Very deliberately, he drew a knife from his belt, turning it in his hand so that it glittered a moment, paralyzing her with fear. Then, holding the hilt loosely, he began jabbing the point here and there, lightly pricking her wrists, her arms and shoulders. As she whimpered, cringing one way and another and vainly trying to avoid the thrusts, his enjoyment plainly increased and the bloody mask of his face grinned in the candlelight.
At length he laid the knife aside, and rose to his feet beside the bed.
"Now, my pretty little pet," he said, and pulled his leather jerkin over his head.
At this moment, just as his head came clear of the garment, a dark presence, like an apparition, appeared in the doorway, took a step forward and dealt him a swinging blow on the side of the neck. He stumbled against the wall, and as he did so the figure kicked him in the stomach, so that he fell to the floor.
Everything had happened so fast that Maia had had no time even to feel relief. Utterly bewildered, she stared up from where she lay, by no means sure whether her rescuer might be human or supernatural: and for this uncertainty she had some reason, since the figure before her was like no one she had ever seen in her life.
Standing at the foot of the bed was a girl a few years older and a little taller than herself, with a broad nose and short, curling black hair. Completely naked, her lithe, slim body was dark brown--almost black. She was wearing a necklace of curved teeth; and thrown back from its fastening round her neck, so that it hung behind her from shoulders to knees, was a scarlet cloak. As she blinked, Maia saw in the candlelight that her eyelids were painted silver.
Meeting Maia's eyes, the girl smiled briefly. Then she picked up Genshed's knife and tried it in her hand with the air of one not unused to such things.
At the same moment Genshed turned over, sat up on the floor and set his back against the rough, lime-washed wall.
"Stay there, you blasted pig," said the black girl quietly. "Doan' try to get up, or I'll cut your zard off and stuff it up your venda."
Her voice, smooth and unusually low, had a curious, exotic quality, as though she were speaking--albeit with complete fluency--a language to which her lips and palate were not entirely suited. Her words were not ended in the manner of common utterance and her accent was not Tonildan.
Genshed, staring up at her, wiped the back of one hand across his blood-smeared face and spat.
"Who the hell are you?" he said. "What d'y' think you're doing, comin' in here? Give me that knife and get back to your room."
"You mother-bastin' little tairth of a slave-trader," replied the girl evenly, without raising her voice, " I doan' have to ask what you were doin'. You work for Lalloc, doan' you? and I suppose you'll tell me you doan' know it's a strict rule that stock-in-trade's not to be raped or interfered with by the likes of you? You zard-suckin' little swine, this is goin' to cost you your job before I've done."
"Not so much of your basting lip!" cried Genshed. "You just give me that knife, now!"
"Yes, you can have the knife," replied the girl. "That poor little banzi's bleedin' along of you, you filthy bastard; I could make you bleed: but I'm not goin' to waste any time on you. For now, I'm just goin' to get you out of here and later, back into the gutter you came from: or even into Zeray, I wouldn' wonder. Here's your knife."
On the instant she threw it by the blade across the few feet between them. The point pierced Genshed's calf to a depth of a good inch, and as he grabbed the hilt with a cry of pain, dark blood welled out and flowed down his leg.
The black girl, with a quick movement, drew one wing of her scarlet cloak across her body and stood coolly looking down at him.
"I'm val'able merchandise," she said. "You know that, doan' you? I'm to arrive at Bekla in perfect condition. And you're just a dirty little nit-pickin, venda-crawlin' menial; there's any number like you. You try an' touch me and I'll cut your balls off. Now put that lousy jerkin on again and get out of here." She kicked it into his lap.
"All right, all right, less of it now," said Genshed, in the tone of one who feels himself beaten but is trying not to show it. "Who d'you think, you are, anyway?" Pulling a dirty rag from somewhere under his clothes, he began dabbing at his bleeding leg.
A small, dark man, with the look of an Ortelgan, whom Maia had not seen before, appeared in the doorway and stood staring at the scene before him.
"Who am I, Megdon?" said the black girl. "You better tell him." .
The dark man smiled. It seemed to Maia that he did not like Genshed.
"Her name's Occula," he said, "from Thettit-Tonilda."
"Yes!" cried the girl, raising her voice for the first time. "I am--the Lady Occula, you stinkin' little tairth-trader. Have you ever heard of Madam Domris?"
"Runs a knocking-shop in Thettit, Thettit, don't she?" muttered Genshed, without meeting her eye.
"Runs a knockin'-shop in Thett, Thett, Thettit!" mimicked Occula, spitting on him where he sat slumped on the floor. "I'll give you knockin'-shop, you leakin' little piss-bucket! You wait till she hears you said that! Madam Domris's shearnas are famous all over the empire! And I'm one of her girls, you shit-faced maggot! Do you know what I'm worth? Well over ten thousand meld, that's how much--more than you'll see in a lifetime!"
"Well, I never touched you, did I?" replied Genshed sullenly.
"No, and you wouldn' dare, you squitterin' cockroach; but you thought you'd get away with havin' a bit of fun on the side, didn' you, with this poor little banzi, on account of you picked her up by chance, I suppose, and she's not on a list yet--Lalloc's or anyone else's. Think I doan' know your cunnin' little ways, you pox-faced rat? But worse, you woke me up! Just when I'd managed to get to sleep in this crawlin' pigsty--I'm bitten like a dog already--I'm woken up by snivellin' cesspits like you, tryin' to rape helpless little girls. You crawlin' lump of offal, I suppose you think Lalloc's goin' to think that's the way for his shearnas to make a good start--to be terrified and force-basted by menstrual turds like you?" She paused. "Well, do you? 'Cos I'm goin
' to tell him, no danger."
Her voice, easy and controlled, dominated the room as a curlew's a hillside. It was as though Genshed had inadvertently opened a trap, thereby causing her foul language to come pouring over himself in a smooth, mephitic stream.
A silence fell. Occula, having waited for Genshed's reply long enough to make it clear that there would be none, turned her back on him. The candle, already burned low, began to gutter.
"Right," said the girl at length, "Megdon, will you please bring two fresh candles into my room? As for you--whatever your name is--I could make you wash this girl and clean her up, only she wouldn't care to be touched by a disgustin' worm like you; so I'll just oblige you and do it myself. Go and get me some hot water with herbs in it, and a clean towel. And doan' be long, either."
"Fire's out," muttered Genshed. "Middle of the night, ennit?"
"Then light it again, baste you," replied the black girl, without turning round. "And you, banzi," she said, turning to Maia with a sudden flash of white teeth, "you'd better come in next door with me; come on!"
She held out a pale-palmed hand. Maia, hardly knowing what she did, grasped it and went where she was led.
7: A FRIEND IN NEED
The room across the passage--what little Maia could see of it in the candlelight and her own shocked and exhausted condition--was larger than the one she had left, as was the bed. There were two or three stools, and near the door a small wooden chest with two bronze handles and some lettering branded over the lid. Occula, releasing Maia's hand, ran her own forefinger over the first two or three characters.
"Can you read, banzi?" she asked.
Maia shook her head. "Precious little. Can you?"
"Sort of," answered the black girl. "Anyway, that's my name. Old Domris gave me this, for my clothes an' things, 'fore I left Thettit-Tonilda. You can put your own things in it if you like. There's enough room."
Before Maia could reply, Megdon came in with two fresh candles, a towel and a wooden pail, the steam from which gave off a pleasantly herbal smell.
"Didn' I tell that other bastard he was to bring the hot water?" asked Occula.