The Seventh Scroll tes-2

by Wilbur Smith

  er swollen lids, &Then she looked up again through oonlight for her to

  see that the grave there was sufficient was now so deep that the two

  men still digging in it were out of her line of sight. Spadefuls of dirt

  flew over the lip of the hole and splattered on to the growing pile. Her

  and sauntered over to the guard left her side for a momen edge of the

  hole. He looked down in it and then grunted.

  "Good. That is deep enough, Call the lieutenant." The two soldiers

  scrambled up out of the grave, then off into gathered up their tools and

  weapons and traipsed the darkness of the grove. Chatting amicably

  amongst wards where the truck was themselves they headed back to parked,

  leaving Tessay and her guard.

  the cold and with terror, She lay there shivering with puffed while her

  guard squatted at the lip of her grave and her on his cigarette. She

  thought that if she could get ton for feet she could kick him into the

  hole and make a ru ut when she tried to sit up her it, back through the

  trees. movements were stiff and slow, and she he no feeling in her

  hands or feet. She tried to force herself to move, but at that moment

  she heard Lieutenant Hammed coming from the truck and she slumped back

  in despair, rch. He flashed it Hammed was carrying an electric to down

  into the grave.

  ugh."

  "Good," he said loudly. "That is deep eno He switched off the torch and

  said to the man guarding Go back and wait at the truck. When her, "No

  witnesses.

  come back with the others to help me you hear the shots, fill the hole."

  over his shoulder and disap The guard slung his rifle JI peared amongst

  the trees. Hammed waited until the man was well out of earshot, then he

  came to Tessay and hoisted her to her feet. He pushed her to the edge of

  the grave, and then she felt him fumbling with her clothing. She tried

  to lash out at him, but her arms were still bound behind her.

  "I want your shanitna." He pulled the white woollen cloak off over her

  shoulders, and then went with it to the edge of the grave, He jumped

  down into the hole and she heard him scuffling about in the bottom.

  His voice came back to her, speaking softly. "They must see something

  here. A body-'

  He climbed back beside her, puffing with the exertion, and stepped

  behind her. She felt the touch of cold metal on the inside of her

  wrists, and then he was sawing at the leather thong. She felt her bonds

  fall away, and she gasped at the pain as the blood poured back into her

  numb hands.

  "What are you doing?" she whispered in confusion. She looked down into

  the grave and saw the pale shamnia arranged to look like a human body.

  "Are you going-'

  "Please don't talk," he instructed her softly, as he took her by the

  shoulder and led her back amongst the trees.

  "Lie here." He pushed her down and made her lie flat, with her face to

  the ground. He began piling dead leaves and fallen branches over her.

  "Stay here! Do not try to run. Don't. move or speak until we are gone."

  He flashed the torch briefly over the mound of dead branches to make

  certain she was covered, then he left her and hurried back to the

  graveside, unbuckling the flap of his pistol holster as he went. Two

  spaced pistol shots cracked out in the night, so loud and unexpectedly

  that she jumped and her heart raced wildly.

  Then she heard Hammed shout, "Come, you men.

  Let's get this thing finished."

  They trooped back into the grove, and she heard the sound of their

  spades and the thump of earth clods falling into the grave.

  nant," a voice

  "I cannot see what I am doing, lieute complained. "Where is your

  torchlight?"

  "You dorA need a light to fill a hole," Hammed snarled.

  "Get on with your work. Tramp that loose soil down. I don't want anybody

  stumbling on this place."

  She lay quietly, trying to stop the wild tremors that shook her body. At

  last the sound of the shovels let up, and she heard Hammed's voice

  again.

  "That will do. Make certain you leave nothing here.

  Back to the truck!'

  Their footsteps and their voices died away. At a distance she heard the

  truck engine whirl and fire. The headlights shone through the trees as

  the truck backed and filled, turning in the direction from which they

  had come.

  sound of the engine had died away Long after thee pile of dead

  completely, she continued to lie under the tree shaking with the cold

  and weeping branches. She was St. elief.

  silently with exhaustion and pain and softly and off herself and Then

  slowly she pushed he branched it to pull crawled to the trunk of the

  nearest tree. She, used and then stood there, swaying weakly herself up

  to her feet, in the darkness. elmed her. "I have it was only then that

  guilt overwh betrayed Mek," she thought sickeningly. "I have told everyI

  must get back to thing to his enemies. I must warn him him and warn

  him-'

  treetrunk and She pushed herself away from the ds the track.

  blundered back through the darkness towar he only means of ascertaining

  if they had solved Taita's codes correctly was to play out BE&

  the moves he had listed. They went very through the tunnels of the maze,

  stepping out the carefully moves that he had noted and marking then-' on

  the walls in white chalk figures.

  There were eighteen moves set out on the winter face of the stele. Using

  Royan's first interpretation of the symbols, they were able to advance

  through twelve of theseL. Then they found themselves at a dead end,

  confronted by a blank stone wall and unable to make the next move.

  "Damnation!" Nicholas kicked the wall, and when this had no effect he

  hurled the chunk of white chalk at it. "I wish I could get my hands on

  that old devil. Castration would be the least of his worries."

  "Sorry." Royan scraped the hair back out of her eyes.

  thought I had it right. It must be the figures in the second column. We

  will have to invert them."

  "We will have to start again,'Nicholas groaned.

  "Right at the very beginning," she agreed.

  "How do we know when we have finally got it right?

  he wanted to know.

  "If by following the clues we art ive at one of the winning

  combinations, a bao equivalent of checkmate, on precisely the eighteenth

  move. There will be no logical move after that, and we can assume we

  have worked through it correctly."

  "And what will we find if we ever reach that position?"

  "I will tell you when we get there." She smiled at him sweetly. "Cheer

  up, Nicky. It's only just starting to hurt."

  Royan inverted the values of the second and third numbers of Taita's

  notations, taking the first as the cup value and the second as the file

  value. This time they completed only five moves before they were stymied

  and could proceed no further.

  "Perhaps out assumption about the third symbol being the change of level

  is incorrect?" Nicholas suggested. "Let's start again and give that the

  second value."

  "Nicky, do you realize just how ma
ny possible combinations there are,

  given the three variables?" She was at last starting to waver. "Taita

  has assumed an intimate knowledge of the game. We have only the

  sketchiest notions of how it was played. It's like a grand master trying

  to explain to a novice the intricacies of the King's Indian Defence."

  olas embroidered the simile. "At this

  "In Russian!" Nich rate we are getting nowhere in a hurry. There must be

  some other way of approaching it. Let's go over the epigrams Taita stuck

  in between the notations again.

  "All right. I'll read and you listen." She hunched over her notes. "The

  trouble is that a subtle variation of the translation might change the

  sense. Taita loved puns, and effect. One wrong twist a pun can rely on

  a single word fo or slant to a word and we have lost it."

  "Try anyway," Nicholas encouraged her. "Remember that even Taita had

  never played bao in three dimensions be at the very before. if he left

  a clue it would have le of beginning of the stele. Concentrate on the

  first coup notations and the epigrams that separate them."

  "We'll try it that way," Royan agreed. "The first notambers five and

  seven and tion is the bee followed by the nu the sistrum."

  I have heard that so often Nicholas grinned. "Okayt What follows?,

  already that I will never forget it er over the ation." She ran her ring

  "The first quot can be known hieroglyphics. "'What can be given a name

  What is nanwiess can A be felt. i sail with the tide behind me and the

  wind in my face. 0, my beloved, the taste of You is sweet uPon my UPs."'

  "Is that all?" he asked.

  "Yes, then the next notation. The scorpion and the number two and three

  and the sistrum again." make Slowly! Slowly! First things first. What

  can out of the 1sailing" and the "beloved'T

  They riddled and wrestled with the text of the stele, So until their

  eyes burned and they had lost track of day or night. They were

  eventually recalled to reality by Sapperjs voice echoing up the

  staircase. Nicholas stood up from the desk and stretched before he

  looked at his watch.

  "Eight. 'clock. But I' not sure if that is morning or evenin

  Then he started as Sapper came up the staircase, and saw that his bald

  head was shining with moisture and his shirt was soaked.

  "What happened to you?" Nicholas demanded. "Did you fall into the

  sinkholer Sapper wiped his face with the palm of his hand.

  "Didn't anybody tell you? It's pissing with rain outside." They both

  stared at him in horror.

  "So soon?" Royan whispered. "It wasn't supposed to start for weeks yet."

  Sapper shrugged. "Somebody forgot to tell the weatherman."

  "Has it set in?" Nicholas asked. "What's the state of the river? Has the

  level started to rise yet?"

  "That's what I came to tell you. I am going up to the dam, taking the

  Buffaloes with me. I want to keep an eye on it. As soon as it gets

  unsafe I will send a runner down to you. When I do that, don't stop to

  argue. Get out of here fast. It will mean that I expect the dam to burst

  at any moment."

  "Don't take Hansith with you," Nicholas ordered. "I need him here."

  When Sapper had gone, taking most of the workers from the tunnel with

  him, Royan and Nicholas looked at each other seriously.

  "We are running out of time fast, and Taita still has us in a tangle,'

  Nicholas said. "One thing I must warn you.

  When the river starts to rise "

  She did not let him finish. "The river!" she cried. "Not the sea! I was

  mistaken in the translation. I read it as "tide".

  the sea, but it should have I assumed Taita was referring to been

  "curyene,.The Egyptians made no distinction between rds."

  the two wo They both rushed back to the desk and her notebooks.

  C4The current behind me and the wind in my face Nicholas changed the

  quotation.

  on the Nile," Royan exulted, "the prevailing wind is lways from the

  always from the north, and the current a south. Taita was facing north.

  The north castle."

  "We assumed the symbol for the north was the baboon,'

  he reminded her.

  "No! I was wrong." Her face was alight with the fires of inspirations

  "', my beloved, the taste of you is sweet upon my lips." Honey! The bee!

  I had the symbols for the north and south inverted." we find there?"

  "What about east and west? What can with fresh enthusiasm. "'MY

  He turned back to the texts of bronze sins are red as carnelians. They

  bind me like cUns the They prick my heart with fire, and I turn my eyes

  towards evening star."'

  "I don't see ation," he stuttered eagerly. -Prick" is the wrong transi

  ing towards the qt should be "sting". The scorpion look the west. The

  evening star. "Me evening star is always in rn castle, not the eastern

  castle." scorpion is the wester

  "We had the board inverted." She jumped up excitedly.

  "Let's play it that way!'

  "We still have not determined the levels," he objected.

  "Is the sistrum the upper level, or is it the three swords?"

  "Now that we have made this breakthrough, that is the only variable. We

  are either right or Wrong. We will play work upper level, and if that

  doesn' the sistrurn first as the lay it the other way round."

  we can tricacies of the maze It was so much easier now. The in had

  become less forbidding with familiarity. There were the large white

  chalk signs in Nicholas's handwriting on each corner and at each fork

  and T-junction of the tunnels.

  They moved swiftly through the complex twists and turns, their

  excitement rising sharply as they followed each notation and "i6und the

  way still clear before them.

  "The eighteenth move." Royan's voice trembled. "Hold both thumbs. If it

  takes us into one of the open files that threaten the opponent's south

  castle, then that will be the check coup." She drew a deep breath and

  read it aloud to him. "The bird The numbers three and five. With the

  lower level symbol of the three swords."

  They paced it out and passed the five junctions into the lowest level of

  the maze, reading their position from the chalk marks on the stone

  blocks of the walls at each fork. "This is it!" Nicholas told her, and

  they stood together and looked about them.

  "There is nothing outstanding about this spot." Disappointment was

  bitter in Royan's tone. "We have passed over it fifty times before. It

  is just like any of the other turns."

  "That is exactly what Taita would have wanted. Hell!

  He wouldn't have put up a signpost saying " marks the spot", would he

  now?"

  "So what do we do?" She looked at him, for once at a loss.

  "Read the last epigram from the stele."

  S he had her notebook in her hand. "'From the black and holy earth of

  dus very Egypt the harvest is abundant. I whip the flanks of my donkey,

  and the wooden spike of the plough breaks new ground. I plant the seed,

  and reap the grape and the ears of corn. In time I drink the wine and

  eat the loaf. I follow the rhythm of the seasons, and tend the earth."'

  She looked up at him. "The rhythm of the seasons? Is he referri
ng us to

  the four faces of the stele? The earth?"

  she asked and looked down at the slabs beneath their feet, "The promise

  of reward from the earth? Under our feet, perhaps?" she asked.

  He stamped his foot on the slabs, but the sound was dull and solid.

  "Only one way to find out." He raised his voice and it echoed weirdly

  through the labyrinth. "Hansith! Come down here!'

  apper sat on the high seat of his yellow frontend loader in the rain and

  cheerfully cursed his gang of Buffaloes, secure in the knowledge that

  they understood not a word of his insults. The rain swept over them in

  intermittent gusts off the high mountains. It was not yet the solid,

  drenching downpour of the true wet season. However, the river was rising

  sullenly, turning dirty blue'grey with the mud and sediment that it was

  bringing down.

  He knew that the flood had not yet begun in earnest.

  The thunder that growled ominously along the mountain peaks like a pride

  of hunting lions was only the prelude to the vast celestial onslaught

  which would soon follow.

  Although the river was lapping the top course of gabions "s dam, and was

  roaring through the bypass that of Sapper he had cut into the side

  valley, he was still holding it at bay. His Buffaloes were packing more

  baskets with aggregate, using up the last of the steel mesh from the

  stores in the quarry. As soon as each of these was filled and wired

  closed, Sapper picked it up in the front bucket of the tractor and drove

  it down the bank of the Dandera. He reinforced all the weak spots in the

  dam wall, and then he began raising it another course. Sapper was fully

  aware of the overturning effect that the river would exert once it began

  to pour over the top of the wall. Nothing would be able to withstand its

  power once this happened. It would carry away a rock-filled gabion as if

  it were the branch of a baobab tree. it needed only a single breach in

  the wall to bring the entire structure tumbling and rolling down. He had

  no illusions as to just how swiftly the river could do its fatal work.

  He knew that he dared not wait for the first breach to develop in the

  wall before he warned Nicholas and Royan in the chasm downstream. The

  river could easily outrun any messenger he sent, and once the wall began

  to go it would already be too late. It would be a matter of fine

  judgement, and he slitted his eyes against another gust of slanting rain