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

They found the land of Jarri covered with thick cloud: only the peaks of the Mountains of the Moon rose out of it and the snows upon them shone with an austere radiance. The hidden crater of the Cloud Gardens nestled in their icy embrace. They sank down towards the witch's stronghold, but as they drew closer the ether became turbid and oppressive, as though they swam through a cesspit. Its weight and density resisted their passage. Linked as one they strove forward against its debilitating influence. At last, after immense spiritual exertion, they had forced their way down to the green chamber in the witch's lair.

Eos's massive cocoon lay where Taita had last seen it, but now the protective carapace was fully formed, green and lustrous, shining with an adamantine glitter. Taita had achieved his purpose: he had brought Fenn to look upon the veritable form of Eos, not merely one of her shadowy

manifestations. Now, when the time came, they would be able to combine all their force and concentrate it upon her.

They drew back from the Cloud Gardens, over the mountains, the forests and the lake, back into their physical bodies. Taita was still holding her hands. As she came alive again, he looked at her through his Inner Eye. Her aura smouldered like molten metal pouring from the furnace, heated by her fear and anger.

'That thing!' She clung to him. 'Oh, Taita, it was horrible beyond my wildest imagining. That carapace seems to contain all the evil and malice of the universe.' Her face was ashen and her skin cold.

'You have looked upon the enemy. Now you must steel yourself, my love,' he told her. 'You must call upon all your courage and strength.'

He held her to him. 'I need you with me. I cannot prevail against her without you.'

Fenn's face hardened with determination. 'I will not fail you, Taita.'

“I have never thought for a moment that you might.' Over the next few days he employed all of his esoteric art to bolster in her the spiritual powers that the sight of Eos had shaken.

'Tomorrow night the moon will be full, the most propitious phase of its cycle. We are ready and the time is ripe.' But Taita was awakened at dawn by Fenn's sobs and moans. He stroked her face and whispered in her ear, 'Wake up, my darling. It is only a dream. I am here beside you.'

'Hold me, Taita. I had such a terrible dream. I dreamt that Eos struck at me with her magic. She drove her dagger into my belly. The blade was glowing hot.' She groaned again. 'Oh, I can still feel the pain. It was not a dream. It is true. I am wounded and the pain is bitter.'

Taita's heart leapt with alarm. 'Let me feel your stomach.' He pushed her down gently, drew the kaross as far as her knees and laid his hand upon her flat white belly.

'The pain is not all, Taita,' she whispered. 'I am bleeding from the wound she has inflicted.'

'Bleeding? Where is the wound?'

'Here!' She spread her thighs and pushed his hand lower. 'The blood is pouring through the cleft between my legs.'

'Has this not happened to you before - at your age?'

'Never,' she replied. 'This is the very first time.'

'Oh, my sweetest heart.' He took her tenderly in his arms. 'It is not what you think. That comes not from Eos. It is a gift and blessing from the gods of the Truth. I wonder that Imbali did not mention it. You have become a full woman.'

'I do not understand, Taita.' She was still afraid.

'This is your moon blood, the proud emblem of your womanhood.'

Taita realized that the rigours of the journey, the deprivation and hardship she had suffered, must have delayed her natural development.

'But why the pain?'

'Pain is the lot of woman. In pain she is born and in pain she gives forth life. It was ever so.'

'Why now? Why am I struck down at the very time you need me so?'

she lamented.

'Fenn, you must rejoice in your womanhood. The gods have armed you. The first moon blood of a virgin is the most potent talisman in all nature. Neither the witch nor all the host of the Lie can prevail against you on this day when you have come of age.' They rose from the mat and Taita showed her how to fold a square of linen into a pad filled with dried herbs to soak up the discharge. They washed again and drank a little lake water, but took no food.

'The lion and his lioness hunt better on a hungry stomach,' he told her. They left their shelter, and walked through the main encampment.

In anxious silence the people watched them pass. Something in their manner and mien warned that some fateful business was afoot.

Only Meren came forward to meet them. 'Do you need my help, Magus?'

'Good Meren, you were ever faithful but we are bound whither you cannot follow.'

Meren went down on one knee in front of him. 'Then give me your blessing, I beseech you.'

Taita placed his hand on his head. 'You have it in full measure,' he said, then he and Fenn walked out of the encampment and down the hillside towards the lake. The air was sultry and still, all the earth hushed.

No animal moved or called. No bird flew. The sky was a bright, aching blue, with only one tiny cloud hanging far out over the lake. As Taita watched, it changed gradually into the shape of a cat's paw.

'Even in her cocoon the witch has sensed the threat we pose to her and she moves against us,' he told Fenn softly. She leant closer to him, and they went on until they stood at last on the heights of the bluff.

They gazed down on the Red Stones, the mighty barrier that choked the mouth of the infant Nile.

'Is there any force commanded by man or nature that can shift something of that magnitude?' Fenn wondered aloud.

'It was raised by the force of the Lie. Perchance it can be brought

down by the power of the Truth,' he answered her, and as one they turned their eyes towards the temple of Eos.

'Are you ready?' he asked and she nodded. 'Then we must go to confront Eos in her temple.'

'What will happen if we enter there, Magus?'

'That I do not know. We must expect the worst, and prepare for it.'

Taita took another moment to look down once more upon the surface of the lake. It was smooth and glassy. High above it sailed the little cloud, still in the shape of the cat's paw. Holding hands, they stepped on to the paved pathway that led up towards the domed roof of the temple.

Immediately a tiny wind stirred the sullen air. It was cold upon their cheeks, cold as the fingers of a dead man. It scuttled across the lake, scratching the polished surface, then dropped away again. They walked on upwards. Before they were half-way to the crest, the wind came again.

Whistling softly, it smeared the little cloud across the horizon and furrowed the lake with dark blue streaks.

The sound of the wind rose sharply. Then it hurled itself upon them.

It shrieked as it tore at their clothing and ripped at Taita's beard. They staggered before it, clutching each other for support. The surface of the lake was lashed into dancing white waves. The trees along the shore swayed, their branches whipping. Painfully they climbed on until at last they stood before the main doors of the temple, which were wide open, one sagging on its hinges, the other banging and flapping. Suddenly the howling wind seized both and slammed them shut with such force that the rendering round the jambs cracked and crumbled.

Taita reached up to his throat and closed his hand over the Periapt of Lostris, which hung there on its golden chain. Fenn grasped the gold nugget of the Talisman of Taita. Then, with his free hand, Taita reached into his pouch and brought from it the thick braid of Eos's hair. He held it high, and the earth moved beneath them, shuddering with such agitation that one of the closed doors was torn from its hinges and crashed down at their feet. They stepped over it and went through the opening into the circular portico of the temple. Here, the air was thick and viscious with evil. It was difficult to wade through it, as though they were struggling in the mud of a deep morass. Taita took Fenn's arm to steady her, and guided her along the passageway to the opposite side of the temple. At last they stood before the flower-shaped doorway, its jambs tiled with polished ivory, malachite and tiger's eye. The crocodile skin door was closed. Taita struck the centre with the rope of Eos's hair.