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are neither immortal nor very caring about us humans. One of them killed the woman I love. I will try to
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bring her back to life. Failing that, I will try to avenge her murder. That ismy destiny."
"Then you love her, and not me?"
That surprised me. For a moment I had no answer. Finally I cupped her chin in my hand and said, "Only
a goddess could keep me from loving you, Helen."
"But I love you, Orion. You are the only man I have given myself to willingly. I love you! I don't want to
lose you!"
A wave of sadness surged through me, and I thought how pleasantly I could live in this timeless land with
this incomparably beautiful woman.
But I said, "Our destinies take us in different directions, Helen. I wish it were otherwise, but no one can
outrun his fate."
She did not cry. Yet her voice was brimming with tears as she said, "Helen's destiny is to be desired by
every man who sees her, except the one man she truly loves."
I closed my eyes and tried to shut out all the worlds. Why couldn't I love this beautiful woman? Why
couldn't I be like an ordinary man and live out my years in a single lifetime, loving and being loved,
instead of striving to battle against the forces of the continuum? I knew the answer. I was not free. No
matter how I struggled, I was still the creature of the Golden One, still his Hunter, sent here to do his
work. I might rebel against him, but even then my life was tied to his whim.
And then I saw the gray-eyed woman I truly loved, and realized that not even Helen could compare to
her. I remembered our brief moment together and my mind filled with grief and pain. My destiny was
linked forever with hers, through all the universes, through all of time. If she could not be brought back to
life, then life meant nothing to me and I wanted the final death for myself.
Chapter 35
THE next morning we started our river journey to Wast, the capital. I felt drained, emotionally and
physically. The long trek across the Sinai had taken its toll of my body, and now Helen's sad eyes and
drooping spirits were assailing my spirit.
Once our broad-beamed boat pushed away from the dock, though, and its lateen sail filled with wind,
we at least had the sights and sounds and smells of a new and fascinating land to occupy our minds. If
Lukka was surprised at cities without walls to defend them, we were all constantly awed and delighted at
what we saw of Egypt on our long trip up the Nile.
Nefertu was our host, our guardian, and our guide. The boat he had requisitioned had forty oars, and
enclosed cabins for Helen and me, and for himself. A single lateen-rigged sail propelled us against the
mighty river's current most of the time, driven by an almost constant northerly wind. The rowers were
seldom needed. They were not slaves, I noticed, but soldiers who looked for commands not to the ship's
captain but to Nefertu himself.
I smiled inwardly. This very civilized man had brought forty armed men along to make certain that we
got where we were supposed to go, without fail. It was a subtle show of strength, meant to ensure that
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nothing went wrong during this journey, without alarming us or making us feel that we were under guard.
But if Nefertu was capable of subtlety, the land we saw from the boat's deck was just the opposite.
Egypt was big, grand, imposing, awe-inspiring.
The Nile was its life stream, flowing a thousand miles from its headlands far to the south. On either side
of the river we could see bare cliffs of limestone and granite, and desert beyond. But along the thin ribbon
of the life-giving water, there were green fields and swaying trees and mighty cities.
It took a whole day to pass a typical Egyptian city, stretched out along the river's bank. We passed busy
docks and warehouses, granaries where long lines of wagons unloaded the golden harvests of the land.
Imposing temples stood at the water's edge, their stairs leading down to stone piers where many boats
brought worshipers and supplicants.
"This is nothing," said Nefertu one afternoon as we glided past still another city. "Wait until we come
upon Menefer."
We were eating a light dinner of dates, figs, and thin slices of sweet melon. Being civilized, Nefertu found
it pleasant to have Helen dine with us. He spoke the Achaian tongue fairly well, and refrained from using
his own language when Helen was present.
She asked, "What are the small buildings on the other side of the river?"
I too had noticed that the cities were invariably on the eastern bank, but there were small structures
scattered along the opposite bank wherever a city existed, many of them carved into the rock face of the
cliffs that lined the river valley.
"Are they temples?" Helen asked, before Nefertu could answer her first question.
"Of a kind, my lady," he replied. "They are tombs. The dead are embalmed and placed in tombs to await
their next life, surrounded by the foods and possessions they will need when they awaken once more."
Helen's beautiful face betrayed her skepticism, despite what I had told her of myself. "You believe that
people live more than one life?"
I kept my silence. I have led many lives, gone through death many times only to find myself revived in
some strange and distant time. Not all humans lived more than once, I had been told. I found myself
envying those who could close their eyes and make an end of it.
Nefertu smiled politely. "Egypt is an ancient land, my lady. Our history goes back thousands of years, to
the time when the gods created the Earth and gave this gift of Mother Nile to our ancestors. Some of
those tombs you see are a thousand years old; some are even older. You will find that our people are
more concerned with death and the afterlife than with life itself."
"I should think so," Helen said, gazing back at the distant colonnaded buildings. "In Argos only the kings
have such splendid tombs."
The Egyptian's smile broadened. "You have seen nothing of splendor as yet. Wait until Menefer."
The days passed easily. We drifted up the Nile, the steady north wind bellying our sail almost constantly.
At night we tied up at a pier, but we slept aboard the boat. Lukka and his men were allowed to visit the
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cities where we stopped overnight, and Nefertu's guards introduced them to two of Egypt's most ancient
entertainments: beer and prostitution. The men were becoming comrades, soldiers who would drink and
whore together until they might be ordered to fall upon one another with naked swords.
Helen adopted the ship's cat, a pure white one that sauntered along the deck with a lordly air and
permitted humans it especially favored to offer it food. The Egyptians regarded the cat as a mini-god; [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]