The Quest (Novels of Ancient Egypt)

by Wilbur Smith

  ‘But see what they have done for you,’ Taita pointed out.

  Meren looked slightly abashed. ‘I give most of the credit to you, Magus. It was you who brought me here, and saw me through this trial.’

  That night, Meren stretched himself out on his mattress and, like a child, dropped into sleep. His snores were boisterous and carefree. Taita had grown so accustomed to them over the decades that to him they were a lullaby.

  He closed his eyes, and the dreams that the hellish imp had placed in his mind returned. He tried to force himself back into consciousness, but they were too compelling. He could not break free. He could smell the perfume of warm, feminine flesh, feel silken swells and hollows rubbing against him, hear sweet voices heavy with desire whispering lascivious invitations. He felt wicked fingers touching and stroking, quick tongues licking, soft mouths sucking and hot, secret openings engulfing. The impossible sensations in his missing parts rose up like a tempest. They hovered at the brink, then faded away. He wanted them to return, his whole body craved release, but it stayed beyond his reach, racking and tormenting him.

  ‘Let me be!’ With a violent effort he tore himself free, and woke to find himself wet with sweat, his breath roaring harshly in his ears.

  A shaft of moonlight slanted in through the high window in the opposite wall. He stood up shakily, went to the water jug and drank deeply. As he did so, his eyes fell upon his girdle and pouch where he had laid them as he prepared for sleep. The moonlight was falling directly upon the pouch. It was almost as though some outside influence was directing his attention to it. He picked it up and unfastened the drawstring, reached in and touched something so warm that it seemed to be alive. It moved beneath his fingertips. He jerked away his hand. By now he was fully awake. He held the mouth of the pouch open and turned it so that the moonbeam lit the interior. Something glowed in the bottom. He stared at it and watched the glow take an ethereal shape. It was the sign of the five-padded cat’s paw.

  With care Taita reached once more into the pouch and brought out the tiny fragment of red rock that Hannah had removed from Meren’s eye socket. It still felt warm and glowed, but the cat’s paw had disappeared. He clasped it firmly in his hand. Immediately the disturbance of the dreams subsided.

  He went to the oil lamp in the corner of the room and turned up the wick. By its light he studied the tiny fragment of stone. The ruby sparkle of the crystals seemed to be alive. Gradually it dawned on him that the stone contained a tiny part of the essence of Eos. When she had driven the splinter into Meren’s eye she must have endowed it with a trace of her magic.

  I came so close to throwing it into the lake. Now I know for certain that something was waiting to receive it. He remembered the monstrous swirl he had seen beneath the surface of the water. Whether or not it was crocodile or fish, in reality that thing was another of her manifestations. It seems that she places great importance on this insignificant fragment. I shall accord it the same respect.

  Taita opened the locket lid of the Periapt and placed the little ruby stone in the nest of hair he had taken from Lostris in both her lives. He felt stronger and more confident. Now I am better armed to go out against the witch.

  In the morning his courage and resolve were undiminished.

  No sooner had they broken their fast than Hannah arrived to inspect Meren’s new eye. The colour of the iris had darkened and almost matched the original. When Meren focused on her finger as it moved from side to side or up and down both eyes tracked in unison.

  After she had gone, Meren took up his bow and the embossed leather quiver of arrows, and went with Taita to the open field beside the lake. Taita set up a target, a painted disc on a short pole, then stood to one side as Meren selected a new string for his bow, then rolled an arrow between his palms to test its symmetry and balance.

  ‘Ready!’ he called, and addressed the target. He drew and loosed. Even though the breeze coming across the lake moved it perceptibly in flight, the arrow struck less than a thumb’s length from the centre.

  ‘Allow for the wind,’ Taita called. He had coached Meren in archery since the younger man had run the Red Road with Nefer Seti. Meren nodded in acknowledgement, then drew and loosed a second arrow. This one struck dead centre.

  ‘Turn your back,’ Taita ordered, and Meren obeyed. Taita brought the target twenty paces closer. ‘Now turn and loose instantly.’

  Moving lightly on his feet for such a big man, Meren obeyed. He had recovered the balance and poise he had lost when his eye was blinded. The arrow swung slightly with the breeze, but he had allowed for that in his aim. His elevation was perfect. Again the arrow slammed into the bull’s eye. They practised for the rest of the morning. Gradually Taita moved the target out to two hundred paces. Even at that range Meren placed three out of four arrows in an area the size of a man’s chest. When they stopped to eat the simple meal that an attendant brought them, Taita said, ‘That is enough for one day. Let your arm and your eye rest. There is a matter I must attend to.’

  He picked up his staff, made certain the Periapt of Lostris was hanging on its gold chain at his throat and set off briskly for the upper gates of the garden. He retraced his steps to the imp’s grotto. The closer he came to it, the more intense his feelings of eager anticipation became. They were so unwarranted that he knew he was still being led by outside influences. He was mildly surprised to reach the grotto again so readily. In this garden of surprises he had expected to find it hidden from him, but all was as he had last seen it.

  He settled down on the grassy bank and waited for he knew not what. All seemed peaceful and natural. He heard the chittering of a golden sunbird and looked up to see it hovering before a scarlet blossom and delicately probing its long, curved bill into the trumpet of petals to suck out the nectar. Then it darted away like a flash of sunlight. Taita waited, composing himself and marshalling his resources to meet whatever was coming his way.

  He heard a regular tapping sound that was familiar, although he could not place it immediately. It came from the pathway behind him. He turned in that direction. The tapping ceased but after a short while it began again.

  A tall, stooped figure came down the pathway carrying a long staff. The sound of it on the stony path was what Taita had heard. The man had a long silver beard, but although he was stooped and ancient, he moved with the alacrity of a much younger man. He seemed not to notice Taita sitting quietly at the edge of the pool but followed the bank round in the opposite direction. When he reached the far side he sat down. Only then did he lift his head and look directly at Taita, who stared at him silently. He felt the blood drain from his face and grasped the Periapt in his clenched fist, struck dumb with astonishment. The two looked deep into each other’s eyes, and each saw his identical twin stare back at him.

  ‘Who are you?’ Taita whispered at last.

  ‘I am you,’ said the stranger, in a voice Taita recognized as his own.

  ‘No,’ Taita burst out. ‘I am one, and you are legion. You bear the black mark of the cat’s paw. I am touched with the white mark of the Truth. You are the fantasy created by Eos of the Dawn. I am the reality.’

  ‘You confound us both with your obstinacy, for we are one and the same,’ said the old man across the pool. ‘What you deny me you deny yourself. I come to show you the treasure that could be ours.’

  ‘I will not look,’ Taita said, ‘for I have already seen the poisonous images you create.’

  ‘You dare not say no, for in doing so you deny your very self,’ said his reflection. ‘What I will show you has never before been looked upon by mortal man. Gaze into the pool, you who are myself.’

  Taita stared down into the dark water. ‘There is nothing there,’ he said.

  ‘Everything is there,’ said the other Taita. ‘Everything we have ever truly wanted, you and I. Open our Inner Eye and let us gaze upon it together.’ Taita did so, and a shadowy vista appeared before him. It was as though he looked across a wide desert of barren dunes.
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  ‘That desert is our existence without knowledge of the Truth,’ said the other Taita. ‘Without the Truth all is sterile and monotonous. But look beyond the desert, my hungry soul.’

  Taita obeyed. On the horizon he saw a mighty beacon, a divine light, a mountain cut from a single pure diamond.

  ‘That is the mountain that all the seers and magi strive towards. They do so in vain. No mortal man can attain the divine light. It is the mountain of all knowledge and wisdom.’

  ‘It is beautiful,’ whispered Taita.

  ‘We look upon it at a great distance. Mortal mind cannot imagine the beauty when you stand upon the summit.’ Taita saw that the old man was weeping with joy and reverence. ‘We can stand upon that pinnacle together, my other self. We can have what no man has ever had before. There is no greater prize.’

  Taita stood up and walked slowly to the edge of the pool. He gazed down upon the vision and felt a longing that surpassed any he had ever known. It was no shameful craving, no base physical desire. It was something as clean, noble and pure as the diamond mountain.

  ‘I know your feelings,’ said his double, ‘for they are mine exactly.’ He stood up. ‘Look upon the frail and ancient body that encases and imprisons us. Compare it to the perfect form that was once ours, and can be ours again. Look down into the water and behold what none has seen before us, nor will see again. All this is being offered to us. Is it not sacrilege to refuse such gifts?’ He pointed at the vision of the diamond mountain. ‘See how it fades. Will we ever look upon it again? The choice is ours, yours and mine.’ The vision of the shining mountain dissolved into the dark water, leaving Taita bereft and empty.

  His mirror image stood up and came round the pool towards him. He opened his arms to embrace Taita, who felt a shiver of revulsion. Despite himself he lifted his arms to return the fraternal gesture. Before they touched a blue spark crackled between them, and Taita felt a shock, like a discharge of static electricity, as his other self vanished into him, and they became one.

  The glory of the diamond mountain he had looked upon remained with him long after he had left the magical pool and gone down through the gardens.

  Meren was waiting for him at the lower gates. ‘I have been searching for you these last few hours,’ he rushed to meet Taita, ‘but there is aught very strange about this place. There are a thousand paths but they all lead back to this spot.’

  ‘Why did you come to look for me?’ It was fruitless to try to explain to Meren the complexities of the witch’s garden.

  ‘Colonel Tinat Ankut arrived at the clinic a short while ago. No sign of Captain Onka, I am pleased to say. I had no chance to talk to the good colonel, not that I would have achieved a great deal by doing so. He never has much to say.’

  ‘Did he come alone?’

  ‘No, there were others, an escort of six troopers and about ten women.’

  ‘What kind of women?’

  ‘I only saw them from afar – I was on this side of the lake. There was nothing unusual about them. They seemed young, but they did not sit comfortably on their mounts. I thought I should warn you of his arrival.’

  ‘You did right, of course, but I can always rely on you for that.’

  ‘What ails you? You wear a strange expression – that dazed half-smile and those dreaming eyes. What mischief have you been at, Magus?’

  ‘These gardens are very beautiful,’ Taita said.

  ‘I suppose they are pretty in a repellent way.’ Meren grinned with embarrassment. ‘I cannot explain it, but I do not like it here.’

  ‘Then let us be gone,’ said Taita.

  When they reached their quarters in the sanatorium an attendant was waiting for them. ‘I have an invitation for you from Dr Hannah. As it will soon be time for you to leave the Cloud Gardens, she would like you to dine with her this evening.’

  ‘Kindly tell her that we are pleased to accept.’

  ‘I will come to fetch you a little before sunset.’

  The sun had just sunk below the clifftops when the attendant returned. He led them through a series of courtyards and covered galleries. They met others hurrying along the galleries, but they passed without exchanging greetings. Taita recognized some as attendants who had been with them during Meren’s treatment.

  Why have I not noticed how extensive these buildings are until now? Why have I not felt any inclination to explore them before? he wondered. Hannah had told them that the gardens and clinic had been built over many centuries, so it was no wonder that they were so large, but why had they not excited his curiosity? Then he remembered how he had tried to follow the three girls into one of the blocks, but had lacked the will to continue.

  They have no need for gates or guards, he realized. They can prevent strangers entering where they are not welcome by placing mental barriers to exclude them – as they did to me, and as they did to Meren when he came to find me.

  They passed a small group of young women sitting quietly beside a fountain in one of the courtyards. One was playing a lute and two others were waving sistrums. The rest were singing in sweet sad harmony.

  ‘Those are some of the women I saw this afternoon,’ Meren whispered. Although the sun had already gone behind the cliffs, the air was still warm and balmy and the women were lightly dressed.

  ‘They are all with child,’ Taita murmured.

  ‘Like those we met on our first day in the crater,’ Meren agreed. For a moment it seemed to Taita that there should be something significant in that, but before he could grasp the idea they had crossed the courtyard and reached a portico on the far side.

  ‘I will leave you here,’ said their guide, ‘but I shall return to fetch you after you have dined. The doctor is waiting for you with her other guests. Please enter. She is expecting you.’

  They entered a large and artistically furnished room, lit by tiny glass lamps floating in toy ships on an ornamental pool in the centre. Splendid floral displays hung in baskets from the walls or grew in ceramic and earthenware pots arranged on the mosaic floor.

  Hannah came across the room to them. She took them each by a hand and led them to the other guests, who lounged on low couches or sat cross-legged on piles of cushions. Gibba was there, with three other doctors, two men and another woman. They looked very young to hold such eminent positions and to be privy to such extraordinary medical wonders as existed in the Cloud Gardens. The other guest was Colonel Tinat. He rose as Taita approached his couch and saluted him with grave respect. He did not smile, but Taita had not expected it.

  ‘You and Colonel Cambyses are to go down the mountain in a few days’ time,’ Hannah explained to Taita. ‘Colonel Tinat has come to be your escort and guide.’

  ‘It will be my pleasure and honour,’ Tinat assured Taita.

  The other surgeons clustered round Meren to examine his new eye and marvel at it. ‘I know of your other achievements, Dr Hannah,’ said the woman, ‘but surely this is the first eye that you have successfully replaced.’

  ‘There were others, but they were before your time,’ Hannah corrected her. ‘I feel confident now that we can look forward to succeeding with any part of the human body. The gallant colonels who are our guests here this evening will vouch for that.’ The three surgeons turned towards Tinat.

  ‘You also, Colonel?’ asked the younger woman. In reply, Tinat held up his right hand and flexed the fingers.

  ‘The first was chopped off by a savage warrior wielding an axe. This one comes from the skills of Dr Hannah.’ He saluted her with the hand. The other surgeons came to examine it with as much interest as they had Meren’s eye.

  ‘Is there no limitation on the body parts that you are able to regrow?’ a male surgeon wanted to know.

  ‘Yes. First, the operation has to be approved and sanctioned by the oligarchs of the Supreme Council. Second, the remaining parts have to continue to function. We would not be able to replace a head or a heart, for without those parts the rest of the body would die before we could seed it
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  Taita found the evening most enjoyable. The conversation of the surgeons touched on many medical wonders that he had not heard spoken of previously. Once their reserve had been softened by a bowl or two of the wonderful wine of the Cloud Gardens vineyards, Meren and Tinat entertained them with accounts of the strange things they had seen on their campaigns and travels. After the meal Gibba played the lute and Taita sang.

  When the attendant came to take Taita and Meren back to their quarters, Tinat walked part of the way with them.

  ‘When do you plan to take us down the mountain, Colonel?’ Taita asked.

  ‘It will not be for a few days yet. There are other matters I must attend to before we leave. I shall give you plenty of warning of our departure.’

  ‘Have you seen my ward, the girl Fenn, since we left Mutangi?’ Taita asked. ‘I miss her sorely.’

  ‘She seems equally attached to you. I passed through the village on my way here. She saw me and ran after my horse to enquire after you. When I told her that I was on my way to fetch you she was much excited. She charged me to give you her respects and duty. She seemed in the best of health and spirits. She is a lovely girl, and you must be proud of her.’

  ‘She is,’ Taita agreed, ‘and I am.’

  That night Taita’s dreams were complex and many-tiered, in most cases peopled by men and women he had known. But others were strangers, yet their images were so meticulously etched that it seemed they were creatures of flesh and blood, not woven in fantasy and gossamer. The dreams were linked by the same thread: through all of them he was carried along by the expectation of something marvellous that was about to take place – he was searching for a fabulous treasure that was almost within his grasp.