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

'Your eyes are as sharp as ever. They miss nothing. I have tidings that I shall relate to you,' Meren replied, 'but before I do I must caution you to prepare yourself for a great shock. What I have to tell you is so strange and wonderful that when I was first presented with it my mind could not encompass it.'

'Come now, my lord.' Nefer Seti smote him a blow between the shoulder-blades that made him stagger. 'Speak!'

Meren drew a deep breath and blurted out, 'Taita lives.'

Nefer Seti stopped laughing and stared at him in astonishment. Then his features darkened in a scowl. 'Jest with me at your peril, my lord marshal,' he said coldly.

'I speak the truth, mighty King of Kings.' In this mood Nefer Seti struck terror into the bravest heart.

'If this is the truth, and for the good of your soul, Meren Cambyses, it had better be, then tell me where Taita is now.'

'One more thing I must tell you, O majestic and magnanimous one.

Taita is much altered in appearance. You may not recognize him at first.'

'Enough!' Nefer Seti's voice rose. 'Tell me where he is.'

'In this very chamber.' Meren's voice cracked. 'Standing close to us.'

Then, under his breath, he added, 'At least, I hope he is.'

Nefer Seti placed his right hand on the hilt of his dagger. 'You trespass on my good nature, Meren Cambyses.'

Meren looked wildly around the empty chamber and his voice was pitiful as he spoke to the empty air: 'Magus, O mighty Magus! Reveal yourself, I beseech you! I stand in peril of Pharaoh's wrath!' Then he let out a cry of relief. 'Behold, Majesty!' He pointed across the room to a tall statue carved from black granite.

'That is the statue of Taita, carved by the master sculptor Osh,' Nefer Seti said, in fury. 'I keep it here to remind me of the magus, but it is only stone, not my beloved Taita in the flesh.'

'Nay, Pharaoh. Look not at the statue but to its right-hand side.'

Where Meren pointed a shimmering and transparent cloud appeared, like a desert mirage. Pharaoh blinked as he stared at it. 'There is aught there. It is light as air. Is it a djinni? A ghost?'

The mirage became denser, and slowly took solid shape. 'It is a man!'

Nefer Seti exclaimed. 'A veritable man!' He stared in astonishment.

'But it is not Taita. This is a youth, a comely youth, not my Taita. Surely he must be a magician that he is able to mask himself in a spell of concealment.'

'It is magic,' Meren agreed, 'but of the whitest and noblest kind. A magic wrought by Taita himself. This is Taita.'

'Nay!' Nefer Seti shook his head. 'I know not this person, if he is indeed a living person.'

'Your Grace, this is the magus made young and whole again.'

Even Nefer Seti was speechless. All he could do was shake his head.

Taita stood quietly, smiling at him, a warm, loving smile.

'Look to the statue,' Meren pleaded. 'Osh carved it when the magus was already an old man, but even now that he is young again the resemblance is unmistakable. Look to the depth and width of the brow, the shape of the nose and the ears, but above all look to the eyes.'

'Yes… perhaps I can see some resemblance,' Nefer Seti murmured dubiously. Then his tone became firm and challenging: 'Ho, phantom! If you are indeed Taita, you must be able to tell me something known only to the two of us.'

'That is so, Pharaoh,' Taita agreed. 'I could tell you many such things, but one comes instantly to my mind. Do you remember when you were still Prince Nefer Memnon and not Pharaoh of the Two Kingdoms, when you were my student and ward and my pet name for you was Mem?'

Pharaoh nodded. 'I remember well.' His voice had dropped to a husky whisper and his gaze softened. 'But many others could have known such a thing.'

'I can tell you more, Mem. I can tell you how when you were a boy we set pigeon decoys beside the pool of Gebel Nagara in the wilderness and waited twenty days for the royal falcon, your godbird, to come to them.'

'My godbird never came to the decoys,' said Nefer Seti, and Taita saw by the flickering of his aura that he was laying a trap to test him.

'Your falcon came,' Taita contradicted him. 'The lovely falcon that was proof of your royal right to the double crown of Egypt.'

'We captured him,' Nefer Seti said triumphantly.

'Nay, Mem. The falcon refused the decoy and flew away.'

'We abandoned the hunt.'

'Nay again, Mem. Your memory fails you. We followed the bird deeper into the wilderness.'

'Ah, yes! To the bitter Lake Natron.'

'Nay yet again. You and I went to the mountain of Bir Umm Masara.

While I held you on the rope, you climbed to the falcon's eyrie high in the eastern face of the mountain to take down the chicks.' By now Nefer Seti was staring at him with bright eyes. 'When you reached the nest you found that the cobra had been there before you. The birds were dead, killed by the venomous bite of the serpent.'

'Oh, Magus, none but you could have known these things. Forgive me for not acknowledging you. All my life you were my guide and mentor, and now I have denied you.' Nefer Seti was stricken with remorse. He strode across the room and enfolded Taita in his powerful arms. When at last they drew apart, he could not take his eyes off Taita's face. 'The transformation in you defies my powers of comprehension. Tell me how this came about.'

'There is much to tell,' Taita agreed. 'But before that there are other matters we needs must deal with. First, there is somebody I would present to you.' Taita held out his hand and, once again, the air shimmered, then solidified into the shape of a young woman. She also smiled at Nefer Seti.

'As you have done so often before, you confound me with your

492

1

magic,' Nefer Seti said. 'Who is this creature? Why have you brought her to me?'

'Her name is Fenn and she is an adept of the right-hand path.'

'She is too young for that.'

'She has lived other lives.'

'She is surpassing beautiful.' He looked at her with the eye of a lusty man. 'Yet there is something hauntingly familiar about her. Her eyes . ..

I know those eyes.' He searched for the memory. 'They remind me of someone I once knew well.'

'Pharaoh, Fenn is my consort.'

'Your consort? How can that be? You are a—' He checked his tongue.

'Forgive me, Magus. I intended no slight nor injury to your dignity.'

'It is true, Pharaoh, that I was once a eunuch, but now I am a man, whole and complete. Fenn is my woman.'

'So much has changed,' Nefer Seti protested. 'No sooner do I solve one riddle than you present me with another—' He broke off, still staring at Fenn. 'Those eyes. Those green eyes. My father! Those are the eyes of my father. Is it possible that Fenn is of my own royal blood?'

'Come, Mem!' Taita chided him gently. 'First, you complain of the mysteries I lay before you, and then you demand I heap more upon you.

Let me tell you simply that Fenn stands in your direct line. Your blood is her blood, but far back in time.'

'You said that she has lived other lives. Was it in one of those other lives?'

'Even so,' Taita agreed.

'Explain it to me!' Pharaoh commanded.

'Later we will have time for that. However, you and Egypt are still under threat. You already know of the witch, Eos, who stopped the waters of Mother Nile.'

'Is it true that you destroyed her in her lair?'

'The witch is no more, but one of her minions is still at large. His name is Soe. He is a dangerous man.'

'Soe! I know of a man by that name. Mintaka spoke of him. He is a preacher, the apostle of a new goddess.'

'Spelt backwards his name is Eos. His goddess was the sorceress. His purpose was to destroy you and your bloodline, and to usurp the double throne of Egypt for the witch.'

Nefer Seti's expression was horror-struck. 'This Soe had the ear of Mintaka, my principal wife. She believes in him. He converted her to his new religion.'