Read Maia for Free Online Page B

don't stop!"
    Laughing with delight, he took her once more in a close embrace and entirely at her word.
    When she came to herself she was lying in the net and he was smiling down at her.
    "I've landed my fish! It is a beauty! Don't you agree?"
    She answered nothing; only panting up at him, a child caught at the end of some hide-and-seek game.
    "Are you all right, pretty Maia?"
    She nodded. The unshed tears in her blue eyes made them seem even bigger.
    "Like some more thrilsa?" He put a piece to her lips: she bit into it with relish.
    "You like that?"
    "Oh, it's simply lovely! I've never had it before!"
    He roared with laughter. "What are you talking about- thrilsa?"
    Realizing what she had said, Maia laughed too.
    "Tharrin, did you mean to come and do this when you told me to mend the net?"
    "No, not just like that, fish: but I've wanted to do it for a long time. You didn't know?"
    "Well-p'raps I did, really. Leastways, I c'n see it now."
    "Yes, you can see it now. There!"
    She bit her lip, looking away.
    "Never seen a man's
zard
before, pretty girl? Come on, you're a woman now!"
    "It's soft, and-and smaller. Oh, Tharrin, I've just remembered-" and since it never occurred to Maia to think of the words of a song separately from their tune, she sang " 'Seek, daughter, that horn of plenty with which men butt'-that's what that means, then?"
    "Yes, of course. If you didn't know, where did you learn that song?"
    "I was with mother one day in Meerzat. It was that hot in the market and I got a headache. She told me to wait for her with the tavern-keeper's wife at "The Safe Moorings'-you know, Frarnli, the big woman with the cast in her eye."
    "I know."
    "Frarnli let me lie down on her bed. There was men drinking and singing in the next room: I just thought it was a pretty song. I remembered the tune and some of the words and what I couldn't remember later I made up: but I never knew what it meant. When mother heard me singin' it she got angry and said I wasn't to sing it n' more."
    "I'm not surprised."
    "So I used to sing it out on the waterfall, by myself. Oh, Tharrin, Tharrin! Look! Blood! What's happened?"
    "Out of your
tairth?
That's nothing. That's only the first time. Just wash it off in the lake, that's all."
    "My-what did you say?-tairth?"
    Gently, he touched her. "That's your tairth. And you've been basted-you know
that
word, don't you?"
    "Oh, yes; I've heard the drovers saying that. 'Get that damned cow through the basting gate'-you know how they talk."
    "Yes, I know, but I don't like to use it for swearing. Love-words shouldn't be used like that, fish."
    "I'm your fish now. What sort of fish am I?"
    He paused, considering. "A carp. Yes, round and golden. I must say, you're a fine girl for your age, Maia. You're really lovely-do you know that? I mean, anyone, anywhere, would think you were lovely-in Ikat or Thettit- or Bekla, come to that: though I've never been to Bekla. You're just about the prettiest girl I've ever seen in my life. Lespa can't be more beautiful than you are."
    She made no reply, lying easy in the delicious warmth of the sun, feeling the cords and knots of the net all about her. She felt content.
    After a time he said, "Come on, let's take the boat out now. After all, we'd better have a few fish to show when Morca gets back, don't you think?"
    He got to his feet, stretched out a hand and pulled her up.
    "Maia?"
    "M'm-h'm?"
    "Take care of our secrets, darling. I've heard you talk in your sleep before now."
    This was typical of Tharrin. How do you take care not to talk in your sleep?

4: VISITORS
    Like most men of his sort, Tharrin was kind-hearted (as long as it did not involve taking too much trouble), and quite good company in his own superficial way. No less than a soldier, a poet or a mountaineer, a philanderer needs certain natural qualities, and Tharrin had made a reasonably good job of seducing Maia. That is to say, he had not forced, frightened or hurt her, he had given her pleasure and satisfaction