20: MERIS

"Thirty thousand!" said Occula with satisfaction. "Thirty thousand meld, banzi, for the two of us! That means you'd probably have fetched at least fifteen thousand on your own. What about that?"

"I can't see why you're so pleased," said Maia, who was rubbing Occula's back with pumice as she lay on a couch in the women's quarters at the High Counselor's house. "We don't see a meld of it—well, only five hundred. Anyway, how d'you know?"

"That Terebinthia woman told me," answered Occula. "She was there when they did the deal. 'Well, I hope you're pleased with yourselves,' she said. 'You ought to be. This is the richest house in Bekla, next to Durakkon and the Sacred Queen.' All the same, I wouldn't trust her a yard, banzi, if I were you. You can be quite sure she tells him everythin'."

"We could have fetched a hundred thousand, come to that," said Maia. "Wouldn't have made any difference to us, would it?"

"Oh, you really make me cross! Lower down, banzi! That's lovely! Go on doin' that! Doan' you see, pet, we're really val'able now? They doan' damage or waste beautiful things like you—not unless you go and make some sort of fool of yourself. You're like that fountain in his hall; he's paid for it—he's not goin' to see it spoilt or messed up."

Maia burst into tears. "I think he's horrible! I can't bear him! He makes me feel—oh!" Pulling Occula over on her back, she flung herself into her arms. "Oh, I was so excited to be going to Bekla with you; and to think it's all come to this! That dreadful—"

Occula sat up quickly, holding her at arm's length by the shoulders.

"Are you crazy? Banzi, it couldn't have turned out better! All my good advice, and you haven' understood the first thing! You think that fat brute's supposed to be in exchange for your Tharrin, doan' you? You think you're expected to have a nice time, as if it was Tharrin, or me? Can' you see that's a totally wrong idea of the business altogether?" She stroked Maia's shoulders and arms. "Oh, there's a lovely body, if ever a girl had one! Now listen: you used to use that body for swimmin' in your lake, didn' you, and that was effort and pleasure, right? And you used to use it for choppin' wood and carryin' pails of water, and that was effort and work. Well, this is the same. Where he's concerned, you use it for work. It's not supposed to be pleasure—that's the secret. But it's easy work, banzi— easy! That randy old pig—Terebinthia was sayin' half the time he's gorged himself until he can' even do anythin'. Any girl who knows what she's doin', take about half a minute to make him piss his tallow and go to sleep. But you take the trouble to please him and keep your wits about you and Cran only knows where you might end up."

She stared seriously into Maia's blue eyes.

"And you mustn', banzi—you must not let him think you're frightened of him. Tell you why. He's a cruel bastard: he mus' be, or he wouldn' be where he is. If he thinks you're frightened or disgusted he'll set out to have some fun with you. He'll have you buggered, or basted by a goat or somethin', jus' so's he can enjoy watchin' it. It all comes down to what I told you in Puhra, remember? You've got to keep some kind of authority, even if you're underneath a Deelguy cattle-dealer. That's accomplishment, that is!"

"But I've got no accomplishments!" cried Maia desperately.

"You told me you could swim."

"So I can; but what good's that going to be?"

"You never know. Girls who can swim well look nice when they're doin' it, same as girls who can dance well. Ah, that's an idea! Why didn' I think of that before? If you're a good girl I'll teach you the senguela. You're made for it!"

"What's the senguela?"

"It's a dance about Shakkarn and Lespa. The way I do it, it's just sort of Come and Get Me: but the way you might learn to do it, it could be like Lespa come down to earth. Ah, well! plenty of time."

"Fifteen thousand meld!" said Maia. "That's far more than my mother'll see in her whole life!"

"And if I know anythin' about it, most of it's peasants' taxes," said Occula, drawing up a stool to a large mirror fixed to the wall. "That's a laugh, isn't it? Your mother takes Lalloc's money for you, pays her taxes to Sencho and Sencho pays it back to Lalloc. She might as well have blown it out of her venda, mightn' she?"

"But Occula, you said you were going to tell Lalloc about Genshed—what he got up to that night in Puhra: but you never."

"Oh, not yet, banzi! That'll come later, when we've become the bounciest girls in Bekla—thousand meld a bounce. But I shan' forget, believe you me. He'll come to bits like a turd in the rain, you see if he doesn'." She put on her necklace of teeth and arranged it carefully. "For Lespa's sake, do count your blessin's. Look at that bath— this mirror—your clothes! We're wallowin' in luxury! There's others outside beggin' their bread; and all you've got to do is learn a few bed-tricks and look as if you were enjoyin' yourself. With your looks you can' go wrong."

At this moment the Belishban girl, Meris, quite naked, entered quickly from the corridor leading to the bedrooms and, ignoring Occula and Maia, stepped down into the pool. Occula broke off and for a time there was silence, broken only by Meris's ripplings and splashes as she moved restlessly in the water. At length she looked up and said to Occula, "Where the hell are you from, anyway?"

"We're from Tonilda, both of us," answered Occula placidly.

"First I heard the people in Tonilda were black. Any-way, you can damn' well go back there for me."

She struck the surface hard with the flat of her hand, but the splash did not reach Occula and Maia.

The black girl got up, went to the end of the pool and stood over her. "What the hell's the matter? D'you want a row or somethin'? It'll only bring Terebinthia in, and then we'll all be in the shit."

"I don't care!" said Meris. "She can do what she likes: she's done enough already."

She was a very pretty girl, with dark eyes and a full, sensual mouth, but now her face was peaked and sharp with anger and latent violence. One could see what she might look like in ten years' time.

"What's happened, then?" asked Occula. "P'raps we ought to know, ought we?"

She put out a hand, drew Meris to her feet and began rubbing her down with a dry towel.

"Oh, it's Yunsaymis," replied Meris after a time. "One day I'm going to stick a knife into that fat bastard and hang upside-down for it. Yunsaymis was the only friend I had."

"Why, is she dead, then, or what?"

"No, she picked up a dose of the marjil: someone at a party where Sencho'd taken her. We might have put it right, the two of us, and no one any the wiser, only that bitch Terebinthia found out and told him. Terebinthia always hated Yunsaymis, only she never dared say so to Sencho, 'cos he had such a fancy for her; but she told me once that she meant to get Yunsaymis out of here one way or another. The moment she found out she'd got the marjil, she was off to Sencho like a scalded cat. I had to stay beside him and do what he wanted while he watched Yunsaymis being whipped."

"Where is she now?" asked Maia.

"Sold—her and Tuisto together. Tuisto was expecting it: she was well over twenty-four. Girls here are always sold about that age."

"How old are you?" said Occula.

"Nineteen."

"Been at it long?"

Meris smiled wryly. "Depends what you call 'it.' You want to take a good look at me, black girl: I'm an awful warning; or I shall be in a few years."

"Get away?" said Occula. "When did it all start, then?"

"Oh, when I was thirteen," said Meris. "That's not too young in Belishba, you know. I could have been married at thirteen, down there. I never wanted to get married, though; I just liked basting. Didn't much matter who it was. I wore out every boy for miles around, until my father turned me out of doors. He said I was a whore, but I never took a damned meid, and that's the truth!"

She crashed her clenched fist hard against the woodwork of the wall. Maia and Occula exchanged glances. "What happened then?" asked Occula.

"Well, I couldn't starve, so I set off to walk to Herl. But on the way I took up with Latto—this lad I met. He was on the run."

"A slave?"

"What else? Belishba's always full of slaves on the run— or it was, five years ago. But Latto—he never would tell me a word about himself. 'I'm your gift from Shakkarn,' he used to say. 'That's good enough for you.' It was, too: that boy had a zard could have broken a door down! He used to—" And here Meris grew quite remarkably obscene, until it became clear to both the girls that she was talking to herself as much as to them.

"You are in a state, aren' you?" interrupted Occula at length.

"Oh, shut up!" said Meris. "Where was I? Oh, yes; well, we joined a band of fellows—all runaways—they were on the game along the Herl-Dari highway, a bit south of the Zhairgen ferry. Latto had to fight to get taken into the gang—they wouldn't take just anyone. Even then I don't think they'd have had him, but the thing was they wanted me, and I wouldn't join unless they took him as well, you see."

"You mean they all basted you?" asked Maia.

"Oh, Cran, no! They'd have liked to, but Latto would have killed me. He'd have killed anyone who tried, too. No, I was there as live bait—worth my weight in gold to them. I used to pick men up on the road—anyone who looked as if he might be worth a bit. Then we'd go into the bushes and as soon as the fellow'd got stripped off and started, the lads'd get started, too. Gods, it was funny to see their faces when they realized! You'd have roared laughing! D'you know, one day I got three fellows—Lapanese, they were—and made them think I Was longing to have them all three at once. They were armed, you see, so I had to get them all stripped and off their guard at the same time. The funny thing was, I would have liked to have had them all three at once! I s'pose that's why they fell for it. Anyway, they all got undressed, right there in the trees. The boys had a bit of fun with them; and about four thousand meld as well."

"See what I mean, banzi?" asked Occula. "Sometimes it's play. Sometimes it's work. When you're lucky it's both. Have fun and make a ton."

"But what happened in the end?" asked Maia.

"What d'you think? The soldiers came, of course. They set a trap for us, and I fell right into it. I thought the fellow didn't look much like a merchant. Still, I got started and then before I knew what was happening the soldiers were into the lads. They killed four or five then and there, and Latto and two others they hung upside-down by the road. They'd have killed me, too, but the tryzatt said I was too pretty and he'd take and sell me in Dari. And so he did— once he'd finished with me himself."

"How d'you come to be here, then?" asked Occula.

"Why, that tryzatt sold me to General Han-Glat," said Meris. "He happened to be in Dari, you see, working on the new fortress. Ever seen it? No? Oh, it's unbelievable! He used to take me along with him and baste me on the battlements when he'd finished in the evenings. That was the best time I ever had, while I was with Han-Glat. He'd got two other girls, but he liked me best."

"How did you come to leave him?" asked Maia.

"Well, once when he was back in Bekla, you see, reporting to Kembri, he saw a girl of Sencho's he fancied, so he offered Sencho his pick of the three of us. Sencho fancied me, worse luck, and we were exchanged."

"What's wrong with this, then?" asked Occula. "Or is it jus' that you've lost Yunsaymis?"

"What's wrong?" answered Meris. "Cran and Airtha! You never get a man, that's what's wrong."

"But you say Yunsaymis got the marjil?"

"Yunsaymis was the same as me—she wanted a man. Sencho doesn't baste, you see—or very seldom. He's so fat he can hardly walk. You have to lie there and do what he wants—drives you half-crazy and then you don't get anything yourself. But when he goes to a party or a banquet, he always takes one or two girls with him. Only you're not supposed to have anything to do with another guest, of course, unless your master offers you. Sencho was very jealous of Yunsaymis—men were always after her, you see. Well, at this party he'd eaten till he couldn't move and she had to sit there and watch the whole room basting, she said. So in the end she told him she needed five minutes' fresh air, and she went outside and got laid by one of the house-slaves; and he had the marjil all right. He didn't have the whipping, though: Yunsaymis had that all to herself."

At this moment Terebinthia came silently into the room, her bare feet noiseless on the red-and-blue tiled floor. Slowly waving a great semi-circle of white plumes before her face, she looked round at the girls one by one.

"What did U-Lalloc say your name was?" she murmured at length, looking at Occula.

"Occula, säiyett."

"And yours?"

"Maia, säiyett."

"Well, Occula, you're lucky. The High Counselor wishes to play with his new toy. After what we saw this morning I'm sure you'll be able to please him."

"Am I to go to him now, säiyett?"

"I'll take you," said Terebinthia. "No, you needn't get dressed: you'll do very well as you are."