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By noon of the third day after the murder the Lord General was back in the city, having been overtaken by the news when no more than two days' march away. He, after no more than the barest of consultations with Du-rakkon, at once set about seeking the truth. So far as was known, Sencho had never made any written lists of suspects or known dissidents, preferring to keep what he knew in his own head. A few names, however, were already known to the Lord General, while others were now given to him by certain of Sencho's agents who, scenting blood-money, came forward of their own accord. Kembri at once

sent lists to the various provincial governors, ordering the arrest of all known suspects of secondary importance- servants, drabs, watermen and the like. Those of higher rank, he judged, would be best left alone for the time being. Apart from anything else, most would not be easy to apprehend without using soldiers-soldiers whom at the moment he could ill spare. Meanwhile the lesser fry- perhaps fifty or sixty in all-were to be sent under guard to Bekla.

Kembri, flanked on one side by the chief priest of Cran and on the other by the governor of Tonilda, looked up at the black girl standing before him on the other side of the table. Her eyes, bloodshot and heavy-lidded with sleeplessness, nevertheless returned his gaze steadily.

"You say," said Kembri, "that the High Counselor wanted you to go with him to some secluded part of the gardens?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Who actually suggested that-he or you?" ' "He wished it, my lord. He wanted me to do what he usually required one or other of us to do after he'd had supper: but since we were in the gardens and not in his house, we had to go somewhere out of the way."

"Very well: but the soldiers are clear that they heard you suggesting the boat."

"Yes, my lord. Seein' what he wanted, to take the boat was the most discreet and convenient thing. I simply told the slaves to put cushions in the boat and then I helped the High Counselor into it."

There was a pause.

"Well, go on," said Kembri.

"I took the boat up under the trees, my lord, where we couldn' be seen, and began doin' what the High Counselor wanted."

"And then, according to you, two people came out from among the trees and attacked him?"

"Yes, my lord."

"You were actually lying above him at that moment? Isn't that so?"

"Yes, my lord. One of them pulled me away and stabbed me while the other set on the High Counselor."

"Why didn't they kill you, do you suppose?"

"They tried to, my lord, but I fought and struggled and I suppose they must have been in a hurry to get away."

There was a longer pause, while the Lord General con-

tinued to stare up at the girl. At length he said, "If you want to avoid torture, I suggest you tell me now what more you know about this business."

"I know nothin' more, my lord."

"Then I'll tell you what we know. You came up to Bekla several months ago from a house in Thettit called the Lily Pool: you came at your own request. Among the men who sometimes came to that house there was a licensed pedlar, who also used to go from time to time to the High Counselor's house here, in the upper city."

"Yes, Zirek: I know him, my lord."

"Some little while ago the High Counselor sold one of his girls, named Meris, to the Lily Pool. You know that?"

"I knew she'd been sold, my lord, but not where she'd gone. We weren' told."

"That girl and the pedlar left the Lily Pool together a few days ago, before the spring festival. Since then they've not been seen. But you were the last person ta see them, weren't you?"

"If you're askin' me whether they were the ones who did the killin', my lord, I can' say one way or the other. It was dark and the attack was very swift and violent. I couldn' have recognized anyone, whether I knew them or not."

"No, you didn't need to, because you knew they'd be waiting there, didn't you? That was why you took the High Counselor there."

"No, my lord: I was well off in that household, as the saiyett Terebinthia will tell you. The High Counselor liked me: I had no reason to kill him. May I also respectfully point out that if I'd been an accomplice I might have been expected to have escaped with the killers?"

"Take her away!" said Kembri. "And bring in the Ton-ildan!"

The black girl, clearly still in pain from her wounds, limped out between the two soldiers in attendance.

"What do you make of that?" asked Kembri, turning to the governor as the door closed.

The governor, an elderly, shrewd man, hesitated.

"You're asking, of course, whether I think she knows more than she's telling us. It's tempting to conclude that she might, but it seems to me just as likely that she mightn't. After all, when she persuaded this woman in Thettit to send her up to Bekla, neither she nor anyone else could

possibly have known that Sencho was going to buy her."

"No; but Lalloc may have thought that Sencho was likely to fancy her."