their very substance.'
'Nevertheless, you have not answered my question, Demeter. What is
she? Mortal or immortal, human or goddess? Does this rare beauty she possesses know no term? Is she not as vulnerable to the ravages of time and age as you and I?'
'My answer to your question, Taita, is that I know not. She may well be the oldest woman on earth,' Demeter spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness, 'but she seems to have discovered some power previously known only to the gods. Does that make her a goddess? I do not know.
She may not be immortal, but she is certainly ageless.'
'What do you propose, Demeter? How will we trace her to her lair?'
'She has already found you. You have excited her monstrous appetites.
You do not have to seek her out. She is already stalking you. She will draw you to her.'
'Demeter, I am long past any temptations and snares that even this creature can place in my path.'
'She wants you, she must have you. However, you and I together pose a threat to her.' He thought for a while about his own statement, then went on, 'She has already taken from me almost everything I can give her. She will want to rid herself of me, and isolate you, but at the same time she must see to it that no harm comes to you. Alone, you will find it almost impossible to resist her. With our combined forces we may be able to repel her, and even find a way to put her apparent immortality to the test.'
'I am glad to have you at my side,' said Taita.
Demeter did not respond at once. He studied Taita with a strange new expression. At last he asked quietly, 'You feel no sense of dread, no premonition of disaster?'
'No. I believe that you and I can succeed,' Taita told him.
'You have considered my solemn warnings. You understand the powers against which we will pit ourselves. Yet you do not hesitate. You entertain no doubts — you, who are the wisest of men. How can you explain this?'
'I know it is inevitable. I must face her with boldness and good heart.'
'Taita, search the innermost recesses of your soul. Do you detect in yourself a sense of elation? When last did you feel so vigorous, so vital?'
Taita looked thoughtful, but did not answer.
'Taita, you must be entirely truthful with yourself. Do you feel like a warrior marching to a battle you may not survive? Or do you find in your breast another unwarranted emotion? Do you feel reckless of all consequences, like a young swain hurrying to a lovers' tryst?'
Taita remained silent but his mien changed: the light flush of his
cheeks subsided and his eyes became sober. 'I am not afraid,' he said at last.
'Tell me truly. Your mind swarms with prurient images, and unconscionable yearnings, does it not?' Taita covered his eyes and clenched his jaw. Demeter went on remorselessly: 'She has already infected you with her evil. She has begun to bind you with her spells and temptations. She will twist your judgement. Soon you will begin to doubt that she is evil.
She will seem to you fine, noble and as virtuous as any woman who ever lived. Soon it will seem that I am the evil one, who has poisoned your mind against her. When that happens she will have divided us and I will be destroyed. You will surrender yourself to her freely and willingly. She will have triumphed over both of us.'
Taita shook his whole body, as though to rid himself of a swarm of poisonous insects. 'Forgive me, Demeter!' he cried. 'Now that you warn me of what she is doing, I can feel the enervating weakness welling within me. I was losing control of judgement and reason. What you say is true. I find myself haunted by strange longings. Great Horus, shield me.' Taita groaned. 'I never thought to know such agony again. I thought myself long past the torments of desire.'
'The contrary emotions that assail you spring not from your wisdom and reason. They are an infection of the spirit, a poisoned arrow shot from the bow of the great witch. I was once harassed by her in the same manner. You can see the state to which I have been reduced. However, I have learnt how to survive.'
'Teach me. Help me to withstand her, Demeter.'
'I have unwittingly led Eos to you. I believed I had eluded her, but she has used me as a hunting hound to lead her to you, her next victim.
But now we must stand together, as one. That is the only way we can hope to withstand her onslaughts. However, before all else, we must leave Gallala. We cannot rest long in one place. If she is uncertain of our exact whereabouts, it will be more difficult for her to focus her powers upon us. Between us we must weave a perpetual screen of concealment to cover our movements.'
'Meren!' Taita called urgently. He was swiftly at his master's side.
'How soon can we be ready to leave Gallala?'
'I will bring the horses with all haste. But where are we going, Master?'
'Thebes and Karnak,' Taita replied, and glanced at Demeter.
He nodded agreement. 'We must muster all support from every source, temporal as well as spiritual.'
'Pharaoh is the chosen of the gods, and the most powerful of men,1 Taita agreed.
'And you are the chief of his favourites,' said Demeter. 'We must leave this very night, to go to him.'
Taita rode Windsmoke, and Meren followed closely on one of the other horses they had brought from the plains of Ecbatana. Demeter lay in his swaying litter, high on the back of his camel, Taita alongside him.
The litter curtains were open and they could converse easily over the other soft sounds of the caravan: the
