by Wilbur Smith
brown with age the flowers. Through the and the stain of the juices from
soft folds they saw once again the gleam of gold.
standing on either side of the coffin, Nicholas and Royan peeled back
the linen mesh. It crackled softly and but as it came tore like tissue
paper und their fingers, away they both involuntarily gasped with
wonder as the as only fraction ask of Pharaoh was revealed. It death-
man, but it was a perfect ally larger than the head of a it. Pharaoh's
features had been pre, image in every deta ty in this extraordinary work
of art.
served for all eterni ed in silent wonder into the obsidian and rock
They star crystal eyes of Pharaoh, and Pharaoh gazed back at them sadly,
almost accusingly it was a long time before either of them could summon
the head thecourag6 and presumption to lift it away from did so, they
found further of the mummy. But when the
evidence that in antiquity the body of the king and that of his general,
Tanus, had been changed. The mummy that lay before them was obviously
too large for the coffin that contained it. It had been partially
unwrapped, and cramped into the interior.
"A royal mummy would have had hundreds of charrns and amulets placed
beneath the wrappings," Royan whispered . "This is the plainly dressed
corpse of a nobleman and not that of the king."
Nicholas gently lifted the inner layer of bandage away from the dead
head and a thick coil- of braided hair was revealed.
"The portraits of Pharaoh Mamose on the walls of the arcade show that
his head hair was dyed with henna," Nicholas murmured. "Look at this."
The braid was the colour of the winter grasses of the African savannah,
gold and silver.
"There can be no doubt now. This is the body of Tanus. The friend of
Taita and the lover of the queen."
"Yes," Royan agreed, her eyes soft with tears. "He is the true father of
Lostris's son, who became in his time the Pharaoh Tamose and the
forefather of a great line of kings.
So this is the man whose blood runs through the history of ancient
Egypt."
"In his way he was as great as any Pharaoh," Nicholas said quietly.
t was Royan who roused herself first. "The river!'
aT
she cried, with a razor edge to her voice. "We cannot let all this go
again, when the river rises."
"Neither can we hope to save all of it. There is too much. A great mass
of treasure. Our time here has almost run out, so we must pick out the
most beautiful and important pieces and pack them into the crates. Lord
alo'the knows if we even have time for that."
So they worked in a frenzy in the short time that was left to them. They
could not even think about saving the eapons, the statues and the
murals, the furniture and the banqueting. utensils and the wardrobes of
costumes. The great golden chariot must stand where it had stood for
four thousand years, They removed the golden death'mask from over
Tanus's head, but they left his mummy in the innermost of the golden
coffins. Then Nicholas sent for Mai Metemma. The old abbot came with
twenty of his monks to receive the lie of the ancient saint that he had
been promised holy re as his reward. Reverentially, chanting deep and
slow, they bore Tanus's coffin away to its new resting place in the
maqdas of the monastery. ect,"
"At least the old hero will be treated with resP Royan said softly. Then
she looked around the tomb. "We cannot leave the site like this, with
the coffins thrown Royan protested. "it looks as about and the lids
discarded, though grave-robbers have been at work here."
"Grave-robbers is exactly what we are." Nicholas smiled at her.
tly, "and we
"No, we are archaeologists," she denied ho must try to act like it." ing
coffins one within So they replaced the six remain the other, laid them
back in the great sarcophagus, and finally replaced the massive stone
lid. Only then did Royan allow them to begin selecting and packing the
treasures they would take with them.
The death'mask was without any doubt the premier item in the entire
tomb. it fitted neatly into one of the the wooden ushabd of Taita laid
alongside it, crates, with until it was firmly secured, Royan packed
with Styrofoarn waterproof wax crayon: "Mask & scribbled on the lid in
Taita Ushabti'.
Their final selection was, perforce, hurried and superof the cedarwood
official. They could not rip open every one chests that were piled high
in the alcoves of the arcade.
The painted and gilded chests themselves were priceless artefacts, and
should be treated with respect. So they allowed themselves to be guided
by the illustrations on the lid of each. They discovered immediately
that these were indeed an accurate inventory and catalogue of the
contents. In the chest which showed Pharaoh decked in the blue war
crown, they found the actual crown laid on gilded leather pillows that
had been moulded to fit it exactly and to protect it.
Even in the short time left to them they became almost surfeited by the
magnificence of the items they uncovered as they selected and opened the
cedarwood chests. Not only the blue crown, but the red and white crown
of the kingdoms united was there, and the splendid Nemes crown, all
three in such a miraculous state of preservation that they might have
been lifted from Pharaoh's brow that morning.
From the very outset it had to be a prerequisite that any artefact must
be small enough to fit into one of the ammunition crates. If it were too
large, no matter what its value or historical significance, then it had
to be rejected and left in the tomb. Fortunately, many of the cedarwood
chests containing the royal jewellery fitted snugly into the metal
crates, so that not only the contents but also the chests themselves
could be saved. However, the larger items, the crowns and the huge
jewelled gold pectoral medallions, had to be repacked.
As the ammunition crates were filled, they carried them down and stacked
them on the landing outside the sealed doorway, ready to be carried out.
Including the.
crates that contained the eight statuettes of the gods from the long
gallery, they had packed and catalogued forty-eight crates when they
heard Sapper's unmistakable accents floating up the staircase.
"Major, where the hell are yOU7 YOU can't bugger about hairy arse out
in here any longer. Come on, man! Get you of here. The river is in full
spate, and the dam is going to burst at any minute."
Sapper came bounding up the staircase, but even he stopped in wonder and
awe as he looked for the first time pon the splendours of the funeral
arcade of Pharaoh Mamose. It took some minutes for him to recover from
the shock and to revert to his old prosaic self again.
"I mean it, major! It's a matter of minutes, not hours.
That ruddy dam is going to go. Apart from that, Mek is fighting in the
hills at the head of the chasm. You can hear the gunfire even at the
bottom of the cliff in Taita's pool.
4 Al You and Royan have to ge
t out and fast, I kid you nod'
"Okay, Sapper. We are on our way. Get back to the chamber at the bottom
of those stairs. You saw those ammunition crates down there?" Sapper
nodded, and Nicholas went on quickly, "Have the men lug those crates out
of here. Get them down to the monastery. I want you to supervise that
part of it. We will follow you down the trail with the rest of them."
"Don't mess around, major. Your life isn't worth a pile of old junk like
this. Get moving now."
"Get on with it, Sapper. But don't let Royan hear you call it a pile of
old junk. You could be in really serious trouble."
Sapper shrugged. "Don't say I didn't warn. you." He turned and started
back down the staircase.
"You know where the boats are stashed, Nicholas shouted after him. "If
you get there before me, get them inflated and the crates lashed down.
We will be right behind you."
The moment Sapper was gone, Nicholas raced back
down the arcade to where Royan was still at work in the treasury.
"That's it!" he shouted at her. "No more time. Let's get out."
"Nicky, we can't leave this-'
"Oud' He grabbed her arm. "We are getting out now.
Unless you want to share Tanus's tomb with him on a permanent basis."
"Can't I just-'
"No, you crazy woman! Now! The dam will go at any moment."
She'broke away from him, snatched up some handfuls of left-over
jewellery from the open chest at her feet, and began stuffing them into
her pockets.
"I can't leave these."
He seized her around the waist and swung her over his shoulder. "I told
you I meant it," he said grimly, and ran with her down the arcade.
"Nicky! Put me down." She kicked with outrage, but he continued running
down into the chamber at the foot of the staircase.
Hansith and his men were carrying the last few packed ammunition crates
up the staircase on the far side of the chamber. They balanced the
crates easily on their heads and went up the steps with alacrity.
Here Nicholas set Royan down on her own feet again, "Will you promise to
behave now? We aren't playing games.
This is deadly serious - I mean deadly, if we get trapped down here."
"I know." She looked contrite. "I just couldn't bear to leave the rest
of it."
"Enough of that. Let's go." Nicholas grabbed her hand and dragged her
after him. After the first few steps she shook her hand free and started
to run in earnest, outstripping him and reaching the top of the
staircase a few paces ahead of him.
Even under their burdens the porters were making good time. Caught up in
the long hurrying column, Nicholas and Royan wound their way back
through the maze, grateful for the signposts at each corner, and made it
down the central staircase into the ruined long gallery without taking a
wrong turning. Sapper was waiting for them at the ruins of the sealed
doorway, and grunted with he porters.
relief when he saw them amongst I thought I told you to go on ahead and
get the boats ready,'Nicholas shouted at him.
"Couldn't trust you not to be bloody stupid." Sapper looked miserable.
"Wanted to make sure you didn't hang about in there."
"I am touched, Sapper."Nicholas punched his shoulder, and then they ran
down the approach tunnel and clattered over the bridge across the
sink-hole.
"Where is MeV Nicholas panted at Sapper's back as he jogged in front of
him. "Have you seen Tessayr
"Tessay is back. She had a nasty experience. She was in a terrible mess.
Seems she got badly knocked about."
"What has happened to her?" Nicholas was appalled.
"Where is she?"
"It looks like she fell into the hands of von Schiller's gorillas and
they beat the hell out of her. Mek's men are taking her down to the
monastery. She will wait for us at the boats."
"Thank God for that," Nicholas muttered, and then louder, "What about
MeV
"He is trying to hold off Nogo's attack. I have been hearing rifle fire
and grenades and mortar shells all morning. He too is going to fall back
and wait for us at the boats."
They ran the last few yards down the tunnel ankle, deep in slush and
water, and at last crawled over the wall of the coffer dam on to the
rocky ledge around Taita's pool. Nicholas looked up to see Hansith's
porters scrambling up the bamboo scaffolding ladder towards the top of
the cliff, each of them hauling up one of the ammunition crates.
At that moment he caught a sound that he recognized instantly. He cocked
his head to listen and then told Royan grimly, "Gunfire! Mek is fighting
it out, but it's pretty darned close."
"My bag!" Royan started towards her thatched shelter at the foot of the
cliff. "I must get my kit., "You won't need your make-up or your
pyjamas, and I've got your passport." He seized her arm and turned her
back towards the foot of the ladder. "In fact the only thing you need
now is plenty of space between you and Colonel Nogo. Come along, Royan!'
They swarmed up the bamboo scaffolding and when they reached the cliff
top Royan was surprised to discover that, although the earth was wet
underfoot from the recent rain squalls, the sun was high and hot. She
had lost all sense of time in the cold, gloomy passages of the tomb, and
now she held up her face to the sunlight and drank it in gratefully for
a moment while Nicholas checked the porters and made certain that they
were all out of the chasm.
Sapper set off at the head of the column along the trail through the
thorn forest, with the file of porters strung out behind him. Nicholas
and Royan waited until all the men were on the pathway before they
themselves brought up the rear of the column. The sound of the fighting
was frighteningly close now. It seemed to be almost at the brink of the
chasm close behind them, less than half a mile away.
The crackle of automatic fire gave a spring and a lift to the feet of
the porters, and the entire party raced back through the forest to reach
the main trail down to the monastery before they were cut off by Nogo's
advance.
Before they reached the junction of the paths, they ran into a party of
stretcher-bearers carrying a litter. They too were headed down towards
the monastery. Nicholas thought the person they were carrying was one of
the wounded guerrillas of Mek's force. But even when he caught up with
them it took a moment for him to recognize Tessay's swollen and burned
face.
"Tessay!" He stooped over her. "Who did this to you?" She looked up at
him with the huge dark eyes of a wounded child, and told him in halting,
broken words.
"Helm!" Nicholas blurted. "I' love to get my hands on that bastard." At
that moment Royan caught up with them, and she let out a small cry of
horror as she saw Tessay's face. Then immediately she took charge of
her.
tcher'bearers Nicholas spoke quickly to one of the stre from he
recognized.
wh
"Mezra, what is happening out there?"
"Nogo moved a force in from the east of the gorge
.
They outflanked us, and we are pulling out, This is not our kind of
fighting."
"I know," Nicholas remarked grimly. "Guerrillas must
"Where is Mek Nimmur?" keep moving.
"He is retreating down the eastern bank of the chasm." As Mezra replied,
they heard a renewed outburst of firing behind them. "That is him!"
Mezra nodded. "Nogo is pushing him hard."
"What are your orders?"
"To take Lady Sun to the boats and wait for Mek Nimmur there."
"Good! Nicholas told him. "We will go with you."
he jet Ranger was flying low, hugging the contours Of the land, never
cresting the high ground. Helm knew that Mek Nimmur's shufta were armed
with RPGs, rocket-launchers. In the hands of a trained man, these were
deadly weapons against a slow-flying, unarmoured aircraft such as the
jet Ranger.
The pilot's defence was to use the terrain as cover, weaving and
twisting up the valleys so as to deny the racketeers a clear shot.
Although the rain clouds were slumping down the into the Abbay gorge,
the helicopter was escarpmen keeping well below them. However, the
sudden squalls of wind rocked the machine dangerously and splatterings;
of heavy raindrops rattled against the windshield. The pilot sat forward
in the seat, leaning against his shoulder-straps as he concentrated on
this dangerous low flying in these unpleasant conditions. Helm sat in
the right'hand seat, beside the pilot. Von Schiller and Nahoot Guddabi
were together in the rear passenger seat, both of them craning nervously
to peer out of the side windows as the heavily wooded slopes of the
valley streamed past, seemingly close enough to touch.
Every few minutes the radio crackled into life, and they could hear the
terse transmissions of Nogo's men on the ground calling for mortar
support or reporting objectives attained. The pilot translated the radio
gabble for them, twisting round in his seat to tell von Schiller, "There
is a sharp fire-fight going on along the top of the chasm, but the
shufta are on the run. Nogo is handling his force well. They have just
dislodged a strong force from the hillside to the east of us," he
pointed out of the left hand port, "and they are hammering the shufta
with mortars as they run."
"Have they reached the spot in the chasm where Quenton-Harper was
working?"
"It isn't clear. All a bit confused." The pilot listened to the next