The mailed tread of marching feet and the rumble of wheels shook the earth. The rear ranks of this vast array were cloaked in the dust of their advance so it seemed there was no limit to their multitudes.
'These are the armies you shall command,' cried Pharaoh. Again he waved the jewelled flails, and the scene changed again.
Taita beheld a vista of all the oceans and seas. Across this mighty main sailed squadrons of warships. There were galleys and biremes with double banks of oars, their sails embellished with paintings of dragons and boars, lions, monsters and mythical creatures. The pounding of the drums set the beat for the oarsmen, and the waters creamed and curled before the long bronze beaks of their fighting rams. The numbers of warships were so vast that they covered the oceans from horizon to far horizon.
'Behold, Taita! These are the navies you shall command. No man or nation will prevail against you. You will have power and dominion over all the earth and its peoples.' Pharaoh pointed the flails directly at him.
His voice seemed to fill the air and stun the senses, like the thunder of the heavens.
'These things are within your grasp, Taita of Gallala.' Pharaoh stooped and, with the flail, touched Min's shoulder. The god's great phallus twitched. 'You shall have indefatigable virility and potency.'
Then he touched the shoulder of Heh, the god of infinity and long life; he waved the Palm Fronds of a Million Years. 'You shall be blessed with youth eternal in a body whole and perfect.'
Then he touched Thoth, the god of wisdom and all learning, who
opened his long, curved beak and uttered a harsh, resounding cry. 'You shall be given the key to all wisdom, learning and knowledge.'
When Pharaoh touched the last divine figure, Anuke clashed her sword against her shield. 'You shall triumph in war, and hold dominion over earth, sea and heaven. The wealth of all nations shall be yours to command, and their peoples will bow down before you. All these are being offered to you, Taita of Gallala. You have but to reach out your hand and seize them.'
The golden image of Pharaoh stood tall and regarded Taita with a straight, burning gaze. Then, with solemn majesty, the bearers carried the palanquin back into the dark recesses of the grotto. The vision faded and disappeared.
Taita sank down upon the grass and whispered, 'No more. I can suffer no more temptations. They are part of the great Lie, but no mortal man can resist them. Against all reason my mind longs to accept them as the Truth. They arouse hunger and craving in me that will destroy my senses and deprave my eternal soul.'
When at last he left the grotto and went down, he found Meren waiting for him at the garden gates: 'I tried to find you, Magus. I had a premonition that you were in danger and might need my help, but I lost my way in these jungles.'
'All is well, Meren. You have no need for concern, although I value your help above all other.'
'The woman doctor is asking for you. I know not what she wants of you, but it is my instinct that we should not trust her too far or too deeply.'
'I shall bear your advice in mind. However, good Meren, thus far she has not treated you unkindly, has she.7'
'Perchance there is more to her kindness than we are aware of.'
Hannah came to the point as soon as they had exchanged greetings.
'Colonel That Ankut has delivered to me a decree from the Supreme Council signed by Lord Aquer. I apologize for any inconvenience or embarrassment that this may cause you, but I am commanded to conduct an examination of your person and to furnish the Council immediately with a full report. This may take some time. I would be
most obliged, therefore, if you would accompany me to my rooms so that we may begin at once.'
Taita was surprised by Hannah's peremptory tone, until he realized that a decree from the Supreme Council would have the same force and urgency in Jarri as a pharaonic order under the Hawk Seal in Karnak.
'Of course, Doctor. I shall be pleased to comply with the decree.'
Hannah's spacious rooms were in one of the most distant blocks of the sanatorium, tiled with pale limestone. They were austere and free of clutter. Two rows of large glass containers were set out along a bank of stone shelves against the far wall. In each one, a human foetus floated in a clear liquid that was evidently some kind of preservative. On the lower shelf the nine specimen foetuses were arranged according to the age at which they had been taken from the womb. The smallest was no more than a pale tadpole and the largest just short of full term.
On the upper shelf all of the foetuses were grossly deformed, some with more than two eyes, others with missing limbs and one with grotesque twin heads. Taita had never seen such a collection. Even as a surgeon, accustomed to the sight of mutilated and distorted human flesh, he was repelled by this explicit display of pathetic relics.
'She must have a special interest in child-bearing,' he thought, as he recalled the unusually large number of pregnant women he had seen since he had been at the Cloud Gardens. The rest of the room was dominated by a large examination table, hewn from a single block of limestone. Taita realized that Hannah probably used it for operations and deliveries, because grooves were chiselled into the stone top and a drain hole at the foot channelled fluids into a bowl placed on the floor below.
Hannah began the examination by asking Taita for samples of his urine and stools. He was only a little taken aback. He had met a surgeon in Ecbatana who had had a morbid fascination with the excretory processes, but he had not expected one of Hannah's status to show similar interest. Nevertheless he allowed himself to be led to a cubicle where one of her assistants provided him with a large bowl and a jug of water with which to wash himself once he had satisfied her request.
When he returned to Hannah, she examined his output, then asked him to lie face up on her table. Once he was at full length, she transferred her interest from the contents of his bowels to his nose, eyes, ears and mouth. Her assistant used a polished silver disc to direct the beam from an oil lamp into them. Then she placed her ear against
his chest and listened intently to his breathing and the beating of his heart.
'You have the heart and lungs of a young man. No wonder you are a Long Liver. If only we were all allowed to
