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

'Mountain zebra?' Taita hazarded.

Nakonto shook his head emphatically.

'Horses carrying riders,' Fenn translated, for Meren's sake.

He was alarmed. 'Strange horsemen. Who can they be, so far from civilization? They may be hostile. We should not continue up the pass until we find out who they are.' He looked back the way they had come.

On the plain below they could see the cloud of yellow dust the rest of the column had raised, still three or more leagues away. 'We must wait for the others, then go forward in strength.' Before Taita could reply a loud halloo rang down from the high ground above and echoed off the hills. It startled them all.

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'We have been discovered! But, by Seth's pestilential breath, whoever they are they speak Egyptian,' Meren exclaimed. He cupped his hands round his mouth and bellowed back up the pass, 'Who are you.7'

'Soldiers of the divine Pharaoh Nefer Seti!'

'Advance and be recognized,' Meren called.

They laughed with relief as three strange horsemen came clattering down to meet them. Even at a distance Meren saw that one carried the blue standard of the House of Mamose, and as they came closer still their features were clearly Egyptian. Meren started forward to meet them. As the two parties came together they dismounted and embraced rapturously.

'I am Captain Rabat,' the leader introduced himself, 'an officer in the legion of Colonel Ah-Akhton in the service of Pharaoh Nefer Seti.'

'I am Colonel Meren Cambyses, on a special duty for the same divine pharaoh.' Rabat acknowledged his superior ranking with a salute of one fist clenched across his breast. Meren went on, 'And this is the magus, Taita of Gallala.' True respect dawned in Rabat's eyes and he saluted again. Taita saw from his aura that Rabat was man of limited intelligence, but honest and without guile.

'Your fame precedes you, Magus. Please allow me to guide you to our encampment, where you will be our honoured guest.'

Rabat had ignored Fenn for she was a child, but she was conscious of the snub. 'I don't like this Rabat,' Fenn told Taita in Shilluk. 'He is arrogant.'

Taita smiled. She had become accustomed to her favoured position.

In this she reminded him strongly of Lostris when she had been sovereign of Egypt. 'He is only a rough soldier,' he consoled her, 'and beneath your consideration.' Appeased, her expression softened.

'What are your orders, Magus?' Rabat asked.

'The rest of our contingent follows with a large train of baggage.' Taita pointed at the dustcloud on the plain. 'Please send one of your men back to guide them.' Rabat despatched a man at once, then led the rest of them up the steep, rocky pathway towards the crest of the pass.

'Where is Colonel Ah-Akhton, your commander?' Taita asked, as he rode at Rabat's side.

'He died of the swamp-sickness during our advance up the river.'

'That was seven years ago?' Taita asked.

'Nay, Magus. It was nine years and two months,' Rabat corrected him, 'the term of our exile from our beloved homeland, Egypt.'

Taita realized that he had forgotten to include the time it would have

taken them to reach this place since leaving Karnak. 'Who commands the army in Colonel Ah-Akhton's place?' he asked.; 'Colonel That Ankut.'I 'Where is he?'

'He led the army southwards along the river in accordance with the command of Pharaoh. He left me here with only twenty men and some women, those with very young children who had been born during the march or those who were too sick or weak to continue.'

'Why did Colonel That leave you here?'

'I was ordered to plant crops, to keep a herd of horses ready for him, and to hold a base in his rear to which he could retire, if he were forced to retreat from the wild lands to the south.'

'Have you had news of him since he marched away?'

'Some months later he sent back three men with all of his surviving horses. It seems that he had journeyed into a country to the south that is infested with a fly whose sting is fatal to horses and he had lost almost all of his herd. Since those three arrived, we have had no word of him.

He and his men have been swallowed up by the wilderness. That was many long years ago. You are the first civilized men we have met in all that time.' He sounded forlorn.

'You have not thought to abandon this place and take your people back to Egypt?' Taita asked, to gauge his mettle.

'I have thought on it,' Rabat admitted, 'but my orders and my duty are to hold this post.' He hesitated, then went on, 'Besides, the man-eating Chima and the great swamps stand between us and our very Egypt.'

Which is probably the most telling reason why you have remained at iyour post, Taita thought. As they talked they came out at the head of IIIthe pass and before them stretched a wide plateau. Almost at once they 1felt that the air of this high place was more pleasant than that on the Iplains below.

1There were scattered herds of grazing cattle, and beyond them Taita IIIwas astonished to see the mud walls of a substantial military fort. It seemed out of place in this remote and savage landscape; the first sign of civilization they had come across since they had left the fort of Qebui more than two years previously. This was a lost outpost of empire of which no one in Egypt was aware.

'What is the name of this place?' Taita asked.

'Colonel That called it Fort Adari.'

They rode among the grazing cattle, tall, rangy animals with huge

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humped shoulders and a wide spread of heavy horns. The coat of each had a distinctive colour and pattern, no two alike. They were red or white, black or yellow, with contrasting blotches and spots.

'Where did you find these cattle?' Taita asked. 'I have seen none other like them.'

'We trade them with the native tribes. They call them zebu. The herds provide us with milk and beef. Without them we would suffer even greater hardship than we do at present.'

Meren frowned and opened his mouth to reprimand Rabat for his lack of spirit, but Taita read his intention, and cautioned him with a quick shake of his head. Although Taita agreed with both Fenn and Meren on the fellow's worth, it would not be of any benefit to them to offend him. Almost certainly, they would need his Co-operation later. The fields around the fort were planted with dhurra, melons and vegetable crops that Taita did not recognize. Rabat told them the outlandish native names, and dismounted to pick a large shiny black fruit, which he handed to Taita. 'When cooked in a stew of meat they are tasty and nutritious.'

When they reached the fort the women and children of the garrison came out through the gates to welcome them, carrying bowls of soured milk and platters of dhurra cake. Altogether there were fewer than fifty and they were a bedraggled, sorry-looking lot, although they were friendly enough. Accommodation in the fort was limited. The women offered a small windowless cell to Taita and Fenn. The floor was of packed earth, ants moved in military file along the rough-hewn walls and shiny black cockroaches scurried into cracks in the log walls. The smell of the unwashed bodies and chamber-pots of the previous occupants was pervasive.

Rabat explained apologetically that Meren and the rest, officers and men alike, would have to bunk with his soldiers in the communal barracks. With expressions of gratitude and regret, Taita declined this offer of hospitality.

Taita and Meren chose a congenial site half a league beyond the fort, in a grove of shady trees on the banks of a running stream. Rabat, who was plainly relieved not to have them in the fort, honoured Meren's Hawk Seal and provided them with fresh milk, dhurra and, at regular intervals, a slaughtered ox.

'I hope we are not to stay long in this place,' Hilto remarked to Taita, on the second day. 'The mood of these people is so despondent that it will lower the morale of our men. Their spirits are high, and I would like