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

Nefer Seti seized him in a hearty embrace. As young men they had embarked together on the ultimate test of warriorhood, the Red Road, a trial of skill in handling chariot, sword and bow. The two had been matched as a team against proven and tried veterans, who were free to employ any means, even killing, to prevent them reaching the end of the road. Together they had won through. Companions of the Red Road were brothers of the warrior blood, united for life. Until her death Meren had been betrothed to Nefer Seti's sister, the Princess Merykara, so he and Pharaoh had nearly become brothers-in-law. This reinforced the bond between them. Meren might have held high office in Thebes, but he had chosen instead to enrol himself as an apprentice to Taita.

'Has Taita been able to school you in the Mysteries? Have you become a magus as well as a mighty warrior?' Pharaoh demanded.

'Nay, Majesty. Despite the best efforts of Taita, I lacked the skills.

I have never woven the simplest of spells that succeeded. A few even rebounded on my own head.' Meren made a rueful face.

'A good warrior is better than an inept sorcerer any day, old friend.

Come, sit in conference with us, as was our wont in those long-ago days when we were fighting to free this very Egypt from the tyrant.'

As soon as they were seated at either side of Taita's sleeping mat, Nefer Seti became serious. 'Now, tell me of your encounter with the toads.'

Between them Taita and Meren described the death of Demeter.

When they ended Nefer Seti was silent. Then he growled, 'Those animals grow bolder and more voracious every day. I am certain that it is they who have made impure and sullied what remains of the water in the river pools. I have tried every means I can think of to be rid of them, but for every one we slay two more spring up to take its place.'

'Majesty.' Taita paused for a moment before he went on. 'You must seek out the witch whose creatures they are, and destroy her. The toads and all the other plagues she heaps upon you and your kingdom will disappear with her, for she is their mistress. Then the Nile will flow again, and prosperity will return to this very Egypt.'

Nefer Seti stared at him in alarm. 'Must I infer that the plagues are not of nature?' he demanded. 'That they are created by the sorcery and witchcraft of one woman?'

'That is what I believe,' Taita assured him.

Nefer Seti sprang to his feet and strode up and down, lost in thought.

At last he stopped and stared hard at Taita. 'Who is this witch? Where is she? Can she be destroyed, or is she immortal?'

'I believe she is human, Pharaoh, but her powers are formidable. She protects herself well.'

'What is her name?'

'It is Eos.'

'The goddess of the dawn?' He had been well schooled by the priests in the hierarchy of the gods, for he was a god himself. 'Did you not tell me she was human?'

'She is a human being who has usurped the goddess's name to conceal her true identity.'

'If that is so then she must have an earthly abode. Where is it, Taita?'

'Demeter and I were seeking her out, but she became aware of our intentions. First she sent a giant python to attack him but Meren and I saved him, although he came close to death. Now she has succeeded with the toads where she failed with the serpent.'

'So you do not know where I can find the witch?' Nefer Seti persisted.

'We do not know for certain, but the occult indications suggest that she lives in a volcano.'

'A volcano? Is that possible, even for a witch?' Then he laughed. 'I learnt long ago never to doubt you, Taita. But tell me, which volcano?

There are many.'

'I believe that to find her we must travel to the headwater of the Nile,

beyond the mighty swamps that block the river above Qebui. Her lair is near a volcano beside a great lake. Somewhere at the very end of our earth.'

'I remember you told me when I was a boy how my grandmother, Queen Lostris, sent a legion south under Lord Aquer to find the source of the river. They disappeared into those dread swamps beyond Qebui and never came back. Has that expedition aught to do with Eos?'

'It has indeed, majesty,' Taita agreed. 'Did I not tell you that there was a lone survivor of the legionaries who returned to Qebui?'

'I do not remember that part of the tale.'

'At the time it seemed insignificant, but one man came back. He was raving and demented. The physicians thought he had been driven mad by the hardships he had endured. He died before I could speak to him.

But recently I have learnt that before he died he told strange tales that were disbelieved by all who heard them so they were not reported to me.

He raved about vast lakes and mountains at the end of the earth … and a volcano set beside the greatest of the lakes. It is from this legend that Demeter and I divined the whereabouts of the witch.' He went on to describe his meeting with the hunchback Tiptip.

Nefer Seti listened, fascinated. When Taita had finished, he thought for a while, then asked, 'Why is the volcano so important?'

In reply Taita described Demeter's captivity in the witch's lair on Etna and his escape.

'She needs the subterranean fires as a forge in which to fashion her spells. The power emitted by the immense heat and sulphurous gases enhances her powers to godlike proportions,' Taita explained.

'Why have you selected this particular volcano to examine first of all the many hundreds?' Nefer asked.

'Because it is closest to this very Egypt, and it sits upon the source of the Nile.'

'I see now that your reasoning is solid. It all fits together neatly,' Nefer Seti said. 'Seven years ago, when the Nile dried up, I remembered all that you had told me of my grandmother's expedition so I ordered another legion to march south on the same mission to reach the source and discover the cause of the river's failure. The officer I placed in command was Colonel Ah-Akhton.'

'This I did not know,' Taita said.

'Because you were not here for me to discuss it with you. You and Meren were wandering in foreign lands.' Nefer Seti's tone was a rebuke.

'You should have stayed with me.'

Taita adopted a repentant attitude. 'I did not know you had need of me, Majesty.'> 'I will always have need of you.' He was readily appeasedI 'What news of this second expedition?' Quickly Taita seized his advantage. 'Has it returned?'

'No, it has not. Not a single man of eight hundred who marched away came back. They have vanished more completely than my grandmother's army did. Has the witch destroyed them also?'

'It is more than possible, Majesty.' He saw that Nefer Seti had already accepted the existence of the witch and did not have to be convinced or encouraged to pursue her.

'You never fail me, Tata, except when you are on a jaunt to the gods alone know where.' Nefer Seti grinned at him. 'Now I know who is mine enemy and I can move against her. Before, I was helpless to lift these terrible afflictions from my people. I was reduced to digging wells, begging food from my enemies and killing toads. Now you have made clear the solution to my problems. I must destroy the witch!'

He jumped up and continued to pace as restlessly as a caged lion. He was a man of action, eager to take to the sword. The very thought of war had lifted his spirits. Taita and Meren watched his face as the ideas came to him in floods. Every once in a while he would slap the scabbard at his side and exclaim, 'Yes! By Horus and Osiris, that is it!' At last he turned back to Taita. 'I shall lead another campaign against this Eos.'

'Pharaoh, she has already gobbled up two Egyptian armies,' Taita reminded him.

Nefer Seti sobered a little. He resumed pacing, then stopped again.

'Very well. As Demeter did at Etna, you will work a spell of such power against her that she will fall from her mountain and burst like an overripe fruit as she hits the ground. What think you, Tata?'