Maia (27 page)

bone, so that they seemed to twinkle along the hollow-chamfered cornices. Above the lamps, the transoms spanning the vault were encrusted with fragments of fluorspar fine as gravel, which from the high dusk of the roof returned a faint glitter, like an echo of the light below.

The illumination here was more subdued than that on the staircases, for while there were indeed a great many lamps, all were in baskets of silver filigree, the effect of which was to perforate the light, so that it fell like petals over the tables and couches. Here and there, but particularly round the Lord General's table, this was augmented by foliated candelabra, forming pools of greater luminescence to emphasize the grandeur of the chief dignitaries.

In the center of the hall, within a low, curving marble surround, lay another lily pool-the work of Fleitil. This had no central fountain, but more than fifty tiny jets, arranged symmetrically over the surface and barely clear of it, kept the water in continual, light movement with a rippling and pattering as of raindrops. From the bed a copper cylinder, in the form of an erect, swaying serpent, rose through the pool and on up to its outlet in the vault of the roof. This was in fact a flue, for the pool was floored with glass (the lilies being potted), and below it was a chamber in which lamps had been placed to illuminate the water from below and make it sparkle among the lily-leaves.

Along the shorter wall, three doors led to the kitchens. These had been wedged open, and through them slaves were coming and going, putting their finishing touches to the preparations for the banquet. The long, oak tables and benches were interspersed with couches, for throughout the empire at this time it remained a matter of local custom-or simply of personal choice-whether one ate sitting or reclining, and a particularly prolonged and enjoyable dinner might well begin with the first and conclude with the second. Upon a dais at one end stood the Lord General's table, surrounded with ferns and scented shrubs in leaden troughs. All the tables were scattered with fresh flowers, which two slaves were sprinkling with water. Silver caldrons filled with different kinds of wine stood at the foot of the steps below the shorter colonnade, and a steward was inspecting these and removing any motes or flies

which he found before covering them with muslin and placing beside each a bronze dipper and jug.

A great many girls were now entering, and Maia noticed that almost all, as they came through the colonnade and down the steps, made their way towards a tall, grave man wearing a Leopard cognizance on a crimson uniform like that of the slaves on the staircase. This, she guessed, must be the chief steward, for as each girl spoke to him, presumably giving her master's name, he would consult some sort of list or plan which he was holding, before directing her to one or another of the tables.

Meris plucked her sleeve. "Come on, Maia! We haven't got much time."

"D'you want me to-to ask him where we're to go?" asked Maia rather hesitantly; she felt timid of the authoritative, unsmiling figure, having just watched him snub with glacial propriety a little, merry-faced, black-eyed lass, rather like a nubile squirrel, whose manner he had evidently considered pert.

"Great Cran, no!" said Meris. "We don't have to
ask
where the High Counselor's couch is!"

They threaded their way among the girls and slaves, Meris leading. Maia, stopping to gaze with wonder at the coruscating pool, grew absorbed and came to herself to find that she was alone. A moment later, however, she caught sight of Meris stepping up onto the dais, and hurried to rejoin her. Stumbling against a lad carrying a tray full of silver salt-cellars, she clutched at his shoulder to save herself from falling.

"Oh-I'm so sorry-I-"

The boy turned towards her, the oath that he had been about to utter dying on his lips. " 'S all right," he answered, smiling. "You can bump me with those as much as you want. Like some salt on them?"

He seemed about to oblige her without waiting for a reply, but Maia-who in Meerzat would have been well up to a little banter of this sort-only hastened quickly away.

On the dais, Meris was already engaged in altercation with an elderly slave lugging a wheeled basket full of cushions, some of which he had just given her.

"Come on,
far
more than that, damn you!" she said, stamping her foot.

"There's no more to spare," answered the man gruffly. "I must go and do-"

"You must do-" Meris gripped him by the shoulder- "what I
tell
you to do! Either you put ten more cushions on that couch at once, or I'm going to the chief steward."

"There's others-" began the man.

"I don't give a baste for the others," snapped Meris. "I'm here to see the High Counselor has what he needs. Now get
on
with it, unless you want a whipping!"

They were both standing beside a huge, upholstered couch, measuring something like ten feet by five, placed close to the Lord General's table. This was already thickly strewn with cushions and two or three leopard-skins, while beside it stood an array of basins, ewers, towels, two urns of water and a tray covered with bunches of herbs and jars of oil and ointment. As the slave, still grumbling, began taking more cushions from his basket and putting them on the couch, Meris turned away to inspect these various items.

"I only wish to Cran Terebinthia was here," she said to Maia, whose brief absence she had apparently not noticed. "Tell you the truth, I don't know as much as I ought to about all this stuff. Let's only hope the chief steward does. He must have looked after Sencho plenty of times before now."

"But what's it all for?" asked Maia, as Meris dipped her finger in a jar of ointment, rubbed her forearm and smelt it.

"Why, to help him to stuff himself silly, of course," answered Meris. "You've never done this before, have you? Never mind. Long as we've got all we need, I can tell you want to do. For a start, you can bank those extra cushions up so that they overlap each other. No, not like that! They have to curve out and round, to support his belly; and we'll keep a few back, so that we can add more when he wants them."

She continued their preparations energetically, twice sending Maia with fresh demands to the household slaves. At length, standing back, she said, "Well, that's all I can think of. And we sit on these stools here. I should think the guests'U be up any minute."

All the girls were waiting, now, in their places; some seated on stools, like Meris and Maia, others standing behind the benches. The slaves were ranged along the walls

and the carvers behind their tables. The hall had fallen quiet and there was a general air of expectancy.

After about a minute a soldier, dressed in black and gold, appeared between the central columns and sounded four notes on a long, slender trumpet. This done, he made his way to the dais, taking up a position not far from Maia and Meris. Behind him the guests began entering the hall in groups, talking and laughing together as they came.

Back in Tonilda, Maia's path had very seldom crossed that of rich men. Once, when she was no more than nine and swimming in the lake, some noble of Serrelind, sailing his boat, had shouted to her to get out of the way as the bow came gliding swiftly down upon her. Frightened, she had had time to stare up a moment into his intent, else-. where-gazing face as the boat swept past, leaving her bobbing in its wash. And again, during a festival in Meerzat, she had watched as two roistering young blades, in great boots and feathered hunting-caps, set upon a fisherman and then carried off his pretty young wife, laughing at her screams and shouting that it was all in sport.

Now the room was full of such voices and such men, dressed in splendid robes or brilliant, open-weave shirts and silken breeches, carrying silver goblets and tooled leather knife-cases, conversing with confident indifference to everything but themselves and their own affairs. They made her so nervous that as a group approached the dais it was all she could do to remain seated on her stool. 'Keep still!' whispered Meris. 'Stop fidgeting!'

Among the guests walked several shearnas, and at these Maia looked with some surprise. She had been expecting a galaxy of outstanding beauty, and at first felt puzzled and rather disappointed that while some were certainly beyond argument beautiful, as well as being magnificently robed and jewelled, many struck her as nothing out of the ordinary. Suddenly (and thereupon feeling even more acutely her own lack of experience and maturity) she recalled what Occula had said about authority and style. These girls were strolling, talking and laughing among the nobles with assurance, treating them as equals and giving every appearance of being entirely at ease.

In that moment it dawned upon her that a girl like Meris was nothing but a pretty face one end and a hot tairth the other, and that this was Sencho's compass-all he could rise to. She realized intuitively that for all his wealth and

power, few of the girls sauntering among these nobles would care to consort with the High Counselor, any more than an intrepid hunter would want to go ratting. They fairly emanated style, accomplishment and wit. Whom they would they encouraged and whom they would they teased or brushed aside. What they were offering to their admirers, she grasped with some awe, was their company; just that; as much out of bed as in. Occula, she remembered, had remarked that they themselves had got to be better than the others. Well, here were the others. She felt disheartened. 'S'pose they feel like I do when I'm swimming,' she thought. And then, 'But where do such girls come from, I wonder, and how do they get to be-'

Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted and she started. Through the colonnade, not forty feet away from her, appeared the young man who had spoken to Occula and herself in their jekzha at the top of the Khalkoornil. Dressed in a saffron-colored robe embroidered across the breast with a snarling, crimson leopard, he was talking animatedly to a brown-haired, demure-looking girl who, as Maia watched, smiled at him sidelong and then said something which made him turn towards her with a quick burst of laughter, laying one hand on her wrist.

A moment later he glanced towards the Lord General's table, caught sight of Maia, stared for a moment and then, murmuring a few words to his companion, came across to the foot of the dais and smiled up at her. Maia, uncertain what to do, got to her feet; whereupon the young man raised his palm to his forehead, at which her color rose.

"Well, well, the princess with the golden hair!" said the young man. "We met in the Khalkoornil, didn't we, the day they were bringing in the new statue of Airtha? Do you recall?"

"Yes, my lord," replied Maia, forcing herself to smile and look him in the eye.

"But I didn't introduce myself, did I?" said he.

Maia felt a sudden access of courage. If he wanted to tease, well, she might as well try her hand, seeing as he seemed so friendly.

"No, my lord, you must have forgot; but you're that notorious, see, I know who you are; only that's part of my business, that is."

The young man laughed, apparently delighted. "The

devil it is! And is business good? You got yourself sold all right, then? Who to?"

"To the High Counselor U-Sencho, my lord."

His face fell. "Oh. Oh, well; I suppose you had no choice in the matter, had you? And your pretty black friend?"

"The same. But she's not here tonight."

"I'll hope to see more of you later on: I must get back now, or
my
friend'll be wondering what on earth I'm up to. Come to that, she could be right, you know." Thereupon, with a quick wave of the hand, he was gone.

"Bloody basting Cran!" said Meris. "Wasn't that Lord Elvair-ka-Virrion?"

"M'm-h'm."

"You've met him before?"

"Oh, ah."

But Meris had no chance to pursue her inquiries, for now all the guests had taken their places and were awaiting the Lord General and his party, who could be seen assembling in the colonnade outside.

The heavy, broad-shouldered figure of Kembri preceded his guests into the hall. Having ascended the dais, however, he turned and, in accordance with custom, gave his hand to each, himself conducting him to his place and putting on his head the flower-crown lying ready on the table. If one did not seem to him to suit a guest as well as it should, he laid it aside and chose another, taking his time until he and all the guests were content. While this ceremony was proceeding, ten soldiers carried Sencho on a litter down the steps, into the hall and up to his couch.

The High Counselor was not clothed, for he meant to enjoy himself, but for decency's sake was partly covered with a length of white-and-gold fabric, already clinging with sweat to his monstrous body. Torques of jewelled silver were half-buried in the flesh of his arms and a great ruby ring, which he could no longer wear on any finger, hung by a chain among the rolls of fat at his neck. Maia wondered by what means he could have been brought up the stairs. The soldiers, halting, held the litter beside and on a level with the couch, while four slaves lifted him bodily from one to the other. At the same time Meris, standing ready with a towel wrung out in tepid water, wiped his face and shoulders, gesturing to Maia to place more cushions under his belly and beneath his legs. At length, sighing with pleasant anticipation and indicating that all was now

to his satisfaction, the High Counselor waved the girls back to their places.

In all this he displayed no embarrassment or any sign that he felt in the least self-conscious or singular among the guests. Most, indeed, as he well knew, envied and feared him and, so far from being disgusted, were rather disposed to admire the wealth and luxury of a court where a man could become so fat that he could not walk ten steps across a room. Nor did it trouble him that every other guest on the dais was either alone, like Durakkon, or accompanied by some well-known shearna. His slave-girls had cost a great deal of money, showed to advantage and suited his personal inclinations and needs better than any free woman.

When Kembri had concluded his ritual of welcome, his guests all turned towards the body of the hall, extending their arms and acknowledging the applause and cries of congratulation from below. Then the Lord General greeted the company, wishing them a happy and profitable Me-lekril and conveying the regret of the Sacred Queen that she was unable to be present on account of an indisposition, which fortunately was not serious. Finally, he welcomed Durakkon as High Baron of Bekla, and formally asked his consent for the feast to begin.