descended the falls and kept on down river. All I remember of the
monastery are the excavations in the cliff face high above the pool of
the river, and the distant figures of the troglodytic monks in their
white robes lining the parapet of the caves to watch impassively as we
passed. Some of us waved up to them) and felt quite rebuffed when they
made no response.'
'How would we ever reach that spot again, without a full-scale river
expedition?' she wondered aloud, staring disconsolately at the board.
'Discouraged already?' He grinned at her. 'Wait until you meet some of
the mosquitoes that live down there.
They pick you up and fly with you to their lairs before they eat you.'
'Be serious,' she entreated him. 'How would we ever get down there?'
'The monks are fed by the villagers who live up on the highlands above
the gorge. Apparently, there is a goat track down the wall. They told us
that it takes three days to get down that track into the gut of the
gorge from the rim.'
'Could you find your way down?'
'No, but I have a few ideas on the subject. We will come to that later.
Firstly, we must decide what we expect to find down there after four
thousand years.' He looked at her expectantly. 'Your turn now. Convince
me.' He handed her the silver-headed pointer, dropped into the chair
beside her and folded his arms.
'First you have to go back to the book.' She exchanged the pointer for
the copy of River God. 'You remember the character of Tanus from the
story?'
'Of course. He was the commander of the Egyptian armies under Queen
Lostris, with the title of Great Lion of Egypt. He led the exodus from
Egypt, when they were driven out by the Hyksos.'
'He was also the Queen's secret lover and, if we are to believe Taita,
the father of Prince Memnon, her eldest son,' she agreed.
Tanus was killed during a punitive expedition against an Ethiopian chief
named Arkoun in the high mountains, and his body was mummified and
brought back to the Queen by Taita,'Nicholas expanded the story.
Precisely.' She nodded. This leads me on to the other clue that Duraid
and I winkled out.'
'From the seventh scroll?' He unfolded his arms and sat forward in his
seat.
'No, not from the scrolls, but from the inscriptions in the tomb of
Queen Lostris.' She reached into her bag and brought out another
photograph. This is an enlargement of a section of the murals from the
burial chamber, that part of the wall that later fell away and was lost
when the alabaster jars were revealed. Duraid and I believe that the
fact that Taita placed this inscription in the place of honour, over the
hiding-place of the scrolls, was significant.' She passed the photograph
to him, and he picked up a magnifying glass from the table to study it.
While he puzzled over the hieroglyphics Royan went on, 'You will recall
from the book how Taita loved riddles and word games, how he boasts so
often that he is the greatest of all boa players?'
Nicholas looked up from the magnifying glass, 'I remember that. I go
along with the theory that bao was the forerunner of the game of chess.
