The Quest

Again Taita was surprised. This is no foreigner, he thought. He is an Egyptian. His use of our language is perfect. He has the accents of one who hails from Assoun in the Upper Kingdom.

Soe went on, 'These matters are of such weight and moment that they must be kept for your ears only. Dismiss your maids.' Mintaka clapped her hands. The girls jumped to their feet and scampered from the chamber like frightened mice.

'First, the matter of your husband, the Pharaoh Nefer Seti,' Soe resumed when they were alone. 'She commands me to reply to you thus.'

He paused, then leant towards Mintaka and spoke in a voice that was not his own, a mellifluous feminine voice: 'In the time of my coming I shall welcome Nefer Seti into my loving embrace, and he shall come to me joyously.'

Taita was startled, but beside him Demeter started wildly. Taite reached out to calm him, although he himself was almost as agitated.

Demeter was trembling. He tugged at Taita's hand. Taita turned to him, and the old man mouthed a silent message that Taita read as clearly as if it had been had shouted aloud: 'The witch! It is the voice of Eos!' It was the voice that Taita had drawn from him while he was in his trance.

'But the lord of these is fire,' he mouthed back, and spread his palms upward in full accord.

Soe was still speaking, and they turned back to listen: 'I shall raise him up to be the sovereign of all my corporeal kingdom. All the kings of all nations of earth will become his loyal satraps. In my name he will reign in eternal glory. You, my beloved Mintaka, will sit at his side.'

Mintaka burst into sobs of relief and joy. Soe smiled at her with avuncular indulgence and waited for her to recover her poise. At last she sniffed back the tears and smiled up at him. 'What of my children, my dead babies?'

'We have spoken of them already,' Soe reminded her kindly.

'Yes! But I ca

'The goddess has commanded that they be restored to you, and that they will live out the full span of their natural lives.'

'What else has she commanded? Please tell me again.'

'When they have proved worthy of her love, she will extend to all your children the gift of eternal youth. They will never leave you.'

'I am content, Mighty Prophet of the Almighty Goddess,' Mintaka whispered. 'I submit my body and my soul completely to her will.' On her knees, she crawled to Soe. She let her tears fall on to his feet, then wiped them away with the tresses of her hair.

It was the most repugnant spectacle Taita had ever witnessed. He made a determined effort to stop himself shouting through the screen, 'He is a lackey of the Lie! Do not let him soil you with his filth.'

Mintaka called her hand-maidens, and they sat with Soe for the rest of the morning. Their conversation descended into banality for none of the girls was quick to follow his teachings. He was obliged to repeat himself in simplified language. They soon tired of this and pestered him with chatter.

'Will the goddess find me a good husband?'

'Will she give me pretty things?'

Soe treated them with remarkable forbearance and patience.

Taita realized that although it seemed he and Demeter had learnt all they could, they had no choice but to remain sitting quietly behind the zenana window. If they tried to leave their movements might alert the prophet. A little before noon Soe brought the meeting to a close with a long prayer to the goddess. Then he blessed the women again and turned back to Mintaka. 'Do you wish me to return later, Your Majesty?'

'I need to meditate on these revelations of the goddess. Please return on the morrow when we may discuss them further.' Soe bowed and withdrew.

As soon as he had gone Mintaka dismissed her hand-maidens. 'Taita, are you still there?'

'I am, Your Majesty.'

She threw open the screen and demanded, 'Did I not tell you how learned and wise he is, what wonderful tidings he brings?'

'Extraordinary tidings indeed,' Taita replied.

'Is he not handsome? I trust him with all my heart. I know that what he prophesies is the divine truth, that the goddess will reveal herself

to us and heal all our woes. Oh, Taita, do you believe what he tells us?

Surely you must!','

Mintaka was in a religious ferment, and Taita knew that any warning he gave now would have a contrary effect. He wanted to take Demeter to a place where they might discuss what they had heard, and decide how to proceed, but he had to listen first to Mintaka's eulogy to Soe.

When at last she ran out of superlatives he told her gently, 'Both Demeter and I are worn out with all this excitement. I have promised to attend Pharaoh as soon as he is free from his more pressing duties, so we must return now to Thebes to be within call. However, I will return to you as soon as 1 can, and we will discuss this further, my queen.'

Reluctantly she let them go.

A soon as they had remounted and were on the road to the river, Taita and Meren took up their usual stations beside the palan.quin.

Then Taita and Demeter switched from Egyptian into the Tenmass so that the men of the escort could not follow their conversation.

'We have learnt much of paramount importance from Soe,' Taita began.

'Most significantly, we know that he has been in the presence of the witch,' Demeter exclaimed. 'He has heard her speak. He had her voice perfectly.'

'You know the timbre of her speech better than I do, and I do not doubt that you are right,' Taita agreed. 'There is something else that I deem important. Soe is Egyptian. His accent is from the Upper Kingdom.'

'This I did not fathom. My grasp of your tongue is not so perfect that I am able to pick up such nuances. It may indeed be a clue to the location of her present hiding-place. If we postulate that Soe has not travelled far to reach Thebes, then we should begin our search within the borders of the Two Kingdoms or, at least, in those lands immediately adjacent to them.'

'What volcanoes fall into that area?'

'There are no volcanoes or large lakes within the borders of this very Egypt. The Nile runs into the Middle Sea. That is the nearest water to the north. Etna is no more than ten days' sail. Are you certain still that Eos is not there?'

'I am.' Demeter nodded.

'Very well. What of the other great volcano in that direction, Vesuvius, on the mainland across the cha

Demeter sucked his lower lip dubiously. 'That dog will not hunt either,' he said, with conviction. 'After I escaped from her clutches, I hid for many years with the priests in the temple that lies fewer than thirty leagues to the north of Vesuvius. I am sure that I would have sensed her presence if she had been so close at hand, or she would have sensed mine. No, Taita, we must look elsewhere.'

'For the time being let us be guided by your instinct,' Taita said. 'On our eastern border is the Red Sea. I do not know of volcanoes in Arabia or any other land close to its shores. Do you?'

'No, I have travelled there, but I never saw or heard of any.'

'I saw two volcanoes in the land beyond the Zagreb mountains, but they are surrounded by vast plains and mountain ranges. They do not fit the description of the one we seek.'

'To the south and west of Egypt there are more vast expanses of land,' Demeter said, 'but let us consider another possibility. Might there be great rivers and lakes in the interior of Africa, and a volcano close to one?'

'I have not heard of any — but, then, no man has ventured further south than Ethiopia.'

'I have heard it told, Taita, that during the exodus from Egypt you guided Queen Lostris as far south as Qebui, the Place of the North Wind, where the Nile divides into two mighty streams.'