Meren strung the rope round his shoulders and began to drag him away. Then he paused and looked back at Taita. 'Are you certain that you have no further use for him, Magus? He has told us nothing.'
'He has told us everything,' said Taita. 'He has bared his soul.'
'Take his legs,' Meren ordered Shabako and Tonka, and between them they carried Soe away. Taita heard them hammering the pegs to hold him on the baked earth. In the middle of the afternoon Meren went out speak to him again. The sun had raised fat white blisters across his belly and loins; his face was swollen and inflamed.
'The mighty magus invites you to continue your discussions with him,'
Meren told him. Soe tried to spit at him but could gather no saliva. His purple tongue filled his mouth, and the tip protruded between his front teeth. Meren let him lie.
The hyena pack found him a little before sunset. Even Meren, the hardened old veteran, was uneasy as their demented howling and giggling drew nearer.
'Shall I bring him in, Magus?' he asked.
Taita shook his head. 'Leave him. He has told us where to find the witch.'
'The hyenas will make it a cruel death, Magus.'
Taita sighed, and said quietly, 'The toads made Demeter's death as cruel. He is a minion of the witch. He spreads sedition through the kingdom. It is fitting that he should die, but not like this. Such cruelty will sit heavily on our consciences. It reduces us to his level of evil. Go out there and cut his throat.'
Meren came to his feet and drew his sword, then paused and cocked his head. 'Something is amiss. The hyenas are silent.'
'Quickly, Meren. Go and find out what is happening,' Taita ordered sharply.
Meren ran out into the gathering darkness. Moments later his voice echoed from the hills in a wild shout. Taita jumped up and ran after him. 'Meren, where are you?'
'Here, Magus.'
Taita found him standing on the spot where they had pegged Soe down, but he was gone. 'What happened, Meren? What did you see?'
'Witchcraft!' Meren stuttered. 'I saw—' He broke off, at a loss to describe what he had seen.
'What was it?' Taita urged. 'Tell me quickly.'
'A monstrous hyena as large as a horse, with Soe upon its back. It must have been his familiar. It galloped off into the hills, bearing him away. Shall I follow them?'
'You will not catch them,' Taita said. 'Instead you will place yourself in mortal peril. Eos possesses even greater powers than I had thought possible to have rescued Soe at such a great distance. Let him go now.
We will reckon with him at some other time and place.'
They went on, night after stifling night, week after wearying week, and month after gruelling month. The knife wound in Taita's shoulder healed cleanly in the hot dry air, but the horses sickened and faltered, and the men were flagging long before they reached the second cataract. This was where Taita and Queen Lostris had rested for a season to await the renewed flood of the Nile, which would ensure sufficient depth for the galleys to surmount the cataract. Taita looked down upon the settlement they had built: the stone walls were
still standing - the ruins of the crude royal palace he had built to shelter Lostris. Those were the lands where they had planted the dhurra crop, still demarcated by the furrows of the wooden ploughshare. Those were the stands of tall trees from which they had cut the timber to build chariots and repair the battered hulls of the galleys. The trees were still alive, sustained by the deep roots that reached down to the underground pools and streams. Over there was the forge that the coppersmiths had built.
'Magus, look to the pool below the cataract!' Meren had ridden up beside him and his excited cry interrupted Taita's memories. He looked in the direction Meren was pointing. Was it a trick of the early light? he wondered.
'Look at the colour of the water! It is no longer blood red. The pool is green - as green as a sweet melon.'
'It might be another ruse of the witch.' Taita doubted his eyes, but already Meren was racing down the slope, standing high in his stirrups and yelling, his men following him. Taita and Windsmoke maintained a more sedate and dignified pace to the edge of the pool, which was lined now with men, horses and mules. The animals' heads were down and they were sucking up the green water like shadoofs, the waterwheels of the peasant farmers, as the men scooped handfuls to pour it over their own faces and down their throats.
Windsmoke sniffed the water suspiciously, then began to drink. Taita loosened her girth rope to allow her belly to expand. Like a pig's bladder, she blew up before his eyes. He left her to it, and waded out into the pool, then sat down. The tepid water reached his chin and he closed his eyes, an ecstatic smile on his face.
'Magus!' Meren called from the bank. 'This is your doing, I am sure.
You have cured the river of her foul disease. Is it not so?'
Meren's faith in him was limitless and touching. It would not do to disappoint him. Taita opened his eyes to see that a hundred men were waiting attentively for his reply. It was also prudent to build their trust in him. He smiled at Meren, then dropped his right eyelid in an enigmatic wink. Meren looked smug and the men cheered. They waded into the pool, still in sandals and shirts, and splashed sheets of water at each other, then wrestled each other's heads beneath the surface. Taita left them to their revelry and waded to the bank. By this time Windsmoke was so bloated with both water and foal that she waddled rather than walked. He took her to roll in the crisp white river sand and sat
I
down. While he watched her he pondered the change in their fortunes and the miracle of the clear water that Meren had ascribed to him.
This is as far as the contamination has spread, he decided. From here southwards the river will be clear. Wasted and shrivelled, but clear.
They camped that morning in the shade of the grove.
