Now he suddenly assumed a kind of stilted, homespun dignity and authority, like that of a gate-porter or a domestic steward. Perhaps, after all, he had not been made governor of the prison for nothing.
"Saiyett, little as you may wish it, I must request you to come back to my room, for I have something to say to you of a private nature. I regret to inform you that you have no choice, for the gates are locked and I can't let you leave until you've heard me. I've no wish to hurry you, however. You can either come with me now or stay here and come as soon as you feel ready."
"Very well," she said, "I'll come. But before I do--" She pointed to Tharrin. "Bring someone now--now! --to close his eyes and lay him out properly. And then see that he's treated decently and burned as he should be. I'll pay for everything. Will you promise me that?"
"Yes, saiyett: in fact I'll go and see to it at once." He went out, and she heard him call a name: there were footsteps and muttered instructions, too low for her to catch the words.
They walked back together in silence. Once Maia stopped short, clutching the governor's arm as from somewhere not far off sounded a scream. He only grasped her wrist and led her on, through the iron-bound door and back down the passage to his room. Here she was overcome by a fresh seizure of grief; but now, from very exhaustion, she wept almost silently, sitting at the table, her head on her arms.
At length, regaining some degree of composure, she said in a voice of cold accusation, "U-Pokada, when I first came here, the day before yesterday.'you asked me whether I'd brought poison, and told me as you had to make sure prisoners didn't kill themselves."
He nodded, looking at her with pursed lips, like a man with something on his mind and unsure whether to tell it or not.
"Tharrin had no reason to hang himself. So if one of your men didn't hang him, who did, and why? And how did he get a rope?"
Still he said nothing, and she burst out, "I warn you, U-Pokada, I'm going to make a public matter of it. I'm going to see you ruined for this." She snatched up the parchment, which was still lying where he had left it on the table. "Here's a pardon, sealed by the Sacred Queen herself, for a man who was in your charge--"
He was trembling now, the big, fleshy hulk of a man, fear written all over him, even his silver earrings shaking in his head.
"Saiyett--saiyett--"
"Yes?" But he said no more. "Well, what?"
"Saiyett, I tell you--what I'm going to tell you--it--it puts my life in your hands. I tell you, and perhaps you get me hanged upside-down--if I tell you--"
"You mean you did murder him?"
"No, saiyett, no? I didn't murder him, no! I'll tell you the truth, I'll trust my life to you because I believe what everybody says, that you're a kind-hearted, good lady. Once you know the truth, then you're not going to be angry any more, you're not going to ruin me, because you're just and fair--"
She stamped her foot. "Stop this stupid nonsense! Say what you have to say and get on with it!"
Pokada, having shut and locked the door, went over to the window, which he closed after peering outside. Then he sat down on the bench beside the table.
"Saiyett," he whispered, "do you know a Palteshi woman in the upper city? A woman close to the Sacred Queen?"
"Ashaktis, do you mean? A dark, middle-aged woman, with a Palteshi accent?"
"Sh! Saiyett, sh! We've got to whisper--"
Still angry, but nevertheless affected by his fear, she lowered her voice. "Well? What about Ashaktis, then?"
"Saiyett, it was very early this morning: it was only just light. I was up, with two of my men, preparing for the executions. Only there are things we navesto see to--the priests come--well, I don't need to tell you about that. But then Elindir, the man on the gate, he comes and beckons me to one side, so no one else can hear, and he says there's a woman come; and then he gives me a note with the queen's seal which says I'm to see her at once. But Elindir says she won't come further than the gate."
He stopped, as though expecting Maia to reply. She said nothing and after a few moments he resumed.
"I went to the gate-house and there was the woman all muffled up--her face, too--nothing I could know her by again except her voice, her Palteshi accent. She said no one was to know that she'd gone into the prison. She hid behind a curtain while I called Elindir and told him she'd left. She told me to do that, and then to send him away again on some errand.
"Then she showed me another note from the queen, saying that I was to take her to the prisoner Tharrin in his cell. No one was to see her on the way. So I sent away the two men who were waiting for the priests, and took her to Tharrin myself. He was sleeping, saiyett, and when I woke him he smiled and said 'Is it Maia come?'
"The woman told me to go away and wait up the passage, by the far door. And then after--oh, not very long, saiyett--five minutes, I suppose--she came back up the passage and she said 'Now give me back both those notes.' So then she had both the notes herself, you see, and I took her back to the gate and let her out. And the last thing she said, saiyett, she said 'If the queen gets to hear one word from any living soul about my coming here, you'll hang upside-down, do you understand?'
"And then, not ten minutes later, we found Tharrin dead, just like you saw. Seven years, saiyett, seven years I've been governor here and not one condemned man has ever been able to kill himself before."
Still Maia said nothing. "Saiyett, I've told you because you said you'd see me ruined. But now you know the truth, you won't want to do that, will you? If the Sacred Queen gets to hear--"
"No, I won't say anything, U-Pokada," replied Maia listlessly. She stood up. "I'll go now. Come to the gate with me, please."
"Saiyett," he said, "there's one thing you can comfort yourself with. At least you saved him from worse: he didn't have to go to the temple. And you and I, We're no worse off, are we, as long as we both say nothing?"
Her jekzha was gone, and rather than wait while another was fetched she put up her veil and walked away, down through the reeking lanes of the Shilth towards the Sheldad. Whether anyone spoke to her or tried to accost her she had no idea. In the Sheldad she found a jekzha and returned to the upper city.
65: A GLIMPSE DOWN THE PIT
The knife-blade was strong--too strong to bend or break on bone--and its point was very sharp.
When she had told him that she would only need it for an hour, Brero had lent it to her without asking any questions. It was belted on her left side and her cloak hid it completely.
She had put her diamonds in their box and buried it in the garden. She would have liked to give them away--to Occula or even to Nennaunir--but that would have meant explanations and anyway there was no time. Delay was the last thing endurable now.
Nevertheless she set out on foot, partly because she did not want her soldiers to be accused, later, of having known where she was going, but principally because she wanted to feel herself alone with her purpose, deliberate and si-lent, pacing down the avenues and flower-bordered walks of the upper city.
Behind her the Barb glinted in the mid-morning sunshine and the gray-green shadows on Crandor deepened as the sun moved southward above the summit.
I was born dirt-poor, she thought. I was sold for a slave and I shall have died mistress of my own house in the upper city. Nothing's going to alter that.
This time she did not make her way to the garden of the queen's house, but straight to the further gate, where the porter, recognizing the Serrelinda as readily as would any other servant in the upper city, was prompt to accept both her five meld and her telling him that she had an appointment to see U-Zuno.
Slowly, as though in a dream, she walked across the courtyard towards the side, stone front--the way she had come with Ashaktis on the morning when the Sacred Queeri had taken her from Kembri. She met no one, but this did not surprise her. If, as she believed, the gods had appointed her their agent, then the gods would ensure that she was not hindered.
Climbing the broad steps, she paused a few momen
ts before raising and letting fall the heavy, bronze knocker. It was bigger than her own hand, made to represent a crouching leopard. The sound, plangent and resonant, pleased her. Just so should the arrival be announced of an emissary of retribution.
Yet it was not Zuno but a very ordinary servant who opened the door; a middle-aged, stooping, graybearded man; some house-slave, it would seem, who had merely happened to be working near-by, for he was wearing a sacking apron, in the front of which he had stuck his duster and hearth-brush.
"Her Sacred Majesty's--" he began, before she had spoken.
"Are you the servant whose duty it is to answer this door?" she asked, staring at him coldly and haughtily.
At this the poor wretch clearly felt himself--and whatever authority he might have tried to exercise--at a disadvantage.
"Well, no, not exactly, saiyett. But you see, it's early for anyone to be calling, and what with the doings at the temple and that, they weren't expecting--that's to say, the doorkeeper--"
--Had slipped away for a drink and a chat, she thought. It might have been fore-ordained. She gave the man two meld, at which he stared and bobbed his head.
"It doesn't matter: I shan't be more than a few minutes. I wish to speak with Her Sacred Majesty's personal steward. I know where to find him, so you can get back to your work."
She made her way along the jade-green colonnade, from the central ceiling of which hung the huge, winged figure she dimly recalled from the morning of her first arrival. It was, she now saw, an image of Canathron of Lapan, that vindictive dragon-god with serpent's head and condor's wings, flying inviolate through the midst of his nimbus of flames--fire being his natural element. Canathron was not worshipped in Bekla, except by such immigrant merchants and craftsmen as had come there from Lapan, and Maia could only guess that this must be an old treasure of the house; a gift, perhaps, or relic of some reign of a former Sacred Queen who had been Lapanese. She walked beneath it with mistrust and apprehension.
She knew nothing of Canathron, except that he was reputed to be pitiless to his enemies. Might he in some way, perhaps, be a tutelary guardian of the house? Yet not even Canathron--no god or goddess whatever--would condone the unspeakable treachery and wickedness which she had come to avenge at the cost of her own life. At this thought she raised her eyes boldly to his jeweled ones staring down, held his gaze a moment and then passed on to the foot of the staircase.
Climbing the two flights to the gallery at the top of the house, still she met no one. She had been half-afraid of coming upon the lad with the great hound, but all was quiet as could be. Knowing her way, she went along the corridor to the door of the queen's bedroom, laid her hand on the hilt of her knife and strode in without knock or call.
Occula was lying on the bed, playing with a white kitten: she was alone in the room. As Maia entered she started, and the kitten, taking fright, jumped down and ran away.
"Banzi! What the hell are you doin' here?"
"Where is she?" asked Maia.
"Banzi, have you gone out of your mind? Who let you in? Tell me what you're doin' here."
"Where is she?"
"D'you mean Fornis?" All in a moment Occula had leaped up, seized Maia by the shoulders, pulled open her cloak and disclosed the knife in its sheath. As she tried to take it from her Maia resisted fiercely, biting at her wrists. For fully a quarter of a minute the two girls struggled silently. Finally Occula stood back, panting.
"Banzi, just you give me that bastin' knife and get out of here! D'you realize she'll be back any minute and if she finds you here with that thing she'll have the perfect reason to see you put to death!"
"That's one thing she'll never see," answered Maia, "because I'm going to kill her first."
"Oh, for Cran's sake!" cried the black girl. "You never used to be such a damn' fool! Who let you in? Who knows you're here?"
"Don't matter. Once she's dead they can all do what they like. Or I will first."
Occula buried her face in her hands and moaned.
"O Kantza-Merada! I can't make you go if you woan'-- not without bringin' the whole place round us. Will you come with me to another room?"
Maia shook her head.
"But what's put you out of your senses like this, banzi? At least tell me that." She moaned again. "D'you realize every minute you stay here-- Banzi, my own dear little banzi, for the sake of everythin' there's ever been between us, tell me what's happened, only be quick about it!"
Maia told her of all she had done to save Tharrin, of her visit to the prison that morning and of what Pokada had told her about the earlier, clandestine visit of Ashaktis. As she spoke of seeing Tharrin's body in the cell she began to cry again but then, dashing away the tears and clenching her fists, she ended, "And now the gods have appointed me to kill her: that's for sure. Otherwise, how did I get in here so easy?"
"Banzi," said Occula, taking her hands, "you're wrong; and I'll tell you for why. I'm the one that's goin' to kill her; same as I killed Sencho. I'm the one the gods have appointed to put an end to these wicked people. I'm goin' to do it in my own way and my own good time; and when I'm done I'll walk out alive--you wait and see if I doan'. But it's a tricky business--for anyone that wants to stay alive, that is. The difference between you and me is, I know what I'm doin' and you doan'; not a bastin' thing. You'd just be throwin' your life away for nothin', because I'm goin' to get Miss Folda, and that damned Shakti woman, too. And I'm halfway there, banzi; I'm halfway there now! Doan', doan' go and throw your life away just because of poor Tharrin. She's guilty of far, far more than killin' Tharrin. She's guilty of every wickedness under the sun; murder, and treachery, and fraud--"
"Fraud!" cried Maia. "Poor Tharrin put that clean out of my head! Ten thousand meld!"
"You're better off without that lot, banzi, believe me. There's certain to be trouble, but at least you'll be able to say you never touched a meld of it. Now answer me: do you want to die horribly and quite unnecessarily for ten thousand meld and a poor man you can't help any more?"
Maia was silent. The telling of her bitter story to her dearest and most trusted friend had done much to set things in proportion and to bring home to her impulsive heart the grim reality of the price she had thought herself ready to pay for revenge on the Sacred Queen. To die by torture or to stab herself to the heart: neither would bring poor Tharrin back to life; and as for Randronoth's nine thousand meld, well, it had never been hers and she had never reckoned it would be. Anger and humiliation at being hoodwinked and tricked by Fornis--were these, perhaps, as much a part of her motive as her grief for Tharrin? Her resolution began to waver.
"Banzi, love," said Occula, "there's no time to lose. She'll be back any minute, and if I know anythin' about it she'll be like a goat on the loose. You doan' know what she's like after these little sprees down at the temple. I can hardly stand it myself, an' that's sayin' somethin'. If she finds you-- Banzi, give me that knife, and then I'll call Zuno to get you out of here. I suppose the knife's your soldier's, is it? I'll get it sent back later, somehow or other."
Maia was about to give Occula the knife when the black girl, who had gone over to the open door, suddenly turned, facing back towards her with an expression of utter terror and dismay.
"Banzi! She's back! She's only just along the corridor! O Cran save us, she'll be here in a minute!" She looked frantically round the room. "Get in there, quick! Get in that closet and doan' make a sound!"
Maia, with no feelings now but panic and desperation, slipped into the closet and lay down as Occula pushed the door shut. A few moments later the Sacred Queen entered the room.
It was clear that Fornis was wrought-up and in some kind of abnormal state. Her eyes were wide and her lips glistening and parted. She was panting and flushed and her hands trembled. As the black girl turned away from the closet and took a step towards her she mouthed "Occula! Yes!" in a kind of swift gasp, and then stood waiting, apparently for some attention there was no need to specify.
Occula at once went to the door and closed and locked it. Returning, she faced the queen and in a contemptuous tone, as though rebuking a slave, said "You're dirty! There's blood on your arms, you bitch!"
"Lick it off!" replied Fornis quickly. "Lick it off, Occula, lick it off!"
Occula complied, the queen holding out her arms, staring before her and standing still as a post while she did so.
The closet door had swung slightly ajar, but Maia, though terrified of discovery, did not dare to pull it to, for the queen was only two or three yards away from her. Form's, however, seemed in no frame of mind to notice anything. As Occula finished what she had been told to do, she sank to her knees on the floor, wiping her wet arms on her face and salivating down her chin.
"Well, and did you enjoy yourself down at the temple?" asked Occula in the same insolent tone, standing over her with her hands on her hips.
"OhJ--Two of them I did myself--how they screamed!" The queen clasped Occula round the waist.
"Get on with it, Occula! Hurry up!"
Occula spat in her face, pulled off the crown of Airtha, walked across to the mirror and adjusted it on her own head. Coming back, she ran her hands through the queen's elaborately-dressed hair, disheveling it until it hung round her shoulders in an unkempt tangle, and then, stooping, gripped the hem of the purple robe and tugged it roughly over her head.
Fornis, her lips twisted in an unnatural grimace, remained kneeling on the floor. Occula, opening a drawer, took out a coarse, sacking smock--the kind of garment commonly worn by kitchen-slaves too mean ever to appear except among their own kind--a floor-cloth and a hearth-brush. She was closing the drawer when Fornis, with a kind of moaning excitement, prompted her. "My shift, Occula, my shift!"
The black girl, crossing the room in two strides, seized the top of her embroidered silk shift between her hands, ripped it from hem to shoulder and tossed it into a corner.
Then, flinging the smock and implements on the floor, she went over to the dressing-table, sat down with her back turned and began polishing her nails.
Eagerly and hastily the queen put on the sacking smock, which was stained, ragged, and so rank that Maia could smell it from where she was crouching in the closet. Beggars in the lower city smelled less disgusting. Dragging over an earthenware jar of water standing in the far corner of the room, Fornis began washing the floor on her hands and knees.