Then she turned to me. And her gesture warned us all to be silent!
CHAPTER XXII
Maaret’s voice when she spoke was low, cautious. We listened to her swift words, our hearts pounding with sudden hope. She said she had come to save us! Her motive was clear, we already understood it. Yet she told us it, briefly, and with a direct simplicity that carried the conviction of truth.
Since Og had returned from living in Rax (after his combat with me) Maaret had belonged to him. She loved him. Then had come this woman Nona. Maaret’s gaze swept my poor innocent Nona with hatred. This woman Nona, she said, had (with her strange, uncanny looks which Og thought were beauty) won Og from her.
In brief, Maaret wished only that we all—with Nona—return to Rax. Then perhaps she could make Og love her again. Our escape, taking Nona with us, was all she desired.
“Or the death of all of us,” Caan suggested. And his look to me was significant.
Maaret gestured vehemently. “That, of course,” she admitted frankly. “The black fishes I would set upon you now. But your screams would bring Og. You would not die. I should lose him by that way.”
She seemed indeed sincere. She said she could command the black fishes. She would take them away—lock them up. And then we could escape. But we must hurry. It was already the Time of Sleep. At any moment Og would be here.
We consulted; Maaret swam to the mouth of the passageway and gazed anxiously into it.
“Can we trust her?” Caan demanded. “Will she not let us start, perhaps, and then set the black fishes upon us?”