"Wilbur Smith - Egyptian 01 - Warlock" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Wilbur)

WARLOCK



Wilbur Smith




Like an uncoiling serpent, a line of fighting chariots wound swiftly down the gut of the valley. From
where he clung to the dashboard of the leading chariot the boy looked up at the cliffs that hemmed them
in. The sheer rock was pierced by the openings to the tombs of the old people that honeycombed the
cliff. The dark pits stared down at him like the implacable eyes of a legion of djinn. Prince Nefer
Memnon shuddered and looked away, furtively making the sign to avert evil with his left hand.



Over his shoulder he glanced back down the column and saw that from the following chariot Taita was
watching him through the swirling clouds of dust. The dust had coated the old man and his vehicle with a
pale film, and a single shaft of sunlight that penetrated to the depths of this deep valley glittered on the
mica particles so that he seemed to glow like the incarnation of one of the gods. Nefer ducked his head
guiltily, ashamed that the old man had witnessed his fleeting superstitious dread. No royal prince of the
House of Tamose should show such weakness, not now when he stood at the gateway to manhood. But,
then, Taita knew him as no other did, for he had been Nefer's tutor since infancy, closer to him than his
own parents or siblings. Taita's expression never changed but even at that distance his ancient eyes
seemed to bore into the core of Nefer's being. Seeing all, understanding all.



Nefer turned back and drew himself up to his full height beside his father, who flipped the reins and
urged the horses on with a crack of the long whip. Ahead of them the valley opened abruptly into the
great amphitheatre that contained the stark and tumbled ruins of the city of Gallala. Nefer thrilled to his
first sight of this famous battlefield. As a young man Taita himself had fought on this site when the
demigod Tanus, Lord Harrab, had destroyed the dark forces that were threatening this very Egypt. That
had been over sixty years ago but Taita had related to him every detail of the fight, and so vivid was his
storytelling that Nefer felt as if he had been there on that fateful day.



Nefer's father, the god and Pharaoh Tamose, wheeled the chariot up to the tumbled stones of the ruined
gateway, and reined in the horses. Behind them a hundred chariots in succession neatly executed the
same manoeuvre, and the charioteers swarmed down from the footplates to begin watering the horses.
When Pharaoh opened his mouth to speak the coated dust crumbled from his cheeks and dribbled down
his chest.
 'My lord!' Pharaoh hailed the Great Lion of Egypt, Lord Naja, his army commander and beloved
companion. 'We must be away again before the sun touches the hilltops. I wish to make a night run
through the dunes to El Gabar.'