The Quest

'Where has Ganga gone?' he asked.

'Ganga never was,' Taita told him. 'He is a forest sprite, and now that his task has been completed he has gone back into the other world.' Meren accepted this. Having lived so long with the Magus, he was no longer surprised by even the most bizarre and magical phenomena.

The apsaras took them into the temple. After the bright hot sunlight of the garden the high halls were cool and dim, the air scented by the incense-burners that stood before golden images of the goddess Saraswati.

Priests and priestesses in flowing saffron robes worshipped before them, while more apsaras flitted through the shadows like butterflies. Some came to kiss and hug the strangers. They stroked Meren's arms and chest, and fondled Taita's silver beard.

At last Wu Lu, Tansid and Astrata took the two by the hand and led them down a long gallery, into the living quarters of the temple. In the refectory the women served them bowls of stewed vegetables and cups of sweet red wine. They had been on meagre rations for so long that even Taita ate hungrily. When they were replete, Tansid took Taita to the chamber that had been set aside for him. She helped him undress and made him stand in a copper basin of warm water while she sponged his weary body. She was like a mother tending a child, so natural and gentle that Taita felt no embarrassment even when she ran the sponge over the ugly scar of his castration. After she had dried him, she led him to the sleeping mat and sat beside him, singing softly, until he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Wu Lu and Astrata led Meren to another chamber. As Tansid had done for Taita, they bathed him, then settled him to sleep on his mat.

Meren tried to keep them with him, but he was exhausted and his efforts half-hearted. They giggled and slipped away. Within moments he, too, had fallen asleep.

He slept until the light of day filtered into the chamber and woke, feeling rested and rejuvenated. His worn, soiled clothing had disappeared,

replaced with a fresh, loose-fitting tunic. No sooner had he dressed than he heard sweet feminine laughter and voices approaching down the gallery outside his door. The two girls burst in upon him, carrying porcelain dishes and jugs of fruit juice. While they ate with him the apsaras talked to Meren in Egyptian, but between themselves they spoke a medley of languages, all of which seemed natural to them. However, each favoured what was clearly her mother tongue. Astrata's was Ionian, which explained her fine gold hair, and Wu Lu spoke with the chiming, bell-like tones of far Cathay.

When the meal was finished they took Meren out into the sunlight to where a fountain played over the waters of a deep pool. Both dropped the light garments they wore and plunged naked into the pool. When she saw that Meren was hanging back, Astrata came out of the pool to fetch him, her hair and body streaming with water. She seized him, laughing, stripped him of his tunic and dragged him to the pool. Wu Lu came to help her, and once they had him in the pool, they frolicked and splashed. Soon Meren abandoned his modesty, and became as frank and unashamed as they were. Astrata washed his hair, and marvelled at the combat scars that scored his knotted muscles.

Meren was astonished by the perfection of the two apsaras' bodies as they rubbed themselves against him. All the time their hands were busy beneath the surface of the water. When, between them, they had aroused him, they shrieked with delight and pulled him from the pool to a small pavilion under the trees. Piles of carpets and silken cushions lay on the stone floor, and they stretched him out on them still wet from the pool.

'Now we will worship the goddess,' Wu Lu told him.

'How do we do that?' Meren demanded.

'Have no fear. We will show you,' Astrata assured him. She pressed rhe full silken length of her body to his back, kissing his ears and neck From behind, her belly warmly moulded to his buttocks. Her hands reached round to caress Wu Lu, who was kissing his mouth and encircling him with her arms and legs. The two girls were consummately skilled in I he arts of love. After a while it was as though the three had flowed together and been transformed into a single organism, a creature possessed of six arms, six legs and three mouths.

Like Meren, Taita woke early. Although he had been wearied by the long journey, a few hours of sleep had restored his body and spirits.

The dawn light filled his chamber as he sat up on the sleeping mat, and became aware that he was not alone.

Tansid knelt beside his mat and smiled at him. 'Good morrow, Magus.

I have food and drink for you. When you have fortified yourself, Kashyap and Samana are eager to meet.'

'Who are they?'

'Kashyap is our revered abbot, Samana our reverend mother. As you are, so are they both eminent magi.'

Samana was waiting for him in an arbour in the temple gardens. She was a handsome woman of indeterminate age, wearing a saffron robe.

There were wings of silver in the dense hair above her ears, and her eyes were infinitely wise. After she had embraced him, she bade Taita sit beside her on the marble bench. She asked him about the journey he had made to reach the temple, and they talked for a while before she said, 'We are so glad that you have arrived in time to meet the Abbot Kashyap. He will not be with us for much longer. It was he who sent for you.'

'I knew I had been summoned to this place, but I did not know by whom.' Taita nodded. 'Why did he bring me here?'

'He will tell you himself,' Samana said. 'We will go to him now.' She stood and took his hand. They left Tansid, and Samana led him through many passages and cloisters, then up a spiral staircase that seemed endless.

At last they came out in a small circular room at the top of the highest temple minaret. It was open all round with a view over the green jungles to the far parapets of snow-topped mountain ranges in the north. In the middle of the floor a soft mattress was piled with cushions, on which sat a man.

'Place yourself in front of him,' Samana whispered. 'He is almost completely deaf, and must be able to see your lips when you speak.' Taita did as she had said, then Kashyap and he regarded each other in silence for a while.

Kashyap was ancient. His eyes were pale and faded, his gums toothless.

His skin was as dry and foxed as old parchment, his hair, beard and eyebrows were as pale and transparent as glass. His hands and head shook with uncontrollable tremors.

'Why have you sent for me, Magus?' Taita asked.

'Because you are of good mind.' Kashyap's voice was a whisper.

'How do you know of me?' Taita asked.

'With your esoteric power and presence, you leave a disturbance on the ether that is discernible from afar,' Kashyap explained.

'What do you want of me?'

'Nothing and everything, perhaps even your life.'

'Explain.'

'Alas! I have left it too late. The dark tiger of death is stalking me. I will be gone before the setting of the sun.'

'Is the task you have set me of moment?'

'Of the direst moment.'

'What must I do?' Taita asked.

'I had purposed to arm you for the struggle that lies ahead of you, but now I have learned from the apsaras that you are a eunuch. This I did not know before you came here. I ca

'What ma

'By carnal exchange.'

'Again I do not understand.'

'It would have involved sexual congress between us. Because of your injuries, that is not possible.' Taita was silent. Kashyap reached out to lay a withered, clawlike hand upon his arm. His voice was gentle when he said, 'I see by your aura that in speaking of your injuries I have offended you. For this I am sorry, but I have little time left and I must be blunt.'