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

That frowned. 'I have given it little thought, as I have no particular interest in architecture, but you may be right, Magus. It is probably a shrine or a temple, or possibly for storage of grain.' He shrugged. 'May I offer you more wine?' Clearly the question had annoyed him, and he was once more aloof and coolly polite. Furthermore, it was apparent that the galley crew had been instructed not to hold any conversation with them, or to answer their questions.

Day after day the fleet sailed westward along the lakeshore. At Taita's request the captain rigged a sail to give them shade and privacy. Screened from the eyes of That and the crew, Taita made progress training Fenn.

During the long march southwards there had been little opportunity for them to be alone. Now their secluded corner of the deck became sanctuary and schoolroom, in which he could hone her perception, concentration and intuition to a fine edge.

He introduced her to no new aspects of the esoteric arts. Instead he spent hours each day practising those she had already acquired. In particular he worked on communication through the telepathic exchange of mental images and thoughts. He was haunted by a premonition that at some time in the near future they would be separated. If this should happen, then such contact would be their lifeline. Once the connection between them was swift and sure, his next concern was to suppress the display of her aura. Only when he was satisfied that she had perfected these disciplines could they proceed to review the conjugation of the words of power.

Hours and days of practice was so demanding and exhausting that Fenn should have been mentally and spiritually drained: she was a novice in the arcane arts, a girl in body and strength. However, even when he had taken into account that she was an old soul, who had lived another life, her resilience astounded him. Her energy seemed to feed on her exertions in the same way that the water-lily, her life symbol, fed on the mud of the river bed.

Disconcertingly, she could change in a beat from serious student to

spirited girl as she switched from the obscure conundrum of the conjugations to delight in the beauty of ruby-winged flamingos passing overhead.

At night when she slept near him under the awning on the sleeping mats spread on the deck he wanted to snatch her up and crush her to him so tightly that not even death could tear them apart.

The galley captain spoke of sudden violent gales that swept across the lake without warning. He told of the many vessels that had been overwhelmed and now lay in the unplumbed deeps. Each evening, as night fell over the great waters, the flotilla found anchorage in a sheltered bay or cove. Only when the first rays of the rising sun opened, like the tail of a peacock, above the eastern horizon did the ships hoist their sails, run out the banks of their oars and turn their prows east once more. The extent of the great lake astounded Taita. The shoreline seemed endless.

Is it as large as the Middle Sea or the mighty Ocean of the Indies, or is it without limits or boundaries? he wondered. In spare moments he and Fenn drew maps on sheets of papyrus, or made notes of the islands they passed and the features they saw upon the shore.

'We shall take these to the geographer priests at the temple of Hathor.

They know nothing of these secrets and wonders,' he told her.

A dreamy look clouded the green of her eyes. 'Oh, Magus, I long to return with you to the land of my other life. You have made me remember so many precious things. You will take me there one day, won't you?'

'Be sure of it, Fenn,' he promised.

By observations of the sun, the moon and other heavenly bodies, Taita calculated that the lakeshore was gradually inclining towards the south. 'This leads me to believe that we have reached the western limit of the lake, and that we will soon be sailing due south,' he said.

'Then in time we will reach the end of the earth and fall off it into the sky.' Fenn sounded undaunted by the prospect of such a catastrophe.

'Will we fall for ever, or will we come to rest at last in another world and another time? What do you think, Magus?'

'I hope our captain will have the sense to turn back as soon as he sees the void gaping ahead, and we will not have to tumble through time and space. I am quite content with the here and now.' Taita chuckled, delighted with the blossoming of her imagination.

That evening he examined the wound in her thigh and was gratified to find that it had healed cleanly. The skin around the horse-hair stitches was flushed an angry red, a sure sign that it was time to remove them.

He snipped at the knots and pulled them out with his ivory forceps. A few drops of yellow pus oozed from the puncture marks they left. Taita sniffed it and smiled. 'Sweet and benign. I could not have hoped for a better result. See what a pretty scar it has left you, shaped like the petal of your water-lily symbol.'

She cocked her head to one side as she examined the mark, which was no bigger than the nail on her little finger. 'You are so clever, Magus.

I am sure you did that by design. It is more pleasing to me than Imbali's tattoos are to her. She will be so envious!'

They sailed on through a maze of islands on which grew trees with trunks so thick and tall they seemed to be the pillars that held aloft the inverted blue bowl of the heavens. Eagles roosted upon the galleries of shaggy nests they had built in the high branches. They were magnificent birds with shining white heads and russet pinions. In flight they would emit a wild, chanting cry, then plunge into the lake and emerge with a large fish gripped in their talons.

They saw monstrous crocodiles sunning themselves on every beach, and gatherings of hippopotamus in the shallows. The rounded grey backs were as massive as granite boulders. When they sailed out into open water again, the shore turned due south, as Taita had predicted, and they ran on towards the end of the earth. They sailed past endless forests populated by great herds of black buffalo, grey elephant and enormous pig-like creatures that carried sharp horns upon their noses. They were the first of the kind they had encountered, and Taita drew sketches of them, which Fenn declared a marvel of accuracy.

'My friends the priests will hardly believe in the existence of such wondrous beasts,' Taita observed. 'Meren, might you be able to slay one of those creatures so that we could take the nose-horn back with us as a gift for Pharaoh?' Their mood had become so buoyant that they had begun to believe there would be an eventual return to their own land in the far north.

As always, Meren was eager for the chase, and leapt at the suggestion.

'If you can prevail upon That and the captain to anchor for a day or two, I will go ashore with a mount and a bow.'

Taita approached That with the suggestion that the horses, having been confined so long in the cramped conditions aboard the barges, would benefit greatly from a gallop, and found him surprisingly amenable.

'You are correct, Magus, and a goodly supply of fresh meat would not go amiss. With soldiers and slaves, I have many bellies to fill.'

That evening they came to a wide floodplain on the lakeshore. The open glades were alive with multitudes of game, from the grey pachyderms to the smallest, most graceful antelope. The plain was bisected by a small estuary running in from the east and debouching into the lake. It was navigable for a short distance, and provided a secure harbour for the flotilla. They landed the horses, and the men set up a camp on the riverbank. They were all delighted to have solid ground under their feet, and as they rode out the next morning the mood was festive. That instructed his hunters to attack the herds of buffalo and to pick out the cows and heifers, whose flesh was more palatable than that of the old bulls - they were so tough and rank that they were almost inedible.