Maia (59 page)

"We needn't go far, my lord," she said, smiling down at him. "Just up among those trees. No one'll see us there."

Now the boat was gliding smoothly, only a few feet from the bank, slipping quietly up the margin of the lake, past

the scullions dousing their fires and the cooks packing up their utensils after the evening's work. There was a pleasant smell of smoldering logs. The black girl had slipped out of her clothes and now sat naked on the thwart, her body gleaming in the moonlight as she bent, dipped her paddle and rose again, this side and that, gently guiding the boat towards the zoan grove bordering the far end of the gardens. The moon had dropped behind the trees and the inshore water was lying in deep shadow. Into this warm seclusion the boat slid with scarcely a ripple-merely a light chuckling under the bow and then a gentle scraping as it touched the bank and came to a stop. Laying down her paddle, the black girl knelt and secured the cords fore and aft to two projecting roots.

Now she was stretched beside him, fondling him, her fingers deft and busy under his thin robe. In growing excitement he began caressing her thighs, clutching her, fondling her breasts.

"You're the god Cran, my lord," she whispered, "and I'm your Sacred Queen."

Laughing, she mounted astride him, sinking down upon him, panting. Her rapid plungings began to shake and agitate the boat, sending a succession of ripples out across

the water.

"Ah,
now,
my lord!" she cried. "Now! Now!" Yet thereupon, unexpectedly, she rolled quickly over and away from him, slipping out of his embrace.

As she did so, two figures rose silently out of the undergrowth of the zoan thicket. The taller, holding a wooden stake sharpened to a point at one end, plunged it downward into the huge belly, leant on it and then, jabbing, levered it back and forth. His companion, a woman carrying a knife, crouched down and drove it again and again into the folds of fat at the High Counselor's throat. Once only he cried out-a roaring bellow which died away as the blood filled his mouth and spurted over his neck and shoulders.

The black girl, snatching the knife, drove it twice into her own thigh and once into her arm. Then, while the attackers made off, one dragging the other by the wrist, she began to scream. As her blood ran down, mingling with her master's, he clutched in agony at the stake jutting from his paunch, shuddered and lay still.

When the first of the soldiers and kitchen-slaves came

bursting through the undergrowth from the gardens, they found only the High Counselor's concubine beside the body, sobbing hysterically, calling on her gods and beating blindly, with bloody hands, at assailants who were nowhere to be seen.

The murder of Sencho-be-L'vandor, High Counselor of Bekla, at a state festivity, within earshot and almost within sight of the High Baron, the Sacred Queen and some two or three hundred assembled dignitaries of the empire, spread not only shock but something close to panic, first througjh the upper and then the lower city. The deed was bewildering and minatory as an earthquake tremor. None could tell what might be going to follow; whether this was simply an isolated act of vengeance carried out by two of the great number with good reason to hate the High Counselor, or the prelude to an organized, armed insurrection against the Leopard regime. How many murderous agents might there be in the city? How many in other cities-in Thettit, Ikat, Dari-Paltesh? Who might be those marked down as their victims?

Fear and suspicion ran everywhere: among the guests, making haste to be gone from the gardens; many, as they went, arranging to remain together for the rest of the night and set out for home no later than dawn; among slaves and servants, warned by their masters to go armed, to keep strict watch and trust no one: among soldiers, an hour ago glad not to have been sent to the Valderra, now ordered to search cellars and attics in the dark; among tradesmen and merchants, fearful for their stock; among shearnas and their admirers, both, as they learned the tidings, reflecting how little they really knew of this other who lay staring and wondering beside them in the lamplight; among the priests of Cran, hiding the temple treasures and sending young Sednil hotfoot to the upper city with an urgent request for the guard to be doubled. Fear was in the creak of a door, the howling of a dog, the sound of footsteps outside.

The sheer audacity of the killing intensified the dread it

evoked. If the High Counselor, in the very midst of his luxury, could fall a victim, with slaves and soldiers on every hand, then who could count himself safe? And the unknown killers had vanished like ghosts at cock-crow. From the upper city, completely walled round and sentinelled, out of which was no egress save by the Peacock Gate, they had simply disappeared. Search, next day, of every slope and cleft on Mount Crandor revealed no least trace of them. So incredible was this that many wondered whether in fact there had ever been any assailants at all. The High Counselor's black concubine, who had been with him when he met his death, had, of course, been held for questioning, as had the other, the Tonildan girl who had accompanied him to the gardens that night. To some, despite the gruesome and brutal nature of the High Counselor's wounds, it seemed more likely that the black girl herself had killed him than that two intruders, for whose existence there was only her word, should have contrived to escape from the upper city unseen. But no, said others: she might, to be sure, have taken a knife with her in the boat unnoticed by her tipsy, lecherous master; but the stake had been cut from the zoan thicket and sharpened there (shavings had been found; and the stump). And this the girl would not have had time to do, even supposing that her master had been too gorged and heedless to stop her. Ah, but might it not have been left there, ready for her use, by an accomplice? Well, possibly. Anyway, they all concluded, she was unlikely to come out of the business with her life. Whatever part she might or might not have played, the authorities, if only to be on the safe side, would no doubt put her out of the way.

Such was the general opinion, which did not fail to reach the ears of Maia in her cell in the temple of Cran.

By noon of the third day after the murder the Lord General was back in the city, having been overtaken by the news when no more than two days' march away. He, after no more than the barest of consultations with Du-rakkon, at once set about seeking the truth. So far as was known, Sencho had never made any written lists of suspects or known dissidents, preferring to keep what he knew in his own head. A few names, however, were already known to the Lord General, while others were now given to him by certain of Sencho's agents who, scenting blood-money, came forward of their own accord. Kembri at once

sent lists to the various provincial governors, ordering the arrest of all known suspects of secondary importance- servants, drabs, watermen and the like. Those of higher rank, he judged, would be best left alone for the time being. Apart from anything else, most would not be easy to apprehend without using soldiers-soldiers whom at the moment he could ill spare. Meanwhile the lesser fry- perhaps fifty or sixty in all-were to be sent under guard to Bekla.

Kembri, flanked on one side by the chief priest of Cran and on the other by the governor of Tonilda, looked up at the black girl standing before him on the other side of the table. Her eyes, bloodshot and heavy-lidded with sleeplessness, nevertheless returned his gaze steadily.

"You say," said Kembri, "that the High Counselor wanted you to go with him to some secluded part of the gardens?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Who actually suggested that-he or you?" ' "He wished it, my lord. He wanted me to do what he usually required one or other of us to do after he'd had supper: but since we were in the gardens and not in his house, we had to go somewhere out of the way."

"Very well: but the soldiers are clear that they heard you suggesting the boat."

"Yes, my lord. Seein' what he wanted, to take the boat was the most discreet and convenient thing. I simply told the slaves to put cushions in the boat and then I helped the High Counselor into it."

There was a pause.

"Well, go on," said Kembri.

"I took the boat up under the trees, my lord, where we couldn' be seen, and began doin' what the High Counselor wanted."

"And then, according to you, two people came out from among the trees and attacked him?"

"Yes, my lord."

"You were actually lying above him at that moment? Isn't that so?"

"Yes, my lord. One of them pulled me away and stabbed me while the other set on the High Counselor."

"Why didn't they kill
you,
do you suppose?"

"They tried to, my lord, but I fought and struggled and I suppose they must have been in a hurry to get away."

There was a longer pause, while the Lord General con-

tinued to stare up at the girl. At length he said, "If you want to avoid torture, I suggest you tell me now what more you know about this business."

"I know nothin' more, my lord."

"Then I'll tell you what
we
know. You came up to Bekla several months ago from a house in Thettit called the Lily Pool: you came at your own request. Among the men who sometimes came to that house there was a licensed pedlar, who also used to go from time to time to the High Counselor's house here, in the upper city."

"Yes, Zirek: I know him, my lord."

"Some little while ago the High Counselor sold one of his girls, named Meris, to the Lily Pool. You know that?"

"I knew she'd been sold, my lord, but not where she'd gone. We weren' told."

"That girl and the pedlar left the Lily Pool together a few days ago, before the spring festival. Since then they've not been seen. But you were the last person ta see them, weren't you?"

"If you're askin' me whether they were the ones who did the killin', my lord, I can' say one way or the other. It was dark and the attack was very swift and violent. I couldn' have recognized anyone, whether I knew them or not."

"No, you didn't need to, because you knew they'd be waiting there, didn't you? That was why you took the High Counselor there."

"No, my lord: I was well off in that household, as the saiyett Terebinthia will tell you. The High Counselor liked me: I had no reason to kill him. May I also respectfully point out that if I'd been an accomplice I might have been expected to have escaped with the killers?"

"Take her away!" said Kembri. "And bring in the Ton-ildan!"

The black girl, clearly still in pain from her wounds, limped out between the two soldiers in attendance.

"What do you make of that?" asked Kembri, turning to the governor as the door closed.

The governor, an elderly, shrewd man, hesitated.

"You're asking, of course, whether I think she knows more than she's telling us. It's tempting to conclude that she might, but it seems to me just as likely that she mightn't. After all, when she persuaded this woman in Thettit to send her up to Bekla, neither she nor anyone else could

possibly have known that Sencho was going to buy her."

"No; but Lalloc may have thought that Sencho was likely to fancy her."

"Lalloc, Lord General? He'd be the last man to join in a plot. All the slave-traders are Leopards to a man: they know which side their bread's buttered."

"That's true," replied Kembri. "We can leave Lalloc out of it. But in fact I'm less interested in this girl's personal guilt or innocence than in how much she may know. Do you suppose she knows who was behind the killing and what they mean to do next?"

"She may very well have had some sort of hand in it and yet still know next to nothing," cut in the chief priest. "She could have been given instructions without knowing where they came from, let. alone anything about the people at the top. She'd better be tortured: that's the only way to make sure."

The door opened and the soldiers brought in the Ton-ildan girl. She was plainly terrified; staring wildly about her and scarcely able to put one foot before the other. Her long, fair hair hung in a dishevelled mass about her shoulders. Her face and hands were grimy and her eyes circled with dark rings. Appearing thus, she looked even younger than her years-a mere child, devoid of all self-possession or power to dissemble. Kembri found himself thinking that if she was innocent he felt sorry for her.

"Bring up that bench," he said to one of the soldiers. "Let her sit down."

The girl half-fell onto the bench, breathing hard and staring out of her blue eyes like a trapped animal.

"You come from Tonilda, don't you?" said Kembri.

The girl nodded speechlessly.

"Did you know Occula before you came to Bekla?"

"No, my lord: we met on the way here. At Puhra, 'twas."

"I see," said Kembri. He leaned'across the table. "Now, if you don't want to die, tell me who told you that the two of you were to take part in murdering the High Counselor."

At this the girl broke into a torrent of weeping.

"I never knew nothing about it, my lord! I wasn't nowhere near when it happened, even! I-"

The soldiers shook her and she became silent.

"We know that," said Kembri. "The truth is, you weren't where you should have been, were you? Yoir were

supposed to be attending on the High Counselor. You had no business to leave him-"

"But he'd
sent
me, my lord! He'd sent me, himself, to find an Urtan lady and tell her as he wanted to see her-"

"Yes, we know that, too. But after you'd found her and delivered your message you didn't go back to him, did you? Your job was to distract attention; to entice everyone you could to watch you in the water down at the other end of the garden. What happened when you went to look for the Urtan lady, and why didn't you go back to the High Counselor as soon as you'd found her?"

"First I happened to meet Lord Elvair-ka-Virrion, my lord, and he began talking to me, but I told him as I had this errand to do. And then, while I was on looking for the lady, I met Lord Bayub-Otal."

"Bayub-Otal?" said Kembri sharply. In all the turmoil of the last few days he had forgotten this girl's connection with Bayub-Otal-a suspect if ever there was one. Now it returned to him forcefully. "Well, and what did
he
say to you?"

"He said, my lord, as I needn't go on being a slave-girl if I didn't want. And then-"

"He said
what?"
asked Kembri. The chief priest, who had been conferring with the governor of Tonilda, looked up sharply.

"My lord, he said if ever I wanted to leave Bekla I'd only to tell him."

Kembri and the governor looked at each other.

"And what did you reply to that?" asked the governor.

"I said, my lord, that if he meant as he wanted to buy me, he'd better speak to the High Counselor, not to me: and then he was off, he just went away very sharp, like."

"To speak to the High Counselor, you mean?"

"I can't say, my lord. At the time I reckoned he must have, and I thought as that was likely to make the High Counselor mad at me. I mean, he might think I'd suggested the idea myself, like. So I reckoned I'd wait a little while 'fore I went back; only he was always in a better frame of mind after he'd been with a girl, you see."

"You mean, you thought you'd leave him to Occula?"

"Yes, my lord, I did think that."

"Well, and what then?' said the governor.

"So while I was waiting, Lord Elvair-ka-Virrion, he came up to me again, and asked was I a good swimmer."

"Why did he ask you that?"

"Well, his friends was all playing round the water, see? So I says yes, I was good, and then he said if I could swim so well I'd better show everyone. So I just done what he said." She paused; then burst out passionately, "It's true, my lord! He'll tell you himself!"

"You can leave that to us," said Kembri. "All right; take her away!"

When the soldiers had gone he said, "My son's already told me that it was he who put her up to the swimming game: but I wanted to hear what she had to say herself. Actually, I doubt she was deliberately trying to distract attention from the killing."

"Still, both girls had better be tortured," said the chief priest. "Don't you agree?"

Kembri made no immediate reply. The truth was that for various reasons he felt disinclined to consent. Judicial torture in Bekla (which by law could be used only upon slaves) was a function of the priesthood of Gran. Kembri had never liked the chief priest, whom he had always suspected of being in some sort of secret understanding with Sencho. It now appeared to him that the chief priest-a celibate but not a eunuch-seemed distastefully eager for a little torture-more so than he would have been if the suspects had been laborers rather than pretty girls. As concubines these two were above average and likely to become excellent shearnas. They were popular. One of two of the young Leopards, in fact, had already mentioned to him privately that they hoped he might be able to avoid torturing them. Besides, they were valuable property, no less than jewels or silver. Sencho had left no heir and everything he had possessed now belonged to the state- strictly speaking, to the temple: but Kembri himself and other Leopard leaders would come in for a cut. The idea of torturing, and thereby ruining, or at least gravely damaging, a couple of girls worth fourteen or fifteen thousand meld apiece, simply on the chance that they might know a little-not much-more than they had already told, struck him, on balance, as more loss than gain. What he was really seeking at this juncture was clear evidence against Santil-ke-Erketlis, which was more likely to be obtainable from arrested Tonildans than from secluded Beklan dwellers like these girls. Lastly and most important, what the Tonildan child had said about Bayub-Otal had just sug-