The Quest

by Wilbur Smith

  ‘There is much to tell,’ Taita agreed. ‘But before that there are other matters we needs must deal with. First, there is somebody I would present to you.’ Taita held out his hand and, once again, the air shimmered, then solidified into the shape of a young woman. She also smiled at Nefer Seti.

  ‘As you have done so often before, you confound me with your magic,’ Nefer Seti said. ‘Who is this creature? Why have you brought her to me?’

  ‘Her name is Fenn and she is an adept of the right-hand path.’

  ‘She is too young for that.’

  ‘She has lived other lives.’

  ‘She is surpassing beautiful.’ He looked at her with the eye of a lusty man. ‘Yet there is something hauntingly familiar about her. Her eyes… I know those eyes.’ He searched for the memory. ‘They remind me of someone I once knew well.’

  ‘Pharaoh, Fenn is my consort.’

  ‘Your consort? How can that be? You are a—’ He checked his tongue.

  ‘Forgive me, Magus. I intended no slight nor injury to your dignity.’

  ‘It is true, Pharaoh, that I was once a eunuch, but now I am a man, whole and complete. Fenn is my woman.’

  ‘So much has changed,’ Nefer Seti protested. ‘No sooner do I solve one riddle than you present me with another—’ He broke off, still staring at Fenn. ‘Those eyes. Those green eyes. My father! Those are the eyes of my father. Is it possible that Fenn is of my own royal blood?’

  ‘Come, Mem!’ Taita chided him gently. ‘First, you complain of the mysteries I lay before you, and then you demand I heap more upon you. Let me tell you simply that Fenn stands in your direct line. Your blood is her blood, but far back in time.’

  ‘You said that she has lived other lives. Was it in one of those other lives?’

  ‘Even so,’ Taita agreed.

  ‘Explain it to me!’ Pharaoh commanded.

  ‘Later we will have time for that. However, you and Egypt are still under threat. You already know of the witch, Eos, who stopped the waters of Mother Nile.’

  ‘Is it true that you destroyed her in her lair?’

  ‘The witch is no more, but one of her minions is still at large. His name is Soe. He is a dangerous man.’

  ‘Soe! I know of a man by that name. Mintaka spoke of him. He is a preacher, the apostle of a new goddess.’

  ‘Spelt backwards his name is Eos. His goddess was the sorceress. His purpose was to destroy you and your bloodline, and to usurp the double throne of Egypt for the witch.’

  Nefer Seti’s expression was horror-struck. ‘This Soe had the ear of Mintaka, my principal wife. She believes in him. He converted her to his new religion.’

  ‘Why did you not intervene?’

  ‘I humoured her. Mintaka was demented with grief for our dead babies. Soe gave her comfort. I saw no harm in it.’

  ‘There was great harm in it,’ Taita said. ‘Harm to you and to Egypt. Soe is still a terrible threat. He is the last adherent of the witch, the last remaining vestige of her presence on this earth. He is part of the Great Lie.’

  ‘What must I do, Taita? As soon as the Nile began to flow again, Soe disappeared. We do not know what has become of him.’

  ‘Before anything else, I must capture him and bring him to you. Queen Mintaka is so deeply in his thrall that she believes all he tells her. She would have given you over to him. She will not believe evil of him, unless the confession of that evil comes from the mouth of Soe himself.’

  ‘What do you need from me, Taita?’ Nefer Seti asked.

  ‘You must take Queen Mintaka away. I need to have the freedom of the Palace of Memnon on the west bank. Take her to Assuit to make sacrifice at the temple of Hathor. Tell her that the goddess appeared to you in a vision and demanded this of you both for the sake of your dear babes, Prince Khaba and his little sister Unas, who are now in the underworld.’

  ‘It is true that I have felt the need to make sacrifice to Hathor. The queen and I will leave by royal barge in five days’ time, on the night of the new moon. What else do you require of me?’

  “I need Lord Meren and a hundred of your best fighting men. Meren must carry your Hawk Seal, which gives him your unbridled authority.’

  ‘He shall have these things.’

  No sooner had the royal couple embarked on their barge and sailed away than Meren and Taita, with the escort of guardsmen, crossed the Nile to the west bank. They rode up the hills to Mintaka’s abode, the Palace of Memnon, and arrived with the dawn.

  The household was taken by surprise. The palace vizier, with a detachment of the household guards at his back, tried ineffectually to oppose their entry. The palace guards, though, were soft from a life of good eating and high living. Nervously they eyed the hundred hard warriors that faced them.

  Meren held up the Hawk Seal: ‘We are carrying out the orders of Pharaoh Nefer Seti. Stand aside and let us pass!’

  ‘He bears the Hawk Seal.’ The vizier capitulated and turned to the captain of the palace guards. ‘Take your men back to their barracks and keep them there until I send you word.’

  Meren and Taita marched into the entrance portico of the palace, their nailed sandals ringing on the marble slabs. Taita was no longer covered by the spell of concealment. Instead he wore a breastplate of crocodile skin and a matching helmet, the visor drawn down to cover his features. He cut a formidable and menacing figure. The palace servants and Mintaka’s maids fled before him.

  ‘Where do we begin the search, Magus?’ Meren asked. ‘Is the creature still hiding here?’

  ‘Soe is here.’

  ‘You are so certain.’

  ‘The foul reek of Eos is heavy in the air,’ Taita told him.

  Meren sniffed loudly.

  ‘I can smell nothing.’

  ‘Keep ten of your men with us. Place the rest to cover all the doors and gates. Soe has the ability to change his physical shape and form so nobody must leave this palace, neither man, nor woman, nor animal,’ Taita told him. Meren relayed his orders and the men marched away to their posts.

  Purposefully Taita moved through the huge, magnificently appointed rooms, Meren and his detachment following closely, swords drawn. At intervals Taita stopped and seemed to test the air, like a hunting hound following the scent of his quarry.

  They came at last to the queen’s inner garden, a spacious atrium surrounded by high sandstone walls and open to the cloudless blue sky.

  It was laid out around avenues of flowering trees with a central fountain, surrounded by marble benches strewn with silken cushions. Lutes and other musical instruments lay where they had been abandoned by Mintaka’s hand-maidens at the approach of the soldiers, and the lingering perfume of nubile young women mingled with that of orange blossom.

  At the far end of the atrium stood a small arbour of trellised vines.

  Without hesitation, Taita crossed to it, his step quick and sure. On a tall pink marble plinth in the centre stood a statue carved from the same material. Someone had laid bouquets of sun lilies at its foot, and their scent was cloying on the air. It dulled the senses, like some powerful opiate.

  ‘The flowers of the witch,’ Taita whispered. ‘I remember the odour so clearly.’ Then he studied the statue on the plinth. Life-sized, it was in the shape of a veiled woman, the folds of her mantle enveloping her from the top of her head to her ankles. The dainty feet below the hem were carved with such skill that they seemed made of warm flesh rather than cold, lifeless stone.

  ‘The feet of the witch,’ Taita said. ‘This is the shrine at which Queen Mintaka worships her.’ In Taita’s nostrils the odour of evil was more pungent now than the heavy scent of the lilies. ‘Lord Meren, have your men cast down this statue,’ Taita said quietly.

  Even the indomitable Meren was awed by the ghastly influence of the witch that filled her shrine. He gave the order in a subdued tone.

  The soldiers sheathed their swords and put their shoulders to the statue. They were brawny men and strong, but it resisted their ef
forts to topple it.

  ‘Tashkalon!’ cried Taita, once again turning Eos’s word of power against her. The statue moved, marble squealing on marble, like the cry of a lost soul. It startled the soldiers, who jumped back in alarm.

  ‘Ascartow!’ Taita pointed his sword at the figure of Eos, which began slowly to topple forward.

  ‘Silondela!’ he shouted, and the statue fell full length to the paving stones and shattered into fragments. Only the dainty feet remained intact. Taita stepped forward and touched each one with the point of his sword. Slowly they cracked and crumbled to piles of pink dust. The bunches of sun lilies on the plinth withered until they were black and dry.

  Slowly Taita circled the base of the plinth. Every few paces he tapped the marble. The sound was firm and solid until he reached the back wall.

  Here the marble emitted a dull, hollow echo. Taita stepped back and studied it. Then he moved forward and placed the heel of his hand in the top right corner and applied a steady pressure. There was the sharp sound of some internal lever moving and the entire panel swung open like a trapdoor.

  In the silence that followed they all stared into the dark square opening that was revealed in the back of the plinth. It was just large enough for a man to pass through.

  ‘The hiding place of the false priest of Eos,’ Taita said. ‘Bring the torches from the brackets in the audience hall.’ The soldiers hurried to obey. When they returned, Taita took one and held it into the opening.

  By the torchlight he saw that a flight of stone steps descended into the darkness. Without hesitation he stooped through the opening and started down them. There were thirteen and at the bottom they levelled out into a tunnel that was wide and high enough for a tall man to walk along without stooping. The floor was of plain sandstone tiles. The walls were unadorned with paintings or engravings.

  ‘Keep close behind me,’ Taita told Meren, as he strode down the tunnel. The air was stale and old, heavy with the odour of damp earth and long-buried dead things. Twice Taita came to forks in the tunnel, but each time he made an instinctive choice without pausing to consider.

  At last a glimmer of light appeared ahead of him. He went on resolutely.

  He passed through a kitchen which contained large amphorae of oil, water and wine. There were wooden bins of dhurra bread and baskets of fruit and vegetables. Legs of smoked meat hung from hooks in the roof.

  In the centre of the room a thin spiral of smoke twisted up from the ashes on the hearth and disappeared into a ventilation hole in the roof.

  A half-eaten meal lay with a jug and bowl of red wine on the low wooden table. A small oil lamp threw shadows into the corners. Taita crossed the kitchen to the doorway in the opposite wall. He looked through it into a cell, which was dimly lit by a single lamp.

  Some articles of clothing, a tunic, a cloak and a pair of sandals, were thrown carelessly into a corner. A sleeping mat was spread in the middle of the floor, with a kaross made of jackal pelts on top. Taita took a corner of the kaross and jerked it aside. A small child lay under it, of no more than two, an appealing little boy whose eyes were large and inquisitive as he stared up at Taita.

  Taita reached down and placed his hand on the child’s bald head.

  There was a sizzling sound and the sharp reek of scorched flesh. The brat screamed and twisted away from Taita’s touch. Imprinted on his pate was a raw red brand, not the outline of Taita’s hand but the cat’s paw of Eos.

  ‘You have wounded the little fellow,’ blurted Meren, his voice softening with pity.

  ‘It is no infant,’ Taita answered. ‘It is the last evil branch and twig of the sorceress. This is her spirit sign emblazoned on its head.’ He reached out to touch the creature again, but it shrieked and cowered away from him. He seized it by the ankles and held it upside down, struggling and twisting in his grip. ‘Unmask yourself, Soe. The witch, your mistress, has been consumed in the subterranean flames of the earth. None of her powers will avail you any longer.’ He hurled the child on to the sleeping mat, where it lay whimpering.

  Taita made a pass over it with his right hand, stripping away Soe’s deception. The infant changed size and shape slowly until it was revealed as the witch’s emissary, Soe, his eyes blazing and features contorted with malevolence and hatred.

  ‘Do you recognize him now?’ Taita asked Meren.

  ‘By Seth’s foul breath, it is Soe who set the toads upon Demeter. I last saw this devil’s spawn riding off into the night on the back of the hyena, his familiar.’

  ‘Bind him!’ Taita ordered. ‘He goes to Karnak to face the justice of Pharaoh.’

  The morning after the royal return to Karnak from Assuit, Queen Mintaka sat beside Pharaoh in the private audience chamber of the palace. The bright sun was streaming in through the high windows. It was not flattering to her: she looked drawn and exhausted.

  It seemed to Meren that she had aged many years since he had last seen her only a few days before.

  Pharaoh sat on a higher throne than his queen. Crossed over his chest he held the golden flails, the symbols of justice and punishment. On his head was the tall red and white crown of the Two Kingdoms, known as the Mighty One, Pschent. A pair of scribes sat at either side of the throne to record his deliberations.

  Pharaoh Nefer Seti acknowledged Meren. ‘Have you succeeded in the task I set you, Lord Marshal?’

  ‘I have, mighty Pharaoh. Your enemy is in my custody.’

  ‘I expected no less of you. Nevertheless, I am well pleased. You may bring him before me to answer my questions.’

  Meren banged the butt of his spear three times on the floor. Immediately there was the tramp of nailed sandals and an escort of ten guardsmen filed into the room. Queen Mintaka regarded them with lacklustre gaze until she recognized the prisoner in their midst.

  Soe was barefooted and naked, except for a white linen breech clout.

  Heavy bronze chains shackled his wrists and ankles. His face was haggard, but his chin was lifted high in defiance. Mintaka gasped and sprang to her feet, staring at him in consternation and dismay. ‘Pharaoh, this is a mighty and powerful prophet, a servant of the nameless goddess. He is no enemy! We cannot treat him thus.’

  Pharaoh turned his head slowly and stared at her. ‘If he is not my enemy, why did you wish to hide him from me?’ he asked.

  Mintaka faltered and covered her mouth with a hand. She sank down upon her throne, her face ashen and her eyes stricken.

  Pharaoh turned back to Soe. ‘State your name!’ he ordered the captive.

  Soe glared at him. ‘I acknowledge no authority above that of the nameless goddess,’ he declared.

  ‘The one you speak of is no longer nameless. Her name was Eos, and she was never a goddess.’

  ‘Beware!’ Soe shouted. ‘You blaspheme! The wrath of the goddess is swift and certain.’

  Pharaoh ignored this outburst. ‘Did you conspire with this sorceress to dam the Mother Nile?’

  ‘I answer only to the goddess,’ Soe snarled.

  ‘Did you, in concert with this sorceress, use supernatural powers to inflict the plagues upon this very Egypt? Was your purpose to topple me from the throne?’

  ‘You are no true king!’ Soe shouted. ‘You are a usurper and an apostate! Eos is the ruler of the earth and of all its nations!’

  ‘Did you strike down my children, prince and princess of the blood royal?’

  ‘They were not of the royal blood,’ Soe asserted. ‘They were commoners. The goddess alone is of royal blood.’

  ‘Did you use your evil influence to turn my queen aside from the path of honour? Did you convince her that she should help you to place the sorceress on my throne?’

  ‘It is not your throne. It is the rightful throne of Eos.’

  ‘Did you promise my queen to restore our children to life?’ Pharaoh demanded, in a voice as cold and sharp as a sword blade.

  ‘The tomb never yields up its fruit,’ Soe replied.

  ‘So you lied. Ten thousand lies!
You lied and you murdered and you spread sedition and despair throughout my empire.’

  ‘In the service of Eos, lies are things of beauty, murder is a noble act. I spread no sedition. I spread the truth.’

  ‘Soe, you are condemned from your own mouth.’

  ‘You cannot harm me. I am protected by my goddess.’

  ‘Eos is destroyed. Your goddess is no more,’ Pharaoh intoned gravely.

  He turned back to Mintaka. ‘My queen, have you heard enough?’

  Mintaka was sobbing quietly. She was so overcome that she was unable to speak, but she nodded, then covered her face in shame.

  At last Pharaoh looked directly at two figures who were standing quietly at the back of the hall. The visor of Taita’s helmet was closed and Fenn’s face was covered with a veil. Only her green eyes showed.

  ‘Tell us how Eos was destroyed,’ Pharaoh ordered.’

  ‘Mighty one, she was consumed by fire,’ said Taita.

  ‘So it is fitting that her creature should share her fate.’

  ‘It would be a merciful death, better than he deserves, better than the death he dealt out to the innocent.’

  Pharaoh nodded thoughtfully, then turned back to Mintaka. ‘I am minded to give you an opportunity to redeem yourself in my sight, and in the sight of the gods of Egypt.’

  Mintaka threw herself at his feet. ‘I did not understand what I was doing. He promised that the Nile would flow again and our children would be restored to us, if only you would acknowledge the goddess. I believed him.’

  ‘All this I understand.’ Pharaoh raised Mintaka to her feet. ‘The penance I impose upon you is that your own royal hand will set the torch to the execution fire in which Soe and the last trace of the sorceress will be expunged from my domains.’

  Mintaka swayed on her feet and her expression was one of utter despair. Then she seemed to rally herself. ‘I am Pharaoh’s loyal wife and subject. To obey his command is my duty. I shall set the fire under Soe, in whom once I believed.’