Bayub-Otal drank deeply; then got up and began pacing the room, his light, cream-colored robes swishing softly each time he turned about.

"Well, you know what happened, I dare say?"

"No, my lord. You forget, I'm only sixteen and not been long in Bekla at that. You're talking to a girl from the Tonildan Waste."

"Well, Shakkarn be thanked for that!" answered he. "Nearly seven years ago-oh, I must be careful what I say, mustn't I?"

"Why, my lord?"

"You know why. And yet," said Bayub-Otal, stopping in his walk and looking directly at Maia where she sat at the table, her cloud of golden hair framing her face and shoulders, "and yet, why should I? My feelings-the High Counselor, the Sacred Queen-they'd be stupider than oxen, wouldn't they, if they hadn't known from the start what I felt when the King of Terekenalt took Suba with their connivance?"

"When was that, then, my lord?"

"When you were about eight or nine years old. That's to say, when the Leopards came to power."

Maia recalled what Occula had told her. "When the Sacred Queen first came to Bekla, my lord?"

"Ah, yes, the Sacred Queen! Fornis of Paltesh! Have you ever seen her?"

"No, my lord, that I never."

"Well, I dare say you will before long. She was the only daughter of the High Baron of Paltesh, and when she became Sacred Queen-when Senda-na-Say was murdered and the Leopards made Durakkon High Baron of Bekla-King Harnat crossed the Zhairgen and took Suba for Terekenalt. Fornis had told him that Baltesh would offer no resistance. In return, he was to take no further advantage of the civil disturbances caused by the Leopard revolt. It was a very good bargain-for him. He knew Urtah couldn't resist him unsupported."

Stopping beside Maia, Bayub-Otal half-sat on the edge of the table and stared down at her bleakly, covering his mutilated hand with his other sleeve.

"But if you were the rightful heir of Suba, my lord," said Maia, "then why-" She stopped, overcome with embarrassment. Would he give her the same answer as Kem-bri? How did he see it? she could not help wondering.

"Why haven't they killed me? That's what you mean, isn't it?"

She nodded dumbly.

"Oh, no, Maia; why bother to make a martyr, when you've already got something much better-an ineffective, contemptible loser on public display? The High Baron's bastard son, who can't even draw a bow or cut up a chicken?-a fellow not worth the killing; unless he starts making a nuisance of himself, of course. Perhaps if I were to cross the Valderra into Suba-oh, yes, if I were just to go home, as any ordinary man's free to go-that might be grounds for putting me to death, I dare say. But the dancing-girl's dispossessed son, a man who can't even see any way to avenge his own honor, left free to kick his heels-

to take to drink, perhaps, or chasing worthless girls; to be a laughing-stock behind his back-"

Maia was genuinely moved to see tears in his eyes. She put a hand on his arm.

"What's the good, my lord? Trouble-the whole world's full of trouble; worse nor yours, and mine too. But we're here in a clean, warm room. We're not hungry or cold or ill. You've money, and wine-yes, and me, too, if you want. Far as we know, neither of us is goin' to die just yet. There's thousands as that'd be more than enough for."

He touched her forehead with his lips. "Yes, of course."

"Listen, my lord. There's a girl with me now in the High Counselor's house. You talk about loss and trouble-"

She began to tell him about Milvushina, but after a time he stopped her, resuming his restless pacing.

"Strange things happen, don't they? An enslaved girl's loved honorably for years, by a High Baron; and a baron's daughter's enslaved and becomes the victim of a filthy libertine."

" 'Tis all a dream, my lord. That's what old Drigga used to say-her as told the stories back home. When Lespa wakes us-"

"Now do you understand why I don't feel inclined to go to bed with you-or with any girl? Do you think I'd buy a girl's body, or compel a girl to bed with me, after what I've told you; yes, and after what you've just told me? This whole city's full of wretched girls yielding to men because they've no choice. And wouldn't those men love to see me become as dissolute as themselves?"

"You take it too hard, my lord, that you do. It's pleasure and comfort, after all. Where's the harm, long as the girl's willing-?"

"Yes, for a lygol!" He spat the word. "Where's the dignity, the sincerity, in what they're doing?" He pointed upward. "Where my father bedded, there he loved. And where he loved, there he honored and cherished." His voice rose. "I'm speaking of the sense of responsibility that ought to go with desire for a woman."

"And d'you know what I reckon, my lord? I reckon you're just cutting off your nose to spite your face. There's thousands have lost everything and had to make the best of what's left. You should, too."

"I will: when Suba's free. I have a sacred duty to my people, you see. But that's enough of such talk." He smiled

into her eyes, his pale, rather fine features (did he take something after his mother? she wondered) seeming to express amusement at the futility of his own outburst. "You told me you dance, sometimes. Will you dance for me now?"

"Oh, I'd not have the face, my lord; not after what you told me-about your mother, I mean."

"If I were to tell you to take off your clothes and go to bed with me, I suppose you'd raise no objection at all. Yet you're reluctant just to dance. I find that rather depressing."

"One's difficult and I'd do it badly. "Pother's easy and I'd do it well."

"All in a day's work, eh?"

• "I know how to give pleasure, my lord. Ask anyone you like! You can start with Lord Eud-Ecachlon, and-"

"I don't think I'll bother," interrupted Bayub-Otal bleakly. "But I will trouble you to dance for me: I've a particular reason. Please go and ask them to send in a hinnarist."

Maia could only obey. When she returned Haubas, Ka-Roton and the two shearnas had come back downstairs. As they lolled half-dressed in one corner of the room, yawning and barely attentive, Maia did her best to tell the accompanist what she wanted and then, sadly devoid of any real confidence, entered upon the reppa of the sen-guela, which depicted Lespa's apotheosis to become the consort of Shakkarn and divine mistress of stars and dreams.

As she danced, unable for a moment to discard her awareness of the inadequate space, of the spent, drowsy Urtans and the indifferent hinnarist with whom she had not rehearsed, Maia had never felt so clumsy, so incapable of forgetting herself or of becoming in her heart the god-. dess whom she was supposed to be representing. She had forgotten to ask for the floor to be swept, and once, treading unexpectedly on a broken nutshell, she stumbled and could barely control a cry of pain. Yet Bayub-Otal, watching gravely, gave no sign of disappointment. As she came to the close-the beautiful, beneficent young goddess gazing down upon her sleeping earth-people between the clouds invisibly spread below her-dismally aware that she was two beats ahead of the hinnari, she felt full of chagrin. It was the first time she had danced for anyone but Occula, and a sorry go she had made of it.

"Maia," said Bayub-Otal after a few moments, "I can tell what you're feeling. Will you believe me if I tell you that you're a great deal better than you suppose? Given the opportunity, I'll prove it to you before much longer."

She made no reply, but he seemed to expect none and, having paid and dismissed the hinnarist, opened a shutter upon the Caravan Market.

"It's late," he said, as the clock-lanterns opened and shone for midnight, "but there's still no rain for the moment. You have to go back to the upper city, don't you? I'll go with you as far as the Peacock Gate. Then you can take the jekzha on and I'll walk back."