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

He made an effort to hold on to it. 'I was going to ask you . ..' He rubbed his temples as he tried to recall the question. Something about the women … He tried to grasp it, but it blew away like morning mist at the rise of the sun. He sighed with annoyance at his foolishness. 'Forgive me, I have forgotten what it was.'

'Then it could not have been of any great importance. It will probably come back to you later,' Hannah said, as she rose to her feet. 'On a different subject, Magus, I have heard that you are a botanist and herbalist of great learning. We are proud of our gardens. If you would like to visit them, I would be delighted to act as your guide.'

Taita passed most of the following days exploring the Cloud Gardens with Hannah. He expected to be shown much of interest, but his hopes were exceeded a hundredfold. The gardens, which extended over half the area of the crater, were filled with a vast multitude of plant species from every climatic region on earth.

'Our gardeners have gathered them over the centuries,' Hannah explained. 'They have had all that time to develop their skills and understand the needs of every species. The waters that bubble up in the springs are laden with riches, and we have constructed special barns in which we are able to manage the climate.'

'There must be more to it than that.' Taita was not completely satisfied. 'It does not explain how giant lobelia and tree-heaths, which are plants of the high mountains, can grow beside teak and mahogany, trees of the tropical jungles.'

'You are perceptive, Brother,' Hannah conceded, 'and correct. There is more to it than warmth, sunlight and nutrients. When you enter the Guild you will begin to realize the magnitude of the marvels we have here in Jarri. But you must not expect instant enlightenment. We are discussing a thousand-year accumulation of knowledge and wisdom.

Nothing so precious can be obtained in a day.' She swung round to face him. 'Do you know how long I have lived in this life, Magus?'

'I can see that you are a Long Liver,' he replied.

'As are you, Brother,' she replied, 'but I was already old on the day you were born, and I am still a novice to the Mysteries. I have enjoyed your company, these last few days. We often allow ourselves to become

isolated in the rarefied intellectual climes of the Cloud Gardens, so talking to you has been a tonic as efficacious as any of our herbal preparations. However, we must go back now. I must make the final arrangements for tomorrow's procedure.'

They parted at the gates to the garden. It was still early in the afternoon and Taita made his way round the lake at a leisurely pace.

From one spot there was a particularly splendid vista across the full length of the crater. When he came to it, he sat on a fallen tree-trunk and opened his mind. Like an antelope sniffing the air for the scent of the leopard, he searched the ether for any trace of a malicious presence.

There was none that he could discern. It was tranquil, yet he knew this might be an illusion: he must be close to the witch's lair, for all the psychic signs and auguries pointed to her presence. This hidden crater would make her a perfect stronghold. The many wonders he had already discovered here might be the product of her magic. Hannah had hinted at it less than an hour ago when she had said, 'There is more to it than warmth, sunlight and nutrients.'

In the eye of his mind he saw Eos sitting patiently at the centre of her web like a monstrous black spider, waiting for the faintest quiver on the gossamer strands before she sprang at her prey. He knew that those invisible meshes were spread for him, that he was already trapped among them.

Until now he had been testing the ether passively and quietly. He had been tempted to make a cast for Fenn, but he knew that if he did so he might invite the witch in her place. He could not put Fenn in such danger, and he was about to close his mind, when he was struck by a tidal wave of psychic turmoil that made him cry out and clutch his temples. He reeled and almost lost his seat on the log.

Somewhere close to where he sat a tragedy was being played out. It was difficult for his mind to accept such sorrow and suffering, such utter evil, as rushed across the ether to him almost overwhelming him. He struggled against it, like a drowning swimmer fighting a riptide in the open ocean. He thought he was going under, but then the turmoil abated. He was left with a dark sadness that such a terrible event had touched him and he had been helpless to intervene.

It was a long time before he recovered sufficiently to stand up and set off along the path towards the clinic. As he came out on to the beach he saw another disturbance taking place near the middle of the lake.

This time he could be certain that it was physical reality he was witnessing. He saw the scaly backs of a pack of crocodiles breaking the

surface, their tails slashing in the air. They seemed to be feeding on carrion, fighting over it in a frenzy of greed. He stopped to watch them, and saw a bull crocodile breach clear out of the water. With a shake of its head, it tossed a chunk of raw meat high into the air. As it fell back, the beast seized it once more and, with a swirl, disappeared below the surface.

Taita watched until it was almost dark then, deeply troubled, walked back across the lawns.

Meren woke as soon as he entered the room. He seemed refreshed and unaffected by Taita's sombre mood. As they shared the evening meal, he joked with morbid humour about the operation Hannah was planning for the following day. He referred to himself as 'the cyclops, about to be given an eye of glass'.

Hannah and Gibba came to their room early the next morning with their team of assistants. After they had examined Meren's eye socket, they pronounced him ready to take the next step.

Gibba prepared a draught of the herbal opiate while Hannah laid out her tray of instruments, then came to sit on the mat beside Meren. From time to time she drew up the lid of his good eye and studied the dilation of the pupil. At last she was satisfied that the drug had taken effect and he was resting peacefully. She nodded to Gibba.

He rose and left the room, to return a short while later with a tiny alabaster pot. He carried it as though it were the holiest of relics. He waited until the four attendants had restrained Meren by his ankles and wrists, then set down the pot close to Hannah's right hand. Once again he took Meren's head between his knees, opened the lids of his missing eye and set the silver dilators in place.

'Thank you, Dr Gibba,' Hannah said, and began to rock lightly and rhythmically on her haunches. In time to her movements, she and Gibba began a chanted incantation. Taita recognized a few words, which seemed to have the same root as some verbs in the Tenmass. He guessed that it might be a higher, more evolved form of the language.

When they reached the end, Hannah took up a scalpel from her tray, passed the blade through the flame of the oil lamp, then made a quick hatching of shallow parallel incisions in the inner lining of the eye cavity. Taita was reminded of a plasterer preparing the surface of a wall to receive an application of wet clay. There was a weeping of blood from

the light cuts but she sprinkled on a few drops, from a phial, which stopped it at once. Gibba swabbed away the clotted blood.

'Not only does this salve staunch the bleeding, but it provides a bonding glue for the seeding,' Hannah explained.

With the same deferential care as Gibba had shown earlier, Hannah lifted the lid off the alabaster pot. Craning for a better view, Taita saw that the pot contained a minute amount of pale yellow translucent jelly, hardly enough to cover his little fingernail. With a small silver spoon Hannah scooped it up and, with infinite care, applied it to the incisions in Meren's eye socket.