"Why, no, miss; I can't say as that occurred to me at
even entered my head. He didn't look-well, to tell you the plain truth, miss, and I don't want to speak out of turn, but he didn't look at all like someone as
Maia laid a hand on her arm. "No, it's all right, Ogma. You weren't to know I knew him, and nobody's cross. Just forget all about it. I think Miss Nennaunir's staying to dinner" (Nennaunir nodded, smiling) "so we'll have those pigeons U-Sarget sent, shall we? That's if you think they've hung long enough? How do you think they ought to be cooked? You tell me."
"You know," said Nennaunir, when Ogma had been sufficiently flattered, soothed and sent about her business,. "she was right, of course. Strictly speaking she wasn't to know. But all the same, a girl who's looking after someone like you really ought to have her ear a bit closer to the ground and be able to put two and two together better than that. It's part of her jot›-or it ought to be. Terebin-thia, Sessendris: why don't you get yourself someone like that? You could easily afford it, and it might make all the difference one of these days."
"No, I won't get rid of Ogma," said Maia. "She was with us at Sencho's and she knows my ways."
"I'm not suggesting you should get
"Well, I'll think it over, Nan, honest; and I'll think it over 'bout Sednil, too, and help if I can."
The truth was that sixteen-year-old Maia had no wish for an older, more experienced woman to tell her her own business. Club-footed, dull, dependent Ogma suited her very well and she had no intention of looking for someone like Sessendris, who had advised her against trying to help Tharrin and been proved abundantly right.
"Brero," said Maia, "d'you reckon you might be able to find me a particular man in the lower city, and get him up here without anyone taking any particular notice of it?"
It was two days after Nennaunir's visit. Maia, having taken what was for her a considerable time to reflect on an idea which had first occurred to her before the shearna
had left, was now (with a certain amount of inward trepidation) putting it into effect.
Brero frowned, scratched his head and seemed about to reply, but Maia forestalled him.
"I'll tell you as much as I know. His name's Sednil and I suppose he's about twenty-one." She went on to describe him as she remembered him. "He's in lodgings somewhere near the Tower of the Orphans. He's been out and about looking for work, so likely he's been talking to people round there who'll remember him. And he's a branded man, Brero: crossed spears on the back of his hand. But he's finished his sentence: he's free now."
"A
"Well, but he's got a release token. Anyway, he hadn't really done anything."
"Oh, none the more for that, saiyett: that's nothing to me. Only you said you didn't want anyone taking any notice, and it won't b amp; possible to take a branded man through the Peacock Gate without the guards wanting to know who he is and where he's going."
"And yet I've got to see this man, Brero; and secretly, too. I've had instructions."
"I understand, saiyett." It did not surprise Brero to learn that Maia had had instructions. After all, she had had instructions to cross the Valderra, hadn't she?
"Well, for a start let's see whether you can find him, Brero. And if you do, don't say anything about me, understand? Give him this box-there's some money in it- and say it's an advance for a special job of work as'll be well-paid, and that if he's interested there's someone as wants to talk to him about it."
"He wouldn't take the money, saiyett," said Brero, "but he says he's ready to talk about the work."
It had taken him less than a day to find Sednil. The area along the banks of the Monju brook, between the two great thoroughfares of the Sheldad and the Kharjiz, was a comparatively quiet and respectable district; quite unlike, for example, the teeming alleys and warrens further west, between the Khalkoornil and the Tower of Sel-Do-lad; and inquiries among its taverns and lodging-houses had SQon put Brero on the right track.
"How did he act, like?" asked Maia. "Did he seem surprised?"
"Well, more kind of suspicious, saiyett, really," replied Brero. "First of all he made me swear black and blue that 'twasn't anything to do with the Sacred Queen. He seemed real frightened of her."
"Isn't everyone?" asked Maia.
