Текст книги "The Quest"

Автор книги: Wilbur Smith

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A hoarse cry burst from his throat. His whole body jerked and trembled like that of a man seized by the palsy, then he sagged back on the grass, panting as though he had run a league, his strength spent.

'Had you forgotten? Had you suppressed the memory of the ultimate pinnacle of physical delight? What you have just experienced is only a grain of sand compared to the mountain that I can give to you,' said the child, and ran to the edge of the stone step. He poised there and looked across at Taita for the last time. 'Think on it, Taita. It is yours if you dare stretch out your hand to me.' He dived cleanly into the pool.

Taita saw his pale body flash as he shot down into the depths and disappeared. He could not summon the strength to rise to his feet again until the sun had made half its transit of the sky.

It was late in the afternoon when he reached the sanatorium. He found Meren sitting in his darkened cell with his nurse. His pleasure when he heard Taita's voice was pathetic to witness, and Taita felt guilty to have left him so long alone in the cell with the darkness and doubts that must be consuming him.

'The woman came again while you were away,' Meren cried. 'She says that tomorrow she will remove the bandages completely. I can hardly contain myself that long.'

Taita was still so overwrought by memories of the afternoon's events that he knew he would not be able to sleep that night. After they had eaten the evening meal he asked the male nurse if he could find a lute he might borrow.

'Dr Gibba is a lute player,' the fellow replied. 'Shall I refer your request to him?'

He went off and returned some little time later with the instrument.

There had been a time when Taita's voice had been the joy of all who heard him sing, and it was still tuneful and true. He sang until Meren's chin dropped on to his chest and he began to snore. Even then Taita went on strumming softly, until he found his fingers picking out the haunting melody that the imp had played on his flute. He stopped playing and put away the lute.

He lay down on the mattress on the opposite side of the cell from Meren and composed himself, but sleep eluded him. In the darkness his mind ran on, then took flight like a wild horse he could not control. The images and sensations that the imp had grafted into his mind crowded back so vividly that he had to escape them. He took his cloak, slipped from the cell and went out on to the lawns, which were bathed in brilliant moonlight, to walk along the edge of the lake. He felt the ice on his cheeks, but this time it was his own tears and not some alien presence that had chilled him.

'Taita who is neither man nor woman.' He repeated the imp's gibe and wiped his eyes on the fold of his woollen cloak. 'Am I to be imprisoned in this ancient maimed body for all eternity?' he wondered.

'Eos's temptations are as great a torment as any physical torture. Horus, Isis and Osiris, give me the strength to resist them.'

– —

We do not need your nurses today,' Hannah said, as she knelt beside Meren and trimmed the wick of the one small oil lamp that was the cell's only illumination. 'We will not inflict more pain on you. Instead we hope to compensate you for that which you have already suffered.' She set aside the lamp. It threw a soft light on to Meren's bandaged head. 'Are you ready, Dr Gibba?' While Gibba supported Meren's head she unpicked the knot in the bandage and peeled it away. Then she handed the lamp to Taita. 'Please direct the light on to his eye.'

Taita held a polished silver disc behind the flame to reflect a beam on to Meren's face. Hannah leant closer to examine the stitches that closed his eyelids. 'Good,' she said comfortably. 'I can see no vice in the way it has healed. I believe it is now safe to remove the stitches. Please hold the light steady.'

She snipped the stitches and, with forceps, drew the gut threads from the needle punctures. The lids were glued together with dried mucus and blood. Gently she washed it away with a cloth dipped in warm aromatic water.

'Please try to open your eye now, Colonel Cambyses,' she instructed.

The eyelid quivered, then flickered open. Taita felt his heart thump louder and more rapidly as he looked into the eye socket, which was no longer an empty pit.

'In the name of the holy triumvirate, Osiris, Isis and Horus,' Taita whispered, 'you have regrown a perfect new eye!'

'Not yet perfect,' Hannah demurred. 'It is but half-way grown and is still much smaller than the other. The pupil is cloudy.' She took the silver disc from Gibba and deflected the beam directly into the immature eye. 'On the other hand, see how the pupil contracts. It has already started to function correctly.' She covered Meren's good eye with the cotton pad. 'Tell us what you can see, Colonel,' she ordered.

'A bright light,' he replied.

Hannah passed her hand in front of his face with her fingers splayed open. 'Tell us what you see now.'

'Shadows,' he said doubtfully, but then he went on, firmly now, 'No, wait! I see fingers. The outline of five fingers.'

It was the first time Taita had seen Hannah smile and, in the yellow

lamplight, she looked younger and gentler. 'Nay, good Meren,' he said.

'This day you have seen more than fingers. You have seen a miracle.'

'I must bandage the eye again.' Hannah was brisk and businesslike once more. 'It will be many more days before it is able to withstand the light of day.'

The image of the imp in the grotto haunted Taita. He experienced a compulsion that grew more powerful each day to return to the gardens and wait for him beside the hidden pool. In the forefront of his mind he knew that this urge was not his own: it came directly from Eos.

Once I enter her territory I am powerless. She possesses every advantage.

She is the great black cat and I am her mouse, he thought.

Then his inner voice answered: What then, Taita? Did you not come to Jarri to struggle against her? What became of your grand design? Now that you have found her, will you slink away cravenly?

He sought another excuse for his cowardice: If only I could find a shield to deflect her malicious darts.

He tried to find distraction from these haunting fears and temptations by helping Meren to gain full use of his immature eye. At first Hannah removed the bandages for only a few hours, and even then she did not allow him to experience daylight but kept him indoors.

The lens of the eye was still cloudy and the colour of the iris was also pale and milky. It did not work in unison with the good eye but wandered at random. Taita helped him focus it: he held the Periapt of Lostris in front of Meren and moved it from side to side, up and down, nearer and further away.

At first the new eye tired quickly. It watered and the lid blinked involuntarily. It grew bloodshot and itchy. Meren complained that images remained blurred and distorted.

Taita discussed this with Hannah: 'The eye is of a different colour from the original. It does not match in size or motion. You said once that you were a gardener of men. Perhaps the eye you have grafted is of another strain.'

'Nay, Magus. The new eye is grown from the same root stock as the original. We have replaced limbs that have been cut away in battle.

They do not appear fully fledged. Like your protege's eye, they begin like

seedlings and gradually attain their mature form. The human body has the ability to shape and develop itself over time to match the original.

A blue eye is not replaced with a brown one. A hand is not replaced with a foot. There exists in each of us some life force that is able to replicate itself. Have you not wondered at how a child may resemble its parents?' She paused and looked into his eyes intently. 'In the same way an amputated arm is replaced with a perfect copy of the missing limb. A castrated penis would regrow in identical shape and size to the one that was destroyed.' Taita stared at her, aghast. She had turned the discussion back upon him in a cruel and wounding fashion.

She is speaking of my own imperfection, he thought. She knows about the mutilation I have suffered. He sprang to his feet and hurried from the room. Blindly he stumbled to the lakeside and knelt on the beach.

He felt helpless and defeated. At last, when the tears no longer stung and his vision cleared, he looked up at the cliffs that towered above the gardens. He felt Eos nearby. He was too weary and sick at heart to fight on.

You have won, he thought. The battle is over before it was joined. I will submit to you. Then he felt her influence changing. It seemed no longer completely evil and malign, but kindly and benevolent. He felt as though she was offering him release from pain and emotional strife. He wanted to go up into the gardens and surrender to her, cast himself upon her mercy. He struggled to his feet and was struck by the incongruity of his thoughts and actions. He straightened his back and lifted his chin.

'Nay!' he whispered aloud. 'This is not surrender. You have not yet won the battle. You have taken only the first skirmish.' He reached for the Periapt of Lostris and felt strength flow into him. 'She has taken Meren's eye. She has taken my manly parts. She has all the advantage over us. If only I had something of hers to use against her, a weapon with which to counterattack. When I have found one I will go against her again.' He glanced at the tops of the tall flowering trees of her gardens below the painted cliffs, and before he could stop himself he had taken a step in that direction. With an effort he turned away. 'Not yet. I am not ready.'

His tread was firmer as he returned to the sanatorium. He found that Hannah had moved Meren from the darkened cell to their more spacious and comfortable former quarters. Meren sprang up as soon as he entered and seized the sleeve of his tunic. 'I read a full scroll of hieroglyphics that the woman set for me,' he exclaimed, bursting with pride at his latest achievement. Even now he could not bring himself to use Hannah's name or title. 'Tomorrow she will remove the bandage for ever. Then I

will astonish you with how the colour has come to match the other, and how nimbly it moves. By the sweet breath of Isis, I declare I will soon be able to judge the flight of my arrows as accurately as I ever did.' His loquacity was a sure sign of his excitement. 'Then we shall escape this infernal place. I hate it here. There is something foul and detestable about it, and the people in it.'

'But see what they have done for you,' Taita pointed out.

Meren looked slightly abashed. 'I give most of the credit to you, Magus. It was you who brought me here, and saw me through this trial.'

That night, Meren stretched himself out on his mattress and, like a child, dropped into sleep. His snores were boisterous and carefree. Taita had grown so accustomed to them over the decades that to him they were a lullaby.

He closed his eyes, and the dreams that the hellish imp had placed in his mind returned. He tried to force himself back into consciousness, but they were too compelling. He could not break free. He could smell the perfume of warm, feminine flesh, feel silken swells and hollows rubbing against him, hear sweet voices heavy with desire whispering lascivious invitations. He felt wicked fingers touching and stroking, quick tongues licking, soft mouths sucking and hot, secret openings engulfing.

The impossible sensations in his missing parts rose up like a tempest.

They hovered at the brink, then faded away. He wanted them to return, his whole body craved release, but it stayed beyond his reach, racking and tormenting him.

'Let me be!' With a violent effort he tore himself free, and woke to find himself wet with sweat, his breath roaring harshly in his ears.

A shaft of moonlight slanted in through the high window in the opposite wall. He stood up shakily, went to the water jug and drank deeply. As he did so, his eyes fell upon his girdle and pouch where he had laid them as he prepared for sleep. The moonlight was falling directly upon the pouch. It was almost as though some outside influence was directing his attention to it. He picked it up and unfastened the drawstring, reached in and touched something so warm that it seemed to be alive. It moved beneath his fingertips. He jerked away his hand. By now he was fully awake. He held the mouth of the pouch open and turned it so that the moonbeam lit the interior. Something glowed in the bottom. He stared at it and watched the glow take an ethereal shape.

It was the sign of the five-padded cat's paw.

With care Taita reached once more into the pouch and brought out the tiny fragment of red rock that Hannah had removed from Meren's

eye socket. It still felt warm and glowed, but the cat's paw had disappeared.

He clasped it firmly in his hand. Immediately the disturbance of the dreams subsided.'

He went to the oil lamp in the corner of the room and turned up the wick. By its light he studied the tiny fragment of stone. The ruby sparkle of the crystals seemed to be alive. Gradually it dawned on him that the stone contained a tiny part of the essence of Eos. When she had driven the splinter into Meren's eye she must have endowed it with a trace of her magic.

I came so close to throwing it into the lake. Now I know for certain that something was waiting to receive it. He remembered the monstrous swirl he had seen beneath the surface of the water. Whether or not it was crocodile or fish, in reality that thing was another of her manifestations.

It seems that she places great importance on this insignificant fragment. I shall accord it the same respect.

Taita opened the locket lid of the Periapt and placed the little ruby stone in the nest of hair he had taken from Lostris in both her lives.

He felt stronger and more confident. Now I am better armed to go out against the witch.

In the morning his courage and resolve were undiminished.

No sooner had they broken their fast than Hannah arrived to inspect Meren's new eye. The colour of the iris had darkened and almost matched the original. When Meren focused on her finger as it moved from side to side or up and down both eyes tracked in unison.

After she had gone, Meren took up his bow and the embossed leather quiver of arrows, and went with Taita to the open field beside the lake.

Taita set up a target, a painted disc on a short pole, then stood to one side as Meren selected a new string for his bow, then rolled an arrow between his palms to test its symmetry and balance.

'Ready!' he called, and addressed the target. He drew and loosed. Even though the breeze coming across the lake moved it perceptibly in flight, the arrow struck less than a thumb's length from the centre.

'Allow for the wind,' Taita called. He had coached Meren in archery since the younger man had run the Red Road with Nefer Seti. Meren nodded in acknowledgement, then drew and loosed a second arrow. This one struck dead centre.

'Turn your back,' Taita ordered, and Meren obeyed. Taita brought the target twenty paces closer. 'Now turn and loose instantly.'

Moving lightly on his feet for such a big man, Meren obeyed. He had recovered the balance and poise he had lost when his eye was blinded.

The arrow swung slightly with the breeze, but he had allowed for that in his aim. His elevation was perfect. Again the arrow slammed into the bull's eye. They practised for the rest of the morning. Gradually Taita moved the target out to two hundred paces. Even at that range Meren placed three out of four arrows in an area the size of a man's chest.

When they stopped to eat the simple meal that an attendant brought them, Taita said, 'That is enough for one day. Let your arm and your eye rest. There is a matter I must attend to.'

He picked up his staff, made certain the Periapt of Lostris was hanging on its gold chain at his throat and set off briskly for the upper gates of the garden. He retraced his steps to the imp's grotto. The closer he came to it, the more intense his feelings of eager anticipation became. They were so unwarranted that he knew he was still being led by outside influences. He was mildly surprised to reach the grotto again so readily.

In this garden of surprises he had expected to find it hidden from him, but all was as he had last seen it.

He settled down on the grassy bank and waited for he knew not what.

All seemed peaceful and natural. He heard the chittering of a golden sunbird and looked up to see it hovering before a scarlet blossom and delicately probing its long, curved bill into the trumpet of petals to suck out the nectar. Then it darted away like a flash of sunlight. Taita waited, composing himself and marshalling his resources to meet whatever was coming his way.

He heard a regular tapping sound that was familiar, although he could not place it immediately. It came from the pathway behind him. He turned in that direction. The tapping ceased but after a short while it began again.

A tall, stooped figure came down the pathway carrying a long staff.

The sound of it on the stony path was what Taita had heard. The man had a long silver beard, but although he was stooped and ancient, he moved with the alacrity of a much younger man. He seemed not to notice Taita sitting quietly at the edge of the pool but followed the bank round in the opposite direction. When he reached the far side he sat down. Only then did he lift his head and look directly at Taita, who stared at him silently. He felt the blood drain from his face and grasped

the Periapt in his clenched fist, struck dumb with astonishment. The two looked deep into each other's eyes, and each saw his identical twin stare back at him.'

'Who are you?' Taita whispered at last.

'I am you,' said the stranger, in a voice Taita recognized as his own.

'No,' Taita burst out. 'I am one, and you are legion. You bear the black mark of the cat's paw. I am touched with the white mark of the Truth.

You are the fantasy created by Eos of the Dawn. I am the reality.'

'You confound us both with your obstinacy, for we are one and the same,' said the old man across the pool. 'What you deny me you deny yourself. I come to show you the treasure that could be ours.'

'I will not look,' Taita said, 'for I have already seen the poisonous images you create.'

'You dare not say no, for in doing so you deny your very self,' said his reflection. 'What I will show you has never before been looked upon by mortal man. Gaze into the pool, you who are myself.'

Taita stared down into the dark water. 'There is nothing there,' he said.

'Everything is there,' said the other Taita. 'Everything we have ever truly wanted, you and I. Open our Inner Eye and let us gaze upon it together.' Taita did so, and a shadowy vista appeared before him. It was as though he looked across a wide desert of barren dunes.

'That desert is our existence without knowledge of the Truth,' said the other Taita. 'Without the Truth all is sterile and monotonous. But look beyond the desert, my hungry soul.'

Taita obeyed. On the horizon he saw a mighty beacon, a divine light, a mountain cut from a single pure diamond.

'That is the mountain that all the seers and magi strive towards. They do so in vain. No mortal man can attain the divine light. It is the mountain of all knowledge and wisdom.'

'It is beautiful,' whispered Taita.

'We look upon it at a great distance. Mortal mind cannot imagine the beauty when you stand upon the summit.' Taita saw that the old man was weeping with joy and reverence. 'We can stand upon that pinnacle together, my other self. We can have what no man has ever had before.

There is no greater prize.'

Taita stood up and walked slowly to the edge of the pool. He gazed down upon the vision and felt a longing that surpassed any he had ever known. It was no shameful craving, no base physical desire. It was something as clean, noble and pure as the diamond mountain.

'I know your feelings,' said his double, 'for they are mine exactly.'

He stood up. 'Look upon the frail and ancient body that encases and imprisons us. Compare it to the perfect form that was once ours, and can be ours again. Look down into the water and behold what none has seen before us, nor will see again. All this is being offered to us. Is it not sacrilege to refuse such gifts?' He pointed at the vision of the diamond mountain. 'See how it fades. Will we ever look upon it again? The choice is ours, yours and mine.' The vision of the shining mountain dissolved into the dark water, leaving Taita bereft and empty.

His mirror image stood up and came round the pool towards him. He opened his arms to embrace Taita, who felt a shiver of revulsion. Despite himself he lifted his arms to return the fraternal gesture. Before they touched a blue spark crackled between them, and Taita felt a shock, like a discharge of static electricity, as his other self vanished into him, and they became one.

The glory of the diamond mountain he had looked upon remained with him long after he had left the magical pool and gone down through the gardens.

Meren was waiting for him at the lower gates. 'I have been searching for you these last few hours,' he rushed to meet Taita, 'but there is aught very strange about this place. There are a thousand paths but they all lead back to this spot.'

'Why did you come to look for me?' It was fruitless to try to explain to Meren the complexities of the witch's garden.

'Colonel That Ankut arrived at the clinic a short while ago. No sign of Captain Onka, I am pleased to say. I had no chance to talk to the good colonel, not that I would have achieved a great deal by doing so.

He never has much to say.'

'Did he come alone?'

'No, there were others, an escort of six troopers and about ten women.'

'What kind of women?'

'I only saw them from afar – I was on this side of the lake. There was nothing unusual about them. They seemed young, but they did not sit comfortably on their mounts. I thought I should warn you of his arrival.'

'You did right, of course, but I can always rely on you for that.'

'What ails you? You wear a strange expression – that dazed half-smile and those dreaming eyes. What mischief have you been at, Magus?'

'These gardens are very beautiful,' Taita said.

'I suppose they are pretty in a repellent way.' Meren grinned with embarrassment. 'I cannot explain it, but I do not like it here.'

'Then let us be gone,' said Taita.f When they reached their quarters in the sanatorium an attendant was waiting for them. 'I have an invitation for you from Dr Hannah. As it will soon be time for you to leave the Cloud Gardens, she would like you to dine with her this evening.'

'Kindly tell her that we are pleased to accept.'

“I will come to fetch you a little before sunset.'

The sun had just sunk below the clifftops when the attendant returned. He led them through a series of courtyards and covered galleries. They met others hurrying along the galleries, but they passed without exchanging greetings. Taita recognized some as attendants who had been with them during Meren's treatment.

Why have I not noticed how extensive these buildings are until now?

Why have I not felt any inclination to explore them before? he wondered.

Hannah had told them that the gardens and clinic had been built over many centuries, so it was no wonder that they were so large, but why had they not excited his curiosity? Then he remembered how he had tried to follow the three girls into one of the blocks, but had lacked the will to continue.

They have no need for gates or guards, he realized. They can prevent strangers entering where they are not welcome by placing mental barriers to exclude them – as they did to me, and as they did to Meren when he came to find me.

They passed a small group of young women sitting quietly beside a fountain in one of the courtyards. One was playing a lute and two others were waving sistrums. The rest were singing in sweet sad harmony.

'Those are some of the women I saw this afternoon,' Meren whispered.

Although the sun had already gone behind the cliffs, the air was still warm and balmy and the women were lightly dressed.

'They are all with child,' Taita murmured.

'Like those we met on our first day in the crater,' Meren agreed. For a moment it seemed to Taita that there should be something significant in that, but before he could grasp the idea they had crossed the courtyard and reached a portico on the far side.

'I will leave you here,' said their guide, 'but 1 shall return to fetch you after you have dined. The doctor is waiting for you with her other guests.

Please enter. She is expecting you.'

They entered a large and artistically furnished room, lit by tiny glass lamps floating in toy ships on an ornamental pool in the centre. Splendid

floral displays hung in baskets from the walls or grew in ceramic and earthenware pots arranged on the mosaic floor.

Hannah came across the room to them. She took them each by a hand and led them to the other guests, who lounged on low couches or sat cross-legged on piles of cushions. Gibba was there, with three other doctors, two men and another woman. They looked very young to hold such eminent positions and to be privy to such extraordinary medical wonders as existed in the Cloud Gardens. The other guest was Colonel That. He rose as Taita approached his couch and saluted him with grave respect. He did not smile, but Taita had not expected it.

'You and Colonel Cambyses are to go down the mountain in a few days' time,' Hannah explained to Taita. 'Colonel That has come to be your escort and guide.'

'It will be my pleasure and honour,' That assured Taita.

The other surgeons clustered round Meren to examine his new eye and marvel at it. 'I know of your other achievements, Dr Hannah,' said the woman, 'but surely this is the first eye that you have successfully replaced.'

'There were others, but they were before your time,' Hannah corrected her. 'I feel confident now that we can look forward to succeeding with any part of the human body. The gallant colonels who are our guests here this evening will vouch for that.' The three surgeons turned towards That.

'You also, Colonel?' asked the younger woman. In reply, That held up his right hand and flexed the fingers.

'The first was chopped off by a savage warrior wielding an axe. This one comes from the skills of Dr Hannah.' He saluted her with the hand.

The other surgeons came to examine it with as much interest as they had Meren's eye.

'Is there no limitation on the body parts that you are able to regrow?'

a male surgeon wanted to know.

'Yes. First, the operation has to be approved and sanctioned by the oligarchs of the Supreme Council. Second, the remaining parts have to continue to function. We would not be able to replace a head or a heart, for without those parts the rest of the body would die before we could seed it.'

Taita found the evening most enjoyable. The conversation of the surgeons touched on many medical wonders that he had not heard spoken of previously. Once their reserve had been softened by a bowl or

two of the wonderful wine of the Cloud Gardens vineyards, Meren and That entertained them with accounts of the strange things they had seen on their campaigns and travels. After the meal Gibba played the lute and Taita sang.

When the attendant came to take Taita and Meren back to their quarters, That walked part of the way with them.

'When do you plan to take us down the mountain, Colonel?' Taita asked.

'It will not be for a few days yet. There are other matters 1 must attend to before we leave. I shall give you plenty of warning of our departure.'

'Have you seen my ward, the girl Fenn, since we left Mutangi?' Taita asked. “I miss her sorely.'

'She seems equally attached to you. I passed through the village on my way here. She saw me and ran after my horse to enquire after you.

When I told her that I was on my way to fetch you she was much excited. She charged me to give you her respects and duty. She seemed in the best of health and spirits. She is a lovely girl, and you must be proud of her.'

'She is,' Taita agreed, 'and I am.'

That night Taita's dreams were complex and many-tiered, in most cases peopled by men and women he had known. But others were strangers, yet their images were so meticulously etched that it seemed they were creatures of flesh and blood, not woven in fantasy and gossamer. The dreams were linked by the same thread: through all of them he was carried along by the expectation of something marvellous that was about to take place – he was searching for a fabulous treasure that was almost within his grasp.

He woke in the first silver glimmer of day to a sense of elation for which he could find no reason. He left Meren snoring and went out on to the lawns, which were pearled with dew. The sun had just gilded the cliffs. Without further thought, except to check that the Periapt was still suspended from its chain round his neck, he set off for the upper gardens once more.

As he entered the gardens his sense of well-being became stronger.

He did not lean upon his staff but shouldered it and struck out with long, determined strides. The pathway to the grotto of the imp was not

obscured. When he reached it he found the nook deserted. Once he had determined that he was alone, he quartered the ground swiftly, looking for some trace of a living being. No other person had been there.

Even the ground over which his other self had walked, although damp and soft, showed no tracks of human feet. Nothing made sense. It was becoming increasingly difficult for him to trust his own sanity, and to accept the evidence of his mind and senses. The witch was leading him to the borders of madness.

Gradually he became aware of music: the silvery slither of sistrums and the staccato tapping of a finger drum. He clasped the Periapt tightly and turned slowly to face the mouth of the grotto, half in dread and half in defiance of what he might see.

A solemn ceremonial procession issued from the mouth of the cave and paced down the moss-covered ledges. Four weird creatures bore on their shoulders a palanquin of gold and ivory. The first bearer was the ibis-headed Thoth, the god of learning. The second was Anuke, the goddess of war, magnificent in golden armour and armed with bow and arrows. The third was Heh, the god of infinity and long life, his visage green as an emerald, his eyes shining yellow; he carried the Palm Fronds of a Million Years. The last was Min, the god of virility and fertility, who wore a crown of vulture feathers; his phallus was fully erect and rose from his loins like a marble column.