River god - Smith Wilbur - Страница 74

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  'And so you see, it is true. Tanus is alive,' I ended, and she spoke for the first time since I had begun.

  'If he is alive, then bring him to me. I will not eat a mouthful until I set my eyes upon his face once more.'

  'I will bring him to your side as swiftly as I can send a messenger to him, if that is what you wish,' I promised, and reached for the polished bronze mirror from my chest.

  I held the mirror before her eyes, and asked softly, 'Do you want him to see you as you are now?'

  She stared at her own gaunt, hollow-eyed image.

  'I will send for him today, if you order it. He could be here within a week, if you really want that.'

  I watched her straggle with her emotions. 'I am ugly,' she whispered. 'I look like an old woman.'

  'Your beauty is still there, just below the surface.'

  'I cannot let Tanus see me like this.' Feminine vanity had triumphed over all her other emotions.

  'Then you must eat.'

  'You promise,' she wavered, 'you promise that he is still alive, and that you will bring him to me as soon as I am well again? Place your hand on my heart and swear it to me.'

  I could feel her every rib and her heart fluttering like a trapped bird beneath my fingers. 'I promise,' I said.

  'I will trust you this time, but if you are lying I will never trust you again. Bring me food!'

  As I hurried to the kitchen, I could not help but feel smug. Taita, the crafty, had got his own way yet again.

  I mixed a bowl of warm milk and honey. We would have to begin slowly, for she had driven herself to the very edge of starvation. She vomited up the contents of the first bowl, but was able to keep down the second. If I had delayed my return by another day, itmight have been too late.

  SPREAD BY THE CHATTERING SLAVE GIRLS, the news of my miraculous return from the grave swept through the island like the smallpox.

  Before nightfall Pharaoh sent Aton to fetch me to an audience. Even my old friend Aton was ??? strained and reserved in my presence. He leaped away nimbly when I tried to touch him, as though my hand might pass through his flesh like a puff of smoke. As he led me through the palace, slaves and nobles alike scurried out of my path, and inquisitive faces watched me from every window and dark comer as we passed.

  Pharaoh greeted me with a curious mixture of respect and nervousness, most alien to a king and a god.

  'Where have you been, Taita?' he asked, as though he did not really want to hear the answer.

  I prostrated myself at his feet. 'Divine Pharaoh, as you yourself are part of the godhead, I understand that you ask that question to test me. You know that my lips are sealed. It would be sacrilege for me to speak of these mysteries, even to you. Please convey to the other deities who are your peers, and particularly to Anubis, the god of the cemeteries, that I have been true to the charge laid upon me. That I have kept the oath of silence imposed upon me. Tell them that I have passed the test that you set me.'

  His expression glazed as he considered this, and he fidgeted nervously. I could see him forming question after question, and then discarding each of them in turn. I had left him no opening to exploit.

  In the end he blurted out lamely, 'Indeed, Taita, you have passed the test I set you. Welcome back. You have been missed.' But I could see that all his suspicions were confirmed, and he treated me with that respect due to one who had solved the ultimate mystery.

  I crawled closer to him and dropped my voice to a whisper. 'Great Egypt, you know the reason I have been sent back?'

  He looked mystified, but nodded uncertainly. I came to my feet and glanced around suspiciously, as though I expected to be overlooked by supernatural forces. I made the sign against evil before I went on, 'The Lady Lostris. Her illness was caused by the direct influence of?' I could not say the name, but made the horn sign with two fingers, the sign of the dark god, Seth.

  His expression changed from confusion to dread, and he shivered involuntarily and drew closer to me, as if for protection, as I went on, 'Before I was taken away, my mistress was already carrying in her womb the treasure of the House of Mamose when the Dark One intervened. Due to her illness, the son she was bearing you has been aborted from her womb.'

  Pharaoh looked distraught. 'So that is the reason that she miscarried,' he began, and then broke off.

  I picked up my cue smoothly. 'Never fear, Great Egypt, I have been sent back by forces greater than those of the Dark One to save her, so that the destiny that I foresaw in the Mazes of Ammon-Ra may run its allotted course. There will be another son to replace the one that was lost. Your dynasty will still be secured.'

  'You must not leave the side of the Lady Lostris until she is well again.' His voice shook with emotion. 'If you save her and she bears me another son, you may ask from me whatever you wish, but if she dies?' he stopped as he considered what threat might impress one who had already returned from beyond, and in the end let it trail away.

  'With your permission, Your Majesty, I shall go to her this instant.'

  'This instant!'he agreed.'Go! Go!'

  MY MISTRESS'S RECOVERY WAS SO SWIFT that I began to suspect that I had unwittingly invoked some force beyond my own comprehension, and I felt a superstitious awe at my own powers.

  Her flesh filled out and firmed almost as I ??? watched. Those pitiful empty sacs of skin swelled into plump, round breasts once again, sweet enough to make the stone image of the god Hapi which stood at the doorway to her chamber burn with envy. Fresh young blood suffused the chalk of her skin until it glowed once more, and her laughter tinkled like the fountains of our water-garden.

  Very soon it was impossible to keep her to her bed. Within three weeks of my return to Elephantine, she was playing games of toss with her handmaidens, dancing about the garden and leaping high to reach the inflated bladder above the heads of the others, until, fearful that she might overtax her returning strength, I confiscated the ball and ordered her back to her chamber. She" would obey me only after we had struck another bargain, and I had agreed to sing with her, or teach her the most arcane formulas of the bao board which would allow her to enjoy her first victory over Aton, who was an addict of the game.

  Aton came almost every evening to enquire about my mistress's health on behalf of the king, and afterwards to play the board-game with us. Aton seemed to have decided at last that I was not a dangerous ghost, and although he treated me with a new respect, our old friendship survived my demise.

  Each morning my Lady Lostris made me repeat my promise to her. Then she would reach for her mirror and study her reflection without the faintest trace of vanity, assessing every facet of her beauty to determine if it was ready yet to be looked upon by Lord Tanus.

  'My hair looks like straw, and there is another pimple coming up on my chin,' she lamented. 'Make me beautiful again, Taita. For Tanus' sake make me beautiful.'

  'You have done the damage to yourself, and then you call for Taita to make it better,' I grumbled, and she laughed and threw her arms around my neck.

  'That's what you are here for, you old scallywag. To look after me.'

  Each Evening when I mixed a tonic for her and brought the steaming bowl to her as she prepared for sleep, she would make me repeat my promise to her. 'Swear you will bring Tanus to me, just as soon as I am ready to receive him.'

  I tried to ignore the difficulties and the dangers that this promise would bring upon us all. 'I swear it to you,' I repeated dutifully, and she lay back against the ivory headrest and went to sleep with a smile upon her face. I would worry about fulfilling my promise when the time came.

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