falls. He looked down two hundred feet into a deep cleft in the rock,
only just wide enough to allow the angry river to squeeze through. He
could have thrown a stone across the gap. There was no path nor foothold
in that chasm, and he turned back and rejoined the rest of the caravan
as it detoured away from the river and into another thickly wooded
valley.
"This was probably once the course of the Dandera river, before it cut a
fresh bed for itself through the chasm." Royan pointed to the high
ground on each side of the path, and then to the water-worn boulders
that littered the trail.
"I think you are right," Nicholas agreed. These cliffs seem to be an
intrusion of limestone through the basalt and sandstone. The whole area
has been severely faulted and cut up by erosion and the ever-changing
river. You can be certain that those limestone cliffs are riddled with
caves and springs."
Now the trail descended rapidly towards the Blue Nile, falling away
almost fifteen hundred feet in altitude' in the last few miles. The
sides of the valley were heavily covered with vegetation and at many
places small springs of water oozed from the limestone and trickled down
the old river bed.
The heat built up steadily as they went down, and soon even Royan's
khaki shirt was stained with dark patches of sweat between her shoulder
blades.
At one stage a freshet of clear water gushed from an area of dense bush
high up the hillside and swelled the stream into a small river. Then
they turned a corner of the valley and found that they and the stream
had rejoined the main flow of the Dandera river. Looking back up the
gorge, they could see where the river had emerged from the chasm through
a narrow archway in the cliff. The rock surrounding the cleft was a
peculiar pink in colour, smooth and polished, folded back upon itself,
so that it resembled the mucous membrane on the inside of a pair of
human lips.
The rock -was of such an unusual colour and texture that they were both
struck by it. They turned aside to study it while the mules went on
downwards, the clatter of their receding hoofbeats and the voices of the
men echoing and reverberating weirdly in this confined and unearthly
place.
"It looks like some monstrous gargoyle, gushing water through its
mouth," Royan whispered, looking up at the cleft and at those strange
rock formations. "I can imagine how the ancient Egyptians, led by Taita
and Prince Memnon, would have been moved if they had ever reached this
place. &at mystical connotations would they have attributed to such a
natural phenomenon!'
Nicholas was silent, studying her face. Her eyes were dark with awe, and
her expression solemn. In this setting she reminded him strongly of a
portrait that he had in his collection at Quenton Park, It was a
fragment of a fresco from the Valley of the Kings, depicting a
Ramessidian princess.
Why should that surprise you?" he asked himself. "The very same blood
runs in her veins."
She turned to face him, "Give me hope, Nicky. Tell me that I have not
dreamed all this. Tell me that we are going to find what we are looking
for, and that we are going to vindicate Duraid's death."
Her face was upturned to his, and it seemed to glow under the light dew
of perspiration and the strength of her commitment. He was seized by an
almost overwhelming urge to take her up in his arms and kiss those
moistly parted lips, but instead he turned away and started down the
trail.
He dared not look back at her until he had himself fully under control.
After a while he heard her quick, light tread on the rock behind him.
They went on down in silence, and he was so preoccupied that he was
unprepared for the sudden stunning vista that opened abruptly before
them.
They stood high on a ledge above the sub-gorge of the Nile. Below them
was a mighty cauldron of red rock five hundred feet deep. The main flow
of the legendary river plunged in a green torrent into the shadowy
abyss. It was so deep that the sunlight did not reach down into it.
Beside them the sparser waters of the Dandera river took the same leap,
falling white as an egret's feather, twisting and blowing in the false
wind of the gorge. In the depths the waters mingled, churning and
roiling together in a welter of foam, turning upon themselves like a
great wheel, weighty and viscous as oil, until at last they found the
exit gorge and tore away down it with irresistible force and power.
"You sailed through that in a boat?"Royan asked, with awe in her voice.
"We were young and foolish, then,'Nicholas said with a sad little smile
that was haunted by old memories.
They were silent for a long while. Then RQyan said softly, "One can see
how this would have stopped Taita and his prince as they came upstream."
She looked about her, and then pointed down the gorge towards the west.
"They certainly could never have come up the sub-gorge itself. They must
have followed the line of the top of the cliffs, right along here where
we are standing." Her voice took on an edge of excitement at the
thought.
"Unless they came up the other side of the river," Nicholas suggested to
tease her, and her face fell.
"I hadn't thought of that. Of course it's possible. How would we ever
cross over, if we find no evidence on this side?
"Let's consider that only when it's forced upon us. We have enough to
contend with as it is, without looking for more hardships."
Again they were silent, both of them considering the magnitude and
uncertainty of the task that they had taken on. Then Royan roused
herself.
"Where is the monastery? I can see no sign of it."
"It's in the cliff right under our feet."
"Will we camp down there?"
"I doubt it. Let's catch up with Boris and find out what he intends to
do."
They followed the trail along the edge of the cauldron, and came up with
the mule caravan at a spot where the track forked. One branch turned
away from the river into a wooded depression, while the other still
hugged the rimrock.
Boris was waiting for them, and he indicated the track that led away
from the river. "There is a good campsite up there in the trees where I
stayed last time I hunted down here."
There were several tall wild fig trees throwing shade across this glade,
and a spring of fresh water at the head.
To minimize the loads, Boris had not carried tents down into the gorge.
So as soon as the mules were unloaded he set his men to building three
small thatched huts for their accommodation, and to digging a pit
latrine well away from the spring.
While this work was going on, Nicholas beckoned to Royan and Tessay, and
the three of them set off to explore the monastery. Where the trail
forked, Tessay led them along the path that skirted the cliff top, and
soon they came to a broad rock staircase that descended the cliff face.
There was a party of white-robed monks coming UP the stone stairway, and
Tessay stopped briefly to chat to them. As they went on she told
Nicholas and Royan, "Today is Katera, the eve of the festival of Timkat,
which begins tomorrow. They are very excited. It is one of the major
events of the religious year."
"What does the festival celebrate?" Royan asked. "It is not part of the
Church calendar in Egypt."
"It's the Ethiopian Epiphany, celebrating the baptis of Christ,' Tessay
explained. "During the ceremony the tabot will be taken down to the
river to be rededicated and revitalized, and the acolytes will receive