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

'Stand by me, Magus,' Pharaoh commanded Taita. 'You will bear witness to the fate of our enemy.' Together they went to the balcony that overlooked the courtyard.

A tall pile, built of logs and bundles of dried papyrus, stood at the centre of the courtyard below them. It had been soaked with lamp oil. A wooden ladder reached up to the scaffold that surmounted the pyre. Two brawny executioners were waiting at the foot. They took Soe from his guards and dragged him up, for his legs could barely support him, then roped him to the stake. They descended the ladder, leaving him alone on the summit. Meren went to the burning brazier beside the doorway into the courtyard. He dipped a tar-soaked torch into the flames, carried it to Mintaka and placed it in her hand. He left her at the foot of the execution pyre.

Mintaka looked up at Pharaoh on the balcony above her. Her expression was pitiful. He nodded to her. She hesitated a moment longer, then hurled the burning torch on to the bundles of oil-soaked papyrus.

She staggered back as a sheet of fire shot up the side of the pyre. The flames and black smoke boiled up higher than the roof of the palace.

In the heart of the flames, Soe shouted to the cloudless sky, 'Hear me, Eos, the only true goddess! Your faithful servant calls to you. Lift me out of the fire. Show your power and holy might to this petty pharaoh and all the world!' Then his voice was drowned by the crackling of the conflagration. Soe sagged forward on his bonds as the smoke and heat enveloped him, and the leaping flames screened him. For an instant they parted to reveal his form, blackened and twisted, no longer human, still hanging from the stake. Then the pyre collapsed in upon itself and he was consumed in the centre of the fire.

Meren drew Mintaka back to the safety of the stairway and led her up to the royal audience hall. She had become a frail old woman, stripped of her dignity and beauty. She went to Pharaoh and knelt before him.

'My lord husband, I beg your forgiveness,' she whispered. 'I was a stupid woman, and there is no excuse for what I did.'

'You are forgiven,' said Nefer Seti, then he seemed at a loss as to what he should do next. He made as if to lift her to her feet, but then stepped back. He knew that such condescension ill-befitted a divine pharaoh and glanced across at Taita, seeking his guidance. Taita touched Fenn's arm.

She nodded and lifted her veil, revealing her golden beauty, then crossed the floor and stooped over Mintaka. 'Come, my queen,' she said, and took Mintaka's arm.

The queen looked up at her. 'Who are you?' she quavered.

'I am one who cares for you deeply,' Fenn replied, and lifted her up.

Mintaka stared into her green eyes, then suddenly she sobbed, 'I sense that you are good and wise beyond your years,' and went into Fenn's embrace. Holding her close, Fenn led her from the chamber.

'Who is that young woman?' Nefer Seti asked Taita. 'I can wait no longer to know. Tell me at once, Magus. That is my royal command.'

'Pharaoh, she is the reincarnation of your grandmother, Queen Lostris,'

Taita replied, 'the woman I once loved and now love again.'

Meren's new estates extended for thirty leagues along the bank of Mother Nile. At the centre stood one of the royal palaces and a magnificent temple dedicated to the falcon god Horus. Both buildings formed part of the royal gift. Three hundred tenant farmers tilled the fertile fields, which were irrigated from the river. They tithed a fifth part of their crops to their new landlord, Lord Marshal Meren Cambyses. A hundred and fifty serfs and two hundred slaves, captives of Pharaoh's wars, worked in the palace or on the private part of the estate.

Meren named the estate Karim Ek-Horus, the Vineyards of Horus. In the spring of that year when the crops were planted, and the earth was bountiful, Pharaoh came downriver from Karnak with all his royal suite to attend the nuptials of Lord Meren and his bride.

Meren and Sidudu came together on the riverbank. Meren was dressed in all the regalia of a marshal of the army, with ostrich plumes in his helmet, the gold chains of Valour and Praise on his bare chest. Sidudu had jasmine blossoms in her hair, and her dress was a cloud of white silk from far Cathay. They broke the jars of Nile water and kissed while all the people shouted with joy and besought the gods' blessing.

The festivities lasted ten days and nights. Meren wanted to fill the palace fountains with wine, but from the moment she became his wife Sidudu forbade such extravagance. Meren was startled by how readily she had assumed the mantle of control over his household, but Taita comforted him: 'She will make you the best possible wife. Her frugality is proof of that. An extravagant wife is a scorpion in her husband's bed.'

Each day Nefer Seti sat with Taita and Meren for hours, listening avidly to the saga of their journey to the Mountains of the Moon. When the tale was told in all its detail, he commanded them to repeat it.

Sidudu, Fenn and Mintaka sat with them. Under Fenn's influence the queen's nature had changed. She had shed the weight of her sorrow and guilt and was once again serene and aglow with happiness. It was clear to all that she had been fully reinstated in her husband's favour.

One part of the story fascinated them, particularly Nefer Seti. He returned to it again and again. 'Tell me once more about the Font,' he demanded of Taita. 'Make certain you leave out no single detail. Begin with the account of how you crossed the bridge of stone over the burning lava lake.'

When Taita reached the end of the tale, he was still not satisfied:

'Describe the taste of the Blueness as you drew it into your mouth'; 'Why did it not suffocate you like water in your lungs when you breathed it?'; 'Was it cold or hot?'; 'How long after you emerged from the Font did you become aware of its marvellous effects?'; 'You say the lava burns upon your legs were healed at once, and your strength returned to all your limbs. Is that truly so?'; 'Now the Font has been destroyed by the eruptions of the volcano, has it been drowned in the burning lava? What a terrible loss that would be. Has it been placed for ever beyond our grasp?'

'The Font, like the life-giving force it bestows, is eternal. As long as life on this earth exists, so also must the Font,' Taita replied.

'Down the years the philosophers, have dreamed of this magical Font, and all my ancestors sought it. Eternal life and eternal youth, what matchless treasures are these?' Pharaoh's eyes were bright with an almost religious fervour. Suddenly he exclaimed, 'Find it for me, Taita. I do not command it but I implore you. I have only twenty or thirty years of my allotted time remaining to me. Go forth, Taita, and find the Font again.'

Taita did not have to look at Fenn. Her voice rang clearly in his head: 'My darling Taita, I add my supplications to those of your king. Take me with you. Let us go out into all the earth until we come to the place where the Font is hidden. Let me bathe in the Blue so that I may stand beside you, in love with you through all eternity.'

'Pharaoh.' Taita looked into his eager eyes. 'As you command, so must I obey.'

'If you succeed, your rewards will be without limit. I will heap upon you all the treasures and honours this world contains.'

'What I have now is sufficient. I have youth and the wisdom of the ages. I have the love of my king and my woman. I do this out of love for you both.'

Taita rode Windsmoke and Fenn was on Whirlwind. Each led a fully laden packhorse. They wore Bedouin garb and carried bow and sword. Meren and Sidudu rode with them as far as the crest of the eastern hills above the estate of Karim Ek-Horus. Here they parted.

Sidudu and Fenn shared a sisterly tear, while Meren embraced Taita and kissed his cheek.