Maia

Standing at the foot of the bed was a girl a few years older and a little taller than herself, with a broad nose and short, curling black hair. Completely naked, her lithe, slim body was dark brown-almost black. She was wearing a necklace of curved teeth; and thrown back from its fastening round her neck, so that it hung behind her from shoulders to knees, was a scarlet cloak. As she blinked, Maia saw in the candlelight that her eyelids were painted silver.

Meeting Maia's eyes, the girl smiled briefly. Then she picked up Genshed's knife and tried it in her hand with the air of one not unused to such things.

At the same moment Genshed turned over, sat up on the floor and set his back against the rough, lime-washed wall.

"Stay there, you blasted pig," said the black girl quietly. "Doan' try to get up, or I'll cut your zard off and stuff it up your venda."

Her voice, smooth and unusually low, had a curious, exotic quality, as though she were speaking-albeit with complete fluency-a language to which her lips and palate were not entirely suited. Her words were not ended in the manner of common utterance and her accent was not Ton-ildan.

Genshed, staring up at her, wiped the back of one hand across his blood-smeared face and spat.

"Who the hell are you?" he said. "What d'y' think you're doing, comin' in here? Give me that knife and get back to your room."

"You mother-bastin' little tairth of a slave-trader," re-

plied the girl evenly, without raising her voice, "I. doan' have to ask what you were doin'. You work for Lalloc, doan' you? and I suppose you'll tell me you doan' know it's a strict rule that stock-in-trade's not to be raped or interfered with by the likes of you? You zard-suckin' little swine, this is goin' to cost you your job before I've done."

"Not so much of your basting lip!" cried Genshed. "You just give me that knife, now!"

"Yes, you can have the knife," replied the girl. "That poor little banzi's bleedin' along of you, you filthy bastard; I could make you bleed: but I'm not goin' to waste any time on you. For now, I'm just goin' to get you out of here and later, back into the gutter you came from: or even into Zeray, I wouldn' wonder. Here's your knife."

On the instant she threw it by the blade across the few feet between them. The point pierced Genshed's calf to a depth of a good inch, and as he grabbed the hilt with a cry of pain, dark blood welled out and flowed down his leg.

The black girl, with a quick movement, drew one wing of her scarlet cloak across her body and stood coolly looking down at him.

"I'm val'able merchandise," she said. "You know that, doan' you? I'm to arrive at Bekla in perfect condition. And you're just a dirty little nit-pickin, venda-crawlin' menial; there's any number like you. You try an' touch me and I'll cut your balls off. Now put that lousy jerkin on again and get out of here." She kicked it into his lap.

"All right, all right, less of it now," said Genshed, in the tone of one who feels himself beaten but is trying not to show it. "Who d'you think, you are, anyway?" Pulling a dirty rag from somewhere under his clothes, he began dabbing at his bleeding leg.

A small, dark man, with the look of an Ortelgan, whom Maia had not seen before, appeared in the doorway and stood staring at the scene before him.

"Who am I, Megdon?" said the black girl. "You better tell him.".

The dark man smiled. It seemed to Maia that he did not like Genshed.

"Her name's Occula," he said, "from Thettit-Tonilda."

"Yes!" cried the girl, raising her voice for the first time. "I am-the Lady Occula, you stinkin' little tairth-trader. Have you ever heard of Madam Domris?"

"Runs a knocking-shop in Thettit, Thettit, don't she?" muttered Genshed, without meeting her eye.

"Runs a knockin'-shop in Thett, Thett, Thettit!" mimicked Occula, spitting on him where he sat slumped on the floor. "I'll give you knockin'-shop, you leakin' little piss-bucket! You wait till she hears you said that! Madam Domris's shearnas are famous all over the empire! And I'm one of her girls, you shit-faced maggot! Do you know what I'm worth? Well over ten thousand meld, that's how mucii-more than you'll see in a lifetime!"

"Well, I never touched you, did I?" replied Genshed sullenly.