After about a minute Occula stood up in a leisurely manner, stretched her arms above her head, yawned and began to stroll towards the door. Reaching the queen she stopped, paused a moment to watch her and then kicked her in the stomach.
"You filthy slut! What the menstrual hell are you supposed to be doin'?"
"I've been told to wash the floor, please, saiyett," replied Fornis in a low voice, without raising her eyes.
"I hope my noble lady won't--"
"Wash the floor, you turd!" cried Occula, kicking her again. "You're not fit to wash a pig's venda! Haven' I told you I woan' have the floor washed like that? Haven' I? You zard-faced lump of dung!"
Paddling her bare feet in the film of water on the floor, she deliberately wiped one of them across the queen's face and then, putting it under her chin, pushed her roughly backwards, so that she measured her length in the grimy mess.
Fornis lay prostrate, shuddering with excitement. "Oh, saiyett, sSiyett! Please forgive me--I meant no harm--I'll do it all again--don't whip me, saiyett!"
"How dare you speak to me in that insolent way!" shouted Occula, kicking over the jar and stamping her foot so that dirty water was splashed into the queen's face. "I told you what would happen if you spoke to me like that again!" With this she picked up the sopping floor-cloth, wrung it out over the queen's shoulders, seized her by the hair, jerked her head back and stuffed it into her mouth. Then, pulling up her own skirt, she drew her hand between her legs and slapped the queen across the face.
As Fornis turned on her back, convulsing ecstatically, Occula plucked out the cloth, drew to one side and left her to ber own devices. At length, her spasm of luxury subsiding, the queen once again rolled over in the morass on the floor, clasping the black girl by the ankles and whispering, "More! More, Occula! More! Oh, you're marvelous! No one's ever been able to do it like you!"
"Like me, you disgustin', vile whore? You foul cow!" yelled Occula, trampling on her back. "I'll teach you to lie there like a sow in shit, askin' for more! I saw you the other day, bastin' with the garbage-slave behind the mid-den! You thought no one could see you, but I saw you there, wrigglin' about in the muck on your hands and knees! You're not fit to live with ordinary, decent people! I'm going to chain you up to a kennel in the yard, with 'Please shit on me!' written over the top!"
"Oh, saiyett! Oh, saiyett!"
"I'll saiyett you, you pig!"
Thereupon Occula, pulling up the smock round the queen's waist, beat her six or seven times with the flat of her hand across her bare buttocks, until she shrieked with pain.
"Now turn over, you nasty trollop! Right over, on your back! I want to look at you! No, do it properly, damn you!" shouted Occula, kicking and spitting on her again. "Get those fat thighs apart, miss, before I have them well whipped!" Then, as the queen obeyed her, she seized the hearth-brush and thrust the handle between her legs until it disappeared.
Fornis screamed, squirming. "Oh, be careful, Occula! Be careful! You'll injure me! You're hurting me!"
"Hurtin' you?" cried Occula, kneeling down beside her, pulling out her breasts and biting her nipples.
"Hurtin' you? If I have any more insolence I'll stuff a nutmeg-grater up you and work it in and out. You beastly, stinkin' animal! I'd sell you for ten meld, but no one would buy you! You're not a human bein' at all; why, you wouldn' even make a decent piss-pot!"
And with this she straddled over Fornis, squatted down and urinated in her face, the queen babbling incoherently as she did so.
"Now clean me up! No, not with the cloth, you ape! Do what the apes do, and hurry up about it! I want to feel your--"
But at this Fornis once again discarded every vestige of control, losing all ability to sustain any longer her part in the revolting game and writhing on the floor in a perfect transport of voluptuous pleasure. From this second ecstasy she returned only very gradually, twitching where she lay and drawing long, shuddering breaths, as though she had run a race and was now utterly spent.
"Had enough?" asked the black girl, as the queen at length opened her eyes, drew out the hearth-brush and feebly tossed it to one side.
"Oh, Occula! Yes, enough now! Oh, that was wonderful! O Cran, but you really must be more careful! You've hurt me--"
"If I was more careful, you wouldn' enjoy it, would you?" replied Occula composedly. Fetching a bowl of clean water and a towel, she once more knelt beside the queen and wiped her face.
"Oh, yes, yes, that's true! You know, don't you? O Cran, I needed that! Oh, if only you'd been at the temple--"
"Let me get this thing off you now," said Occula, biting her lip.
"I won't have it washed!" said Fornis quickly. "That's the one that--"
"No, all right; but you'll need a bath, Folda. I told them to have it ready: Shakti'H be there now. You go along while I get cleaned up here. Sure you've had enough, now?"
"Oh, my black savage!" whispered Fornis, embracing her. "Who sent you to me? D'you realize no one else in the whole empire would dare to treat the Sacred Queen to a quarter of that! That stupid little Maia-- she was no good! Not even after six months of Sencho! Oh, I've played a nice game on her, the little nitwit! I'll tell you all about that later. Oh, Occula, what a good day it was for me when I got you out of the temple! You really enjoy it, don't you?"
Occula smiled. "Yes, in my own way, Folda, I do enjoy it."
"In your own filthy, dirty, black way. I love you! You're evil! You're a witch, aren't you?"
Occula, staring back at her, nodded gravely.
"You made that Urtan boy stab himself with a knife that wasn't there. I wish I'd seen that."
"I wish you had."
"You're frightening--you're splendid, Occula! You really understand about cruelty, don't you? Aaah!"
The queen stretched luxuriously. "I'm quite tired! Bath now, and then I'm going to have a nice sleep. What a delightful day!"
She stood up, slipped on the robe Occula was holding up for her, kissed her and ran out of the room.
For some moments the black girl stood looking after her, then came back and pulled the closet door wide.
It was clear enough that she had been affected by what she had had to do. As Maia scrambled out, she shut her eyes for a few moments, leaning her sweating forehead on her forearm and retching; then, recovering herself, turned to Maia with a finger on her lips.
"Now get out of here, banzi," she whispered. "Doan' stop for anythin'! The knife you can leave to me. Zuno's at the top of the stairs; I've just seen him. He'll get you out by the back. Go on now--move!"
Dazed and speechless, Maia ran. Zuno guided her downstairs and as far as the gate behind the palace, but outside, in that same back lane along which she had walked by night with Lalloc, she suddenly came over faint, sank down and vomited. She felt feverish and hardly knew where she was going. Her own madness--Randronoth's--the queen's--all seemed blazing and burning in her bead like meteors in a demented void. She was glad to accept the help of a kindly passer-by--some elderly house-slave returning from an errand--who, asking no questions and not even recognizing her, gave her his arm as far as the thoroughfare and saw her into a jekzha.
66: AND ANOTHER
"--I'm sincerely sorry. I'm sorry in many ways. But of course, your position in the empire will always remain a most honorable one; I hope you won't think anything else for a moment. We're very grateful to you; we always shall be."
Durakkon, looking out the window of the queen's reception room and picking with his fingernail at the skin down one side of his thumb, paused for a reply. Fornis, however, said nothing and after some moments the High Baron reluctantly turned to meet her eyes. To all appearances she was waiting for him to continue. He had no more to say--indeed, in his tension and embarrassment he had already repeated himself, regretting and extenuating to an extent consistent, perhaps, with the manners of a nobleman but scarcely with the authority of the High Baron of Bekla. So potent and disconcerting, however, was the Sacred Queen's silent self-possessio
n and air of not, as yet, having heard anything worth the time she had had to spend in listening, that Durakkon--actually against his own bet-ter judgement--found himself speaking again.
"You've done a great deal for the empire, esta-saiyett. There can be no one who's not fully aware of that. I know you'll understand that it wouldn't be possible--that the people themselves wouldn't accept--a Sacred Queen of-- er--well, of the degree of maturity--" He broke off. "Of course, you'll realize that Sacred Queen is one thing and Saiyett Fornis, ruler of Paltesh, is another. One's no more than an appointment--almost nominal--just for a fixed term. The other's what you actually are and always will be. There's no reason whatever for you to feel--er--well, in any way dispossessed."