River god - Smith Wilbur - Страница 57

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  'By the piles between Seth's buttocks, it's you, Taita!' he roared.

  'I'd be obliged if you would refrain from shouting out my name to all the world,' I told him, and he turned serious at once.

  'Come! We'll go to my rooms.'

  Once we were alone, he poured two mugs of beer. 'Haven't you had enough of that?' I asked, and he grinned at me.

  'We'll only know the answer to that in the morning. How now, Taita! Don't be too strict with me. We have been down-river raiding the red usurper's fleet for the past three weeks. Sweet Hapi, but that bow-horn of yours works wonders. We cut up nearly twenty of his galleys and we chopped the heads off a couple of hundred of his rascals. Although it was thirsty work, not a drop of anything stronger than water has passed my lips in all that time. Don't begrudge me a mouthful of beer now. Drink with me!' He raised his mug, and I was also thirsty. I saluted him in return, but as I put the mug down again, I asked, 'Where is Tanus?'

  He sobered instantly v 'Tanus has disappeared,' he said, and I stared at him.

  'Disappeared? What do you mean, disappeared? Did he not lead the raid down-river?'

  Kratas shook his head. 'No. He's gone. Vanished. I have had my men scour every street and every house in all of Thebes. There is no sign of him. I tell you, Taita, I am worried, really worried.'

  'When did you last see him?'

  'Two days after the royal wedding, after the Lady Lostris married the king, on the evening of the day that you sailed with the royal flotilla for Elephantine. I tried to talk some sense into his thick head, but he would not listen.'-

  'What did he say?'

  'He handed over the command of the Breath of Horus and the entire squadron to me.'

  'He could not do that, surely?'

  'Yes, he could. He used the authority of Pharaoh's hawk

  I nodded. 'And then? What did he do?' 'I have just told you. He disappeared.'

  I sipped at the mug of beer as I tried to think it out. Meanwhile Kratas went to the window and urinated through it It splashed noisily into the street below and I heard a startled passer-by shout up at him, 'Careful where you spray, you filthy pig.?

  Kratas leaned out and quite cheerfully offered to crack his skull for him, and the man's grumblings receded rapidly. Chortling with this small victory, Kratas came back to me and I asked, 'What mood was Tanus in when he left you?'

  Kratas turned serious again. "The blackest and most ugly temper I have ever witnessed. He cursed the gods and Pharaoh. He even cursed the Lady Lostris and called her a royal whore.'

  I winced to hear it. Yet I knew that this was not my Tanus speaking. It was the voice of despairing and hopeless love.

  'He said that Pharaoh could carry out his threat to have him strangled for sedition and he would welcome the release. No, he was in terrible straits and there was nothing that I could do or say to comfort him.'

  'That was all? He gave you no hint as to what he intended?' Kratas shook his head and refilled his beer mug.

  'What happened to the hawk seal?' I asked.

  'He left it with me. He said he had no further use for it. I have it safe aboard the Breath of Horus.'

  'What of the other arrangements that I discussed with you? Have you done what I asked?'

  He looked into his mug guiltily and muttered, 'I began to make the arrangements, but after Tanus was gone, there seemed no point to it. Besides, I have been busy down-river since then.'

  'It is not like you, Kratas, to be so unreliable.' I had found that with Kratas hurt disappointment was more effective man anger. 'My Lady Lostris was relying on you. She told me that she trusted you completely. Kratas is a great rock of strength?those were her exact words.'

  I could see that it was working yet again, for Kratas is also one of my mistress's ardent admirers. Even a hint of her displeasure would move him.

  'Damn you, Taita, you make me sound like a weak-kneed idiot?' I kept silent, but silent can be more irksome than words. 'What in the name of Horus does the Lady Lostris want me to do?'

  'Nothing more than I asked you to do before I left for Elephantine,' I told him, and he slammed down his mug.

  'I am a soldier. I cannot leave my duties and take half the squadron to go off on some mad adventure. It was one thing when Tanus had the hawk seal?'

  'You have the hawk seal now,' I told him softly.

  He stared at me. 'I cannot use it without Tanus?'

  'You are his lieutenant. Tanus gave you the hawk seal to use. You know what to do with it. Do it! I will find Tanus and bring him back, but you must be ready by then. There is desperate and bloody work ahead, and Tanus needs you. Don't let him down, not again.'

  He flushed with anger at the jibe. Til make you swallow those words.' he promised.

  'And that will be the finest meal you could set for me,' I told him. I love brave and honest men, they are so easily manipulated.

  I WAS UNCERTAIN AS TO HOW I WOULD make good my promise to find Tanus, but I left Kratas to sleep off his debauch, and I went out into the town again to try. Once more I made the rounds of every one of his old haunts and questioned anyone who could possibly have seen him. I had no illusions as to the risk I was taking in pursuing my enquiries about Tanus, or as to just how flimsy was my disguise if I should run into anybody who knew me well, but I' had to find him. I kept going through the night, until even the shebeens and whorehouses along the waterfront had thrown out the last drunken customers and doused their lamps.

  As the dawn broke over the river, I stood tired and disconsolate on the bank of the Nile, and tried to think if there was some possibility I had overlooked. A wild honking cry made me look up. High above me a straggling skein of Egyptian geese was outlined against the pale gold and coppery tonep of the eastern sky. Immediately they brought to my mind those happy days that the three of us, Tanus and the Lady Lostris and myself, had spent wild-fowling in the swamps.

  'Fool!' I reviled myself. 'Of course that's it.'

  By this time they alleyways of the souk were filled with a noisy, jostling crowd. Thebes is the busiest city in the world, no man is idle here. They blow glass and work gold and silver, they weave flax and throw pots. The merchant deals and haggles, the lawyer cants, the priest chants and the whore swives. It is an exciting, flamboyant city and I love it.

  I forced my way through the throng and the hubbub of banter and bargaining as the merchants and the farmers displayed-their wares for the housewives and the bailiffs of the rich households. The souk stank fulsomely of spices and fruits, of vegetables and fish and meats, some of which were far from fresh. Cattle bellowed and goats bleated and added their dung to the human contribution of excrement that trickled down the open gutters towards old Mother Nile.

  I thought of buying an ass, for it would be a long walk in this hottest season of the year, and there were some sturdy beasts on offer. In the end I decided against such extravagance, not only on the grounds of economy, for I knew that once I was out in the open countryside, an expensive animal would certainly attract the attention of the Shrikes. For such a prize they might overcome their religious scruples. Instead, I purchased only a few handfuls of dates and a loaf of bread, a leather bag to carry these provisions and a gourd water-bottle. Then I set out through the narrow streets for the main gate of the city.

  I had not reached the gates when there was a commotion in the street ahead of me and a detachment of the palace guards came towards me, using their staves to force a passage through the market crowds. Close behind them a half-dozen slaves carried an ornate and curtained litter at a jog-trot. I was trapped against the clay-daub walls of one of the buildings and though I recognized both the litter and the commander of the bodyguards, I could not avoid a confrontation.

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