suppose you are right." She moved over on the bed to make room for him.
"Sit down."
He sat down beside her, and she asked, "Where do you suppose the seal
came from? Who found it? Where, and when?"
"Steady on, dear girl. That's four questions in one, and I don't have an
answer to any of them."
"Guess!" she invited him. "Speculate! Throw some ideas around!'
"Very well," he agreed. "The seal was manufactured in Hong Kong. There
is a little factory there that turns them out by the thousands. Jali
Hora bought it from a souvenir store in Luxor when he was on holiday in
Egypt last month."
She punched his arm, hard. "Be serious," she ordered.
can do better," he invited her, rubbing
"Let's hear if yo his arm.
"Okay, here I go. Taita dropped the seal here in the gorge while he was
working on the construction of Pharaoh's tomb. Three thousand years
later an old monk, one of the very first to live here at the monastery,
picked it up. Of course, he could not read the hieroglyphics. He -took
it to the abbot, who declared it to be a relic of St. Frumentius, and
had it set in the crown."
"And they all lived happily ever after," Nicholas agreed.
"Not a bad shot."
ny holes?" she demanded, and he shook Can you find a head. "Then you
agree that this proves that Taita really his was here, and that it
proves our theories are correct?" -Proves" is too strong a word. Let's
just say that it points in that direction," he demurred.
She wriggled around on the bed to face him squarely.
"Oh, Nicky, I am so excited. I swear I will not be able to sleep a wink
tonight. I just can't wait for tomorrow, to get out there and start
searching again."
Her eyes were bright, and her cheeks flushed a warm rosy brown. Her lips
were parted, and he could see the pink tip of her tongue between them.
This time he could not stop himself. He leaned very slowly towards her,
treating her gently, giving her every opportunity to pull away if she
wished to avoid him. She did not move, but her shining expression turned
slowly to one of apprehension. She stared into his eyes, as if seeking
something, some reassurance.
When their lips were an inch apart, Nicholas stopped, and it was she who
made the last movement. She brought their mouths together.
At first it was soft, just a light mingling of their breath, and then it
became harsher, more urgent. For a long, heartstopping moment they
devoured each other, and her mouth tasted soft and sweet as ripe fruit.
Then suddenly she whimpered, and with a huge effort of will tore herself
out of his arms. They stared at each other, both of them shaken and
confused.
"No," she whispered. "Please, Nicky, not yet. I am not ready yet."
He picked up her hand and turned it between his palms. Then lightly he
kissed the tips of her fingers, savouring the smell and the taste of her
skin.
"I'll see you in the morning." He dropped her hand and stood up. "Early.
Be ready!the said, and stooped out through the doorway of the hut.
was dressing the next morning he heard her moving a round in her hut,
and when he whistled softly at her door she stepped out to meet him,
dressed and eager to start.
"Boris is not awake yet,'Tessay told them as she served their breakfast.
"Now that is a great surprise to me," Nicholas said, without looking up
from his plate. He and Royan were still slightly awkward in each other's
presence, remembering the circumstances in which they had parted the
previous evening. However, as Nicholas slung the rifle and the pack 0
ver his shoulder and they set off up the valley, their mood changed to
one of anticipation.
They had been going for an hour when Nicholas glanced over his shoulder
and then cautioned her with a frown. "We are being followed."
Taking her wrist, he drew her behind a slab of sandstone. He flattened
himself against the rock and stured at her to do the same. Then he
poised himself, ge an suddenly leaped forward to seize the lanky figure
in a dirty white shamnw who was sneaking up the valley behind them. With
a howl the creature fell to his knees, and began gibbering with terror.
Nicholas hauled him to his feet. "Tamre! What are you doing following
us? Who sent you?" he demanded in Arabic.
The boy rolled his eyes towards Royan. "No, please, effendi, do not hurt
me. I meant no harm."
"Leave the child, Nicky. You will precipitate another fit," Royan
intervened. Tamre scurried behind her and clung to her hand for
protection, peering out around her shoulder at Nicholas as though his
life were in danger.
"Peace, Tamre," Nicholas soothed him. "I will not hurt you, unless you
lie to me. If you do, then I will thrash you until there is no skin on
your back. Who sent you to follow us?"
"I came alone. Nobody sent me," blubbered the boy. "I came to show you
where I saw the holy animal with the fingermarks -of the Baptist on his
skin."
Nicholas stared at him for a moment, before he began to laugh softly.
"I'll be damned if the boy doesn't really believe he saw
great-grandfather's dik-dik." Then he scowled ferociously. "Remember
what will happen to you, if you are lying."
"It is true, effendi," Tamre sobbed, and Royan came to his defence.
Don't badger him. He is harmless. Leave the poor , A hild."
"All right, Tamre. I will give you a chance. Take us to where you saw
the holy animal."
Tamre would not relinquish his grip on Royan's hand.
He clung to it as he danced beside her, leading her along, and within a
hundred yards his terror had faded and he was smiling and giggling at
her shyly.
For an hour he led them away from the Dandera rier and up over the high
ground above the valley, into an area of thick scrub and up-thrust
ridges of weathered limestone.
The thorny branches of the bush were densely intertwined, and grew so
close to the ground that there seemed to be no way through them.
However, Tamre led them on to a narrow twisting path, just wide enough
for them to avoid the red-tipped hook thorns on each side of them. Then
abruptly he stopped and pulled Royan to a halt beside him.
He pointed down, almost at his own toes.
"The riverPhe announced importantly. Nicholas came up beside them and
whistled softly with surprise. Tamre had led them around in a wide
circle to the west, and then brought them back to the Dandera river at a
point where it still ran in the bed of the deep ravine.
Now they stood on the very edge of the chasm. He saw at once that,
although the top of the rocky ravine was less than a hundred feet wide,
the chasm opened out below the rim. From the surface of the water far
below, the rock wall belled out in the shape of one of the pottery tej
flasks.
It narrowed again as it neared the top where they stood.
saw the holy thing over there."Tamre pointed to the far side of the
chasm where a small feeder spring meandered out of the thorny bush.
Streamers of bright green moss, nourished by the spring, hung from the
lip of the concave rock wall, and the water trickled down them and
dripped from the tips into the river two hundred feet below.
"If you saw it there, why did you bring us to this side of the
river?"Nicholas demanded.
Tamre looked as though he were on the point of tears.
This side is easier. There is no path through the bush on the other
side. The thorns would hurt Woizero Royan."
"Don't be a bully," Royan told him, and put her arm around the boy's
shoulder.
Nicholas shrugged, "It looks like the two of you are ganging up on me.