However, it was at this point, within sight of the volcano, that the soldier fell ill with the fever. He was abandoned and left for dead while his companions marched southwards. But he managed to reach a village of giant naked black people who lived on the lakeshore. They took him
I THE QUEST
in. One of their shamans gave him medicine and nursed him until he had recovered sufficiently to continue his homeward journey.' In his agitation Tiptip gripped Taita's arm. 'I wanted to tell you before but Brother Nubank would not allow it. He forbade me to pester you with hearsay from seventy years ago. He said that we geographers deal only with fact. You will not tell Brother Nubank I disobeyed him? He is a good and holy man, but he can be strict.'
'You did right,' Taita reassured him, and gently dislodged the clutching fingers. Then, suddenly, he lifted Tiptip's hand to examine it more closely. 'You have six fingers!' he exclaimed.
Clearly Tiptip was mortified: he tried to hide the deformity by clenching his hand into a fist. 'The gods built my entire body awry. My head and eyes, my back and my limbs — everything about me is twisted and misformed.' His eyes filled with tears.
'But you have a good heart,' Taita consoled him. Gently, he opened the fist and spread the fingers. An additional rudimentary finger grew out of the man's palm beside the normal little finger.
' “Six fingers point the way,”' Taita whispered.
'I did not mean to point at you, Magus. I would never deliberately give offence to you in that way,' Tiptip whimpered.
'No, Tiptip, you have done me great service. Be certain of my gratitude and my friendship.'
'You will not tell Brother Nubank?'
'No. You have my oath on it.'
'The blessings of Hathor upon you, Magus. Now I must go or Brother Nubank will come to find me.' Tiptip scampered away like a crab. Taita gave him a few moments' start then made his way back to the library.
He found that Demeter and Meren had preceded him, and Nubank was berating Tiptip: 'Where have you been?'
'I was in the latrine, Brother. Forgive me. I have eaten something that has upset my stomach.'
'And you have upset mine, you loathsome piece of excrement.
While you were there you should have left all of yourself in the bucket.'
He clouted Tiptip's birthmark. 'Now bring me the scrolls in which the islands of the eastern ocean are described.'
Taita took his place beside Demeter and said to him in Tenmass, 'Look to the little fellow's right hand.'
'He has six fingers.' Demeter exclaimed. '“Six fingers point the way!”
You have learnt something from him, have you not?'
'We must follow the right branch of Mother Nile to her source. There
we will find a volcano set beside a wide lake. I am certain in my heart that that is where Eos lurks.';
They left the temple of Hathor long before sunrise the next morning. Nubank bade them farewell reluctantly - he had fifty volcanoes yet to describe. It was still half dark when they reached the ford of the Nile below Thebes. Habari and Meren led the way down into the riverbed, Taita and Demeter following, but a gap had opened between the two groups. The leaders rode through the tail of one of the stinking red pools and were half-way to the far bank as Demeter's camel started across the mud. At that moment Taita became aware that a malevolent influence was focusing on them. He felt a chill in the air, the pulse in his ears pounded and his breathing was hampered. He turned quickly and looked back over his mare's rump.
A solitary figure stood on the bank they had just left. Although his dark robes merged into the shadows, Taita recognized him immediately.
He opened his Inner Eye and Soe's distinctive aura appeared enveloping the man, like the flames of a bonfire. It was an angry scarlet, shot with purple and green. Taita had never seen an aura so menacing.
'Soe is here!' he called, in urgent warning to Demeter, as he lay in his palanquin, but it was too late: Soe raised an arm and pointed at the surface of the pool through which the camel was wading. Almost as though it was responding to his command, a monstrous toad launched itself from the water and, with a snap of its jaws, ripped a deep gash in the camel's back leg above the knee. The animal bawled with shock and, breaking free of its lead rein, bolted out of the pool. Instead of heading for the far bank it turned and galloped wildly along the riverbed, with Demeter's palanquin swaying and bouncing from side to side.
'Meren! Habari!' Taita shouted, as he kicked his mare into a full gallop in pursuit of the runaway camel. Meren and Habari swung their mounts round and urged them back into the riverbed to join the pursuit.
'Hold fast, Demeter!' Taita shouted. 'We are coming!' Windsmoke was flying under him, but before he caught up with Demeter the camel reached another pool and dashed into it, throwing up sheets of spray.
Then the surface of the water directly in its path opened as another toad shot out. It sprang high at the head of the panic-stricken beast and clamped its jaws on the bulbous nose in a bulldog grip. It must have struck a nerve, for the front legs of the camel collapsed. Then it rolled
on to its back as it thrashed its head from side to side in an attempt to break the grip of the toad's fangs. The palanquin was trapped beneath it, and its light bamboo framework was crushed into the mud under its weight.
'Demeter! We must rescue him!' Taita shouted to Meren, and urged on his mare. But before he reached the edge of the pool Demeter's head broke the surface. Somehow he had escaped from the palanquin, but he was half drowned in the mud that plastered his head, coughing and vomiting, his movements feeble and erratic.
'I am coming!' Taita shouted. 'Do not despair!' Then, suddenly, the pool was boiling with toads. They came swarming up from the bottom and fell upon Demeter, like a pack of wild dogs pulling down a gazelle.
The old man's mouth was wide open as he tried to scream, but the mud choked him. The toads pulled him below the surface, and when he emerged again briefly his struggles had almost ceased. His only movements were caused by the toads below the surface, tearing off lumps of his flesh.
'I am here, Demeter!' Taita yelled despairingly. He could not take the mare among the frenzied toads for he knew they would rip into her. He reined in and slipped off her back with his staff in his hands. He started to wade into the pool, then gasped with agony as a toad sank its fangs into his leg below the surface. He thrust down at it with his staff, exerting all his physical and spiritual strength to bolster the blow. He felt the jolt as the tip struck squarely, and the creature released him. It came to the surface on its back, stunned and kicking convulsively.
'Demeter!' He could not tell the man from the toads that were devouring him alive. Man and beasts were thickly coated with shining black mud.
Suddenly two thin arms were lifted high above the teeming pack and he heard Demeter's voice. 'I am done. You must go on alone, Taita.' His voice was almost inaudible, choked by mud and the poisonous red water.
And then it was snuffed out as a toad, larger than all the others, clamped its jaws into the side of his head, and pulled him under for the last time.
Taita started forward again, but Meren rode up behind him seized him with one strong arm round his waist, lifted him out of the mud and carried him back to the bank.
'Put me down!' Taita struggled to free himself. 'We cannot leave him to those foul creatures.' But Meren would not release him.
'Magus, you are hurt. Look to your leg.' Meren tried to calm him. The blood gushed from the bite to mingle with the mud. 'Demeter is finished.