Maia

Terebinthia, as mindful as any good huntsman or shepherd of her responsibility for her master's property, had ordered the big litter to be set down in the outer lobby of the women's quarters and left there. Once the girls had got into it, she closed and pinned the curtains and then called the soldiers back. Having reminded them of their orders not to speak to the girls and to take every care to carry them smoothly despite the mud, rain and falling dusk, she accompanied them as far as the gate, where old Jarvil, the porter, was waiting with the torch-bearers.

The distance to Kembri-B'sai's house was about three-quarters of a mile. Nevertheless, the journey lasted half an hour, for as they approached the gates they fell in with any number of other litters, the bearers jostling and pressing forward upon one another in the gathering darkness, all eager to get out of the rain.

"Silly bastards!" said Meris, holding on to a strut of the litter and peering out through a chink in the curtains. "Why isn't there someone to keep all these damn' turds in order and let them in one or two at a time? Look, there's two lots actually come to blows over there! Thank Cran we've got soldiers! That's one consideration for belonging to Sen-cho, anyway."

" 'Tis awful stuffy, isn't it?" said Maia. " 'Nough to make anyone take on bad. Hope it isn't much further."

"When the barons and the big shearnas start arriving later, their litter-bearers'll all be properly directed," said Meris, "but of course that'd be too much trouble to take over the likes of us. Oh, look! One of those torch-bearers isn't half a fine, big fellow, can you see?"

At this moment the tryzatt, standing outside, apologized to them for the delay and inconvenience, which he was now, he said, going to cut short. Thereupon, raising a cry of "Way for the High Counselor's girls!" he strode ahead of them, the litter following through the surrounding darkness and hubbub. The close air, their own exhaled breath in the confined space, the continual dipping and lurching as the soldiers lost their step in the crowd and the incessant drumming of the rain on the roof were beginning to make Maia turn sick and faint, when suddenly the noise subsided and she saw the glow of lamplight between the curtains. A moment later the litter was put down and she heard the orders of the tryzatt as he collected his men and left.

"Can we get out now?" she asked Meris, her curiosity

and eagerness mounting as she realized that they must have arrived.

"Not yet," replied the Belishban girl. "You have to wait till the head steward or the saiyett comes and opens your litter. There'll be someone like Terebinthia, only not such a bitch-well, she couldn't be, could she? It isn't very long, as a rule."

A minute later the curtains were drawn apart by a smiling, fair-haired woman of about thirty-five, dressed in a sky-blue robe fastened with two emerald brooches.

"You must be U-Sencho's girls?" asked this lady, on whose shoulder Maia now saw the cognizance of a chained leopard in gold.

"Yes, saiyett," replied Meris, taking the hand extended to help her out of the litter.

"It's nice to see the High Counselor's doing himself as well as usual," smiled the other, evidently wishing to say something hospitable and pleasant. "Have you been to the Lord General's Rains banquet before?"

"Yes, once; with General Han-Glat, saiyett," said Meris, "before I joined U-Sencho's household."

"Oh, you've been with General Han-Glat?" said she, with a rather knowing smile. "I see. And what about this lass?" she went on, giving her hand to Maia in turn. Then, as Maia stepped out and the lamplight fell on her, "Oh, what a pretty girl! But you're only a child! How old are you?"

"Fifteen, saiyett."

"And of course you haven't been here before, have you?"

"I've only been in Bekla just a short time, saiyett: I don't know a great lot about anything much."

"Oh, you're charming! From Tonilda, aren't you? What's your name?"

"Maia, saiyett. Yes, from Lake Serrelind."

"How nice! Well, I've got a lot to see to, so I can't stay talking any longer now, I'm afraid. Will you both be making your way upstairs?"

"Told you she'd be better than Terebinthia, didn't I?" said Meris, as they picked their way to the foot of the staircase between the litters filling the covered courtyard.

"No one's ever spoke to me like that before," answered Maia. "I mean, 's if I was a young lady. I thought we was slaves?"

"We are," said Meris, "and I shouldn't forget it if I were you. But we're the High Counselor's bed-slaves. For all she knows we might have influence with him, you see, and she's not taking any chances."