'That was seven years ago?' Taita asked.
'Nay, Magus. It was nine years and two months,' Rabat corrected him, 'the term of our exile from our beloved homeland, Egypt.'
Taita realized that he had forgotten to include the time it would have
taken them to reach this place since leaving Karnak. 'Who commands the army in Colonel Ah-Akhton's place?' he asked.; 'Colonel That Ankut.'I 'Where is he?'
'He led the army southwards along the river in accordance with the command of Pharaoh. He left me here with only twenty men and some women, those with very young children who had been born during the march or those who were too sick or weak to continue.'
'Why did Colonel That leave you here?'
'I was ordered to plant crops, to keep a herd of horses ready for him, and to hold a base in his rear to which he could retire, if he were forced to retreat from the wild lands to the south.'
'Have you had news of him since he marched away?'
'Some months later he sent back three men with all of his surviving horses. It seems that he had journeyed into a country to the south that is infested with a fly whose sting is fatal to horses and he had lost almost all of his herd. Since those three arrived, we have had no word of him.
He and his men have been swallowed up by the wilderness. That was many long years ago. You are the first civilized men we have met in all that time.' He sounded forlorn.
'You have not thought to abandon this place and take your people back to Egypt?' Taita asked, to gauge his mettle.
'I have thought on it,' Rabat admitted, 'but my orders and my duty are to hold this post.' He hesitated, then went on, 'Besides, the man-eating Chima and the great swamps stand between us and our very Egypt.'
Which is probably the most telling reason why you have remained at iyour post, Taita thought. As they talked they came out at the head of IIIthe pass and before them stretched a wide plateau. Almost at once they 1felt that the air of this high place was more pleasant than that on the Iplains below.
1There were scattered herds of grazing cattle, and beyond them Taita IIIwas astonished to see the mud walls of a substantial military fort. It seemed out of place in this remote and savage landscape; the first sign of civilization they had come across since they had left the fort of Qebui more than two years previously. This was a lost outpost of empire of which no one in Egypt was aware.
'What is the name of this place?' Taita asked.
'Colonel That called it Fort Adari.'
They rode among the grazing cattle, tall, rangy animals with huge
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humped shoulders and a wide spread of heavy horns. The coat of each had a distinctive colour and pattern, no two alike. They were red or white, black or yellow, with contrasting blotches and spots.
'Where did you find these cattle?' Taita asked. 'I have seen none other like them.'
'We trade them with the native tribes. They call them zebu. The herds provide us with milk and beef. Without them we would suffer even greater hardship than we do at present.'
Meren frowned and opened his mouth to reprimand Rabat for his lack of spirit, but Taita read his intention, and cautioned him with a quick shake of his head. Although Taita agreed with both Fenn and Meren on the fellow's worth, it would not be of any benefit to them to offend him. Almost certainly, they would need his Co-operation later. The fields around the fort were planted with dhurra, melons and vegetable crops that Taita did not recognize. Rabat told them the outlandish native names, and dismounted to pick a large shiny black fruit, which he handed to Taita. 'When cooked in a stew of meat they are tasty and nutritious.'
When they reached the fort the women and children of the garrison came out through the gates to welcome them, carrying bowls of soured milk and platters of dhurra cake. Altogether there were fewer than fifty and they were a bedraggled, sorry-looking lot, although they were friendly enough. Accommodation in the fort was limited. The women offered a small windowless cell to Taita and Fenn. The floor was of packed earth, ants moved in military file along the rough-hewn walls and shiny black cockroaches scurried into cracks in the log walls. The smell of the unwashed bodies and chamber-pots of the previous occupants was pervasive.
Rabat explained apologetically that Meren and the rest, officers and men alike, would have to bunk with his soldiers in the communal barracks. With expressions of gratitude and regret, Taita declined this offer of hospitality.
Taita and Meren chose a congenial site half a league beyond the fort, in a grove of shady trees on the banks of a running stream. Rabat, who was plainly relieved not to have them in the fort, honoured Meren's Hawk Seal and provided them with fresh milk, dhurra and, at regular intervals, a slaughtered ox.
'I hope we are not to stay long in this place,' Hilto remarked to Taita, on the second day. 'The mood of these people is so despondent that it will lower the morale of our men. Their spirits are high, and I would like
them to remain so. Besides, all the women are married and most of our men have been celibate for too long. Soon they will want to sport with them and there will be trouble.'i 'I assure you, good Hilto, that we will move on as soon as we have made the arrangements.' Taita and Meren spent the following days in close consultation with the melancholy Rabat.
'How many men went south with Colonel That?' Taita wanted to know.
Like many illiterates, Rabat had a reliable memory and he replied without hesitation: 'Six hundred and twenty-
