Maia

She lay in silence, wondering what might now be expected of her: but she did not have to wonder long. Plainly, nothing was expected of her but to be the recipient of the Lord General's apparently insatiable ardor. He had done nothing deliberately to hurt her, yet already she felt bruised from head to heel. When she had cried out with delicious agony, he had paid less heed than if she had been an enemy in battle. And soon after, as she sprawled exhausted, sweating and tousled as a kitchen maid at the spit, another onslaught fell upon her gasping, breathless body.

At length he lay like a felled tree. Asleep? There was no telling-but at all events oblivious of her beside him among the soft, thick rugs. She herself slept for a little, but woke with a quick start, wondering what she ought to do now. Would the proper thing, perhaps, be to get dressed and go? Yes, she thought; for she was a slave-girl, and plainly there was no more for her body to do here. Sliding quietly out of the bed, she slipped on her shift and then her metlan, picked up her cloak and tip-toed towards the door. At this moment the Lord General, behind her, spoke for the first time.

"Come back."

She jumped like a child caught stealing.

"What's the matter?" he asked, frowning as though she had done something unexpected.

"Oh, my lord, you startled me, that's all!"

He said nothing more and she did as she had been told. Undressing and getting back into the bed, she became aware at once-and incredulously-why he had called her to return. Thereupon, suddenly, the country girl supplanted the timid slave. Putting her two hands on his shoulders, she looked unafraid into the scarred, swarthy face.

"My lord, did you ever hear the story they tell where I come from, about the inn on Lake Serrelind called 'The Safe Moorings'?"

He shook his head, but behind the black beard the trace of a smile answered hers; the smile of a man who spares an idle moment to watch a puppy playing with a stick.

"Well, that inn's got a bit of a front on the lake, see, and one day there's this fellow-stranger, like-comes sailing up in his boat. Landlady comes out; 'Oh,' says he, 'I've heard you have good wine here. Bring me out a pot of your ordinary.' So she brings it out and he drinks it sitting in the boat. 'Ah!' he says. 'Well,' he says, 'I'll try another, the same.' So off she goes and gets him another, and he drinks that too. 'I'm not sure about this yet,' he says. 'Bring me another one;' and so she does. So he finishes that and then he says 'Yes,' he says, 'it is good wine. Reckon I'll come in and have some.' "

The Lord General threw back his head and laughed; then laid hold of her once more, much like a man in haste to quench a thirst. It was as though nothing had yet taken place between them. At one moment Maia found herself actually struggling to breathe. He was, she now realized, not only big but immensely strong. He could easily have crushed her ribs between his hands. And this sense of helplessness-of danger even, for he seemed beside himself as he clasped and strove-filled her with exhilaration, so that for the first time she joined him, spinning in the vortex, and came to herself to find blood trickling down his shoulder.

Dismayed and a little frightened, she picked up her shift- the only thing to hand-and was about to stanch the wound when he took it from her and tossed it aside, laughing down at her as he might have laughed at a nervous and over-conscientious child who in playing has accidentally broken something of no particular value.

She was expecting him to fall asleep again, but now he did not seem so inclined. She herself, dazed and aching, knew without being told that he was pleased. Warm and relaxed, she lay listening to the rain and wondering what would happen next.

At length he asked, "Have you had enough?"

She giggled. "S'pose I say no, my lord?"

"Then we shall have to get you another man."

"Mouse after a bull, that'd be."

He made no reply, and she wondered whether he might be annoyed. She was surprised when, after a pause, he asked, almost like someone making conversation,

"How do you like belonging to the High Counselor?"

She knew the answer to this, for Occula had stressed it to her again and again. "Never gossip to them about one another, banzi-not even if they offer you gold. Long zards are all in a night's work, but long tongues never."

"Very much, thank you, my lord."

"What sort of things d'you do with him-a man too fat to walk?"

"We do as he wishes, my lord."

"A great many people come to see him, don't they? From all over the empire. Are you ever there when he talks to them?"

"No, my lord."

"You know who these people are? You know why he sees them?"

Putting out one hand, as easily as he might have lifted a cushion he pulled her bodily round to face him.

"You do, don't you?"

"Yes, my lord: but we don't get to hear nothing about- about that side of things."

"What about your saiyett? He's almost helpless without her, isn't he? Is she there when he sees them?"