The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur (бесплатные полные книги .TXT) 📗
The darkness settled over him like the heavy velvet folds of a funeral
pall. It was so intense and complete that it seemed to have a physical
weight and texture. He could taste the darkness in his mouth as it
seemed to force its way into his body and suffocate him.
He ran again, wildly and blindly, losing all sense of direction in the
blackness. He crashed headlong into stone and fell again, stunned. He
could feel the warm tickle of blood running down his face, and he could
not breathe. He whimpered and gasped and slowly, lying on his side, he
curled himself into a ball like a foetus in the womb.
He wondered how long it would take him to die, and his soul quailed as
he knew that it might take days and even weeks. He moved slightly,
cuddling in closer to the stone object with which he had collided. In
the darkness he had no way of telling that it was the great sarcophagus
of Mamose that sheltered him. Thus he lay in the darkness of the tomb,
surrounded by the funeral treasures of an emperor, and waited for his
own slow but inexorable death.
he monastery of St. Frumentius was deserted.
The monks had heard the gunfire and the sounds of battle echoing down
the gorge, and had gathered up their treasures and fled.
Nicholas ran down the long, empty cloister, pausing to catch his breath
at the head of the staircase that led down to the level of the Nile and
the Epiphany shrine where he had stored the boats. Panting, he searched
the gloom of the deep basin below him into which the sunlight se! Clom
reached, but the moving clouds of silver spray from the twin waterfalls
screened the depths. He had no way of telling if Sapper and Royan were
down there waiting for him, or if they had run into trouble on the
trail.
He adjusted the tattered and bloodstained bandage around his chin, and
then started down. Then he heard her voice in the silver mist below him,
calling his name, and she came pelting up the slippery, slime-covered
stairs towards him.
"Nicholas! Oh, thank God! I thought you weren't coming." She would have
rushed into his embrace, but then she saw his bandaged and blood-smeared
face, and she stopped and stared at him, appalled.
Sweet Mary!" she whispered. "What happened to you, Nickyr
"A little tiff with Jake Helm. Just a scratch, but I am 4, not much good
at kissing right now," he mumbled, trying to grin around the bandage,
"You will have to wait for later."
He put one arm around her shoulders, almost swinging her off her feet,
as he turned her to face down the stairs again.
"Where are the others?" He hurried her down.
"They are all here," she told him. "Sapper and Mek are pumping the boats
and loading."
"Tessay?"
"She's safe."
They scrambled down the last flight of steps on to the jetty below the
Epiphany shrine. The Nile had risen ten feet since Nicholas had last
stood there. The river was full and angry, muddy and swift. He could
barely make out the cliffs on the far bank through the drifting clouds
of spray.
The five Avon boats were drawn up at the edge. Four of them were already
fully inflated, and the last one was billowing and swelling as the air
was released into it from the compressed air cylinder. Mek and Sapper
were packing the ammunition crates into the ready boats and strapping
them down under green nylon cargo nets.
Sapper looked up at Nicholas and a comical expression of astonishment
spread over his bluff features, "What the blue bleeding blazes happened
to your face?"
"Tell you about it one day," Nicholas promised, and turned to embrace
Mek.
"Thank you, old friend," he said sincerely, "Your men fought well, and
you waited for me." Nicholas glanced at the row of wounded guerrillas
that lay against the foot of the cliff. "How many casualties?"
"Three dead, and these six wounded. It could have been much worse if
Nogo's men had pushed us harder."
"Still, it's too many," said Nicholas.
"Even one is too many," Mek agreed gruffly.
"Where are the rest of your men?"
(on the run for the border. Kept just enough of them with me to handle
the boats." Mek stripped the filthy bandage from Nicholas's chin. Royan
gasped when she saw the injury, but Mek grinned.
"Looks as though you were chewed by a shark."
"That's right, I was,'Nicholas agreed.
WI BE, Mek shrugged. "It needs at least a dozen stitches." He shouted
for one of his men to bring his pack.
Sorry, no anaesthetic," -he warned Nicholas as he forced him to sit on
the transom of one of the boats and poured antiseptic straight from the
bottle.
Nicholas let out a gasp of pain. "Burns, doesn't it?" Mek agreed
complacently. "But just wait until I start sewing."
"This kindness will be written down against your name in the golden
book," Nicholas told him, and with an evil leer Mek broke the seal on a
suture pack.
As Mek worked on the wound, pulling the edges together and tugging the
thread tight, he spoke quietly so that Nicholas alone could hear. "Nogo,
has at least a full company of men guarding the river downstream. My
scouts tell me that he has placed them to cover the trails on both
banks."
"He doesn't know that we have boats to run the river, does he?" Nicholas
asked through gritted teeth.
"I think it is unlikely, but he knows a great deal about our movements.
Perhaps he had an informer amongst your workmen." Mek paused as he
pricked the needle into Nicholas's flesh, and then went on, "And Nogo
still has the helicopter. He will spot us on the river as soon as this
cloud breaks."
The river is our only escape route. Let's pray that the weather stays
socked in, like this."
By the time Mek had tied off the last knot and covered Nicholas's chin
with a Steri-Strip plaster, Sapper had finished inflating and loading
the last boat.
Four of Mek's men carried Tessay's litter to one of the boats. Mek
helped her aboard and settled her on the deck, making sure that she had
one of the safety straps close at hand. Then he left her and hurried to
where his wounded men lay in order to help them into the boats too. Most
of them could walk, but two had to be carried.
After that he came back to Nicholas. "I see you have found your radio,"
he said, as he glanced at the fibreglass case that Nicholas had slung
over his shoulder on its carrying strap.
"Without it we would be in big trouble." Nicholas patted the case
affectionately.
"I will take command of that boat, with Tessay."
"Good!" Nicholas agreed. "Royan will 90 with me in the lead boat."
"You had better let me lead,'Mek said.
"What do you know about river running?" Nicholas asked him. "I am the
only one of us who has ever shot this river before."
"That was twenty years ago," Mek pointed out.
"I am an even better man now than I was then," Nicholas grinned. "Don't
argue, Mek. You come next, and Sapper in the one behind you. Are there
any of your men who know the river to command the other two boats?"
"All my men know the river," Mek told him, and shouted his orders. Each
