"So it'll be all right now, will it?" asked Maia. "I mean, that ought to be enough to keep Erketlis from getting anywhere near Bekla?"
"I wish I felt sure of that," said Shend-Lador. "Kembri's a good general, but what he's got there is a demoralized army to which I gather they've just added a bunch of untrained, reluctant conscripts. As for Randronoth, if I were Kembri I'd believe him when I saw him."
"Why, where d'you reckon he's got to, then?" asked Maia.
"Well, I think he's like the rest of them--hanging back and waiting to see how things turn out. The provinces have all got enough troubles of their own, you know, Maia. There are half-a-dozen heldro scraps going on in as many different provinces, and no governor's got men to spare. I heard that most of the men they sent up to Bekla for Kembri were just about the bottom of the barrel: they'd even let 'em out of the jails, some of them."
"Ah!" said Maia, "That just accounts for something as I saw t'other day, down the Market. I'd say you were just about right."
"Well, I might find myself catching it in the neck yet, I suppose," said Shend-Lador, rather in the tone of voice in which he might have said he was expecting to be badg-ered by creditors. Looking down at the gold Leopard emblem round his neck, he pretended to tug at it. "It won't come off, you see. But you'll be all right, Maia. You're going to be Sacred Queen, aren't you? That'll mean--"
"No!" she cried, stamping her foot. "No! I'm not, and I'm sick and tired of bein' told as I am! I--"
"Well, that's only what everybody's saying," he answered. "But whether or not, no one's going to be in a hurry to chop up a lass like you. It isn't even as if you'd been a Leopards' shearna or any particular Leopard's girl, is it? I think you've handled things very cleverly from that point of view."
"First time anyone's said that, I'll tell you, Shenda. Far's I can see, most of 'em reckons I'm just about suicidal not t'ave taken up with some big Leopard to protect me by now."
But his thoughts had apparently run on. "I wouldn't like to be Milvushina, though, would you? If Erketlis does get to Bekla--" He shook his head. "And then, Elvair's little lapse: whatever happens--even if we were to win hands down--I don't see what they're going to be able to do with him after this. Ambassador to Deelguy'll be about the size of it, I suppose: something like that."
"How's Milva taken it?" asked Maia.
"I haven't seen her. I'm afraid she may be regretting she didn't take Fornis's tip and go back to Chalcon like a good girl."
"I'm damned sure she isn't!" cried Maia. "Want my opinion, all you men make a lot too much of this fighting carry-on. There's Elvair, as nice a fellow as ever--"
"I personally don't make much of it," replied Shend-Lador. "Only I do think it's bad luck, don't you, when ordinary, rough-and-ready fellows entrust their lives to people who've always lived in luxury and had the best of everything, and then those people lead them badly and let them down in the pinch? That's all I'm saying. I mean, take that lame slave-girl of yours--would you run away if someone else was going to knock her about?"
Maia made no reply.
It was not in Shend-Lador's nature, however, to rub anything in until it hurt. "I'm sorry for Elvair," he said, "and I've told him as much. I'd help him if I could, but how's anyone ta help him? He's ruined himself, that's about the size of it."
"You could let yourself be seen about with him," said Maia.
"Well, so I will, if ever we get back to any sort of ordinary life," answered Shend-Lador.
Suddenly he fell on one knee before her. "Maia, you're beautiful; you're lovely! I adore you! That's what I really came to say, only you made me waste such a lot of time talking about the war. Won't you go to bed with me?" He slapped his pockets. "I believe I've got fifty meld left somewhere, so I won't charge you!"
She could not help laughing, and did not resist even when he kissed her and ran his hands for a moment over her deldas under their smooth, close-fitting silk bodice. But still she shook her head as he released her.
"Why," said he, "this is worse than Chalcon--to keep looking at the jam-pot and get no jam."
"There's no one else gets any, honest," she answered, smiling.
"Randronoth?"
"Yes, once--for nine thousand mekl--and I never touched a trug of it. But he'll never get it again."
"It was for the Chalcon expedition, wasn't it?" said Shend-Lador. "What a waste! I'll bet it was all Lapanese taxes, too."
"It was a waste all right," said Maia. "You can take that from me, Shenda. I'll tell you what wouldn't be, though. If you really meant what you just said, go and see Elvair. Go and see him now, and have a drink with him." At random she picked up a silver filigree box from a side-table. "Give him that from me and tell him I'm his friend. It'll give you an excuse to go."
He kissed her again and this time she returned his kiss. They walked together to the outer door, where Jarvil gave him his belt and sword.
" 'No one could hinder, The Serrelinda!' My lads used to sing that in Chalcon, you know. By the way, have you noticed, the big star doesn't seem so bright tonight? May be gone soon, I suppose."
Maia looked up into the northern sky. It was even as Shend-Lador had said.
81: RANDRONOTH
She woke with a start. Ogma was bending over her with a lamp, her familiar, ugly face all shadow one side and wavering, yellow brightness the other. Maia sat up quickly.
"What is it, Ogma? Is the house on fire?"
"No, miss, it's--"
"Is there fighting or something?" She swung her legs out of bed.
"No, miss; it's Lord Randronoth."
"What d'you mean, Lord Randronoth? Where? You mean he's been killed or what?"
"No, miss; he's downstairs."
"Downstairs? Ogma, have you gone crazy? He can't be downstairs; he's in Lapan and it's the middle of the night! Go back to bed."
"Saiyett--Miss Maia--it's not my fault! Lord Randronoth was knocking and he woke Jarvil: and Jarvil looked out and saw it was Lord Randronoth and he just had two soldiers with him, no one else. So then Lord Randronoth said he had to see you at once--it was very important. And Jarvil came and woke me and said what should he do? So of course I said yes, let them in--"
"But Ogma, whatever for?"
"What, Lord Randronoth, miss?" said Ogma in a puzzled tone, as though Maia's question were quite inexplicable. "Well, of course I let him in!"
The sweaty smell of her, stooping over Maia in her night-dress, came strong. It had always been a job to get Ogma to wash. Maia, now really angry, felt ready to box her ears. She was perfectly entitled to hit Ogma, of course, only she never had as yet.
"Well, now you just go down and tell him to go away again. Go on!"
"I don't reckon he'd do it, miss. Well, not for my saying so, that is. He seemed kind of--well, I don't know--kind of beside himself, like: not what you'd call normal, he isn't."
"Well, then, what the bloody basting hell did you let him in for?" stormed Maia. "Great Cran, Ogma, I often wonder I don't sell you, I really do! No, all right--" holding up her hand--"you needn't start in. I suppose you'd better give him some wine and tell him I'll be down in a few minutes. Now light me some lamps and then get out of here!"
Randronoth! she thought. Randronoth--here, in the middle of the night; when he ought to be at the front in Lapan. Did Eud-Ecachlon know he'd come to Bekla? Probably not.
No doubt about what he's here for. What else could he be here for? And thereupon Occula took over.
The bloody crazy damned basting menstrual tairth-struck bastard! And it's completely compromising! It leaves me wide open! Oh, Cran! and with Eud-Ecachlon, of all people, left in command of the city! I've got to get him out of here somehow!
She was hurrying into her clothes, yet even in this crisis stopped to wash her face and comb her hair.
Middle of the night or no middle of the night, she'd be damned if she was going to let Randronoth or anyone else see her all in a flurry and lookng like--what was it Occula used to say?--a pig's venda in
a thunderstorm. Becoming a little more composed as she looked at herself in the mirror, she put on her diamonds and the jewelled Leopard emblem with which the Council had presented her. Then, with all the outrage, authority and dignity of which she was capable, the Serrelinda made herself walk slowly down the stairs and into the parlor.
Randronoth was standing in the middle of the room. Under his long cloak he was fully armed--sword, dagger and breastplate. He had taken off his leather helmet and cleared a space for it on one of her side-tables. As she entered he held out his arms, smiling with an apparently sincere and perfectly spontaneous expression of joy and triumph.
"My love! My queen!"
"Lord Randronoth," she said sharply, "have you gone out of your mind? Do you know what time it is? Please leave my house immediately!"
"Oh, I can well understand it's a shock," he replied. As he spoke he unbuckled and cast aside his sword-belt, flung back his cloak and sat down. "But it's the finest shock you'll ever have had in your life, my love, believe me! Listen and I'll explain."
"I'll listen to nothing! Get out of my house; now, at once! If you don't, I'll send the porter for the night-watch, and believe me I mean it! I don't care if you're the governor of Lapan or anywhere else. I will not be subjected to this sort of behavior in the middle of the night! If you really have anything to say to me--and I'd imagine the first thing you ought to explain is why you're not with the army in Lapan--you can come back tomorrow morning. Now if you're worth calling a nobleman, get out!"
"Not so fast, Maia," he said. "If we're to take Bekla, you and I, you've got to help me. And if you find yourself giving up no more than half a night's sleep before we're done, you'll be lucky."
"Take Bekla! Whatever are you talking about?"
He laughed. "Taking Bekla."
Maia felt herself close to tears of desperation. If she could, she would have thrown him out by force. For a moment she turned away to hide her feelings. Zenka! Zenka, tell me what to do! Come and help me!
"Stop arguing with him," replied the invisible Zenka. "He's obviously not here for the reason you thought. Make him tell you what he's up to!"
"Randro," she said, pulling up a stool, "you must realize that this is a great shock to me. You'd better tell me what it's all about. You owe me that at least."
"As if you knew nothing?"
"As if I knew nothing."
"Very well: since you seem to want to act the simpleton, Maia, I'll go back to the night of the barrarz. You remember we made love, I suppose? You've not forgotten that?"
She compressed her lips with annoyance. Her head was beginning to ache.
"And you may possibly recall that you promised me that if I got Sednil freed, you'd spend another night with me next time I was in Bekla?"
"Well, if that's all you want, why can't we get on--"
"Wait a minute! Of course it is--I never stop thinking about you--but just now there are more important things to be done. You'll remember, too, that Seekron came to see you. I know, of course, what he told you. I'll remind you, shall I? He told you that the whole of Lapan was ready to declare for you as Sacred Queen. He gave you the names of several Leopard councilors who were ready to join us; and he gave you forty thousand meld." Randronoth paused a moment and then repeated it. "Forty thousand meld. Didn't he?"
"Yes," she whispered.
"And you took it, and you sent me back word that you'd do all you could to help me?"
The reckoning day, she thought. Oh Cran, the reckoning day!
"Randro, I'll give you back the money--half of it now, this very minute! If only you'll let me alone--"
He held up his hand.
"Oh, Randro, you can go to bed with me all you want! Only please, please leave me out of--"
"Well, as it's turned out, you see, events have moved rather faster than we expected. In this life one has to be able to seize opportunities."
Opportunity is all, she thought. Opportunity is all. O Lespa, save me!
"The long and short of it is that the Leopards are ripe for destruction. Sencho's dead, Durakkon's a puppet. Kembri's no more than a murderous ruffian and his son's a proved coward. As for Forms--"
She burst out, "So you're working for Santil--"
"For Erketlis?" he said. "Never in a hundred years, my love! I'm working for myself--and for you! I'm the man, not Kembri, that's going to save Bekla from Santil-ke-Erketlis."
"You must be out of your mind, Randro! Have you thought about this, really and truly? You'll only be throwing your life away; oh, and mine too, Randro! Please--"
"Indeed I've thought about it," he answered. "Listen and I'll tell you. Erketlis has defeated--shamefully defeated--the force the Leopards sent against him; and I can tell you that the force are in very poor heart now. Kembri's reinforcements, I'm told, are just about the sorriest bunch between here and Zeray. If I'd joined them I'd have been a raving lunatic. Meanwhile Durakkon's been sent out against Fornis with orders to try to hold her up until Kem-bri gets back. But Kembri never will get back. The plain truth is that Bekla's lying here under Mount Crandor like a dropped purse. Who's going to grab it first, Santil or Fornis? Neither; I am!"
"You mean you've got enough men--"
"Yes; Bekla will be in my hands by tomorrow evening; by this evening, I ought to say, since it's getting on for morning. When I got Kembri's order to call up every man in Lapan, I obeyed it, with his full authority behind me. But we didn't go anywhere near Elvair-ka-Virrion's lot; no fear! I've got four thousand men, under Seekron, marching up to Bekla now. That's not a great many, but it'll be enough."
"But Randro--"
"The plain truth is, there's no one here to stop us; only Eud-Ecachlon and a handful of second-rate troops. Seekron will be here by this afternoon. We shall simply take the place over."
"Well, just you leave me out of it! I don't care what I said!--"
He ignored her interruption. "But it's not enough just to take a city, Maia. It's got to be held, too. If you've ever fed those ducks out there" (he jerked his thumb towards the Barb) "you'll know what happens when one of them manages to grab a big bit. The inhabitants--we're going to need their support and goodwill if we're to hold the place." He laughed. "Of course the best thing for us would be if Santil and Kembri were to destroy each other and Fornis and Durakkon were to do the same. But something tells me that won't happen--things are never so simple. One or other of them will be coming against us; perhaps more than one. That's why I'm here tonight; to talk to you. The people of Bekla are going to be united behind their new Sacred Queen; the Serrelinda."
She flung herself at his feet, clasping his ankles.
"No, Randro, no! Oh, please don't try to make me! I won't do it!"
He raised her to her feet with an air of genuine bewilderment.
"But Maia, my darling, you said you would! You told Seekron. You took the money, too."
"Oh, I didn't realize, Randro! I never thought it would come to this! I didn't mean it--"
"Well, there's four thousand men marching on Bekla now who are quite sure you did, and they're not going to be all that pleased if you back down, I tell you."
He took her face between his hands, tilting it up and gazing down into her eyes.
"You're essential to us, Maia! My men know me, but the people of Bekla don't. You they do know--to say the least."
"But you can't make me do it against my will! You can't!"
"This is the first inkling I've had that you weren't entirely with us, Maia. What's happened to make you start jibbing now? Are you a coward---like your friend Elvair-ka-Virrion?"
" 'Tain't a question of being a coward; though I don't mind telling you I'd be scared stiff--if I was going to do it. But I won't do it! I'll give you back the money!"
"Haven't you used any of it as I said?"
She shook her head. "I'll be honest. Some I've spent, but most of it I've still got. I'll give it back to you and the rest as soon as ever I can."
He was silent, sitting bent f
orward, elbows on parted knees tapping his scabbard on the floor between his feet. At length she said, "Will you please leave now, Randro? I want to go back to bed."
"The comet's waning," he said. "Have you noticed? That's a sign the gods mean the Leopards to fall."
"Will you only go?"
He looked up sharply. "I'm sorry, Maia," he replied, "but the answer's no. Seekron has orders to report to me here as soon as he enters the city."
"Randro! Here?"
"So I'm afraid I can't let you leave this house until Seekron comes: until we've taken the city, in fact. Then I shall have you proclaimed queen, publicly, from the Scales. And no one's going to like it very much, Maia, if you're taken up on the Scales crying and making a fuss, in front of the whole city. Can you imagine it? What it comes to is, I'd say you haven't much choice."
At this she leapt up and was already at the door when he said, "There are two of my soldiers out there, with orders to stop anyone leaving the house. Better keep your dignity, Maia!"
"This is insufferable, Randronoth! In my own house?"
"As insufferable as taking forty thousand meld and doing nothing in return? I'm sorry, Maia: I thought we were friends. Yes, and I thought we were lovers, too: it was you who made me think so. But I'll tell you, I'm not going to be thwarted now. Things have gone too far. If you didn't want to play this game you should have told Seekron in the first place."
"You're holding me a prisoner, then?"
"I wouldn't call it that, Maia. Let's hope we can reach a better understanding during the next few hours. I love you, and in that I'm perfectly sincere."
"Can I go back to bed now?"
"You can; but I'm afraid I shall have to join you. Your bedroom window isn't very high and I wouldn't put it past a girl like you to jump out or climb down."
"If I promise not to?"
"Promise? You promised to do all you could to help us."
Once upstairs, however, he made no attempt to make love to her, but merely dozed in a chair. She lay in her bed, at first feigning sleep, yet falling asleep at last from sheer weariness and nervous exhaustion.
When she woke it was daylight. For some time she lay unmoving, with closed eyes, reflecting on her plight. For the moment, clearly, there was nothing to be done. Later, perhaps, there might be a chance to escape. Meanwhile, the most prudent course seemed to be not to fall out any more with Randronoth, but to try to smooth things over and pretend to assent to his plans: in that way she might even be able to create an opportunity. Still without mov-ing, she prayed long and earnestly to Lespa and at last felt in her heart some stirrings of comfort and reassurance. If I die, she thought, I shall have died for Zenka's sake. I could have gone to Quiso with Nasada: there was nothing to stop me. I'm here, and that must be Lespa's will. Surely she'll protect me.