The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur - Страница 133

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"Where is she?" Von Schiller was so agitated that he clutched the front

of Nogo's uniform jacket and stood on tiptoe to thrust his face up close

to his. "Where is this woman? Have you let her go?" Tiny droplets of

spittle flew into Nogo's face and he blinked and tried to duck, but von

Schiller had him in a death grip.

"No, sir. She is still here. I did not want to bring her to you-, "You

fool. All you are telling me is secondhand.

Bring her in here immediately. I want to question her face to face." He

shoved Nogo away from him. "Go and fetch her."

Nogo returned minutes later dragging the woman into the room by one arm.

She was young, and despite the blue tattoos across her cheeks and chin

she was pretty. She wore the long black robes and head-covering of a

married woman, and carried an infant on her hip.

As soon as Nogo released her arm she sank to the floor and whimpered

with terror. The child she carried whined in sympathy. Its nostrils were

plugged with white crusts of dried snot. The woman opened the top of her

robe with a shaking hand, fished out one of her milk-swollen breasts and

thrust the nipple into the child's mouth. Infant and mother stared at

von Schiller with terrified eyes.

"Ask her if there was a coffin or body of the saint in the shrine," von

Schiller ordered, eyeing the woman with distaste.

Nogo questioned her for a minute and then shook his head. "She does not

know anything about a body. She is very stupid. She does not understand

very well."

"Ask her about the statues of the saints. What has Harper done with

them? Where are they now? Has he removed them from the shrine?"

After another long exchange with the woman, Nogo shook his head. "No.

She says that the statues are still in the shrine. The white man has

packed them into boxes and the soldiers are guarding them."

"Soldiers? What soldiers?"

"Soldiers of Mek Nimmur, the. shufta commander that I told you about. He

is still with Harper."

"How many boxes are thereP In his impatience von Schiller went up to

where the woman sat and prodded her with the toe of his boot. "How many

statues are there?"

The woman waited with terror and shrank away from him. Von Schiller

recoiled from her at the same time, with an expression of disgust.

"Gott im HimmeW He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and patted his

mouth and nose with it. "She stinks like an animal. Ask her how many

boxes."

"Not many," Nogo translated, "perhaps five, not more than ten. She is

not sure."

"What size? How big are they?"

When Nogo put the question to her, the w6man indicated the length of her

arm. Von Schiller's disappointment registered clearly in his face.

"So few pieces, and so insignificant." He turned away from the woman and

went to stare out of the south-facing window of the hut, down over the

escarpment rim into the wilderness of the gorge. "If what this creature

says is true, then Harper has not yet discovered the treasure of Mamose.

There should be more, much more."

Nogo was talking rapidly to the woman again, and now he turned back to

von Schiller. "She says that one of Harper's party has left the camp in

the gorge, and gone to Debra Maryam."

Von Schiller spun away from the window and stared at him. "One of his

party? Who? Which one!'

"She is an Ethiopian woman. The concubine of Mek Nimmur. A woman she

calls Woizero Tessay. I know of her. She was married to the Russian

hunter, before she became Mek Nimmur's whore."

Von Schiller rushed across the room and seized the woman by the front of

her robe. He hauled her to her feet with such violence that the infant

was jerked from her grip and fell howling to the floor.

"Ask her where the woman is now," he instructed Nogo.

The mother pulled free from his grip and grovelled on the floor, trying

to pick up and console her screaming infant, Nogo grabbed her and

slapped her face resoundingly to get her attention. She clasped her baby

to her breast and gabbled out a reply.

"She does not know," Nogo admitted. "She thinks she is still at Debra

Maryam."

"Get that filthy bitch out of here!" Von Schiller jerked his head at the

woman and her child. Nogo dragged them from the hut.

"What else do you know of this woman of Mek Nimmur's?" he asked in

milder tones when Nogo returned.

"She is from one of the noble families in Addis Ababa, a blood relative

of Ras Tafari Makonnen, the old Emperor Haile Selassie."

"If she is Mek Nimmur's woman, and has come directly from Harper's camp,

then she will be able to " answer the questions that this other creature

could not."

"That is true, Herr von Schiller. But she may not wish to tell us."

"I want her," von Schiller said. "Bring her here. Helm will speak to

-her. I am sure he will be able to make her AN, see reason."

 is an important person. er family has muc influence." Nogo thought

about it for a moment. "But on the other hand, she has been consorting

with a notorious bandit. That is all the reason I need for bringing her

in.

I will send a detachment of my men, under one of my most trusted

officers, to arrest her immediately." He hesitated. "If the woman is

questioned severely, it would be as well that she were not allowed to

return to her friends in Addis. They could make trouble for all of us.

Even for you, Herr von Schiller."

"What do you propose?" von, Schiller wanted to know.

"When she has answered your questions, there will have to be a little

accident,'Nogo suggested.

"Do what is necessary," von Schiller ordered. I will leave the details

to you, but make sure that if it is necessary to dispose of the woman it

is done property. I have had enough bungling." As he spoke these words

he looked across at Nahoot Guddabi, who lowered his gaze and flushed

angrily.

They had spent almost two full days at the shrine of Osiris in the long

gallery. No ancient worshipper had ever studied the texts upon those

walls more avidly than Nicholas and Royan, or examined the flamboyant

murals of the great god with more minute attention They took it in turn

to recite aloud the extracts from the stele of Tanus that Royan had

picked out and recorded in her notebooks, repeating them until they knew

each station by heart. While one read aloud, the other quo concentrated

his or her full attention upon the walls, trying to discover some

connecting link.

"'My love is a flask of cold water in the desert. My love is a banner

unfurling in the breeze. My love is the first shout of the newborn

infant,"' Nic as rea Royan looked up at him from where she squatted

attentively before the shrine, and smiled. "At times Taita was really

rather cute, wasn't he?" she said. "Such a romantic."

"Concentrate, for heaven's sake. This isn't a poetry appreciation class.

We are doing serious business here."

"Barbarian!" she muttered under her breath, but turned back to the wall

of inscriptions.

"Try this one again," Nicholas ordered, and read out, "'We he in the

vale of a thousand joinings, of infant to mother, of man to woman, of

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