The Quest

by Wilbur Smith

  At last Aquer spoke again: ‘How did you lose your eye, Colonel Cambyses?’

  ‘Such things happen to a soldier. There are many hazards in our lives.’

  ‘We will deal with that in due course,’ Aquer said.

  Taita could make little of such an enigmatic statement. ‘Please return to your place, Colonel.’ The interview had been cursory, but Taita knew they had extracted all the information they required from Meren.

  Next Taita called Hilto. The oligarchs took an even shorter time to consider him. Taita saw Hilto’s aura burning honest and unremarkable, except for the fluttering ribbons of blue light at its edges, which betrayed his agitation. The oligarchs sent him back to his seat. They treated Imbali and Nakonto in much the same manner.

  At last Taita called Fenn. ‘My lords, this is an orphan of war on whom I took pity. I have made her my ward and named her Fenn. I know little about her. Never having had a child of my own, I have grown fond of her.’

  Standing before the Supreme Council, Fenn looked like an abandoned waif. She hung her head and shifted her weight shyly from one foot to the other. It was as though she could not bring herself to look directly at her inquisitors. Anxiously, Taita watched her with the Inner Eye. Her aura remained subdued, and she was playing perfectly the role he had set for her. After another pause Aquer asked, ‘Who was your father, girl?’

  ‘Sir, I knew him not.’ There was no flicker of falsehood in her aura.

  ‘Your mother?’

  ‘Neither do I remember her, sir.’

  ‘Where were you born?’

  ‘Sir, forgive me, but I do not know.’

  Taita noted how well she was holding herself in check.

  ‘Come here,’ Aquer ordered. Timidly she hopped up on to the platform and went to him. He took her arm and drew her closer to his stool. ‘How old are you, Fenn?’

  ‘You will think me stupid, but I know not.’ Aquer turned her, slipped his hand into the top of her tunic and felt her chest under the linen.

  ‘There is already something.’ He chuckled. ‘There will soon be much more.’ Fenn’s aura glowed softly pink and Taita feared she was about to lose her self-control. Then he realized she was displaying only the shame that any young girl would experience on being handled in a manner she did not understand. He had more difficulty with keeping his own anger in check. However, he sensed that this little scene was a test: Aqueii was attempting to goad a reaction from either Fenn or Taita. Taita remained stony-faced but he thought: In the time of reckoning you shall pay in full for that, Lord Aquer.

  The oligarch continued to fondle Fenn. ‘I am sure you will grow to be a young woman of rare beauty. If you are fortunate you may be chosen for great honour and distinction here in Jarri,’ he said. He pinched one of her small round buttocks and laughed again. ‘Run along now, little one. We shall consider it again in a year or two.’

  He dismissed them, but asked Taita to remain. When the others had left the room, Aquer said politely, ‘It is necessary that we of the council confer privately, Magus. Please pardon us while we withdraw. We shall not leave you long alone.’

  When they returned the three oligarchs were more relaxed and friendly, and remained respectful.

  ‘Tell me what you know of my grandfather,’ Lord Aquer invited. ‘He died before I was born.’

  ‘He was a loyal and respected member of the court of Regent Queen Lostris during the period of the exodus and the Hyksos invasion of the Two Kingdoms. Her Majesty entrusted him with many important tasks. He discovered the road that cuts across the great bight of the Nile. It is still used, and saves several hundred leagues of the journey between Assoun and Qebui. The queen bestowed honours upon him for this and his other accomplishments.’

  ‘I still have the Gold of Honour I inherited from him.’

  ‘The queen trusted him to the extent that she chose him to lead an army of two thousand men south from Qebui to discover and chart the Nile to its source. Only one man returned, demented with fever and the hardships he had encountered. Nothing was ever heard of the rest of the army, or the wives and other women who accompanied them. It was presumed that they had been swallowed up in the vastness of Africa.’

  ‘The survivors of my grandfather’s legion who won through and finally reached Jarri were our ancestors.’

  ‘They were the pioneers who built this little nation?’ Taita asked.

  ‘They made an invaluable contribution,’ Aquer agreed. ‘However, there were others who had been here long before them. People have been in Jarri since the beginning time. We honour them as the Founders.’

  He turned to the man who sat at his right hand. ‘This is Lord Caithor. He is able to trace his direct line back through twenty-five generations.’

  ‘Then it is only right that you should honour him.’ Taita bowed towards the silver bearded oligarch. ‘But I know that others have joined you since the time of your grandfather.’

  ‘You are referring to Colonel That Ankut and his legion. Of course, you are already acquainted with him.’

  ‘Indeed, the good colonel rescued me and my party from the Basmara savages at Tamafupa,’ Taita agreed.

  ‘That Ankut’s men and their women have made a welcome addition to our community. Our land is large and we are few. We need them here. They are of our blood, so they have assimilated smoothly into our society. Many of their young people have married ours.’

  ‘Of course, they worship the same panoply of gods,’ Taita said delicately, ‘headed by the holy trinity of Osiris, Isis and Horus.’

  He watched Aquer’s aura flare angrily, then saw him bring his temper under control. When he spoke his response was mild: ‘The subject of our religion is one we will cover in more depth later. At this stage, suffice it to say that new countries are protected by new gods, or even by a single god.’

  ‘A single god?’ Taita feigned surprise.

  Aquer did not rise to the lure. Instead he reverted to the previous subject: ‘Apart from Colonel That Ankut’s legion, there have been many thousands of immigrants from far across the earth who, over the centuries, have made their way over great distances to Jarri. All, without exception, have been men and women of worth. We have been able to welcome sages and surgeons, alchemists and engineers, geologists and miners, botanists and farmers, architects and stone-masons, shipbuilders and others with special skills.’

  ‘Your nation seems to have been built on firm foundations,’ Taita said.

  Aquer paused for a moment, then seemed to change tack. ‘Your companion, Meren Cambyses. It seems to us that you have a great affection for him.’

  ‘He has been with me since he was a stripling,’ Taita replied. ‘He is more than a son to me.’

  ‘His damaged eye has been troubling him sorely, has it not?’ Aquer went on.

  ‘It has not healed as cleanly as I had wished,’ Taita agreed.

  ‘I am sure that, with your skills, you are aware that your protégé is dying,’ Aquer said. ‘The eye is mortifying. In time it will kill him…unless it is treated.’

  Taita was taken aback. He had not divined this impending disaster from Meren’s aura, but somehow he could not doubt what Aquer had said. Perhaps he himself had known it all along but had shunned such an unpalatable truth. Yet, how could Aquer have known something that he did not? He saw from his aura that the man had no special skills or insights. He was neither sage, seer nor shaman. Of course, he left the chamber, but not to confer with the other oligarchs. He has been with another, Taita thought. He gathered himself and replied, ‘No, my lord.

  ‘I have some little skill as a surgeon but I did not suspect the injury was so grave.’

  ‘We of the Supreme Council have agreed to accord to you and your protégé a special privilege. This boon is not granted to many, not even to worthy and eminent members of our own nobility. We do this as a mark of our deep respect and goodwill towards you. It will also be a demonstration to you of the advanced state of our society, our science and learning. Perha
ps it might persuade you to remain with us in Jarri. Meren Cambyses will be taken to the sanatorium in the Cloud Gardens. This may take a little time to arrange because the medications to treat his condition must be prepared. When this has been done, you, Magus, may accompany him to observe his treatment. When you return from the sanatorium we will be pleased to meet you again and discuss your views.’

  As soon as they returned to Mutangi, Taita examined Meren’s eye and his general condition. The conclusions were troubling.

  There seemed to be a deep-seated infection in the wound cavity, which would account for the repeated pain, bleeding and suppuration.

  When Taita pressed firmly on the area round the wound, Meren bore it stoically, but the pain caused his aura to flicker like a flame in the wind.

  Taita told him that the oligarchs were planning to treat him.

  ‘You care for me and my injuries. I do not trust these renegade Egyptians, traitors to our land and Pharaoh. If anybody is to cure me, it will be you,’ Meren declared. As much as Taita tried to persuade him, he remained determined.

  Bilto and the other villagers were hospitable and friendly, and Taita’s party found themselves drawn into the daily life of the community. The children seemed fascinated by Fenn, and soon she had made three friends with whom she seemed happy. At first she spent much time with them, hunting for mushrooms in the forest, or learning their songs, dances and games. They could teach her nothing about bao, and she was soon the village champion. When she was not with the children, she was often at the stables grooming and training Whirlwind. Hilto was instructing her in archery and had carved her a bow of her own. One afternoon, after she had spent an hour chatting and laughing with Imbali, she came to Taita and asked, ‘Imbali says that all men have a dangling thing between their legs, which, like a kitten or a puppy, has a life of its own. If it likes you, it changes shape and size.

  Why don’t you have one, Taita?’

  Taita was at a loss for an appropriate reply. Although he had never attempted to hide it from her, she was not yet of an age at which he could discuss with her his mutilation. That time would come all too soon. He thought of remonstrating with Imbali, then decided against it.

  As the only female in their band, she was as good an instructress as any.

  He smoothed over the moment with a noncommittal reply, but afterwards he felt a keener awareness of his own inadequacy. He began to take pains to keep his body covered from her sight. Even when they swam together in the stream beyond the village he did not remove his tunic. He had believed himself resigned to his imperfect physical state, but that was changing each day.

  It could not be much longer before Onka arrived to escort Meren to the mysterious sanatorium in the Cloud Gardens, and Taita exerted all his powers of persuasion to make him agree to undergo the treatment, but Meren was capable of immutable obstinacy and stood firm against all blandishments.

  Then one evening Taita was awakened by the sound of soft groans from Meren’s chamber. He lit the lamp and went through to find him doubled over on his sleeping mat with his face buried in his hands.

  Gently Taita lifted away his hands. One side of his face was horribly swollen, the empty eye socket a tight slit, and his skin was burning. Taita applied hot poultices and soothing ointments, but by morning the old injury was little improved. It seemed more than coincidence that Onka arrived before noon that same day.

  Taita reasoned with Meren: ‘Old friend, there seems nothing that I can do to cure you. Your choice is to endure this suffering, which I now believe will lead before too long to your death, or you can allow the Jarrian surgeons to try where I have failed you.’

  Meren was so weak and feverish that he resisted no longer. Imbali and Fenn helped him to dress, then packed a small bag of his possessions.

  The men led him out and helped him into the saddle. Taita bade Fenn a hasty farewell, and commended her to the care of Hilto, Nakonto and Imbali before he mounted Windsmoke. They left Mutangi on the road to the west. Fenn ran beside Windsmoke for half a league, then stopped beside the road and waved them out of sight.

  Once again they headed towards the triple peaks of the volcanoes but before they reached the citadel they took a fork that led in a more northerly direction. Finally they entered a narrow pass into the mountains, and climbed up it to a height from which they could look down on the citadel far to the south. From this distance the council hall where they had met the oligarchs seemed tiny. They went on up the mountain path. The air grew colder and the wind moaned sadly along the cliffs.

  Higher they climbed, and higher still. White hoarfrost formed on their beards and eyebrows. They huddled into their capes and continued to climb upwards. By now Meren was swaying drunkenly in the saddle.

  Taita and Onka rode on each side to support him and prevent him falling.

  Suddenly the mouth of a tunnel appeared in the cliff face ahead behind gates of heavy wooden beams. As they approached, the gates swung open ponderously to allow them through. From a distance they saw that there were guards at the entrance. Taita was so concerned by Meren’s condition that, at first, he paid them little heed. As they drew closer he saw that they were of short stature, barely half as tall as a normal man but with massively developed chests and long, swinging arms that reached almost to the ground. Their stance was hunchbacked and bow-legged. Suddenly he realized that they were not humans but large apes. What he had taken to be brown uniform coats were pelts of shaggy fur. Their foreheads sloped almost straight back above beetling eyebrows, and their jaws were so over-developed that their lips did not close fully over their fangs. They returned his scrutiny with a close-set implacable stare. Quickly Taita opened the Inner Eye and saw that their auras were rudimentary and bestial, their murderous instincts balanced on a knife edge of restraint.

  ‘Do not look into their eyes,’ Onka warned. ‘Do not provoke them. They are powerful, dangerous creatures, and single-minded in their guard duties. They can rip a man to pieces as you would dismember the carcass of a roasted quail.’ He led them into the mouth of the tunnel and immediately the heavy gates boomed shut behind them. Flaming torches were set in brackets on the walls and the hoofs of the horses clattered on the rocky footing. The tunnel was only wide enough to allow two horses to pass side by side, and the riders were forced to stoop in the saddle so that the roof cleared their heads. The rock around them was murmurous with the sounds of running subterranean rivers and seething lava pipes.

  They had no means of measuring the passage of time or the distance they travelled, but at last they were aware of a nimbus of natural light ahead. It grew stronger and they approached another gate similar to the first that had sealed the tunnel entrance. This gate also swung open before they reached it, to reveal another contingent of apes. They rode past them, blinking in the brilliant sunshine.

  It took some time for their eyes to adjust, and then they looked around in wonder and awe. They were in an enormous volcanic crater, so wide that it would have taken even a swift horse half a day to traverse it, from one vertical wall to the other. Not even a nimble mountain ibex could have climbed those lava walls. The bottom of the crater was a concave green shield. In its centre lay a small lake of milky sapphire-tinted water.

  Tendrils of steam drifted over the surface. A flake of ice melted from Taita’s eyebrow and tapped his cheek as it fell. He blinked, and realized that the air in the crater was as balmy as that of an island in a tropical sea. They shed their leather capes and even Meren’s condition seemed to improve in the warmer air.

  ‘It is the water from the furnaces of the earth that heat this place. There is no cruel winter here.’ With a sweep of his arms Onka encompassed the hauntingly lovely forest that surrounded them. ‘Do you see the trees and plants that flourish all around? You will find them nowhere else in the world.’

  They rode on along the well-defined pathway, with Onka pointing out the remarkable features of the crater. ‘Look at the colours of the cliffs,’ he invited Taita, who craned his
neck to gaze up at the mighty walls.

  They were not grey or black, the natural colours of volcanic rock, but covered with a motley of soft blue and ruddy gold streaked with azure.

  ‘What seem to be multicoloured rocks are mosses as long and thick as the hair of a beautiful woman,’ Onka told him.

  Taita dropped his gaze from the cliffs, and looked over the forests in the basin below. ‘Those are pine trees,’ he exclaimed, at the towering green spears that pierced the thickets of golden bamboo, ‘and gigantic lobelias.’ Incandescent blooms were suspended from the thick fleshy stems. “I would hazard that those are some strange type of euphorbia, and the thickets covered with blossoms of pink and feathery silver are proteas. The tall trees beyond are aromatic cedars, and the smaller ones are tamarind and Khaya mahogany.’ I wish Fenn were here to enjoy them with me, he thought.

  The mist from the heated water of the lake wafted like smoke among the mossy branches. They turned to follow a stream, but before they had gone more than a few hundred paces they heard splashing, women’s voices and laughter. They came out into a clearing to see three women swimming and disporting themselves in the steaming blue waters of the pool below. In silence the women watched the men ride by. They were young and dark-skinned, their long wet hair jet black. Taita thought that they were most likely from the lands across the eastern ocean. They seemed oblivious of their nakedness. All three were with child, and leant back from the hips to balance the weight of their bulging bellies.

  As they rode on Taita asked, ‘How many families live in this place? Where are the husbands of those women?’

  ‘They may work in the sanatorium, perhaps even as surgeons.’ Onka evinced little interest. ‘We should be able to see it when we come out on to the lakeshore over there.’

  Seen from across the smoky sapphire waters the sanatorium was a complex of low unobtrusive stone buildings. It was evident that the stone blocks of the walls had been quarried from the cliffs. They had not been lime-washed, but remained their natural dark grey. They were surrounded by trim green lawns on which flocks of wild geese grazed. Waterfowl of twenty different varieties bobbed on the lake, while storks and herons waded in the shallows. As they rode round the gravelly beach Taita noticed a few large crocodiles floating like logs in the blue water.