child stabbed at him, and vanished into the darkness in the direction of the village. Taita had only a brief glimpse of him before he was gone, but he sensed something different about him. The Luo, even the children, were stocky and bowlegged, but this one was as slender as a papyrus stem, and his legs were elegantly straight. He ran with the grace of a frightened gazelle. Abruptly Taita realized that beneath the white clay and tribal designs, the child was female, and he was struck by an intense sensation of deja vu: 'I swear to all the gods I have seen her before,' he murmured to himself.
'When I catch the little swine, I'll kill him slowly!' the wounded trooper shouted, as he came out from among the horses whence he had flushed the child. There was a spear wound in his forearm, and blood dripped from his fingertips.
'No!' Taita shouted urgently. 'It is a girl. I want her taken alive. She has run back towards the village. Surround the area and search the huts again. She will have gone to ground in one.'
Leaving a few men to deal with the recovered horses, they galloped back to the village. Meren threw a cordon round the huts, and Taita questioned Nakonto and Nontu, who were guarding the women and their children. 'Did you see a child run this way? About this height and covered, like the rest of them, with white clay?'
They shook their heads.
'Apart from these,' Nakonto indicated the wailing captives, 'we have seen no one.'
'She can't have gone far,' Meren assured Taita. 'We have the village surrounded. She cannot escape. We will find her.' He sent Habari's platoon in to carry out a hut-by-hut search. When he came back to Taita he asked, 'Why is the murderous brat important to you, Magus?'
'I am not certain, but I think she is not one of the Luo. She is different. She might even be Egyptian.'
'I doubt that, Magus. She is a savage. Naked and covered with paint.'
'Catch her,' Taita snapped.
Meren knew that tone, and hurried to take command of the search.
The men went slowly and cautiously, none wanting to risk a spear thrust in his belly. By the time they were half-way through the village!dawn was breaking over the forest. Taita was troubled and restless. Something gnawed at him, like a rat in the granary of his memory. There was something he must remember.
The dawn breeze veered into the south, wafting to him the stench of half-rotten fish from the smoking racks. He moved away to avoid it and the memory he was seeking rushed in.
Where else would you search for a moon fish? You will find me hiding among the other fishes. It was the voice of Fenn, speaking through the mouth of the stone image of the goddess. Was the child they were pursuing a soul caught up in the wheel of creation? The reincarnation of someone who had lived long ago?
'She promised to return,' he said aloud. 'Is it possible - or does my own longing delude me?' And then he answered himself: 'There are things that surpass the wildest imagining of mankind. Nothing is impossible.'
Taita glanced around swiftly to make certain that nobody was watching him, then moved casually to the edge of the village and walked to the smoking racks. As soon as he was out of sight his attitude changed.
He stood like a dog testing the air for the scent of its quarry. His nerves jumped. She was very close, her presence almost palpable. Holding his staff at the ready to fend off a stroke from her assegai he moved forward. Every few paces he went down on one knee to try to see under or between the racks on which the layers of fish were packed densely together. At intervals bundles of firewood and drifting clouds of smoke obstructed his view. He had to circle each wood-pile as he came to it to make certain she was not hiding behind one, which slowed his progress.
By now the rays of the early sun were flooding the village. Then as he crept round another wood-pile he heard a stealthy movement ahead. He peered round the corner. Nobody was there. He glanced at the ground and saw the prints of her small bare feet in the grey ash. She was aware that she was being stalked, moving just ahead of him, darting from one wood-pile to the next.
'There is no sign of the brat. She is not here,' he called, to an imaginary companion, and started back towards the village. He went noisily, tapping the racks with his staff, then doubled back in a wide circle, moving swiftly and silently.
He reached a position close to where he had last seen her footprints, and squatted behind a wood-pile to wait for her. He was alert for any
movement or the faintest sound. Now that she had lost sight of him, she would become nervous and change her position again. He threw a spell of concealment round himself. Then, from behind the screen, he reached out for her, searching the ether.
'Ah!' he murmured, as he descried her. She was very close, but not moving. He sensed her fear and uncertainty: she did not know where he was. He saw that she was cowering under one of the wood-piles. Now he focused all his power on her, sending out impulses to lure her towards him.
'Magus! Where are you?' Meren called, from the direction of the village. When he received no answer, his voice rose urgently. 'Magus, do you hear me?' Then he was coming towards where Taita waited.
That's right, Taita encouraged him silently. Keep coming. You will force her to move. Ah! There she goes.
The girl was moving again. She had crawled out from under the wood and was scurrying in his direction, running ahead of Meren.
Come, little one. He tightened the tentacles of the spell round her.
Come to me.
'Magus!' Meren called again, much closer. The girl appeared in front of Taita, at the corner of the wood-pile. She paused to glance back towards where Meren's voice had come from and he saw that she was quivering with terror. She looked in his direction. Her face was a hideous mask of clay, her hair built up in a mass on top of her head with a mixture of what looked like clay and acacia gum. Her eyes were so bloodshot from the smoke of the fires and the dye that had run from her hair that he could not make out the colour of the irises. Her teeth had been deliberately blackened. All of the Luo women they had captured had blackened their teeth and wore the same ugly hairstyle. Clearly, it was their primitive idea of beauty.
As she stood there, terrified, her head cocked, Taita opened his Inner Eye. Her aura sprang up around her,
