for, and that we are going to dam a river.'
hat about men to work on the dam?'
monks at St. Frumentius will do whatever he tells them. He is a great
hero.'
'What have you promised him in return?'
'We haven't got round to that yet. I told him that we have no idea what
we are going to find, and he laughed and said he would trust me.'
'Silly boy, isn't he?'
'Not exactly how I would describe Mek Nimmur,' he murmured. 'I think
when the time is ripe he will let us know what the price of his
cooperation is.' He looked up at that moment. 'We were just talking
about you, Mek.'
Mek strode up to them, and then squatted on his haunches beside
Nicholas.
'What were you saying about me
'Royan says you are a hard bastard, pushing er on a forced march all
night.'
'Nicholas is spoiling you. I have been watching him fussing over you,'
he chuckled. 'What I say is, treat them rough. Women love it.' Then he
grew serious. 'I am sorry, Royan. The border is always a bad place. You
will find me less of a monster now we are on home ground.'
'We are very grateful for all you are doing.' He inclined his head
gravely, 'Nicholas is an old friend, and I hope that you are a new
friend.'
'I have been terribly distressed. Tessay told me last night that there
had been trouble at the monastery.'
Mek scowled and tugged at his short beard, pulling a tuft of hair from
his own chin with the force of his anger.
'Nogo and his killers. This is just a sample of what we are fighting
against. We have been rescued from the tyranny of Mengistu, only to be
plunged into fresh horror.'
'What happened, MA?'
Speaking tersely but vividly, he described the massacre and the plunder
of the monastery's treasures. 'There was no doubt it was Nogo. Every one
of the monks that escaped knows him well.'
His anger was too fierce for him to contain, and he stood up abruptly.
'The monastery means much to all the people of the Gojam. I was
christened there, by Jali Hora himself. The murder of the abbot and the
desecration of the church is a terrible outrage.' He jammed his cap
down, on his head. 'And now we must get on. The road ahead is steep and
difficult.
Now that they were clear of the border, it was safe to move in daylight.
The second day's march carried them into the depths of the orge. There
were no foothills: it was like entering through the keep of a vast
castle. The walls of the great central massif rose up almost four
thousand feet on either hand, and the river snaked along in the depths,
its entire length churned by rapids and breaking white water. At noon
Mek broke the march to rest in a grove of trees beside the river.
There was a beach below them, sheltered by massive boulders which must
have rolled down from the cliffs that hung like a rampart above them.
