The wind veered into the north and freshened. The galleys shipped their oars and hoisted large lateen sails. White water curled under their prows and the shore flew by on the starboard side. On the fifth morning after the hunt they reached the mouth of another tributary. Coming
down from the high ground to the west, it poured an enormous volume of water into the lake. Taita heard the crew talking among themselves, and the name 'Kitangule' bandied about. Clearly that was the name of the river before them. He was not surprised when the captain ordered the sail to be lowered and the oars run out once more. Their galley led the flotilla into the Kitangule and pushed against the mighty flow.
Within a few leagues they had come to a large settlement built along the riverbank. Here, there were shipyards with the unfinished hulls of two large vessels lying on the slipways. Workmen swarmed over them, and Taita pointed out the overseers to Meren. 'That accounts for the foreign design of the ships in this squadron. All must have been built in these yards, and those who built them are unmistakably from the lands beyond the Indus.'
'How came they to this place, so far from their own land?' Meren wondered.
'There is something here that attracts worthy men from afar, like bees to a garden of flowers.'
'Are we bees also, Magus? Does the same attraction entice us?'
Taita looked at him with surprise. This was an unusually perceptive idea from Meren. 'We have come here to fulfil a sacred oath made to Pharaoh,' he reminded him. 'However, now that we have arrived we must be on our guard. We must never allow ourselves to be turned into dreamers and lotus-eaters, as it seems so many of these Jarrians are.'
The flotilla sailed on up the river. Within days they had encountered the first cataracts of white water that blocked the river from bank to bank. This did not daunt That and his captains, for at the foot of the torrent there was another small village, and beyond that extensive cattle stockades, which held herds of humped oxen.
Passengers, horses and slaves disembarked on to the bank. With only the crews still on board, the vessels were hitched with heavy ropes of twisted liana to teams of oxen and dragged up the chutes of fast water.
Ashore, the men and horses climbed the track that ran beside the cascade until they reached higher ground. Above the cataracts the river was deep and placid, and the galleys rode lightly at anchor. All embarked again, to voyage on until they reached the next waterfall where the procedure was repeated.
Three times they came to falls too steep and furious to permit the vessels to be dragged up them. Egyptian engineering genius was evident in the extensive works that circumvented the obstacles: a zigzag series of channels had been dug alongside the falls, with locks at each end and
wooden gates to lift the vessels to the next level. It took many days and much labour to bring the flotilla up the water ladders, but eventually they were in the deep, gentle flow of the main stream once more, i Since leaving the lake, the terrain they had passed through was fascinating in its magnificent diversity. For a hundred leagues or so after they had entered the Kitangule, the river ran through dense jungle.
Branches almost met overhead and it seemed that no two trees were of the same species. They were festooned with lianas, other vines and flowering creepers. High in the canopy, troops of monkeys squabbled noisily in gardens of flowering orchids and fruit. Glistening monitor lizards sunned themselves on branches that overhung the river. At the approach of the boats they launched themselves into the air and fell to hit the water with a splash that showered the men at the oars.
At night when they moored along the bank, tied to the trunks of the great trees, the darkness was loud with the cries and scuffling of unseen animals, and the roars of the predators that hunted them. Some of the crew set fishing lines in the black water, the bronze hooks baited with offal. Three men on one line struggled to pull out the huge catfish that seized the bait.
Slowly the vegetation along the banks changed as they climbed up through the cataracts. The sweltering heat cooled and the air became more salubrious. Once they had negotiated the final water ladder, they found themselves in an undulating landscape of grassy glades and open forests dominated by many species of acacia - leafless and thorny; covered with soft, feathery foliage; with vast black trunks and dark boughs. The tallest were decorated with bunches of lavender fruit hanging like grapes from the high branches.
This was a fertile, well-watered land with lush sweet grass filling the glades, and dozens of streams joining the main flow of the Kitangule.
The plains swarmed with herds of grazing animals, and not a day passed when they did not see prides of lions hunting or resting in the open. At night their thunderous roars were terrifying. No matter how often they heard them, the listeners' nerves jangled and their hearts raced.
At last a tall escarpment rose across the horizon, and they were aware of a murmur that grew louder as they drew closer. They came round another bend in the river, and saw before them a mighty waterfall that fell in thundering gouts of white foam from the top of a cliff into a swirling green pool at the foot.
On the beaches that surrounded it teams of oxen were standing ready to draw the boats ashore. Once again they disembarked, but this was for
I
THE QUEST
the last time. No device of man could lift the vessels to the top of those cliffs. In the settlement on the riverbank there were guesthouses to accommodate the officers and Taita's party while the rest of the men, horses and baggage were brought ashore. The Basmara slaves were locked into barracoons.
It was three days before Colonel That was ready to continue the journey. Now all of the baggage was loaded on to pack oxen. The slaves were led out of the barracoons and roped together in long lines. The troopers and Taita's band mounted, and rode out along the base of the cliff in a long caravan. Within a league the road was climbing sharply up the escarpment in a series of hairpin bends and narrowed to a path. The gradient became so steep that they were forced to dismount and lead the horses, the heavily laden oxen and the slaves toiling behind them.
Half-way up the cliff they reached a place where a narrow rope suspension bridge crossed a deep gorge. Captain Onka took control of the crossing, allowing only a small number of pack animals and men to venture out on to the precarious structure at a time. Even with a limited load the bridge swayed and sagged alarmingly, and it was the middle of the afternoon before the caravan was across the gorge.
'Is this the only route to the top of the cliffs?' Meren asked Onka.
'There is an easier road that scales the escarpment forty leagues to the south, but it adds several days' travel to the journey.'
Once they were across the void they looked down and their view seemed to encompass the earth. From on high they surveyed golden savannahs over which the rivers crawled like dark serpents, distant blue hills and green jungles. Finally, on the misty horizon, the waters of the great lake Nalubaale along which they had sailed gleamed like molten metal.
At last they reached the border fort perched on the ridge to guard the pass, the Kitangule Gap, and the entrance to Jarri. It was dark by the time they bivouacked outside it. It rained during the night, but by morning the sun was shining benevolently. When they looked out of their shelter Taita and Fenn were presented with a sight that made all the splendours they had seen up to then seem commonplace. Below them lay a wide plateau that stretched to a distant horizon. Along it rose a range of rugged mountains so tall they must have been the abode of the gods. Three central peaks shone with the ethereal luminance of the full moon. Taita and Meren had travelled through the peaks along the Khorasan highway, but Fenn had never seen snow before. She was struck dumb by the glorious sight. At last she found her voice: 'Look! The mountains are on fire,' she cried.