The odour of the witch filled their nostrils with the redolence of wild beasts. They reeled back from the doorway, but then the sunlight passed over the ivory disc and the fiery letters were expunged. The reek of the witch abated, leaving only the smell of musty thatch and bat droppings.
The sunlight faded, leaving the sanctum once more in gloom. In silence they retreated down the gallery and out into the sunlight.
'She was there,' whispered Fenn. She took a deep breath of the cool lake air, as if to cleanse her lungs.
'Her influence remains.' Taita pointed with his staff at the humped Red Stones. 'She still presides over her fiendish works.'
'Could we destroy her temple,' Fenn glanced back at the building, 'and in that way destroy her also?'
'No,' Taita told her firmly. 'Her influence is powerful within the inner sanctum of her stronghold. To challenge her there would be mortally dangerous. We will find another time and place to attack her.' He took Fenn's hand and led her away. 'We will return tomorrow to test the wall for weakness, and to learn more from Kalulu of how the Red Stones were placed across the gorge.'
Meren pointed out the central crack that divided the Red Stones.
'There is no doubt that this is the weakest point in the length of the wall. It may be a shear line.'
'Certainly that seems the best point at which to begin the experiment,'
Taita agreed. 'There is no dearth of firewood.' Most of the big trees that covered the slopes of the gorge had died when their water was dammed.
'Tell the men to begin.'
They watched them spread out through the forest. Soon the sound of their axes rang down the gorge and woke the echoes from the cliffs.
Once the trees were felled, they used the horses to drag them to the base of the red wall. There they cut them into lengths, which they stacked against the wall of stone so that they formed a flue through which air would be drawn to fuel the flames. It took several days to set the gigantic mound of combustibles in place. In the meantime Taita supervised the
building of four separate shadoof wheels to raise the water from the lake to the top of the wall and spill it on to the reverse face to drench the rock once it was red hot.> When all was in readiness, Meren set fire to the stack of wood. The flames took hold and leapt upwards. In minutes the entire pile of timber was a roaring conflagration. No man could stand within a hundred yards of it without having the skin flayed from his flesh.
While they waited for the fire to subside, Taita and Fenn sat with Kalulu on the bluff above the gorge, looking across at the temple of Eos on the far side. They sheltered from the sun under a small ruined pavilion that stood on the spot. The bodyguards had repaired the roof thatch.
'While the river still ran and my tribe lived here, I was in the habit of coming to this place during the hot season of the year, when all the earth groans under the lash of the sun,' Kalulu explained. 'You can feel how the breeze comes off the lake. Furthermore, I was fascinated by the activity of the strangers in the temple across the river. I used this as a lookout from where I could spy upon them.' He pointed at the temple sitting high on the opposite bluff. 'You must visualize the scene at that time. Where the wall of red stone now stands there was a deep gorge with a series of rapids, and cascades down which descended such a volume of water that the senses were numbed by the thunder of their fall. A tall cloud of spray towered above them.' He lifted his arms high and described the hovering cloud with an eloquent, graceful gesture.
'When the wind shifted, the spray blew over us here, as cool and blessed as rain.' He smiled with pleasure at the thought. 'Thus, from here, I had the view of a vulture over all the momentous occurrences of that time.'
'You watched the temple being constructed?' Fenn asked. 'Did you know that there is much ivory and many precious stones within its precincts?'
'Indeed, my pretty child. I watched the strangers bring them in. They used hundreds of slaves as beasts of burden.'
'From which direction did they arrive?' Taita asked.
'They came from the west.' Kalulu pointed into the hazy blue distance.
'What country lies out there?' Tait asked.
The dwarf did not answer immediately. He was silent for a while, and then he responded hesitantly: 'When I was a young man and my legs were whole and strong, I travelled there. I went in search of wisdom and
learning, for I had heard of a wondrous sage who lived in that far country to the west.'
'What did you discover?'
'I beheld mountains, mighty mountains, hidden for most of the year by masses of dense cloud. When it parted, it revealed peaks that climbed to the very skies, peaks whose bald heads were shining white.'
'Did you climb to the summits?'
'No. I saw them only from a great distance.'
'Do these mountains have a name?'
'The people who live within sight of them call them the Mountains of the Moon for their tops are as bright as the full moon.'
'Tell me, my learned and revered friend, did you see any other wonders on these travels?'
'The wonders were many and legion,' Kalulu replied. 'I saw rivers that burst from the earth and boiled with steam as though from a seething cauldron. I heard the hills groan and felt them shake beneath my feet, as though some monster stirred in his deep cavern.' The memories illuminated his dark eyes. 'There was such power in this range of mountains that one of the peaks burned and smoked like a gigantic furnace.'
'A burning mountain!' Taita exclaimed. 'You saw a peak that belched fire and smoke! You discovered a volcano?'
'If that is what you call such a miracle,' the little man acceded. 'The tribes that lived within sight of it called it the Tower of Light. It was a sight that filled me with awe.'
'Did you ever find the famous sage for whom you went in search?'
'No.'
'The men who built this temple came from the Mountains of the Moon? Is that what you believe?' Taita brought him back to the original question.
'Who knows? Not I. But they came from that direction. They laboured for twenty months. First they carried in the building materials with their slaves. Then they erected the walls and covered them with timbers and thatch. My tribe provided food for them, in exchange for beads, cloth and metal tools. We did not understand the purpose of that building, but it seemed harmless and posed no threat to us.' Kalulu shook his head at the memory of their naivety. 'I was interested in the work. I tried to ingratiate myself with the builders and learn more about what they were doing, but they turned me away in a most hostile manner. They placed guards around their camp and I could not get close. I was forced to watch their works from this vantage-point.' Kalulu lapsed into silence.
Taita encouraged him with another question. 'What happened after the temple was completed?'; 'The builders and slaves departed. They marched back into the west, the way they had come. They left nine priests to serve in the temple.'
'Only nine?' Taita asked.
'Yes. I became familiar with the appearance of every one of them, at this distance, of course.'
'What makes you believe they were priests?'
'They wore religious habits, red in colour. They conducted rituals of devotion. They made sacrifices and burnt offerings.'
'Describe the rituals.' Taita was listening with great attention. 'Every detail may be important.'
'At noon every day three of the priests descended in procession to the head of the cataract. They drew water in pitchers and carried it to the temple, dancing and exulting in some strange dialect.'