"Well, perhaps I will. Shall we go back now? Someone ought to pay the girl her two hundred meld. In fact, I will. She certainly won them."

30: BAYUB-OTAL

Occula was neither at the Urtans' table nor elsewhere that Maia could see. She sought out Sessendris, who told her that the black girl had come over faint on leaving the hall.

"And can you wonder?" added the saiyett, who was plainly, despite herself, full of compelled if uneasy admiration. "It must have taken everything out of her. Were you frightened, Maia?"

"Yes, I was. Tell me, saiyett-at the end-did you see a knife?"

"That's what everyone's asking one another. I think I did, yes. But one thing's sure-the Urtan boy did, didn't he? No doubt about that."

Maia asked whether she might be taken to see Occula. Sessendris led her along two corridors to a small room where the black girl was lying on a couch wrapped in a fur rug. She looked haggard and consumed. Sessendris-

who was plainly nervous of her-having made the briefest of polite inquiries, left them together.

Thank Cran it's you, banzi!" said Occula. "None of these bastards has offered me a drink. Go an' get me a good, big one, there's a pet."

When Maia returned, she drank off the whole goblet at a draft.

"That's better." She sat up. "I'm fine."

"Bayub-Otal wants to pay you your two hundred meld," said Maia.

"Two hundred meld my venda! I didn' do it for two hundred meld!"

"What for, then, dearest?"

"Why, because that little tairth made me angry, that's why, sittin' there, pawin' your deldas as if he'd bought you. Well, he woan' be tryin' it again for a bit, I dare say."

"And that's really why you did it?" said Maia. "All that-just for me?"

"Well, it's like this, banzi," replied Occula. "You and I, we want to go up, doan' we, not down? I doan' mind you bein' basted by someone who's goin' to do you a bit of good and get you further. We were brought here for the Urtans, right? But when we actually come down to it, it's obvious that only two of them count for anythin'. And of those two, one's not interested. Ever seen a dead ox? Am I right?"

Maia could not help smiling at Occula's down-to-earth assessment. "Just about."

"Whatever Bayub-Otal wants, it's not either of us. So then as soon as I've gone Nennaunir turns up-oh, yes, I saw-and it's obvious that Elvair-ka-Virrion's sent her for that Eud-Ecachlon-and paid her, you can bet on that. So where does that leave you an' me? To go to bed with the rubbish? Not this girl, banzi, slave or no slave! Start as you mean to go on. I wasn' goin' to do it and I wasn' goin' to see you left to do it."

"But Elvair-ka-Virrion-he come over afterwards-he seemed real mad-"

Occula slewed round where she sat and put her hands on Maia's shoulders. "That Urtan fellow made me mad; that's what started me off! I knew if it worked it'd be somethin' they wouldn' forget in a hurry. Never mind about Elvair-ka-Virrion. He's not a danger to us. You jus' wait a few days, till everyone's heard about it-"

"But Occula, I was real scared-so was everyone else. I mean, can you do that any time you want?"

The black girl shook her head. "Something has to happen to make you want to do it-sort of get you up to it; because a thing like that, when you start you never know how it's goin' to turn out. I doan' know now, come to that. Imean, did they all see the knife?"

"Far as I can make out just about everyone saw it. I saw it, anyway. It was horrible!"

"Yes, well, you can' do that, you see, unless somethin' happens to make you able to. It's got to come from the goddess; come boilin' out of you and all over them. The act-anyone can learn that. I learnt it from a Deelguy girl in Thettit. But whether you succeed in makin' them actually see what isn' there-that's another matter. Is the boy all right, by the way?"

"They've sent him home."

"Good! I was takin' chance, banzi, really. Well, I mean, the drummer, for a start: I only had a few minutes with him, just long enough to tell him more or less what I wanted. He had to follow jme best he could. Actually he turned out very good-better than anyone in Thettit. Well, this is Bekla, after all, an' the upper city at that. He ought to have fifty meld. Doan' let me forget; we might need him again some time. Oh, and banzi, can you go and make sure of my feather tunic? I forgot all about it, and Tere-binthia'll play hell if it's lost. Besides, I've got nothin' else to put on."

Maia jumped up. "I'll go and get it now." She picked up the goblet. "D'you want another drink, while I'm there?"

Just at that moment, however, Sessendris returned.

"How are you feeling now, Occula?"

"Tired, saiyett."

"How's the headache?"

"Jus' about gone."

"Do you feel well enough to give a little pleasure, or shall I make your excuses?"

"Who to, saiyett?"

Sessendris laughed. "Well, the short answer to that, Occula, is "Almost anyone you like." And I'd imagine you could expect very generous lygols. Something like fifteen young men have approached me and asked whether you're feeling better. One of them, you may not be entirely sur-

prised to hear, is Lord Eud-Ecachlon, who seems most anxious to see you again."

"I suppose he's angry, saiyett, isn' he?"

"I think not. I haven't been a shearna and then a saiyett for quite some time without being able to tell when a man's strongly attracted. It's annoyed Nennaunir very much. She's gone home in a rage."

"Sorry to hear that, saiyett," replied Occula, keeping an admirably straight face. "And after all Lord Elvair-ka-Virrion's trouble, too! Well, I'd better not disappoint Lord Eud-Ecachlon, then, had I?"

"Am I to go back to the Urtans, too, saiyett?" asked Maia.

"I don't think you need," answered Sessendris. "The three younger men were asking for you, but they were all so impatient that by now they've suited themselves elsewhere. That just leaves Lord Bayub-Otal. I was going to ask him whether he'd like to see you again, but before I could, Lord Eud-Ecachlon took me aside and told me that he never goes with girls at parties. Apparently he's-" she paused and shrugged-"fastidious in some way or other."

Maia could see that Sessendris felt she had failed and was glad to see her taken down a peg. Her polite smile meant, "You thought you were irresistible, didn't you?"

She felt mortified. Not that she had herself been attracted to Bayub-Otal, but she had been instructed to attract him and assured that she had the power to do so. What would Kembri and Elvair-ka-Virrion think of her now?

"At that rate, banzi," said Occula, "if he's too stupid to want a girl like you, you'd better come along and lend me a hand with Eud-Ecachlon, and we'll split his lygol between us. By the way, saiyett," she went on, before Sessendris could express a view on this proposal, "d'you happen to have seen my feather tunic? I suppose someone picked it up?"

"I brought it round for you," answered Sessendris. "It's hanging up outside."

"Thank you very much, saiyett. I came down here in a blanket," she explained to Maia, "but I'd rather not go back in one."

Eud-Ecachlon, whom they found walking impatiently in the colonnade, spoke pleasantly to Maia but, in spite of the broadest hints that Occula could let fall, showed no

inclination for her company in addition to the black girl's. After a short conversation he excused himself and led Oc-cula away. Evidently he had already made his arrangements with Sessendris, for he clearly knew where they were going.

Maia, left alone, felt depressed. In spite of what Sessendris had said, she was not sure whether one or other of the younger Urtans might not still be looking for her, and she had no heart for such an encounter. However, she was still supposed to be working and she had no wish to turn her failure into a disaster by letting Sessendris or even, perhaps, Elvair-ka-Virrion himself come upon her wandering about at a loose end.