The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur - Страница 24
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that he was so conceited that he deliberately left clues to the location
of the Pharaoh's tomb, both in the scrolls and amongst the murals that
he tells us he painted with his own hands in the tomb of his beloved
Queen."
"You think that this is one of those clues?" Nicholas tapped the
photograph with the glass.
"Read it," she instructed him. "It's in classical hieroglyphics - not
too difficult compared to his cryptic codes."
"'The father of the prince who is not the father, the giver of the blue
that killed him,"' he translated haltingly, "'guards eternally hand in
hand with Hapi the stone testament of the pathway to the father of the
prince who is not the father, the giver of blood and ashes."'
Nicholas shook his head, "No, it doesn't make sense," he protested, you
must have made an error in the translation."
"Don't despair. You are making your first acquaintance with Taita, the
champion bao, player and consummate riddler. Duraid and I puzzled over
it for weeks," she reassured him. "To work it out, let's go back to the
book.
Tanus was not the father of Prince Memnon in name, but, as the Queen's
lover, was his biological father. On his deathbed, he gave Memnon the
blue sword that had inflicted his own mortal wound during the battle
with the native Ethiopian chief There is a full description of the
battle in the book."
"Yes, when I first read that section, I remember thinking that the blue
sword was probably one of the very earliest iron weapons, and in an age
of bronze would have been a marvel of the armourer's art. A gift fit for
a prince," Nicholas mused, and went on, "So "the father of the prince
who is not the father" is Tanus?" He sighed with resignation.
"For the moment I accept your interpretation."
"Thank you for your trust and confidence in me," she said sarcastically.
"But to proceed with Taita's riddle Pharaoh Mamose was Memnon's father
in name only, but not his blood father. Again the father who was not the
father. Mamose passed down to the prince the double crown of Egypt, the
red and white crowns of Upper and Lower Kingdoms - the blood and the
ashes.
"I am able to swallow that more easily. What about the rest of the
inscription?"Nicholas was clearly intrigued.
"The expression "hand in hand" is ambiguous in ancient Egyptian. It
could just as well mean very close to, or within sight of, something."
"Go on. At last you have me sitting up and taking notice,'Nicholas
encouraged her.
"Hapi is the hermaphroditic god or goddess of the Nile, depending on the
gender he or she adopts at any particular moment. Throughout the scrolls
Taita uses Hapi as an alternative name for the river."
"So if we put the seventh scroll and the "inscription from the Queen's
tomb together, what then is your full interpretation?" he insisted.
"Simply this: Tanus is buried within sight of, or very close to, the
river at the second waterfall. There is a stone monument or inscription
on, or in, his tomb that points the way to the tomb of Pharaoh."
He exhaled through his teeth. "I am exhausted from all this jumping to
conclusions. What other clues have you ferreted out for me?"
"That's it," she said, and he looked at her with disbelief.
"That's it? Nothing else?" he demanded, and she shook her head.
"Just suppose that you are correct so far. Let us suppose that the river
is recognizably the same in shape and configuration as it was nearly
four thousand years ago. Let us further suppose that Taita was indeed
pointing us towards the second waterfall at the Dandera river. just what
do we look for when we get there? If there is a rock inscription, will
it still be intact or will it be eroded away by weather and the action
of the river?"
"Howard Carter had an equally slender lead to the tomb of Tutankhamen,'
she pointed out mildly. "A single piece of papyrus, of dubious
authenticity."
"Howard Carter had only the area of the Valley of the Kings to search.
It still took him ten years," he replied. "You have given me Ethiopia, a
country twice the size of France.
How long will that take us, do you think?"
She stood up abruptly, "Excuse me, I think I should go and visit my
mother in hospital. It's fairly obvious that I am wasting my time here."
"It is not yet visiting hours," he told her.
"She has a private room." Royan made for the door.
"I will drive you to the hospital," he offered.
"Don't bother. I will call a taxi," she replied in a tone that crackled
with ice.
"A taxi will take an hour to get here," he warned, and she relented just
enough to let him lead her to the Range Rover. They drove in silence for
fifteen minutes, before he spoke.
"I am not very good at apologies. Not much practice, I am afraid, but I
am sorry. I was abrupt. I didn't mean to be.
Carried away by the excitement of the moment She did not reply, and
after a minute added,'You will have to talk to me, unless we are to
correspond only by note. It will be a bit awkward down in the Abbay
gorge."
"I had the distinct impression that you were no longer interested in
going down there." She stared ahead through the windscreen.
am a brute," he agreedi and she glanced sideways at him. It was her
undoing. His grin was irresistible, and she laughed.
"I Suppose I will just have to come to terms with that fact. You are a
brute."
"Still partners?" he asked.
"At the moment you are the only brute I have.
suppose that I am stuck with you."
He dropped her off at the main hospital entrance. "I will pick you up
here at three 'clock," he told her and drove on into the centre of York.
From his university days Nicholas had kept a small flat in one of the
narrow alleys behind York Minster. The entire building was registered in
the name of a Cayman Island company, and the unlisted telephone there
did not route through an internal switchboard. No ownership could be
traced to him personally. Before he had met Rosalind the flat had played
an important part in his social life. But nowadays Nicholas only used it
for confidential and clandestine business. Both the Libyan and the Iraqi
expeditions had been planned and organized from here.
He hadn't used the flat for months, and it was cold and musty-smelling
and uninviting. He put a match to the gas fire in the grate and filled
the kettle. With a mug of steaming tea in front of him he placed a call
to a bank in Jersey, followed immediately by another to a bank in the
Cayman Islands.
"A wise rat has more than one exit from its burrow."
This was a family maxim, passed down through the generations. He was
going to need funds for the expedition, and the lawyers had most of
those locked up already.
He gave the passwords and account numbers to each of the bank managers,
and instructed them to make certain transfers. It always amazed him how
easily matters could be rranged, as long as you had money.
He checked his watch. It was still early morning in Florida, but Alison
picked up the phone on the second ring. She was the blonde feminine
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