Suddenly she knew what it must be. That crass, clumsy fool Bayub-Otal had then and there gone and asked Sencho to sell her to him. Yes, of course, that must be it! And Occula had been afraid that if she, Maia, came back in the middle, while Bayub-Otal was still talking to Sencho, he might make a scene, or she might lose her head and start begging Sencho to let her go. Whereas Occula reckoned that if she herself could only spend half an hour alone with Sencho when he'd got rid of Bayub-Otal, she could probably cool him down.
But then, how ought she to act when she did return? "Oh, simply wait and see; it would all depend. He might be drunk by that time, or Occula might have gratified him and got him off to sleep. Or better still, he might want her, Maia, to gratify him: that would put her beyond any risk of his displeasure.
The mood of the party, she noticed, was beginning to change. Most of the older people seemed to be leaving. Not far away, a little group of obvious heldril were making their farewells to Durakkon, while near-by she could hear a grizzled baron saying something to his wife about the evening having lasted long enough. She turned back towards the lake, and as she did so two young men ran past her, one waving a flagon and calling out the name of Shend-Lador. Evidently the younger Leopards were now intending to make a night of it. Would Sencho be more likely to stay or go? she wondered. On the one hand his greed, now indulged, might dispose him to sleep, but on the other his lust might cause him to remain awake for a while yet.
A little distance away she could hear shouts and laughter. There were cries of "Go on!" "Go on, Sychar!" Then a splash was followed by ironical cheering. Looking in the direction of the noise, she could make out dark figures dodging about, obscuring and again revealing the colored lamps among the trees.
The swans were no longer to be seen. How nice it would be, she thought, simply to take off her clothes and plunge
into the water-just to strike out into the moonlit emptiness for a good, long swim. Of course, this silly old Barb was nothing to Lake Serrelind. How long was it, she wondered-half a mile? Not much more. The further end was only two or three hundred yards away from Sencho's house. What fun it would be to swim down there-she could do it in half an hour, easy-oh, yes, less-and then just climb out, like one of those water-nymphs in old Drigga's stories, and walk in. Ah, and she could just see Terebinthia's face an' all-
"Maia! All alone? What are you doing now-just going to bathe, were you?"
It was Elvair-ka-Virrion, sauntering alone, apparently at a loose end. As she turned and smiled at him he took her in his arms and kissed her warmly, fondling her body up and down through the smooth, supple material of the tunic.
"Why, my lord, I thought you said as you were going off to see Milvushina?"
"T'maa and his sister have gone. I'm joining them there later. But never mind about that. A moment ago, before you saw me, you were looking as if you'd love to dive in."
"So I would, my lord. Nothing I'd like better!"
"It's deep, you know-deeper than you think. The Pool of Light's more than three times as deep as a man."
"Wouldn't worry me, my lord. Deeper the better!"
"You really can swim, then?"
"In the lake, back home, I used to swim-oh, ever so far."
"Did you?" He stooped cjuickly, drew one of her arms round his neck and then, with the other under the crook of her knees, lifted her bodily.
"Oh, please don't throw me in, my lord! Not in these clothes-that'd make a right old lot of trouble for me, that would!"
"I'm not going to."
He was carrying her easily along the shore in his arms. Although she had no idea what he had in mind, she could not help enjoying it. Within a minute they had reached the outskirts of the frolic going on round the Pool of Light! About twenty or thirty young Leopards, together with perhaps half as many girls, were gathered along the shore, shouting with laughter as they pelted and cheered on a young man who had plunged in fully clothed and was la-
boriously splashing his way across the pool, supporting himself on a floating wine-cask. Looking at him, Maia could feel only contempt for his stupid clowning. He was, she felt, merely spoiling and uglifying the whole notion of swimming. It was like as if he'd started hopping about while Fordil was playing the music for the senguela.
Elvair-ka-Virrion put her down.
"Can you swim better than that?"
"Than that, my lord? Dear oh law, that's not swimming! Why, I could dive out of that zoan tree there and be halfway 'cross the pool 'fore anyone'd seen me go!"
"Could you indeed?" said Elvair-ka-Virrion. "Well, if you really can, I'll-"
He stood laughing down at her, his teeth very white in his shadowed face. A girl ran past, calling "Elvair, come on! We're going to pull him out!" Elvair-ka-Virrion ignored her and she disappeared among the bushes.
"Can you?"
"Whatever you say, my lord. But's anyone going to mind if I'm naked? Only-well-all these old heldril, and the High Baron's not far off, either. I don't want no trouble-"
"Trouble-you-naked?" said Elvair-ka-Virrion. "Ha! Don't worry; I'll see to that."
Maia, drawing the combs out of her hair and pocketing them, unbuttoned the embroidered tunic and took it off, together with her shift. Elvair-ka-Virrion stretched out his arms to her, but she smiled and shook her head.
"One thing at a time, my lord. On'y this is serious stuff, see?"
With this she ran across the grass to the foot of the zoan not thirty yards away. No one seemed to notice her, for they were all watching the young man struggling out on the further bank. In a moment she had seized a low branch and pulled herself up into the fork. Having taken stock of the tree, the pool and her potential audience, she began edging up a long, sloping bough which extended over the water.
From one branchy hand-hold to another she inched her way outward, until the thinning bough began to sag under her weight. Go out any further, she thought, and I won't have enough support for a dive. Ah, here was a good place, though-nice and open, no other branches to get in the way and the water-oh, eleven or twelve feet down, per-
haps; hard to tell in this light, but it looked deep enough.
At this moment two young men walking along the bank looked up, saw her and stopped in amazement. Pointing, they called out to others further off. People began running towards the zoan, staring and exclaiming.
"Careful-you'll fall!" "No, she won't!" "What a pretty girl!" "Why not come down and go to bed with me?" "Who is she?" "Look out!"
"It's the senguela dancer!" cried a voice.
"She's going to dive!" shouted Elvair-ka-Virrion at the top of his voice.
At this there was some derisory laughter and someone shouted "When? Next year?"
Maia, facing the full moon, her toes flexed on the rough, fissured bark, was on the very point of diving when suddenly she saw through the foliage a woman gazing directly up at her. The glimpse, between the faintly-moving, silvery leaves, was like a face seen in a dream-indistinct yet disturbing; arrestingly beautiful, yet in some way menacing too. The wide, commanding eyes, framed in an aureole of hair gleaming in the moonlight, were staring-with approbation, certainly-but also with a kind of intent rapacity which frightened her even as she sensed it.
Startled and thrown off balance, she swayed and for an instant tried to stop short. But this was no longer possible. Thereupon the naturally-acquired skill of years came to her rescue. Her body knew instinctively that it must dive.
To the watchers below there seemed no trace of hesitation. One moment she was standing in the moonlight, high among the zoan boughs. The next she had dived outward, straight and taut, hair streaming and the leafy branch thrashing behind her, to plunge through the surface of the lake with a single, quickly-gone splash and a symmetry of outward-flowing ripples.