The Quest - Smith Wilbur (читать лучшие читаемые книги TXT) 📗

49

'Why did you not intervene?'

'I humoured her. Mintaka was demented with grief for our dead babies.

Soe gave her comfort. I saw no harm in it.”

'There was great harm in it,' Taita said. 'Harm to you and to Egypt.

Soe is still a terrible threat. He is the last adherent of the witch, the last remaining vestige of her presence on this earth. He is part of the Great Lie.'

'What must I do, Taita? As soon as the Nile began to flow again, Soe disappeared. We do not know what has become of him.'

'Before anything else, I must capture him and bring him to you. Queen Mintaka is so deeply in his thrall that she believes all he tells her. She would have given you over to him. She will not believe evil of him, unless the confession of that evil comes from the mouth of Soe himself.'

'What do you need from me, Taita?' Nefer Seti asked.

'You must take Queen Mintaka away. I need to have the freedom of the Palace of Memnon on the west bank. Take her to Assuit to make sacrifice at the temple of Hathor. Tell her that the goddess appeared to you in a vision and demanded this of you both for the sake of your dear babes, Prince Khaba and his little sister Unas, who are now in the underworld.'

'It is true that I have felt the need to make sacrifice to Hathor. The queen and I will leave by royal barge in five days' time, on the night of the new moon. What else do you require of me?'

“I need Lord Meren and a hundred of your best fighting men. Meren must carry your Hawk Seal, which gives him your unbridled authority.'

'He shall have these things.'

No sooner had the royal couple embarked on their barge and sailed away than Meren and Taita, with the escort of guardsmen, crossed the Nile to the west bank. They rode up the hills to Mintaka's abode, the Palace of Memnon, and arrived with the dawn.

The household was taken by surprise. The palace vizier, with a detachment of the household guards at his back, tried ineffectually to oppose their entry. The palace guards, though, were soft from a life of good eating and high living. Nervously they eyed the hundred hard warriors that faced them.

Meren held up the Hawk Seal: 'We are carrying out the orders of Pharaoh Nefer Seti. Stand aside and let us pass!'

'He bears the Hawk Seal.' The vizier capitulated and turned to the captain of the palace guards. 'Take your men back to their barracks and keep them there until I send you word.'

Meren and Taita marched into the entrance portico of the palace, their nailed sandals ringing on the marble slabs. Taita was no longer covered by the spell of concealment. Instead he wore a breastplate of crocodile skin and a matching helmet, the visor drawn down to cover his features. He cut a formidable and menacing figure. The palace servants and Mintaka's maids fled before him.

'Where do we begin the search, Magus?' Meren asked. 'Is the creature still hiding here?'

'Soe is here.'

'You are so certain.'

'The foul reek of Eos is heavy in the air,' Taita told him.

Meren sniffed loudly.

'I can smell nothing.'

'Keep ten of your men with us. Place the rest to cover all the doors and gates. Soe has the ability to change his physical shape and form so nobody must leave this palace, neither man, nor woman, nor animal,' Taita told him. Meren relayed his orders and the men marched away to their posts.

Purposefully Taita moved through the huge, magnificently appointed rooms, Meren and his detachment following closely, swords drawn. At intervals Taita stopped and seemed to test the air, like a hunting hound following the scent of his quarry.

They came at last to the queen's inner garden, a spacious atrium surrounded by high sandstone walls and open to the cloudless blue sky.

It was laid out around avenues of flowering trees with a central fountain, surrounded by marble benches strewn with silken cushions. Lutes and other musical instruments lay where they had been abandoned by Mintaka's hand-maidens at the approach of the soldiers, and the lingering perfume of nubile young women mingled with that of orange blossom.

At the far end of the atrium stood a small arbour of trellised vines.

Without hesitation, Taita crossed to it, his step quick and sure. On a tall pink marble plinth in the centre stood a statue carved from the same material. Someone had laid bouquets of sun lilies at its foot, and their scent was cloying on the air. It dulled the senses, like some powerful opiate.

'The flowers of the witch,' Taita whispered. 'I remember the odour so clearly.' Then he studied the statue on the plinth. Life-sized, it was in

the shape of a veiled woman, the folds of her mantle enveloping her from the top of her head to her ankles. The dainty feet below the hem were carved with such skill that they seemed made of warm flesh rather than cold, lifeless stone.

'The feet of the witch,' Taita said. 'This is the shrine at which Queen Mintaka worships her.' In Taita's nostrils the odour of evil was more pungent now than the heavy scent of the lilies. 'Lord Meren, have your men cast down this statue,' Taita said quietly.

Even the indomitable Meren was awed by the ghastly influence of the witch that filled her shrine. He gave the order in a subdued tone.

The soldiers sheathed their swords and put their shoulders to the statue. They were brawny men and strong, but it resisted their efforts to topple it.

'Tashkalon!' cried Taita, once again turning Eos's word of power against her. The statue moved, marble squealing on marble, like the cry of a lost soul. It startled the soldiers, who jumped back in alarm.

'Ascartow!' Taita pointed his sword at the figure of Eos, which began slowly to topple forward.

'Silondela!' he shouted, and the statue fell full length to the paving stones and shattered into fragments. Only the dainty feet remained intact. Taita stepped forward and touched each one with the point of his sword. Slowly they cracked and crumbled to piles of pink dust. The bunches of sun lilies on the plinth withered until they were black and dry.

Slowly Taita circled the base of the plinth. Every few paces he tapped the marble. The sound was firm and solid until he reached the back wall.

Here the marble emitted a dull, hollow echo. Taita stepped back and studied it. Then he moved forward and placed the heel of his hand in the top right corner and applied a steady pressure. There was the sharp sound of some internal lever moving and the entire panel swung open like a trapdoor.

In the silence that followed they all stared into the dark square opening that was revealed in the back of the plinth. It was just large enough for a man to pass through.

'The hiding place of the false priest of Eos,' Taita said. 'Bring the torches from the brackets in the audience hall.' The soldiers hurried to obey. When they returned, Taita took one and held it into the opening.

By the torchlight he saw that a flight of stone steps descended into the darkness. Without hesitation he stooped through the opening and started down them. There were thirteen and at the bottom they levelled out

into a tunnel that was wide and high enough for a tall man to walk along without stooping. The floor was of plain sandstone tiles. The walls were unadorned with paintings or engravings.

'Keep close behind me,' Taita told Meren, as he strode down the tunnel. The air was stale and old, heavy with the odour of damp earth and long-buried dead things. Twice Taita came to forks in the tunnel, but each time he made an instinctive choice without pausing to consider.

At last a glimmer of light appeared ahead of him. He went on resolutely.

He passed through a kitchen which contained large amphorae of oil, water and wine. There were wooden bins of dhurra bread and baskets of fruit and vegetables. Legs of smoked meat hung from hooks in the roof.