'This way, Kalulu,' Taita invited. When they reached his quarters, the women set down the litter, then backed away until they were out of earshot. Kalulu hopped back on to it and resumed his normal head-high position, squatting on his stumps. He looked around brightly at the camp, but when Fenn knelt before him to offer him a bowl of honey mead, he concentrated his attention on her.
'Who are you, child? I saw you in the firelight,' he said in the Tenmass.
She pretended not to understand and glanced at Taita.
'You may reply,' he told her. 'He is of the Truth.'
'I am Fenn, a novice to the magus.'
He looked at Taita. 'Do you vouch for her?'
'I do,' Taita replied, and the little man nodded.
'Sit beside me, Fenn, for you are beautiful.' She sat on the litter trustingly. Kalulu looked at Taita with piercing black eyes. 'Why did you call for me, Magus? What is the service you require from me?'
'I need you to take me to the place where the Nile is born.'
Kalulu showed no surprise. 'You are the one who I saw in my dreams.
You are the one I have waited for. I will take you to the Red Stones.
We will leave tonight when the wind drops and the waters are still. How many are in your party?'
'Thirty-eight, with Fenn and me, but we have much baggage.'
'Five more large canoes will follow me. They will be here before nightfall.'
'I have many horses,' Taita added.
'Yes.' The little dwarf nodded. 'They will swim behind the canoes. I have brought bladders of animal stomachs to support them.'
In the brief African twilight, as the last gusts of the wind died away, some of the troopers led the horses down to the shore and> in the shallow water, strapped an inflated bladder to each side of their girth ropes. While this was going on, the others loaded their equipment into the canoes. Kalulu's female bodyguards carried him on his litter to the largest canoe and placed him aboard. As the waters of the lake settled into a slick calm, they pushed out from the shore and headed into the darkness towards the great cross of stars that hung in the southern skies.
Ten horses were roped behind each canoe. Fenn sat in the stern, where she could call encouragement to Windsmoke and Whirlwind as they swam behind. The ranks of rowers plied their oars and the long, narrow hulls knifed silently through the dark waters.
Taita sat beside the litter on which Kalulu lay and they conversed quietly for a while. 'What is the name of this lake?'
'Semliki Nianzu. It is one of many.'
'How is it fed?'
'Previously two great rivers ran into it, one at the western end called Semliki, the other our Nile. Both come from the south, the Semliki from the mountains, the Nile from the great waters. That is where I am taking you.'
'Is it another lake?'
'No man knows if it is truly a lake or if it is the beginning of the great void.'
'This is where our Mother Nile is born?'
'Even so,' Kalulu agreed.
'What do you call this great water?'
'We call it Nalubaale.'
'Explain our route to me, Kalulu.'
'When we reach the far shore of Semliki Nianzu we will find the southerly limb of the Nile.'
'The picture I have in my mind is that the southerly limb of the Nile is where it flows into Semliki Nianzu. The northerly limb leaves this lake and flows north towards the great swamps. This is the branch of the Nile that has brought us thus far.'
'Yes, Taita. That is the wide picture. Of course, there are other minor rivers, tributaries and lesser lakes, for this is the land of many waters, but they all flow into the Nile and run to the north.'
'But the Nile is dying,' Taita said softly.
Kalulu was silent for a while, and when he nodded a single tear ran
down his wizened cheek, sparkling in the moonlight. 'Yes,' he agreed.
'The rivers that feed her have all been stoppered. Our mother is dying.'
'Kalulu, explain to me how this has happened.'
'There are no words to explain it. When we reach the Red Stones you will see for yourself. I cannot describe these events to you. Mere words fall short of such a task.'
'I will contain my impatience.'
'Impatience is a young man's vice.' The dwarf smiled, his teeth gleaming in the gloom. 'And sleep is an old man's solace.' The plash of the waters under the canoe lulled them, and after a while they slept.
Taita woke to a soft cry from the leading canoe. He roused himself and leant over the side of the vessel to splash a double handful of water into his face. Then he blinked the drops from his eyes and looked ahead.
He made out the dark loom of land ahead.
At last they felt the drag of the beach under the hull as they ran aground. The rowers dropped their oars and leapt ashore to pull the canoes higher. The horses found their footing and lunged ashore, streaming water.
The women lifted Kalulu in his litter and carried him up the beach.
'Your men must have breakfast now,' Kalulu told Taita, 'so that we can march at first light. We have a long road to travel before we reach the Stones.'
They watched the rowers embark in the canoes and push off into the lake. The silhouettes of the swift craft merged into the darkness, until the white splash of oars was all that marked their position. Soon those, too, had vanished.
By firelight they ate smoked lake fish and dhurra cakes, then in the . dawn they set off along the lakeshore. Within half a league they came to a dry white riverbed.
'What river was this?' Taita asked Kalulu, although he knew what the answer would be.
'This was and is the Nile,' Kalulu replied simply.
'It is completely dried up!' Taita exclaimed, as he looked across the riverbed. It was four hundred paces from bank to bank, but no water flowed between them. Instead, elephant grass, like miniature bamboo that stood twice the height of a tall man, had filled it. 'We have followed the river two thousand leagues from Egypt to this place. All the way we
have found at least some water, standing pools, even trickles and rivulets, but here it is as dry as the desert.'¦ 'The water you encountered further north was the overflow from the lake Semliki Nianzu, which ran in from its tributaries,' Kalulu explained. 'This was the Nile, the mightiest river on all the earth. Now it is nothing.'
'What has happened to it?' Taita demanded. 'What infernal power could have stopped such a vast flow?'
'It is something that defies even an imagination as all-encompassing as your own, Magus. When we reach the Red Stones you will see it all before you.'
Fenn had been translating what was said for the benefit of Meren, and now he could no longer contain himself. 'If we are to follow a dry river,'
he demanded, 'where will I find water for my men and horses?'
'You will find it even as the elephants do, by digging for it,' Taita told him.
'How long will this journey take?' Meren asked.
When this had been translated, Kalulu gave him an impish smile and replied, 'Much depends on the stamina of your horses and the strength of your own legs.'
They moved fast, passing the stagnant pools of once brimming lagoons and climbing through dry, rocky gorges where waterfalls had thundered.
Sixteen days later they came upon a low ridge that ran parallel to the course of the Nile. It was the first feature that had relieved the monotony of the forest for many leagues.
'On that high ground stands the town of Tamafupa, the home of my people,' Kalulu told them. 'From the heights you can see the great waters of Nalubaale.'