Maia

"It might explain something else, too," said Elleroth. "I hasten to say I'm only trying to make the best case I can for a girl who's struck me, quite frankly, as being rather honest and likable. From all you've told me she's certainly not short on courage."

"What does it explain?" asked Zen-Kurel.

"I only remarked that it might. You said this girl didn't find out that she was your cousin-that her mother was Suban-until some considerable time after her exploit on the Valderra. But mightn't that discovery have altered her whole outlook very much?"

"Then why hasn't she said so?"

"My dear man, actions speak louder than words. She has as good as said so, or so it seems to me. Presumably the poor girl has her pride. You don't expect her, do you, to go down on her knees and say, 'I've discovered I'm a Suban, so please will you forget all about the Valderra and spare my life?' She's told you who she is and left the rest up to you; I call that dignified."

"So-that might mean-you're saying, are you, that that might mean-"

Zen-Kurel came to a stop, but Elleroth said nothing to help him to a conclusion, only gazing at his shadowed face in the candlelight and waiting. "She could have had a perfectly creditable motive-" he stopped again-"for taking the enormous risk of going into that prison to release us?"

"Well, as I see it, having learned that she was first cousin to the rightful and imprisoned Ban of Suba, she was simply fulfilling her duty to her liege lord with the utmost courage. That's if you want my personal opinion."

After a long pause, Zen-Kurel said, "I suppose-well, I suppose that might be the truth of it."

"And what's more, you hope it is, don't you?" said

Elleroth. "Seeing through brick walls is rather a specialty of mine, you know. The clairvoyant freebooter-"

There was a tap on the doorpost outside: Elleroth's personal tryzatt drew aside the curtain, entered and saluted.

"Excuse me for interrupting you, Lord Elleroth, sir, but there's an urgent message from the guard commander. One of our patrols has reported a large force bivouacked about a mile away to the east. The patrol commander says they evidently don't know anything about us yet. He took good care not to be seen or heard, but he got close enough to hear some of them talking, and he's more or less certain they're Ortelgans."

93: MAIA'S NIGHT ADVENTURE

Maia woke in the dark. The air was close and heavy. She was sweating but her headache had gone. She could not tell how long she had been asleep, but it felt like not very long-perhaps only an hour or two. Everything seemed quiet outside and she had no idea what might have woken her. The bed was comfortable enough; better than she'd expected, in fact. She'd drop off again in a few minutes.

She wondered whether whatever it had been might have woken Meris too. She murmured "Meris?" but there was no reply.

"Meris?" Suddenly she felt more or less sure that there was no one there: the realization jolted her wide awake.

She slid out of her bed, reached across and felt the other one in the dark. Yes, it was empty; but in this heat there was no telling how long Meris might have been gone-an hour or only a few minutes. Well, but perhaps she was with Zirek.

And perhaps she wasn't, reflected Maia. The thought of the trouble that Meris was capable of causing made her feel quite sick with apprehension. Elleroth, of course, was obviously no kill-joy. If Meris wanted a bit of fun with one of his men, whether officer or soldier, that would no doubt be all one to him. Or even if Meris was plying for hire; though in a guest of the commander that would look pretty disreputable. Knowing Meris, however, there was always the likelihood that she would not rest content with that. What Meris enjoyed was using her sexuality to make trou-

ble. She recalled their interrupted quarrel earlier that evening. She wouldn't put it past Meris to devise some way of involving her, Maia, simply out of spite. Since the affair at the farm she had probably felt a grudge against Zenka, too. She might even-oh, no!

Yet why not? This camp was full of all manner of people who scarcely knew one another. Would Meris be capable of-might she have gone to-to hurt Zenka, or discredit him by means of one of her tricks? Zirek had told her how it had been when they killed Sencho. "She seemed to go completely crazy-she went on stabbing and stabbing in a kind of-well, I don't know, a kind of rapture-I had to drag her away."

This recollection was enough for Maia. Quickly she got dressed and went outside. The shelter allotted to Bayub-Otal, Zenka and Zirek was not far off, but in the dim starlight and this unfamiliar place it was difficult to recall exactly which one it was. She set off in the general direction, hoping that something might turn up to help her.