The Quest

by Wilbur Smith

  They stripped off their dusty, sweat-stained tunics and stood for a moment to enjoy the breeze upon their naked bodies. Taita stooped to pick up his clean tunic, but Fenn stopped him. ‘There is no great hurry, my lord. It will be some time before the others return to search for us. We should take advantage of this moment, and that we are unencumbered by our clothing.’

  ‘When Meren reports our demise to That, the whole company will race here to find our remains. They might arrive to find us very much alive.’

  Fenn reached down between his legs. ‘Do you recall what Meren said about this? How it makes a man reckless? Well, I propose that we be reckless together.’

  ‘When you hold me like that, you could lead me anywhere, and I would make no protest.’

  She smiled slyly and sank down on her knees before him.

  ‘What are you doing now?’ he demanded. ‘This is something you never learnt from me.’

  ‘Imbali gave me precise instructions. But hush now, my lord, I will not be able to reply to any more questions. My mouth will be otherwise engaged.’

  They cut the matter fine, and were only just able to complete setting the stage for their subterfuge before they saw the dust of galloping horses approaching from the direction of the river. They moved back into the grove of acacias and sat quietly together at the base of a tree. They held each other’s hands and wove round themselves a spell of concealment.

  The hammering of hoofs grew louder until That and Meren appeared out of the dustcloud, riding hard at the head of a large band of armed men. As soon as they saw Windsmoke and Whirlwind grazing at the edge of the grove, they swerved towards them and came up only twenty paces from where Taita and Fenn were sitting.

  ‘Oh, by the guts and liver of Seth!’ Meren cried. ‘See the blood upon the saddles! It is even as I told you. The djinni have seized them and carried them away.’

  The dark stains were giraffe blood, but That was not to know that.

  ‘By the coupling of Isis and Osiris, this is a tragic business.’ He swung down from the saddle. ‘Search the area for any sign of the magus and his consort.’

  Within a short time they had discovered Taita’s ripped, bloodstained tunic. Meren held it in both hands and buried his face in it. ‘Taita has been taken from us. I am a son without a father,’ he sobbed.

  ‘I fear that good Meren is overplaying his part,’ Taita whispered to Fenn.

  ‘I never suspected such talent in him,’ she agreed. ‘He would be superb as Horus in the temple pageant.’

  ‘How can we go back to Pharaoh and tell him that we allowed Taita to be taken?’ That lamented. ‘We must at least find his body.’

  ‘I told you, Colonel That. I saw them both taken up into the sky by the djinni,’ Meren tried to dissuade him.

  That, though, was dogged and determined: ‘Nonetheless we must continue our search. We must comb every inch of the grove,’ he insisted.

  Once again, the men spread out in an extended line and advanced through the trees.

  Meren and That were in the lead and Meren walked within arm’s length of where they sat. His face was set in a formidable frown and he muttered to himself under his breath: ‘Come now, That, don’t be so pigheaded. Let us go back to the boats and leave the magus to his tricks.’

  At that moment there was a shout as a searcher found Fenn’s bloodstained tunic. Meren hurried to him and they heard him arguing with That, trying to persuade him to abandon the search. Presented with the evidence of the bloody garments That at last gave in. They took Windsmoke and Whirlwind and rode back to the carcass of the giraffe to butcher it and carry away the meat to the boats. Taita and Fenn stood up, picked up their weapons and wandered away towards the north, angling back to meet the Nile again far downstream.

  ‘I do so love being alone with you,’ Fenn said dreamily. ‘Shall we stop and rest again under the shade of that tree?’

  ‘It seems I have awakened in you the sleeping dragon.’

  ‘I have discovered that my little dragon never sleeps,’ she assured him.

  ‘She is always wide awake and ready to play. I hope she does not weary you, my lord?’

  Taita led her to the trees. ‘It will be pleasantly diverting to see who will first weary whom,’ said he.

  The entire company were plunged into mourning when they heard the dire tidings of Taita’s disappearance. The next day when they had reloaded the horses and set off again downstream, they went like a procession of funeral barges. Not only had they lost the magus, but Fenn, too, was gone. Her beauty and winsome ways had been talismans of good fortune to all the company. The younger women like Sidudu, especially those she had set free from the breeding farms, worshipped her.

  ‘Though I know it is not true, even I feel bereft without her,’ Sidudu whispered to Meren. ‘Why is Taita playing this cruel trick?’

  ‘He must make a new life for himself and for Fenn. Few of those who knew him when he was ancient and silver-haired will understand his magical transformation. They will see in his rebirth some malevolent act of black witchcraft. He and Fenn will become objects of fear and loathing.’

  ‘So they will go to some place where we will not be able to follow them.’

  ‘I cannot comfort you for I fear that it will be so.’ He placed his arm round her shoulders. ‘From here on, you and I must make our own way. We must find strength and purpose in each other.’

  ‘But what will happen to them? Where will they go?’ Sidudu persisted.

  ‘Taita seeks a wisdom that you and I cannot understand. All his life has been a quest. Now that his life has become eternal, so the quest also.’ He thought about what he had said, then went on, in what was for him a rare flash of insight: ‘That could be either a great blessing or a great burden.’

  ‘Will we never set eyes upon them again? Please tell me that it will not be so.’

  ‘We will see them again before they go. Of that we can be certain. They would never treat us so cruelly. But one day soon they will be gone.’

  While Meren was speaking he was watching the near bank as it slid by, looking out for the sign that Taita had promised he would leave. At last he saw a bright prick of light from the bank, a reflection of sunlight off polished metal. He shaded his eyes and peered ahead. There it is!’

  He steered in towards the bank. The rowers shipped their oars. Meren jumped the gap between the deck and dry land and ran to the sword that stood on end, its point buried in the earth. He drew it out and brandished it over his head. ‘Taita’s sword!’ he called to That in the following galley. ‘This is an omen!’

  That sent a shore party across to him, and they searched the bank for half a league in either direction, but found no further sign of human presence.

  Taita is a crafty old fox, Meren thought. He has played this charade to such perfection that even I find myself almost taken in by it. He smiled to himself, but kept a solemn mien as he told the men, ‘It is futile to continue the search. These affairs are beyond our understanding. If Taita, the magus, has succumbed, what chance do we stand? We must go back to the flotilla before we ourselves are overwhelmed.’ They obeyed with alacrity, consumed by superstitious dread, and eager to take refuge in the galleys. As soon as all were safely embarked, Meren gave the order to continue the voyage. The rowers took their seats on the benches and pulled for a league in silence.

  Hilto was at the stroke oar in the bows. Suddenly he lifted his head and began to sing. His voice was rough but powerful, the voice that had commanded men over the din of battle. It rang out across the silent river:

  ‘Hail, thou dread goddess, Hag-en-Sa, whose years stretch into eternity.

  Hail, thou who art the keeper of the first pylon.

  Thou abidest in the uttermost parts of the earth. Thou diest each day at the setting of the sun.

  In the dawn thou art renewed. Each day thou arisest with thy youth renewed as the bloom of the Lotus.

  Taita possesses the words of power.

  Let him pass the fi
rst pylon!’

  It was a chapter from the Book of the Dead, a lament for a king. At once the company took up the chant and sang the refrain:

  ‘Let him go where we may not follow.

  Let him know the mysteries of the dark places.

  He hath become the wise serpent of the mighty God Horus.’

  Hilto sang the next verse:

  ‘Hail, Seth, the destroyer of worlds.

  Hail, Mighty One of Souls, thou divine soul who inspireth great dread.

  Let the spirit-soul of Taita pass the second pylon.

  He possesses words of power.

  Let Taita make his way to the Lotus Throne of Osiris, behind which stand Isis and Hathor.’

  The others came in together with some of the women singing a descant:

  ‘Let him go where we may not follow.

  Let him know the mysteries of the dark places.

  Let him pass!

  Let him pass!’

  Standing in the stern of the leading boat, gripping the steering oar, Meren sang with them. Beside him, Sidudu’s voice quivered and almost broke under the weight of her emotion as she reached the higher notes.

  Meren felt a light touch upon his muscled right arm that rested on the steering oar. He started with surprise and looked about. Nobody was there, yet the touch had been distinct. He had learnt enough while he had been a novice in the service of Taita not to stare directly at the source, so he turned his gaze aside and saw a vague shape appear in the periphery of his vision. When he focused upon it, it disappeared.

  ‘Magus, are you here?’ he whispered, so that his lips did not move.

  The voice that answered him was just as airy: ‘I am with you, and Fenn stands beside Sidudu.’

  As they had planned, they had come on board while the galley was moored to the bank at the spot where Taita had planted the sword.

  Meren tried not to show his relief and joy in any way that the others might see. He switched his gaze and saw at the opposite edge of his vision another airy shape appear close beside Sidudu.

  ‘Fenn stands at your left hand,’ he warned Sidudu, who looked round in astonishment. ‘No, you cannot see her. Ask her to touch you.’ As Sidudu felt the brush of Fenn’s invisible fingers on her cheek her smile became radiant.

  When they moored in the late afternoon to set up the zareeba on the bank, Meren addressed the assembled throng: ‘We will set up a shrine on the foredeck of the leading galley in the place they favoured while they were with us. It will be a refuge where the spirit-souls of Taita and Fenn can rest during the ninety days while they are trapped in this plane of existence, the period before they may pass the first pylon on the road to the underworld.’

  They rigged a screen of reed matting round the small space, and laid out the sleeping mats and possessions of the missing pair. Each evening Sidudu placed an offering of food, beer and water behind it, and by morning they had been consumed. The company was much encouraged to know that the spirit-soul of the magus still watched over them, and the mood in the flotilla lightened. Men smiled and laughed once more, but they kept well clear of the shrine on the foredeck.

  They came again to Qebui, the Place of the North Wind, where the river on which they had travelled such an enormous distance joined the other mighty stream rushing down from the mountains in the east to become the true Nile. Qebui was little changed since they had last seen it, except that the irrigated fields surrounding the town were more extensive, and herds of horses and cattle grazed on the green pastures closer to the mud walls of the town. The sudden appearance of a large fleet of strange ships threw the garrison and the townsfolk into consternation and dismay. Only when Meren showed himself on the prow of the leading vessel and called out his friendly intentions did Governor Nara recognize him.

  ‘It is Colonel Meren Cambyses!’ he shouted, to the captain of his archers. ‘Do not fire upon them.’

  Nara embraced Meren warmly as soon as he stepped ashore. ‘We had long given up hope of your return so, in the name of Pharaoh Nefer Seti, we bid you the warmest possible welcome.’ Nara had never met That.

  The expedition led by General Lotti had passed through Qebui long before he had assumed the position of governor. Of course he knew of the expedition, and accepted Meren’s explanation of Tinat’s status as its surviving commander. But while they were conversing on the riverbank Nara kept looking to the moored boats as though he was expecting someone else to appear. At last he could contain himself no longer and burst out, ‘Forgive me, good colonels, but I must know what has become of the mighty magus, Taita of Gallala, that extraordinary man.’

  ‘The story I have to tell you is so strange and marvellous as to defy all imagination and belief. But, first, I must bring all my people ashore and see to their needs. They have been in exile for many years and have made a long, difficult and dangerous journey to reach this outpost of the empire. As soon as this duty is done, I will make a full and formal report to you, which you will, of course, relay to Pharaoh’s court in Karnak.’

  “I beg your forgiveness.’ Nara’s innate good manners reasserted themselves.

  ‘I have been wanting in my hospitality. You must bring them ashore at once, then refresh and restore yourselves before I press you further on the story of your travels.’

  That evening, in the assembly hall of the fort, Nara held a banquet of welcome for Meren, That and their senior captains. It was also attended by his own staff and the notables of the town. When they had eaten and drunk, Nara rose to address them, and made a fulsome speech of welcome.

  He ended by begging Meren to relate to the assembled guests the story of their sojourn in the foreign lands to the south. ‘You are the first to return from those mysterious uncharted regions. Tell us what you discovered there. Tell us if you reached the place were our Mother Nile is born. Tell us how it happened that her waters dried up, then came to flow again in such sudden abundance. But tell us, above all, what has become of the magus, Taita of Gallala.’

  Meren spoke first. He described all that had befallen them since they had last passed that way so long ago. He told them of how they had reached the headwaters of the Nile at Tamafupa and found the Red Stones impeding the flow of the river. He went on to relate how they had been rescued by That and taken by him to the kingdom of Jarri, where they had gone before the Supreme Council of the oligarchs.

  ‘Now I will call upon Colonel That Ankut to relate the fate of the expedition led by General Lord Lotti, how he and his surviving men reached Jarri, and the conditions they found there.’ Meren gave the floor to That.

  As was his style, Tinat’s account was terse and without embellishment.

  In blunt soldier’s terms, he described the original establishment of the Jarrian government by Lord Aquer in the reign of Queen Lostris.

  Then he told of how it had been turned into a ruthless tyranny by the mysterious sorceress Eos. He ended his recitation with the stark statement, ‘It was this sorceress, Eos, who used her black magic to erect the rock barrier across the tributaries of the Nile. Her purpose was to subdue Egypt and bring it under her thrall.’ Pandemonium broke out as the listeners expressed their indignation and shouted questions.’

  Nara jumped to his feet to intervene but it took him some time to quieten them. ‘I call upon Colonel Meren to take up the tale again. Please hold your questions until he has finished, for I am sure he will provide the answers to many of your concerns.’

  Meren was a far more eloquent speaker than That, and they listened in fascination as he described how the magus, Taita of Gallala, had entered the stronghold of Eos to confront her: ‘He went alone and unarmed, but for his spiritual powers. No one will ever know of the titanic struggle that must have taken place when those two adepts of the mysteries were locked in supernatural conflict. All we know is that, at the end, Taita triumphed over her. Eos was destroyed and her evil kingdom with her. The barriers she had erected across our Mother Nile were brought down so that now her waters run again. You have only t
o look out at the river as it flows past this town of Qebui to see how it has been revived by Taita’s powers. With the help of Colonel That our people who had been kept captive in Jarri all these years were released. They sit with you this evening.’

  ‘Let them stand forth!’ Governor Nara cried. ‘Let us look upon their faces so that we may welcome our brothers and sisters back to our motherland.’ One after another the captains and other officers of Tinat’s regiment came to their feet, gave name and rank, then ended with the declaration ‘I attest to the truth of all you have heard this evening from our revered leaders Colonel Meren Cambyses and Colonel That Ankut.’

  When they had finished Nara spoke again: ‘We have heard many wonders related this evening, sufficient to fill us with awe. However, I know I speak for all present when I ask one more question that burns in my mind.’ He paused dramatically. ‘Tell us, Colonel Cambyses, what has become of the magus, Taita? Why is he no longer at the head of your company?’

  Meren’s expression was solemn. For some time he stood in silence as though at a loss to explain it. Then he sighed heavily. ‘It is indeed my most sad and painful duty to have to tell you that the magus is no longer with us. He has disappeared mysteriously. Colonel That and I have searched diligently for him at the site where he vanished, but to no avail.’ He paused again, then shook his head. ‘Although we were unable to find his body, we discovered his clothing and horse. His tunic was stained with his blood and so was his saddle. We can only attribute his disappearance to some malevolent supernatural occurrence, and conclude that the magus is dead.’

  A groan of despair greeted his words.

  Governor Nara sat still, his face pale and sad. At last, when the noise in the hall abated and all looked to him, he came to his feet. He began to speak but his voice failed him. He rallied himself and began again.

  ‘These are tragic tidings. Taita of Gallala was a mighty man and a good one. I will send the news of his demise to Pharaoh Nefer Seti with a heavy heart. In my capacity as governor of the nome of Qebui I shall cause to be erected on the banks of the river a monument to the achievement of Taita of Gallala in restoring the flow of the life-bringing waters of Mother Nile to us.’ He was about to say more, but shook his head and turned away. When he left the banquet hall, the guests followed him out in small groups and dispersed into the night.