Meritamen looked at him in puzzlement. ‘But – this we know …’
‘Allow me to go on,’ Telamon said between his teeth.
She licked her lips. Kerasher’s smile faltered.
‘The Perao has decreed that we must regain our dagger,’ continued Telamon. ‘With the help of Lord Kerasher, we traced it here to Pa-Sobek. But you have failed to find it.’
Good. Neither Egyptian was smiling now.
‘If, by the time your River begins to rise,’ said Telamon, ‘I do not hold the dagger in my fist, the Perao will know that His decree has been ignored.’ He paused. ‘That will be your fault, Lady Meritamen. It won’t matter who you are. The Perao needs bronze more than he needs you, or the Hati-aa. One word from my grandfather, and you will be punished. Against the wrath of the Perao, you and your family will be as a field of flax in a sandstorm. You will be wiped out.’
Kerasher was regarding Telamon with new respect. Tiny beads of sweat had broken out on Meritamen’s upper lip, and she was staring at Telamon in horror.
He rose to leave. ‘Think about that,’ he told her.
As Telamon was about to mount the stairs to his chamber, Meritamen motioned him aside.
Around them slaves were clearing away the remains of the feast. She led Telamon to an empty side-chamber. Its walls were painted with blue and yellow waterbirds, and beside a cedarwood chair stood a lampstand of white alabaster, burning sweet-scented oil.
‘Well?’ said Telamon. He was surprised that she wished to talk to him without Kerasher. She’d never done that before.
Meritamen twisted her small hennaed hands. ‘I cannot let this bring down my family,’ she said quietly.
‘Then find the dagger. Alekto thinks you know something.’
She blinked. ‘If I knew where it was, I would give it to you. But I don’t.’
‘Then find out.’
When she didn’t answer, he said, ‘Why are you speaking to me without Kerasher?’
She hesitated. ‘Kerasher answers only to the Perao Himself. His spies are not from here – from Pa-Sobek.’
Telamon caught his breath. ‘Why do I get the feeling that you know something?’
She frowned. ‘This dagger – why is it so important?’
‘As long as we have it, my clan can’t be beaten.’ He didn’t mention the prophecy which said that if an Outsider wielded the dagger, the House of Koronos would fall. Hylas was that Outsider: the very boy who’d once been his best friend. But he, Telamon, was destined to kill Hylas and save his clan.
‘We would give you this dagger if we could,’ said Meritamen. ‘But we don’t have it!’
‘I don’t believe you. The slave Userref – he was born in Pa-Sobek. There must be friends of his, family …’
‘Why cannot you return to your own land, and if we find it, we will send it to you?’
‘Because others seek it too: people who want to destroy it and bring down my clan.’
‘What people?’
‘A boy,’ he said between his teeth. ‘Yellow hair, part of one earlobe cut off. A Keftian girl with a scar like a crescent moon on her cheek. They are my enemies. I have sworn to kill them.’ He pictured Hylas and Pirra as he’d last seen them: Pirra magnificent in the purple robes of her dead mother, with live snakes coiled about her arms and a falcon flying to her aid. Hylas bloodied and embattled, with a young lioness leaping to his defence.
‘I don’t believe they can get as far as Egypt,’ he said, as much to reassure himself as to tell Meritamen. ‘But if your spies should ever hear of them, you must tell me at once. Do you understand?’
Meritamen nodded slowly. Raising her head, she looked at him. ‘I will not let this ruin my family,’ she said with surprising determination. ‘Kerasher does not care about the people of Pa-Sobek. I do. I will find your dagger. Kerasher does not need to know how.’
‘What about –’
‘You do not need to know either, my Lord Tel-amon. I will bring you your dagger. But you must allow me to protect my people, and do it my way.’
Moonlight glinted in Hylas’ fair hair as he fell into step beside Pirra. ‘Kem says we’re not far from the Great Green.’
She snorted. ‘And you believe him?’
‘Well if it wasn’t for him, we’d dead by now.’
Pirra hated to admit it, but he was right. For three nights and three dawns, Kem had led them tirelessly through the desert. He’d made them smear charcoal under their eyes to cut down the glare, and given them each a pebble to put in their mouths against thirst. Somehow, he’d scratched together enough food to keep them alive: bitter roots, nubbly thorn bush leaves, and once, to Pirra’s disgust, a porcupine. Tonight he was tracking something bigger. He hadn’t told them what.
She still didn’t trust him. ‘For all we know, he’s leading us straight into one of those border patrols he keeps going on about.’
‘Why would he do that?’ snapped Hylas. ‘They’d only catch him too.’
She didn’t reply. She was sick of being hungry and thirsty, and her sandals were giving her blisters, but she dared not go barefoot because of scorpions. She was also desperately worried about Userref. The Crows had been in Egypt for so long. What if they’d found him? In her mind, she saw him beaten and tortured. She couldn’t bear it.
Hylas touched her shoulder. ‘Look! Kem’s found tracks.’
Up ahead, Kem was squatting to examine the sand, his dark skin almost invisible in the gloom.
‘As long as it’s not another porcupine,’ muttered Pirra.
Furiously, Kem motioned her to be quiet, then pointed with his throwstick and jerked his head at Hylas to follow – ignoring Pirra, whom he regarded as useless in a hunt.
Havoc had also sensed prey. Silver in the moonlight, the young lioness was creeping out to the left, to help in the ambush. She moved noiselessly, her head sunk low between her shoulder blades. Suddenly, she froze with one forepaw lifted.
Pirra caught movement in the distance. As quietly as she could, she joined Hylas.
He stood aghast. ‘What are they?’ he whispered. ‘They look like giant birds!’
They were taller than men, and they planted their huge spiked feet with exaggerated care, bending long pale necks to peck the sand.
‘I think they’re ostriches,’ hissed Pirra. She thought of the giant eggs in the House of the Goddess, and her belly rumbled. ‘I hope they’re good to eat.’
Hylas was gone, moving silently round to the right. With Havoc to the left and Kem in the middle, the ambush was complete. Pirra drew her knife and wondered which way to go.
Suddenly, one of the ostriches jerked up its head. Now the whole flock was off, racing over the sand at incredible speed. They were heading for Hylas. He and Kem broke cover and ran towards them, Hylas firing his slingshot, Kem casting his throwstick. The great birds were too fast. They veered round, heading for Havoc. She lay low, ready to pounce. They hadn’t seen her, and the lead ostrich was almost within reach. One swipe and she’d bring it down …
But Havoc had never seen giant birds before, and she lost her nerve and fled.
Again the flock turned, and this time, Pirra ran forwards to head them off. She heard the thud of Kem’s throwstick and his angry cry as it fell short. More pebbles from Hylas’ slingshot, also falling short. The flock was hurtling towards her. Clutching her knife, she stood her ground.
Before she could lash out, the lead bird thundered past, then the others. The last was coming straight at her.
‘Get outta the way!’ yelled Kem.
Still Pirra stood her ground. She saw the bird’s powerful legs striking the ground like hammers. She saw its big spiky feet. It was only a bird, surely it wouldn’t run her down?
Yes it would. She threw herself sideways, and the ostrich sped past her in a hail of grit.
‘What were you doing?’ panted Kem. ‘One kick and it cuts you open like a watermelon!’
‘You could’ve told me that before!’ snarled Pirra.
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Throwing up his arms, Kem stomped off.
‘Thanks for standing up for me,’ Pirra told Hylas as he helped her to her feet.
He ignored that. ‘Are you hurt?’ he panted.
‘No,’ she lied. She was bruised and had scraped one knee. She was also embarrassed. She hated confirming Kem’s view that girls were no use.
Havoc was embarrassed too. Bounding over to Hylas, she rubbed against him, making groany yowmp-yowmp noises and seeking reassurance. He sighed. ‘This isn’t right. She should be getting braver as she grows up, but she’s getting worse.’
‘Well, she’ll just have to learn,’ Pirra said crossly.
‘But she’s nearly two, Pirra. By now she should be bringing down big prey on her own. She can’t survive on lizards.’ Hunkering down, he scratched behind Havoc’s ears. ‘You’re not a cub any more, Havoc, you’re nearly full-grown. Don’t you know that?’
Pirra felt a flash of sympathy for the young lioness. ‘She’s been through so much. Maybe she’s lost her nerve.’
Hylas nodded sadly. In Havoc’s short life, she’d lost her father and mother, been through fire, earthshake, the Great Wave, and a terrible winter all on her own. ‘And now this desert,’ he said. ‘Baboons, cobras, those hyaenas last night …’
‘She’ll learn.’
‘She’ll have to, and fast.’ He looked at Pirra. ‘If she doesn’t find her courage soon, she’ll never be able to hunt by herself. She’ll never grow up. She’ll never be a proper lion.’
Angry and ashamed, the lion cub slunk off into the Dark.
She hated this place. The burning sand bit her pads, and the flies never left her alone. There was nothing to drink and almost no trees – her claws were aching for a good scratch – and that black boy who’d attached himself to the pride kept distracting her boy, so that, sometimes, he forgot to give her a muzzle-rub.
Worse even than that, she was scared. Snakes that spat. Furry not-men that barked and gnashed their teeth. And now these monster birds … A while ago, she’d come upon a pack of dogs feasting on a deer, and had tried to chase them away – but they had chased her. They were the weirdest dogs she’d ever seen, with sloping backs covered in spots, and horrible sneaky laughs. What kind of a dog laughs?
The wind carried a new scent to her nose: hare. Well at least that was something she knew.
The scent-trail ended, weirdly, in a thorn tree. The lion cub smelt that the hare was right up in its branches. This was extremely odd. She didn’t know that hares could climb trees.
She leapt at the trunk – but a savage growl warned her back.
From high in the tree, a lion glared down at her. No, not a lion. It was smaller, with a different smell, and its pelt was covered in black spots.
The spotted almost-lion bared its fangs and hissed at her. This is my kill, get away!
Hungry and humiliated, the lion cub slunk off to find her humans.
Lions shouldn’t be frightened of dogs, or of smaller lions (even if they do have spots), and they definitely shouldn’t be scared of birds.
This was a horrible place. The lion cub didn’t belong.
To begin with, the falcon had liked this place. She’d liked the red and purple sand rushing beneath her, and she’d had fun playing all over the vast, empty Sky.
But she’d soon realized that she didn’t belong. It was far too hot, and no matter how thoroughly she preened, she couldn’t get the dust out of her feathers. She’d tried bathing in the Sea, but that only made her sticky, and a sand-bath was worse, as it was full of ants, and the falcon had been terrified of ants since she was a fledgling and had fallen out of the Nest.
It didn’t help that her humans had taken to moving about in the Dark, when they should’ve been roosting. This meant that instead of having a nice quiet roost herself, the falcon had to keep flying off to find them – although as they were earthbound and slow, that never took long.
But the worst thing about this place was that there were no birds to eat, so she had to demean herself by hunting tough little lizards and dusty mice. Once, she’d spotted a bat, but as she was chasing it towards a crag, she’d been attacked by a grown-up falcon. That’s my bat! it had screeched. These are my rocks! Stay away!
Tilting one wingfeather, the falcon rolled on to the Wind and let it carry her closer to the Moon.
She spotted movement below. When she saw what it was, she was so horrified she nearly fell off the Wind.
There were birds down there, but something was dreadfully wrong. These birds were bigger than deer – and they were running over the ground, flapping tiny, useless wings. These birds couldn’t fly.
It was the worst thing the falcon had ever seen, it made her feel sick and fluttery inside. Shrieking, she wheeled across the Sky to find the girl. The girl would understand. She might be earthbound and human, but her spirit was as fierce as any falcon’s, and at times, she and the falcon felt the same things.
It wasn’t long before the falcon found her. As she settled on the girl’s wrist and heard that slow, gentle human voice, the fluttering inside her ceased.
It helped, too, that in her other hand, the girl was holding a shard of white shell full of the falcon’s absolute favourite food: delicious yellow egg. The falcon sipped hungrily – while keeping a wary eye out for the lion cub, who’d got much better about not sneaking up on her, but occasionally forgot. However, it turned out that the lion cub also loved eggs, and was busy crunching up several of her own.
By the time everyone had eaten, the Sun was waking up and the falcon felt much better. After a swift preen and an affectionate tug at the girl’s hair, she flew off again to take a look around.
As she let a hot updraught carry her higher, she saw that in the distance, the dry red lands came to an end in a blaze of brilliant green.
The roots of her feathers tightened with excitement. No more hunting lizards, no more ghastly flightless birds. Amongst the green, the falcon caught the flicker of many wings. Ducks, doves, pigeons … Far more than she’d ever seen.
Then, at the edge of the great green, she spotted something else, and slid sideways across the Sky to take a look.
Men. Men with long flying claws that glinted in the Sun.
And her own humans were heading straight for them.
‘What’s bothering Echo?’ said Hylas as they started after Kem.
‘Maybe there are more ostriches about,’ said Pirra. ‘They bother me, too. Birds that can’t fly, ugh, it feels all wrong!’
‘Well I’m not sorry we found those eggs,’ said Hylas. It felt marvellous to be full. Behind him, Havoc ambled along with her belly sagging almost to the ground, having devoured four giant eggs all by herself.
‘Keep up!’ urged Kem in a hoarse whisper. ‘And careful in the rocks! Lotta horned vipers in there!’
Pirra rolled her eyes. ‘And of course they can’t just be ordinary vipers,’ she said as they followed him over the broken ground. ‘Oh no, they’ve got to have horns, because everything here is so much more dangery than what we’re used to!’
She was furious with Kem, because earlier, he’d asked her again how she’d come by her scar. ‘If you must know,’ she’d snapped, ‘I did it to make myself ugly, so that my mother couldn’t marry me off to some chieftain I’d never met. Satisfied?’
But Kem had shaken his head in disbelief. ‘Ugly? Tcha! Not where I come from!’
Pirra had thought he was laughing at her, and when Hylas had tried to explain that he wasn’t, she’d turned on him. ‘Whose side are you on?’
The sky was starting to lighten, but ahead of them Kem went scrambling up the rocks, which led to a stony ridge, dotted with thornscrub.
Behind them, Havoc grunted. She stood with her ears pricked and her tail high, snuffing the air. Then she bounded after Kem.
‘What’s she smelt?’ said Pirra.
‘I don’t know,’ said Hylas. ‘But she isn’t scared. She’s eager.’
Kem swiftly reached the top, an
d waved at them to hurry.
At last, Hylas crested the ridge. He gasped.
Below him, the desert ended abruptly in a narrow strip of red sand, and beyond it – stretching to the horizon – lay a rippling green sea of reeds. Like some vast creature it shimmered and swayed. He caught the clamour of waterbirds, the croaking of millions of frogs, and here and there, the restless glimmer of water.
‘What can you see?’ panted Pirra, coming up behind him. ‘Is it …’ She sucked in her breath.
Far out in the marshes, a pink cloud rose and split apart into hundreds of astonishing birds, like rose-coloured swans, but with weird upside-down beaks. Echo seemed to have forgotten her unease, and was swooping after them and scattering them purely for fun. Then she did an amazing twisting somersault, dived into the reeds, and burst out again in a flurry of terrified ducks.
Watching the falcon’s ecstatic rampage, Hylas said to Kem, ‘Is this –’
‘Yes,’ said Kem. ‘Ta-Mehi. The Great Green.’ He sounded scared.
Havoc had scented water, and was bounding down the ridge. As the three of them followed more slowly, Kem said, ‘When we get inside, stay close and keep to the edge. Easy to get lost in there. Things move around.’
‘What things?’ Pirra said impatiently.
Kem hesitated. ‘Papyrus. Waterways. And lotta animals, very –’
‘– dangery, yes, we know,’ said Pirra.
This side of the ridge was dense with thornscrub. Halfway down, Hylas stopped to dig a thorn out of his heel. By the time he’d reached the bottom, the others had gone on ahead and were out of sight.
In front of him, the sand was no more than twenty paces across, but he didn’t like it, it felt too exposed. Beyond it, the Great Green was a creaking wall of reeds, warding him back.
‘Pirra?’ he whispered. ‘Kem? Havoc?’ Had they already crossed into the reeds, or were they still on this side, somewhere in the scrub?
Without warning, an antelope galloped past, trailing a red wake of dust. Its ghostly white hide was dark with sweat. It was running for its life.
The Crocodile Tomb Page 4
