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

'Your Majesty, do not underestimate Eos. Demeter was a mightier magus than I am. He struggled against the witch with all his powers, but in the end she destroyed him, seemingly without effort, as you might crush a tick between your fingernails.' Taita shook his head regretfully.

'My spells are like javelins. Thrown at extreme range, they are feeble and easily deflected with a flick of her shield. If I come close enough to her, and am able to discern her whereabouts exactly, then my aim will improve. If I have her in my eye, my dart may be good enough to fly past her shield. I cannot touch her at this great distance.'

'If she is so all-powerful as to destroy Demeter, why has she not done

the same to you?' He answered his own question immediately. 'Because she fears that you are stronger than she is.'

'I wish it were that simple. No, Pharaoh, it is because she has not yet struck at me with all her strength.'

Nefer Seti looked puzzled. 'But she killed Demeter, and she grinds my kingdom between the millstones of her malice. Why does she spare you?'

'She had no further use for Demeter. I told you how when he was in her clutches she sucked from him, like a great vampire, all his learning and skills. When at last he escaped she did not trouble to pursue him vigorously. He was no longer a threat to her, and had nothing more to offer. That is, until he and I united. Then her interest quickened again.

Together we had become such a significant force that she was able to detect me. She does not wish to destroy me until she has sucked me dry, as she did Demeter, but she could not lure me into her snares unless she isolated me. So she struck down my ally.'

'If she wants to preserve you for her foul purposes, I will take you with my army. You will be my stalking horse. I will use you to come within striking distance, and while you distract her, both of us will attack her,'

Nefer Seti proposed.

'Desperate measures, Pharaoh. Why should she allow you close enough to her when she can kill you from a distance, as she did with Demeter?'

'From what you tell me, she seeks dominion over Egypt. Very well. I will tell her that I have come to surrender myself and my land to her.

I will ask to be allowed to kiss her feet in submission.'

Taita kept a grave expression, although he wanted to chuckle at this naive suggestion. 'Sire, the witch is a savant.'

'What is that?' Nefer Seti demanded.

'With her Inner Eye she is able to scry a man's soul as readily as you read a battle plan. You would never come close to her with such anger displayed in your aura.'

'Then how do you propose to draw within range without being scried by her mysterious eye?'

'As she is, so am I a savant. I throw no aura for her to read.'

Nefer Seti was becoming angry. He had been a god long enough to resent any check or restraint. His voice rose: 'I am no longer a child for you to baffle with your esoteric cant. You are too quick to point out the flaws in my plans,' he said. 'Learned Magus, be kind and gracious enough to propose an alternative so that I may have the pleasure of treating it as you have treated mine.'

'You are the pharaoh, you are Egypt. You must not walk into the web she weaves. Your duty is here with your people, with Mintaka and your children, to protect them if I should fail.'I 'You are a devious and crafty rogue, Tata. I know where this is moving.

You would leave me here in Thebes, killing toads, while you and Meren set out on another adventure. Am I to be left cowering in my own harem like a woman?' he asked bitterly.

'Nay, Majesty, like a proud pharaoh on the throne, ready to defend the Two Kingdoms with your life.'

Nefer Seti placed his clenched fists on his hips and glared. 'I should not listen to your siren song. You spin a web with as strong a thread as any witch.' Then he spread his hands in a gesture of resignation. 'Sing on, Tata, and I perforce will listen.'

'You might consider giving Meren a small force to command, not more than a hundred picked warriors. They will travel fast, living off the land without recourse to a lumbering supply train. Numbers alone are no threat to the witch. She will not be concerned by a contingent of this size. As Meren projects no complex psychic aura to arouse her suspicions, she will scry him as a bluff, simple soldier. I will go with him. She will recognize me from afar, but by coming to her I am playing into her hands. In order to take from me the knowledge and power she desires, she must let me come close to her.'

Nefer Seti growled and muttered under his breath as he stamped up and down. Finally he confronted Taita again: 'It is hard for me to accept that I should not lead the expedition. However, your arguments, convoluted though they are, have swayed me from my good sense.' His glowering features cleared a little. 'Above all men in Egypt, I trust you and Meren Cambyses.' He turned to Meren. 'You shall have the rank of colonel. Choose your hundred, and I will give you my royal Hawk Seal so that you can equip them from the state armouries and remount stations anywhere in my dominions.' The Hawk Seal delegated Pharaoh's royal power to the bearer. 'I want you ready to ride with the new moon at the latest. Be guided in all things by Taita. Return safely and bring me the witch's head.'

When word got out that he was recruiting a flying column of elite cavalry, Meren was besieged by volunteers. He chose as his captains three hardy veterans, Hilto-bar-Hilto, Shabako and Tonka. None had ridden and fought with him during the civil war they were too young for that - but their fathers had, and their grandfathers had all been companions of the Red Road.

'The warrior blood breeds true,' Meren explained to Taita. His fourth choice was Habari, whom he had come to like and trust. He offered him the command of one of his four platoons.

He mustered all four captains, confirmed their selection and questioned them closely: 'Have you a wife or woman? We travel light. There will be no place with us for camp-followers.' Traditionally Egyptian armies travelled with their women.

'I have a wife,' Habari said, 'but I will be pleased to escape from her scolding for five years, or ten, even longer if you require it, Colonel.' The other three agreed with this sensible view.

'Colonel, if we are to live off the land, then we will take our women where we find them,' said Hilto-bar-Hilto, the son of old Hilto, now long dead. He had been the Best of Ten Thousand and had worn the Gold of Praise at his throat, awarded to him by Pharaoh after the battle at Ismalia when they had overthrown the false pharaoh.

'Spoken like a true legionary.' Meren laughed. He delegated to the chosen four the selection of the troopers to fill their platoons. Within less than ten days they had assembled a hundred of the finest warriors in the entire Egyptian army. Each man was equipped, armed and sent to the remount station to pick out two chargers and a pack mule. As Pharaoh had commanded, they were ready to march from Thebes on the night of the new moon.

Two days before the departure, Taita crossed the river and rode to the Palace of Memnon to take his leave of Queen Mintaka. He found her thinner, wan and cast down. The reason for this she confided to him within the first few minutes of their meeting.

'Oh, Tata, dear Tata. The most dreadful thing has transpired. Soe has vanished. He has gone without taking leave of me. He disappeared three days after you saw him in my audience chamber.'

Taita was not surprised. That had been the day of Demeter's gruesome death.

'I have sent messengers to find him in every possible place. Taita, I

know you will be as distressed as I am. You knew and admired him We both saw in him the salvation of Egypt. Can you not use your special powers to find him for me, and bring him back to me? Now that he has gone I will never see my dead babies again. Egypt and Nefer will remain in perpetual agony. The Nile will never flow.'