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

When Taita tried tactfully to truncate this tedious procedure by referring the man to his original request, Nubank nodded blandly and continued remorselessly with his prepared recitation.

One unfortunate novice was Nubank's preferred victim. He was a misshapen creature: no part of his body seemed without fault or deformation.

His shaven scalp was elongated, covered with flaking skin and a vivid rash. His brow bulged over small, close-set, pale crossed eyes. Large teeth protruded through the gap in his harelip and he dribbled when he spoke, which was not often. His chin receded so sharply that it barely existed, a large mulberry birthmark adorned his left cheek, his chest was sunken and his back mountainously hunched. His legs were thin as sticks, bowed and carried him in a sideways scuttle.

In the middle of the day a novice arrived to summon them to the refectory for the midday repast. Half starved as they were, Nubank and his assistants responded with alacrity. During the meal Taita became aware that the hunchbacked novice was making furtive attempts to catch his eye. As soon as he saw that he had Taita's attention, he stood up and hurried to the door. There, he glanced back and jerked his head to indicate that he wanted Taita to follow him.

Taita found the little fellow waiting for him on the terrace. Again the man beckoned, then vanished into the opening of a narrow passage.

Taita followed, and soon found himself in one of the small temple courtyards. The walls were covered with bas-reliefs of Hathor and there was a statue of the Pharaoh Mamose. The man cowered behind it.

'Great Magus! I have something to tell you that might be of interest to you.' He prostrated himself as Taita went to him.

'Stand up,' Taita told him kindly. 'I am not the king. What is your name?' Brother Nubank had referred to the little priest only as 'you thing'.

'They call me Tiptip, for the way I walk. My grandfather was a junior physician in the court of Queen Lostris at the time of the exodus from Egypt to the land of Ethiopia. He spoke of you often. Perhaps you remember him, Magus. His name was Siton.'

'Siton?' Taita thought for a moment. 'Yes! He was a likely lad, very k'ood at removing barbed arrowheads with the spoons. He saved the lives of inany soldiers.' Tiptip grinned widely, and his harelip gaped. 'What became of your grandfather?'

'He died peacefully in his dotage, but before he went, he told many fascinating stories of your adventures in those strange southern lands.

He described its peoples and wild animals. He told of the forests and mountains, and of a great swamp that stretched away for ever, to the ends of the earth.'i 'They were stirring times, Tiptip.' Taita nodded encouragement. 'Go on.'

'He told how, while the main body of our people followed the left fork of the Nile into the mountains of Ethiopia, Queen Lostris despatched a legion to the right fork to discover its full extent. They set off into the great swamp under General Lord Aquer and were never seen again, but for one man of the legion. Is this true, Magus?'

'Yes, Tiptip. 1 remember how the queen sent out a legion.' Taita himself had recommended Aquer for the doomed command. He had been a troublemaker, stirring discontent among the people. He did not mention this now. 'It is true also that only one man returned. But he was so riddled with disease and broken by the hardship of the journey that he succumbed to fever only days after returning to us.'

'Yes! Yes!' Tiptip was so excited that he seized Taita's sleeve. 'My grandfather treated the unfortunate man. He said that during his delirium the soldier ranted about a land with mountains and enormous lakes so wide in places that the eye could not reach from one shore to the next.'

Taita's interest quickened. 'Lakes! I have not heard this before. 1 never laid eyes on the survivor. I was in the Ethiopian mountains, two hundred leagues distant, when he reached Qebui where he died. The report I received said that the patient was out of his mind and unable to give any coherent or reliable intelligence.' He stared at Tiptip, and opened the Inner Eye. From the other man's aura, Taita could tell that he was sincere and telling the truth as he remembered it. 'You have more to tell me, Tiptip? I think so.'

'Yes, Magus. There was a volcano,' Tiptip blurted. 'That is why I have come to you. The dying soldier rambled about a burning mountain such as none had ever seen before. After they had passed beyond the great swamps they saw it only at a great distance. He said that the smoke from its funnel stood like a perpetual cloud against the sky. Some of the legionaries took it as a warning from the dark African gods to proceed no further, but Lord Aquer declared it was a welcoming beacon and that he was determined to reach it. He ordered the march to continue.

However, it was at this point, within sight of the volcano, that the soldier fell ill with the fever. He was abandoned and left for dead while his companions marched southwards. But he managed to reach a village of giant naked black people who lived on the lakeshore. They took him

 I THE QUEST

in. One of their shamans gave him medicine and nursed him until he had recovered sufficiently to continue his homeward journey.' In his agitation Tiptip gripped Taita's arm. 'I wanted to tell you before but Brother Nubank would not allow it. He forbade me to pester you with hearsay from seventy years ago. He said that we geographers deal only with fact. You will not tell Brother Nubank I disobeyed him? He is a good and holy man, but he can be strict.'

'You did right,' Taita reassured him, and gently dislodged the clutching fingers. Then, suddenly, he lifted Tiptip's hand to examine it more closely. 'You have six fingers!' he exclaimed.

Clearly Tiptip was mortified: he tried to hide the deformity by clenching his hand into a fist. 'The gods built my entire body awry. My head and eyes, my back and my limbs — everything about me is twisted and misformed.' His eyes filled with tears.

'But you have a good heart,' Taita consoled him. Gently, he opened the fist and spread the fingers. An additional rudimentary finger grew out of the man's palm beside the normal little finger.

' “Six fingers point the way,”' Taita whispered.

'I did not mean to point at you, Magus. I would never deliberately give offence to you in that way,' Tiptip whimpered.

'No, Tiptip, you have done me great service. Be certain of my gratitude and my friendship.'

'You will not tell Brother Nubank?'

'No. You have my oath on it.'

'The blessings of Hathor upon you, Magus. Now I must go or Brother Nubank will come to find me.' Tiptip scampered away like a crab. Taita gave him a few moments' start then made his way back to the library.

He found that Demeter and Meren had preceded him, and Nubank was berating Tiptip: 'Where have you been?'

'I was in the latrine, Brother. Forgive me. I have eaten something that has upset my stomach.'

'And you have upset mine, you loathsome piece of excrement.

While you were there you should have left all of yourself in the bucket.'

He clouted Tiptip's birthmark. 'Now bring me the scrolls in which the islands of the eastern ocean are described.'

Taita took his place beside Demeter and said to him in Tenmass, 'Look to the little fellow's right hand.'

'He has six fingers.' Demeter exclaimed. '“Six fingers point the way!”

You have learnt something from him, have you not?'

'We must follow the right branch of Mother Nile to her source. There

we will find a volcano set beside a wide lake. I am certain in my heart that that is where Eos lurks.';

They left the temple of Hathor long before sunrise the next morning. Nubank bade them farewell reluctantly - he had fifty volcanoes yet to describe. It was still half dark when they reached the ford of the Nile below Thebes. Habari and Meren led the way down into the riverbed, Taita and Demeter following, but a gap had opened between the two groups. The leaders rode through the tail of one of the stinking red pools and were half-way to the far bank as Demeter's camel started across the mud. At that moment Taita became aware that a malevolent influence was focusing on them. He felt a chill in the air, the pulse in his ears pounded and his breathing was hampered. He turned quickly and looked back over his mare's rump.