boxes."
"Not many," Nogo translated, "perhaps five, not more than ten. She is
not sure."
"What size? How big are they?"
When Nogo put the question to her, the w6man indicated the length of her
arm. Von Schiller's disappointment registered clearly in his face.
"So few pieces, and so insignificant." He turned away from the woman and
went to stare out of the south-facing window of the hut, down over the
escarpment rim into the wilderness of the gorge. "If what this creature
says is true, then Harper has not yet discovered the treasure of Mamose.
There should be more, much more."
Nogo was talking rapidly to the woman again, and now he turned back to
von Schiller. "She says that one of Harper's party has left the camp in
the gorge, and gone to Debra Maryam."
Von Schiller spun away from the window and stared at him. "One of his
party? Who? Which one!'
"She is an Ethiopian woman. The concubine of Mek Nimmur. A woman she
calls Woizero Tessay. I know of her. She was married to the Russian
hunter, before she became Mek Nimmur's whore."
Von Schiller rushed across the room and seized the woman by the front of
her robe. He hauled her to her feet with such violence that the infant
was jerked from her grip and fell howling to the floor.
"Ask her where the woman is now," he instructed Nogo.
The mother pulled free from his grip and grovelled on the floor, trying
to pick up and console her screaming infant, Nogo grabbed her and
slapped her face resoundingly to get her attention. She clasped her baby
to her breast and gabbled out a reply.
"She does not know," Nogo admitted. "She thinks she is still at Debra
Maryam."
"Get that filthy bitch out of here!" Von Schiller jerked his head at the
woman and her child. Nogo dragged them from the hut.
"What else do you know of this woman of Mek Nimmur's?" he asked in
milder tones when Nogo returned.
"She is from one of the noble families in Addis Ababa, a blood relative
of Ras Tafari Makonnen, the old Emperor Haile Selassie."
"If she is Mek Nimmur's woman, and has come directly from Harper's camp,
then she will be able to " answer the questions that this other creature
could not."
"That is true, Herr von Schiller. But she may not wish to tell us."
"I want her," von Schiller said. "Bring her here. Helm will speak to
-her. I am sure he will be able to make her AN, see reason."
is an important person. er family has muc influence." Nogo thought
about it for a moment. "But on the other hand, she has been consorting
with a notorious bandit. That is all the reason I need for bringing her
in.
I will send a detachment of my men, under one of my most trusted
officers, to arrest her immediately." He hesitated. "If the woman is
questioned severely, it would be as well that she were not allowed to
return to her friends in Addis. They could make trouble for all of us.
Even for you, Herr von Schiller."
"What do you propose?" von, Schiller wanted to know.
"When she has answered your questions, there will have to be a little
accident,'Nogo suggested.
"Do what is necessary," von Schiller ordered. I will leave the details
to you, but make sure that if it is necessary to dispose of the woman it
is done property. I have had enough bungling." As he spoke these words
he looked across at Nahoot Guddabi, who lowered his gaze and flushed
angrily.
They had spent almost two full days at the shrine of Osiris in the long
gallery. No ancient worshipper had ever studied the texts upon those
walls more avidly than Nicholas and Royan, or examined the flamboyant
murals of the great god with more minute attention They took it in turn
to recite aloud the extracts from the stele of Tanus that Royan had
picked out and recorded in her notebooks, repeating them until they knew
each station by heart. While one read aloud, the other quo concentrated
his or her full attention upon the walls, trying to discover some
connecting link.
"'My love is a flask of cold water in the desert. My love is a banner
unfurling in the breeze. My love is the first shout of the newborn
infant,"' Nic as rea Royan looked up at him from where she squatted
attentively before the shrine, and smiled. "At times Taita was really
rather cute, wasn't he?" she said. "Such a romantic."
"Concentrate, for heaven's sake. This isn't a poetry appreciation class.
We are doing serious business here."
"Barbarian!" she muttered under her breath, but turned back to the wall
of inscriptions.
"Try this one again," Nicholas ordered, and read out, "'We he in the
vale of a thousand joinings, of infant to mother, of man to woman, of
friend to friend, of teacher to pupil, of sex to sex."'
"That's the third time you have picked out that particular quotation
this morning. What is there about it that appeals to you so strongly?"
She did not look up at him, but the back of her neck turned a ruddier
shade of red.
Sorry! Thought you might find that one as romantic as the other," he
mumbled. "Let's try this one then. "I have suffered and loved. I have
withstood the wind and the storm.
The arrow pierced my flesh but did not harm me. I have eschewed the
false path that lies straight before me. I have taken the hidden
stairway to the seat of the gods."'
Royan rocked back on her heels and glanced down the long gallery.
"Something there perhaps. "The false path that lies straight before me.
The hidden stairway"?"
"We are straining a bit now. Snapping at gnats like a hungry trout."
She stood up and pushed the tendrils of sweaty hair off her forehead.
"Oh, Nicky. It's so discouraging. We don't even know where to begin."
"Courage, lassie." He feigned the cheerfulness he did not feel. "We
begin at the beginning like your friend Taita said we must. Let me try
you with this one again." He laced his hand over his heart like a
Victorian actor and emoted, "'The vulture rises on mighty pinions to
greet the sun"-'
She laughed softly at his clowning, and then her eyes wandered from his
face and passed over his shoulder.
Suddenly she started.
"The vulture!" she blurted, and pointed at the wall behind him.
He spun around and stared in the direction she was indicating.
There was the vulture, a magnificent image of the bird, the fierce eyes
glaring and the yellow beak hooked and spread wide, with each feather
ointed. Its wings were outlined in jewel-like colours. It stood as tall
as Nicholas, but its wing-spread covered half the wall. They stared at
it together, and then Royan lifted her eyes to the ceiliAg high above
where they stood. She touched his arm and motioned him to do the same.
"The sun!" she whispered. The golden sun disc of Ra was painted in the
highest portion of the roof. Its warmth seemed to illuminate the
shadows. Its rays spread out Mi every direction, but one of these beams
followed the curve of the wall and descended to envelop the vulture
image in its spreading luminosity.
"'The vulture rises to greet the sun"," she repeated. "Does Taita mean
it literally?"
He moved closer to the mural and examined it minutely, running his hands