Maia

"Why did she?" said Clystis. "What are you talking about?"

"It's not fair!" burst out Blarda. "The other day she says to me-she says'Let's go in the hay'-"

For two minutes he babbled on with the inability, typical

of a youngster in trouble and under pressure, to do anything but come out with all the banal and embarrassing truth.

"But what's happened now?" interrupted Clystis at length. "Are you or aren't you going to tell me why she's-"

"She was in the shed, wasn't she?" muttered Blarda. "Up by the hay. So I says to her, 'Come on, then,' and I went to-to do like we done before, see. But then suddenly she comes over angry. She says 'Go away!' So I says 'No,' 'cos I thought she was only playing around. And I had my hand down inside the front of her clothes and she pulls away and then she says, 'Now look what you done,' she says, and I tried to stop her but she went off quick. Honest, sis, I never done anything 'ceptin' what-well, what-"

To an elder sibling, the emergent sexuality of the younger is often shaky ground; sometimes a matter of sensitivity to the point of anger; a cryptic variant of the discomposure not uncommonly felt by parents. Clystis, like most country folk, spoke and behaved to people according to her own personal opinion of them. Respectful towards Bayub-Otal and Zen-Kurel, she had already sized up Meris accurately enough. She now turned and faced her, hands on hips.

"Perhaps you can tell me some more about what the lad's bin saying, can you?"

"Perhaps I can," replied Meris coolly. "What would you like to hear? He's coming on very well, really. He'll be ready to clear out of this place soon, I wouldn't wonder."

"What the devil d'you mean, coming on very well?" shouted Clystis. "Are you sayin'-"

"Yes, I am," answered Meris. "He is coming on very well. He just got a bit over-excited, that's all." She dabbed ostentatiously at the bleeding scratch. "He's much better than your husband already. Well, I dare say you do know about him. Anyway, I do if you don't."

"What did you say?" cried Clystis, staring.

"Not my fault," said Meris composedly. "Poor man, I feel sorry for him. I was just obliging him, really."

"You liar!" screamed Clystis, bursting into tears and stamping her foot. "You're lying, lying-"

"Lying?" said Meris, standing up and facing her. "How funny, then, isn't it, that I should know that Kerkol's got a mole at the bottom of his zard, just a bit on the right side? And how funny that I should know he's got a white scar on the other side, just at the top of his left thigh! In

fact I'll tell you some more while I'm about it, if you like. He-"

"No, you won't," interjected Zen-Kurel suddenly. Hitherto none of the three men in the room had spoken, as though each felt that to try to intervene in an unhappy family affair of this kind would avail little and possibly even do more harm than good. Now, however, Zen-Ku-rel's manner was unhesitant and authoritative. He stood up and crossed the room, interposing himself between the two women.

"Go outside, Meris, please," he said.

"Outside? Where?" answered Meris insolently.

"I don't mind where," replied Zen-Kurel in the same quiet, controlled tone, "but don't come back until I send for you."

As Meris hesitated he gently raised his hand, as though if necessary to take her by the arm. Meris tossed her head, flung down the bone needle on the flags and went quickly out the door. After a moment Zirek followed her.

Clystis, sitting at the table with her face sunk on her arms, was weeping unrestrainedly. Maia put a hand on her shoulder.

"Look, dear, you mustn't take on like this. It's not the end of the world. There's lots of worse things-"

"You let me be!" cried Clystis. "You'll have to go now- tomorrow-all of you. You can't stay here after this!"

Maia, concerned only to comfort her, felt at a loss. It had never entered her head that Meris, in indulging her taste for mischief, would make such a cruelly thorough job of it. In effect, thought Maia, she had inflicted a wound which would go on hurting Clystis for years, perhaps for life. She racked her brains for some sort of comfort.

"Listen, she's not worth crying about, Clystis-"

"It's Kerkol I'm crying about," sobbed the girl. "Oh, I never did Meris any harm-"

"Meris is a bad, spiteful girl," said Maia, "and that's no more than the truth."

At this moment Zen-Kurel spoke again. "Well, I'm fairly certain-, myself, of something that is the truth. Clystis, will you try to listen to me, please, because I think this is very important?"

His voice had a compelling quality and a quiet confidence which reinforced his request so effectively that Clystis raised her head, looking at him in silence. He, however,

was looking riot at her but at Blarda, standing over by the far wall with a look of utter dismay, as though he had opened a door at random and found he had let out a wolf.