Maia полностью

The Lord General sat down again and faced her. "Yet not long ago he sent one of his young noblemen from Lapan-a man called Count Seekron-to visit you here, didn't he?"

Maia colored, and saw that this was not lost upon Kembri. He had taken her unawares. After a few moments, however, it dawned on her that Randronoth had forethought that Kembri would be bound to learn of Seekron's visit and had already put her in the clear.

"Yes, certainly, my lord. He came to bring me a present from Lord Randronoth. P'raps you'd like to see it: here it is."

Kembri examined the carved miniature cabinet carefully, opening and shutting it and turning it over in his huge hands.

"Very pretty. Very valuable, too, I should imagine. Hardly the kind of present a man gives a girl for a casual night's pleasure, do you think?"

"My lord, men send me presents from all over-men I've never even seen, some of thenv The house is full of presents."

"Hardly of this quality, perhaps. Was there a letter with it?"

"Yes, my lord; but I get dozens of letters no different. I never answer them; I throw them away. Lord Randronoth may fancy himself in love, but that's nothing to me, I can assure you."

There was a long silence. Maia began to be filled with a certain sense of having kept the water out. It occurred to her, however, that many people buried valuables under their cellar floors and that she would not put it entirely past Kembri to have hers dug up. She had better find somewhere else: quickly, too.

At length the Lord General stood up, took a step forward and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Maia, you won't have forgotten the day when we talked about adventurers. There's only one touchstone an adventurer's judged by: success or failure. I'll be frank with you. I respect you because you've been extraordinarily successful. I have two reasons for not doing away with you-"

"Doing away with me, my lord?" She stared at him aghast.

"Just that. Pull yourself together: this is the real world, Maia. One reason's personal and the other's-well, public. First, even a man like me's not entirely devoid of human feelings. I admire what you achieved in Suba and I feel as grateful to you as anyone else in Bekla. But just supposing, Maia, that there was someone in Bekla who didn't feel in the least grateful to you, who hated you and wanted to do away with you, they'd still find that very difficult and even dangerous, because of your enormous popularity. There are many people in the lower city who believe you're more-or-less divine. It's no exaggeration to say that if you were thought to have been murdered, it would probably be very hard to keep the people under control. That's the real reason why you haven't been. By Fornis, I mean," he added, as she remained looking incredulously up at him.

She answered never a word. His talk of murder-and her realization that he was speaking of it as matter-of-factly as he might have spoken of repairing a highway or collecting a provincial tax-had numbed her.

"So you're the people's pretty mascot. There's no real harm in that, unless-unless, Maia, you let yourself become an implement in the hands of unscrupulous people who try to make use of you for subversive ends. Are you quite sure that you didn't go down to the Scales last night with the idea of increasing your personal influence in the city?"

This, at least, she could answer with truth and conviction. "Absolutely certain, my lord."

"Well, take care you're not misunderstood again, Maia, that's all. I'll say this much: I believe you when you say you don't want to be Sacred Queen. I don't see you as-" he paused, then shrugged-"ambitious. There are people to whom the possession of real and actual power's worth more than anything else-more than money, health, friends,

peace of mind. To certain people nothing outweighs the possession of power. Fornis is that sort of person. So was that black girl-friend of yours, in her own way. That's why I still believe she probably had some sort of hand in Sen-cho's murder: she was the sort of person who would. You're not." For the first time he smiled, though somewhat constrainedly. "But people who don't live for power, Maia, are usually people who want to lead normal lives and gratify normal appetites and desires. If you don't want to be misunderstood and fall under suspicion, why don't you find yourself a rich, noble husband and settle down to the sort of life and position most girls would give their eyes for? You could have virtually anyone you like; you must know that. I strongly suggest you get on with it, do you see?"

She could not answer him. Nor could such a conversation, now clearly ended, be convincingly followed by any polite small talk.

"I'll think over your lordship's advice very carefully," she said.

Ten minutes later, having walked with him as far as her gate, she was down in the cellar, removing Randronoth's money to a less conjecturable hiding-place.