"I'll think about it, Nan: really I will." Maia, like most of us when some more experienced friend criticizes arrangements which we had thought suitable enough but now begin to have sneaking doubts about, felt resentful, but had no wish to fall out with a good friend like Nennaunir.
"For instance," went on Nennaunir, turning her sleek, shining head and looking Maia over appraisingly, "Terebinthia would never have let you go to a. barrarz dressed like that. Whose idea was that-yours or Ogma's?"
"Mine. Whatever's wrong with it? I wore this at Sarget's party in the Barons' Palace and-"
"I know, darling. I was there-remember? But it's not right for a barrarz."
"What is a barrarz? Elvair was on saying that-'a bar-rarz -
Nennaunir silently drove one fist twice into the other palm, like a girl tried close to the point of outburst.
"So Ogma didn't know about a barrarz? Honestly-"
"Don't be cross, Nan: just tell me. There's a first time for everything, you know."
"First time?" replied the shearna. "I'm worried about you, that's all. There can be situations where a girl only has to be wrong once, you know."
"But is a barrarz one of them?"
Nennaunir burst into soft, happy laughter.
"No, fortunately not. Of course you'll do very well as you are, Maia dear. I didn't mean to be a cat, truly. You're very lucky-you'll always look marvelous; for quite a few years, anyway. I heard you met King Karnat dressed in nothing but your shift and a bunch of golden lilies. Is that true?"
Maia stared. "How on earth did you know that? I never told a soul!"
"Oh, news travels, dear; news travels." Then, before Maia could question her further, she went on, "Anyway, a barrarz: Cran help me, I should know! I've been to enough of them. It's the custom in Bekla-and elsewhere, for that matter-the night before soldiers are leaving on active service, for the commander to give a party for his officers-and some of the tryzatts too, sometimes. Well, it's apt to become a pretty rowdy affair, as you can imagine. They boast and shout and sing and drink themselves silly and naturally they generally get to basting the girls as well. The thing is, they're usually in a mood to be pretty open-handed-you know, ready to spend what they've got before they go. Many a good lygol I've had at a barrarz, though I admit I generally earned it right enough. I lost my virginity at a barrarz, actually-the one Kembri and Han-Glat gave in Dari-Paltesh before they marched on Bekla seven years ago."
"So how do you dress for a barrarz, then?"
"Like a soldier's doxy, dear. At an upper city barrarz as classy as this one's going to be, it's fancy dress, really; but my job's to amuse people, after all."
Leaning back in the jekzha, she opened the azure cloak.
The flimsy, pale-green robe she was wearing beneath it was not only transparent, but in some curious way seemed less to cover than to display and intensify the smooth whiteness of her body. Crowning each of her breasts was a slightly convex silver figure, about two inches high, representing a laughing cherub. At their groins the craftsman had left holes in the silver, and through these Nennaunir had drawn her nipples. At her waist, beneath and not outside the robe, was a silver girdle, its clasp fashioned in the likeness of a naked nymph leaning backwards, half-reclining on her elbows. The aperture between her lustrous, up-drawn thighs was superimposed lipon Nennau-nir's navel.
"Clever workmanship, isn't it?" said the shearna, drawing Maia's fore-finger down to feel the smooth, weighty quality of the silver.
"But will all the girls be got up this kind of style?" asked Maia.
"Oh, no, I shouldn't think so," replied Nennaunir. "I just thought it'd be fun to wear these tonight: I got them in Ikat about two years ago. But here I've been chattering away and giving you all sorts of bad advice, and I nearly forgot what I really wanted to talk about-why I came round for you. Listen-this is terribly important. I believe a real chance has come up to get Sednil out of the temple; that is, for you to, if only you'll give it a try. Will you, dearest Maia? It would mean everything to me, and I'll always do you a good turn if ever I can."
"Me get him out?" said Maia. "How?"
Nennaunir paused for a few moments, gazing across the road at a wide, sloping bank of scented tigris, over which the moths were darting and hovering like tiny hummingbirds. At length she said, "You told me you once spent the night with Randronoth, when you were still at Sen-cho's."
"Yes, I did," said Maia. "What about it?"
"Tell me, how did you get on with him?"
"Well, I don't just rightly know how to answer that," said Maia. "He didn't half enjoy himself, and he said as much, both to me and to old Sencho; but then men like that generally do enjoy theirselves, don't they, whether you do or not? I mean, they don't bother much about any give-an'-take. Far as I was concerned, it was all just part of what we had to do, like."
"Well, whatever you may have thought at the time, it seems you really blew his ears apart for him that night," said Nennaunir. "Of course, Randronoth's a notorious baby-snatching goat-I'm too old for him, now; he usually likes them about fourteen-but apparently even he'd never known anything like you in all his basting life."
"Very nice of him, I'm sure," said Maia. "Can't remember doin' anything as I thought such a great lot of myself."
"No, of course not; how could you? But can you remember anything else about Randronoth?"
Maia, reflecting, frowned. "Well, I don't just exactly know what you're on about, Nan, but I do remember one thing as struck me. He was very much taken with the clothes and jewels as I was wearing, and he asked me whether I had any idea what they might have cost: he reckoned it must 'a been all of seven thousand meld, he said. So I says, "Well, what you got in your arms now cost more 'n twice that"-which was true enough an' all. Only that seemed to get him going more than anything else. Seemed as if just the very idea of what I'd cost and what the clothes had cost and what the jewels had cost was enough to drive him wild."
"Yes, well, I'm surprised, because to tell you the truth Randronoth's already given me his own version of this; I mean, without exactly knowing what he was saying; just while he was telling me how marvelous you were. That man's got a kind of obsession about extravagance, though I don't believe he's ever realized it-not consciously. Randronoth loves to feel that there's any amount of wealth and expense tied up with his basting-it gets him excited. Give him some little banzi behind the hedge at a village festival and he wouldn't want her-probably couldn't do it. But Lalloc could doll the same girl up in a gold net and jewels and offer her for far too much, and Randronoth's zard would be splitting his breeches. It's a funny world, isn't it? That was what really led to all that trouble over poor Sednil, you see. I didn't want Randronoth's damned ring: as I told you, it wasn't a girl's ring at all. But it was the most valuable thing he happened to have with him, so he had to give it to me: it was part of the thrill; and to do him justice he never seems to regret these little larks afterwards. Even his bribe to keep me quiet was far more than it need have been."
"But what about Sednil, then?" asked Maia.
"Well, now we come to it, pet; and if you don't like it, just say so; I shan't mind. Randronoth's up here again. He comes up every summer, you know, like all the provincial governors, to hand over his tax money. That's why he's brought so many soldiers with him. I hear they've drunk 'The Serpent' dry already and now they're starting on 'The Green Grove'. Anyway, he came round to see me and all he could talk about was you."