'Nicky, do you realize just how many possible combinations there are,
given the three variables?' She was at last starting to waver. 'Taita
has assumed an intimate knowledge of the game. We have only the
sketchiest notions of how it was played. It's like a grand master trying
to explain to a novice the intricacies of the King's Indian Defence.'
olas embroidered the simile. 'At this
'In Russian!' Nich rate we are getting nowhere in a hurry. There must be
some other way of approaching it. Let's go over the epigrams Taita stuck
in between the notations again.
'All right. I'll read and you listen.' She hunched over her notes. 'The
trouble is that a subtle variation of the translation might change the
sense. Taita loved puns, and effect. One wrong twist a pun can rely on
a single word fo or slant to a word and we have lost it.'
'Try anyway,' Nicholas encouraged her. 'Remember that even Taita had
never played bao in three dimensions be at the very before. if he left
a clue it would have le of beginning of the stele. Concentrate on the
first coup notations and the epigrams that separate them.'
'We'll try it that way,' Royan agreed. 'The first notambers five and
seven and tion is the bee followed by the nu the sistrum.'
I have heard that so often Nicholas grinned. 'Okayt What follows?,
already that I will never forget it er over the ation.' She ran her ring
'The first quot can be known hieroglyphics. ''What can be given a name
What is nanwiess can A be felt. i sail with the tide behind me and the
wind in my face. 0, my beloved, the taste of You is sweet uPon my UPs.''
'Is that all?' he asked.
'Yes, then the next notation. The scorpion and the number two and three
and the sistrum again.' make Slowly! Slowly! First things first. What
can out of the 1sailing' and the 'beloved'T
They riddled and wrestled with the text of the stele, So until their
eyes burned and they had lost track of day or night. They were
eventually recalled to reality by Sapperjs voice echoing up the
staircase. Nicholas stood up from the desk and stretched before he
looked at his watch.
'Eight. 'clock. But I' not sure if that is morning or evenin
Then he started as Sapper came up the staircase, and saw that his bald
head was shining with moisture and his shirt was soaked.
'What happened to you?' Nicholas demanded. 'Did you fall into the
sinkholer Sapper wiped his face with the palm of his hand.
'Didn't anybody tell you? It's pissing with rain outside.' They both
stared at him in horror.
'So soon?' Royan whispered. 'It wasn't supposed to start for weeks yet.'
Sapper shrugged. 'Somebody forgot to tell the weatherman.'
'Has it set in?' Nicholas asked. 'What's the state of the river? Has the
level started to rise yet?'
'That's what I came to tell you. I am going up to the dam, taking the
Buffaloes with me. I want to keep an eye on it. As soon as it gets
unsafe I will send a runner down to you. When I do that, don't stop to
argue. Get out of here fast. It will mean that I expect the dam to burst
at any moment.'
