The Belishban girl's shining, black hair was coiled round her head in thick braids fastened with gold combs, leaving her olive-skinned, dark-eyed face to speak, as it were, for itself. It certainly did that, thought Maia. Her striking beauty had a sulky, lascivious quality, as though, sated with luxury, she were now determined to refuse herself to everyone, except to a man who could make her feel differently about it. She was wearing a thin necklace of plaited gold, gold bracelets on her bare arms, and a close fitting robe of jade-green, gathered at the waist with a gold belt and falling to her ankles. The general effect was provocative in the last degree.
"You look like a trap ready to go off any minute," said Occula. "Jus' keep still while I slip 'em in."
"Are you girls ready?" called Terebinthia from the other side of the bead curtains. "Remember, you have to get everything prepared and be waiting by the High Counselor's couch when he arrives. Meris, by this time you ought to know everything that has to be done. Mind you tell Maia, and see she doesn't make any mistakes."
"Very well, saiyett," answered Meris. "Have you seen my cloak anywhere?"
"I have it here," replied Terebinthia, "and Maia's too."
No other Beklan noble left his house so rarely as Sencho. Detesting exertion, or any interruption of his pleasures beyond what was necessary for the maintenance of his power and influence, he never visited the premises of merchants or craftsmen, but made them-as he had made Lalloc-bring their wares to him. When summoned by Durakkon he was obliged to obey, if only for the sake of appearance, but otherwise-and this seclusion was an important constituent of his power and of the fear he inspired-he attended only the greater religious ceremonies and perhaps half a dozen parties and banquets a year- those of the Sacred Queen and the other principal rulers.
Accordingly he did not keep litter-slaves, having little employment for them, but was accustomed, when he went abroad, to make use of soldiers. This evening he had ordered no fewer than twenty, under a tryzatt. Six of these, with two more for torch-bearers, were to carry the girls in a closed litter, arriving at the Lord General's house half an hour before Sencho himself.
Terebinthia, as mindful as any good huntsman or shepherd of her responsibility for her master's property, had ordered the big litter to be set down in the outer lobby of the women's quarters and left there. Once the girls had got into it, she closed and pinned the curtains and then called the soldiers back. Having reminded them of their orders not to speak to the girls and to take every care to carry them smoothly despite the mud, rain and falling dusk, she accompanied them as far as the gate, where old Jarvil, the porter, was waiting with the torch-bearers.
The distance to Kembri-B'sai's house was about three-quarters of a mile. Nevertheless, the journey lasted half an hour, for as they approached the gates they fell in with any number of other litters, the bearers jostling and pressing forward upon one another in the gathering darkness, all eager to get out of the rain.
"Silly bastards!" said Meris, holding on to a strut of the litter and peering out through a chink in the curtains. "Why isn't there someone to keep all these damn' turds in order and let them in one or two at a time? Look, there's two lots actually come to blows over there! Thank Cran we've got soldiers! That's one consideration for belonging to Sen-cho, anyway."
" 'Tis awful stuffy, isn't it?" said Maia. " 'Nough to make anyone take on bad. Hope it isn't much further."
"When the barons and the big shearnas start arriving later, their litter-bearers'll all be properly directed," said Meris, "but of course that'd be too much trouble to take over the likes of us. Oh, look! One of those torch-bearers isn't half a fine, big fellow, can you see?"
At this moment the tryzatt, standing outside, apologized to them for the delay and inconvenience, which he was now, he said, going to cut short. Thereupon, raising a cry of "Way for the High Counselor's girls!" he strode ahead of them, the litter following through the surrounding darkness and hubbub. The close air, their own exhaled breath in the confined space, the continual dipping and lurching as the soldiers lost their step in the crowd and the incessant drumming of the rain on the roof were beginning to make Maia turn sick and faint, when suddenly the noise subsided and she saw the glow of lamplight between the curtains. A moment later the litter was put down and she heard the orders of the tryzatt as he collected his men and left.
"Can we get out now?" she asked Meris, her curiosity
and eagerness mounting as she realized that they must have arrived.
"Not yet," replied the Belishban girl. "You have to wait till the head steward or the saiyett comes and opens your litter. There'll be someone like Terebinthia, only not such a bitch-well, she couldn't be, could she? It isn't very long, as a rule."
A minute later the curtains were drawn apart by a smiling, fair-haired woman of about thirty-five, dressed in a sky-blue robe fastened with two emerald brooches.
"You must be U-Sencho's girls?" asked this lady, on whose shoulder Maia now saw the cognizance of a chained leopard in gold.
"Yes, saiyett," replied Meris, taking the hand extended to help her out of the litter.
"It's nice to see the High Counselor's doing himself as well as usual," smiled the other, evidently wishing to say something hospitable and pleasant. "Have you been to the Lord General's Rains banquet before?"
"Yes, once; with General Han-Glat, saiyett," said Meris, "before I joined U-Sencho's household."
"Oh, you've been with General Han-Glat?" said she, with a rather knowing smile. "I see. And what about this lass?" she went on, giving her hand to Maia in turn. Then, as Maia stepped out and the lamplight fell on her, "Oh, what a pretty girl! But you're only a child! How old are you?"
"Fifteen, saiyett."
"And of course you haven't been here before, have you?"
"I've only been in Bekla just a short time, saiyett: I don't know a great lot about anything much."
"Oh, you're charming! From Tonilda, aren't you? What's your name?"
"Maia, saiyett. Yes, from Lake Serrelind."
"How nice! Well, I've got a lot to see to, so I can't stay talking any longer now, I'm afraid. Will you both be making your way upstairs?"
"Told you she'd be better than Terebinthia, didn't I?" said Meris, as they picked their way to the foot of the staircase between the litters filling the covered courtyard.
"No one's ever spoke to me like that before," answered Maia. "I mean, 's if I was a young lady. I thought we was slaves?"
"We are," said Meris, "and I shouldn't forget it if I were you. But we're the High Counselor's bed-slaves. For all she knows we might have influence with him, you see, and she's not taking any chances."
Maia made no further reply, being so much startled by their surroundings that she had scarcely heard what Meris had said. It was not her way to think ahead or try to imagine what a place would be like before she saw it, but she had always had a very lively apprehension of what was before her eyes. Looking round now, she felt sheer astonishment, mingled with something not unlike fear. Although darkness had fallen, the staircase was brilliant- brighter than day, or so it seemed to her, for the sources of light were so close. There were innumerable lamps- more, thought Maia, than she could possibly have seen before in all her days. Some, suspended by silver chains, where hanging in clusters from the high ceiling; others, all the way up the staircase, projected from the wall on copper brackets. At the top of the flight stood two bronze candelabra, fashioned to resemble sestuaga trees with their white spikes of bloom. The blooms were lighted candles- more than a hundred to each tree-and beside them stood two pretty girls, costumed as leopards in golden silk embroidered with black spots, whose tasks were to tend and replace the candles, welcome guests and-probably most important-simply to look beautiful. One of these, catching Maia's eye, gave her a friendly smile, which made her feel a little less nervous.