Richard Adams - Maia

thought) throughout the empire, was not permitted to interfere with his full indulgence of those appetites he had acquired as a boy in the service of Fravak.

To the gratification of his gluttony he was now able to devote as much money and time as he pleased. His cooks, whom he bought for very large sums, were among the most skilled in the empire, while his cellarer was a former merchant-vintner, for whom it was actually more profitable to cater for Sencho's needs alone. From Yelda to Kabin the High Counselor's personal agents spent lavishly, not only on the best game, fruit and other produce, but also on ensuring that it reached him in perfect condition.

The daily planning of his greed, in consultation with his cooks, occupied him for a considerable time each morning. Upon its conclusion he would retire to the bath, or to an arbor on the terrace, there to hear reports and interview spies, as well as to meditate pleasurably upon what he would eat throughout the day. About noon would commence the dinner so delightfully anticipated, which usually continued for some two or three hours, or until such time as he was obliged to desist, less from satisfaction than from the sheer inability to contain more.

Throughout the latter part of the afternoon he would sleep-the satisfying sleep of one compelled to abstain for a time from enjoyment, yet knowing that it is to be resumed as soon as rest and ease have restored his capacities. As the evening became cool his slaves, awakening him, would refresh and prepare him for the renewed felicity of supper; upon the conclusion of which, swollen and stupefied, he would once more fall asleep in a contentment far beyond the range of such coarse and unrefined persons as those among whom he had once been compelled to live.

Now, after several years of this delectable life, he was beginning from time to time to consider whether it would be safe for him to delegate his intelligence work for the Leopards and retire altogether into private life. He had become so fat that he was almost incapable, and could not even gratify his greed without the continual help of his slaves. His eyes were nearly buried in the flesh of his face, his arms and legs were shapeless under great rolls of flesh and even in repose he grunted continually, scarcely able to draw his breath for corpulence. The weight of his enormous belly was more than he could bear, so that he had grown accustomed to gorge himself lying upon a couch

beside the table, and naked for his greater ease. When the huge mound was fully distended he could neither stand nor sit, could not endure the least disturbance and, as soon as his slaves had attended to his bodily needs, would fall asleep in the cushions where he had dined; while they, tiptoeing about the hall, removed from around him the debris of his luxury.

These cultivated pleasures occupied him fully. But in addition, time must necessarily be devoted to gratifying the lust naturally induced by such gluttony; and for this too he made ample provision. A year or so after the accession of Queen Fornis, he compelled an aging epicure in Bekla to sell him a Belishban woman named Terebinthia, already of great repute in the upper city for her skill in ministering to the specialized requirements of extreme obesity.

Terebinthia was plump, silent-moving and misleadingly indolent in manner; an expert in massage and in the preparation of herbal baths, sedatives and stomach-soothing drinks and medicines. She soon showed herself adept in ministering to her master's tastes, in alleviating the discomforts following upon excess, and in training young women to perform those attentions which he most enjoyed. Although a strict disciplinarian in the household, she was by no means above surreptitiously lending the young women in her charge to other wealthy inhabitants of the upper city: she took her cut of the gratuities they brought back, but seldom troubled the High Counselor by informing him of such trifling matters.

Summoned early by Zuno, acting en his employer's instructions, Terebinthia had come down to Lalloc's premises in the lower city and been present in concealment while Occula and Maia were disporting themselves in the bath. Soon after, she had returned to Sencho's house, having agreed with Lalloc that he should bring the black girl to be shown to the High Counselor later that morning. The slave-dealer had said nothing about Maia, and Terebinthia had assumed that he must have other plans for selling her. Since she had already left before Lalloc's talk with Occula in Vartou's room, she was somewhat taken by surprise when, the litter having been carried into the courtyard of Sencho's house and the gates closed behind it, Lalloc opened the curtains to disclose both the girls.

Sitting on the coping of the fountain basin and fanning

herself-for it was already very hot-Terebinthia turned slowly to Lalloc, looking up at him through eyes half-closed against the glare.

"You didn't say-you were bringing both the girls?"

"Well, only so the High Counselor hov a look at them, you know," answered Lalloc. "Then he please himself, of course, yoss, yoss."

Terebinthia gazed down into the pool, slowly stirring the tepid water with one hand. "But you didn't say so before?"

Lalloc spread out his hands. "We talk last week, I toll you this black girl coming from Thettit, you say U-Sencho like to see her. Then after you go this morning I think 'Well, show them both, where's the harm? If he don't like the other, I take her away again.' But you don't like we show her, then she stay here."

Terebinthia paused; and at length shrugged. "Very well. I'll take them both in. If he wants to see you personally I'll let you know."

Sencho had been roused late that morning, following an especially excellent supper the previous night and a sound sleep from which he had woken without the least indigestion or discomfort. Lying in the bath, groaning and farting as his bath-slave pressed and kneaded his belly, he allowed his thoughts to revert to two separate matters which had occupied him the day before. The first of these was altogether satisfying. As Controller of Mines and Metals throughout the empire he had, some months before, given audience to two prospectors arrived from some distant country south of Yelda. In response to their request he had granted them permission to search for metal in Chal-con-the mountainous, afforested region comprising southeastern Tonilda-on condition that they duly reported and registered any veins which they might discover. Recently returned, they had given details of what sounded like an excellent lode of copper and asked his permission to work it. This he had naturally withheld and, having decided that it might not be altogether prudent to kill them (since this might have the undesirable effect of discouraging trade with the south), had ordered an armed guard to conduct them over the border beyond Ikat Yeldashay. Meanwhile, one of his own men, with six or seven pioneers, had been dispatched to locate the lode and start work on it. Knowing a good deal about such matters and able as a rule to

tell a good thing when he heard of it, Sencho had little doubt that the affair was likely to turn out most profitably.

In his own household, however, he had just suffered an unexpected vexation. His most adroit and valuable girl, a Lapanese named Yunsaymis, had been found to be infected with the marjil-a sexual disease. He had been lucky to escape himself, and only the conscientious vigilance of Terebinthia had protected him. She must have picked it up at one or other of the parties he had recently been to in the upper city, to which he generally took a couple of his girls to attend upon him. There could never be any telling, of course, what they might get up to after one had done with them and fallen asleep. If the girl herself had told Terebinthia, there might have been some prospect of retaining her, especially as she was skilful and naturally lubricious. As things were, however, an example had been made of her-a good whipping, followed by her removal to Lalloc's together with another young woman, Tuisto, whom he was selling on account of her age. Sencho never retained women beyond the age of twenty-three or twenty-four. To do so would have been unstylish, like keeping an old watchdog or old wall-hangings. His establishment normally comprised three or four concubines of outstanding appearance and quality, but this was in part for show and style, and for the entertainment of his guests. Being so fat, he had come to detest exertion, preferring the ministrations of girls who had been taught to do what he liked. Yunsaymis had been expert: he could hardly have felt more annoyed if one of his cooks had become unserviceable. It was a pity that he had already packed her off: she might well have been whipped a second time. This might quite possibly, of course, have lowered her selling price, but he would have enjoyed it.