Maia

"Top room on the right, Perdan," said the old woman over her shoulder. "The left-hand room's for the other one-the one Megdon's bringing. There's blankets up there already, and the lock and chain's hanging on the wall inside."

6: THE BLACK GIRL

Waking in an instant, Maia started up in bed with alarm sharp as the snapping of a stick. Looking round her in the darkness, she could make out only a square of deep-blue sky, pricked with a star or two and crossed by the black lines of the window-bars. She was still dressed in her clothes, but covered by one or two coarse blankets. Some insect had bitten her right ankle and the place was itching. She scratched it quickly with the rough skin of her other heel.

After a moment she became aware of what must have woken her; a sound of stealthy movement somewhere close by. Simultaneously, she perceived the shape of a door facing her, a few feet beyond the foot of the bed-an ill-fitting door, with chinks between its planks and a chain passing through two holes, one in the edge of the door and the other beside it in the jamb. And this she could see because there was light outside; a flickering light which, throwing glimmers through the chinks, showed her that she was in a small room-no more than a cell-containing her bed, a stool and a bench against the wall under the window.

Someone outside the door had released the chain and was pulling it through the holes.

Sitting on the bed, knees drawn up, and biting her fingertips in her terror, she watched as the chain was slowly drawn out. To scream did not even occur to her, so complete was her unthinking conviction of the hostility-or at best the indifference-of anyone likely to hear her.

Creaking slightly, the door opened inwards, just clearing the foot of the bed, to reveal Genshed holding up a candle.

As their eyes met he smiled, as though pleased to find her awake. His hand, shaking slightly, sent shadows wavering along the walls.

"Y'all right, then?" he said in a whisper, stepping into the room and putting the candle down on the stool.

Maia made no reply, only shrinking back against the wall as Genshed sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Oh, y'needn't be frightened of me," he went on, staring at her with his mouth slightly open."Just come to see if y'all right, that's all. You fainted, y'know-fell on the floor downstairs, remember?"

She nodded.

"Did y'hurt y'self? Any bruises, eh, nice bruises?"

She shook her head.

"Well, better have a look, hadn't we?" said Genshed in a thicker, more intense whisper. His spittle, as he spoke, fell on the back of Maia's hands clutching the blankets to her chin. She turned them over, wiping them quickly, and as she did so he suddenly leant forward, plucked them aside and dragged the blankets to the foot of the bed.

"No!" she cried desperately, and instantly one of his hands was over her mouth, while the other ripped her smock from throat to waist. Panting, he forced her down and flung himself on top of her, tugging at her shift, his knees forcing her legs apart. Feeling him pressed against her as she had once felt Tharrin, she was filled with unspeakable horror and loathing. Struggling, she jerked her head forward and her forehead struck him violently in the face.

Genshed, blood pouring from his nose, knelt back on his heels.

"You dirty little tairth!" he whispered, "Cran, you'll just about wish you hadn't-"

Very deliberately, he drew a knife from his belt, turning it in his hand so that it glittered a moment, paralyzing her with fear. Then, holding the hilt loosely, he began jabbing the point here and there, lightly pricking her wrists, her arms and shoulders. As she whimpered, cringing one way and another and vainly trying to avoid the thrusts, his enjoyment plainly increased and the bloody mask of his face grinned in the candlelight.

At length he laid the knife aside, and rose to his feet beside the bed.

"Now, my pretty little pet," he said, and pulled his leather jerkin over his head.

At this moment, just as his head came clear of the garment, a dark presence, like an apparition, appeared in the doorway, took a step forward and dealt him a swinging blow on the side of the neck. He stumbled against the wall, and as he did so the figure kicked him in the stomach, so that he fell to the floor.

Everything had happened so fast that Maia had had no time even to feel relief. Utterly bewildered, she stared up from where she lay, by no means sure whether her rescuer might be human or supernatural: and for this uncertainty she had some reason, since the figure before her was like no one she had ever seen in her life.