The Quest

'That is true. From Qebui we followed the left fork of the river into the mountains of Ethiopia. The right-hand stream emerges from an endless swamp that bars further progress. No man has ever reached its southern extremity. Or if any has he has not returned to tell of it. Some say there is no limit to the swamp but that it continues, vast and forbidding, to the end of the earth.'

'Then we must rely on the priests in the temple of Hathor to supply us with further possibilities to ponder. When will they have information for us of their findings?'

'The priestess told me to return in ten days' time,' Taita reminded him.

Demeter drew aside the curtain of his palanquin and looked back towards the hills. 'We are close to the temple now. We should go there, ask the priestess for hospitality and a sleeping mat for the night. We can spend time on the morrow with her cartographers and geographers.'

'If Pharaoh summons me to his presence, his minions will not be able to find me,' Taita demurred. 'Let me see him before we leave the palace again.'i 'Stop the column here,' Demeter called to Habari. 'Stop at once, I tell you.' Then he turned back to Taita. 'I do not wish to alarm you but I know now that my time with you is drawing to a close. I am haunted by dreams and dark presentiments. Despite the protection that you and Meren have given me, the witch will soon succeed in her efforts to destroy me. My remaining days are dwindling.'

Taita stared at him. Since that morning, when he had been made aware of Soe's menacing aura, he had been harried by the same premonition.

He drew close to the palanquin and studied the worn old face.

With a pang he saw that Demeter was right: death was close upon him.

His eyes had become almost colourless and transparent, but in their depths he made out moving shadows, like the shapes of feeding sharks.

'You see it also,' Demeter said, in a flat, dull tone.

No reply was necessary. Instead Taita turned away and called to Habari, 'Turn the column. We will go to the temple of Hathor.' It was only a little more than a league distant.

They rode in silence for a while, until Demeter spoke again: 'You will travel faster without my ancient, enfeebled body to impede you.'

'You are too harsh with yourself,' Taita chided him. 'Without your help and counsel I would never have come this far.'

'I wish I could have stayed with you to the end of the hunt and been present at the kill. But it is not to be.' He was silent for a while.

Then he went on, 'How to deal with Soe? One course is open to you. If Pharaoh was made aware that Soe is bewitching Mintaka, and of the traitorous thoughts he is planting in her mind, he would send his guards to seize him and you would have the chance to interrogate him under duress. I hear that the gaolers in Thebes are highly skilled in their trade.

You do not shrink from the idea of torture?'

'I would not hesitate if I thought there was the smallest chance of Soe yielding to mere bodily pain. But you have seen him. The man would die willingly to protect the witch. He is so much in tune with her that she would sense his agony and its cause. She would understand that Pharaoh and Mintaka had become aware of the web she is spi

'That is so.' Demeter nodded.

'Furthermore, Mintaka would rush to Soe's defence and Nefer Seti

would realize that she was indeed guilty of plotting against him. It would destroy their love and trust in each other. I could not do this to them.'

'Then we must hope to find the answer at the temple.'

The priests saw them from afar and sent two novices to welcome them and lead them up the ramp to the main entrance of the temple while the high priestess waited on the steps.

'I am so pleased to see you, Magus. I was about to send a messenger to Thebes to find you and tell you that Brother Nubank has worked on your request with great industry. He is ready to deliver his findings to you. But you have anticipated me.' She beamed in a motherly fashion at Taita.

'You are a thousand times welcome. The temple maidens are preparing a chamber for you in the men's quarters. You must stay with us as long as you wish. I look forward to your learned discourses.'

'You are kind and gracious, Mother. I am in company with another magus of great learning and reputation.'

'He, too, is welcome. Your retainers will be given shelter and sustenance in the grooms' quarters.'

They dismounted and, Meren supporting Demeter, entered the temple.

They paused before the image of Hathor, the goddess of joy, motherhood and love, in the main hall. She was depicted in the form of an enormous piebald cow, its horns bedecked with a golden moon. The priestess offered a prayer, then summoned a novice to lead Taita and Demeter along a cloister into the priests' area of the temple. He took them to a small stone-walled cell, where rolled sleeping mats lay against the far wall with bowls of water for them to refresh themselves.

'I will return to take you to the refectory at the di

A round fifty priests were already eating when they entered the J—- refectory, but one man leapt to his feet and hurried to meet ¦A- JLthem. 'I am Nubank. You are welcome.' He was tall and lean, with cadaverous features. In these hard times there were few corpulent figures in Egypt. The meal was frugal: a bowl of pottage and a small jug of beer. The company was subdued and ate mostly in silence, with the exception of Nubank, who never stopped talking. His voice was grating and his ma

'I do not know how we will survive the morrow,' Taita said to

Demeter, when they were back in their cell and settling to sleep. 'It will be a long day, listening to good Brother Nubank.'

'But his knowledge of geography is exhaustive,' Demeter pointed Out.

'You employ the correct adjective, Magus.' Taita turned on his side.

The sun had not risen when a novice came to summon them to breakfast. Demeter seemed weaker, so Meren and Taita helped him gently to rise from his mat.

'Forgive me, Taita. I slept poorly.'

'The dreams?' Taita asked, in Tenmass.

'Yes. The witch is closing in on me. I ca

Taita had also been plagued by dreams. In his, the python had returned. Now its feral stench lingered in his nostrils and at the back of his throat. But he concealed his misgivings, and showed Demeter a confident mien. 'We still have far to travel together, you and I.'

Breakfast was a small hard dhurra loaf and another jug of weak beer.

Brother Nubank resumed his monologue where it had been interrupted the night before. Fortunately the meal was soon consumed and, with some relief, they followed Nubank through the cavernous halls and cloisters to the temple library. It was a large, cool room, devoid of decoration or ornament other than the towering banks of stone shelves that covered every wall from the floor to the high ceiling; they were loaded with papyrus scrolls, of which there were several thousand.

Three novices and two senior initiates were waiting for Brother Nubank. They stood in a row, their hands clasped in front of them, a submissive attitude. They were Nubank's assistants. There was good reason for their trepidation: Nubank treated them in a hectoring ma

When Taita and Demeter were seated at the long, low central table, piled with papyrus scrolls, Nubank began his lecture. He proceeded to enumerate every volcano and every thermal phenomenon in the known world, whether or not it was situated near a large body of water. As he named each site, he sent a terrorized assistant to fetch the appropriate scroll from the shelves. In many cases this involved the ascent of a rickety ladder, while Nubank goaded them on with a string of abuse.