Sencho replied to Elvair-ka-Virrion that his girls, like everyone else's, were available on terms, and inquired what kind of lygol the young man thought appropriate for their attendance at his party. At this Elvair-ka-Virrion showed slight surprise. Surely in all the circumstances-- _ Sencho, with an air implying that it was hardly for one such as himself to be put to the trouble of expounding to youths commonplace matters which someone else should already have taught them, waved a shapeless arm towards Terebinthia. The saiyett, smiling deferentially, begged Elvair-ka-Virrion to permit her to explain something of which he himself Would undoubtedly become more keenly aware when, later, he came to possess slave-girls of his own. A girl represented a very considerable capital outlay; especially girls like these, hand-picked and in their prime. Inevitably, little by little, time and use took the bloom off them.
They were a wasting asset, with a normal peak life of about seven or eight years. The young lord would not, would he now, expected to borrow hounds for a hunting expedition, or a boat for some journey downriver, without agreeing upon a fair sum for wear and tear? There was always good reason behind every generally-accepted social custom.
Elvair-ka-Virrion, no less courteously, was responding to this with some talk of the value of experience and the exhilarating and polishing effect upon girls of mixing in the highest company and becoming friendly with such outstanding practitioners as the lady Nennaunir, when the High Counselor broke in once more. Having regard to his friendship with Elvair-ka-Virrion's father, he was ready to oblige him.
Obviously--and here Sencho's half-buried eyes flickered sharply up at the young man--this party was not an affair of state policy, or his father would have advanced him public funds for it. But--and here he checked Elvair-ka-Virrion, who was about to protest--no matter. The girls might go, and he would expect them to receive whatever generous lygol Elvair-ka-Virrion thought appropriate: less, no doubt, than the four hundred meld apiece which would normally be required for lending such girls for an entire night; but let that pass. In return, Nennaunir should remain with him for the next hour.
At this the shearna started for a moment, but instantly recovered her self-possession. Occula, catching Maia's eye, quickly glanced away. Elvair-ka-Virrion, plainly disconcerted, replied that he greatly appreciated the High Counselor's generosity. Nennaunir, however, was a free woman and, like any other shearna, was accustomed to be well paid for her time and accomplishments. He really could not say--embarrassed, he glanced hesitantly towards her.
Sencho said no more, but Terebinthia (and here Maia began to perceive that one of the skills of a competent saiyett was to preserve the dignity of her master, carried away by a compulsion to gratify some depraved impulse, and to intervene on his behalf) suggested that since Nennaunir was today spending time in Elvair-ka-Virrion's company, no doubt it was in his power to compensate the High Counselor for his generosity by letting her bestow a little of that time on him. Otherwise--she shrugged!--perhaps it would be better to forget the whole business--after all, it was not important--the young lord might prefer to look for girls elsewhere--
Nennaunir, having now had time, as it seemed, to deliberate with herself, put down her goblet and walked over to the couch. As she sat down her perfume, a light, fresh drift of planella, reached Maia's nostrils. She would be delighted, she said, provided her friend was agreeable, to render the High Counselor any service in her power. In-deed, she was only sorry that the opportunity should not have come her way before.
Terebinthia, turning to Elvair-ka-Virrion, said that she would be happy to discuss with him, in the garden-room, the necessary arrangements for the girls' attendance at his party. If he wished, she would show him the clothes which she had in mind for them to wear; of course, if he should have other ideas, she would be only too happy--
Still talking quietly, she conducted the young nobleman from the hall.
An hour later, in the women's quarters, Occula stood oiling and soaping Nennaunir in the bath, while Maia, having carefully selected some matching thread, was mending the hem of her robe where the gold border had been torn. Elvair-ka-Virrion had already left. The shearna, shuddering, buried her face in her wet hands, then bit on one finger, shaking her head from side to side.
"Steady!" said Occula, putting one arm round her shoulders. "Time to go home now. All finished!"
"Oh, the filthy brute!" burst out the girl. "How disgusting! Oh, I never imagined--"
"Oh, this is the real world here," replied Occula. "We handle anythin', you know--"
"You think it's funny!" cried Nennaunir, with blazing anger. "You think--"
"Well, I'll be frank," answered the black girl, putting down the oil-flask and looking her soberly in the eye. "I do find it a bit surprisin' to see an experienced girl like you thrown off her balance by such things. After all, you must have--"
"Me?" cried Nennaunir, stamping her foot in the water. "To do-- that, to me! Do you know that when U-Falderon took me to Ikat Yeldashay last year I was mistaken for the Lord Durakkon's own daughter? D'you know who gave me that robe there, and what it cost? Do you--"
"That's just why he did it, dear," said Occula patiently. "Much more fun to do it to someone like you than to trollops like us."
"But--but what possible pleasure can there be in--in that?"
"Why, simply to see you revolted and trying not to be sick," said Occula. "You must have come across this sort of thing before, surely?"
"We evidently live in different worlds," said Nennaunir, with a wretched attempt at superiority.
"Oh, by all means, if it makes you feel better--" answered Occula, shrugging her shoulders.
Nennaunir, stepping out of the water, was silent while Occula rubbed her down. At length she said, "I'm sorry! I didn't really mean to be spiteful." She turned to Maia. "Is he always like that, or only sometimes?"
Maia felt embarrassed. "Dunno, really."
"Oh, can' you see," said Occula, with a kindly touch of impatience, "that it's just you being an expensive girl and hatin' every minute of it that brings him on? It's much easier for us guttersnipes. He'd do it to the Sacred Queen if he could."
"The Sacred Queen?" Nennaunir stared. "The Sacred Queen? She'd love every minute of it! Have you ever had anything to do with her?" Occula shook her head. "Oh, well. It doesn't do to pass on everything you happen to learn, does it? I'd heard stories about the High Counselor, if it comes to that, but I never really believed them until now." Overcome once more by her revulsion, she sat down beside Maia and dropped her head between her knees. "Oh, I'd rather have been whipped! I really would."
"You wouldn't," said Terebinthia, who had come into the room as silently as usual. "But you needn't have put yourself forward so readily this afternoon. I could have got you out of it if you'd given me the time--and the money, of course. It's merely a matter of exercising influence."
"Influence with the High Counselor, perhaps," said Nennaunir, slipping on her sandals and stooping to fasten them, "but not with Elvair-ka-Virrion. That was really why I had to agree. His father owns my house, you see, and I live in it for nothing--as long as I'm one of his friends. Even so, I wouldn't have agreed if I'd known--"
"But could you really have got her out of it, saiyett?" asked Maia. She snapped off her thread and spread out Nennaunir's robe on her knee. "How?"
"Why, he accepts my advice, of course," replied Terebinthia. "I can generally change the High Counselor's mind if I want to. Without me he'd be dead in a month, and he knows it as well as I do. Why do you suppose Meris was sold? If anyone thought I was going to keep a girl like that--couldn't keep her temper, always using her sexuality to make trouble, lucky not to have been hanged upside-down in Belishba--" She looked with approval at the mended rent. "He wouldn't find another saiyett like me."
"Well, you live by looking after the High Counselor," said Nennaunir. "You're welcome, I'm sure. Personally, I can't leave too soon."
"There is a jekzha waiting for you in the courtyard," replied Terebint
hia coldly.
29: THE URTANS
Maia lay easy and relaxed beside Elvair-ka-Virrion. She was feeling, at this moment, as fully content as at any previous time in her life; and not only in respect of physical satisfaction, or even of pride in the power of her beauty-- of which she had just received the amplest proof. Even more than with these, she was filled with a sense of success and of having attained to a new level in her fortunes. It was as though until today, with Occula to guide her, she had been climbing arduously towards a ridge rising above her.
Now she was standing on the ridge. Whatever lay in the future, she was no longer--would never again be-- that plodding girl. Dangers there might be, but no more clambering. Serene in her beauty, energy and health, she felt equal to any future uncertainty; capable, even, of turning it to account. Stretching lazily, she rubbed her cheek against Elvair-ka-Virrion's shoulder.
Upon her arrival with Occula--and before she had even seen any of the other guests--she had at once been taken upstairs to Elvair-ka-Virrion's room, where he joined her after a few minutes. Taking her in his arms, he kissed her passionately and at once set about giving expression to the feelings he had declared so ardently at the Rains banquet. He had certainly proved himself no liar, she thought.
And something else he had shown her, too--the difference between a nobleman and a tavern-stroller.
Sencho, of course, did not enter into this. All that she had ever done with Sencho had been the work of a slave-girl, and her only satisfaction had come from doing a thorough job and climbing into her master's good graces. Neither did she count Kembri, for plainly almost any girl would do for him. She now believed only too well that when he had told her that he had not sent for her primarily because he wanted to bed with her, he had been speaking no more than the truth. Throw almost anything you like in the water, she thought, and a pike'll take it if he's on the feed. No, it was Tharrin whom Elvair-ka-Virrion had put in the shade, and not merely by wealth, or even by youthful virility. Tharrin's playfulness, she now realized, though it had amused and pleased her at the time--oh, he wasn't a bad sort--was all of a piece with his weakness. He wasn't--he never had been--a man who picked life up and shook it. He was footloose, fugitive, a stray cat round a back door. He had no real dignity--no, not even in a girl's arms. He was a born scrumper of apples, a pinch-and-run exponent--"What, me, sir?"--one who had always preferred to nibble and move on rather than stay to make a job of anything. And this had shown--oh yes, very much--in his love-making--light-hearted, trivial, what's a bit of fun between friends? As she lay here now, with Elvair-ka-Virrion's arm under her head, she was not even thinking of Tharrin's responsibility for what had happened to her, but simply of how much more satisfaction she had just received than ever she had from him. From all she had heard, Tharrin's whole life had been precarious. He was precarious by nature, and unconsciously she had felt precarious as his lover. Events had proved her right. By contrast, Elvair-ka-Virrion had taken her with a kind of smooth, natural mastery in which there seemed no hint of weakness: and (unlike his father) he had shown consideration for her as well as himself. She felt respect for him. Although she knew that he must have had many girls, she believed what he had said to her--that since he had first seen her he had felt more desire for her than for any other girl in the city. She had had no choice in the business, of course, but that did not matter, for the truth was that she had gone along with it altogether. In fact, she had never enjoyed anything so much. To be with a handsome, warm-hearted, well-mannered man not many years older than herself, who behaved unselfishly, yet took what he wanted with an ardor which she knew to be the effect of her own beauty--this, for Maia, was a new and wholly delightful experience. As a Beklan slave-girl, with a long road still ahead of her to freedom and fortune, she should no doubt have been thinking less of pleasure than of how she could best turn this highly-placed young man's favors to advantage. But Maia still lacked professional detachment; and it was, of course, this very deficiency which made her so attractive to Elvair-ka-Virrion.
She was still brim-full of unfeigned spontaneity, and he, perceiving this, had been seized with a very natural desire to make the most of it.