'You disappoint me, Meren. It is unlike you to wander away and neglect your duties,' Taita chided him. 'Now do you propose to starve me? Summon the new maidservant you have employed, and let us hope her cooking is not eclipsed by her pretty face.'
He did not sleep during that day, but sat alone in the shade at the far end of the terrace. As soon as they had eaten the evening meal he climbed to the top of the tower once more. The sun was only a finger below the horizon, but he was determined not to waste a moment of the hours of darkness when the star would be revealed to him. Night came, as swiftly and stealthily as a thief. Taita strained his eyes into the east.
The stars pricked through the darkling arch of the night sky, and grew brighter. Then, abruptly, the Star of Lostris appeared above his head.
He was amazed that it had left its constant position in the train of the planets. Now it hung like a guttering lantern flame above the tower of Gallala.
It was no longer a star. In the few short hours since he had last laid eyes upon it, it had erupted into a fiery cloud and was blowing itself apart. Dark, ominous vapours billowed around it, lit by internal fires that were consuming it in a mighty blaze that lit the heavens above his head.
Taita waited and watched through the long hours of darkness. The maimed star did not move from its position high above his head. It was still there at sunrise, and the following night it appeared again in the same heavenly station. Night after night the star remained fixed in the sky
like a mighty beacon, whose eerie light must reach to the ends of the heavens. The clouds of destruction that enveloped it swirled and eddied.
The fires flared up in its centre, then died away, only to flare again in a different place.
At dawn the townsfolk came up to the ancient temple and waited for an audience with the magus in the shade of the tall columns of the hypostyle hall. When Taita descended from his tower they crowded around him, begging for an explanation of the mighty eruption of flames that hung over their city: 'O mighty Magus, does this herald another plague? Has Egypt not suffered enough? Please explain these terrible omens to us.' But he could tell them nothing for their comfort. None of his studies had prepared him for anything like the unnatural behaviour of the Star of Lostris.
The new moon waxed full and its light softened the fearful image of the burning star. When it waned, the Star of Lostris dominated the heavens once more, burning so brightly that all other stars paled into insignificance beside it. As if summoned by this beacon, a dark cloud of locusts came out of the south and descended on Gallala. They stayed for two days and devastated the irrigated fields, leaving not a single ear of dhurra corn or a leaf on the olive trees. The branches of the pomegranates bent under the weight of the swarms, then broke off. On the morning of the third day the insects rose in a vast, murmurous cloud and flew westward towards the Nile, to wreak more devastation on lands already dying from the failure of the Nile flood.
The land of Egypt quailed, and the population gave in to despair.
Then another visitor came to Gallala. He appeared during the night, but the flames of the Star of Lostris burned so brightly, like the last flare of an oil lamp before it expires, that Meren could point out the caravan to Taita when it was still a great distance away.
'Those beasts of burden are from a far-off land,' Meren remarked. The camel was not indigenous to Egypt and was still rare enough to excite his interest. 'They do not follow the caravan route but come out of the desert. All this is strange. We must be wary of them.' The foreign travellers did not waver but came directly to the temple, almost as though they were guided there. The camel drivers couched their animals, and there was the usual hubbub of a caravan setting up camp.
'Go down to them,' Taita ordered. 'Find out what you can about them.'
Meren did not return until the sun was well clear of the horizon.
'There are twenty men, all servants and retainers. They say they have travelled for many months to reach us.'
'Who is their leader? What did you learn of him?'
'I did not lay eyes on him. He has retired to rest. That is his tent in the centre of the encampment. It is of the finest wool. All his men speak of him with the greatest awe and respect.'
'What is his name?'
'I do not know. They speak of him only as the Hitama, which in their language means “exalted in learning”.'
'What does he seek here?'
'You, Magus. He comes for you. The caravan master asked for you by name.'
Taita was only mildly surprised. 'What food have we? We must offer hospitality to this Hitama.'
'The locusts and drought have left us with little. I have some smoked fish and enough corn for a few salt cakes.'
'What of the mushrooms we collected yesterday?'
'They have turned rotten and stinking. Perhaps I can find something in the village.'
'No, do not trouble our friends. Life for them is hard enough already.
We will make do with what we have.' In the end they were saved by the generosity of their visitor. The Hitama accepted their invitation to share the evening meal, but he sent Meren back with a gift of a fine fat camel.
It was plain that he knew how sorely the populace was suffering from the (amine. Meren slaughtered the beast and prepared a roasted shoulder.
The remainder of the carcass would be enough to feed the servants of the Hitama, and most of the village population.
Taita waited for his guest on the roof of the temple. He was intrigued 10 discover whom he might be. His title suggested that he was one of the magi, or perhaps the abbot of some other learned sect. He had a premonition that something of great import was to be revealed to him.
Is this the messenger who was presaged by the auguries? The one for whom I have waited so long? he wondered, then stirred as he heard Meren ushering the visitor up the wide stone staircase.
'Take care with your master. The treads of the staircase are crumbling mid can be dangerous,' Meren told the bearers, who at last arrived on
the roof terrace. He helped them settle the curtained litter close to Taita's mat, then placed a silver bowl of pomegranate-flavoured sherbet and two drinking bowls on the low table between them. He glanced enquiringly at his own master. 'What else do you wish, Magus?'
'You may leave us now, Meren. I will call you when we are ready to eat.' Taita poured a bowl of the sherbet and placed it close to the opening in the curtains, which were still tightly drawn. 'Greetings and welcome. You bring honour to my abode,' he murmured, speaking to his unseen guest. There was no reply and he concentrated all the power of the Inner Eye on the palanquin. He was astonished not to distinguish any aura of a living person beyond the silk curtains. Though he scanned the covered space carefully he found no sign of life. It appeared blank and sterile. 'Is anybody there?' He stood quickly and crossed to the litter.
'Speak!' He demanded. 'What devilry is this?'
He jerked aside the curtain, then stepped back in surprise. A man sat cross-legged on the padded bed, facing him. He wore only a saffron loincloth. His body was skeletal, his bald head skull-like, his skin as dry and wrinkled as that shed by a serpent. His countenance was as weathered as an ancient fossil, but his expression was serene, even beautiful.
'You have no aura!' Taita exclaimed, before he could prevent the words reaching his lips.
The Hitama inclined his head slightly. 'Neither have you, Taita. None of those who have returned from the temple of Saraswati give out a detectable aura. We have left part of our humanity with Kashyap, the lamp-bearer. This deficiency enables us to recognize one another.'
Taita took a while to consider these words. The Hitama had echoed what he had been told by Samana.
'Kashyap is dead and a woman has taken his seat before the goddess.
Her name is Samana. She told me there had been others. You are the first I have met.'
'Few of us are granted the gift of the Inner Eye. Even fewer of us remain. Our numbers have been reduced. There is a sinister reason for this, which I will explain to you in due time.' He made space on the mattress beside him. 'Come, sit close to me, Taita. My hearing begins to fail me, and there is much to discuss, but little time is left to us.' The visitor switched from laboured Egyptian into the arcane Tenmass of the adepts, which he spoke flawlessly. 'We must remain discreet.'
'How did you find me?' Taita asked, in the same language, as he settled beside him.
'The star led me.' The ancient seer raised his face to the eastern sky.
In the time that they had been speaking together, night had fallen and the panoply of the heavens shone forth in majesty. The Star of Lostris still hung directly overhead, but it was further altered in shape and substance. It no longer had a solid centre. It had become merely a cloud of glowing gases, blowing away in a long feather on the solar winds.
'I have always been aware of my intimate connection to that star,'
Taita murmured.
'With good reason,' the old man assured him mysteriously. 'Your destiny is linked to it.'
'But it is dying before our eyes.'
The old man looked at him in a way that made Taita's fingertips tingle. 'Nothing dies. What we call death is merely a change of state.
She will remain with you always.'
Taita opened his mouth to say her name, 'Lostris', but the old man stopped him with a gesture.
'Do not speak her name aloud. In doing so you may betray her to those who wish you ill.'
'Is a name, then, so powerful?'
'Without one a being does not exist. Even the gods need a name.
Only the Truth is nameless.'
'And the Lie,' Taita said, but the old man shook his head.
'The Lie is named Ahriman.'
'You know my name,' said Taita, 'but I am ignorant of yours.'
'I am Demeter.'
'Demeter is one of the demigods.' Taita had recognized the name at once. 'Are you that one?'
'As you can see, I am mortal.' He held up his hands and they trembled with palsy. 'I am a Long Liver, as you are, Taita. I have lived an inordinately long time. But soon I will die. Already I am dying. In time you will follow me. Neither of us is a demigod. We are not Benevolent Immortals.'
'Demeter, you cannot leave me so soon. We have just come together,' Faita protested. 'I have searched so long to find you. There is so much I must learn from you. Surely this is why you have come to me. You did not come here to die?'
Demeter inclined his head in acquiescence. 'I shall stay as long as
I am able, but I am wearied by years and sickened by the forces of the Lie.'
'We must waste not an hour of the time we have. Instruct me.' Taita spoke humbly. 'I am as a little child beside you.'
'We have already begun,' Demeter said.
Ti
ime is a river like the one above us.' Demeter lifted his head and pointed with his chin to Oceanus, the endless river of stars that flowed from horizon to horizon across the sky above them. 'It has no beginning and no ending. There was another who came before me, as countless others came before him. He passed on this duty to me. It is a divine baton handed on from one runner to the next. Some carry it further than others. My race is almost run, for I have been shorn of much of my power. I must pass the baton to you.'
'Why to me?'
'It has been ordained. It is not for us to query or contest the decision.
You must open your mind to me, Taita, to receive what I have to give you. I must caution you that it is a poisoned gift. Once you receive it you may never again know lasting peace, for you are about to shoulder all the suffering and pain of the world.'
They fell silent while Taita considered this bleak proposition. At last he sighed. 'I would refuse it if I could. Continue, Demeter, for I cannot stand against the inevitable.'
Demeter nodded. 'I have faith that you will succeed where I have failed so woefully. You are to become gatekeeper of the fortress of the Truth against the onslaughts of the minions of the Lie.'
Demeter's whispers grew bolder and took on a new urgency: 'We have spoken of gods and demigods, of adepts and Benevolent Immortals.
From this I see that you already have a deep understanding of these things. But I can tell you more. Since the beginning time of the Great Chaos, the gods have been lifted up and cast down in succession. They have struggled against each other, and against the minions of the Lie.
The Titans, who were the elder gods, were cast down by the Olympian gods. They, in their turn, will become enfeebled. None will trust and worship them. They will be defeated and replaced by younger deities or, if we fail, they may be superseded by the malign agents of the Lie.' He was silent for a while, but when he continued his voice was firmer: 'This rise and fall of divine dynasties is part of the natural and immutable body
n
of laws that emerged to bring order to the Great Chaos. Those laws govern the cosmos. They order the ebb and flood of the tides. They command the succession of day and night. They order and control the wind and the storm, the volcanoes and the tidal waves, the rise and fall of empires, and the progression of days and nights. The gods are only the servants of the Truth. In the end there remain only the Truth and the Lie.' Demeter turned suddenly and glanced behind him, his expression melancholy, but resigned. 'Do you feel it, Taita? Do you hear it?'
Taita exerted all his powers, and at last he heard a faint rustling in the air around them, like the wings of vultures settling to a carrion feast.
He nodded. He was too moved to speak. The sense of great evil almost overwhelmed him. He had to exert all his strength to fight it back.
'She is here with us already.' Demeter's voice sank lower, became laboured and breathless, as though his lungs were crushed by the weight of a baleful presence. 'Can you smell her?' he asked.
Taita flared his nostrils, and caught the faint reek of corruption and decay, disease and rotting flesh, the effluvium of plague and the contents of ruptured bowels. 'I sense it and smell it,' he answered.
'We are in danger,' said Demeter. He reached towards Taita. 'Join hands!' he ordered. 'We must unite our power to resist her.'
As their fingers touched an intense blue spark flashed between them.
Taita resist the impulse to jerk away his hand and break the contact.
Instead he seized Demeter's hands and held them firmly. Strength flowed back and forth between them. Gradually the malign presence receded, and they could breathe freely again.
'It was inevitable,' said Demeter, with resignation. 'She has been searching for me these past centuries, ever since I escaped from her web of spells and charms. But now that you and I have come together we have created such an upheaval of psychic energy that she has been able to detect it, even at immense distance, just as a great shark can detect a shoal of sardines long before it has sight of them.' He looked sorrowfully at Taita, still holding his hands. 'She knows of you now, Taita, through me, and if not through me, she would have discovered you by some other means. The scent you leave on the wind of the cosmos is strong, and she is the ultimate predator.'
'You say “she”? Who is this female?'
'She calls herself Eos.'
'I have heard that name. A woman named Eos visited the temple of Saraswati more than fifty generations ago.'
'It is the same woman.'
'Eos is the ancient goddess of the dawn, sister of Helius, the sun,'