Maia

"With respect, saiyett," said Occula, "my friend will be ready to tell U-Lalloc everythin' that he may want to know tomorrow. Perhaps we could leave it at that. You see a great many slaves, I'm sure. They're not usually overanxious to talk about their bad luck, are they?"

"Hoity-toity, miss!" cried the woman, "and who do you think you're talking to, hey?"

"Merely a suggestion, saiyett." Occula, looking her calmly in the eye, said no more.

The woman, opening the closet behind her, took out a pliant ash-stick. "D'you see this?" she said. "It's for girls who give trouble. Any more impudence and you'll be making its closer acquaintance."

Occula remained impassive and silent and the woman, after glaring at her for a few more moments, put the stick down on the table.

"Well," she said, "you can both come with me now and I'll show you your quarters. Bring that box along with you."

She led the way out of the room and along the ambulatory. Maia, limping on her swollen ankle as she helped to carry the box, could hardly keep up. Coming, at the corner, to a door standing open in the wall, Vartou, who was unusually tall, stooped under it and then stood to one side as they followed her through.

The two girls found themselves in a stone-floored room, perhaps fifty feet long, with three barred windows opening

inwards on the covered way and a hearth in the opposite wall, where a fire was burning. All round were beds, separated by wooden partitions, and in the center stood a long, rough table with benches. The floor was clean and the whole place looked a good deal tidier than anything Maia was used to.

"This is the room for women and grown girls," said Vartou, "but there's only five other girls in here just now, so you can more or less suit yourselves for beds. The bathhouse is next door; and damned well use it, d'you see? There's soap and there's sulphur. If you've got lice, get rid of them. Any girl found with lice on her gets whipped- and soundly, too. Your ankle's swollen," she went on unexpectedly, turning to Maia. "Does it hurt?"

"Yes, saiyett."

"Come to me when you've bathed and I'll strap it up for you. Any kind of cut or ailment, you tell me and I treat it, do you understand? That's a strict rule. Except for children, rations are given out mornings and evenings and you cook them for yourselves. That's what the fire's for."

She paused; then said emphatically, "Now understand this once and for all. This is a high-class establishment. You're lucky. Girls who come here are valuable property and treated accordingly. They're always surprised to find it's better than the homes they've left. Good food, comfortable beds, fresh clothes for those who need them, plenty of towels, soap and water. Do either of you have fits or wet the bed?"

"No, saiyett."

"Anyone who fouls or smashes anything is severely punished, and anyone who isn't clean is punished. U-Lalloc will want to see you both tomorrow."

And with this she was gone.

Occula thumbed her nose after her. "Lice who come here are lucky and val'able, banzi. They're so surprised, they have fits and wet the bed. Bastin' old bitch! Lice, indeed! Come on, let's pitch camp over here, away from the fire. These two beds'll do." She punched one of them tentatively, then flung herself down on it. "Airtha tairtha! She was right enough, though; they are comfortable! If the rations are as good, we're well away. Can you cook?"

"Sort of," said Maia. " Tends what it is."

"More 'n I can. Never had to-not since the Govig,

anyway. Look, banzi, we'd better not both go and bathe at once. We doan' know what sort may be here: one of us had better stay with this box. Would you like to go first?"

"No, darling," said Maia. "I'm all right. We had a bath with the soldiers, remember?"

"Sounds marvelous! How long ago was that? Did I enjoy it? Anyway, I'm ready for another. Why doan' you have a nice little rest till I come back? I suppose the towels must be in the bath-house."

Left to herself, Maia lay down on her bed. The wooden partition at her elbow was incised all over with names and other rough scrawls. "Maydis of Dari" she spelt out slowly; and a date five years earlier. Then-and here she had the help of a crude but remarkably graphic illustration-"Thylla bastes like a sow."

Having dozed for a time, she had just begun studying a third inscription when a big-built, rough-looking girl of about seventeen, with dark hair and a noticeable squint, walked into the room gnawing an apple. At the sight of Maia she stopped short, looked her up and down for a few moments and then said, unsmilingly and with a kind of wary belligerence, "Hullo; who are you?"

Maia sat up on the edge of her bed and smiled at her. "My name's Maia: I come from Tonilda."

"Come from Delda, did you say?" answered the girl. "Great Cran, you look like it, too! Stack 'em on the shelf at night, do you?"