Maia

"I'd taken her with me to see Eud-Ecachlon, the heir of Urtah, and ask him to come tonight with his friends. But that was only to help him make up his mind. He fancies her very much, you see; only he's never been able to persuade her. She's a self-willed girl, Nennaunir-she picks and chooses. She's so much sought after that she can afford to, and of course that adds to her attraction in a lot of people's eyes. I asked her to promise Eud-Ecachlon that she'd be nice to him if he came to this party. That decided him all right: otherwise he might not have come. The Ur-tans only pretend to like us, you see; and can you wonder? My father sold Suba to Karnat-he and Fornis."

"Why d'you reckon Nennaunir agreed, then? I mean, if she doesn't really fancy him?"

"Why, because she-knows."

"What does she know, my lord?"

"She knows how much Bekla needs her help. And Bekla needs your help, too, Maia."

"My help?"

"Well, you told my father you were ready to help us, didn't you?"

She drew in her breath sharply, and for an instant shrank down where she lay in his arms. In her simplicity, it had not for one moment occurred to her that her undertaking to the Lord General would be required of her tonight.

He smiled. "You weren't expecting me to say anything like this?"

"No, my lord!" She was close to tears. "I thought-I thought you'd asked me here because-because you wanted me-because of what you said to me at the banquet-"

"Oh, Maia, I meant every word I said at the banquet! I still mean it. You're wonderful! You're not like-well, you're not like that hard-faced Belishban girl you were with that night, for one. Don't ever stop being yourself. Don't ever stop talking like a Tonildan girl; promise me!"

She laughed. "That's easy to promise, I reckon."

But now he was grave again. "What do you want most in all the world, Maia? To be free? To be rich-as fine a shearna as any in Bekla? Or would you rather go back to Tonilda-live in your own house, with servants to wait on you and tenants to work on your land? All those things are possible."

"Oh, now you're just making fun of me, my lord."

"By Cran and Airtha, I'm not! You don't understand,

do you? If only you can succeed in doing what we want, no reward will be too great."

Maia was silent. At length she said, "I must believe you, my lord. Only 'tain't easy for me to take it all in, see? Seems only just the other day as I was back home, wearin' sacking and glad of a bit of black bread."

"But my father told you, didn't he? A girl who really is a banzi straight from the back of beyond, that's a thing that can't be faked; not day in day out. We've got to have someone who really is what she seems to be."

She slipped out of his embrace, sitting up in the bed and tossing back her hair. He reached up and gently fondled one breast.

"What is it, then, my lord, that you want me to do?"

"All we want you to do tonight is to turn someone else's head as thoroughly as you've turned mine. No more than that. Don't, whatever you do, give him what you've just given me. Just make him very much want to see you again. Can you do that?"

"All depends, my lord, doesn't it, whether he's goin't' fancy me?"

"He'll fancy you all right. Just pretend you're back home in your own village and be yourself. Listen: I'll tell you a story. When Durakkon's wife went into labor a year or two ago, the doctor was very nervous to think he was attending the wife of the High Baron. Durakkon told him to imagine he was delivering a girl in the lower city. It worked like a charm. I bet you had one or two lads on their toes in Tonilda, didn't you, before you came here?"

"But this man, my lord-he'll know I've been with you."

"He won't: I took the greatest care. They'll just be starting supper now. Come with me and I'll show you your man without him seeing you. Then we'll go down to the hall separately."

Obediently, Maia got out of bed and dressed. Picking up a lamp, Elvair-ka-Virrion guided her along an empty corridor and up a steep flight of steps. At the top he blew out the lamp and opened the door of a small, unlit room. She could hear the rain drumming on the roof overhead.

The opposite wall consisted of nothing more solid than decorative wooden tracery, through which lamplight was shining. From below rose sounds of talk and laughter and the clatter of plates and goblets. Elvair-ka-Virrion, turning

to her with a finger on his lips, led her across to the tracery wall.