The Totems of Abydos Read Online Free

what the point of the platform was.
    In a little time, for the area of the flat stones was not really large, the tip of Horemheb’s staff, moving gently before him, inquisitive, like something alive, sniffing, groping, alert, an extension of his spirit, an emblem of his quest, touched the first stair. There were three of these, if one counts the level of the dais on which the platform had been erected. Horemheb climbed the steps and, because he conjectured he was early, he sat down, cross-legged, before the platform. The platform itself was not high, once one had ascended to the dais on which it was erected. Horemheb, who was not large, not even amongst the brethren, could have put out his hand, had he been standing, and placed his full palm upon it. But he did not stand before the platform, as he was surely early. Rather he sat there, cross-legged, before the platform, with the sack of meal and his staff beside him, took out the parchments, and, from the irregular surfaces, traced the sayings. He did not fear the stealthy ones in this place, for they did not come here.
    After a division of a revolution Horemheb rolled the parchments and tied them shut.
    He then rose slowly to his feet. He did not use his staff this time to help him rise. He did hold the sack of meal.
    He had heard it ascend to the platform, with one movement, from the back. It had been quiet but Horemheb did not think that it had been concerned to conceal its presence. Rather that was the way it moved.
    “Speak,” said Horemheb, after a time. “Speak!”
    Horemheb knew it was close to him. He knew its presence, especially here, in this place. Sometimes it was so close to him he could have put out its his hand and touched it. Once he had done so, on a rainy night. The fur had been wet and matted. There had been a strong smell upon it.
    “You know why I have come,” said Horemheb. “Speak.”
    The thing moved about, twice, turning, on the platform, and bit at its fur, doubtless to rid itself of vermin.
    “Speak,” said Horemheb.
    But the thing did not speak.
    Horemheb had read the parchments, but they had been silent. In his distant youth he had sat before the elders, but they had not told him, if they knew. He had made long journeys, even to the place of smoke and ships, but had not found what he sought. Now, again, he had come to the platform.
    “Speak,” begged Horemheb.
    But Horemheb heard only the wind, and the soft sounds from amongst the rocks.
    “I have come through the forest,” said Horemheb. “I have braved the darkness. I have stood before the platform. A thousand times I have brought my body and my staff, and my question, to this place, and have not been heeded. A thousand times I have returned to the village empty-handed.”
    “Speak!” said Horemheb.
    But it did not speak.
    Horemheb then put the sack of meal on the platform, as his small offering, small in value to many, but a gift of considerable price to Horemheb.
    Horemheb then bent down and picked up his staff. He descended from the dais and found the string once more, which he would follow back to the village.
    Behind him the beast looked down at the sack of meal between its paws. It was not such stuff that the beast ate.
     
     

 
    Chapter 2
     
     
    “So you are at the beginning of your career?” said Emilio Rodriguez.
    “Or perhaps at the end of it,” smiled Allan Brenner.
    “For you are on your way with old Rodriguez to Abydos?” smiled the other.
    “Something like that,” said Brenner. He was not certain, really, how to address Rodriguez. Should it be as “Mister,” as “Professor,” as “Doctor”?
    “Didn’t they teach you grantsmanship?” inquired Rodriguez. “Is this the best you could land?”
    “I was assigned,” said Brenner.
    “To keep an eye on me?”
    “I don’t think so,” said Brenner. He didn’t.
    “What time is it?” asked Rodriguez.
    Brenner smiled. That was an odd question. Did he want a body-time, indexed to some recent port,