Occula and Dyphna, each in her own way, contrived to exercise a kind of veiled, partial control over Sencho's lewdness and cruelty by means of half-hearted response and an air of detached acquiescence, rather as though humoring a child. Maia, however, could never catch the trick, for-as she had discovered on the night when Meris was whipped-there was some part of her which felt a sort of enigmatic affinity with the High Counselor. As she stooped over him to pour his wine, dressed in a necklace and jeweled sandals, and felt him pinching or biting at her body, she would often become so much inflamed that she would fling herself into the cushions, then and there to initiate what she should, as a compliant slave-girl, have waited to be told to perform. Of such behavior, however, the High Counselor seldom complained. The dangerous unpredictability of his moods formed part of the curious glee which she often felt in his presence, and indeed it once occurred to her that if she had known herself to be entirely safe with him she would have felt no excitement. Underlying everything else was the knowledge that the High Counselor found her greatly to his taste. She felt certain that he would not have sold her for twice what she had cost him.
The truth was that Maia was uncritically proud of her
aptitude for pleasing a wealthy, powerful man like Sencho and even of what she suffered at his hands; just as a young, simple-minded soldier is proud of pleasing his superiors, whoever they may be, and of undergoing fatigue and hardship at their behest, feeling that these prove his manly worth. If she had somehow or other found herself back home beside Lake Serrelind, she would probably have boasted of what Sencho had inflicted on her, knowing that it was on account of her attractiveness to him.
She might well have boasted of more than that, for the girls lived in a luxury almost as great as the High Counselor's own. Their quarters were comfortable and elegantly decorated, and it was no part of their duties to clean them. Soon Occula, after the manner of her kind, began to need to take care not to grow fleshy, for when attending upon Sencho they were not only allowed but encouraged-since it tended to increase their carnality-to eat as much as they wished. Maia, on the other hand, discovered something that she had never had the opportunity to find out before; namely, that eating to her fullest satisfaction seemed to have no effect whatever on her weight or appearance. To sleep, too, was easy and pleasant, for here were no buzzing night-flies, no crying baby; only Occula in a big, soft bed instead of Nala in a small, hard one; and no early rising, either; for plenty of sleep was important to their looks.
In short, the girls were cared for and tended like the valuable property they were. Terebinthia often examined and massaged them herself, and on the slightest cause, -such as a sore throat or a stomach pain, would summon the doctor. When Dyphna was troubled by a corn in the foot, a skilled man was brought from the lower city to remove it. Often they were warned of the severe punishment awaiting any girl who might pick a quarrel or lose her temper. Maia learned that the saiyett's very valid objection to Meris, beauty or no, had been that in her former life she had got into a habit of mischief and violence; and a scratched face or a torn dress was a serious matter, since it lessened the High Counselor's pleasure and wasted his money.
Indeed, almost as much was spent on the girls' wardrobe as on Sencho's gluttony. When he entertained, he would order Terebinthia to dress them magnificently; and this, as Occula and Maia soon discovered, meant as richly as
the finest lady in Bekla. Not only their dresses and jewels, but their undergarments and every least part of their attire were of a quality that Maia had never even imagined; so that now, when she recalled the dress with which the slave-traders had tricked her, she felt ashamed to think she could ever have been taken in by such rubbish.
One evening the girls were called upon to help to regale one Randronoth, the governor of Lapan, who was visiting Bekla on state business and spending the night at the High Counselor's. Randronoth had a reputation in the empire for gross extravagance and for preferring very young girls. Nevertheless, he was a man of forceful ability and personal magnetism, possessed standing in Lapan as a soldier and leader and was popular and influential among his own people. On this account he had retained his position as governor throughout the Leopards' rule, despite their strong suspicions that he often made little distinction between public money and his own.
It came as no surprise to Sencho,when Randronoth showed a marked interest in Maia, and the High Counselor (who not only had his own reasons for wanting to oblige him, but also felt it flattering that a Lapanese aristocrat should not attempt to conceal that he envied him a valuable possession) hospitably told him that he was welcome to spend the night with her.
Undressing with the care for her clothes which Terebin-thia ceaselessly enjoined on them all, Maia realized that her companion seemed almost as much excited by what she was taking off as by what was being revealed. Handling and examining them, he asked her whether she had any idea what her gown and jewels might be worth in all; and upon her replying that she really could not tell, said that in his estimation she must have had at least seven thousand meld on her back, her fingers and round her neck.
"Don't signify, my lord; what you got in your arms now cost more 'n twice that," she replied; jestingly, yet letting him see that at all events she knew that much. And this answer plainly stimulated him even further.
The apparently insatiable desire roused in him again and again during the night, not so much by anything she said or did as by her mere bodily presence-the sheer look and feel of her, which seemed to put him almost beside himself-would have struck a more experienced girl as altogether out of the ordinary; even as somewhat unbalanced.
It was as though she must correspond to, must be for him the physical manifestation of, some personal, inward obsession. Those who have traveled widely can recognize a prodigy when they encounter it, while by the same token an ingenue may easily take it for granted without discernment or special wonder. Maia, who was still deriving pleasure from the realization that she was exceptionally desirable to men, did not find her night with Randronoth disagreeable-in fact she quite enjoyed it-but by the same token attached little or no consequence to the fervor of his passion. When, next morning, he told her that he must at all costs see her again-that he was utterly set on it- she accepted this as being, for all she knew, the sort of thing men not infrequently said to girls; and when he begged her for assurances that she felt for him as he for her, she gave them as a matter of politeness and of what she thought was only to be expected of a good concubine.
And inwardly? Yes, well, she supposed she'd turned his head all right; that was what she was for, wasn't it? It was quite beyond Maia, even on the evidence, to perceive or have any inkling how completely; let alone to foresee or feel apprehensive about the possible consequences. This, however, was perhaps as well for her, since his infatuation, brought about entirely without her intention, was now irreversible, and no amount of anxiety on her part could have dispelled it.
Her impudent retort about her own value, coming from a child of fifteen, amused Randronoth enough to make him repeat it to the High Counselor, who nodded approvingly, feeling that she had done him credit. His lygol was exceptionally generous, and the tone of his farewell to her (though she soon forgot it) was more like that of a man parting from some incomparable paramour than from a slave-girl lent to him for a night. Later Terebinthia, in her customarily cool, half-grudging manner, remarked that she appeared to have given satisfaction.