, heavily-built certainly, but clean-shaven, fair-haired, and (to the eyes of a peasant girl if not to those of a lady)

smartly turned out, in the gaudy style of the Deelguy-a sort of blend of gipsy and flash magsman. He was wearing gold earrings, a crimson-and-blue scarf, a yellow jerkin with a large brooch of Telthearna aquamarines, and leather breeches dyed dark-red. Various papers were lying before him, including the letter brought by Occula, and as the girls entered he concluded his perusal of one of these before looking up and motioning them to sit down on the bench in front of the table. Zuno, standing behind him, nodded coldly to Occula and then whispered to Vartou behind his hand.

"Ah!" said Lalloc, smiling at Occula and speaking with a strong Deelguy accent. "You're the black girl from Mo-dom Domris? She toll me all about you, said you're a good girl, fully trained."

"I hope so, sir," answered Occula.

"Well, you been soveral years with Domris, you'll be good enoff in bed, she say so." He tapped the letter. "What about wait at table-she don't say about thot?"

"I've had plenty of trainin' and experience, sir."

"You rockon you're fit to go to household of a rich man in the opper city?"

"Yes, sir, I do."

"But thot's high-class work, now," said Lalloc, staring at her shrewdly. "All kinds of work, too. No good if you don't foncy it. You don't foncy it, you say now, not later. Then I soil you somewhere else, what you foncy-just to oblige Domris, you know."

"Thank you, sir. I'd like a rich household in the upper city. I'm talented, and I can assure you that your reputation as a dealer woan' suffer through me."

Lalloc picked up the letter and rapidly re-read it. "I soil you on approval, we hope you don't come bock, eh? But I suppose Domris don't be selling you to me onless she think you're good."

Putting the letter back on the table, he picked up an abacus and began making calculations. At length Occula said, "May I ask you about the money, sir?"

"Monny?" replied Lalloc, looking up at once.

"Yes, sir. Madam Domris promised me five hundred meld for myself out of the purchase money."

"Ah," replied Lalloc, "thot's if we're getting what we hope for."

"Sir, may I beg you very respectfully to put yourself in

my position? I've come here at my own request, to do you credit and make my fortune, if I can. I haven' any money at all. A little of my own, for minor expenses, will make a lot of difference to the amount of credit I can do you."

"Well-well-" Lalloc made an impatient gesture- "likely we monage something, if thot's what Domris say. Now this other girl-" he turned towards Maia, who blushed and looked down at the floor-"we don't know nothing about her. She's surplus to the Tonilda quota, Zuno, thot's it?"

"Yes, sir. I gather Megdon-"

"Vorry nice-
vorry
nice," said Lalloc, regarding Maia with a smile and rubbing his hands together. "How you say Megdon gotting her?"

"I-er____________________gather, sir," drawled Zuno, "that Megdon-

or Perdan-one of our men in Tonilda, anyway-was in the neighborhood of a place called Meerzat, when he was approached by a woman who said she wanted to sell the girl. He went and inspected her; and not unnaturally he bought her."

"How moch he pay?"

"You have his receipt, sir: I gave it to Vartou last night."

"And
I
say, how moch he
payl
You trost Megdon?" said Lalloc.

"I trust no one, sir, in the trade-except yourself, of course. Megdon bought the girl from an illiterate peasant woman, and there is his receipt. As you can see, it's for much less than we can hope to get for a girl like this: that's all I can say. Megdon will no doubt be rendering his accounts next month as usual."

There was a pause.

"Who's this who soil you?" said Lalloc to Maia.

"My-my mother, sir," whispered poor Maia almost inaudibly.

"Stepmother?"

"No, sir."

"Your
real
mother soil you? Why?"

"I don't-I don't know, sir."

Lalloc leant across the table and gripped Maia's chin so that she was forced to meet his eye. "You been on a game, hov you? Howing baby? Or maybe you try to kill her, eh? Come on, you toll us now."

Maia, jerking away from him and burying her face in her hands, began to weep uncontrollably. Occula bent over

her, doing her best to calm her. Vartou clicked her tongue impatiently. Lalloc sat back, drumming his fingers on the table.

"Shall I bring her to her senses, sir?" asked Vartou.

"No," said Lalloc. "Dozzn't motter-not thot moch. I jost want to know she's not sick and she's not howing baby, that's all. If not, we soil her straightaway: soil her good, too."

"Will you be selling her to the same house as me, sir?" asked Occula.

"Don't be fool," said Lalloc. "We soil you fourteen, maybe fifteen thousand; you think the man pay two lots like that, one time, eh?"

Maia, clutching at Occula and crying hysterically, was jerked to her feet by Vartou, who held her upright and put a hand over her mouth.

"You botter take her outside, Vartou," said Lalloc. "Calm her down; but don't mark or bruise her, you see? Not like thot one last month you knock her teeth out. Thot's jost waste of monny. You jost see you can find out she's not sick, thot's all."

"I think I can tell you all you want to know, sir," said Occula, as the door closed behind Maia and the woman. "The girl's told me her story, and I'm sure it's true. While she was at home she became the mistress of her step-father, but she's never had anyone else in her life. They're a poor family-hardly food enough to go round, she told me, and the mother pregnant herself. She found out what was goin' on and sold the girl out of resentment and jealousy, while the step-father was away on some business or other. She's not diseased and I'm good as certain she's not pregnant."

"Why you ask me soil her with you?" asked Lalloc.

"Well, chiefly because I like her, sir, and she likes me: I admit that. But I can see advantages for yourself. She's very young and completely inexperienced, and I can train her better than anyone else because she trusts me and isn' afraid of me. I think, with her looks and mine-you know, the contrast-we could come to work very well together. She'll do much better and be more of a credit to your fine reputation as a dealer if I can look after her and make her less nervous-which I'm sure I can." Her eye flickered towards Zuno. "Doan' you agree, sir? Didn' you think, for instance, that she seemed rather nervous at-well, at
Khasiki
You recall the night at Khasik?"

Zuno paused. "Well-er-well, we need hardly talk about Khasik now; but perhaps there may be something in what you say. I'm inclined to agree, sir, with what this girl suggests. Always provided, of course, that it's possible to sell them together for a good total figure."

Lalloc considered. From what Domris had told him this black girl, apart from her unusual and striking looks, was sharp and able-a girl out of the ordinary. She was likely to go far-indeed, in the present state of Bekla, no one could say how far. A rich voluptuary's pet concubine; a baron's favorite shearna-there was no telling. One of the built-in features of the bed-girl trade (and he had known others come unstuck through it) was that while there were big profits to be made out of such girls while they were young and starting out, it might later prove important- you could never tell-not to have antagonized them. Conversely, if they retained not-too-unpleasant memories of the way you had treated them, they could in time become influential friends and valuable sources of information. Indeed, he recalled that Hosein, a former dealer at the time of the Leopard rising six or seven years ago, had been able to cut and run just in time, following a word from a girl who owed him a^good turn.

"Well," he said at length, "we try it, Occula. But it's expocting something, I toll you. This is roch man all right, oh, yes, but I don't think he spond that moch-and if he don't, thot's it and nobody making trobble, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"Maybe I give you your monny now, then no one olse see. You got where you can put it?"

"Yes, sir."

"We going opper city this morning. You-well, you don't need hairdresser; only the other girl. You need clothes?"

"I have some clothes with me, sir, which suit me very well, I think. You'll judge for yourself. But my friend will need some."

"You botter go now, talk to her. She got to look nice: no good we gotting there she's making a foss, look like she been crying."

"She woan', sir. Leave it to me."

An hour later Maia, dressed in a close-fitting, low-cut, green-and-white robe, her golden hair combed smooth and falling over her bare shoulders, was being carried with Occula in a curtained litter up the Street of the Armorers

to the Peacock Gate, the only entrance from the lower to the upper city. Here Lalloc, the girls, litter-bearers and all were conducted to the enclosed chamber known as the Moon Room, searched and their identities noted; for even a dealer of Lalloc's standing was not immune from the strict and vigilant surveillance imposed by the Leopard regime. Finally the litter itself was also searched. Thereupon the porter operated the counterpoise that opened the postern and Lalloc, followed by his wares, proceeded towards the group of wealthy houses east of the Barb, one of which was that of Sencho-be-L'vandor, High Counselor of the Beklan Empire.