The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur - Страница 83

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ossible, the grinding action of any movement would inevitably aggravate

the terrible injuries that Tamre had already sustained.

"Do something,  icky," Royan whispered. "We have to do something for

him."

Nicholas looked at her and shook his head. Royan's eyes flooded with

tears, and they broke over her lower lids and scattered like raindrops

into Tamre's upturned face, diluting the blood to the pink of ros6 wine.

"We can't just sit here and let him die," she Protested, and at the

sound of her voice Tamre opened his eyes and looked into her face.

He smiled through the blood, and that smile lit his dusty, broken face.

"Ummee!" he whispered. "You are my mother. You are so kind. I love you,

my mother."

The words were bitten off and a spasm stiffened his body. His face

contorted with agony and he gave a soft, strangled cry, and then

slumped. The rigidity went out of his shoulders and his head rolled to

one side.

Royan sat for long time holding his head and weeping softly, but

bitterly, until Nicholas touched her hand and said EentIv. "He is dead,

Royan."

She nodded. "I know. He held on just long enough to say goodbye to me."

He let her mourn a little longer, and then he told her softly, "We must

go, my dear."

"You are right. But it is so hard to leave him here. He never had

anybody. He was so alone. He called me mother.

I think he truly loved me."

"I know he did," Nicholas assured her, lifting the boy's dead head from

her lap and helping her to her feet. "Go  wait for me. I will cover him

the best I can." down an Nicholas crossed Tamre's hands upon his chest,

and folded his fingers around the silver crucifix that hung around his

neck. Then he piled loose rock carefully over him, covering his head so

that the crows and vultures could not reach him.

He slid down to where she waited in the water, and slung his pack over

one shoulder.

"We must go on," he told Royan.

She wiped away the tears with the back of her hand and nodded. "I am

ready now."

They waded upstream, pushing hard against the current. The rock-slide

had blocked half the river bed and the waters squeezed through the gap

that was left. When at last they reached the point on the bank above the

avalanche, they climbed out of the river and picked their way up the

steep bank until at last they could crawl out on to the intact section

of the pathway.

They took a moment to recover and looked back. The river below the

rock-slide was running red-brown with mud. Even if the monks at the

monastery downstream had not heard the explosions, they would be alarmed

by that flood of discoloured water and would come to investigate.

They would find the bodies and take them down for decent burial. That

thought comforted Royan a little as they struck out along the trail,

with two days' hard travel still ahead of them.

Royan was limping heavily now, but each time Nichoto help her she

brushed his hand away. "I am all right. It's just a bit stiff." She

would not allow him to inspect the knee, but kept on stubbornly along

the trail ahead of him.

They marched mostly in silence for the rest of that day. Nicholas

respected her grief and was grateful for her reticence. This ability to

be quiet and yet not give out a sense of alienation and withdrawal to

those around her was one of the qualities he admired in her. They spoke

briefly late that afternoon while they paused to rest beside the path.

"The only consolation is that now Pegasus will believe that we are

safely buried under the rock-slide and they won't bother to come looking

for us again. We can push on without wasting time scouting the trail

ahead," Nicholas told her.

They camped that night below the escarpment, just before the path began

the climb up the vertical wall.

Nicholas led her well off the path, into a heavily wooded gully, and

built a small screened fire that could not be seen from the trail.

Here at last she relented and allowed him to examine her knee. It was

bruised and swollen, and hot to the touch.

"You shouldn't be walking on this," he told her.

"Do I have any option?" she asked, and he had no reply. He wetted his

bandana from the water bottle and bound up her leg As tightly as he

dared without cutting Off the circulation. Then he found a phial of

Brufen in his burn-bag and made her take two of these anti,

inflaminatories.

"It feels better already," she told him.

They shared the last bar of survival -rations from his pack, sitting

hunched up over the fire and talking quietly, still subdued and shaken

by their experiences.

"What will happen when we reach the top?" Royan asked. "Will the trucks

still be parked where we left them?

Will the men that Boris left to guard them still be there?

What will happen if we run into the men from Pegasus again?"

"I can't give you any answers. We will just have to face each problem as

it comes up."

"One thing I am looking forward to when we reach Addis Ababa - reporting

the massacre of Tamre and the others to the Ethiopian police. I want

Helm and his gang to pay for what they have done."

He was quiet for a while before he replied. "I don't know if that is the

wisest thing to do," he ventured at last.

"What do you mean? We. were witnesses to murder.

We cannot let them get away with it."

"Just remember that we want to return to Ethiopia. If we make a huge

fuss now, we will have the entire valley swarming with troops and

police. It may put an end to our further attempts to solve Taita's

riddle, and to trace the tomb of Marnose."

"I hadn't thought of that," she said thoughtfully. "But still, it was

murder, and Tamre-'

"I know, I know," he soothed her. "But there are more certain ways of

wreaking vengeance on Pegasus than trying to turn them over to Ethiopian

justice. Consider for the moment the fact that Nogo is working with

Helm. We saw him in the helicopter. If Pegasus have an army colonel in

their pay, who else is working for them? The police? The head of the

army? Members of the cabinet? We just don't know at this stage."

"I hadn't thought about that either," she admitted.

"Let's begin to think African from here on, and take a leaf out of

Taita's scrolls. Like him we must be devious and cunning. We don't go

rushing in shouting accusations. If we could just sneak out of the

country, leaving everybody to believe that we are buried under the

avalanche, that might be ideal. It would make our return to the gorge

that much easier. Unfortunately I don't think we will be able to get

away with that. But from now on, we should be as cagey and careful as

circumstances permit."

She stared into the dancing flames for a long while, then sighed and

asked, "You said there is a better vengeance to he had on Pegasus. What

did you have in mind?"

"Why, simply whisking Marnose's treasure out from under their noses."

She laughed for the first time that long cruel day. "You are right, of

course. Whoever owns Pegasus wants it desperately enough to kill for it.

We must hope that depriving him of it will hurt him almost as badly as

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