River god - Smith Wilbur - Страница 134

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  There was no moon, but the stars filled the entire sky. The hills were bathed in their silver luminosity. We sat late at the camp-fires and feasted on the livers and hearts of oryx roasted on the coals. To begin with, the prince sat between Tanus and me at the fireside, but the officers and men vied for his attention. He had stolen all their hearts, and at their invitation he moved easily from one group to the next. They mended their language and banter to fit his ears, and the prince was at ease in their company.

  They made a great fuss of his bandaged head. 'Now you are a real soldier,' they, told him, 'just like one of us.' And they showed him their own scars.

  'You did the right thing by allowing him to come with us,' I told Tanus, as we both watched him proudly. "This is the best training any young cadet can ever have.'

  'The men love him already,' Tanus agreed. "There are two things that a general needs. One is luck and the other is the devotion of his troops.'

  'Memnon must be allowed to go out with every expedition, just as long as it is not too dangerous,' I decided, and Tanus chuckled.

  'I leave you to convince his mother of that. There are some things that are beyond my powers of persuasion.'

  On the other side of the camp-fire, Kratas was teaching Memnon the expurgated version of the lyrics of the regimental marching songs. The prince had a sweet, clear voice, and the men clapped the time, and came in on the chorus. They protested loudly and rudely when at last I tried to send Memnon to the bed I had prepared for him under the body of the chariot, and even Tanus supported them.

  'Let the boy stay with us a little longer,' he ordered, and it was well after midnight when at last I was able to roll the prince in my sheepskin rug.

  'Tata, will I ever be able to shoot the way that Lord Tanus does?' he asked sleepily.

  'You will be one of the great generals of our very Egypt, and one day I will carve an account of your victories on obelisks of stone, so that all the world will know of them.'

  He thought about that for a while and then sighed. 'When will you make me a real bow, not just a baby's toy?'

  'As soon as you can draw it,' I promised.

  'Thank you, Tata. I should like that.' And he went to sleep as suddenly as I would blow out the flame of a lamp.

  WE RETURNED IN TRIUMPH TO THE fleet, the wagons loaded with the salted and sun-dried meat of the oryx herd. I had expected my mistress to tax me severely for having abducted the prince. I had prepared my defence and was determined to place the blame squarely on the broader shoulders of Lord Harrab.

  However, her censure was milder than I had anticipated. She told Memnon that he was a wicked child for having caused her worry, and then hugged him until he was in danger of suffocation. When she turned to me, I launched into a long explanation of Tanus' role in the affair, and the valuable training and experience that the prince had received, but she seemed to have dismissed the entire episode. 'When did you and I last go fishing together?' she asked. 'Fetch your fishing-spears, Taita. We will take one of the skiffs. Just the two of us on the river, the way we used to be in the old days.'

  I knew that we would do little fishing. She wanted me alone on the water where we could not be overheard. Whatever was troubling her was of serious importance.

  I paddled downstream on the shrunken and slow green waters until the bend of the river and the high rocky bluff hid us from the fleet. All my attempts at conversation had failed, so I put aside my paddle and took up my lute. I strummed and sang the tunes she loved best, and waited for her to speak.

  At last she looked up at me, and her eyes were filled with a strange mixture of joy and worry.

  'Taita, I think I am going to have another baby.'

  I can think of no reason why this statement should have surprised me so. After all, every night since we had left Elephantine, she and the commander of her army had been locked in secret conclave, while I kept guard at the door of her cabin. Nevertheless, I was so alarmed that my hand froze on the lute strings and the song died in my throat. It was some moments before I could regain my voice.

  'My lady, did you use the infusion of herbs that I prepared for you?' I asked diffidently.

  'At times I did, but at others I forgot.' She smiled shyly. 'Lord Tanus can be a very impatient man. Besides which, it is so unromantic to fiddle with pots and jars, when there are better and more urgent things waiting to be done.'

  'Things like making babies who have no royal father to claim them.'

  'It is rather serious, isn't it, Taita?'

  I struck a chord on the rate while I framed a reply. 'Rather serious? Oh, I think that is the wrong word. If you give birth to a bastard, or if you take a husband, then you will be obliged to relinquish the regency. That is the custom and the law. Lord Merkeset would be the next in line as regent, but there will be covert warfare amongst all the nobility for the position. Without your protection as regent, the prince would be in great danger. We would be torn by internecine strife?' I broke off, and shuddered at the prospect of it.

  'Tanus could become regent in my stead, and then I could marry him,' she suggested brightly.

  'Don't think I have not thought of that before,' I told her sombrely. 'It would be the solution to all our difficulties. But then there is Tanus.'

  'If I ask him, he will do it gladly, I am sure of that,' she smiled with relief, 'and I will be his wife. We need no longer play these shams and subterfuges to be alone together.'

  'I wish it were that easy. But Tanus will never agree. He cannot?''

  'What is this silliness?' The first sparks of anger lit her eyes, and I hurried on.

  'That night at Thebes, the night that Pharaoh sent men to arrest Tanus on charges of sedition, we tried to force Tanus to declare for the crown. Kratas and all his officers swore their support, and that of all the army. They wanted to march on the palace and place Tanus on the throne.'

  'Why did Tanus not agree to them? He would have been a fine king, and it would have saved all of us so much heartache.'

  'Tanus spurned their offer. He declared that he was not a traitor, and that he would never mount the throne of Egypt.'

  "That was long ago. Things have all changed,' she cried with exasperation.

  'No, they have not changed. Tanus swore an oath that day, and he called on the god Horus to witness it. He swore that he would never take the crown.'

  'But it no longer counts. He can go back on that oath.'

  'Would you go back on an oath that you had sworn in the sight of the god Horus?' I demanded, and she looked away and hung her head.

  'Would you?' I insisted, and she shook her head reluctantly.

  'No,' she whispered, 'I could not.'

  'The same code of honour binds Tanus. You cannot call upon him to do what you dare not do yourself,' I explained gently. 'Of course, we can put it to him, but you and I both know what his reply must surely be.'

  "There must be something that you can do?' She looked at me with that blind trust that angered me. Whenever she had run herself into the deepest danger, she simply turned to me and said, 'There must be something that you can do?'

  "There is something, but you will not agree to it, any more than Tanus will agree to wear the crown.'

  'If you care anything for me, you will not even suggest it.' She understood me immediately, and recoiled from me as though I had struck her. 'I would rather die myself than kill this miracle of love that Tanus has placed in my womb. The child is him and me and our love. I could never murder all of that.'

  "Then, Your Majesty, there is nothing more that I can suggest to you.'

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