'So Jarrian society is stratified?' Taita asked. 'Divided into nobility, commoners and slaves?'
'In broad outline, that is so. Although we are known as migrants, not commoners.'
'Do you Jarrians still worship the panoply of Egyptian gods?'
'Nay, Magus, we have but one god.'
'Who is he?'
'I do not know. Only the initiates to the religion know his name. I pray that one day I am granted that boon.' Taita saw many conflicting currents running below this assertion: there was something that That could not bring himself to say, even though he had escaped the surveillance of Onka to voice it.
'Tell me more of this land, so wondrous that it could pre-empt the loyalty of a man of your worth.' Taita was encouraging him to speak out.
'No words are adequate to the task,' That replied, 'but we will be there soon enough, and you shall judge for yourself.' He was letting the opportunity to speak openly slip away.
'Colonel That, when you rescued us from the Basmara you said something that made me believe you had been sent for that express purpose. Was I correct?'
'I have already said too much … because I hold you in such high respect and esteem. But I must ask you not to press me. I know that you have a superior and enquiring mind, but you are entering a land that has a different code of customs and laws. At this stage you are a guest, so it
will be expedient to us all if you respect the mores of your hosts.' Now That was in full retreat.
'One of which is not to pry into matters that don't concern me?'
'Precisely,' That said. It was a sober warning, and that was as much as he could bring himself to say.
'I have always held the view that expediency is a justification for tyranny, and the sop of serfs.'
'A dangerous view, Magus, which you should keep to yourself while you are in Jarri.' That closed his mouth as if it were the visor of his bronze helmet, and Taita knew that he would learn no more now, but he was not disappointed. Indeed, he was surprised to have learnt so much.
They were interrupted by the faint cries of the hunters. Far ahead, Meren had run down a quarry worthy of his arrows.
The antediluvian monster stood at bay, snorting like a fire-breathing dragon, making short but furious rushes towards its tormentors, kicking up the dust with its great hoofs, swinging its horned nose from side to side, piggy eyes bright, ears pricked forward. Its nose-horn stood tall as a man, polished by constant honing on tree trunks and termite mounds until it gleamed like a sword.
Then Taita saw Fenn, and felt acid rise in his throat. She was flirting with the beast. Serenely confident of her own horsemanship and Whirlwind's speed, she was crossing at an oblique angle in front of the beast's nose, inviting his charge. Taita kicked his heels into Windsmoke's flanks and raced to restrain her. At the same time he sent an urgent astral impulse directly to her. He felt her parry it, with the skill of an expert swordsman, then close her mind to him. His anger and concern flared hotly. 'The little she-devil!' he muttered.
At that moment the creature's eye was drawn by Whirlwind's shining grey coat, and it accepted Fenn's challenge. It hurled itself at them, grunting, snorting and pounding the earth with its great hoofs. Fenn touched the colt's neck and they jumped into full gallop. She was twisted in the saddle to judge the distance between the point of the horn and Whirlwind's flying tail. When they drew a little too far ahead, she held Whirlwind back to let the gap close and to urge the beast on.
Despite his fear for her safety Taita could not help but admire her skill and nerve, as she led the animal in front of Meren at close range.
He loosed three arrows in rapid succession, and all flew in behind the shoulder to bury their full length up to the fletching in the thick
grey hide. The animal stumbled and Taita saw bloody froth spray from its mouth. At least one of Meren's arrows had pierced a lung. Fenn led the beast on, skilfully bringing it round in a circle under Meren's poised bow and forcing it to expose its other flank to him. He shot and shot again, and his arrowheads went deep, raking through the heart and both lungs.
The beast slowed as its lungs filled with blood. The lethargy of death transmuted its mighty limbs to stone. At last it stood, head hanging, blood pouring in rivulets from its open mouth and its nose. Nakonto raced in from the side and drove in the point of his spear behind its ear, slanting the blade forward to find the brain. The body dropped with such weight that it jarred the earth and raised a cloud of dust.
By the time Taita reached them they had all dismounted and were gathered around the carcass. Fenn was dancing with excitement and the others were laughing and clapping. Taita was determined to punish her defiance by sending her back to the galley in disgrace, but as he dismounted, stony-featured, she rushed to him and jumped up to throw her arms round his neck.
'Taita, did you see it all? Was it not splendid? Were you not proud of Whirlwind and me?' Then, before he could deliver himself of the harsh rebuke that scalded his lips, she pressed her lips to his ear and whispered, 'You are so kind and good to me. I do love you, darling Taita.'
He felt his anger deflate and he asked himself ruefully, who is training whom? These are the arts she perfected in the other life. I still find myself defenceless against them.
The hunters had killed more than forty large animals, so it was a few days before all the carcasses could be butchered, the meat smoked and packed aboard the barges. Only then could they board the galleys and continue the voyage southward. When That was back with his officers he became aloof and unapproachable once more.
Watching him with the Inner Eye, Taita saw that he was regretting their conversation and the disclosures he had made. He was fearful of the consequences of his indiscretion.
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.