'Your permission to cross the river and pay my respects to Queen Mintaka.'

'If I refused, I would place myself in an invidious position. My queen has not lost her fire. She would treat me mercilessly.' He laughed with real affection for his wife. 'Go to her, by all means, but return here before midnight.'

A soon as Demeter was safely ensconced in the palace Taita summoned two of the royal physicians to attend him, then called Meren aside. 'I expect to return before nightfall,' he told him.

'Guard him well.'

'I should go with you, Magus. In this time of want and starvation even honest men turn in despair to brigandry to feed their families.'

'Ramram has given me an escort of guardsmen.'

It seemed strange to mount a horse, rather than a boat, to cross a river like the Nile. From the back of Windsmoke, Taita gazed towards the Palace of Memnon on the west bank and saw that many well-trodden paths led through the mudbanks between the turbid pools. They rode out along one. A monstrous toad hopped across the path in front of Taita's mare.

'Kill it!' the sergeant of the escorts snapped. A soldier couched his spear and rode down on the toad. Like a wild boar at bay, it turned ferociously to defend itself. The soldier leant forward and drove the point of his spear deep into its pulsating yellow throat. In its death throes the hideous creature clamped its jaws on the spear's shaft so the soldier had to drag it along behind his horse until it released its grip and he could pull his weapon free. He fell in beside Taita and showed him the shaft: the toad's fangs had scored the hard wood deeply.

'They are savage as wolves,' said Habari, the sergeant of the guard, a lean and scarred old warrior. 'When they first appeared, Pharaoh ordered two regiments to scour the riverbed and wipe them out. We slew them in their hundreds and then in their thousands. We piled their carcasses into windrows, but for every one we killed it seemed that another two rose from the mud to replace them. Even great Pharaoh realized that he had set us a hopeless task and now he orders that we must keep them

confined to the riverbed. At times they swarm out and we must attack them again,' Habari went on. 'In their own foul manner they serve some useful purpose. They devour all the filth and carrion that is thrown into the river. The people lack the strength and energy to dig decent graves for the victims of the plague and the toads have assumed the role of undertakers.'

The horses plunged through the red slime and mud of one of the shallow pools and rode up the west bank. As soon as they came in sight of the palace the doors swung open and the gatekeeper came out to meet them.

'Hail, mighty Magus!' He saluted Taita. 'Her Majesty has word of your arrival in Thebes, and sends joyous greeting to you. She waits eagerly to welcome you.' He pointed to the palace gates. Taita looked up and saw tiny figures on top of the wall. They were women and children and Taita was uncertain which was the queen, until she waved to him. He pushed the mare, and she jumped forward and carried him through the open gates.

As he dismounted in the courtyard, Mintaka raced down the stone staircase with the grace of a girl. She had always been an athlete, a skilled charioteer and an intrepid huntress. He was delighted to see her still so lithe, until she reached up to embrace him and he saw how thin she had become. Her arms were like sticks, her features drawn and pale.

Although she smiled, her dark eyes were haunted by sorrow.

'Oh, Taita, I do not know how we have done without you,' she told him, and buried her face in his beard. He stroked her head, and at his touch her gaiety evaporated. Her whole body shook with sobs. 'I thought you would never return and that Nefer and 1 had lost you also, as we have lost Khaba and little Unas.'

“I have been told of your bereavement. 1 grieve with you,' Taita murmured.

'I try to be brave. So many mothers have suffered as I have. But it is bitter to have my babies taken from me so soon.' She stood back and tried to smile again, but her eyes were welling and her lips quivered.

'Come, 1 want you to meet the other children. Most of them you know.

Only the two youngest have never met you. They are waiting for you.'

They were lined up in two ranks. The boys in front, the princesses behind them. All were stiff with awe and respect. The smallest girl was so overcome by the stories of the great magus her siblings had told her that she dissolved into tears as soon as he looked at her. Taita picked her up and held her head against his shoulder while he whispered to her.

She relaxed at once, sniffed back the tears and wrapped both arms round his neck.

'I would never have believed it if I did not remember the winning ways you have with children and animals.' Mintaka smiled at him, then called the others forward one at a time.

'I have never laid eyes on such beautiful children,' Taita told her, 'but, then, I am not surprised. They have you as their mother.'

At last Mintaka sent them away and took Taita's hand. She led him to her private apartments, where they sat beside the open window to catch the faint breeze and look out over the western hills. While she poured sherbet for him she said, 'I used to love to gaze out over the river, but no longer. The sight breaks my heart. Soon the waters will return, though. It has been prophesied.'

'By whom?' Taita asked idly, but his interest quickened when for answer she gave him a knowing, enigmatic smile, then turned the conversation to the happy times, not long past, when she was a beautiful young bride and the land was green and fruitful. Her mood lightened and she spoke animatedly. He waited for her to finish, knowing that she could not long resist returning to the mysterious prophecy.

Suddenly she dropped the reminiscences. 'Taita, do you know that our old gods have become feeble? They will soon be replaced by a new goddess with absolute power. She will restore the Nile, and rid us of the plagues that the old, effete gods have been unable to prevent.'

Taita listened respectfully. 'No, Majesty, this I did not know.'

'Oh, yes, it is certain.' Her pale features glowed with fresh colour and the years seemed to drop away. She was a girl again, suffused with joy and hope. 'But more, Taita, so much more.' She paused portentously, then went on in a rush of words, 'This goddess has the power to restore all that has been lost or taken cruelly from us, but only if we dedicate ourselves to her. If we render to her our hearts and souls, she can give back to us our youth. She can bring happiness to those who suffer and mourn. But, think on this, Taita - she even has the power to resurrect the dead.' Tears started in her eyes again, and she was so breathless with excitement that her voice shook as though she had run a long race: 'She can give me back my babies! I will be able to hold the warm, living bodies of Khaba and Unas in my arms and kiss their little faces.'

Taita could not bear to deprive her of the solace that this new hope gave her. 'These are matters almost too marvellous for us to comprehend,'

he said solemnlv.

'Yes, yes! It has to be explained to you by the prophet. Only then does it become clear as the brightest crystal. You cannot doubt it.'

'Who is this prophet?”

'His name is Soe.'

'Where is he to be found, Mintaka?' Taita asked.

She clapped her hands with excitement. 'Oh, Taita, this is the very best part of it,' she cried. 'He is here in my palace! I have given him sanctuary from the priests of the old gods, Osiris, Horus and Isis. They hate him for the truth he speaks. They have tried repeatedly to assassinate him. Every day he instructs me and those he chooses in the new religion.

It is such a beautiful faith, Taita, that even you will be unable to resist it, but it has to be learnt in secret. Egypt is still too steeped in the worthless old superstitions. They must be eradicated before the new religion can flourish. The common people are not yet ready to accept the goddess.'