"There's always danger for the likes of us. But cheer up, banzi. It could all turn out to have been worth it, you know. Anyhow, I should try to look at it that way, for you'll have to do it."
"But he said I was to tell him in three days. How can I?"
"I've thought of that, darling: I'll do it for you."
"You will? How?"
"Like this. You tell Miss Pussy-cat tomorrow that while you were with Kembri you told him about your friend the black girl, and he said I sounded unusual and he'd like to have a go at me. That'll sound much more convincin' than if you said he wanted you back. You've nothin' to gain out of me goin', you see."
"But she won't take my word for a thing like that-"
"No, 'course she woan'. But she'll hope to Cran it's true, because she'd like another hundred and forty meld. I bet she'll never give Piggy a trug of what she took off you today. By the way, he's out of order, you know. Gorged himself sick at dinner an' they put him to bed. That's why we were all off-duty when you got back. So she's on her own. She'll send round to Kembri's saiyett, who'll ask Kembri. And he's expectin' to hear somethin' from you, so he'll realize what it's all about and say I'm to come."
"But he said I wasn't to tell a soul-"
"Ah, but for the matter of that I could perfectly well be bringin' him a message I didn' understand myself, couldn'
I? 'My friend thanks you for being so kind, my lord, and she'll be happy to do anythin' she can for you.' Somethin' like that. Great Cran, there are hundreds of ways I can tell him, sweetheart! Just leave it to me."
"Oh, Occula, I love you so much! Why, now you're trembling! What is it?"
For some time the black girl made no reply. At last she whispered "Oh, what an evil, terrible city this is! I came to it in bloodshed nearly seven years ago an' it hasn' changed an atom! Pray, banzi-only pray that we both survive!"
The following morning, however, she was her usual self, passing the time by inventing ridiculous games in which she and Dyphna competed first, to tell a story containing the most and biggest lies, and then to dress up as different kinds of men paying court to Maia, whom they hit over the head with a bladder every time she failed to stop herself laughing.
Sencho was still sick; and likely to remain in bed for two or three days, so Terebinthia told them. A doctor had prescribed a purge, rest and quiet. Three or four nondescript people who had come for instructions had been sent away and told to return in three days' time.
Maia, having been made to act out her false message until Occula was satisfied that she could deliver it convincingly, asked to see Terebinthia alone. The saiyett, having heard her, inquired whether the Lord General had given any indication of when he wanted the black girl to come; but here Maia, as instructed by Occula, pretended to be unable to remember. Terebinthia thereupon reproved her for not taking more trouble to commit to memory the details of a message from so exalted a personage as the Lord General, but went so far as to smile when Maia replied that she had really been in no condition to memorize anything accurately when she was feeling less like a girl than a bucket of soapsuds.
The porter's underling having been dispatched to make inquiries at the Lord General's house, both girls could not help feeling some anxiety. Occula, however, turned out to have been right in supposing that Kembri would put two and two together. The reply was that the Lord General wished to see the black girl that very afternoon; and after a scented bath Occula, having silvered her eyelids, put on
her golden nose-stud and necklace of teeth and obtained Terebinthia's approval of her orange metlan and hunting-jacket, set off in the same jekzha that had carried Maia the day before.
She returned quite late, explaining that as she was about to leave the Lord General's house ins saiyett had brought her a message that the young lord Elvair-ka-Virrion wished her to come and drink wine with himself and a few friends in his rooms. Naturally, she had done as required. There had been one or two other girls there, including Otavis and a celebrated shearna named Nennaunir, who was very popular among the younger Leopards.
"But I didn' do any more on my back," she added, handing over Kembri's lygol of two hundred meld and pocketing the eighty which Terebinthia returned to her, "I just met several rich young men and did my best to make them remember me. I think something might come of it later, saiyett."
After supper she complained of a headache and said she was going to bed. Maia remained for some time with Terebinthia, helping her to look through and take stock of the wardrobe of beautiful and expensive clothes maintained for the High Counselor's girls. The saiyett, having ascertained that Maia could ply a needle at least passably, set her to stitching two or three torn linings and frayed hems, dismissing her only when she was ready to go to bed herself.
Maia, expecting Occula to be already asleep, came into their room to find her sitting by the lamp, bent over the pedlar's pottery cat, which she was holding upside-down on her lap and apparently scratching open with the point of her knife.
"What you on with, then?" asked Maia, sitting down on the bed and reaching for the hairbrush. (Since seeing the girls at the Rains banquet, she had taken to a regular use of brush and comb every night before going to bed.)
Occula put the cat back on the shelf.
"Oh, nothin'. Passin' time-wastin' time. A cat ought to have a venda, banzi, doan' you think? Imagine how miserable you'd be without one."
Maia shook her head in perplexity. "Thought you was supposed to have a headache?"
"I have. Gome on, let's go to bed and put the lamp out. I'll tell you a story-two stories. I want someone's arms
round me who loves me, jus' for a change. You'll do for now."
Under the bedclothes she whispered, "Well, it worked, banzi. He basted me for a start, but I think he must really have spent almost the lot on you yesterday. He as good as said so, actually, a bit later on. Didn' stop him gettin' down to work for a quarter of an hour, though, before he thought to ask why I was there."
"What did you say?"
"I gave him your message; that you were ready to oblige him at any time; nothin' more than that. And then I told him- well, you know-that I was your friend and a bit about how we met and how I'd always done my best to look after you. I told him about that little tick Genshed, too-might do him a bit of harm, you never know. Anyway, after a time he asked whether you'd told me what he'd said to you yesterday, and of course I didn't know a damned thing. So then he said what did I think of you, and I said-oh, banzi, I'm so clever-I said I thought you'd do wonders in time, but I couldn't help bein' a bit worried because you were so inexperienced. And then, as if it was a huge joke, I told him about what happened at Khasik-all about Zuno and the Ortelgan rope-merchant and his golden bear. 'See what I mean?' I said. 'She turns people upside-down, but she's much better when she's got me to look after her. Still, my lord, I niustn' go borin' you with a lot of silly chatter.'
"So then he had some food and wine brought in and we talked about nothin' for a bit, and then he basted me again, and after that he told me to get dressed and go home. I'm certain he was waitin'to see whether I'd bring the subject up again. If I had, of course, he'd have guessed you'd been talkin' to me. I just acted as though I'd completely forgotten the whole thing. He gave me my lygol and I was actually goin' out of the room when he called me back and told me to shut the door and sit down.
"And then, banzi, he told me more or less what he told you; that he needs eyes and ears, and in particular that he wants to know more about the Urtans. What it comes to- or so I believe, though of course he didn' say it-is that for some reason he can' persuade Sencho-or doesn' trust him-to find out whatever it is that he wants to know about these Urtans. Neither of them really trusts the other; crooks never do. But my guess is that Sencho's becomin' less and less useful." Occula suppressed a chuckle. "Not pullin' his