The Quest

At length Taita began to ask a series of simple questions to which he already knew the answers so that he could watch how Soe's aura reacted to either the truth or a lie.

'You are known as Soe?'

Soe glared at him in silent defiance. 'Prick him,' Taita ordered Shabako, 'in the leg and not too deeply.' Shabako delivered a finely judged stab. Soe jumped, shrieked and twisted against his bonds. There was a thin trickle of blood on his thigh.

'I shall begin again,' Taita told him. 'You are Soe?'

'Yes,' he grated, through clenched teeth. His aura burned steadily.

Truth, Taita confirmed silently.

'You are an Egyptian?'

Soe kept his mouth closed and stared at him sullenly.

Taita nodded at Shabako. 'The other leg.'

'I am,' Soe answered quickly. His aura remained unchanged. Truth.

'You preached to Queen Mintaka?'

'Yes.' The truth again.

'You have promised her that you will bring her dead children back to life?'

'No.' Soe's aura was suddenly shot through with greenish light.

The sign of a lie, Taita thought. He had the yardstick against which to measure Soe's next replies.

'Forgive my lack of hospitality, Soe. Are you thirsty?'

Soe licked his dry, cracked lips. 'Yes!' he whispered. Clearly the truth.

'Where are your ma

Meren gri

'So, are you scurrying back to your mistress?'

'No,' mumbled Soe. The green tinge to his aura marked the lie.

'Is her name Eos?'

'Yes.' Truth.

'Do you believe she is a goddess?'

'The only goddess. The one supreme deity.' The truth again, very much so.

'Have you come face to face with her?'

'No!' Lie.

'Has she allowed you to gqima her yet?' Deliberately Taita used the coarse soldier's word to provoke the man. The original meaning had been 'to run', which was what a soldier in a victorious army had to do to catch the womenfolk of the defeated enemy.

'No!' It was shouted with fury. Truth.

'Has she promised to gijima you when you have obeyed all her commands, and secured Egypt for her?'

'No.' It was said softly. Lie. Eos had offered him a reward for his loyalty.

'Do you know where she has her lair?'

'No.' Lie.

'Does she live near a volcano?'I 'No.' Lie.,!

'Does she live beside a great lake in the south beyond the swamps?'

'No.' Lie.

'Is she a ca

'I do not know.' Lie.

'Does she devour human infants?'

“I do not know.' Lie again.

'Does she lure wise and powerful men into her lair, then strip them of all their knowledge and powers before she destroys them?'

'I know nothing of this.' A great and veritable lie.

'How many men has she copulated with, this whore of all the worlds?

A thousand? Ten thousand?'

'Your questions are blasphemous. You will be punished for them.'

'As she punished Demeter, the magus and savant? On her behalf, did you send the toads to attack him?'

'Yes! He was an apostate, a traitor. It was a judgement he richly deserved. I will listen no longer to your filth. Kill me, if you like, but I will say no more.' Soe struggled against the ropes that held him. His breathing was hoarse and his eyes were wild. The eyes of a fanatic.

'Meren, our guest is overwrought. Let him rest awhile. Then peg him out where the morning sun can warm him. Take him outside the camp, but not so far that we ca

Meren strung the rope round his shoulders and began to drag him away. Then he paused and looked back at Taita. 'Are you certain that you have no further use for him, Magus? He has told us nothing.'

'He has told us everything,' said Taita. 'He has bared his soul.'

'Take his legs,' Meren ordered Shabako and Tonka, and between them they carried Soe away. Taita heard them hammering the pegs to hold him on the baked earth. In the middle of the afternoon Meren went out speak to him again. The sun had raised fat white blisters across his belly and loins; his face was swollen and inflamed.

'The mighty magus invites you to continue your discussions with him,'

Meren told him. Soe tried to spit at him but could gather no saliva. His purple tongue filled his mouth, and the tip protruded between his front teeth. Meren let him lie.

The hyena pack found him a little before sunset. Even Meren, the hardened old veteran, was uneasy as their demented howling and giggling drew nearer.

'Shall I bring him in, Magus?' he asked.

Taita shook his head. 'Leave him. He has told us where to find the witch.'

'The hyenas will make it a cruel death, Magus.'

Taita sighed, and said quietly, 'The toads made Demeter's death as cruel. He is a minion of the witch. He spreads sedition through the kingdom. It is fitting that he should die, but not like this. Such cruelty will sit heavily on our consciences. It reduces us to his level of evil. Go out there and cut his throat.'

Meren came to his feet and drew his sword, then paused and cocked his head. 'Something is amiss. The hyenas are silent.'

'Quickly, Meren. Go and find out what is happening,' Taita ordered sharply.

Meren ran out into the gathering darkness. Moments later his voice echoed from the hills in a wild shout. Taita jumped up and ran after him. 'Meren, where are you?'

'Here, Magus.'

Taita found him standing on the spot where they had pegged Soe down, but he was gone. 'What happened, Meren? What did you see?'

'Witchcraft!' Meren stuttered. 'I saw—' He broke off, at a loss to describe what he had seen.

'What was it?' Taita urged. 'Tell me quickly.'

'A monstrous hyena as large as a horse, with Soe upon its back. It must have been his familiar. It galloped off into the hills, bearing him away. Shall I follow them?'

'You will not catch them,' Taita said. 'Instead you will place yourself in mortal peril. Eos possesses even greater powers than I had thought possible to have rescued Soe at such a great distance. Let him go now.

We will reckon with him at some other time and place.'

They went on, night after stifling night, week after wearying week, and month after gruelling month. The knife wound in Taita's shoulder healed cleanly in the hot dry air, but the horses sickened and faltered, and the men were flagging long before they reached the second cataract. This was where Taita and Queen Lostris had rested for a season to await the renewed flood of the Nile, which would ensure sufficient depth for the galleys to surmount the cataract. Taita looked down upon the settlement they had built: the stone walls were

still standing - the ruins of the crude royal palace he had built to shelter Lostris. Those were the lands where they had planted the dhurra crop, still demarcated by the furrows of the wooden ploughshare. Those were the stands of tall trees from which they had cut the timber to build chariots and repair the battered hulls of the galleys. The trees were still alive, sustained by the deep roots that reached down to the underground pools and streams. Over there was the forge that the coppersmiths had built.

'Magus, look to the pool below the cataract!' Meren had ridden up beside him and his excited cry interrupted Taita's memories. He looked in the direction Meren was pointing. Was it a trick of the early light? he wondered.

'Look at the colour of the water! It is no longer blood red. The pool is green - as green as a sweet melon.'