"You can come with me tomorrow and watch him whipped, if you like. This man I've got now does it really splendidly."
Maia, who was feeling a good deal shaken, made no reply. The queen turned towards her with shining eyes.
"Would you like to whip
Without waiting for an answer she called through the door of the supper-room, "Shakti! Send the boys! We're going to bed!"
"You need them, do you, to see to the lamps and that?" asked Maia. "Only I can easy do that, and we can be alone."
"Oh, no, Maia," replied Fornis, putting her arm round her as they walked together down the moonlit gallery. "I don't need them for the lamps! They're going to stay with us all night."
The mynahs were moving and rustling outside the windows, uttering their liquid whistles in response to the first light. On cushions strewn upon the floor the little boys lay
sleeping as only children sleep-with the appearance of having been absorbed into a higher state of existence, a better world where they abide perfect as summer leaves or pebbles in a clear brook. And a right old job it'd be to wake them and all, thought Maia enviously, recalling how often she had had to shake and pummel Kelsi and Nala out of bed in the mornings.
Fornis, sprawled beside her, stirred and muttered a few words in her sleep. "They'll never taste it, Shakti." She was no sort of sleeper, thought Maia; a kind of intruder or fugitive in that country which the little boys entered as of right. She had been in and out of sleep all night, dragging Maia behind her like a beast on a rope.
Ah, and some right old tricks they'd been up to an' all, thought Maia glumly; and none of them had really worked. To her it had been as though Fornis were seeking to satisfy hunger with hay, flowers, reeds-anything but food. Short though her amatory career had been, Maia could tell when mutual accord was present and when it was not. Some people, like Sencho, were incapable of it anyway and one therefore left it out of account when dealing with them. But Fornis, lacking it, was like a bird with an injured wing; flying lop-sided for a spell; alighting perforce, yet almost at once impelled to try to fly once more. All this Maia knew well enough because she had felt it no less in herself. They just hadn't hit it off. Her racking anxiety for Occula might have had something to do with it, but apart from that she knew that what Fornis wanted she, Maia, didn't like-to say the least-and was unable to give. It was a more than disappointing outlook for a girl in her situation.
Fornis rolled over, clutching at Maia in her sleep, but then started, as though frightened at finding another's body in her arms. She struggled a second and opened her eyes, staring into Maia's for some moments before recognizing her. Maia kissed her and stroked her shoulders.
"Is it morning?" asked Fomis.
"Just about."
"O Cran and Airtha! Did you sleep?"
Maia, shaking her head, could not suppress her chagrin. "You always that restless?"
Fornis smiled. "Some people I've slept with have said I chased them up and down the bed. I hate sleep, anyway: it's a waste of time."
She got up, naked as she was ("and she's all they say,
no danger," thought Maia), walked across to the window, stepping over the sleeping children, and opened one of the shutters. The first light glinted on her hair and the creamy skin of her shoulders.
"You're right, it's dawn." She shivered a moment. "Chilly, too."
Once again Maia set herself, as convincingly as she could, to simulate eagerness and renewed appetite. "Come back to bed, Folda." She opened her arms. "Come here and kiss me."
The queen blew out the lamp, lay down beside Maia and gazed into her face, cupping it between her hands.
"I took a fancy to you that night by the Barb because you're so pretty and beautifully made. I dare say there's not a prettier girl in the empire."
Maia, sensing more to come, made no reply.
"But now I'll tell you something, my child," said Fornis, "seeing that I've been at it for years. If two people like us fancy each other for their looks but aren't actually in love, it only works if they like the same things. You're as pretty as a lily in a pool, but you don't come with me, do you, to where I want to go?"
Still Maia said nothing.
"Tickle, tickle," went on Fornis, "anyone can do that. The little boys can do it: but that's not what I wanted from you. The truth is, my nasty tastes Simply aren't yours, are they, however hard you try? In fact, they disgust you- No!" (holding up a hand) "you needn't try to tell me they don't."
She flicked one of Maia's nipples with her finger-nail, hard enough to hurt.
