Maia

Maia
1st edition cover[1]
Author	Richard Adams
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Beklan Empire
Genre(s)	Fantasy, Romance
Publisher	Viking Press
Publication date	1984
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	0-14-006476-1
OCLC Number	13397594
Followed by	Shardik

Maia is a fantasy novel by Richard Adams, published in 1984. Although not marketed as a romance novel, it also fits into that genre.

Plot introduction

Maia is set in the Beklan Empire, the same fantasy world as Adams's 1974 novel Shardik. Although published ten years after Shardik, Maia is a loose prequel whose events take place about a dozen years earlier. A few characters appear in both books.

Maia is a beautiful teenage peasant girl who is sold into slavery. Amidst colorful, boldly drawn characters, she is drawn (sometimes unwillingly or even unknowingly) into many adventures and machinations: ritual dances, flooding rivers, espionage, politics, and war. Some scenes, particularly during Maia's enslavement, include moderately explicit sexual and sado-masochistic elements. Nevertheless, she survives the decadence and danger with an impulsive, innocent sense of courage and action. Maia ends with the sort of quotidian, pastoral, familial scene (in Maia's memory and expectation of returning home) which commonly rewards the positive characters in Adams's works.

The morality of slavery is discussed among the characters throughout the book, and a civil war is fought in part to restrict the actions of slavers and limit the number of slaves in the Beklan Empire. Similar to the invention and use of the Lapine language among the rabbits of Watership Down, Adams employs some "Beklan" vocabulary to create a localized sense of honorifics and natural objects, as well as to avoid sexual vulgarity in English.

Plot summary

Part 1: The Peasant

Maia, at 15, lives in the province of Tonilda with her mother Morca, her three younger sisters, and her stepfather Tharrin. Their small, poor farm is on the edge of Lake Serrelind and Maia tends to shirk her chores by going swimming all day. Although Morca is already pregnant with Tharrin's child, he secretly seduces Maia as well.

When Morca discovers the affair, she is doubly embittered and sells Maia to agents of the slave-dealer Lalloc. Maia is almost raped by Genshed, one of Lalloc's employees (and a villain in Shardik, where Lalloc also briefly appears) but is saved just in time by Occula, a black slave girl. Maia and Occula become very good friends and even lovers. To avoid debasement by being bundled in with a larger detachment of more ordinary slaves, Occula enlists Maia in frightening their captors with apparent supernatural powers. The two girls are sent ahead to Bekla with Zuno, a cool-headed dandy also in Lalloc's employ.

Occula relates her own past: in her childhood, she came from a far land beyond the desert in the company of her father, a jewel-merchant specializing in emeralds. When they reached the city of Bekla, they were unaware of the imminent political coup and were received by Fornis, a noblewoman whom the coup would elevate to the priestess-like status of "Sacred Queen", the earthly avatar of the goddess Airtha. Occula's father was betrayed and murdered, and his emeralds were incorporated into the Sacred Queen's crown. Occula was to be killed as well, but the household steward saw a chance to profit by selling the girl as a slave; since then, she has been employed in prostitution at an exclusive Tonildan brothel.

Adams outlines Bekla's political situation in several chapters of direct narration to the reader, bypassing Maia. The ruling faction led by Queen Fornis, the Lord General Kembri, and the High Counsellor Sencho came to power by ceding Suba, an eastern province, over to the neighboring kingdom of Terekenalt. The capital's finances are now heavily based on taxation of the legalized slave industry, including purpose-bred slave farms as well as the individual enslavements of freeborn people like Maia and Occula. The Beklan army's central authority has largely withdrawn from the provinces unless paid to come enforce the law. Pockets of rebellion against the current regime have sprung up around the empire.

Part 2: The Slave-Girl

High Counsellor Sencho is the spymaster of the Beklan Empire, at the center of a vast web of agents and informants. He buys both Maia and Occula as his "bed-slaves". Terebinthia, the woman in charge of Sencho's household, supervises and trains them, even cultivating Maia's potential talents as a dancer. At intervals, they are visited by a peddler named Zirek who exchanges a series of cryptic conversations with Occula.

Beautiful, young, and fun-loving, Maia shows promise of going far, and finds some professional satisfaction in serving Sencho's decadent pleasures. She is even surprised to find herself enjoying the spectacle when one of their fellow bed-slaves, the tempestuous Meris, is whipped and sold for dereliction of duty.

Terebinthia loans out the girls to other rich and powerful men in exchange for courtesy payments. Using this means of contact, Lord General Kembri secretly enlists Maia and Occula as agents and specifically charges Maia with gaining the trust of Bayub-Otal, the dispossessed heir to Suba and a potential ally of the rebels. Bayub-Otal is also known as "Anda-Nokomis" for his mother, a legendary dancer whose nickname, "Nokomis", meant "dragonfly"; his father was the married baron of a neighboring province, whose jealous wife arranged Nokomis' death when Bayub-Otal was still a boy.

When Sencho becomes drastically ill, he comes to depend almost solely on Occula's intense caretaking. During a garden party, Maia meets the cruel but beautiful Queen Fornis, who takes an interest in her beauty and reputation; meanwhile, Occula lures Sencho into a boat which she rows away from the festivities. Out of sight from everyone else, Occula signals her rebel confederates (hinted to be Zirek and Meris) to stab Sencho to death. As they flee, she also stabs herself to avert suspicion once the guards arrive.

Maia and Occula are imprisoned in the Great Temple on suspicion of colluding at Sencho's murder. Kembri plans to take custody of Maia to resume her service as his agent, but Queen Fornis herself takes Maia from the temple priests. Fornis expected Maia to have learned depravity from Sencho, but Maia fails to satisfy Fornis' sexual needs. Having no further use for the girl, Fornis gives her back to Kembri; Maia seizes on this chance to interest the queen in Occula, hoping to thus save her friend from execution.

Kembri sends Maia to Bayub-Otal with a cover story of having escaped from the temple. Believing her, Bayub-Otal takes her with him as he flees from Bekla and secretly makes his way back to Suba. As they travel, Maia learns that one reason for Bayub-Otal's extraordinary standoffish respect for her is that she looks (and dances) like his dead mother, Nokomis, who is still revered throughout the province. Bayub-Otal also hopes to use the resemblance to rally Suban patriotism on behalf of an alliance with Terekenalt, which has offered him the rulership of an independent Suba in exchange for aiding the invasion of Bekla.

At the rallying site, Maia meets and falls passionately in love with the handsome young Zen-Kurel, a trusted officer of the king of Terekenalt. Zen-Kurel accepts her invitation to come to bed with her, but has to leave quickly because of a surprise attack scheduled for that very night. The River Valderra, the boundary between the two countries, is thought to be uncrossable because of its swift currents and rocky rapids, but the Terekenalters plan to ford it with heavy ropes and strong men, thus ambushing and destroying the detachment of Tonildan soldiers guarding the other side.

In hopes of saving her fellow Tonildans' lives as well as her lover's, Maia performs the nigh-impossible feat of swimming the river by herself; despite suffering serious wounds in the process, she manages to warn the Beklan commander and thwart the Terekenalter and Suban invasion.

Part 3: The Serrelinda

Maia returns to Bekla, freed and celebrated as the luck of the city, a great heroine so loved that the soldiers vote her a house, money, and property. She gains an informal title as the "Serrelinda" after Lake Serrelind whose shores she was born and raised on. Hoping to reunite with Zen-Kurel, she takes no lovers, despite widespread expectations of finding a rich husband or becoming an expensive courtesan. Her popularity and single status bring her under threat from Fornis, who is resisting pressure to retire as Sacred Queen; since the position is filled by popular acclaim, Maia is an obvious rival despite not wanting the crown.

At the height of her popularity, Maia sees her stepfather, Tharrin, dragged into Bekla as a rebel informant. He is condemned to be sacrificed by the Queen herself at the temple. Maia does her best to free him, but Fornis foils her plan and causes his death. However, during Tharrin's last conversation with Maia, he reveals to her that Morca had not been her real mother. A strange girl had fled to Morca's cottage, heavily pregnant and in fear of soldiers whom a baroness had sent to kill her husband and family; in short, Maia's mother (who died in childbirth) was Nokomis' younger sister.

In bitter grief at Tharrin's death, Maia makes a desperate attempt to kill Fornis in revenge, but is thwarted by Occula, who was indeed inducted into the queen's household. Occula intends to take her own revenge on Fornis when the time is right; meanwhile she is performing the sort of sado-masochistic services of which Maia had been incapable and which show dangerous and deranged Fornis can be.

As civil war breaks out in the city itself, Maia learns that Anda-Nokomis and Zen-Kurel have been brought to Bekla as prisoners. In flight from Fornis' murderous fury, Maia frees the two men, and with them and Zirek and Meris (who have been hiding since assassinating Sencho), she flees Bekla.

Part 4: The Suban

The former prisoners are bitterly angry at Maia for betraying them at the Valderra, which she had idealistically considered an attempt to save their lives. Nevertheless, they both agree to return with her to Suba or Terekenalt.

Maia and her companions recover on a remote farm, then travel for a time with rebel freebooters led by Elleroth (a major character in Shardik). Meris, always a troublemaker, gets herself killed by one of Elleroth's soldiers. Maia gradually regains Zen-Kurel's and Anda-Nokomis' trust by her obviously sincere efforts to help them. After an arduous boat escape from the Beklan Empire to Zenka's country, Anda-Nokomis is killed and Maia receives a marriage proposal from the man whom she loves most.

Two years later, Maia (with her little son) visits the capital of her new country and by chance meets Occula. Occula describes at length how she killed Fornis, aided by supernatural forces. She tells Maia that the rebels succeeded in overthrowing the Leopards' regime, but that everyone believes that the Serrelinda, the luck of the city, is dead.

The story ends with Maia refusing Occula's plea to come back to Bekla; she would rather help Zen-Kurel and his father manage their farm.

Characters in "Maia"

Those marked with an asterisk also appear in Shardik.

Anda-Nokomis ('The Dragonfly's Son')

see Bayub-Otal

Ashaktis

A Palteshi woman, Fornis's close attendant

Bayub-Otal (otherwise known as 'Anda-Nokomis')

The dispossessed Ban of Suba; natural son of Nokomis by the High Baron of Urtah; Eud-Ecachlon's half-brother; Maia's cousin (though initially neither knows it)

Elleroth*

Son and heir of the Ban of Sarkid; commander of a force of irregulars fighting for Santil-ké-Erketlis

Elvair-va-Virrion

A young nobleman in Bekla; son of Kembri-B'sai, Lord General of Bekla

Eud-Ecachlon

Son and heir of the High Baron of Urtah; half-brother to Bayub-Otal

Fornis

Sacred Queen of Airtha in Bekla, originally the daughter of Kephialtar-ka-Voro, High Baron of Paltesh; kills Zai and Tharrin; is determined to remain Sacred Queen for as long as possible

Genshed*

A slave-trader employed by Lalloc; tries to rape Maia.

Karnat

King of Terekenalt

Kembri-B'sai

Lord General of Bekla: father of Elvair-va-Virrion

Lalloc*

A Deelguy slave-dealer in Bekla; sells Maia and Occula to Sencho; fires Genshed

Maia

A Tonildan girl later known as 'Serrelinda'; is really half-Suban

Melathys*

A child rescued from the Orthid slave farms (a minor character here, noted because of her prominent role in Shardik)

Meris

A Belishban girl, concubine of Sencho; assassinates Sencho and is later killed by misadventure

Milvushina

A Chalcon girl of noble birth; betrothed to Santil-ké-Erketlis until she is enslaved by Sencho; marries Elvair-ka-Virrion and dies in childbirth

Morca

Tharrin's wife; Maia's foster mother; hates Maia

Nasada

A Suban doctor; befriends Maia and helps her through her first pregnancy

Nennaunir

A Beklan courtesan or 'shearna'

Nokomis ('The Dragonfly'; originally named Astara)

A Suban dancing-girl, mother of Bayub-Otal by the High Baron of Urtah; dead before the story starts; Maia's aunt (unbeknownst to Maia)

Occula

A black girl from a distant country; befriends Maia and becomes her lover for a time; helps kill Sencho and eventually Fornis

Randronoth

Governor of Lapan; infatuated with Maia; killed by Fornis

Santil-ké-Erketlis

A rebel baron in Chalcon; formerly betrothed to Milvushina

Sednil

A young Palteshi; a convict during part of the book; lover of Nennaunir; locates Bayub-Otal and Zen-Kurel for Maia

Sencho-bé-L'vandor

High Counsellor of Bekla; the Leopards' Chief of Intelligence

Ta-Kominion*

A young Ortelgan nobleman and Beklan army officer; persuaded by Maia to change sides and join forces with Elleroth

Terebinthia

Housekeeper (or 'säiyett') to Sencho

Tharrin

Maia's stepfather; infatuated with Maia and seduces her; later imprisoned and killed by Fornis

'Zai' (Occula's name for her father, actually named Baru)

A jewel-merchant from Silver Tedzhek; killed by Fornis

Zen-Kurel

A Katrian staff officer of King Karnat. Maia falls in love with him; they later marry and have children.

Zuno

A young man in Lalloc's service, later employed by Fornis and allied with Occula.

The Gods

Many Beklan gods are associated with different provinces of the empire. The pantheon includes Lespa of the Stars, Frella-Tiltheh the Inscrutable (Bekla City), Shardik the Bear (Ortelga), Shakkarn the Goat, Canathron the Winged Serpent (Lapan), Cran (a fertility/harvest god), and Airtha of the Diadem (a sky-goddess and Cran's consort).

Kantza-Merada is the goddess of Occula's homeland, Silver Tedzhek; Occula invokes her with a ritual chant which is historically associated with the Sumerian goddess Inanna. The same chant also appears in Shardik with Inanna's name intact.

References

External links

• Maia publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database