"I don't know whether you've heard the news, saiyett, but what they're saying in our mess is that Santil-ke-Er-ketlis has actually defeated Lord Elvair-ka-Virrion somewhere in Yelda, and our lads are falling back into Lapan. You wouldn't happen to know, I suppose, whether that's true?"
What's that to me? she thought. "No, I haven't heard anything, Brero. If I do I'll pass it on to you."
He hesitated. "Saiyett, I can see you're a bit upset, like; and that's none of my business, of course. But for what it's worth, I'd like to warn you-though I hope you won't tell anyone it came from me-that I'm not the only fellow in our mob as reckons there's going to be a whole lot of trouble, and 'fore very much longer too."
He paused, but she was too much preoccupied to prompt him.
"Only we sometimes get to hear things, saiyett, before they're given out by the heralds, you see; and sometimes, come to that, things that never are given out at all. Just, lads come back from the front and tell their mates. Well, you see, it's only that I'm hoping they'll let me go on being one of them as looks after you. I'm no coward-I've seen
plenty of action since I first joined up-but it's a good soldier who knows how to look after himself, as they say. If you could use your influence-that's if you're satisfied, saiyett, as I hope you are-I'm sure I'll be very grateful."
Recalled to her self-possession by this harmless and understandable bit of self-seeking, she smiled.
"Of course I will, Brero; don't worry. Now could you please be so kind as to go to the Lord General's house, ask for Lord Eud-Ecachlon of Urtah and tell him I'll be honored if he'll come to dinner with me a little after noon today?"
"But whatever kept you so long, Ogma? Oh, yes, I'm sure you must have taken great care to get all the best you could find. I know you always do-those brillions look lovely, and so do the trout-only now it's so late in the morning. Lord Eud-Ecachlon will be here quite soon and you'll need all of an hour to get dinner ready. Do make a start as quick as you can, there's a dear."
"Well, I would have been back a lot sooner, Miss Maia," said Ogma, her voice taking on the querulous, defensive tone with which Maia had become familiar, "if only it hadn't been for being bothered and pestered and-and followed all up the street and made to look that much of a fool until I didn't know if I was coming or going. And when you're a slave there's nothing you can do about it and-and 'tisn't likely, miss, that anyone's going to interfere to help the likes of me," ended poor Ogma, who was obviously on the point of tears. "It's all right for some, as has soldiers to pull them about in jekzhas-"
"Now, Ogma," said Maia quickly, though inwardly she was fuming at this additional waste of time; it would have to happen now, she thought. "Just try to calm yourself! It's all over now. Were they street louts, or what? You tell me who it was and I promise you I'll see they get something to remember. Did you tell them who you were and that you work for me?"
"Why, he knows very well as I work for you, miss. 'Course he does! That's why he was on pestering me and wouldn't go away. I had to call out to the guards on the Peacock Gate, else I couldn't have got away from him or got back here at all."
Who the hell could this be? thought Maia. Not Ran-
dronoth-no, nor anyone else she could think of: presumably some boorish stranger from one of the outer provinces, besotted by having got a sight of the Serrelinda and ready to try anything. Well, there'd be an end to all that soon enough now.
"You say he knows you work for me?"
"Well, 'course he does, miss. That's why he wouldn't go away. 'You take me through the gate with you,'he says. 'They know who you are and they'll let me through if you tell them the Serrelinda wants to see me urgently.' So I says, 'No,' I says. 'The Serrelinda's got a dinner-party today,' I says, 'and you've made me late as it is. What I'll do, I'll tell her you're here,' I says,' 'cos last time she said I ought to have let her know that much, but if you think I'm going to take a branded man through the gate into the upper city,' I says-"
"Ogma! A branded man?"
"Yes, that there Sednil, miss, of course! He-"
"Sednil? You mean to say he's back here-already?"
"I don't know nothing about back already, miss, but that's who it was."
"Ogma, never mind about the dinner! Just put all those things in the kitchen, quickly: then come back here. I'll write you a note for the guards on the gate. You're to go back at once, find Sednil and bring him here as quick as you can, understand? No, don't say any more; just do as I tell you!"
Snatching up her brush and ink, she sat down and began with laborious care, "The barer of this worront is Sednil of Dari…"
"But Sednil, what brought you back so soon? I wasn't expecting you for-oh, for weeks! You've never been to Urtah, surely?"
"No," he replied. "No, I didn't go to Urtah; I just went to Dari."
They were sitting side-by-side on the roof. Shortly after the flustered and thoroughly disgruntled Ogma had left on her errand, Brero had returned from the Lord General's house with the message that Eud-Ecachlon would certainly come as soon as possible, but regretted that he might be delayed by an important Council meeting about to be held at the Barons' Palace. He had not yet appeared, and Maia had taken Sednil up to the roof, partly because it was the
most secluded place in her small house and partly in order to make sure of giving a convincing impression that she was not at home for the moment, having had to go out for a short time-which was what Ogma had been told to say.
"But why? Oh, Sednil, you mean you've come back without finding anything out? After I'd given you all that money-"
"No, no," he answered. "I didn't need to go to Urtah, Maia: I found out all there is to be found out in Dari."
His manner, grave and unsmiling, roused in her a quick trepidation. "You mean-you mean Zen-Kurel's dead? You've found out that he's dead!"
"No, he's not dead. He's a prisoner in the fortress at Dari. There were quite a few, you know-Terekenalters, Katrians, Subans as well-taken in the fight at Rallur. Bayub-Otal was one of them, as everybody knows. Well, your Zen-Kurel was another. Apparently he was fighting like a perfect devil when he slipped and went down in the mud. Someone noticed from his badges that he was a staff officer and reckoned he might be worth a ransom, so they jumped on him and took him prisoner."
"How did you find this out?"
"Well, when I told my old mother what I was up to- she sends you her blessings, by the way. She was more than grateful for the money-she said she knew there were some Katrian prisoners in the fortress and why didn't I check on them for a start, before I went to Urtah. I couldn't see there was any danger in asking straight out, so I went there and asked to see one of the captains of the fortress. The man I saw was Durakkon's younger son. He's no sort of a soldier at all, but he's a very decent, kind-hearted sort of fellow. Just as well-a real dyed-in-the-wool officer would probably have thrown me out. I told him my story about having known this Zen-Kurel when we'd both been banzis in Dari, and he told me at once-well, what I've already told you. Zen-Kurel's reasonably well, as far as I can make out-as well as anyone can be in that place-and Bayub-Otal too."
"Then-then surely they'll all be let out, won't they, as soon as things have quietened down? I could send him a letter, couldn't I, 'specially if you say this son of Durakkon's is so nice? Or-oh, Sednil, I could ransom him myself, surely?"
"You might have tried, perhaps." He gazed at her somberly.
"What d'you mean?"
He took her hand. "Maia, there's something more, and this is the bad bit, I'm afraid. Fornis is in Dari."