The Quest - Smith Wilbur (читаем книги онлайн бесплатно TXT) 📗

'I am Eos,' she said.

'Why did you call me “beloved”? This is our first meeting. You do not know me at all.'

'Ah, Taita, I know you as well as you know yourself. Perhaps even better.'

Her laughter was sweeter on his ears than any music he had ever listened to. He tried to close his mind to it. 'Even though your words defy reason, somehow I cannot doubt them. I accept that you know me, but I know nothing of you, except your name,' he replied.

'Taita, we must be honest with each other. I will speak only the truth to you. You must do the same for me. Your last statement was a lie. You know much about me, and you have formed opinions that are, alas, mostly erroneous. It is my purpose to enlighten you, and to correct your misconceptions.'

'Tell me where I have erred.'

'You believe I am your enemy.'

Taita remained silent.

'I am your friend,' Eos went on. 'The dearest and sweetest friend you will ever have.'

Taita inclined his head gravely, but again made no reply. He found he wanted desperately to believe her. It took all his determination to keep his shield high.

After a beat, Eos continued, 'You imagine that I will lie to you, that I have already lied to you as you have lied to me,' she said.

He was relieved that he threw no aura for her to read: his emotions were seething.

'I have spoken only the truth to you. The images I showed you in the grotto were the truth. There was no element of deceit in them,' she told him.

'They were forceful images,' he said, his tone neutral and noncommittal.

'They were all true. All I have promised is in my power to give to you.'

'Why of all mankind have you chosen me?'

'All mankind?' she exclaimed, with scorn. 'All mankind is no more important to me than the individual termites in a colony. They are creatures of instinct, not of reason or wisdom, for they do not live long enough to acquire those virtues.'

'I have known wise men of learning, compassion and humanity,' he contradicted her.

'You make that judgement from the observations of your own short existence,' she said.

'I have lived long,' he said.

'But you will not live much longer,' she told him. 'Your time is nearly done.'

'You are direct, Eos.'

'As I have already promised, I will speak only the truth to you. The human body is an imperfect vehicle and life is ephemeral. A man lives too short a span to acquire true wisdom and understanding. By human standards you are a Long Liver, one hundred and fifty-six years by my reckoning. To me, that is not much longer than a butterfly lives, or the blooming of a night-flowering cactus, born at dusk and perishing before dawn. The physical vehicle in which your spirit soul rides will soon fail you.' Suddenly she thrust her right hand from beneath the black silk cloak and made a sign of benediction.

If her feet were lovely, her hand was exquisite. His breathing checked and he felt the hair on his forearms rise as he watched its graceful gestures.'

'But for you it need not be so,' Eos said softly.

'You have not answered my question, Eos. Why me?'

'In the short time that you have lived you have achieved much. If I extend your life eternally you will become a giant of intellect.'

'That does not explain all of it. I am old and ugly.'

'I have already renewed part of your body,' she pointed out. He laughed bitterly. 'So, now I am an ugly old man with a young and beautiful cock.'

She laughed with him, that thrilling sound. 'So elegantly phrased.'

She drew her hand back under the cloak, leaving him bereft. Then she went on, 'In the grotto I showed you an image of yourself as a young man. You were beautiful, and you can be again.'

'You can have any beautiful young man you choose. I do not doubt that you have already done so,' he challenged.

She answered at once, fairly and honestly: 'Ten thousand times or more, but despite their beauty they were ants.'

'Will I be any different?'

'Yes, Taita - yes.'

'In what way?'

'Your mind,' she said. 'Carnal passion alone soon palls. A superlative intellect is endlessly alluring. A great mind growing stronger with time in a fine body eternally youthful: these are godlike attributes. Taita, you are the perfect companion and mate I have longed for down the ages.'

Hour after hour they discoursed. Although he knew that her genius was cold and malevolent, it was still fascinating and seductive. He felt charged with energy, physical and intellectual. Eventually, to his annoyance, he felt the need to absent himself, but before he could voice it she told him, 'There are quarters set aside for you. Pass through that doorway at your right hand and follow the passage to the end.'

The room to which she had directed him was large and imposing, but he hardly noticed his surroundings for his mind was alight. He felt no fatigue. In a cubicle he found an ornately carved stool with a latrine bucket set beneath it and relieved himself. In the corner, scented warm water ran from a spout into a basin of rock crystal. As soon as he had washed he hurried back to the green chamber, hoping that Eos would still be there. The sunlight no longer glowed through the shafts in the

I mTHE QUEST ¦ roof. Night had fallen but the rock crystals on the walls glowed with a warm light. Eos sat as he had last seen her, and as he settled himself opposite her, she said, 'There is food and drink for you.' With that lovely hand she indicated the ivory table beside him. During his absence silver dishes and a chalice had been set upon it. He felt no hunger, but the fruit and sherbet looked delicious. He ate and drank sparingly, then returned eagerly to their conversation: 'You speak easily of eternal life?'

'The dream of all men, from pharaohs to serfs,' she agreed. 'They long for eternal life in an imagined paradise. Even the old people who lived before I was born painted images of that dream on the walls of their caves.'

'Is it possible to fulfil it?' Taita asked.

'I sit before you as living proof that it is.'

'How old are you, Eos?'

'I was already old when I watched Pharaoh Cheops raise the great pyramid at Giza.'

'How is this possible?'

'Have you heard of the Font?' she asked.

'It is a myth that has come down to us from antiquity,' he replied.

'It is no myth, Taita. The Font exists.'

'What is it? Where is it?'

'It is the Blue River of all life, the essential force that drives our universe.'

'Is it truly a river or a fountain? And why “Blue”? Can you describe it for me?'

'There are no words, not even in the Tenmass, that adequately describe its might and beauty. When we have become one, I will take you to it.

We will bathe side by side in the Blue, and you shall come forth in all the splendour of youth.'

'Where is it? Is it in the sky or in the earth?'

'It moves from one place to another. As the seas shift and the mountains rise and fall, so the Font moves with them.'

'Where is it now?'

'Not far from where we sit,' said Eos, 'but be patient. In time I will lead you to it.'

She lied. Of course she lied. She was the Lie. Even if the Font existed, he knew she would lead no other person to it, but still the false promise intrigued him.

'I see you doubt me still,' Eos said softly. 'To demonstrate my utmost

good faith, I will allow you to take another person with you to the Fbnt, to share in its blessing. Someone whom you count dear. Is there such a person?'

Fenn! Instantly he cloaked the thought so that even she could not read it. Eos had set a trap, and he had almost blundered into it. 'There is no such person,' he answered.

'Once when I overlooked you, you sat beside a pool in the wilderness.

I saw a child with you, a pretty child with pale hair.'

'Ah, yes,' he agreed. 'I forget even her name, for she was one of those you call termites. She was a companion of the moment only.'