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

'These children!' Imbali said, in an indulgent and motherly tone. 'It has not been easy to make them see what lies before their eyes, but now my work is done. Both in a single night! I am well pleased with myself.'

'Do not concern yourself with those others so that you neglect what lies closer to hand, woman,' Nakonto told her sternly.

'Ah, I was mistaken. My work is not yet done.' She laughed. 'Come with me, great chief of the Shilluk. I will sharpen your spear for you. You will sleep all the better for it.' She stood up, and laughed again. 'And so will I.'

A road beaten by countless generations of elephant wound down the escarpment of the rift valley, but it was narrow and they were forced to spend much time and labour widening it before they could carry the boats to the lower reaches of the river below the Kabalega falls. At last they relaunched the flotilla and rowed into the centre of the flow. The current was swift and sped them northwards, but it was also treacherous. In as many days they lost five boats on the fangs of the submerged rocks. Three men were drowned and six of the horses with them. Almost all of the other boats were battered and scarred by the time they came out into the open waters of Semliki Nianzu lake. Even in the short time since the Nile had begun to flow again, its waters had been replenished dramatically. They were no longer shallow and muddy and sparkled blue in the sunlight. Across the wide waters to the north the vague blue outline of the far shore was just visible, but to the west there was no glimpse of land.

There were many new villages along the near shore that had not been there when last they passed this way. It was obvious that they had recently been inhabited, for freshly caught catfish were laid out on the smoking racks and hot embers glowed in the fireplaces, but the people had fled at the approach of the flotilla.

'I know this tribe. They are timid fishermen and will not threaten us,'

Imbali told Taita. 'These are dangerous times and they are surrounded by warlike tribes, which is why they have run away.'

Taita ordered that the boats be dragged ashore for repairs to their hulls. He left That and Meren in charge of the encampment. He and Fenn took Nakonto and Imbali with them to act as interpreters and set off in one of the undamaged boats towards the western end of the lake and the mouth of the Semliki river. Taita was determined to find out if this other large tributary of the Nile was flowing again, or if it was still dammed by the malevolent influence of Eos. When they reached Karnak he must be able to inform Pharaoh of all these matters, which were essential to the welfare of Egypt.

The wind stood fair from the east and they were able to hoist the lateen sail to aid the efforts of the crew on the rowing benches. With a bow wave curling under the prow they bore away along a shoreline of white beaches and rocky headlands, with a rampart of blue mountains on the horizon. On the fifth day they reached the mouth of a broad, swift river discharging into the lake from the south.

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'Is this the Semliki?' Taita demanded of Imbali.

'I have never ventured so far east before. I cannot tell,' she answered.

'I must be certain of it. We must find some of the people who live here.' The inhabitants of the villages along the banks had also fled as soon as they saw the boat, but at last they spotted a decrepit dugout canoe far out in the lake. The two old men on board were so busy that they did not see the boat until it was upon them. Then they abandoned their net and tried to make a dash for the beach, but they had no chance of outrunning the galley. They gave up in despair and resigned themselves to the cooking pot.

Once the two greybeards had realized they were not to be eaten, they became garrulous with relief. When Imbali questioned them, they confirmed readily that this river was indeed the Semliki and that until very recently it had been dry. They described the miraculous manner of its resuscitation. At a time when the earth and the mountains shivered and rocked and the lake waters were tossed by waves as high as the skies, the river had come down in full spate and was now running as high as it had done many years ago. Taita rewarded them with a gift of beads and copper spearheads, then sent the two old fishermen on their way, astonished by the extent of their good fortune.

'Our work here is done,' Taita told Fenn. 'Now we can return to Egypt.'

When they arrived back at the encampment at the mouth of the Nile, they found that Meren and That had completed the repairs to the damaged hulls and the flotilla was seaworthy once more. Taita waited for the rise of the noon wind before he gave the order to weigh anchor.

Hoisting the lateen sails and running out the oars, they bore away across the open waters of the lake. With the wind on their best point of sailing they reached the northern shore before sunset and sailed into the branch of the Nile that was augmented with the waters of the two mighty lakes, Nalubaale and Semliki Nianzu. It took them northwards through the territory they had traversed on their journey south.

The next impediment to their voyage was the deadly belt of tsetse fly.

They had long ago used up the last of the Tolas cakes, that sovereign cure for the horse sickness, so as soon as the first fly flitted from the near bank to land on the deck of the leading boat, Taita ordered a change of course and took the flotilla into the centre of the river. They ran down in line astern, and it soon became clear that his instinct had been accurate. The fly would not cross open water to reach the boats in the middle, so they sailed on unmolested. At nightfall Taita would not allow

any of the boats to approach the bank, let alone land upon it, and they sailed on in darkness, lit by a gibbous moon.

For two more days and three nights they kept strictly to the middle of the current. At last they made out in the distance the hills shaped like a virgin's breasts, which marked the northern boundary of the fly belt. Still Taita would not place the horses at risk, and they sailed on for many more leagues before he ordered the first tentative approach to the bank.

To his relief they found no sign of the fly, and the run to Fort Adari was clear.

Colonel That was particularly anxious to discover what had become of the garrison he had left at the fort almost eleven years previously. It was his duty, he felt, to rescue the exiles and take them back to their homeland. When the flotilla was level with the hills on which the fort stood, they moored the boats to the bank and offloaded the horses.

It was good to be released for a while from the tedium of river travel and to have good horses under them again, so Taita, Fenn and That were in high spirits as they rode with a group of mounted men through the pass and were able to look down on the grassy plateau that surrounded the fort.

'Do you remember Tolas, the horse surgeon?' Fenn asked. 'I look forward to seeing him again. He taught me so much.'

'He was a wonder with horses,' Taita agreed. 'He coveted Windsmoke, and could certainly recognize a good mount when he saw one.' He patted the mare's neck and she twitched her ears back to listen to his voice. 'He wanted to steal you from me, didn't he?' She blew through her nose, and nodded. 'You would probably have gone with him willingly, too, you unfaithful old strumpet.'

They rode on towards the fort, but before they had gone much further they had the first inkling that something was seriously wrong. There were no horses or cattle in the pastures, no smoke rose from within the walls and no banners flew above the parapets.

'Where are all my people?' That fretted. 'Rabat is a reliable man.

I expected him to have spotted us by now … if he is still here.' They trotted on anxiously, until Taita exclaimed, 'The walls are in a sad state of repair. The whole place seems deserted.'