The Quest

by Wilbur Smith

  It was a cold camp because Taita would not allow a fire. They ate dhurra cakes and slices of cold roast goat’s meat dipped in a fiery pepper sauce. As soon as they had finished Nakonta took his spears and went to stand sentry at the ford. Imbali followed him.

  ‘She is now his woman,’ Fenn whispered to Taita.

  ‘That comes as no surprise, but I trust that Nakonto will keep at least one eye on the ford,’ Taita remarked drily.

  ‘They are in love,’ said Fenn. ‘Magus, you have no romance in your soul.’ She went to untie her bedroll from the back of Whirlwind’s saddle, selected a sleeping spot in the lee of a rocky outcrop well away from the others and spread her sleeping mat on the ground with a fur kaross.

  Then she came back to Taita. ‘Come.’ She took his hand and led him to the mat, helped him out of his tunic, balled it up and held it to her nose. ‘It smells very strong,’ she remarked. ‘I will wash it as soon as I have the chance.’ She knelt beside him on the mat and covered him with the kaross, then took off her own tunic. Her body was very pale and slim in the light of the moon. She slipped under the kaross beside him and pressed her body to his.

  ‘I am so glad that you have come back to me,’ she whispered, and sighed. After a while she stirred and whispered again, ‘Taita.’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘There is a little stranger with us.’

  ‘You must sleep now. It will soon be morning.’

  ‘I will, in a moment.’ She was silent again for a long while as she explored his altered body. Then she said softly, ‘Taita, where did he come from? How did it happen?’

  ‘Miraculously. In the same way as my appearance was changed. I will explain it all later. Now we must sleep. There will be many other opportunities for you and the little stranger to become better acquainted.’

  ‘May I hold him, Taita?’

  ‘You are already doing so,’ he pointed out.

  She was quiet again for a while. Then she whispered, ‘He is not so little, and he is growing bigger and bigger.’ A little later she added happily, ‘It seems to me that he is already a friend, no longer a stranger. So now there are three of us. You, me and him.’ Still holding him, she fell fast asleep. It took Taita much longer to do the same.

  It seemed only minutes later that Nakonto woke him. ‘What is it?’

  Taita sat up.

  ‘Cavalry on the road from the west.’

  ‘Have they crossed the river?’

  ‘No. They are bivouacked on the far side. I think that they did not want to chance a crossing in the dark.’

  ‘Rouse the others and saddle up, but do it quietly,’ Taita ordered.

  In the faintest glimmer of dawn Taita lay on his belly on the rim of the cliff overlooking the ford. The two girls were at either side of him.

  On the far bank of the river the Jarrian bivouac was stirring, the troopers throwing wood on the watch fires. The smell of roasting meat drifted to where the three lay. Now the light was strong enough for Taita to count heads. There were about thirty men in the troop. Some were at the cooking fires, others at the horse lines tending their mounts. A few were squatting among the bushes at their private business. Soon it was light enough to make out the features of some.

  ‘There is Onka,’ Sidudu whispered fiercely. ‘Oh, how I hate that face.’

  ‘Truly I understand your feelings,’ Fenn whispered back. ‘We will seek the first chance to deal with him.’

  ‘I pray for it.’

  ‘There is Aquer, and that is Ek-Tang with him.’ Taita pointed them out.

  The two oligarchs were standing a little apart from the others. They were drinking from bowls that steamed in the cool morning air. ‘They have not been able to contain themselves. They have rushed ahead of their regiments. They will start to cross the ford soon, and when they do so they will give us an opportunity. If they don’t, we will shadow them until Hilto brings up our reinforcements.’

  ‘I could put an arrow through Aquer from here.’ Fenn narrowed her eyes.

  ‘The range is long and the dawn wind treacherous, my darling.’ Taita laid a restraining hand on her arm. ‘If we give them warning, the advantage passes to them.’ They watched as Onka selected four of his men and gave them curt orders, at the same time gesticulating towards the ford. The men ran to their horses and mounted, then trotted to the river and plunged in. Taita signalled their movements to Meren.

  The four horses were swimming before they were half-way across, struggling against the current and lunging forward again as they felt ground under their hoofs. They came out with water streaming from their coats and the equipment. The scouts looked around carefully before they started up the narrow defile. Meren and his men kept hidden and let them through. On the far bank the rest of Onka’s troops were drawn up in three ranks, standing at the heads of their mounts. They all waited.

  At last there was a clatter of hoofs and one of the scouts galloped back down the defile to the riverbank. He stopped there and waved his arms over his head. ‘All is clear this side!’ he shouted. Onka called out an order to his men, who mounted and began to move down towards the ford in single file. Onka remained with the rearguard, where he could better control the crossing, but Taita was surprised to see that Aquer and Ek-Tang were in the forefront. He had not expected that. He had thought they would take position in the middle of the column where they were protected by the men around them.

  ‘I think we have them.’ His voice was tight with excitement. He signalled to Meren to be ready. At the head of the column the two oligarchs spurred their mounts into the river. Half-way across they began to swim, and the file lost its tight formation as the current pushed them downstream.

  ‘Get ready!’ Taita warned the two girls. ‘Let the oligarchs and these three riders behind them reach the bank, then shoot any others who try to follow. At least for a short while, until Onka can regroup his men we will have the oligarchs cut off from the main body and at our mercy.’

  The current was strong, and large spaces opened in the column.

  ‘Nock your arrows!’ Taita ordered quietly. The girls reached into the quivers on their backs. Aquer’s horse found the bottom and scrambled up the bank. Ek-Tang followed, with three troopers bunched behind him. Then there was a gap in the line and the rest of the column was still scattered across the river.

  ‘Now!’ Taita shouted. ‘Shoot the riders coming up behind the leaders.’

  Fenn and Sidudu sprang to their feet and drew the long recurved bows. The range was short, almost point-blank. They loosed and the two arrows flew silently downwards. Both struck home. A trooper reeled in the saddle and screamed as Sidudu’s flint arrowhead buried itself in his stomach. The man behind him took Fenn’s in the throat. He threw up both hands and toppled backwards into the water with a splash. Their horses turned and collided with those that followed them, throwing the rest of the column into confusion. Aquer and Ek-Tang spurred forward into the defile.

  ‘Oh, yes! Fine practice.’ Taita applauded the girls. ‘Have at them until I give the order to break and run.’ He left them and ran down the pathway into the defile.

  Meren let the oligarchs enter the mouth of the defile, then he and the two Shilluk jumped out of the bushes behind them. Imbali ran at Ek-Tang and swung her axe. With that single stroke she severed the oligarch’s left leg above the knee. Ek-Tang shouted and tried to urge his mount forward, but with one leg gone he lost his balance and fell sideways, clutching at the horse’s mane to save himself. Bright arterial blood pumped from the stump of his leg. Imbali ran after him and swung again. Ek-Tang’s head jumped off his shoulder and rolled on to the rocky pathway. His nerveless fingers clung to the horse’s mane for a few moments longer, then fell open. He flopped sideways to the ground.

  With a yell the trooper who was following Ek-Tang rode down on Imbali. Nakonto flung his spear. It struck the trooper in the middle of his back and transfixed him. The spearhead stood out an arm’s length from his chest. He dropped his sword and tumbled
out of the saddle.

  Meren ran up beside the last trooper in the line. The man saw him coming and tried to free his sword from the scabbard, but before he could get the blade clear Meren had leapt up and thrust him through the ribs.

  He hit the ground with his shoulders and the back of his head. Before he could rise Meren finished him off with another thrust in the throat, then turned in pursuit of Aquer. The oligarch saw him coming, dug his spurs into his mount and tore away up the defile, with Meren and Imbali running after him, but they could not gain on him.

  From above Taita saw Aquer break away. He turned off the path and ran along the edge of the cliff above him, stopped and poised on the lip of the cliff. As Aquer’s horse raced below him, he dropped on to the oligarch’s back, so heavily that Aquer lost the reins and was almost thrown from the saddle. Taita whipped one arm around his neck and began to throttle him. Aquer fumbled his dagger from the sheath and tried to stab back over his shoulder into Taita’s face. With his free hand, Taita seized his wrist and they wrestled for the advantage.

  Thrown off balance by the shifting weight on its back, the horse crashed into the wall of the defile and reared on its hind legs. Locked together, Taita and Aquer were thrown back over its hindquarters. Aquer was on top as they hit the ground, and his full weight slammed into Taita. The shock broke his grip on Aquer’s throat and dagger hand.

  Before he could recover, Aquer had twisted round and thrust for Taita’s throat with the dagger. Taita grabbed his wrist again and held him off. Aquer put his full weight behind the dagger but could make no impression. Taita now had the abundant strength of a young man and Aquer was long past his physical prime. Aquer’s arm began to tremble with the strain and his expression turned to dismay. Taita smiled up at him. ‘Eos is no more,’ he said. Aquer flinched. His arm gave way and Taita rolled over on top of him.

  ‘You lie,’ Aquer cried. ‘She is the goddess, the only true goddess.’

  ‘Then call upon your only true goddess now, Lord Aquer. Tell her that Taita of Gallala is about to kill you.’

  Aquer’s eyes flew wide with consternation. ‘You lie again,’ he gasped.

  ‘You are not Taita. Taita was an old man, but by now he is dead.’

  ‘You are mistaken. It is Eos who is dead, and you who will be soon.’

  Still smiling, Taita tightened his grip on Aquer’s wrists until he felt the bone begin to give. Aquer squealed and the dagger fell from his fingers.

  Taita sat up and twisted him round, pinning him so that he was helpless.

  At that moment Meren ran up. ‘Shall I finish him?’

  ‘No.’ Taita stopped him. ‘Where is Sidudu? She is the one he has most sinned against.’ He saw the two girls racing down the pathway from the top of the cliff. They came up to where Taita was holding Aquer.

  ‘Taita, we must fly! Onka has rallied his men and they are coming back across the ford in force!’ Fenn cried. ‘Finish this swine and let us ride.’

  Taita looked past her at Sidudu. ‘This is the man who gave you to Onka,’ he told her. ‘He is the one who sent your friends up the mountain. Vengeance is yours.’

  Sidudu hesitated.

  ‘Take this dagger.’ Meren picked up Aquer’s fallen weapon and handed it to her.

  Fenn ran forward and ripped Aquer’s helmet from his head. She seized a double handful of his hair and dragged his head backwards, exposing his throat. ‘For yourself and for all the other girls he sent to the mountain,’ she said. ‘Cut his throat, Sidudu.’

  Sidudu’s expression hardened with determination.

  Aquer saw death in her eyes and he struggled and whimpered, ‘No! Please, listen to me. You are only a child. Such a heinous deed will scar your mind for ever.’ His voice was broken and almost incoherent. ‘You don’t understand, I am anointed by the goddess. I had to do what she commanded. You cannot do this to me.’

  ‘I do understand,’ Sidudu answered him, ‘and I can do it.’ She stepped up to him, and Aquer began to squeal. She laid the blade against the stretched skin of his neck just under his ear and drew it down in a long, deep stroke. The flesh opened and the great artery in the depths of the wound erupted. The breath whistled from his severed windpipe. His legs kicked spasmodically. His eyes rolled back in their sockets. His tongue protruded and he blubbered strings of blood and spittle.I Taita pushed him away and he rolled over to lie, like a slaughtered pig, face down in the spreading puddle of his own blood. Sidudu dropped the dagger and jumped back, staring down at the dying oligarch.

  Meren stepped up behind her and placed an arm round her shoulders.

  ‘It is done, and it was well done,’ he said softly. ‘Waste no pity on him. Now we must go.’

  As they ran to their horses they heard the shouts of Onka’s men at the ford behind them. They mounted and dashed up the defile, with Taita and Windsmoke in the lead. They came out on top of the hills and paused to look down on a wide level plain of grassland that stretched ahead. In the blue distance they made out another line of hills, the peaks rugged and sharp.

  Sidudu pointed to a break in their silhouette. ‘There is the Kitangule Gap where we are to meet Colonel That.’

  ‘How far is it?’ Meren asked.

  ‘Twenty leagues, perhaps a little more,’ Sidudu answered. They turned and looked back to the ford.

  At the head of his squadron Onka flogged his horse up the riverbank and shouted with anger when he saw the corpses of the oligarchs but came on all the faster.

  ‘Twenty leagues! Then we have a merry race ahead of us,’ Meren said.

  They put the horses to the slope and flew down towards the plain.

  They reached it as Onka’s men came boiling over the skyline of the hill behind them. With a chorus of savage yells they started down, the white ostrich plumes on Onka’s helmet distinguishing him from his men.

  ‘No need to linger here,’ called Taita. ‘Let us be gone.’

  Within half a league it became apparent that the bay filly Sidudu rode could not keep up with the other horses. They had to moderate their pace to hers. Meren and Fenn dropped back beside her.

  ‘Courage!’ Fenn called. ‘We will not leave you.’

  ‘I can feel my horse weakening,’ Sidudu cried.

  ‘Have no fear,’ Meren told her. ‘When she is blown, I will take you up behind me.’

  ‘No!’ Fenn was emphatic. ‘You are too heavy, Meren. The extra weight would kill your mount. Whirlwind can carry both of us with ease. I will take her.’

  Taita rose in the stirrups and looked back. The pursuit was spreading out as the faster horses pulled ahead, the slower ones dropping back.

  Onka’s plumed helmet was conspicuous in the centre of the leading rank of three Jarrian horsemen. He was pushing hard, closing the gap steadily.

  As he urged Windsmoke onwards, Taita looked at the mountains ahead.

  He could now see the notch that marked the gap, but it was so distant that they could not hope to reach it before Onka was upon them.

  Then something else caught his eye. There was a fine smear of pale dust on the plain ahead. His heartbeat quickened, but he tried to control it.

  No time for false hope now. It is almost certainly a herd of gazelle or zebra. But as he thought it he saw under the dustcloud a bright flash of sunlight reflected off metal. ‘Armed men!’ he muttered. ‘But are they Jarrian, or is it Hilto returning with the reinforcements?’ Before he could decide, there was a faint shout from behind. He recognized Onka’s voice.

  “I see you, you traitorous bitch! When I catch you I will rip out your womb. Then I will roast it and force it down your throat.’

  ‘Close your ears to his filth,’ Fenn urged Sidudu, but tears ran down Sidudu’s face and splattered the front of her tunic.

  ‘I hate him!’ she said. ‘I hate him with all my soul.’

  Behind them, Onka’s voice was clearer and closer as he yelled, ‘After you have dined, I will have you in the way you most hated. The last thing you will remember will be
me inside your bowels. Even in hell you will never forget me.’ Sidudu let out a racking sob.

  ‘You must not hearken to him. Close your ears and your mind,’ Meren urged.

  “I wish I had died before you heard that,’ she sobbed.

  ‘It means nothing. I love you. I will not let the swine harm you again.’

  At that moment Sidudu’s filly stepped with its off fore into a mongoose burrow that was hidden in the long grass. The bone snapped like the breaking of a dry branch and her horse somersaulted. Sidudu was thrown headlong. At once Meren and Fenn wheeled back for her.

  ‘Get ready, Sidudu. I will pick you up,’ Fenn called, but Sidudu rolled to her feet and turned to look back at the pursuit. By now Onka was well ahead of the men who followed him. He was leaning forward eagerly, pushing his horse to its top speed, bearing down on Sidudu.

  ‘Prepare to meet your constant lover!’ he shouted.

  Sidudu unslung the bow from her shoulder and reached for an arrow.

  Onka laughed with delight. ‘I see you have a toy to amuse yourself. I have something better for you to play with before you die!’

  He had never seen her shoot. She took her stance and brought up the bow. He was close enough now to see her face clearly. His mocking laughter died as he recognized the deadly anger in her eyes. She drew the fletching back to her lips. He sawed his horse’s head round and tried to turn away. Sidudu loosed her arrow. It took him in the ribs and he dropped his sword to try with both hands to pluck it out, but the barbed head was buried deep. His horse pranced in a circle, righting against the curb. Sidudu shot again. He was turned away from her, and the arrow struck low in the centre of his back. It went deep and skewered his kidneys, inflicting a mortal, agonizing wound. He twisted to reach for the arrow. She shot again, hitting him in the chest, cutting through both lungs. He uttered a sound that was half groan and half sigh, then fell backwards as his horse lunged under him. One of Onka’s feet caught in the stirrup and his horse broke into a gallop, towing him away, the back of his head bouncing over the earth as the frantic animal kicked back with both hind legs at his corpse.