Out of the tail of her eye, Maia saw Haubas glance at Ka-Roton and Ka-Roton shrug.

"Just as you wish, my lord."

They went out into the colonnade while the landlord's boy ran for a jekzha. As they were getting into it Maia caught a glimpse, in the shadows, of a solitary girl-no doubt the same one whose importuning voice she had heard earlier in the evening. She looked haggard, dingy and considerably older than Maia.

"Is that your lygol?" asked Terebinthia grimly. "Are you sure you haven't been tampering with it?"

"When did I ever tamper with a lygol, saiyett?" said Maia. "They're Urtans. Why do I have to go with them?"

"You needn't again," replied Terebinthia, "if they can't do better than that."

36: A SIGN FOR OCCULA

"When are you going to take the field, then?" asked Du-rakkon. With any luck, he thought, and if Melekril were really ending (for sometimes the rainy season would appear to be over, only to resume for as long as two weeks), Kembri might leave Bekla within the next few days and remain several months with the army.

He wondered, not for the first time, what good he had ever done anyone throughout the empire by seizing the lordship of Bekla. As for himself, fear and anxiety never left him. He was surrounded by and dependent upon men

whom he disliked and despised-men who had corrupted the city and alienated many parts of the provinces. Day in and day out, simply to maintain power, he lent his name to a regime of intrigue, double-dealing and subterfuge. He had accomplished nothing of what he had first intended: this bore no resemblance-none-r-to the benevolent rule with which he had planned to replace Senda-na-Say's.

"Give the roads a few days to dry," answered Kembri, "and I'll take the Tonildan and Beklan regiments to the Valderra to join Sendekar."

"Has Sencho found out anything yet about Karnat's whereabouts and plans?"

"The truth is," said Kembri, "that Sencho's becoming less and less useful. It was only to be expected, I suppose. Lately, apparently, he hasn't even been capable of seeing his own men or hearing their reports. Anything could be brewing and we might not hear about it until too late, simply because he's sick or dying."

"Is he dying?" asked Durakkon.

"His saiyett won't say a word one way or the other. One of his girls-a Tonildan-is reporting to me, and she thinks not; but she's only a child and she could be wrong-she admits it herself. As far as I can make out, he seems to have become completely dependent on the black girl-you know, the one all the younger men are talking about."

"The sorceress?" asked Durakkon. "Didn't she do some extraordinary sort of act with a knife-someone told me-"

"I don't know," replied Kembri shortly. "I wasn't there. She certainly seems to have acquired some extraordinary sort of influence over Sencho. The Tonildan's been with Bayub-Otal a couple of times. He seems to fancy her in some way of his own. I've told her to do everything she can to win his confidence. If only he'll talk freely to her, we might learn a great deal about Urtah-and Suba too; more than Sencho's likely to find out for us in his present condition. She's here now, without Sencho's knowledge. That's one advantage of him being sick, at least."

"Well, we'd better have her in then, I suppose," said Durakkon, with an air of distaste.

"I think not," replied Kembri. "If we do, at least one person-my saiyett-is going to know that you and I talked to her together, and possibly draw conclusions. No, I'll have her taken into a bedroom: nobody's going to wonder

about that. There's one with a concealed screen, so you can easily come and hear what she's got to say."

A few minutes later Durakkon, seated in darkness behind the screen and looking into the lamp-lit room, saw the girl come in. He remembered, now, having noticed her at the Rains banquet-a golden-haired lass, strikingly beautiful. Raising her palm to her forehead, she stood before the Lord General in an attitude of expectant submission.

"You won't be here long today," said Kembri, "and don't try to do what you did last time, or I shall be angry; do you understand?"

"Yes, my lord."

"You've been with Bayub-Otal again?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Were you alone with him?"

"Well, quite a while I was, my lord, yes."

"Did he say anything about Suba?"

"He said he'd not be able to take life easy, my lord, till Suba was free; on account of he had a sacred duty to his people."

"Nothing more?"

"No, my lord."

"You didn't think of asking him what he meant by that, or how he intended to go about it?"

"Well, I would have, my lord; only then he broke off the talk himself, see, and made me dance; and after that he said we'd go home, so I never had the chance to ask him any more, like."

"Well, that's useful information as far as it goes," said Kembri. "How is the High Counselor today?"

"About the same, my lord, I reckon: kind of sleepy, like. Not himself at all. It's like as if he was bewitched, sort of."

"What else did you talk about with Bayub-Otal?"

"He was on telling me about his father and mother."

"That old tale again," said Kembri.

"Well, I thought 'twas very sad, my lord, the way he told it to me."

"I'm sure it was," said Kembri drily. "You enjoyed listening to him, then?"

"Well, reckon I did, my lord, yes. He told me how he'd grown up in Suba and how he'd been promised the rule

of it by his father; and then how it had been given to this King Karnat."

"It's time you understood a little more about this matter now, Maia," said Kembri. "If Bayub-Otal wanted Suba badly enough, he might-mightn't he-offer to rule it as some sort of vassal of King Karnat? Offer to pay him tribute and so on, if only he'd let him rule the country his father promised him?"

"I s'pose he might, my lord." She frowned, plainly perplexed and out of her depth: then suddenly laughed, showing her white, even teeth in the lamplight. "More 'n I'd want, I know that! Strikes me 's nothin' but a peck of trouble-"

"Never mind," said Kembri brusquely. "King Karnat, if he were to give Bayub-Otal the rule of Suba, would want him to give something in return. And it might be something we wouldn't want Karnat to have, mightn't it?"

The girl frowned again. "Don't see what he's got to give him, my lord."

"He could order his Subans to fight for Karnat," said Kembri. "He could persuade them that it would be in their own best interests to help Karnat to conquer Paltesh or even Bekla itself, in return for giving them back their freedom. Now tell me, did Bayub-Otal tell you where he'd been since he was last in Bekla?"

"No, my lord. Nor I didn't see how I could ask him without him getting suspicious of me, like."

"He didn't tell you he'd been across the Valderra, or gone into Suba, or anything like that?"

"No, my lord."

"Now that you know what I've explained to you, can you remember him saying anything that makes you think he might be in touch with King Karnat?"

"No, my lord. But you see, he kept on saying he expected I was going to tell everything to the High Counselor, so he wasn't going to say anything as everyone didn't know already. He was very much on his guard, as you might say."

"Did he bed you?" asked Kembri,

"No, my lord. He told me-well, he kind of said as he didn't go in for such things, like, on account of his father and mother an' that-"

Kembri waved a hand. "All right. Now listen, Maia. I want you to get to know him still better. Tell him you go

along with these ideas of his and that you think he's a sadly-wronged man. You must get still further into his confidence. Tell him you hate the Leopards, hate being a slave and so on. But don't overdo it, or he'll get suspicious. You're to go on being a simple, country girl. But above all, get him to talk about Suba. Tell him it sounds a wonderful place-that you'd love to go there-anything you like. He's up to something or other; of that we're certain. Find out what it is, Maia, and from that day you shall be a free woman. Do you understand?"