Sacred Queen would be an insult to the god. What's to be done with Fornis when she ceases to be Sacred Queen?" Kembri, who had been listening with his eyes on the ground, looked up. "I think it may very well be, sir," he replied, "that when the time comes, that's one matter on which you and I will find ourselves in complete agreement. I have certain ideas; we'll discuss them later." Craning past the High Baron towards the stairhead outside, he called down to the sentry, "Karval! Send up the High Counselor's slaves!"

"No, no, banzi! Doan' try to take it all at once like that. Take a little at a time, and get used to that before you try to take any more."

"It keeps choking me. I'll never do it!"

"Yes, you will. It's like the hinnari. You think you'll never be able to hold six strings down with one finger, and then one day you find you can. Come on, now, try again."

"M'm-m'm-m'm!"

"Fine! Now just rock your head. That's right! You'll find you can take the whole lot just for a moment before you come up again. Once more! Right, that'll do for now. There, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

"But when there's someone else pushing too?"

"Then you have to close down a bit tighter. You're the one in control, remember, even if you never say a word. It's astonishin' how they accept what you do if only you do it the right way. If you doan' like whatever he's doin', you can pretend you're simply dyin' for him to do somethin' else and get him to go on to that-oh, yes, he will, if he thinks he's making you enjoy yourself. It plays on a man's vanity, you see. Flattery gets you everywhere, as long as they doan' realize what it is."

"You'll have to open a school, Occula." Both girls looked round to see Terebinthia leaning against one of the columns near the entrance. They wondered how long she had been there.

"Is there anything I can have the pleasure of doing for you, saiyett?" asked Occula.

"Not at the moment," replied Terebinthia, yawning and stretching her arms above her head. "There's a pedlar here, selling perfumes-soaps-jewelry-things like that. He's been talking with the High Counselor; but he's fin-

ished now. If you'd like him to come in here and show you what he's got, I have no objection."

"Shall we, banzi?" asked Occula. "It'll pass the time and we might pick up some gossip and news, even if we doan' buy anythin'. Where's he from, saiyett, do you know?"

"From Tonilda, I think," replied Terebinthia.

"Oh, well, that settles it," said Occula. "Have you got any money, Meris?"

"Some: but Dyphna's got more," said Meris, sliding off the couch where she had been dozing in the heat. "I'll go and ask her whether she's interested."

Dyphna, the fourth girl in Sencho's household, was a tall, graceful, rather superior girl from Yelda, whom Sen-cho occasionally made use of himself, but really kept by way of trying to convince Beklan aristocrats that his enjoyment of women was capable of going beyond the merely physical. So far, Occula and Maia had seen little of her except at meals, when she spoke seldom but seemed friendly enough. As the senior concubine she had her own, larger room, where she spent most of her time. Maia had become nervous of her upon discovering that she could read and write and apparently-according to Meris-possessed all manner of other accomplishments; but as Occula pointed out, she had done nothing by way of pushing these down their throats or trying to make them feel small.

She came in now, following Meris and fastening a cloak over her transparent muslin shift. The airless heat in the women's quarters was hard enough to bear even without clothes, and Maia, who felt little interest either in the pedlar or in any news there might be from Tonilda, hoped Occula and the others would not keep him long. She had just slipped into her robe and was running a comb through her hair when Terebinthia returned, holding the bead curtains aside for a tall young man who ducked his head as he came through the doorway.

Pedlars licensed to travel throughout the empire under the protection of Bekla wore a traditional costume to denote their occupation. Maia had often seen such men as this in the streets of Meerzat or tramping the lakeside road. His round, hard hat of scarlet leather, too hot to wear at this time of year, hung at his back by a loop, and the sleeves of his green shirt, dark with sweat, were rolled above the elbow. His jerkin, with its white stripe back and front and colored ribbons at each shoulder, was slung over

one arm, while on the other he was carrying by its straps his canvas pack, from the top of which protruded three or four colored feather dusters on sticks. Coming to a halt in the middle of the room, he pulled out one of these and tickled Meris under the chin.

"Well, well, well," said the pedlar cheerfully. "Keeping nice and warm, young ladies, are we, this weather? Not too cold in bed, I hope?"

The eye with which he winked at Maia was sharp and bright as a jackdaw's. He looked about twenty-three or -four, and everything about him, from his sunburned face to the dust on his shoes, suggested a life spent out of doors and a man used to give-and-take with all comers.

"Is that all you've come to sell us?" asked Meris, grabbing for his hand and missing it. "Feather dusters?" She had let her cloak slide down from her shoulders, exposing as much as she dared with Terebinthia in the room.

"Oh, no, no!" said the pedlar, tickling her again. "By no means! But I always begin by tickling-that's the style, don't you think, to get things going? I'm sure she knows more about tickling than I do," he remarked to Maia.

Meris squealed with laughter. The young man unslung his pack, put it down on the floor and then turned to look more closely at Maia. "Where you from, lass?"

"Lake Serrelind," said Maia, her eyes pricking in spite of herself.

"Then you ought to be back there, that's all I can say," answered he, in a more serious tone. "You're far too young to be here. How did they come to steal you?"

Terebinthia spoke languidly from the opposite side of the room.

"Do you know where you are, my good man? You're in the upper city, in the house of the High Counselor. If you have any goods fit to show these girls, you'd better get on with it, and stop wasting their time and mine."

"Why, certainly, saiyett," replied he. "But I was waiting until all the young ladies were present. Isn't there one more somewhere?"

Maia, looking round, realized that Occula was not in the room. She had not seen her leave it.

"What do you know-?" Terebinthia was beginning, when Occula came in from the corridor leading to the bedrooms wearing her gold nose-stud, orange metlan and

hunting-jacket. The pedlar, who had been crouching beside his pack to open it, stood up again.

"Hello, Zirek," said Occula. "Did you know I was here?"

"I heard at Lalloc's," answered he. "I knew you'd gone to Bekla, of course, for Domris told me: to better yourself, she said. I hope you will. They miss you at the Lily Pool, I'm told."

"Oh, do get on and open your pack!" cried Meris. "I mean, if you're both from Thettit that's wonderful, I'm sure, but I want to see what you've brought."

"Why, I've got rolls of silk," said the pedlar, "and veils, all fine fartaa-work-see, here-if that's your style. And just try this perfume, now. That's real kepris, that is, from up the Vrako. Let me put a drop on the back of your hand. The whole flask's only a hundred meld to you. Well, say ninety, but I couldn't let it go for less."

Meris's face fell. "I can't manage that much."

"Well, here's a nice soap, now, scented with roses, and that's only four meld for a big one like this; and the same in scent, only that's thirty meld. And then I've these necklaces, see: topaz this one; and this one's onyx. Only they're dear. I don't really know why I risk my life carrying them about, but one day some lady'll put up the money, I dare say."