Seekron paused, but Maia said nothing, only staring ahead across the darkening Barb.
"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-Virrion 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 fig-ure, 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 lumi-nosity, 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.
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"Saiyett, here are the names of seven men, either councilors or senior officers in Bekla now, whom Lord Randronoth 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-youth-ful 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 fit 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.