and talents, his endurance.
As the hunting party hurried toward the pools, Bak said to
Rona, “If you think Minmose well enough to remain alone for a time, you must join the hunt.”
Rona flashed a smile of thanks and followed the men trail ing behind User. The explorer and his party scrambled up the slopes to either side of the pool where the birds drank. Rona hurried on to climb the dry waterfall.
Bak watched the men settling down among the rocks.
Dedu, he noticed, was not among them.
Bak and Kaha thoroughly searched their campsite. Find ing nothing of note, they walked the short distance down the gorge to User’s camp. The remaining drover, who had cho sen not to participate in the hunt, had separated five donkeys from the rest and was spreading a greenish unguent over galls caused by poorly balanced loads. He understood few words of the tongue of Kemet, but Kaha, in his slow and halt ing manner, made him understand that Minmose had been struck down and an intruder had entered the camp.
“Like us, he and the other drover looked for a snake during the night,” Kaha told Bak.
“Ask him where Dedu is.”
Bak could tell from the troubled look on the nomad’s face that he had no answer, and so Kaha reported. The man turned back to the donkey he had been tending. Speaking through
Kaha, Bak continued to interrogate him. The Medjay stum bled through the questions, pausing often to think of a word or a phrase, trying to make himself understood. The answers came no easier to him. Could Dedu have been prowling around in the night? Would his familiar figure have upset the donkeys? Not likely, nor-and here the drover grew defen sive-would he have had reason to strike Minmose sense less. A stranger had entered the gorge, a man unknown to the donkeys. Why had he come? Kaha asked. The nomad shrugged, unable to answer.
“Does he believe Dedu has merely gone off somewhere, soon to return?” Bak asked. “Or does he fear he was lured away by someone he knew or by the stranger? What does he think happened in the night?”
The more questions Kaha asked, the more agitated the no mad became. Bak recalled User saying the drovers were
Dedu’s kin. Telling himself he was worrying needlessly and had upset the man for no good reason, he allowed him to fin ish with the donkeys while he and Kaha searched Dedu’s meager possessions, abandoned where he had left them. As far as they could tell, the guide had left all his personal ef fects behind. They offered no clue as to where he might have gone, but hinted at a hasty or unexpected departure.
The drover, when shown the missing man’s razor, medical kit, and cooking pot, shook his head over and over again, denying what his eyes told him might well be true. Dedu had walked away from the camp in the night. Maybe not of his own volition.
“Sir!” Kaha called.
Bak hurried to the Medjay’s side. “You’ve found some thing.”
“This footprint, sir.” Kaha, kneeling close to the base of the cliff, pointed to an impression in the fine sand. “It’s like the one I saw on the hillside north of Kaine.”
Bak stared at the print. “The watching man.”
“I’ll look for more, but if I’m to find any, all the gods in the ennead will have to smile upon us.” Kaha stood up and glanced around. “He walked this way, believing the donkeys would erase his tracks-for good reason.”
“He took a chance, coming this deep into the gorge.”
Putting himself in the intruder’s sandals, Bak doubted the man had returned the way he had come. He looked down the wadi toward the north, in the opposite direction from the pools. He could not see beyond the nearest bend, but he re membered the way the walls gradually spread apart, with broad expanses of sand carpeting the floor and rocky slopes rising to either side. He would have gone that way rather than double his risk of being spotted.
He left the Medjay to continue his search and moved on to the place where User and his party ate and slept. He searched through every bundle and basket, but came upon nothing un expected or suspicious. Kaha found no second print.
“Let’s walk down the wadi,” Bak said. “You’d best tell the drover. User will want to know where we’ve gone.”
“I’ll try to set him more at ease. We don’t know yet that
Dedu has met with some misfortune.”
Trying to sound soothing, Kaha stumbled through an ex planation of where they were going and why. The drover’s expression grew stubborn, his voice doggedly insistent. In the end, Kaha explained, “This man insists on coming with us.” He shot an annoyed look at the drover. “He wants to bring along a couple of donkeys. He fears one might be needed should we find Dedu injured. As for the other, User told him to collect green plants for the animals and dry brush for the fires on which to cook the grouse. He wishes to obey.”
Bak had thought to search the wadi unencumbered, but the drover was right. Dedu could as easily be injured as dead.
Also, if the many donkeys were allowed to graze around the pools, which they would have to do if other food was not gleaned, they would leave insufficient fresh grass for the no mad flocks that would come later.
“Let him come,” he said, nodding so the man would know he agreed. “As long as he keeps busy, doing what he’s been told to do and helping us search at the same time, he’ll not feel so helpless.”
They set out right away, planning to retrace the caravan’s path all the way to the large wadi up which men and ani mals-and Bak a few hours ahead of them-had traveled from the west. He had scant hope of tracking Dedu or the stranger, but they had to try. The caravan had followed the same path the nomads used when bringing their flocks to wa ter. The donkeys and the goats before them had churned up the sand, making it too soft to hold definite shapes. An ideal path for a man hoping to travel undetected.
“I’m very concerned about Dedu,” Bak said. He, Kaha, and the drover had returned to the campsite hot, tired, and discour aged. They had found no sign of the guide, nor had they seen any prints of the man who had passed among them in the night.
“It’s not like him to go away without a word.” Frowning,
User tore a leg from a bird browned to perfection. “At the very least, he’d tell the drovers where he meant to go.”
“He isn’t a large man, but neither is he small. No man could’ve carried him for any great distance. He had to have walked on his own two feet.”
“I’d guess he spotted the watching man and followed him.
He’ll probably show up in a day or two.”
Bak did not like the lack of conviction he heard in the ex plorer’s voice. “I don’t know where else we could look with out remaining here and searching the nearby wadis and mountains.”
“As much as I’d like to stay, we can’t. These pools are fragile, and we’ve too many donkeys to feed and water.” User took a bite from the bird’s leg, barely chewed the succulent flesh, and swallowed. “The nomads count on them to water their flocks, yet none have come since you arrived two days ago. Their animals will be needing a drink.”
For a man reputed to have no love for the nomads, User was very aware of their needs. Not only did he bring as trade items necessities unavailable in the desert, but he valued their water supply and the plants their animals needed to sur vive. Bak had to respect his decision. “I know you don’t trust
Senna-and I’m not sure I do-but with Dedu gone, we’ve no other man to guide us to the Eastern Sea.”
User scowled, unhappy with the thought. “On this side of the mountains, all the wadis drain into the sea. I’ve explored a few and heard men talk of others. If he tries to lead us down an untrodden path, I’ll know.”
“When I asked where we should travel from here, he spoke of two wells, one to the north and the other to the east, each about a day’s march away.” Bak took a sip of water from the metal bowl Nefertem had given him. The grouse looked and tasted like the food of the gods, but he had already eaten so much that not even the rich odor of well-cooked meat could tempt him. “He recommended we go east, water our animals, and travel from the well to the sea. Do you think his plan good?”
Amonmose, standing a few paces away, helping
Nebenkemet pack up the birds that had been cooked and set aside for the following day, abandoned his task to join them.
