in open sandals.
They were people with proud and handsome features, their hair dressed
out into thick, bushy halos, and their eyes fierce as those of eagles.
Some of the younger women in the villages they passed through were truly
beautiful.
Most of the men were heavily armed. They carried twohanded swords in
chased silver scabbards, and AK-47 assault rifles.
"Makes them feel like big men," Boris chuckled. "Very brave, very
macho."
The huts in the villages were circular walled tukuls, surrounded by
plantations of eucalyptus and spiky-headed sisal.
Bruised purple storm clouds boiled over the high peaks of the Choke and
swept them with squalls of rain. Like silver coins, the huge drops
rattled against the windscreen of the Land Cruiser and turned the road
to a running river of mud under their wheels.
The condition of the road surface was appalling; in places it
deteriorated into a rocky gully which even the four-wheel drive Toyota
could not negotiate, and Boris was forced to make his own track across
the rocky hillside.
Often reduced to walking speed, they were nevertheless tossed about in
their seats as the wheels bounced over the rough terrain.
"These damn blacks don't even think to repair the roads," Boris grunted.
"They are happy to live like animals." None of them replied, but
Nicholas glanced up into the rear-view mirror at the faces of the two
women. They were closed and neutral, hiding any hurt that either of them
might have felt at the remark.
As they went on, the road, bad as it had been originally, became even
worse. From here onwards the soft the fire. The two women sat a little
to one side, talking quietly, and Boris had his feet propped on the low
table as he leaned back in his chair with a glass in one hand.
He indicated the vodka bottle on the table, as Nicholas stepped into the
circle of firelight, "Get yourself a drink Ice in the bucket."
"I prefer a beer," Nicholas told him. "Thirsty drive." Boris shrugged
and bellowed for his camp butler to bring a brown bottle from the
portable gas refrigerator.
"Let me tell you something, a little secret." He grinned at Nicholas as
he poured himself another vodka. "There is no such animal as a striped
dik-dik these days, even if there ever was one. You are wasting your
time and your money."
"Fine," Nicholas agreed mildly. "It's my time and my money."
"Just because some old fart shot one back in the Dark Ages, doesn't mean
you are going to find another now. We could go up into the tea
plantations for elephant. I saw three bulls there only ten days ago. All
with tusks over a hundred pounds a side."
As they argued, the level in Boris's vodka bottle fell like the Nile at
the end of the inundation. When Tessay told them that the meal was
ready, Boris carried the bottle with him; he stumbled on his way to the
table. During the meal his only contribution to the conversation was to
snarl at Tessay.
"The lamb is raw. Why don't you see to it that the cook does it
properly? Damn monkeys, you have to watch everything they do."
"Is your lamb under-cooked, Alto Nicholas?" Tessay asked without looking
at her husband. "I can have them cook it longer."
"It's perfect he assured her. "I like mine pink."
Si By the end of dinner the vodka bottle at Boris elbow was empty, and
his face was flushed and swollen. He got up from the table without a
word and disappeared into the darkness in the direction of his tent,
swaying on his feet and occasionally catching his balance with a
two-step jig.
"I apologize," essay told them quietly. "It is only in the evenings. In
the day he is fine. It is a Russian tradition, the vodka." She smiled
brightly; only her eyes stayed sad.
"It is a lovely night, and too early yet for bed. Would you like to walk
up to the church? It is very old and famous.
I will have one of the servants bring a lantern, so that you may admire
the murals."
The servant walked ahead of them, lighting their way, and an ancient
priest waited to welcome them on the portico of the circular building.
He was thin and so very black that only his teeth flashed in the gloom.
He carried a magnificent Coptic cross in massive native silver, set with
carnelians and other semi-precious stones.
Both Royan and Tessay dropped on their knees in front of him to ask for
his blessing. He slapped their cheeks lightly with the cross and
genuflected over them, mumbling his benediction in Amharic. Then he
ushered them into the interior.
The walls were covered with a magnificent display of paintings in
brilliant primary colours. In the lantern light they blazed like
gemstones. There was a strong Byzantine flavour to the style: the
saints' eyes were huge and slanted, with great golden halos over their
heads. Above the altar, with its tinsel and brass furnishing, the Virgin
cradled her infant while the three wise men and a host of angels knelt
in adoration. Nicholas slipped his Polaroid camera from the pocket of
his jacket and adjusted the flash. He wandered around the church
photographing these murals, while Tessay and Royan knelt before the
altar side by side.
Once he had finished his photography Nicholas found a seat on the
hand-hewn wooden pews and sat quietly watching their intent faces which
the candlelight touched with golden highlights, and he was moved by the
beauty of the moment.
"I wish I had that kind of faith," he thought, as he had so often
before. "It must be a comfort in the hard times. I wish I were able to
pray like that for Rosalind and the girls." He could not stay longer,
and he went out and sat on the church portico where he watched the night
sky.
In these high altitudes, in the thin unpolluted air, the stars were such
a dazzling blaze that it was difficult to pick out the individual
constellations. After a while his sadness abated. It was good to be back
in Africa.
When the two women emerged at last from the dark interior, Nicholas gave
the old priest a one hundred birr note and a Polaroid photograph of
himself which the old man clearly valued above the money. Then the three
of them walked back down the hill together in companionable silence.
icky!" Royan shook him awake. When he sat up and switched on his torch,
he saw that she had thrown the woollen shawl over a pair of men's
striped pyjamas before she had come into his tent.
"What is it?" he asked, but before she could answer he heard the sound
of a hoarse and angry voice shouting invective in the night, and then
the unmistakable thud of a clenched fist striking flesh and bone.
"He's beating her." Royan's voice was tight with out-' rage. "You have
to make him stop."
There was a cry of pain after the blow, and then sobs.
Nicholas hesitated. Only a fool interferes between a man and his wife,
and his reward usually is to have them unite and turn savagely upon him.
"You must do something, Nicky, please., Reluctantly he swung his legs
out of the cot and stood up. He slept in'boxer shorts, and he did not
bother to find his shoes. She followed him, also on bare feet, to the
end of the grove where Boris's tent stood beyond the dining tent.