The Quest (Novels of Ancient Egypt)

by Wilbur Smith

  Once again Hannah’s predictions proved accurate. The first three days passed with only minor discomfort; a dull ache in the pit of his stomach and a burning sensation when he passed water. His mouth hurt more. It was difficult to prevent himself worrying with his tongue the stitches that Rei had placed in his gums. He could eat no solid food, and took only a light broth of mashed vegetables. He could walk only with the greatest difficulty. They had provided him with a pair of crutches, but he needed the help of a nurse to reach the washroom when he needed to use the nightsoil pot.

  When Hannah came to change his dressing he looked down as she worked, and he saw that a soft sticky scab covered the wound. It looked like the resin that oozes from a cut or blaze made in the bark of the gumarabic tree. Hannah was careful not to disturb it, and to prevent it from adhering to the linen bandages she coated it with a greasy ointment that Dr Assem had provided.

  On the fourth morning he awoke in the grip of an agony so deep that he screamed involuntarily before he could exert his mental powers to check the pain. The nurses rushed to his side and sent immediately for Dr Hannah. By the time she appeared he had rallied his forces and reduced it to the extent that he could speak intelligibly.

  ‘It is bad,’ Hannah said, ‘but you knew it would be.’

  ‘It is far beyond anything I have ever known. It feels as though a crucible of molten lead has been poured over my belly,’ he whispered.

  ‘I can call Dr Assem to administer a potion.’

  ‘No,’ he replied. ‘I will come to terms with it alone.’

  ‘Six more days,’ she warned him. ‘Maybe longer.’

  ‘I shall survive.’ The agony was dread and constant. It filled his existence to the exclusion of all else. He did not think of Eos, or even of Fenn. The pain was all.

  He managed with great effort to hold it off during waking hours, but as soon as sleep overcame him his defences slipped and it returned in full force. He came awake, whimpering and moaning with its intensity. He lived with the temptation to yield and send for Assem with his narcotics, but resisted with all his mental and physical strength. The danger of letting himself be carried into a stupor outweighed the pain. His resolve was all the shield he had left against Eos and the Lie.

  On the sixth day the pain faded, only to be replaced at once by the itching, which was almost more difficult to resist than the pain. He wanted to rip off the dressings and tear at his flesh with his fingernails. The only relief he had was when Hannah came to change the dressings. Once she had removed the soiled bandages she bathed him with a warm herbal solution that was soothing and comforting.

  By this time the huge scab that covered his lower belly and crotch had turned as hard and black as the skin of a great crocodile of the azure lake. These periods of surcease were brief. No sooner had Hannah bound him up with fresh linen strips than the itching returned in full force. It drove him to the borders of sanity. There seemed no end to it. He lost track of the days.

  At one stage Rei came to him. While the nurses prised apart his jaws she removed the stitches from his gums. He had forgotten about them in the overwhelming anguish of the main wound. However, the faint relief afforded him by their removal was sufficient to stiffen his resolve.

  When he awoke one morning he felt such a rush of relief that he moaned. The pain and the itching were gone. The peace that followed was so blessed that he fell into a deep, healing sleep that lasted a day and a night. When he woke again he found Hannah kneeling beside his sleeping mat. While he was asleep she had unwrapped his bandages. He was so exhausted that he had not even been conscious of what she was doing. As he raised his head she smiled at him with proprietary pride.

  ‘Mortification is always the greatest danger, but there is no sign of it. Your body is not heated with fever. The seed graft has taken across the whole area. You have crossed the sea of pain and reached the far shore,’ she told him. ‘Considering the depth and extent of your wound, your courage and fortitude have been exemplary, although I expected no less of you. Now I can remove the catheter.’

  The copper tube slipped out easily, and again the relief was a delight. He was surprised by how weak and wasted the ordeal had left him. Hannah and the nurses had to help him to sit up. He looked down at his body. It had been lean before but now it was skeletally thin. The flesh had melted away until every rib showed.

  ‘The scab is beginning to come away,’ Hannah told him. ‘Look how it is lifting and sloughing off around its borders. See the healing beneath it.’ With a forefinger she traced the demarcating line along which the old and new skin met. The two blended together flawlessly. The old skin was crinkled with age like crêpe cloth, the hair growing upon it wispy and grey. The narrow strip of exposed new skin was as smooth and firm as polished ivory. A fine down grew upon it, becoming denser in a line extending downwards from his navel. It was the first fluffy promise of the luxuriant bush of pubic hair it would become. In the middle of the scab crust was the aperture from which Hannah had removed the copper catheter. Hannah covered it with another thick layer of Dr Assem’s herbal ointment.

  ‘The ointment will soften and help to lift away the dry scab without damaging the new tissue beneath it,’ she explained, as she bandaged him again.

  Before she had finished Dr Rei came into the room and knelt beside Taita’s head. She slipped her finger into his mouth. ‘Is anything happening in here?’ she asked. Her manner was relaxed and friendly, in contrast to her formerly serious and professional mien.

  Taita’s voice was muffled by her finger. ‘I can feel something growing. There are hard lumps below the surface of my gums, which are tender when you touch them.’

  ‘Teething pains.’ Rei chuckled. ‘You are passing through your second infancy, my lord Taita.’ She ran her finger to the back of his mouth, and laughed again. ‘Yes, a full set, including your wisdom teeth. They will show themselves within days. Then you can eat more substantial fare than pap and broth.’

  Within a week Rei returned. She brought with her a mirror of burnished silver. Its surface was so true that the image it presented to Taita of the interior of his mouth was only slightly distorted. ‘Like a string of pearls from the Arabian Sea,’ she said, as Taita gazed for the first time at his new teeth. ‘Probably more regular and pleasingly shaped than the first crop you grew so long ago.’ Before she left, she said, ‘Please accept the mirror as my gift. I warrant you will have more to admire with it before too long.’

  The moon had waxed and waned once more before the last flakes of the scab at the base of Taita’s belly crumbled away. By now he was eating normally and regaining the flesh he had lost. He spent several hours each day exercising with his long staff in a series of movements that he had designed to build up his suppleness and strength. Dr Assem had prescribed a diet that included large quantities of herbs and vegetables. All these measures were proving most beneficial. The hollows in his cheeks filled out, his colour was healthier, and it seemed to him that the muscles that replaced those he had lost were firmer and stronger. Soon he was able to discard his crutches and walk around the lakeshore without having to stop and rest. However, Hannah would not allow him to leave the sanatorium unaccompanied, and one of the male nurses went with him. As he regained his strength, the constant surveillance and restriction became more difficult to endure. He was increasingly bored and restless, demanding of Hannah, ‘When will you allow me to leave my cell and return to the world?’

  ‘The oligarchs have cautioned me to keep you here until you are fully recovered. However, your days need not be wasted. Let me show you something that will help you pass the time.’ She conducted him to the sanatorium’s library, which stood in the forest at some distance from the main complex. It was a large building that comprised a series of enormous interconnected rooms. On all four walls of each one stone shelves reached from floor to ceiling, stacked with papyrus scrolls and clay tablets.

  ‘On our shelves we have more than ten thousand works and as many scientific studies,’ Ha
nnah told him, with pride. ‘Most are unique. No other copies exist. It would take a normal lifetime to read even half.’ Taita walked slowly through the rooms, picking up a scroll or tablet at random and glancing at its contents. The entrance to the final room was closed with a heavy bronze grating. He looked askance at Hannah.

  ‘Unfortunately, my lord, entrance to that particular room, and to the editions kept in it, is restricted to members of the Guild,’ she said.

  ‘I understand,’ Taita assured her, then looked back at the rooms through which they had come. ‘This must be the greatest treasury of knowledge that civilized man has ever assembled.’

  ‘I agree with your estimation, my lord. You will find much to fascinate you and stimulate your mind, and perhaps even open for you new avenues of philosophical thought.’

  ‘I shall certainly avail myself of the opportunity.’ Over the following weeks Taita spent many hours each day in the library. Only when the light through the high windows grew too dim for easy reading did he make his way back to his quarters in the main building.

  One morning when he had finished his breakfast he was surprised and a little irritated to find a stranger waiting outside his door. ‘Who are you?’ he demanded impatiently. He was anxious to get to the library and finish reading the scroll on astral travel and communication, which had engaged his full attention over the preceding days. ‘Speak up, fellow.’

  ‘I am here on the orders of Dr Hannah.’ The little man kept bowing and smirking. ‘I am your barber.’

  ‘I have no need of your doubtless excellent services,’ said Taita, brusquely, and tried to push past him.

  The barber stepped in front of him. ‘Please, my lord. Dr Hannah was most insistent. It will go hard for me if you refuse.’

  Taita hesitated. For longer than he cared to remember he had taken no particular interest in his appearance. Now he ran his fingers through the long hair and silver beard that hung almost as far as his waist. He kept them washed and combed, but apart from that he allowed them to grow in wild but comfortable disarray. In truth, until he had received the recent gift from Dr Rei he had not even possessed a mirror. He looked at the barber dubiously. ‘I fear that, unless you are an alchemist, there is little you can do to transmute this dross into gold.’

  ‘Please, my lord, at least let me try. If I do not, Dr Hannah will be displeased.’

  The little barber’s agitation was comical. He must be terrified of the formidable Hannah. Taita sighed and acquiesced with as good grace as he could muster. ‘Oh, very well, but be sharp about it.’

  The barber led him out on to the terrace where he had already placed a stool in the sunshine. His instruments were at hand. After the first few minutes Taita found his ministrations quite soothing and he relaxed. While the barber snipped and combed, Taita turned his mind to the scroll that waited for him in the library and reviewed the sections that he had read the previous day. He decided that the author’s grasp of his subject was fragmentary and that he should provide the missing material himself, as soon as he had the opportunity. Then his thoughts turned to Fenn. He missed her sorely. He wondered how she was faring and what had become of Sidudu. He took no notice of the abundant clippings of grey hair that fell like autumn leaves on to the paving stones.

  At last the little barber interrupted his thoughts by holding up a large bronze mirror in front of his eyes. ‘I hope my work pleases you.’

  Taita blinked. His image was wavering and distorted by the uneven surface of the metal, then suddenly it came into focus, and he was startled by what he saw. He hardly recognized the face that stared back at him haughtily. It appeared far younger than he knew it was. The barber had trimmed his hair to shoulder length and tied it back behind his head with a leather thong. He had clipped his beard short and square.

  ‘Your skull has a fine shape,’ said the barber. ‘You have a wide, deep brow. Yours is the head of a philosopher. The fashion in which I have swept your hair back shows off its nobility to best advantage. Before, your beard masked the strength of your jaw. Cropping it shorter, as I have done, enhances and emphasizes it.’

  In his youth Taita had been pleased with his appearance – perhaps too pleased. At the time it had compensated a little for the loss of his manhood. Now he saw that, even after all this time, he had not entirely lost his looks.

  Fenn will be surprised, he thought, and smiled with pleasure. In the mirror his new teeth gleamed and the expression in his eyes quickened. ‘You have done well,’ he conceded. ‘I would not have thought it possible to make so much of such unpromising material.’

  When Hannah called upon him that evening, she studied his features thoughtfully. ‘Long ago I decided that dalliance consumed time that might otherwise have been applied to more rewarding and productive business,’ she told him. ‘However, I can see why some women might consider you handsome, my lord. With your permission, and in the interest of scientific knowledge, I should like to invite some carefully selected members of the Guild to meet you and to be apprised of what you have been able to achieve.’

  ‘What you and your colleagues have been able to achieve,’ Taita corrected her. ‘I owe you that courtesy at the very least.’

  Some days later he was conducted back to Hannah’s operating room to find that it had been rearranged as an impromptu lecture theatre. A semicircle of stools was set out in front of the stone table. Eight men and women were already seated, including Gibba, Rei and Assem.

  Hannah led Taita back to the table and asked him to sit facing the small audience. Apart from the surgeons who had attended him from the beginning, Taita had met none of the others. This was strange when he considered how long he had been at the Cloud Gardens. The sanatorium must cover a greater area than he had realized, or perhaps other departments were detached from the main buildings and tucked away, like the library, in the forest. However, the most likely possibility was that much of the Cloud Gardens was still concealed from him by the dark arts of Eos. Like a child’s puzzle, boxes were hidden within boxes.

  One of the new faces was a woman’s. The others were men, but all appeared to be distinguished and dignified scientists. Their attitude was attentive and serious. After she had introduced Taita, in the most flattering terms, Hannah went on to outline the treatment he had undergone. Rei described how she had removed Taita’s worn or rotten teeth, and seeded the cavities in his gums. After that she invited each guest in turn to come forward and examine the new ones. Taita sat stoically through the examinations and answered the questions they levelled at him. When they had returned to their stools Hannah came to stand beside him again.

  She described Taita’s castration and the extent of the injuries inflicted upon him. Her listeners were horrified. The woman surgeon was particularly moved and expressed her sympathy eloquently.

  ‘Thank you for your concern,’ Taita replied, ‘but it happened a long time ago. Over the years the memory has faded. The human mind has a trick of burying what is most painful to recall.’ They nodded and murmured agreement.

  Hannah went on to describe the preliminary tests she had carried out, and the preparations she had made for the surgery.

  Taita expected that at this stage of her lecture she might describe the harvesting and preparation of the seedings for grafting. He had been kept ignorant of this and was most anxious to have it explained. He was disappointed that she made no effort to do so. He presumed that her audience were fully informed, and had probably employed the same techniques in their own work. In any event Hannah went on to an account of the surgery, describing how she had dissected out the scar tissue to form a foundation on which the graft could be set. Her audience asked many searching, erudite questions, which she answered at length. Finally she told them, ‘As you are all well aware, Lord Taita is a magus of the highest level, and is also an eminent surgeon and scientific observer in his own right. The reconstruction of his organs of procreation was an unusually intimate and sensitive experience for him. I have no need to tell you that he was
subjected to a great deal of pain. All of this was a gross imposition on the dignity and privacy of such an extraordinary person. Despite this, he has agreed to allow us to examine and evaluate the results. I am sure we all realize that this was not an easy decision for him to make. We should be grateful for this opportunity.’

  At last she turned to Taita. ‘With your permission, Lord Taita.’

  Taita nodded and stretched out on the table top. Gibba came to stand on the opposite side of the table from Hannah. Between them they lifted the skirts of Taita’s tunic. ‘You may come forward to obtain a better view,’ Hannah told the onlookers. They left their stools and formed a circle round the table.

  Taita had become so accustomed to being pored over that he felt no particular embarrassment under their scrutiny. He raised himself on his elbows and looked down his body as Hannah resumed her lecture.

  ‘You will observe how the new skin has covered the wound. It has the suppleness and elasticity that one would expect to find in a pubertal male. In contrast please note the hair on the pubes, which is well advanced. It has grown with extraordinary rapidity.’ She laid her hand on the area she was discussing. ‘This whole fleshy promontory comprises the mons pubis. If you feel it you will discern how the cushion of flesh has already formed over the pelvic bone. You will observe that the general development approximates that of a ten-year-old male. This has been achieved in the weeks since the surgery was performed. Now observe the penis. The prepuce is well formed, not too tight as it is in many young boys.’ She took the foreskin and drew it back carefully. Taita’s glans penis emerged from its hood of loose skin. It was little larger than a ripe acorn, soft and glossy pink. Hannah went on, ‘Please note the opening of the urethra. We formed this by inserting a catheter during the operation. When we removed it the aperture was round, but now you will see that it has become a characteristic slit.’ Hannah slid the foreskin back.