"Whatever's the matter?" Fornis, peering in the mirror while with one finger she rubbed the rouge in just below her eye, spoke with an air of slightly irritated surprise.
"I beg you--please spare that girl, esta-saiyett, as--as a favor to me. I don't know what she's done, but--"
"My dear Maia, neither do I: I haven't the faintest idea. That's a kitchen-maid, or something of the kind, I believe."
"But I knew her once, esta-saiyett: that's why I'm asking."
"Knew her?" Fornis, frowning, looked perplexed to the point of annoyance, as though Maia had used some inappropriate or unintelligible word.
"Yes, esta-saiyett; when I was a slave, I knew her."
"Oh, when you were a slave. I see!" She raised her voice slightly. "Shakti, Maia wants you to let that girl go; apparently she used to know her when she was a slave. Just send her back wherever she came from, will you?"
At that moment Maia felt certain that either Ashaktis or Fornis herself had known--probably the poor girl had boasted about it in the kitchens--of her own acquaintance with Chia, and that the beating had been deliberately arranged as soon as Fornis had learned that Maia was downstairs and asking to see her.
As Ashaktis pulled the girl to her feet, threw her clothes round her and nodded to the young man to drag her out of the room, Fornis turned back to the dressing-table and began polishing her nails with a strip of bone bound in soft leather. Maia waited for her to speak, but she said nothing and after a minute or two laid the bone aside, stood up, opened a wardrobe and began looking through the gowns hanging there.
I'm the Serrelinda, thought Maia: I'm the Serrelinda. If I could swim the Valderra-- Yet in her heart she knew that such thoughts had no real validity. If Fornis wanted the Valderra swum, she would simply order two people to go and do it; and if they drowned, two more.
"Esta-saiyett," she said, "I've come to ask you--to talk to you, if you'll very kindly hear me, about a man called Tharrin."
"A man called Tharrin?" said Fornis, looking up sharply as though Maia had discourteously interrupted her. She paused. "I think you mean a man called Sednil, don't you?"
Maia, momentarily startled and discomposed, hesitated. The green eyes rested upon her with a cool yet expectant stare.
"No, esta-saiyett," said Maia, keeping her voice steady with an effort. "Tharrin's a Tonildan political prisoner, and I'm told by the Lord General as he's one that's your property. He happens to be my stepfather--my mother's husband--and I've come to beg you to be so good as to-- to enter into my natural feelings, like, and let me buy him from you. You'd be doing me and my mother and sisters the greatest kindness."
"Did you have a pleasant talk with the chief priest the other day?" asked Fornis rather absently, taking a gown out of the closet and holding it up against her body as Ashaktis came back into the room.
"Yes, thank you, esta-saiyett." She did not know what else to say.
"You've been quick enough to come here this morning. It didn't occur to you before to come and ask me about your friend Occula, rather than the chief priest?"
"No, esta-saiyett: well, only I didn't feel it would be right to presume on our earlier acquaintance in that way. I reckoned as you might not like it."
"I see. But you don't feel that now, over this--this-- Tharrin?"
"Yes, I do feel it, esta-saiyett, very much. I've been afraid to come, 'cos I didn't want to displease you. Only he's my stepfather, see, and I owe him a lot, and the Lord General told me as there wasn't any other way 'ceptin' to ask you."
Fornis beckoned to Ashaktis to help her on with the gown. Maia stood unspeaking. After a time the Sacred Queen shook out her skirt and then sat down for Ashaktis, kneeling before her, to put on her sandals.
"I suppose you know, don't you," she said, without looking at Maia; "perhaps your friend Sednil, or somebody like that, will have told you, what sort of prisoners are normally allocated to the Sacred Queen and why?"
"No, esta-saiyett." Her voice came in a frightened whisper.
"Those who are known to have been so basely treacherous and criminal that they can't decently be sold into slavery are allotted to the temple for sacrifice. There are eight such prisoners in the group brought in yesterday-- seven men and a woman. Naturally I don't know their names, but with your wide acquaintance among those sort of people I expect you do."
"No, esta-saiyett. All I know is as the Lord General told me that Tharrin was--was out of his hands, 'cos he belonged to you."
There was another long pause while Fornis took off the sandals, tried on another pair and then began washing her hands in a basin held by Ashaktis.
"What extraordinary company you seem to keep, Maia," she said at length. "Kitchen-slaves, lower city shearna's pimps--I don't know. But of course if your stepfather's a criminal and a traitor, I dare say that accounts for it."
In spite of her terror, it occurred to Maia that she might very well have replied that the queen herself was among those who had sought her company. She said nothing.
"Well, so you want to buy this--person," said Fornis. "However, it's from the temple, not from me, that you'll have to buy him, as I've explained. And we don't drive bargains with the Lord Cran, do we?"
"I'm only asking to pay a fair price, esta-saiyett. I'm not suggesting bargaining."
"I see. And what would be a fair price, do you think?"
"I don't know, esta-saiyett."
"Neither do I, for no one has ever had the temerity to make such a request before. I shall have to think it over carefully: you may come back in three hours' time."
Maia knew that the queen was hoping she would lose her self-possession and plead for an immediate reply-- perhaps weep. She raised her palm to her forehead and left the room.
Zuno was standing at the foot of the lower staircase. As they were crossing the hall side by side he murmured al-most inaudibly, "What is it that you came to ask her?"
She hesitated, and he added, "You can trust me, I assure you."
"My stepfather--from Tonilda--he's a prisoner--one of the lot that's to die, so she said. I came to ask her to let me buy him."
They were close to a little alcove at the further end of the hall, near the door by which she had entered.
Zuno, looking quickly round, drew her into it and stood facing her.
"What did she answer?"
His manner startled her. This was a new Zuno, his customary air of supercilious detachment set aside, a man dealing with her directly and speaking to a fellow-being.
"She says she'll think it over. I'm to come back in three hours."
"You couldn't--er--forget about it, I suppose?"
She shook her head. "Couldn' do that, no."
"You owe your stepfather a lot?"
"Whatever he's done, I can't just stand by and let that happen to him."
Zuno was silent for some moments, gazing out into the garden. At length he said, "And how did she treat you?"
"Bad. I'm afraid of her. I mean, she could have said yes or no straight out; but she's cruel, isn't she? It's--I don't know--it's not so much what she does as what she is that frightens me. I don't understand it--I've never done her no harm!"
"You'd better understand several things, Maia, before you decide to go any further with this business. Before you went to Suba, she and Kembri were still on good terms. She believed he meant to see that she was acclaimed Sacred Queen for a third reign: Ashaktis told me as much. But when he allowed his son to help himself to Milvushina and then refused point-blank to send her back to Chalcon, Fornis guessed at once--she's very quick and shrewd-- that he must have the idea of getting Milvushina acclaimed Sacred Queen instead."
He stopped, listening, and then looked quickly out of the alcove for a moment.
"Well, what of it?" asked Maia, made fearful by his tension and anxious, now, only to end this conversation and leave the house.
"When she sent you back to the temple to go to Suba," said Zuno, "that was by way of obliging Kembri. Her idea was that he could have you back
and make use of you on the understanding that Milvushina would either be returned to Chalcon or else--well, put out of the way. She thought you'd probably die anyway, you see. But what happened was that Kembri refused to part with Milvushina and then you came back as--well, what you are now. She knows, now, that Kembri must intend to supersede her. Actually, he has no alternative: the people would never acclaim her for a third reign. Oh, she knows how to keep up appearances, but secretly she must be desperate. And she knows, too, who are her rivals. Kembri would prefer Milvushina: but left to themselves the people would undoubtedly prefer you."
Maia nodded. "I'd been warned already, come to that, only I never just 'zactly seen it quite so clear as what you've put it now."
Zuno gazed in silence over her head as though what she had said did not really call for a reply. In memory she saw again the aloof young dandy whose fastidious hauteur had outfaced the brigands on the highway. She took his hand and smiled.
"But you're not afraid of her, are you, U-Zuno?"
"I? Oh, I find her most tedious. The truth is, she's reached a state of mind in which she's the deadly enemy of virtually any young woman in the upper city who commands popularity. If I could help you, Maia, I would. But now you tell me you're actually soliciting favors from her." He shrugged his shoulders.
"That's playing into her hands. I can only advise you that I wouldn't want to offer myself as a plaything for her ingenuity. If I were you, I should desist. I say that as a friend."
Two slaves, carrying brooms and pails of water, were approaching down the hall. Zuno, nodding and murmuring "Certainly, saiyett, I quite understand," bowed and held open the door.
61: THE QUEEN'S PRICE
It was from this hour that Maia began more and more frequently to imagine Zen-Kurel present at her side. Crossing the lawn to her jekzha and smiling, with a pretense of unconcern, to her soldiers as they scrambled up from the shade under the wall, she found herself making believe, childlike, that he and she were together, heads close as they talked, his arm round her waist. Brave, warm, a shade rash, a shade immature, infinitely likable, himself somewhat, perhaps, in need of a loyal friend with a cool head, Zenka was admonishing her, in his eager, confident voice, not to be afraid of the Sacred Queen or her spiteful capers (yes, that was his phrase, "spiteful capers"), because he would protect her and see that she came to no harm. "And you don't mind that I'm doing this for Tharrin?" she asked him, as he sat with her in the jekzha, one hand gently caressing her scarred thigh. "Of course not! I certainly wouldn't think much of you if you didn't." "And what's to become of him when we've set him free?" "Why, he's to go home and keep out of trouble, what else? Once we're married--" "Oh, Zenka, we're to be married?" "Yes, of course. What's the point of waiting any longer?" "Oh, Zenka--" "And I'm proud of you, Maia. I'm really proud that you weren't afraid of the Sacred Queen."
Walking by the Barb--for she could find no appetite for the meal poor Ogma had prepared--a fresh thought occurred to her, affording a curious, paradoxical comfort. She realized, now, that the reason why she had been excited by the punishment of Meris was that, unconsciously, she had been jealous of her--oh, Lespa! only to think of it now!--as Sencho's favorite. Yes, envious of that, and also of her experience, competence and brassy sophistication. Meris was tough. Of her own accord she had chosen to lead a life of crime and violence--she'd derived satisfaction and amusement from using her looks to lure men to disaster. If anyone could stand a good smacking, it was Meris. And had she not had her revenge on Sencho-- literally pressed down and running over, one might say? Besides, she herself--Maia--had changed much since Suba: she would not feel now as she had then. The Maia who had attended Sencho at the Rains banquet had been a mere child. Yet that chlid, too, would have been horrified by the prisoners in the Sheldad and by coming upon poor Qua as she had that morning. "You're not even cruel, are you?" Form's had said to her. No, she wasn't.
There was, clearly, very little that did not reach the ears of Fornis. Was it not highly probable that she might have heard something from Sencho--or even, perhaps, from Terebinthia--about her, Maia's reaction to Meris's whipping which had misled her into thinking that Maia was just the girl to suit her?
Once' Sencho was dead she had certainly wasted little or no time. Yet it had taken her even less time to realize that she had been mistaken. "You're naturally pure; one day it'll catch up with you--if you live that long." "I'll live, Zenka," she said aloud. "Oh, I'll live! And I'll find you again, believe me." For nowhere in all her imaginings was there a particle of doubt that he had no more forgotten her than she him.
It was time to return to Fornis's house. She walked back along the edge of the reed-beds, beyond which a grebe, black-crested and ochre-necked, was swimming with its chicks on its back. One day I'll swim the Zhairgen to Katria, she thought, and Zenka'll be waiting for me on the bank.
The Sacred Queen, she was informed, was down at the archery butts behind the house; and thither Ashaktis conducted her. She said little or nothing on the way and Maia, for her part, offered no more than the few words necessary to ensure that Ashaktis could not say that she had behaved discourteously.
The mown field, flanked on one side with pinnate-leaved, white-umbelled brygon trees, stretched away to the Peacock Wall, under which stood the targets--life-sized effigies of Katrian soldiers, their arms stiff as scare-crows' in the sunshine.
Fornis, now dressed, as though for hunting, in a green jerkin and leather breeches, paused briefly as she saw Maia approaching and then, having spent a few moments in adjusting the leather guard on her left wrist and forearm, fitted an arrow, drew and loosed at a target. The arrow hit its mark precisely. Maia stood waiting while the queen shot six more with equal precision. Then, leaning on her bow, she unstrung it and laid it down beside the remaining arrows on the trestle table beside her.
"You've come to speak to me?"
"No, esta-saiyett, for I've nothing more to say," replied the invisible Zenka through Maia's lips. "I've simply come as you asked me, to hear your decision."
"About your brother, is it?"
"My stepfather, esta-saiyett."
"Ah, yes. I couldn't remember, I'm afraid. Well, you must know this man, I suppose. What do you think he's worth?"
At this Maia's heart leapt. Apparently the queen was at least ready to sell Tharrin on some kind of terms.
"I can't say, esta-saiyett: I've no experience, I'm afraid."
"The man's life's dedicated to Cran," said the queen, as though deliberating. "But of course we must try to oblige you, Maia, if possible."
"Thank you very much, esta-saiyett: I'm most grateful, and so will he be."
"I've gone so far as to discuss the matter with the chief priest" (I wonder whether she really has? thought Maia) "and we feel that, remembering your valuable services to the city, the god would probably be content to forgo this sacrifice in return for--shall we say?--ten thousand meld."
She turned aside and began examining the fletching of one of the arrows.
So the game had entered another stage; and the silly mouse had afforded sport by showing, for a moment, that it had really supposed it was going to escape. Little or no experience as Maia had, she knew enough to be certain that Tharrin--an unskilled man in poor condition and over forty years old--was not worth a fifth of the sum the queen had named. She herself, as an outstandingly beautiful and almost untouched girl of fifteen, had been sold for fifteen thousand. Ogma, if she had not been given to the Serrelinda as a gift, might have been expected to fetch about eight hundred.
Yet the queen's game was far more ingenious than a mere promise followed by deprivation: that would have lacked subtlety. She had weighed to a nicety Maia's innate warmth of heart and genuine determination to save Tharrin if she could. With the special circumstance that Tharrin was temple property, a kind of deodand, it was possible publicly to justify the enormous sum demanded. But cleverer still, it would be just within Maia's power to raise it, provided she was ready to sacrifice most of wh
at She possessed--her jewels, her silver and so on. However, there was an alternative way to get the money, as Occula would undoubtedly have reminded her; and this, she thought, she would certainly pursue.
"Very well, esta-saiyett. I'll buy him from the temple for that sum."
"There's only one condition," said the queen, smiling, "which is unavoidable, I'm afraid, remembering that the executions are due to take place tomorrow morning. I shall need to receive the whole sum from you in coin by this time tomorrow at the latest."
Clearly, it had occurred to the queen no less readily than to Maia herself that, given time, and as the most adulated and desired woman in the city, she could have procured the money by the same means as Nennaunir would have procured it; though this would have been a somewhat lengthy undertaking. To advance her such a sum at twenty-four hours' notice, however, would be beyond the means of any friends she possessed; beyond the means, indeed, of virtually anyone in the upper city.
A little distance away, a cat had appeared on top of the wall bordering one side of the field. Fornis, picking up her bow again, strung it and then, almost without aiming as it seemed, shot an arrow which passed between the top of the wall and the cat's belly. As the cat leaped out of sight she tossed the bow to Ashaktis, clicking her tongue with annoyance.
"That's enough for today, Shakti," she said. "My wrist's getting tired. Tell Occula to get the bath ready and call the little boys."
With this she and Ashaktis turned away, leaving Maia alone in the field.
Having returned along the quiet, sunny avenues flanked by flowering trees, stone walls and trim gardens, Maia, as she entered her house, was met by Ogma with the news that Lord Elvair-ka-Virrion was waiting to see her.
As she came into the sunny parlor overlooking the Barb he sprang up from the window-seat and took both her hands in his own so eagerly that he almost seemed about to swing her off her feet.
"Maia! I was determined to wait until you came back! What a charming house this is they've given you! I do hope you're happy here, and getting well over your injuries-- your honorable wounds, I ought to say. I only wish I had a few like yours to boast about--you're ahead of me there, I'm afraid--for the time being, anyway. But you're looking marvelous! More beautiful than ever."