Maia

"Oh, but not to each other, banzi! Only to men! Cran and the stars, how I despise men! I'm hard as stone-I hope. I wouldn' have given a baste if we'd choked one of those swine to death this morning. But a girl's got to be soft to someone. I can't be a brute to the whole world. For my own self-respect I've got to love somebody, else I'd soon be as big a bastard as Genshed or Perdan-and wretched into the bargain. Listen, Maia, I meant what I told you. I'll be your true friend, I'll stand by you and look after you. I'll never let you down! If you like I'll swear it by Kantza-Merada. You may be up to the neck in shit, but for what it's worth, you got me."

"Reckon that makes it a lot better," answered Maia, less because she felt it than because it seemed to her that she could not decently say anything else. Occula's flesh smelt pleasantly strange-light and sharp, something like clean coal.

Drawing Maia's head onto her shoulder, the black girl stroked her hair. "You haven' really told me about yourself yet, have you? Not properly. Why did your mother sell you? What's it all about?"

At this, the recollection of Tharrin shot up in Maia's heart with a vividness which the horror of the past two days had obliterated. Tharrin smiling at her as she lay in

the net; Tharrin laughing over the wine at Meerzat; Thar-rin panting in pleasure; Tharrin kissing her good-bye on the jetty before he went on board the boat.

"Tharrin," she said. "Tharrin-"

"Tharrin! Who's he? He loved you?"

"Loved me? Well-I suppose so, yes. He made everything a lot of fun. I loved him, anyway."

"One of those, eh?" said Occula."Come on then, tell me."

Hesitantly at first, then more freely as the memories came flooding, Maia talked of Tharrin. At last she said, "So that's why she must've done it, see? She must've found out. And that'd be like her, too. Mother was always one to bottle it up, like, when anything made her mad, and then go too far."

"And d'you think he'll come and look for you?" asked Occula.

Maia considered this for a moment, then choked back a fresh sob. "I know he won't! 'Twouldn't be-well, it just wouldn't be like him. Not Tharrin."

"You poor little beast!" whispered Occula, putting her arms round her once more. "I'd look for you-that I would- from here to Zeray and back."

From somewhere in the distance outside sounded the barking of a dog. A voice shouted to it; it ceased and the silence returned, empty and remote.

"Do you like me?" asked Occula.

"Like you?" answered Maia, surprised. "Well, 'course I do! You ask me that-after all you've done to help me?"

"Oh, that little bastard last night? That's nothin'-that was just a bit of sport. I didn't mean are you grateful. I meant do you fancy me?"

"How couldn't I?" Maia was all bewilderment.

Occula embraced her more closely, kissing her neck and shoulders. Her lips, in the dark, felt thick, pliant and soft."

"You had some nice times with Tharrin, then?" she asked.

"Oh, yes, it was lovely." Maia, accustomed to having someone else in bed with her and comforted by the warmth and quiet, felt her misery abating. Youth and health possess almost unbelievable resilience.

"Did he do it nicely?"

"M'mm." She felt drowsy again now, at ease in the soft bed. It might almost have been Nala lying beside her.

"What sort of things did he do? Did he ever do this?"

"Ah! Oh, Occula!"

A moment later the black girl's lips were pressed to her own, the tip of her tongue slipping between them into Maia's mouth. One hand gently stroked her thigh beneath her shift.

"But he let you down, didn' he, banzi?" whispered Occula. "Men-who wants men? Liars, cowards, baste-and-run, the lot of them. We'll make our fortune out of those fools, you wait and see! But I woan' let you down, banzi. I need you: I need you to be good to. Kiss me! Come on, kiss me like I kissed you!"

For a long moment Maia hesitated. The fascination of this extraordinary, exotic girl, her apparent omniscience, her domination and self-sufficiency seemed extending all about her, enveloping her like a protective cloak. Here was a refuge from loneliness and from dread of the future. One need only surrender everything to Occula to be shielded, defended. Just as the lake had once been her own place, just as she had felt safe in its deep water, which everyone else thought dangerous because it was not dry land, so Occula-cunning and violent; black devotee of some appalling goddess of vengeance and sorcery-must have been vouchsafed to her for a retreat and refuge in the terrible misfortune which had befallen her. Occula was her own and no one else's. Clipping her about, running her fingers through her crisp, amazing hair, she kissed her passionately-her mouth, her cheeks, her eyelids-kissed her until she lay back, laughing and breathless.

"Take off your shift," whispered the black girl, her hands already busy. "No, wait: let me. There, that's nice, isn't it? And is that nice? D'you fancy me, banzi-really?"

10: NIGHT TALK