Текст книги "The Quest"

Автор книги: Wilbur Smith

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Each day they pushed deeper into the south, and the determination of Meren and his men never wavered. One evening as they built the zareeba Taita led Meren aside and asked, 'What make you of the mood of the men? It seems to me that they are near the end of their endurance, eager to turn northwards for Assoun and their homes. We may soon be faced with a mutiny.' He had said it to test the other man, but Meren was outraged.

'They are my men and I have come to know them well. It seems you have not, Magus. There is not a mutinous hair on their heads or breath in their lungs. They are as hot for the enterprise as I am.'

'Forgive me, Meren. How could I doubt you?' Taita murmured, but he had heard echoes of the witch's voice rise from Meren's throat. It is good that I need not deal with sullen faces and surly moods on top of all else.

In that Eos is making my lot easier, he consoled himself.

At that Fenn came running from the camp calling, 'Magus! Taita!

Come swiftly! The baby of Li-To-Liti is bursting out of her and I cannot get it back inside!'

'Then I shall come and save the poor mite from your ministrations.'

Taita scrambled to his feet and hurried with her to the encampment.

With Taita kneeling beside the Shilluk girl, soothing her, the birth went swiftly. Fenn watched the process with horror. Each time Li-To-Liti squealed she started. In a pause between contractions, while the girl lay panting and drenched with sweat, Fenn said, 'It does not seem such rich sport after all. I don't think you and I should bother ourselves with it.'

Before midnight Li-To-Liti was delivered of an amber-coloured son with a cap of black curls. To Taita, the arrival of the child was some compensation for the profligate expenditure of other young lives along this bitter road. They all rejoiced with the father.

'It is a good omen,' the men told each other. 'The gods smile upon us. From now onwards our venture will prosper.'

Taita sought the counsel of Nakonto. 'What is the custom of your people? How long must the woman rest before she can go on?'

'My first wife gave birth while we were moving cattle to new pasture.

It was past noon when her waters broke. I left her with her mother to do the business beside the road. They caught up with me before nightfall, which was as well, because there were lions about.'

'Your women are hardy,' Taita remarked.

Nakonto looked mildly surprised. 'They are Shilluk,' he said.

'That would explain it,' Taita agreed.'

The next morning Li-To-Liti slung her infant on her hip, where it could reach the breast without her having to dismount, and was up behind her man when the column pulled out at dawn.

They continued on through well-watered, grassy countryside. The sandy earth was gentle on the animals' legs and hoofs. Taita treated any light injuries or ailments with his salves so they remained in fine condition.

There were endless herds of wild antelope and buffalo so there was never any shortage of meat. Days passed with such smooth regularity that they seemed to merge into one. The leagues fell away as vast distances opened ahead.

Then, at last, an escarpment of hills appeared on the misty blue horizon ahead of them. Over the following days it loomed larger until it seemed to fill half of the sky, and they could make out the deep notch in the high ground through which the Nile flowed. They headed directly for this, knowing that it would afford the easiest passage through the mountains. Closer still, they could see each feature of the heavily wooded slopes and the elephant roads that climbed them. At last Meren could no longer contain his impatience. He left the baggage train to make its own pace and took a small party forward to reconnoitre. Naturally Fenn went with them, riding beside Taita. They entered the gorge of the river and climbed up the rugged elephant road towards the summit of the escarpment. They were only half-way up when Nakonto ran forward and dropped on one knee to examine the ground.

'What is it?' Taita called. When he received no answer he rode forward and leant out from Windsmoke to discover what had intrigued the Shilluk.

'The tracks of horses.' Nakonto pointed to a patch of soft earth. 'They are very fresh. Only one day old.'

'Mountain zebra?' Taita hazarded.

Nakonto shook his head emphatically.

'Horses carrying riders,' Fenn translated, for Meren's sake.

He was alarmed. 'Strange horsemen. Who can they be, so far from civilization? They may be hostile. We should not continue up the pass until we find out who they are.' He looked back the way they had come.

On the plain below they could see the cloud of yellow dust the rest of the column had raised, still three or more leagues away. 'We must wait for the others, then go forward in strength.' Before Taita could reply a loud halloo rang down from the high ground above and echoed off the hills. It startled them all.

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'We have been discovered! But, by Seth's pestilential breath, whoever they are they speak Egyptian,' Meren exclaimed. He cupped his hands round his mouth and bellowed back up the pass, 'Who are you.7'

'Soldiers of the divine Pharaoh Nefer Seti!'

'Advance and be recognized,' Meren called.

They laughed with relief as three strange horsemen came clattering down to meet them. Even at a distance Meren saw that one carried the blue standard of the House of Mamose, and as they came closer still their features were clearly Egyptian. Meren started forward to meet them. As the two parties came together they dismounted and embraced rapturously.

'I am Captain Rabat,' the leader introduced himself, 'an officer in the legion of Colonel Ah-Akhton in the service of Pharaoh Nefer Seti.'

'I am Colonel Meren Cambyses, on a special duty for the same divine pharaoh.' Rabat acknowledged his superior ranking with a salute of one fist clenched across his breast. Meren went on, 'And this is the magus, Taita of Gallala.' True respect dawned in Rabat's eyes and he saluted again. Taita saw from his aura that Rabat was man of limited intelligence, but honest and without guile.

'Your fame precedes you, Magus. Please allow me to guide you to our encampment, where you will be our honoured guest.'

Rabat had ignored Fenn for she was a child, but she was conscious of the snub. 'I don't like this Rabat,' Fenn told Taita in Shilluk. 'He is arrogant.'

Taita smiled. She had become accustomed to her favoured position.

In this she reminded him strongly of Lostris when she had been sovereign of Egypt. 'He is only a rough soldier,' he consoled her, 'and beneath your consideration.' Appeased, her expression softened.

'What are your orders, Magus?' Rabat asked.

'The rest of our contingent follows with a large train of baggage.' Taita pointed at the dustcloud on the plain. 'Please send one of your men back to guide them.' Rabat despatched a man at once, then led the rest of them up the steep, rocky pathway towards the crest of the pass.

'Where is Colonel Ah-Akhton, your commander?' Taita asked, as he rode at Rabat's side.

'He died of the swamp-sickness during our advance up the river.'

'That was seven years ago?' Taita asked.

'Nay, Magus. It was nine years and two months,' Rabat corrected him, 'the term of our exile from our beloved homeland, Egypt.'

Taita realized that he had forgotten to include the time it would have

taken them to reach this place since leaving Karnak. 'Who commands the army in Colonel Ah-Akhton's place?' he asked.; 'Colonel That Ankut.'I 'Where is he?'

'He led the army southwards along the river in accordance with the command of Pharaoh. He left me here with only twenty men and some women, those with very young children who had been born during the march or those who were too sick or weak to continue.'

'Why did Colonel That leave you here?'

'I was ordered to plant crops, to keep a herd of horses ready for him, and to hold a base in his rear to which he could retire, if he were forced to retreat from the wild lands to the south.'

'Have you had news of him since he marched away?'

'Some months later he sent back three men with all of his surviving horses. It seems that he had journeyed into a country to the south that is infested with a fly whose sting is fatal to horses and he had lost almost all of his herd. Since those three arrived, we have had no word of him.

He and his men have been swallowed up by the wilderness. That was many long years ago. You are the first civilized men we have met in all that time.' He sounded forlorn.

'You have not thought to abandon this place and take your people back to Egypt?' Taita asked, to gauge his mettle.

'I have thought on it,' Rabat admitted, 'but my orders and my duty are to hold this post.' He hesitated, then went on, 'Besides, the man-eating Chima and the great swamps stand between us and our very Egypt.'

Which is probably the most telling reason why you have remained at iyour post, Taita thought. As they talked they came out at the head of IIIthe pass and before them stretched a wide plateau. Almost at once they 1felt that the air of this high place was more pleasant than that on the Iplains below.

1There were scattered herds of grazing cattle, and beyond them Taita IIIwas astonished to see the mud walls of a substantial military fort. It seemed out of place in this remote and savage landscape; the first sign of civilization they had come across since they had left the fort of Qebui more than two years previously. This was a lost outpost of empire of which no one in Egypt was aware.

'What is the name of this place?' Taita asked.

'Colonel That called it Fort Adari.'

They rode among the grazing cattle, tall, rangy animals with huge

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humped shoulders and a wide spread of heavy horns. The coat of each had a distinctive colour and pattern, no two alike. They were red or white, black or yellow, with contrasting blotches and spots.

'Where did you find these cattle?' Taita asked. 'I have seen none other like them.'

'We trade them with the native tribes. They call them zebu. The herds provide us with milk and beef. Without them we would suffer even greater hardship than we do at present.'

Meren frowned and opened his mouth to reprimand Rabat for his lack of spirit, but Taita read his intention, and cautioned him with a quick shake of his head. Although Taita agreed with both Fenn and Meren on the fellow's worth, it would not be of any benefit to them to offend him. Almost certainly, they would need his Co-operation later. The fields around the fort were planted with dhurra, melons and vegetable crops that Taita did not recognize. Rabat told them the outlandish native names, and dismounted to pick a large shiny black fruit, which he handed to Taita. 'When cooked in a stew of meat they are tasty and nutritious.'

When they reached the fort the women and children of the garrison came out through the gates to welcome them, carrying bowls of soured milk and platters of dhurra cake. Altogether there were fewer than fifty and they were a bedraggled, sorry-looking lot, although they were friendly enough. Accommodation in the fort was limited. The women offered a small windowless cell to Taita and Fenn. The floor was of packed earth, ants moved in military file along the rough-hewn walls and shiny black cockroaches scurried into cracks in the log walls. The smell of the unwashed bodies and chamber-pots of the previous occupants was pervasive.

Rabat explained apologetically that Meren and the rest, officers and men alike, would have to bunk with his soldiers in the communal barracks. With expressions of gratitude and regret, Taita declined this offer of hospitality.

Taita and Meren chose a congenial site half a league beyond the fort, in a grove of shady trees on the banks of a running stream. Rabat, who was plainly relieved not to have them in the fort, honoured Meren's Hawk Seal and provided them with fresh milk, dhurra and, at regular intervals, a slaughtered ox.

'I hope we are not to stay long in this place,' Hilto remarked to Taita, on the second day. 'The mood of these people is so despondent that it will lower the morale of our men. Their spirits are high, and I would like

them to remain so. Besides, all the women are married and most of our men have been celibate for too long. Soon they will want to sport with them and there will be trouble.'i 'I assure you, good Hilto, that we will move on as soon as we have made the arrangements.' Taita and Meren spent the following days in close consultation with the melancholy Rabat.

'How many men went south with Colonel That?' Taita wanted to know.

Like many illiterates, Rabat had a reliable memory and he replied without hesitation: 'Six hundred and twenty-three, with one hundred and forty-five women.'

'Merciful Isis, was that all who remained of the original thousand who marched from Karnak?'

'The swamps were trackless and deep,' Rabat explained. 'We were laid low with swamp-sickness. Our guides were unreliable and we were attacked by the native tribes. Our losses of men and horses were heavy. Surely you had the same experience, for you must have covered the same ground to reach Adari.'

'Yes, indeed. However, the water was lower, and our guides faultless.'

'Then you were more fortunate than ourselves.'

'You said that Colonel That sent men and horses back here. How many horses were there?' Taita switched to a more agreeable subject.

'They brought back fifty-six, all fly-struck. Most died after reaching us.

Only eighteen survived. Once they had delivered the horses, Colonel Tinat's men went south again to rejoin him. They took with them the porters I had recruited for them.'

'So none of Tinat's men remains with you?'

'One was so ill that I kept him here. He has survived to this day.'

'I would like to question him,' Taita told him.

'I will send for him at once.'

The sole survivor was tall but skeletally thin. Taita saw at once that his emaciated frame and thin white hair were relics of disease, rather than signs of age. Despite this he had recovered his health. He was cheerful and willing, unlike most of the other men under Rabat's command.

“I have heard of your ordeal,' Taita told him, 'and 1 commend your courage and zeal.'

'You are the only one who has, Magus, and 1 thank you for it.'

'What is your name?'

'Tolas.'

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'Your rank?'

'I am a horse surgeon and a sergeant of the first water.'

'How far had you ventured south before Colonel That sent you to bring back the surviving horses?'

'About twenty days' travel, Magus, perhaps two hundred leagues.

Colonel That was determined to travel fast – too fast. I believe this increased our loss of horses.'

'Why was he in such haste?' Taita asked.

Tolas smiled thinly. 'He did not confide in me, Magus, nor seek my counsel.'

Taita thought for a while. It seemed possible that That had come under the influence of the witch, and that she had enticed him southwards.

'Then, good Tolas, tell me about the disease that attacked the horses. Captain Rabat mentioned it to me, but he gave no details. What makes you think that it was caused by these flies?'

'It broke out ten days after we first encountered the insects. The horses began to sweat excessively and their eyes filled with blood so that they became half blind. Most died within ten or fifteen days of the first symptoms occurring.'

'You are a horse surgeon. Do you know of any cure?'

Tolas hesitated, but did not answer the question. Instead he remarked, 'I saw the grey mare you ride. I have seen many tens of thousands of horses in my lifetime, but I would think that mare is as good as the best of them. You might never find another like her.'

'It is clear that you are a fine judge of horseflesh, Tolas, but why do you tell me this?'

'Because it would be a shame to sacrifice such a horse to the fly. If you are determined to go on, as I think you are, leave the mare and her foal with me until you return. I will look after her as though she were my own child.'

'I will think on it,' Taita told him. 'But to return to my question: do you know of any remedy for the fly sickness?'

'The native tribes hereabouts have a potion that they distil from wild berries. They dose their cattle with it.'

'Why did they not warn Colonel That of this disease before he left Fort Adari?'

'At that time we had no contact with the tribes. It was only when I returned with the fly-ridden herd that they came forward to sell us the medicine.'

'Is it efficacious?'

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'It is not infallible,' Tolas told him. 'It appears to me that it will,cure six out of ten horses that have been fly-struck. But perhaps those horses I tried it on had already been too long infected.'I 'What would have been your losses if you had not used it?'

'I cannot tell for certain.'

'Then guess.'

'It seems to me that some animals have a natural resistance to the sting. A very few, say, five in a hundred, will show no ill-effects.

Others, perhaps thirty or forty in a hundred, will sicken but recover.

The rest die. Any animal that is infected but recovers is immune to any subsequent infection.'

'How do you know this?'

'The natives know it well.'

'How many of the horses in your care have been infected but have recovered?'

'Most were too far gone before we could dose them. However, eighteen are salted,' Tolas answered promptly, then clarified, 'They are immune.'

'So, Tolas, I will need a goodly supply of this native potion. Can you

[procure it for me?'

'I can do better. I have had almost nine years to study the matter.

Although the tribesmen are secretive and will not divulge the recipe, I ihave discovered for myself the plant that they use. I have spied upon them while their women are gathering it.'

,'You will show it to me?'

'Of course, Magus,' Tolas agreed readily. 'But, again, I caution you 'that even when treated many horses will still die. Your grey mare is too fine an animal to expose to such risk.'

Taita smiled. It was apparent that Tolas had fallen in love with Windsmoke and was angling for a way to keep her with him. “I will take into careful consideration all you have told me. But now my main concern is to learn the secret of the cure.'

'With the permission of Captain Rabat, I will take you into the forest tomorrow to gather the berries. It is a ride of several hours to reach the area where they grow.'

'Excellent.' Taita was pleased. 'Now describe for me the road to the south that you travelled with Colonel That.' Tolas told them all he could remember, while Fenn made notes on a clay tablet. When he had finished Taita said, 'What you have told me, Tolas, is invaluable, but now you must describe how we will recognize the boundary of the fly territory.'

Tolas placed his forefinger on the sketch map that Fenn had drawn on the tablet. 'On about the twentieth day of the journey southwards you will come upon a pair of hills shaped like a virgin's breasts. They will be visible from several leagues off. Those hills mark the boundary. I counsel you not to take the grey mare further. You will lose her in the sad country that lies beyond.'

The next morning Captain Rabat went with them, riding beside Taita, when they set out in search of the berries. The pace was easy, and they had much opportunity to talk.

After several hours, Tolas led them into a grove of enormous wild fig trees strung out along the bank of the river, deep in the gorge. Most of the branches were draped with serpentine vines, upon which grew clusters of small purple-black berries. Fenn, Tolas and three other men, whom Tolas had brought from the fort, climbed into the trees. Each had a leather harvesting bag slung round their neck into which they packed the fruit. When they clambered down from the trees their hands were stained purple and the berries emitted a sickly, putrid odour. Fenn offered a handful to Whirlwind, but the colt refused it. Windsmoke was equally disdainful.

'It is not to their natural taste, I grant, but if you mix the berries into dhurra meal and bake it into cakes they will eat them readily enough,'

Tolas said. He lit a fire and placed flat river stones in the flames. While they heated he demonstrated how to pound the fruit into a paste and mix it with the dhurra meal. 'The proportions are important. One of fruit to five of the meal. Any larger amount of the berries and the horse will refuse it, or if they eat it they will purge excessively,' he explained. When the stones were crackling hot he put handfuls of the mixture on to them and let it bake into hard cakes. He laid them aside to cool and began another batch. 'The cakes will keep without spoiling for many months, even in the worst conditions. The horses will eat them even when they are covered with green mould.'

Fenn picked one up and burnt her fingers. She passed it from hand to hand and blew on it until it cooled, then took it to Windsmoke. The mare sniffed it, fluttering her nostrils. Then she took it between her lips and rolled her eyes at Taita.

'Go on, you silly thing,' he told her sternly. 'Eat. It is good for you.'

Windsmoke crunched the cake. A few scraps fell out of her mouth,

but she swallowed the rest. Then she lowered her head to pick up the pieces from the grass. Whirlwind was watching her with interest. When Fenn brought him a cake he followed her example and ate it with gusto.

Then he pushed Fenn with his muzzle, demanding more.

'What dose do you give them?' Taita asked Tolas.

'It was a matter of experiment,' Tolas replied. 'As soon as they show any symptoms of being fly-struck I give them four or five cakes each day until the symptoms disappear, then continue the dose until long after they seem fully recovered.'

'What do you call the fruit?' Fenn demanded.

Tolas shrugged. 'The Ootasa have some outlandish name for it, but I have never thought to give it an Egyptian one.'

“Then I shall name it the Tolas fruit,' Fenn announced, and Tolas smiled, gratified.

The following day Taita and Fenn returned to the grove with Shofar, four troopers and the equipment they needed to bake a large quantity of Tolas cakes. They set up camp in the midst of the grove, in a clearing that overlooked the dry bed of the Nile. They stayed there for ten days, and filled twenty large leather sacks with the cakes. When they returned with purple-stained hands and ten baggage-loaded mules, they found Meren and his men eager to leave.

When they bade Rabat farewell, he told Taita dolefully, 'We shall probably never meet again in this life, Magus, but it has been a great honour for me to be allowed to render you some small service.'

'I am grateful for your willing assistance and cheerful company.

Pharaoh himself will hear of it,' Taita assured him.

They struck out again southwards, with Tolas as their guide, towards the hills shaped like a virgin's breasts, and the fly country. Their time at Fort Adari had refreshed men and animals and they made good progress.

Taita ordered that the hunters should keep the tails of the animal game they caught. He showed the men how to skin them, scrape flesh, salt them, then leave them to dry in the air. Meanwhile they carved wood into handles and inserted them into the tubes of dried skin in place of the bone they had removed. Finally Taita brandished one of the fly switches and told them, 'Soon you will be grateful for these. It is probably the only weapon that will discourage the fly.'

On the twentieth morning after they had left Fort Adari they made the customary early start on the day's trek. Then at a little past noon, as Tolas had predicted, the twin nipples of the hills, like the breasts of a virgin, thrust above the horizon.

'No further. Order the halt,' Taita called to Meren. He had decided before they left Fort Adari that he would not follow Tolas's advice slavishly. He had already been dosing Windsmoke and Whirlwind with the cakes and hoped that the medicine would concentrate in their blood long before they suffered the first sting. On that last evening before they entered the fly territory he took Fenn with him to the horse lines. When she saw them coming Windsmoke whickered. Taita rubbed her forehead and scratched behind her ears, then fed her a Tolas cake. Fenn did the same for Whirlwind. By now both had developed a taste for the cakes and swallowed them with appetite. Tolas had been watching from the shadows. Now he approached Taita and greeted him diffidently. 'So you are taking the grey mare and her foal with you?' he asked.

'I could not bear to leave them behind,' Taita replied.

Tolas sighed. 'I understand, Magus. Perhaps I would have done the same, for already I love them. I pray to Horus and Isis that they will survive.'

'Thank you, Tolas. We will all come together again, of that I am certain.'

Next morning they parted company. Tolas could guide them no further and turned back for Fort Adari. Nakonto was out on the point, breaking the trail, Meren and three squads marching behind him. Taita and Fenn came next, on Windsmoke and Whirlwind. The eighteen salted horses followed in a loose herd. Shabako, with the fourth squad, brought up the rear.

They camped that evening under the hills. While they ate their dinner by the fires a pride of hunting lions began to roar on the dark plain beyond the hills, a menacing sound. Taita and Meren went to check the head ropes of the tethered horses, but the lions did not come closer and gradually their roars receded and the silence of the night settled over them.

The next morning, while the column mustered, Taita and Fenn fed the horses their Tolas cakes. Then they mounted and rode on between the twin hills. Taita had just relaxed into the rhythm of the march when suddenly he straightened and stared at Windsmoke's neck. A large dark insect had appeared on her creamy hide, close to her mane. He cupped his right hand and waited for the insect to settle, extend its sharp black

proboscis and probe for the blood vessels beneath the mare's skin. The buried sting anchored it, so he was able to snatch it up in his cupped hands. It buzzed shrilly as it tried to escape but he tightened his; grip and crushed its head and body. Then he held it between two fingers and showed it to Fenn. 'This is a fly that the tribes call the tsetse. It is the first of many to come,' he predicted. At the words, another fly settled on his neck and plunged its sting into the soft skin behind his ear.

He winced and slapped at it. Although he caught it a hard blow, it shot away seemingly unharmed.

'Get out your fly switches,' Meren ordered, and soon they were all lashing at themselves and their mounts, like religious flagellants, trying to drive off the stinging swarms. The following days were a torment as the flies plagued them ceaselessly. They were at their worst during the heat of the day, but kept up the attack by the light of the moon and the stars, maddening men and horses alike.

The tails of the horses lashed continuously against their flanks and hindquarters. They tossed their heads and twitched their skins as they rtried to shake off the flies that crawled into their ears and eyes.

The faces of the men swelled like some grotesque crimson fruit and their eyes became slits in the puffy flesh. The backs of their necks were lumpy and the itching was intolerable. With their fingernails they scratched raw the skin behind their ears. At night they built smudge fires ,of dried elephant dung and crouched, coughing and gasping, in the acrid Ismoke to seek respite. But as soon as they moved away for a breath of Ifresh air the flies arrowed in on them, driving their stings deep at the instant they landed. Their bodies were so tough that a hard blow with the palm of a hand hardly disturbed them. Even when they were knocked from their perch, they rebounded in the same movement, stinging again ion some other exposed body part. The fly switches were the only effective weapon. They did not kill them, but the long tail hairs tangled legs and wings and held them so that they could be crushed between the fingers.

'There is a limit to the range of these monsters,' Taita encouraged the men. 'Nakonto knows their habits well. He says that as suddenly as we came upon them we will be free of them.'

Meren ordered forced marches and rode at the head of the column, setting a driving pace. Deprived of sleep and weakened by the venom that the flies pumped into their blood the men swayed in their saddles.

When a trooper collapsed his comrades threw him over the back of his horse and rode on.

Nakonto alone was inured to the insects. His skin remained smooth

and glossy, unmarked by stings. He allowed the insects to suck themselves full of his blood so that they could not fly. Then he mocked them as he tore off their wings: 'I have been stabbed by men, leopards have bitten me and lions clawed me. Who are you to annoy me? Now you can walk home to hell.'

On the tenth day after they had left the hills, they rode out of the fly country. It happened so suddenly that they were taken unawares. At one moment they were cursing and flogging at the whirling insects, then fifty paces further on the silence of the forest was no longer disturbed by the vicious whine. Within a league of passing out of the tyranny they came upon an isolated river pool. Meren took pity on the party. 'Fall out!' he roared. 'The last one into the water is a simpering virgin.'

There was a rush of naked bodies, then the forest rang with cries of relief and jubilation. When they emerged from the pool, Taita and Fenn ministered to everyone's swollen stings, smearing them with one of the magus's salves. That night the laughter and banter round the campfires was unstinted.

It was dark when Fenn knelt over Taita and shook him awake. 'Come quickly, Taitai Something terrible is happening.' She seized his hand and dragged him to the horse lines. 'It's both of them.' Fenn's voice cracked with distress. 'Windsmoke and Whirlwind together.'

When they reached the lines, the colt was down, his body heaving to the urgent tempo of his breathing. Windsmoke stood over him, licking his head with long strokes of her tongue. She reeled weakly as she tried to keep her balance. Her coat was standing on end and she was drenched with sweat: it dripped from her belly and ran down all four legs.