Tansid showed no alarm at his outburst. She stroked his long silver hair. 'Taita, you must not trouble yourself. I will remain with you as long as you still need me.' She held him tenderly, a child at her breast, until he subsided once more into insensibility. Then she looked enquiringly at Samana. 'Lostris?'

'She was once queen of Egypt,' she explained. Using her Inner Eye and the knowledge of Kashyap she was able to scry deep in Taita's mind to his memories. His abiding love of Lostris was as clear to Samana as if it were her own.

'Taita raised her from childhood. She was beautiful. Their souls were intertwined, but they could never be joined. His mutilated body lacked I he manly force for him ever to be more to her than friend and protector.

Nevertheless, he loved her all her life and beyond. She loved him in return. Her last words to him before she died in his arms were 'I have loved only two men in this life, and you were one. In the next life perhaps the gods will treat our love more kindly.'

Samana's voice was choked, and the women's eyes were bright with tears.

Tansid broke the silence that followed: 'Tell me all of it, Samana.

There is nothing more beautiful on this earth than true love.'

'After Lostris died,' Samana said quietly, stroking the magus's head, 'Taita embalmed her. Before he laid her in her sarcophagus, he took from her head a lock of hair, which he sealed in a locket of gold.' She leaned forward and touched the Periapt of Lostris, which hung round Taita's neck on a golden chain. 'See? He wears it to this day. Still he waits for her to return to him.'

Tansid wept, and Samana shared her sorrow, but she was unable to wash it away with tears. She had travelled so much further along the Road of the Adepts that she had left such comforting human weakness behind her. Sorrow is the other face of joy. To grieve is to be human.

Tansid could still weep.

By the time the great rains had passed, Taita had recovered from his ordeal and learnt to control the Inner Eye. They were all aware of the new power within him: he radiated a spiritual calm. Meren and Tansid found it comforting to be near him, not speaking but revelling in his presence.

However, Taita passed most of his waking hours with Samana. They sat day after day at the temple gates. Through their Inner Eyes they watched everyone who passed through. In their vision each human body was bathed in its own aura, a cloud of changing light that displayed to them the emotions, thoughts and character of its owner. Samana instructed Taita in the art of interpreting these signals.

When night had fallen and the others had retired to their chambers, Samana and Taita sat together in the darkest recess of the temple, surrounded by effigies of the goddess Saraswati. They talked the night away, still using the arcane Tenmass of the higher adepts that neither Meren nor the apsaras, not even the learned Tansid, could understand.

It was as though they realized that the time of parting would soon be upon them, and that they must take full advantage of every hour that was left to them.

'You do not throw an aura?' Taita asked, during their final discussion.

'Neither do you,' Samana replied. 'No savant does. That is the certain way in which we are able to identify each other.'

'You are so much wiser than I.'

'Your hunger and capacity for wisdom far outstrip mine. Now that you have been granted the inner sight, you are entering the penultimate level of the adepts. There is only one above where you stand now, that of the Benevolent Immortal.'

'Each day I feel myself grow stronger. Each day I hear the call more clearly. It is not to be denied. I must leave you and go on.'

'Yes, your time with us here has come to an end,' Samana agreed.

'We will never meet again, Taita. Let boldness be your companion. Let the Inner Eye show you the way.'

Meren was with Astrata and Wu Lu in the pavilion beside the pool. They reached for their clothing and dressed hurriedly as Taita came towards them with a firm step, Tansid at his side.

Only now did they realize the extent of the change that had come over Taita. He no longer stooped under the burden of age, but stood taller, straighter. Though his hair and beard were silver still, they seemed thicker, more lustrous. His eyes were no longer rheumy and myopic, but clear and steady. Even Meren, who was the least perceptive, could recognize these changes. He ran to Taita and prostrated himself before him, hugging his knees wordlessly. Taita lifted him up and embraced him. Then he held him at arm's length, and considered him carefully.

Meren's aura was a robust orange glow like the desert dawn, the aura of an honest warrior, valiant and true. 'Fetch your weapons, good Meren, for we must go on.' For a moment Meren was rooted to the ground with dismay, but then he glanced at Astrata.

Taita studied her aura. It was as clear as the steady flame of an oil lamp, clean and uncomplicated. But suddenly he saw the flame waver, as though touched by an errant breeze. Then it steadied, as she suppressed (he sorrow of parting. Meren turned from her and went into the living quarters of the temple. Minutes later he came out again, his sword belt buckled round his waist, his bow and quiver slung over his shoulder. He carried Taita's tiger-skin cloak rolled upon his back.

Taita kissed each of the women. He was fascinated by the dancing nuras of the three apsaras. Wu Lu was enveloped in a nimbus of silver, nlu>t through with shimmering gold, more complex and with deeper toning than Astrata's. She was further along the Road of the Adepts.

Tansid's aura was mother-of-pearl, iridescent as a film of precious oil

floating on the surface of a bowl of wine, changing colours and tones incessantly, shooting out stars of light. She possessed a noble soul and a Good Mind. Taita wondered if she would ever be called to submit herself to Samana's probing bamboo needle. He kissed her, and her aura thrilled with a brighter lustre. In the short time they had known each other they had shared many things of the spirit. She had come to love him.

'May you attain your destiny,' he whispered, as their lips parted.

'I know in my heart that you will attain yours, Magus,' she replied softly. 'I will never forget you.' Impulsively she threw her arms round his neck. 'Oh, Magus, I wish . . . how I wish . ..'

'I know what you wish. It would have been beautiful,' he told her gently, 'but some things are not possible.'

He turned to Meren. 'Are you ready?'

'I am ready, Magus,' Meren said. 'Lead and I will follow.'

They retraced their footsteps. They climbed into the mountains where the eternal winds wailed around the peaks, then came to the start of the great mountainous pathway and followed it towards the west. Meren recalled every twist and turn, every high pass and dangerous ford, so they wasted no time in searching for the right road, and journeyed swiftly. They came again to the windswept plains of Ecbatana where the wild horses roamed in great herds.

Taita had had an affinity with those noble animals ever since the first of them had arrived in Egypt with the invading Hyksos hordes.

He had captured them from the enemy, and broken the first teams for the new chariots he had designed for the army of Pharaoh Mamose. For this service Pharaoh had awarded him the title 'Lord of Ten Thousand Chariots'. Taita's love of horses went back a long way.

They paused on their journey across the grassy plains to rest after the rigours of travel in the high mountains and to linger among the horses.

As they followed the herds they came upon a rift in the bleak, featureless landscape, a concealed valley along whose course bubbled a string of natural springs, with pools of sweet clear water. The perpetual winds that scourged the exposed plains did not reach this sheltered spot, and the grass grew green and lush. There were many horses here, and Taita set up camp beside a spring to enjoy them. Meren built a hut from grass sods, and they used dried dung as fuel. There were fish in the pools and colonies of water voles, which Meren trapped while Taita searched for