The Quest

by Wilbur Smith

  As they moved on, the crystals faded into darkness. Once or twice Taita glimpsed the shaggy black shapes of apes as they moved away into the shadows and disappeared. Silently Eos’s small bare feet flitted over the golden tiles. They fascinated him, and he found it difficult to take his eyes off them. As she moved on she left a delicate perfume on the air.

  He savoured it with intense pleasure and recognized it as the scent of sun lilies.

  At last they reached a commodious chamber of elegant proportions.

  Here the walls were of green malachite. Shafts in the high ceiling must have reached up to the earth’s surface for the sunlight spilled down through them and was reflected from the walls in a glowing emerald effusion. The furniture of the room was of carved ivory, and the central pieces were two low couches. Eos went to one and seated herself, folding her legs under her and spreading her cloak so that even her feet were concealed. She gestured to the couch facing her. ‘Please be at your ease.

  You are my honoured and beloved guest, Taita,’ she said, in the Tenmass.

  He went to the couch and sat opposite her. It was covered with an embroidered silk mattress.

  ‘I am Eos,’ she said.

  ‘Why did you call me “beloved”? This is our first meeting. You do not know me at all.’

  ‘Ah, Taita, I know you as well as you know yourself. Perhaps even better.’

  Her laughter was sweeter on his ears than any music he had ever listened to. He tried to close his mind to it. ‘Even though your words defy reason, somehow I cannot doubt them. I accept that you know me, but I know nothing of you, except your name,’ he replied.

  ‘Taita, we must be honest with each other. I will speak only the truth to you. You must do the same for me. Your last statement was a lie. You know much about me, and you have formed opinions that are, alas, mostly erroneous. It is my purpose to enlighten you, and to correct your misconceptions.’

  ‘Tell me where I have erred.’

  ‘You believe I am your enemy.’

  Taita remained silent.

  ‘I am your friend,’ Eos went on. ‘The dearest and sweetest friend you will ever have.’

  Taita inclined his head gravely, but again made no reply. He found he wanted desperately to believe her. It took all his determination to keep his shield high.

  After a beat, Eos continued, ‘You imagine that I will lie to you, that I have already lied to you as you have lied to me,’ she said.

  He was relieved that he threw no aura for her to read: his emotions were seething.

  ‘I have spoken only the truth to you. The images I showed you in the grotto were the truth. There was no element of deceit in them,’ she told him.

  ‘They were forceful images,’ he said, his tone neutral and noncommittal.

  ‘They were all true. All I have promised is in my power to give to you.’

  ‘Why of all mankind have you chosen me?’

  ‘All mankind?’ she exclaimed, with scorn. ‘All mankind is no more important to me than the individual termites in a colony. They are creatures of instinct, not of reason or wisdom, for they do not live long enough to acquire those virtues.’

  ‘I have known wise men of learning, compassion and humanity,’ he contradicted her.

  ‘You make that judgement from the observations of your own short existence,’ she said.

  ‘I have lived long,’ he said.

  ‘But you will not live much longer,’ she told him. ‘Your time is nearly done.’

  ‘You are direct, Eos.’

  ‘As I have already promised, I will speak only the truth to you. The human body is an imperfect vehicle and life is ephemeral. A man lives too short a span to acquire true wisdom and understanding. By human standards you are a Long Liver, one hundred and fifty-six years by my reckoning. To me, that is not much longer than a butterfly lives, or the blooming of a night-flowering cactus, born at dusk and perishing before dawn. The physical vehicle in which your spirit soul rides will soon fail you.’ Suddenly she thrust her right hand from beneath the black silk cloak and made a sign of benediction.

  If her feet were lovely, her hand was exquisite. His breathing checked and he felt the hair on his forearms rise as he watched its graceful gestures.

  ‘But for you it need not be so,’ Eos said softly.

  ‘You have not answered my question, Eos. Why me?’

  ‘In the short time that you have lived you have achieved much. If I extend your life eternally you will become a giant of intellect.’

  ‘That does not explain all of it. I am old and ugly.’

  ‘I have already renewed part of your body,’ she pointed out. He laughed bitterly. ‘So, now I am an ugly old man with a young and beautiful cock.’

  She laughed with him, that thrilling sound. ‘So elegantly phrased.’

  She drew her hand back under the cloak, leaving him bereft. Then she went on, ‘In the grotto I showed you an image of yourself as a young man. You were beautiful, and you can be again.’

  ‘You can have any beautiful young man you choose. I do not doubt that you have already done so,’ he challenged.

  She answered at once, fairly and honestly: ‘Ten thousand times or more, but despite their beauty they were ants.’

  ‘Will I be any different?’

  ‘Yes, Taita - yes.’

  ‘In what way?’

  ‘Your mind,’ she said. ‘Carnal passion alone soon palls. A superlative intellect is endlessly alluring. A great mind growing stronger with time in a fine body eternally youthful: these are godlike attributes. Taita, you are the perfect companion and mate I have longed for down the ages.’

  Hour after hour they discoursed. Although he knew that her genius was cold and malevolent, it was still fascinating and seductive. He felt charged with energy, physical and intellectual. Eventually, to his annoyance, he felt the need to absent himself, but before he could voice it she told him, ‘There are quarters set aside for you. Pass through that doorway at your right hand and follow the passage to the end.’

  The room to which she had directed him was large and imposing, but he hardly noticed his surroundings for his mind was alight. He felt no fatigue. In a cubicle he found an ornately carved stool with a latrine bucket set beneath it and relieved himself. In the corner, scented warm water ran from a spout into a basin of rock crystal. As soon as he had washed he hurried back to the green chamber, hoping that Eos would still be there. The sunlight no longer glowed through the shafts in the roof. Night had fallen but the rock crystals on the walls glowed with a warm light. Eos sat as he had last seen her, and as he settled himself opposite her, she said, ‘There is food and drink for you.’ With that lovely hand she indicated the ivory table beside him. During his absence silver dishes and a chalice had been set upon it. He felt no hunger, but the fruit and sherbet looked delicious. He ate and drank sparingly, then returned eagerly to their conversation: ‘You speak easily of eternal life?’

  ‘The dream of all men, from pharaohs to serfs,’ she agreed. ‘They long for eternal life in an imagined paradise. Even the old people who lived before I was born painted images of that dream on the walls of their caves.’

  ‘Is it possible to fulfill it?’ Taita asked.

  ‘I sit before you as living proof that it is.’

  ‘How old are you, Eos?’

  ‘I was already old when I watched Pharaoh Cheops raise the great pyramid at Giza.’

  ‘How is this possible?’

  ‘Have you heard of the Font?’ she asked.

  ‘It is a myth that has come down to us from antiquity,’ he replied.

  ‘It is no myth, Taita. The Font exists.’

  ‘What is it? Where is it?’

  ‘It is the Blue River of all life, the essential force that drives our universe.’

  ‘Is it truly a river or a fountain? And why “Blue”? Can you describe it for me?’

  ‘There are no words, not even in the Tenmass, that adequately describe its might and beauty. When we have bec
ome one, I will take you to it. We will bathe side by side in the Blue, and you shall come forth in all the splendour of youth.’

  ‘Where is it? Is it in the sky or in the earth?’

  ‘It moves from one place to another. As the seas shift and the mountains rise and fall, so the Font moves with them.’

  ‘Where is it now?’

  ‘Not far from where we sit,’ said Eos, ‘but be patient. In time I will lead you to it.’

  She lied. Of course she lied. She was the Lie. Even if the Font existed, he knew she would lead no other person to it, but still the false promise intrigued him.

  ‘I see you doubt me still,’ Eos said softly. ‘To demonstrate my utmost good faith, I will allow you to take another person with you to the Font, to share in its blessing. Someone whom you count dear. Is there such a person?’

  Fenn! Instantly he cloaked the thought so that even she could not read it. Eos had set a trap, and he had almost blundered into it. ‘There is no such person,’ he answered.

  ‘Once when I overlooked you, you sat beside a pool in the wilderness. I saw a child with you, a pretty child with pale hair.’

  ‘Ah, yes,’ he agreed. ‘I forget even her name, for she was one of those you call termites. She was a companion of the moment only.’

  ‘You do not wish to take her with you to the Font?’

  ‘There is no reason why I should.’ Eos was silent, but he could feel the softest touch on his temples, like that of teasing fairy fingers. He knew that Eos was unconvinced by what he had said and was trying to enter his head, trying to reach into his mind and steal his thoughts. With a psychic effort he blocked her entrance, and immediately she withdrew.

  ‘You are tired, Taita. You must sleep awhile.’

  ‘I am not tired in the least,’ he replied, and it was true: he felt vital and fresh.

  ‘We have so much to discuss that we are like runners at the start of a long race. We must pace ourselves. After all, we are destined to become companions for all eternity. There is no need to hasten. Time is our plaything, not our adversary.’ Eos rose from her couch and, without another word, slipped through a doorway in the back wall that he had not noticed before.

  Although he had felt no fatigue, when he stretched out on the padded silken sleeping mat in his chamber Taita fell into deep sleep. He woke to find a shaft of sunlight playing down through the opening in the ceiling. He felt wonderfully alive.

  His soiled clothing had disappeared and a fresh tunic had been laid out for him with a new pair of sandals beside his leather cloak. A meal had been placed on the ivory table near his head. He bathed, ate and dressed. The tunic Eos had provided was of a delicate material that caressed his skin, while the sandals were worked from the skin of a newborn goat and embossed with gold leaf. They fitted perfectly.

  He returned to Eos’s green room to find it deserted. Only her perfume lingered. He crossed to the doorway through which she had gone the previous night. The long passage beyond led him out into the sunlight.

  Once his eyes had adjusted he found that he was in another volcanic crater, not as large as the Cloud Gardens but more lovely by far. Yet he had no eyes for the luxuriant forests and orchards that covered the floor of the crater in profusion: directly in front of him spread a green lawn with a small marble pavilion above a pool in the middle, a rill of bright water cascading into it. Although the stream was clear, the surface of the pool was black and shiny as polished jet.

  Eos sat on the marble bench in the pavilion. Her head was bare, but she faced away from him so that only her hair was visible. He moved quietly towards her, hoping to come on her unawares and catch a glimpse of her face. Her hair rippled down to her waist. It was as dark as the water of the pool, but ineffably more lustrous. As he drew closer to her he saw that the soft reflections of the sunlight glowed in the tresses like the glint of precious rubies. He longed to touch it, but as he reached out, Eos lifted the veil over her head, covering herself, denying him even the briefest glimpse of her face. Then she turned to him. ‘Take your place beside me, for that is where you belong.’

  They sat in silence for a while. Taita was angry and frustrated: he longed to see her face. She seemed to sense his mood and laid her hand on his arm. Her touch thrilled him, but he steeled himself and asked, ‘We have spoken much of physical appearance, Eos. Do you suffer from some blemish? Is that why you hide yourself behind the veil? Are you ashamed of the way you look?’

  He had tried to provoke her as she had him. But her voice was sweet and calm as she replied: ‘I am the most beautiful person, man or woman, who has ever walked the earth.’

  ‘Then why do you hide that beauty?’

  ‘Because it can blind the eyes and unhinge the minds of men who look upon it.’

  ‘Must I take your boast on trust?’

  ‘It is no boast, Taita. It is the truth.’

  ‘Will you never reveal this beauty to me?’

  ‘You will look upon my beauty when you are ready to do so, when you realize the consequences and are prepared to accept them.’ Her hand still lay upon his arm. ‘Do you not see how my lightest touch disturbs you? I can feel the beating of your heart through the tips of my fingers.’ She withdrew her hand, leaving his senses in turmoil. It took him a while to bring them under control. ‘Let us speak of other matters. There are many questions you have for me, and I have given you my undertaking to answer them truthfully,’ she said.

  Taita’s voice sounded a little breathless as he took up her invitation.

  ‘You have placed barriers across the headwaters of the Nile. What was your purpose in doing so?’

  ‘My reasons were twofold. First, it was an invitation to you to come to me. You were unable to resist it, and now you sit beside me.’

  He thought on it deeply, then asked, ‘What was the other reason?’

  ‘I was preparing a gift for you.’

  ‘A gift?’ he exclaimed.

  ‘A betrothal gift. Once we are joined in spirit and flesh, I will give to you the Two Kingdoms of Egypt.’

  ‘Only after you have destroyed them? What perverse and savage gift is this?’

  ‘When you wear the double crown and we sit side by side on the throne of Egypt, I will restore the Nile and its waters to our kingdom … the first of our many kingdoms.’

  ‘In the meantime it is only the termites of humanity who suffer?’ Taita asked.

  ‘Already you begin to think and act like the lord of all creation, whom you will soon become. I showed it to you in the images beside the grotto in the Cloud Gardens. Dominion over all the nations, eternal life, youth and beauty, and the wisdom and learning of the ages, which is the diamond mountain.’

  ‘The greatest prize of all,’ Taita said. ‘I call it the Truth.’

  ‘It shall be yours.’

  ‘I still doubt that you offer me this without demanding some commensurate price from me.’

  ‘Oh, I have already spoken of that. In return for what I offer, I demand your eternal love and devotion.’

  ‘You have existed so long without a companion, why do you wish one now?’

  ‘I have been overtaken by the tedium of eternity, a staleness of spirit and the aching boredom of lacking someone with whom to share these wonders.’

  ‘That is all the price you ask of me? I have had a glimpse of your mighty intellect. If your beauty matches your mind, it is a trivial price to pay.’ Her lies were disguised by truths. He pretended to believe them.

  They were like the commanders of two armies arrayed against each other.

  This was the skirmishing and maneuvering that preceded the battle. He was afraid, not so much for himself as for Egypt and Fenn, the two things dearest to him, both in deadly danger.

  They spent the days that followed beside the black pool and most of the nights in Eos’s green chamber. Gradually she exposed more of her physical form to him while keeping her spirit soul concealed. Her discourse grew daily more absorbing. Occasionally she would lean forward to pick u
p a morsel of fruit from the silver tray and artlessly let her sleeve fall back to reveal her forearm. Or she would shift position on her ivory couch and let the skirt of her black robe expose a knee. The shape of her calf was sublime. He should have become conditioned to the perfection of her limbs, but he had not. He dreaded the moment when her entire body would be revealed. He doubted his ability to resist its enchantment.

  The days and nights sped by with startling rapidity. The carnal and astral tensions built up between them until they were almost unbearable.

  She touched him, taking his hand when she wanted to emphasize a point. Once she clasped it to her bosom and he had to exert all of his self-control not to groan at the pain in his groin as he felt the warm elasticity of her breast.

  Her perfume never changed: it was always the scent of sun lilies.

  However, she changed her raiment morning and evening. Always it was long and voluminous, barely hinting at the swells and curves of her body beneath the delicate fabrics. Sometimes she was serene, at other times restless: then she circled his couch with the graceful menace of a man eating tigress. Once she knelt in front of him and brazenly slipped her hand up his thigh under his tunic while continuing her erudite discourse, her fingers stopping just short of his manhood and withdrawing as she felt it swell. At other times she reverted to the black robes and kept herself completely hidden, not allowing even her toes to show.

  One morning they were in her green chamber and Eos was wearing a robe of diaphanous white silk. She had never worn white before. In the midst of their conversation she rose unexpectedly to her small bare feet and came to stand before him. The white veil she was wearing floated about her like a cloud. The pink and ivory tones of her skin shone through the material as the light played on her. Seen through the silk, her image was ethereal. Her moon-pale belly was as sleek as that of a hunting greyhound, with a mysterious triangular shadow at its base. Her breasts were indefinite creamy orbs, tipped with strawberry aureoles.