'Desperate measures, Pharaoh. Why should she allow you close enough to her when she can kill you from a distance, as she did with Demeter?'
'From what you tell me, she seeks dominion over Egypt. Very well. I will tell her that I have come to surrender myself and my land to her.
I will ask to be allowed to kiss her feet in submission.'
Taita kept a grave expression, although he wanted to chuckle at this naive suggestion. 'Sire, the witch is a savant.'
'What is that?' Nefer Seti demanded.
'With her Inner Eye she is able to scry a man's soul as readily as you read a battle plan. You would never come close to her with such anger displayed in your aura.'
'Then how do you propose to draw within range without being scried by her mysterious eye?'
'As she is, so am I a savant. I throw no aura for her to read.'
Nefer Seti was becoming angry. He had been a god long enough to resent any check or restraint. His voice rose: 'I am no longer a child for you to baffle with your esoteric cant. You are too quick to point out the flaws in my plans,' he said. 'Learned Magus, be kind and gracious enough to propose an alternative so that I may have the pleasure of treating it as you have treated mine.'
'You are the pharaoh, you are Egypt. You must not walk into the web she weaves. Your duty is here with your people, with Mintaka and your children, to protect them if I should fail.'I 'You are a devious and crafty rogue, Tata. I know where this is moving.
You would leave me here in Thebes, killing toads, while you and Meren set out on another adventure. Am I to be left cowering in my own harem like a woman?' he asked bitterly.
'Nay, Majesty, like a proud pharaoh on the throne, ready to defend the Two Kingdoms with your life.'
Nefer Seti placed his clenched fists on his hips and glared. 'I should not listen to your siren song. You spin a web with as strong a thread as any witch.' Then he spread his hands in a gesture of resignation. 'Sing on, Tata, and I perforce will listen.'
'You might consider giving Meren a small force to command, not more than a hundred picked warriors. They will travel fast, living off the land without recourse to a lumbering supply train. Numbers alone are no threat to the witch. She will not be concerned by a contingent of this size. As Meren projects no complex psychic aura to arouse her suspicions, she will scry him as a bluff, simple soldier. I will go with him. She will recognize me from afar, but by coming to her I am playing into her hands. In order to take from me the knowledge and power she desires, she must let me come close to her.'
Nefer Seti growled and muttered under his breath as he stamped up and down. Finally he confronted Taita again: 'It is hard for me to accept that I should not lead the expedition. However, your arguments, convoluted though they are, have swayed me from my good sense.' His glowering features cleared a little. 'Above all men in Egypt, I trust you and Meren Cambyses.' He turned to Meren. 'You shall have the rank of colonel. Choose your hundred, and I will give you my royal Hawk Seal so that you can equip them from the state armouries and remount stations anywhere in my dominions.' The Hawk Seal delegated Pharaoh's royal power to the bearer. 'I want you ready to ride with the new moon at the latest. Be guided in all things by Taita. Return safely and bring me the witch's head.'
When word got out that he was recruiting a flying column of elite cavalry, Meren was besieged by volunteers. He chose as his captains three hardy veterans, Hilto-bar-Hilto, Shabako and Tonka. None had ridden and fought with him during the civil war they were too young for that - but their fathers had, and their grandfathers had all been companions of the Red Road.
'The warrior blood breeds true,' Meren explained to Taita. His fourth choice was Habari, whom he had come to like and trust. He offered him the command of one of his four platoons.
He mustered all four captains, confirmed their selection and questioned them closely: 'Have you a wife or woman? We travel light. There will be no place with us for camp-followers.' Traditionally Egyptian armies travelled with their women.
'I have a wife,' Habari said, 'but I will be pleased to escape from her scolding for five years, or ten, even longer if you require it, Colonel.' The other three agreed with this sensible view.
'Colonel, if we are to live off the land, then we will take our women where we find them,' said Hilto-bar-Hilto, the son of old Hilto, now long dead. He had been the Best of Ten Thousand and had worn the Gold of Praise at his throat, awarded to him by Pharaoh after the battle at Ismalia when they had overthrown the false pharaoh.
'Spoken like a true legionary.' Meren laughed. He delegated to the chosen four the selection of the troopers to fill their platoons. Within less than ten days they had assembled a hundred of the finest warriors in the entire Egyptian army. Each man was equipped, armed and sent to the remount station to pick out two chargers and a pack mule. As Pharaoh had commanded, they were ready to march from Thebes on the night of the new moon.
Two days before the departure, Taita crossed the river and rode to the Palace of Memnon to take his leave of Queen Mintaka. He found her thinner, wan and cast down. The reason for this she confided to him within the first few minutes of their meeting.
'Oh, Tata, dear Tata. The most dreadful thing has transpired. Soe has vanished. He has gone without taking leave of me. He disappeared three days after you saw him in my audience chamber.'
Taita was not surprised. That had been the day of Demeter's gruesome death.
'I have sent messengers to find him in every possible place. Taita, I
know you will be as distressed as I am. You knew and admired him We both saw in him the salvation of Egypt. Can you not use your special powers to find him for me, and bring him back to me? Now that he has gone I will never see my dead babies again. Egypt and Nefer will remain in perpetual agony. The Nile will never flow.'
Taita did his best to console her. He could see that her health was deteriorating, and her proud spirit was on the point of breaking under the weight of her despair. He cursed Eos and her works while he did all in his power to calm Mintaka, and give her hope. 'Meren and I are setting out on an expedition beyond the southern borders. I will make it my first duty to search for and make enquiry for Soe at every point along our way. In the meantime I divine that he is alive and unharmed.
