way round the narrow trail, sweating with terror and their eyes rolling
until the whites flashed. The drivers urged them on with wild cries and
busy whips.
At places the pathway entered the body of the mountain, passing behind
butts and needles of rock that time and erosion had prised away from the
cliff face. These rocky gateways were so narrow that the mules had to be
unloaded and the packs carried through by the drivers, and then the
mules were reloaded on the far side.
Look!' Royan cried in astonishment and pointed out into the void. A
black vulture rose up out of the depths on widespread pinions and
floated past them almost within arm's length, turning its gruesome naked
head of pink lappeted skin to stare at them with inscrutable black eyes
before sailing away.
'He is using the thermals of heated air from the valley for lift,'
Nicholas explained to her. He pointed out along the cliff to an
overhanging buttress on the same level as themselves. 'There is one of
their nests.' It was a shaggy mound of sticks piled on an inaccessible
ledge. The excrement of the birds that had inhabited it over the ages
had painted the cliff face below with streaks of brilliant white, and
even at this distance they could catch whiffs of rotting offal and
decaying flesh.
All that day they clung to the precipitous track as they eased their way
down that terrible wall. It was late afternoon, and they were only
halfway down, when the trail turned back upon itself once more and they
heard the rumble of the falls ahead. The sound grew louder and became a
thunderous roar as they moved around the corner of another buttress and
came in full sight of the falls.
The wind created by the torrent tugged at them and forced them to clutch
for handholds. The spray blew around them and wetted their upturned
faces, but the i: Ethiopian guide led them straight on until it seemed
that they must be washed away into the valley still hundreds of feet
below.
Then, miraculously, the waters parted and they stepped behind the great
translucent curtain into a deep recess of moss-covered and gleaming wet
rock, carved from the cliff by the force of water over the aeons. The
only light in this gloomy place was filtered through the waterfall,
green and mysterious like some undersea cavern.
'This is where we sleep tonight,' Boris announced, obviously enjoying
their astonishment. He pointed to bundles of firewood piled at the rear
of the cave, and the smoke-blackened wall above the stone hearth. The
muleteers carrying food and supplies down to the priests in the
monastery have used this place for centuries.'
As they moved deeper into the cavern, the sound of falling water became
muted to a dull background rumble and the rock underfoot was dry. Once
the servants had lit the fire, it became -a warm and comfortable, not to
say romantic, lodging.
With an old soldier's eye for the most comfortable spot, Nicholas laid
out his sleeping bag in a corner at the back of the cave, and quite
naturally Royan unrolled hers beside his. They were both tired out by
the unusual exertion of climbing down the cliff wall, and after supper
