The Quest (Novels of Ancient Egypt)

by Wilbur Smith

  ‘I respect your caution. These are deep matters and should not be undertaken lightly. Return with Meren. I will go alone to the temple.’ He turned to Meren. ‘Spare no labours to make the camp secure. Fortify it well, and post a strong guard. When you have done that we will return to assay the hardness of the Red Stones.’

  ‘I implore you to return to the camp before darkness falls, Magus.’ Meren looked jaundiced with worry. ‘If you are not back at sunset, I will come to search for you.’

  As the bodyguards hefted the litter and followed Meren, Taita turned to Fenn. ‘Go with Meren. Hurry to catch up with him.’

  She stood to her full height, arms behind her back, mouth set obstinately. He had come to know that expression well. ‘There is no spell you can weave to make me leave you,’ she declared.

  ‘When you scowl you are no longer beautiful,’ he warned her mildly.

  ‘You cannot imagine how ugly I can be,’ she said. ‘Try to rid yourself of me and I will show you.’

  ‘Your threats unman me.’ He could scarce prevent himself smiling. ‘But stay close to me, and be ready to form the circle at the first malevolent emanation we encounter.’

  They found a path that climbed the bluff. When they reached the temple they saw that the stonework was beautifully executed. The entire building was roofed with hewn timber planking, over which had been laid a thatch of river reeds that was collapsing in places. They walked slowly round the walls. The temple was laid out on a circular foundation, about fifty paces across. At five equidistant points tall granite stele had been built into the walls. ‘The five points of the black magicians’ pentagram,’ Taita told Fenn softly. They came back to the entrance portals of the temple. The door jambs were carved with bas-reliefs of esoteric symbols.

  ‘Can you read them?’ Fenn asked.

  ‘No,’ Taita admitted. ‘They are alien.’ Then he looked into her eyes for any sign of fear. ‘Will you enter with me?’

  For answer she took his hand. ‘Let us form the circle,’ she suggested.

  Together they stepped through the gateway into the circular outer portico. It was paved with flat grey stones, and shafts of light beamed down through the holes in the roof. There was no opening in the inner wall. Side by side they followed the curving portico. As they drew level with each stela, they found the points of the pentagram laid out in white marble under their feet. Within each point was enclosed another mysterious symbol, a serpent, a crux ansata, a vulture in flight, another at roost and, last, a jackal. They stepped over a pile of loose thatching and heard a harsh hiss, then a violent rustle beneath their feet. Taita slipped an arm round Fenn’s waist and lifted her clear. Behind them the hooded head of a black Egyptian cobra rose out of the tumbled reeds. It stared hard at them with tiny black marble eyes, the long tongue flickering and testing the air for their scent. Taita set Fenn down, raised his staff and pointed it at the serpent’s head. ‘Don’t be alarmed,’ he said. ‘This is no apparition. It is a natural animal.’ He began to move the tip of the staff rhythmically from side to side, and the cobra swayed to the motion. Gradually it was lulled, the hood deflated, and it sank back into the tangle of thatch. Taita led Fenn away down the gallery. They stopped at last in front of an ornate doorway.

  ‘The opposed opening,’ Taita told her. ‘This is diametrically opposite the outer entrance. It limits the ingress and egress of alien influences to the inner sanctum.’

  The doorway that faced them was shaped like a petalled flower. The jambs were covered with tiles of polished ivory, malachite and tiger’s eye. The closed doors were covered with lacquered crocodile skin. Taita used his staff to lean his full weight against one door. It swung open, bronze hinges whining. The interior was lit only by a shaft of sunlight cast from a single opening in the dome of the roof. It struck the floor of the sanctum in an eruption of colour.

  The floor was decorated with an elaborately designed pentagram, the pattern worked in tiles of marble and semi-precious stones. Taita recognized rose quartz and rock crystal, beryllium and rubellite. The workmanship was masterly. The heart of the design was a circle of tiles so superbly fitted together and polished that the joints were invisible. It seemed to be a single shield of gleaming ivory.

  ‘Let us go in, Magus.’ Fenn’s childish treble was thrown back and forth between the rounded walls.

  ‘Wait!’ he said. ‘There is a presence within, the spirit of this place. I think it is dangerous. It is what terrified Kalulu.’ He pointed to the sunlight on the temple floor. ‘It is almost noon. The beam is about to fall upon the heart of the pentagram. That will be the fateful moment.’

  They watched the sunlight creep across the floor. It touched the lip of the ivory circle and was reflected on to the surrounding walls, its radiance enhanced tenfold. Now it seemed to advance more swiftly, until suddenly it filled the ivory disc. Immediately they heard sistrums hum and rattle. They heard the wings of bats and vultures in the air around them. White light filled the sanctum with such brilliance that they lifted their hands to shield their eyes. Through the dazzle they saw the spirit sign of Eos appear at the centre of the disc, the cat’s paw picked out in fire.

  The odour of the witch filled their nostrils with the redolence of wild beasts. They reeled back from the doorway, but then the sunlight passed over the ivory disc and the fiery letters were expunged. The reek of the witch abated, leaving only the smell of musty thatch and bat droppings. The sunlight faded, leaving the sanctum once more in gloom. In silence they retreated down the gallery and out into the sunlight.

  ‘She was there,’ whispered Fenn. She took a deep breath of the cool lake air, as if to cleanse her lungs.

  ‘Her influence remains.’ Taita pointed with his staff at the humped Red Stones. ‘She still presides over her fiendish works.’

  ‘Could we destroy her temple,’ Fenn glanced back at the building, ‘and in that way destroy her also?’

  ‘No,’ Taita told her firmly. ‘Her influence is powerful within the inner sanctum of her stronghold. To challenge her there would be mortally dangerous. We will find another time and place to attack her.’ He took Fenn’s hand and led her away. ‘We will return tomorrow to test the wall for weakness, and to learn more from Kalulu of how the Red Stones were placed across the gorge.’

  Meren pointed out the central crack that divided the Red Stones. ‘There is no doubt that this is the weakest point in the length of the wall. It may be a shear line.’

  ‘Certainly that seems the best point at which to begin the experiment,’ Taita agreed. ‘There is no dearth of firewood.’ Most of the big trees that covered the slopes of the gorge had died when their water was dammed. ‘Tell the men to begin.’

  They watched them spread out through the forest. Soon the sound of their axes rang down the gorge and woke the echoes from the cliffs. Once the trees were felled, they used the horses to drag them to the base of the red wall. There they cut them into lengths, which they stacked against the wall of stone so that they formed a flue through which air would be drawn to fuel the flames. It took several days to set the gigantic mound of combustibles in place. In the meantime Taita supervised the building of four separate shadoof wheels to raise the water from the lake to the top of the wall and spill it on to the reverse face to drench the rock once it was red hot.

  When all was in readiness, Meren set fire to the stack of wood. The flames took hold and leapt upwards. In minutes the entire pile of timber was a roaring conflagration. No man could stand within a hundred yards of it without having the skin flayed from his flesh.

  While they waited for the fire to subside, Taita and Fenn sat with Kalulu on the bluff above the gorge, looking across at the temple of Eos on the far side. They sheltered from the sun under a small ruined pavilion that stood on the spot. The bodyguards had repaired the roof thatch.

  ‘While the river still ran and my tribe lived here, I was in the habit of coming to this place during the hot season of the year, when all the earth groans under the lash of the
sun,’ Kalulu explained. ‘You can feel how the breeze comes off the lake. Furthermore, I was fascinated by the activity of the strangers in the temple across the river. I used this as a lookout from where I could spy upon them.’ He pointed at the temple sitting high on the opposite bluff. ‘You must visualize the scene at that time. Where the wall of red stone now stands there was a deep gorge with a series of rapids, and cascades down which descended such a volume of water that the senses were numbed by the thunder of their fall. A tall cloud of spray towered above them.’ He lifted his arms high and described the hovering cloud with an eloquent, graceful gesture. ‘When the wind shifted, the spray blew over us here, as cool and blessed as rain.’ He smiled with pleasure at the thought. ‘Thus, from here, I had the view of a vulture over all the momentous occurrences of that time.’

  ‘You watched the temple being constructed?’ Fenn asked. ‘Did you know that there is much ivory and many precious stones within its precincts?’

  ‘Indeed, my pretty child. I watched the strangers bring them in. They used hundreds of slaves as beasts of burden.’

  ‘From which direction did they arrive?’ Taita asked.

  ‘They came from the west.’ Kalulu pointed into the hazy blue distance.

  ‘What country lies out there?’ Tait asked.

  The dwarf did not answer immediately. He was silent for a while, and then he responded hesitantly: ‘When I was a young man and my legs were whole and strong, I travelled there. I went in search of wisdom and learning, for I had heard of a wondrous sage who lived in that far country to the west.’

  ‘What did you discover?’

  ‘I beheld mountains, mighty mountains, hidden for most of the year by masses of dense cloud. When it parted, it revealed peaks that climbed to the very skies, peaks whose bald heads were shining white.’

  ‘Did you climb to the summits?’

  ‘No. I saw them only from a great distance.’

  ‘Do these mountains have a name?’

  ‘The people who live within sight of them call them the Mountains of the Moon for their tops are as bright as the full moon.’

  ‘Tell me, my learned and revered friend, did you see any other wonders on these travels?’

  ‘The wonders were many and legion,’ Kalulu replied. ‘I saw rivers that burst from the earth and boiled with steam as though from a seething cauldron. I heard the hills groan and felt them shake beneath my feet, as though some monster stirred in his deep cavern.’ The memories illuminated his dark eyes. ‘There was such power in this range of mountains that one of the peaks burned and smoked like a gigantic furnace.’

  ‘A burning mountain!’ Taita exclaimed. ‘You saw a peak that belched fire and smoke! You discovered a volcano?’

  ‘If that is what you call such a miracle,’ the little man acceded. ‘The tribes that lived within sight of it called it the Tower of Light. It was a sight that filled me with awe.’

  ‘Did you ever find the famous sage for whom you went in search?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘The men who built this temple came from the Mountains of the Moon? Is that what you believe?’ Taita brought him back to the original question.

  ‘Who knows? Not I. But they came from that direction. They laboured for twenty months. First they carried in the building materials with their slaves. Then they erected the walls and covered them with timbers and thatch. My tribe provided food for them, in exchange for beads, cloth and metal tools. We did not understand the purpose of that building, but it seemed harmless and posed no threat to us.’ Kalulu shook his head at the memory of their naïvety. ‘I was interested in the work. I tried to ingratiate myself with the builders and learn more about what they were doing, but they turned me away in a most hostile manner. They placed guards around their camp and I could not get close. I was forced to watch their works from this vantage-point.’ Kalulu lapsed into silence.

  Taita encouraged him with another question. ‘What happened after the temple was completed?’

  ‘The builders and slaves departed. They marched back into the west, the way they had come. They left nine priests to serve in the temple.’

  ‘Only nine?’ Taita asked.

  ‘Yes. I became familiar with the appearance of every one of them, at this distance, of course.’

  ‘What makes you believe they were priests?’

  ‘They wore religious habits, red in colour. They conducted rituals of devotion. They made sacrifices and burnt offerings.’

  ‘Describe the rituals.’ Taita was listening with great attention. ‘Every detail may be important.’

  ‘At noon every day three of the priests descended in procession to the head of the cataract. They drew water in pitchers and carried it to the temple, dancing and exulting in some strange dialect.’

  ‘Not the Tenmass?’ Taita demanded.

  ‘No, Magus. I did not recognize it.’

  ‘That is all that happened? Or do you remember anything else? You spoke of sacrifices.’

  ‘They bought black goats and black fowls from us. They were very particular about the colour. They had to be pure black. They took them into the temple. I heard singing, and afterwards I saw smoke and smelt burnt flesh.’

  ‘What else?’ Taita insisted.

  Kalulu thought for a moment. ‘One of the priests died. I do not know why. The other eight carried his body to the lakeside. They laid it naked on the sand. Then they retreated up the slope of the bluff. From there they watched as the crocodiles came out of the lake and dragged it under the waters.’ The dwarf made a gesture of finality. ‘Within weeks another priest arrived at the temple.’

  ‘Coming from the west again?’ Taita hazarded.

  ‘I know not, for I did not see him arrive. One evening there were eight, the next morning there were nine once more.’

  ‘So the number of priests was significant. Nine. The cipher of the Lie.’ Taita mused for a while then asked, ‘What happened after that?’

  ‘For more than two years the routine of the priests was maintained. Then I was aware that something of consequence was about to take place. They lit five beacon fires around the temple and kept them burning day and night for many months.’

  ‘Five fires,’ Taita said. ‘At what positions did they set them?’

  ‘There are five stele built into the outer wall. Did you remark them?’ Kalulu asked.

  ‘Yes. They form the points of a great pentagram, the mystical design over which the temple stands.’

  ‘I have never been inside the temple. I know nothing of any pentagram. I know only that the fires were placed at the five points around the outer wall,’ Kalulu told them.

  ‘Was that all that occurred which was untoward?’

  ‘Then another person joined the brotherhood.’

  ‘Another priest?’

  ‘I think not. This person was clad in black, not red. An airy black veil covered the features, so I was unable to tell with any certainty if it was male or female. However, from the shape of the figure beneath the robes and the grace of its movement I thought it might be a woman. She emerged from the temple each morning at sunrise. She prayed before each of the five fires, then returned to the temple precincts.’

  ‘Did you ever see her face?’

  ‘She was always veiled. She moved with an ethereal, haunting grace. The other priests treated her with the greatest reverence, prostrating themselves before her. She must have been the high priestess of their sect.’

  ‘Did you observe any significant signs in the heavens or in nature while she inhabited the temple?’

  ‘Indeed, Magus, there were many strange celestial signs. On the day I first saw her pray at the temple fires, the evening star reversed its track through the skies. Shortly thereafter another insignificant and unnamed star swelled up into monstrous proportion and was consumed by flames. During all her tenure in the temple strange lights of many colours danced in the northern night sky. All these omens flew in the face of nature.’

  ‘Do you bel
ieve they were the works of the veiled woman?’

  ‘I say only that they occurred when she arrived. It may have been mere happenstance, I do not know.’

  ‘Was that all?’ Taita asked.

  Kalulu shook his head firmly. ‘There was more. Nature seemed plunged into turmoil. Our crops in the field turned yellow and withered. The cattle aborted their calves. The paramount chief of our tribe was bitten by a snake and died almost at once. His senior wife gave birth to a son with two heads.’

  ‘Dire omens.’ Taita looked grave.

  ‘There was worse to follow. The weather was disturbed. A mighty wind blew through our town on the hill, and ripped off the roofs. A fire destroyed the tribal totem hut and consumed the relics and jujus of our ancestors. Hyenas dug up the corpse of the paramount chief and devoured it.’

  ‘This was a direct onslaught on your people, your ancestors and your religion,’ Taita murmured.

  ‘Then the earth moved and shook itself like a living beast under our feet. The waters of the lake leapt into the air, boiling white and furious. The fish shoals disappeared. The lake birds flew away towards the west. The waves crushed our canoes where they lay upon the beaches. They ripped out our fishing nets. The people begged me to intercede with the angry gods of our tribe.’

  ‘What could you do in the face of the elements?’ Taita wondered. ‘They had set you a daunting task.’

  ‘I came to this place where we now sit. I cast a spell, the most potent in my power. I evoked the shades of our ancestors to placate the gods of the lake. But they were deaf to my pleas, and blind to the suffering of my tribe. They shook these hills on which we sit as a bull elephant shakes a ngong nut tree. The earth danced so that men could not stand upright. Deep cracks opened like the jaws of hungry lions and swallowed men and women with their infants strapped upon their backs.’ By now Kalulu was weeping. His tears dripped from his chin on to his naked chest. One of his bodyguards wiped them away with a linen cloth.

  ‘While I watched, the waters of the lake began to roll and thunder upon the beaches with increasing fury. They leapt half-way up the cliff below us. The spray burst over me in torrents. I was blinded and deafened. I looked across at the temple. Through the clouds and the spray, I saw the black-robed figure standing alone before the gateway. She had her arms held out towards the tumultuous lake like a wife welcoming the return of her beloved husband from the wars.’ Kalulu panted for breath and struggled to control his body. His arms jerked and danced, his head shook like that of a man with the palsy. His features convulsed as though he were in a fit.