by Wilbur Smith
It was the most repugnant spectacle Taita had ever witnessed. He made a determined effort to stop himself shouting through the screen, ‘He is a lackey of the Lie! Do not let him soil you with his filth.’
Mintaka called her hand-maidens, and they sat with Soe for the rest of the morning. Their conversation descended into banality for none of the girls was quick to follow his teachings. He was obliged to repeat himself in simplified language. They soon tired of this and pestered him with chatter.
‘Will the goddess find me a good husband?’
‘Will she give me pretty things?’
Soe treated them with remarkable forbearance and patience.
Taita realized that although it seemed he and Demeter had learnt all they could, they had no choice but to remain sitting quietly behind the zenana window. If they tried to leave their movements might alert the prophet. A little before noon Soe brought the meeting to a close with a long prayer to the goddess. Then he blessed the women again and turned back to Mintaka. ‘Do you wish me to return later, Your Majesty?’
‘I need to meditate on these revelations of the goddess. Please return on the morrow when we may discuss them further.’ Soe bowed and withdrew.
As soon as he had gone Mintaka dismissed her hand-maidens. ‘Taita, are you still there?’
‘I am, Your Majesty.’
She threw open the screen and demanded, ‘Did I not tell you how learned and wise he is, what wonderful tidings he brings?’
‘Extraordinary tidings indeed,’ Taita replied.
‘Is he not handsome? I trust him with all my heart. I know that what he prophesies is the divine truth, that the goddess will reveal herself to us and heal all our woes. Oh, Taita, do you believe what he tells us? Surely you must!’,’
Mintaka was in a religious ferment, and Taita knew that any warning he gave now would have a contrary effect. He wanted to take Demeter to a place where they might discuss what they had heard, and decide how to proceed, but he had to listen first to Mintaka’s eulogy to Soe.
When at last she ran out of superlatives he told her gently, ‘Both Demeter and I are worn out with all this excitement. I have promised to attend Pharaoh as soon as he is free from his more pressing duties, so we must return now to Thebes to be within call. However, I will return to you as soon as I can, and we will discuss this further, my queen.’
Reluctantly she let them go.
As soon as they had remounted and were on the road to the river, Taita and Meren took up their usual stations beside the palanquin.
Then Taita and Demeter switched from Egyptian into the Tenmass so that the men of the escort could not follow their conversation.
‘We have learnt much of paramount importance from Soe,’ Taita began.
‘Most significantly, we know that he has been in the presence of the witch,’ Demeter exclaimed. ‘He has heard her speak. He had her voice perfectly.’
‘You know the timbre of her speech better than I do, and I do not doubt that you are right,’ Taita agreed. ‘There is something else that I deem important. Soe is Egyptian. His accent is from the Upper Kingdom.’
‘This I did not fathom. My grasp of your tongue is not so perfect that I am able to pick up such nuances. It may indeed be a clue to the location of her present hiding-place. If we postulate that Soe has not travelled far to reach Thebes, then we should begin our search within the borders of the Two Kingdoms or, at least, in those lands immediately adjacent to them.’
‘What volcanoes fall into that area?’
‘There are no volcanoes or large lakes within the borders of this very Egypt. The Nile runs into the Middle Sea. That is the nearest water to the north. Etna is no more than ten days’ sail. Are you certain still that Eos is not there?’
‘I am.’ Demeter nodded.
‘Very well. What of the other great volcano in that direction, Vesuvius, on the mainland across the channel from Etna?’ Taita suggested.
Demeter sucked his lower lip dubiously. ‘That dog will not hunt either,’ he said, with conviction. ‘After I escaped from her clutches, I hid for many years with the priests in the temple that lies fewer than thirty leagues to the north of Vesuvius. I am sure that I would have sensed her presence if she had been so close at hand, or she would have sensed mine. No, Taita, we must look elsewhere.’
‘For the time being let us be guided by your instinct,’ Taita said. ‘On our eastern border is the Red Sea. I do not know of volcanoes in Arabia or any other land close to its shores. Do you?’
‘No, I have travelled there, but I never saw or heard of any.’
‘I saw two volcanoes in the land beyond the Zagreb mountains, but they are surrounded by vast plains and mountain ranges. They do not fit the description of the one we seek.’
‘To the south and west of Egypt there are more vast expanses of land,’ Demeter said, ‘but let us consider another possibility. Might there be great rivers and lakes in the interior of Africa, and a volcano close to one?’
‘I have not heard of any — but, then, no man has ventured further south than Ethiopia.’
‘I have heard it told, Taita, that during the exodus from Egypt you guided Queen Lostris as far south as Qebui, the Place of the North Wind, where the Nile divides into two mighty streams.’
‘That is true. From Qebui we followed the left fork of the river into the mountains of Ethiopia. The right-hand stream emerges from an endless swamp that bars further progress. No man has ever reached its southern extremity. Or if any has he has not returned to tell of it. Some say there is no limit to the swamp but that it continues, vast and forbidding, to the end of the earth.’
‘Then we must rely on the priests in the temple of Hathor to supply us with further possibilities to ponder. When will they have information for us of their findings?’
‘The priestess told me to return in ten days’ time,’ Taita reminded him.
Demeter drew aside the curtain of his palanquin and looked back towards the hills. ‘We are close to the temple now. We should go there, ask the priestess for hospitality and a sleeping mat for the night. We can spend time on the morrow with her cartographers and geographers.’
‘If Pharaoh summons me to his presence, his minions will not be able to find me,’ Taita demurred. ‘Let me see him before we leave the palace again.’
‘Stop the column here,’ Demeter called to Habari. ‘Stop at once, I tell you.’ Then he turned back to Taita. ‘I do not wish to alarm you but I know now that my time with you is drawing to a close. I am haunted by dreams and dark presentiments. Despite the protection that you and Meren have given me, the witch will soon succeed in her efforts to destroy me. My remaining days are dwindling.’
Taita stared at him. Since that morning, when he had been made aware of Soe’s menacing aura, he had been harried by the same premonition.
He drew close to the palanquin and studied the worn old face.
With a pang he saw that Demeter was right: death was close upon him.
His eyes had become almost colourless and transparent, but in their depths he made out moving shadows, like the shapes of feeding sharks.
‘You see it also,’ Demeter said, in a flat, dull tone.
No reply was necessary. Instead Taita turned away and called to Habari, ‘Turn the column. We will go to the temple of Hathor.’ It was only a little more than a league distant.
They rode in silence for a while, until Demeter spoke again: ‘You will travel faster without my ancient, enfeebled body to impede you.’
‘You are too harsh with yourself,’ Taita chided him. ‘Without your help and counsel I would never have come this far.’
‘I wish I could have stayed with you to the end of the hunt and been present at the kill. But it is not to be.’ He was silent for a while.
Then he went on, ‘How to deal with Soe? One course is open to you. If Pharaoh was made aware that Soe is bewitching Mintaka, and of the traitorous thoughts he is planting in her mind, he would send his guards to seize him
and you would have the chance to interrogate him under duress. I hear that the gaolers in Thebes are highly skilled in their trade. You do not shrink from the idea of torture?’
‘I would not hesitate if I thought there was the smallest chance of Soe yielding to mere bodily pain. But you have seen him. The man would die willingly to protect the witch. He is so much in tune with her that she would sense his agony and its cause. She would understand that Pharaoh and Mintaka had become aware of the web she is spinning round them, which would be mortally dangerous for the royal couple.’
‘That is so.’ Demeter nodded.
‘Furthermore, Mintaka would rush to Soe’s defence and Nefer Seti would realize that she was indeed guilty of plotting against him. It would destroy their love and trust in each other. I could not do this to them.’
‘Then we must hope to find the answer at the temple.’
The priests saw them from afar and sent two novices to welcome them and lead them up the ramp to the main entrance of the temple while the high priestess waited on the steps.
‘I am so pleased to see you, Magus. I was about to send a messenger to Thebes to find you and tell you that Brother Nubank has worked on your request with great industry. He is ready to deliver his findings to you. But you have anticipated me.’ She beamed in a motherly fashion at Taita.
‘You are a thousand times welcome. The temple maidens are preparing a chamber for you in the men’s quarters. You must stay with us as long as you wish. I look forward to your learned discourses.’
‘You are kind and gracious, Mother. I am in company with another magus of great learning and reputation.’
‘He, too, is welcome. Your retainers will be given shelter and sustenance in the grooms’ quarters.’
They dismounted and, Meren supporting Demeter, entered the temple.
They paused before the image of Hathor, the goddess of joy, motherhood and love, in the main hall. She was depicted in the form of an enormous piebald cow, its horns bedecked with a golden moon. The priestess offered a prayer, then summoned a novice to lead Taita and Demeter along a cloister into the priests’ area of the temple. He took them to a small stone-walled cell, where rolled sleeping mats lay against the far wall with bowls of water for them to refresh themselves.
‘I will return to take you to the refectory at the dinner hour. Brother Nubank will meet you there.’
A round fifty priests were already eating when they entered the refectory, but one man leapt to his feet and hurried to meet them. ‘I am Nubank. You are welcome.’ He was tall and lean, with cadaverous features. In these hard times there were few corpulent figures in Egypt. The meal was frugal: a bowl of pottage and a small jug of beer. The company was subdued and ate mostly in silence, with the exception of Nubank, who never stopped talking. His voice was grating and his manner pompous.
‘I do not know how we will survive the morrow,’ Taita said to Demeter, when they were back in their cell and settling to sleep. ‘It will be a long day, listening to good Brother Nubank.’
‘But his knowledge of geography is exhaustive,’ Demeter pointed Out.
‘You employ the correct adjective, Magus.’ Taita turned on his side.
The sun had not risen when a novice came to summon them to breakfast. Demeter seemed weaker, so Meren and Taita helped him gently to rise from his mat.
‘Forgive me, Taita. I slept poorly.’
‘The dreams?’ Taita asked, in Tenmass.
‘Yes. The witch is closing in on me. I cannot find strength much longer to resist her.’
Taita had also been plagued by dreams. In his, the python had returned. Now its feral stench lingered in his nostrils and at the back of his throat. But he concealed his misgivings, and showed Demeter a confident mien. ‘We still have far to travel together, you and I.’
Breakfast was a small hard dhurra loaf and another jug of weak beer.
Brother Nubank resumed his monologue where it had been interrupted the night before. Fortunately the meal was soon consumed and, with some relief, they followed Nubank through the cavernous halls and cloisters to the temple library. It was a large, cool room, devoid of decoration or ornament other than the towering banks of stone shelves that covered every wall from the floor to the high ceiling; they were loaded with papyrus scrolls, of which there were several thousand.
Three novices and two senior initiates were waiting for Brother Nubank. They stood in a row, their hands clasped in front of them, a submissive attitude. They were Nubank’s assistants. There was good reason for their trepidation: Nubank treated them in a hectoring manner and did not hesitate to voice his displeasure or contempt in the harshest, most insulting terms.
When Taita and Demeter were seated at the long, low central table, piled with papyrus scrolls, Nubank began his lecture. He proceeded to enumerate every volcano and every thermal phenomenon in the known world, whether or not it was situated near a large body of water. As he named each site, he sent a terrorized assistant to fetch the appropriate scroll from the shelves. In many cases this involved the ascent of a rickety ladder, while Nubank goaded them on with a string of abuse.
When Taita tried tactfully to truncate this tedious procedure by referring the man to his original request, Nubank nodded blandly and continued remorselessly with his prepared recitation.
One unfortunate novice was Nubank’s preferred victim. He was a misshapen creature: no part of his body seemed without fault or deformation.
His shaven scalp was elongated, covered with flaking skin and a vivid rash. His brow bulged over small, close-set, pale crossed eyes. Large teeth protruded through the gap in his harelip and he dribbled when he spoke, which was not often. His chin receded so sharply that it barely existed, a large mulberry birthmark adorned his left cheek, his chest was sunken and his back mountainously hunched. His legs were thin as sticks, bowed and carried him in a sideways scuttle.
In the middle of the day a novice arrived to summon them to the refectory for the midday repast. Half starved as they were, Nubank and his assistants responded with alacrity. During the meal Taita became aware that the hunchbacked novice was making furtive attempts to catch his eye. As soon as he saw that he had Taita’s attention, he stood up and hurried to the door. There, he glanced back and jerked his head to indicate that he wanted Taita to follow him.
Taita found the little fellow waiting for him on the terrace. Again the man beckoned, then vanished into the opening of a narrow passage.
Taita followed, and soon found himself in one of the small temple courtyards. The walls were covered with bas-reliefs of Hathor and there was a statue of the Pharaoh Mamose. The man cowered behind it.
‘Great Magus! I have something to tell you that might be of interest to you.’ He prostrated himself as Taita went to him.
‘Stand up,’ Taita told him kindly. ‘I am not the king. What is your name?’ Brother Nubank had referred to the little priest only as ‘you thing’.
‘They call me Tiptip, for the way I walk. My grandfather was a junior physician in the court of Queen Lostris at the time of the exodus from Egypt to the land of Ethiopia. He spoke of you often. Perhaps you remember him, Magus. His name was Siton.’
‘Siton?’ Taita thought for a moment. ‘Yes! He was a likely lad, very good at removing barbed arrowheads with the spoons. He saved the lives of many soldiers.’ Tiptip grinned widely, and his harelip gaped. ‘What became of your grandfather?’
‘He died peacefully in his dotage, but before he went, he told many fascinating stories of your adventures in those strange southern lands. He described its peoples and wild animals. He told of the forests and mountains, and of a great swamp that stretched away for ever, to the ends of the earth.’
‘They were stirring times, Tiptip.’ Taita nodded encouragement. ‘Go on.’
‘He told how, while the main body of our people followed the left fork of the Nile into the mountains of Ethiopia, Queen Lostris dispatched a legion to the right fork to discover its full extent. They set off into
the great swamp under General Lord Aquer and were never seen again, but for one man of the legion. Is this true, Magus?’
‘Yes, Tiptip. I remember how the queen sent out a legion.’ Taita himself had recommended Aquer for the doomed command. He had been a troublemaker, stirring discontent among the people. He did not mention this now. ‘It is true also that only one man returned. But he was so riddled with disease and broken by the hardship of the journey that he succumbed to fever only days after returning to us.’
‘Yes! Yes!’ Tiptip was so excited that he seized Taita’s sleeve. ‘My grandfather treated the unfortunate man. He said that during his delirium the soldier ranted about a land with mountains and enormous lakes so wide in places that the eye could not reach from one shore to the next.’
Taita’s interest quickened. ‘Lakes! I have not heard this before. I never laid eyes on the survivor. I was in the Ethiopian mountains, two hundred leagues distant, when he reached Qebui where he died. The report I received said that the patient was out of his mind and unable to give any coherent or reliable intelligence.’ He stared at Tiptip, and opened the Inner Eye. From the other man’s aura, Taita could tell that he was sincere and telling the truth as he remembered it. ‘You have more to tell me, Tiptip? I think so.’
‘Yes, Magus. There was a volcano,’ Tiptip blurted. ‘That is why I have come to you. The dying soldier rambled about a burning mountain such as none had ever seen before. After they had passed beyond the great swamps they saw it only at a great distance. He said that the smoke from its funnel stood like a perpetual cloud against the sky. Some of the legionaries took it as a warning from the dark African gods to proceed no further, but Lord Aquer declared it was a welcoming beacon and that he was determined to reach it. He ordered the march to continue. However, it was at this point, within sight of the volcano, that the soldier fell ill with the fever. He was abandoned and left for dead while his companions marched southwards. But he managed to reach a village of giant naked black people who lived on the lakeshore. They took him in. One of their shamans gave him medicine and nursed him until he had recovered sufficiently to continue his homeward journey.’ In his agitation Tiptip gripped Taita’s arm. ‘I wanted to tell you before but Brother Nubank would not allow it. He forbade me to pester you with hearsay from seventy years ago. He said that we geographers deal only with fact. You will not tell Brother Nubank I disobeyed him? He is a good and holy man, but he can be strict.’