Maia

by Richard Adams

  "One might have expected the Lord General to choose as Sacred Queen some lady commanding universal fame

  and approval. He has said nothing publicly, but it is known that in fact he favors the lady Milvushina, the daughter of the murdered Chalcon lord, Enka-Mordet; she who is now the consort of his son. He thinks that her election would do much to reconcile Chalcon to Bekla and diminish heldro opposition to the Leopards; and that when Elvair-ka-Vir-rion returns victorious from Chalcon, his popularity with the city will be so great that they will be ready to acclaim Milvushina as Sacred Queen."

  "She is with child," said Maia shortly.

  She meant no more than that Milvushina should be spared the stress, but Seekron evidently misunderstood her. "Exactly, saiyett: most inappropriate. But even setting that aside, the lady Milvushina, while she is liked well enough by the people, is not the lady whom they love and honor most. It was not she who swam the Valderra and saved the empire."

  "Count Seekron," said Maia with a quick gasp, "I don't want to hear n' more of this. You just go home now and tell Lord Randronoth as I won't have anything to do-"

  "Saiyett," he interrupted quickly, "have you reflected? They say-that is, I know that you have more than once said-that you swam the Valderra not to advance yourself, but to prevent bloodshed and save lives."

  "Well, what of it?" she said. "What's that got to do with this?"

  "Saiyett, there is only one lady in all the empire so famous, so beautiful and so much loved and honored by the people that they would be unanimous in acclaiming her as Sacred Queen. If you refuse, inevitably there will be civil strife and butchery. Before all's done, there will be six Sacred Queens and a thousand corpses for each. But if you accept, there will be unanimity and concord. Everyone believes that you, more than any woman in Bekla, possess the luck and favor of the gods."

  Here was a new slant on the business and no mistake! Maia sat silent, trying to take it in. Her immediate feeling was of being assailed. The quiet evening garden, with the moths flitting over the planella; her own, pretty little house, from whose windows Ogma's lamps were beginning to shine-something menacing, ghostly, a tall, vaporous figure, seemed stalking near-by, half-glimpsed among the dusky trees. So vivid was this fancy that she gave a quick, cut-short whimper, drawing her cloak closer about her and

  peering this way and that. Again Seekron misunderstood her. Plainly nervous, he stood up and also looked about them.

  "Did you see someone, saiyett? Where?"

  "No," she said. "You needn't worry. There's no one here 'ceptin' us." Then, "I don't want to be Sacred Queen. I want to stay 's I am."

  "But the gods want it, saiyett! You must recall that in the past there have been many whom the gods have called to perform their work on earth, who at first could not credit the vocation, because they felt themselves to be nothing but the most ordinary people; because in their humility they knew themselves to be but flesh-and-blood. Remember Deparioth, an orphan and a slave, who-"

  "Oh, give over!" she cried. "Let me be!" She sprang up and began pacing rapidly back and forth across the grass. "U-Seekron, leave me! Go back to the house and wait! I need to think: I'll join you in a few minutes."

  She walked down to the lakeside. The stars were out now, brighter moment by moment as the last of the daylight ebbed away in the west beyond the Barons' Palace. As she turned her back on the lapping water and looked up the garden, she suddenly noticed something strange in the northern sky. Low down it was, an unusual patch of brightness, a kind of misty glow on the horizon; but whether man-made or natural she could not tell. Either seemed equally questionable. Yet there it was, a subdued luminosity, something like that preceding moonrise, though affecting a rather smaller area of the sky. For perhaps half a minute she stared at it, but was too much preoccupied with her own thoughts to concentrate upon it for longer. Whatever it might be, it was nothing to do with what had come upon her.

  After a little it occurred to her that as yet she could not have heard the main part of whatever it was that Seekron had come to tell. Occula would undoubtedly have shown more self-possession. Occula would have heard him out and then either given him an answer or else-or else- (and here Maia grinned, feeling a little better) or else told him to damn' well baste off to Lapan without one. The least she could do was to hear the young man out, but on her own terms and-if only she could rise to it-with some air of authority.

  Stooping, she wetted her hands in the lake and cooled

  her burning cheeks. Then she walked back to the parlor, taking care, as before, to enter unhurriedly.

  "You must forgive me, U-Seekron," she said, "for not being quite myself just now. I'm sure you'll understand it came as a bit of a shock, like." He was about to reply, but she went on quickly, "Now, listen. I've taken in what you said, and I don't want to hear n'more by the way of persuasion, d'you understand? You just tell me straight out and plain, now, what Lord Randronoth's message is, and then I'll see what I reckon to it."

  "But, saiyett," he replied, "you must swear to say nothing to anyone.",

  "I won't say nothing to anyone," she answered. "There you are: that's plain enough; never mind 'bout swearing. And you can tell me in here, too." And thereupon she refilled her goblet and sat down.

  He had either to accept this or reject it. After a moment he decided to accept it.

  "Saiyett," he said, again almost whispering, "Lord Randronoth has the whole of Lapan ready to declare for you as Sacred Queen. He believes that Bekla will acclaim you too. It may very well never come to conflict at all. Our immediate difficulty, however, is the Lord General's preference for the Lady Milvushina. As you know, many, though not all, of the Leopard Council support the Lord General, and besides, when Elvair-ka-Virrion returns victorious from Chalcon-" He shrugged his shoulders.

  "Well, go on," she said.

  "Lord Randronoth thinks we ought to prepare while Elvair-ka-Virrion is still away. He himself has already made sure of General Sendekar. You won't be surprised to hear that General Sendekar has told Lord Randronoth that he would be ready to go through fire and water for your sake. Without him, perhaps, we could not have hoped for so much. But as you know, a large part of the army will follow Sendekar."

  Again he stopped and waited. Maia only trusted that she did not show the agitation she felt. Randronoth was one thing. Sendekar-unexcitable, rugged, kindly, decent Sendekar-was quite another. O Cran! she thought, don't say he's in love with me, too! That'd be a right old-

  "Will you please go on, U-Seekron?" she said coldly.

  "Saiyett, here are the names of seven men, either councilors or senior officers in Bekla now, whom Lord Ran-

  dronoth either knows or has strong reason to believe will support him and support you. I am to ask you to-well, to make friends with these men-some you may know already, I dare say-entertain them, invite them to your house and so forth, but separately and at all costs without exciting the Lord General's suspicion. You need not yourself say anything to them about Lord Randronoth's scheme: in fact, better not. They will tell you what is afoot, when the time is ripe and according to the way in which matters develop."

  Suddenly she could contain herself no longer. She broke out, "I want to know whether all this is because Lord Randronoth believes himself in love with me? Because if it is-"

  "Oh, no, saiyett." He smiled condescendingly and indulgently, evidently feeling this to be a naive, over-youthful reaction. Why on earth, she thought, couldn't Randronoth have sent some older, more considerate man; someone a bit more relaxed and sympathetic?

  "Lord Randronoth thinks that when you are acclaimed Sacred Queen, both the city and the empire will fall at your feet, and that those of your friends who have helped you, among whom he is proud to count himself one, will benefit accordingly."

  "Well, you tell him from me-"

  "One thing more, saiyett. Lord Randronoth is well aware that to entertain well, to give presents and to make reliable friends costs money. He's sent you some, to use as you think f
it for the advancement of your cause-our cause."

  "Money?" she said. "What do you mean, money? How much?"

  "Forty thousand meld; later, of course, there can be more, if it's needed."

  "Forty thousand meld, U-Seekron? You can't be serious!"

  "Saiyett, I have it here." He touched the Canathron scrip at his belt.

  "Oh, great Shakkarn!"

  Forty thousand meld! she thought: and apparently, from what Seekron had said, this represented only part of Randronoth's total efforts so far in various quarters. He must be throwing virtually the entire resources of the Lapan treasury into the plot. She had no idea how provincial governors settled accounts with the Beklan Council, but

  obviously there must be some sort of day of reckoning, and Randronoth would not be able to meet it. So unless there was something she did not know about, he was at this very moment past recall as a rebel against Kembri.

  Well, but it might not come to rebellion. After all, merely to support a girl as a candidate to become Sacred Queen did not in itself constitute rebellion-though pretty obviously there was more at the back of this lot than just her becoming Sacred Queen. But anything could happen. Meanwhile, and immediately, a fraction of the huge sum she was being offered-a mere eight or nine thousand meld- would be enough to put her straight and get her out of her money difficulties. Yes, and to send a nice little bit to Morca and the family, too; for they had been much on her conscience since Tharrin died. Anyway, girls who had grown up in hovels on the Tonildan Waste didn't refuse enormous sums of ready money. Trouble next month? Next month's a long time off, she thought.

  "Would Lord Randronoth expect me to render him accounts?" she asked.

  "He said nothing to that effect, saiyett, but I hardly think so. After all-" he smiled again-"the expenditure might be rather difficult to itemize, don't you think?"

  Forty thousand meld! Once she had learned from Sednil where Zen-Kurel was, she would be able to go to him like an arrow; go to him, too, with a dowry more than fit for a baron's daughter. And once out of the empire-

  "I see," she said. "Well, you'd best come with me, U-Seekron. I've got a strong-box under the floor in the cellar. Give me the names: and you may tell Lord Randronoth that I'll do all I can to help him."

  70: THE COMET AND THE SCALES

  Two nights later, after supper, Maia was giving instructions about the money to be sent to Morca. It was a right old lot, too; more than Morca would have seen in her whole life, Maia felt sure of that. Sarget, whom she had consulted (though without mentioning Tharrin), had recommended one of his agents, a steady, middle-aged man who regularly traveled the fifty miles to Thettit-Tonilda with consignments of wine. The journey usually took three to four days

  or even longer-loaded ox-carts being slower than an unencumbered man on foot-but Sarget thought it feasible enough for his agent to break off from the convoy at Hirdo and visit Lake Serrelind. A day should be quite enough for the business, and he could easily overtake the oxen before they reached Thettit. It was understood, of course, that Maia would make the detour worth his while.

  Since Morca (like Maia herself) could more or less read simple words if she put her mind to it (her husband had taught them both as much as he himself knew of the tricky business) Maia had engaged a professional scribe to write a letter to be handed over with the money. When she came down to it, however, she could not find a great deal to say. Assuming that the family had already given Tharrin up for dead, she simply assured Morca that she knew he had died quickly and painlessly (why say more?) and that she herself had paid for his rites. She forgave Morca for what she had done and assured her that she bore no grudge. She sent her love to Kelsi, Nala and Lirrit and her blessing to the baby girl she had never seen. Then, on impulse, she added at the end, "Tharrin told me about my real mother, so now I understand you-and everything-better."

  She had just handed over this letter to the man, together with the money, explained to him for the second time how to find Morca's hut and begged him to be sure to bring back word of how the girls were looking, when Ogma came running into the parlor, plainly frightened.

  "Oh, miss!" she cried, not only interrupting Maia in mid-sentence but almost throwing herself into her arms as well, "Oh, miss, have you seen it? Oh, Cran, what's to become of us all, what's to-?"

  "Ogma!" said Maia sharply. She felt thoroughly put out by the interruption. Ogma, for all her limitations, knew perfectly well the importance of keeping her place in front of visitors and strangers. "Pull yourself together! I don't know what you're on about, but whatever it is, just tell me sensibly."

  "In the sky, miss!" whimpered Ogma.

  "What?" cried Maia, now really angry. "Have you gone off your head?"

  Disconcertingly, Ogma fell on her knees at Maia's feet.

  "Oh, Miss Maia, don't be angry! It isn't only me! Everyone's that scared-everyone! I went up on the roof-only

  I'd forgotten I'd left the clothes there to dry-and there it was! They're all out in the streets-everyone-"

  This certainly sounded like trouble of some sort. What could it be-a riot? Bad news from one of the battle-fronts? She listened, but there was nothing to be heard. She turned to the man, shrugged her shoulders and asked him to be so good as to accompany her. Together they went upstairs and then up the flight of outside steps onto the flat roof.

  The previous two nights had been, for once in a way, cloudy-at all events to the north and west-but tonight the sky was as clear as usual at midsummer. The sight that met their eyes caused Maia to start back with a cry, clutching at the parapet.

  In the northern sky, fairly low though well clear of the horizon, hung a brilliant luminescence. "Star" it could scarcely be called, first because it was far brighter than any star, but secondly because its refulgence had an unde-marcated, gaseous quality, like an incandescent vapor, dimming at the periphery to become a kind of glowing fog as it spread into the surrounding void. From its lower edge tapered a streamer of filmy, powdery light, slightly inclined to the left, giving the whole phenomenon the likeness of a sword poised above the distant Gelt mountains. It appeared perfectly still and (unlike stars, which look like bright studs fixed into the sky and left there), as though invisibly but intentionally displayed by some supernatural agency.

  Maia, oblivious of the man beside her, stared at it in dread. After a time (she did not know how long), like someone in a disaster or a wreck vaguely recalling the appointed procedure, she tried to stand unaided and extend her arms in the customary posture of prayer; but her knees gave way and she turned and clung once more to the parapet.

  Faintly, in the lower city below, she could discern that the roofs were covered with people. There were all manner of sounds-calls and crying, ululations of prayer, what sounded like some soldiers raggedly singing a marching song-rising together in a cacophonous tumult, like that of a herd of frightened beasts, out of the obscure dimness. Yes, she thought; that was one thing the noises had in common; they all expressed fear. Yet the light itself was calm and silent as a seraph.

  At this moment Sarget's man touched her arm.

  "Saiyett, you're afraid: I'm afraid, too. This is a portent. Lespa's displeased, and who can tell why? But whatever it may foretell, the star itself won't do anything; nor we shan't alter anything, you and I, by standing here and letting it terrify us. Whatever's going to happen won't happen tonight."

  Maia hardly heard him. The terrible thing, she thought, about the enigmatic light was its inescapability. You could not fly from it, you could not shut it out. If you were to run from Bekla to Zeray, it would still be there above you.

  The man spoke again. "Saiyett, I'm just someone who works for U-Sarget, and you're a great lady of the upper city; I know that. But there are times-there are things- well, I've got two married daughters older than you. We're all men and women, saiyett-to Lespa we are. May I advise you?"

  She nodded abstractedly.

  "You swam the river, saiyett. That lot down there- you're their heroine.
Whatever's coming, we can all try to keep our dignity, wouldn't you agree? Set them an example, you know."

  Maia was highly suggestible and, as we know, it seldom took her long to make up her mind. "Yes, I would agree," she said, "and all I can say is 'Thank you'-'ceptin' I reckon as your daughters got the best father anyone could have. Ogma!" she called. "Bring me my cloak, please- the one with the embroidered stars. I'm going out!"

  It is, on the whole, easier to appear brave when you already have a reputation that way and feel that courage is expected of you. Maia's third soldier was nowhere to be found, but this did not bother her now. Within twenty minutes the Serrelinda, dressed to kill, unveiled and seated in her golden jekzha, was entering the lower city through the Peacock Gate.

  There was light enough for her to be recognized; and recognized she was, before she had gone two hundred yards down the Street of the Armourers. A big, brawny man-plainly one of the smiths-broke away from a crowd of his mates and ran across to the jekzha.

  "Yes, it is the Serrelinda!" he called back over his shoulder. Then, standing squarely in the way and looking up at her, "What's up, lass? Are you leaving the city, or what?"

  "Leaving? Of course I'm not leaving!" she answered.

  There were seven or eight of them clustered round her now. "What on earth would I be leaving for?"

  Their answers came all at once, like a handful of gravel thrown at her.

  "The star-" "Unlucky-" "What's it mean?" "-unlucky-" "Where are you going, then?" "-quarrels among the gods, that's it-" "-we'll have to pay for it-" "What d'you make of it?" "Unlucky-"

  "It isn't unlucky!" she cried, raising her two fists. "It isn't! That's where I'm going-" she pointed ahead, downhill-"to tell them not to be afraid! There's nothing to be afraid of! It isn't bad luck, it's good luck!"

  "How d'you know that, eh?" asked the big fellow. "A bit of a girl like you-"

  "Ah, and a pretty one an' all," said someone else.

  "Because Lespa told me in a dream!" shouted Maia at the top of her voice.