Coalition of Lions (12 page)

“Foreigner! Foreign ones!” they cried in greeting. Telemakos got called also “salt-top” and something that might have meant “milkman,” presumably on account of his white hair.

“I am Aksumite!” he yelled back at them, or if he was feeling particularly insulted, “Bushpig herders!”

At last the rocky tablelands of the amba plateaus rose ahead of us. We could see the amba Debra Damo days before we arrived there, as we made our way through the ravines and rocky valleys.

“Are we going to stay with the monks?” Telemakos asked. “Will we worship in a church cut from rock?”

“We will stay in the pilgrims’ quarters at the foot of the cliff,” Turunesh said. “Do not pull at your pony’s mane like that; she is tired, too.”

We had left the mountain villages behind. We traveled through desolate country for hours and saw no one. Then, three days’ journey from our destination, we picked up an escort.

A young man and a herd of goats joined us. The goatherd greeted us politely and kept a discreet distance, walking well behind; and we thought nothing of it when by and by we came across another goatherd. The two men spoke quietly to each other, as though they had arranged to meet, and then each turned back the way he had come. So now we traveled with a different man. He stayed with us through the afternoon; then he, too, went his way, so that we were alone, or thought we were alone, for the night. In the morning two new travelers joined us.

These were dressed in white robes bordered with broad red stripes, priests’ robes, except the men seemed young for priests. They carried bows and hunting knives. They made a great show of binding their knives in their sheaths so that they might travel with us. In the middle of the day they left us, and later we found ourselves in the company of two like them, but not the same.

Then I decided that someone must have been watching and following us well before we became aware of it. The road to Debra Damo was patrolled for fifty miles. No one challenged our right to use that road or showed any interest in our destination. But we were guarded ever more constantly as we came closer to the hermitage.

At the bottom of the amba was a small settlement, and two matronly women guided us to the cluster of huts that were kept ready for pilgrims. They spoke to us with frank and friendly interest.

“They will not let you in, you know. It is a solemnly kept man’s community; they do not even keep nanny goats.”

“The boy will act as our messenger,” Turunesh said calmly.

“Is he to be dedicated? If you are of the house of Nebir, you may sequester him here with the children of the queen of queens,” one of them offered helpfully.

The other gave Telemakos a sharp look and said to her companion, “His house is of no account. You can see why they would bring him here.”

They both stopped still in their tracks and gazed at Telemakos.

“I see, I see,” said the first.

Telemakos scowled but held his tongue. He rubbed at his wrist where I had bound him, though it could not possibly bother him anymore.

It made me think of Priamos rubbing at his own wrist in the exact same way, rubbing away the ghost of a chain. Priamos had been even younger than Telemakos when he came to Debra Damo. I tried to see him Telemakos’s age, serious and innocent, and could not imagine that heavy brow on a child’s face. Indeed, I could not remember anything of his look other than his worried scowl. It frustrated me.

We were given a stone-built pilgrim’s cottage to stay in and had supper brought to us twice. I do not know if that was a real mistake or evidence of more vigilance. No less than three young girls came by to see that we had enough water, and the old man who kept the pilgrims’ cells was desperate for court gossip. He brought us a goat so that Telemakos could have milk. Then he sat outside the door of the hut until long after dark, chewing some kind of bitter-smelling leaf and plying Turunesh with endless questions about the New Palace.

“Have they replaced the lions in the lion pit?”

“Not yet.”

“Ai, all of a year now has the palace at Aksum been without lions! What will become of the kingship?”

Telemakos appeared in the doorway like a wraith, his hair a halo of silver in the light of the waxing moon.

“Who said lions?” he asked.

“Go to sleep,” said Turunesh.

“I cannot sleep while everyone is talking about lions.”

“You will have tomorrow’s great adventure all to yourself,” Turunesh said. “Go to sleep.”

In the morning we had another long uphill trek to reach the ascent to the monastery. But when at last we came there, we knew that Telemakos could not make the climb to the entrance by himself. The snake of leather rope that led to the portal hung nearly a hundred feet down the side of the cliff.

I had not come this far to be thwarted by a rope. I handed my bow to Turunesh and set out to take Telemakos up the amba myself.

At the foot of the cliff there were sentries, who helped visitors to fix themselves in the leather harness, and who gave them guidance as they climbed the cliff side. They, too, had the look of priests, and yet seemed to have a hard edge of strength to them, like soldiers or guardsmen.

I set my mouth in the harshest expression of severity and disdain, and stared into all their faces as though I were a king. I said nothing aloud, but indicated that I wanted to go aloft with Telemakos.

They gazed at Telemakos with a deeply interested and intense scrutiny. I was annoyed that holy men were not better able to disguise their fascination.

“The boy?” the eldest of them asked.

“He is here to act as messenger for me,” I said.

When they heard my voice, they knew I was a woman.

“You cannot stay here,” the spokesman said. “You cannot touch these things; you cannot look at this place.”

At once I felt my arrogance to be mean and discourteous. I knelt, and bowed my head. “Forgive me. I thought to spare the child the ascent.”

They seemed unable to tear their gaze from Telemakos. They tried to answer me politely, but I could tell that their attention was greatly diverted.

“One of us will bear him for you,” said the man. “What would you have him do here?”

For one moment of panic it occurred to me that I did not know for certain whether Caleb was here. It had all been implied and hinted at, but nothing had been spoken.

“The child is my messenger,” I repeated. “I seek the lord of your land. I am daughter to Artos the high king of Britain, and my father is dead.”

“The one you seek is here,” said the sentry. “I do not know if he will see you, but the boy may take him your message.”

I knelt by Telemakos and held him by the shoulders.

“Hey. Hey, Telemakos Meder. What are you going to say to the great person when you meet him?”

“I shall make a full reverence, on my face on the ground, and say, Your Highness, Goewin the princess of Britain is here to see you, Goewin the daughter of Artos the dragon.”

“And apologize for having to ask him to come down to me. But you see they will not let me come to him.”

“All shall be well,” Telemakos said, with an echo of his mother’s calm. He smiled, but he was serious. His front teeth were finally through, and it made him look older. “Caleb will remember me.”

“You are a bold hero.”

I kissed him on the forehead and got to my feet.

“One of us will bring the boy down when he is finished,” said the spokesman, “with any message there may be for you.”

They helped Telemakos onto the back of one of the younger men, and belted them together at the waist. I watched as they ascended the cliff. Telemakos fixed his eyes on a spot at the back of the man’s head, his lips pressed together, his expression fierce and determined. He looked so like Medraut.

I made my way back to Turunesh to wait. She handed me one of our saddlebags to drink from, and then stood with her arms folded, gazing with narrowed eyes toward the cleft in the cliff where the linteled gateway to the monastery was improbably set.

“Brave Telemakos,” she said.

“They would not let me take him up.”

“I did not think they would,” Turunesh said mildly. “They were likely angered that you thought to try.”

“I wish I hadn’t. I felt ashamed.”

We stood back and watched the cliff face in silence. We stood so long without speaking that I did not say anything aloud when at last I saw someone starting down the cliff, but reached out to grip Turunesh by the arm and pointed.

The climber bore Telemakos on his back. He seemed strong and sure-footed, though his cropped hair was white. He kept his face turned aside to Telemakos, nodding reassuringly toward the child who clung to his shoulders. I watched the man’s bare feet against the rock, and the chiseled edge of his bearded cheek that I could see.

“Well, they have not sent us Caleb.” Turunesh sighed.

“He is not even Aksumite,” I agreed. “He is too fair.”

“Perhaps they send a foreign guest who speaks your language.”

And then, as the man descended nearer, I sat down hard on the valley floor, gasping as though the wind had been knocked out of me. Turunesh bent over me in concern.

“What is it? What is wrong?”

The shock so stunned me that I could not speak. The climbers had reached the cliff’s foot and were unbinding their harness straps before I could shape any kind of words or speak them aloud. At last I managed to choke, “It’s Medraut.”

H
E CAME BEFORE US
, with his son bound and clinging to his back. His right hand was lifted to clasp Telemakos’s small fingers over his shoulder; with the heel of his left hand he rubbed brutally at his eyes.

Telemakos threw me a look of wild hope and bewilderment. Then Turunesh, without speaking, helped to untie Telemakos and set him on the valley floor.

Medraut never let go of the small brown fingers. Telemakos sat down next to me, clutching up handfuls of grass and earth with his free hand as though he could not believe his good fortune at being on the ground again. Medraut stooped by him on one knee, and with his forefinger gently, gently tilted the child’s chin up toward his own face, gazing into the smoke blue eyes with the wonder of a man seeing himself in a mirror for the first time.

Turunesh still said nothing. She stood watching her lost lover and their son, her hands clenched at her sides, and began to sob.

“Mother, Mother!” cried Telemakos, leaping to his feet and snatching at one of her balled fists, and half pulled back by Medraut, who would not let him go.

Turunesh drew Telemakos close, but she could not stop crying.

“Why are you here? How did you come here?” I was shouting.
“Why did you leave me after Camlan?”

Medraut turned toward me, still clinging to Telemakos, and wiped at his eyes again, and shook his head.

“He doesn’t talk,” said Telemakos. “The monks said he has not spoken a word since he came to them.”

“Ras Meder?” said Turunesh softly, and held open her hands to him. “Medraut?” He ducked away from her touch, ashamed, unworthy.

“Why?”
she asked.

He shook his head again and sat on the sand next to me, his eyes on the horizon. After a few moments he held out a tentative arm. Telemakos threw himself at his father. They bent their heads together, white gold against white gold. Turunesh gave a cry of anguish.

Medraut buried his face in Telemakos’s shining hair.

“Is it true?” Telemakos said.

“Yes, love,” Turunesh whispered.

“Telemakos, what happened?” I asked. “What happened when you went to find Caleb?”

“The monks brought me to Ras Meder.”

I was dumbfounded.

“But I told them to take you to the emperor! I said—” I stopped short, trying to remember what I had said.

“You said lord of the land,” Telemakos reminded me.

“Meder,” I breathed. “Medraut. Oh, my brother, you must think we came here looking for you. But we came looking for the emperor Caleb, the negusa nagast Ella Asbeha. We did not know you were here.”

Medraut nodded slowly, understanding.

“Come with us to our shelter, and we’ll explain.”

He sighed, and finally let go of Telemakos. Turunesh reached to help Medraut to his feet. Then she bent over his hands, pressing them together and gently kissing them, before letting them fall.

“Come, Telemakos,” she said, gathering herself. “Lead on.”

Telemakos, too, snatched at Medraut’s hand and kissed it. Then he ran, and Medraut followed more slowly. I watched him from behind, saw how confidently he made his way down the hillside, saw how he favored the leg that had been broken at Camlan. And in his purposeful, uneven stride I recognized the silent merchant sailor who had walked away from us at Gabaza, the man Priamos had suspected to be tracking me down the Red Sea.

“Turunesh!” I said, snatching at her arm. “He was on board the ship that brought us from Alexandria. He must have—he must have followed me all the way—he must—”

He had tracked me from Camlan.

“And so he hid his hair beneath a head cloth, and never let us see his face! We thought nothing of his fair skin; there were Grecian oarsmen onboard as well. He must have come here straightaway, after we landed in Aksum. He saw me safely to the governor’s house in Adulis, and went his way. My God, how did he trace us through the Mediterranean? We changed ships in Septem and Priamos arranged it that we left a day early …”

I stopped, then said in wonder: “Priamos feared for me through every mile of the journey. I teased him for it. Oh, God, it is
unthinkable
he should stand accused of treachery!”

Turunesh stared after Medraut as well, as baffled as I.

“Oh, why,” she whispered, “why did he not come back to me!”

Medraut never spoke, his steady silence awkward and unhappy. With Telemakos following at his heels he watered our horses and milked the goat. Then, ill fitted as it was to him, he borrowed my bow and loped off into the wilderness, his pace only a little irregular. He came back in the afternoon with a small antelope over his shoulders. I talked to him alone as he cut up the antelope. He worked quickly, efficiently, not looking at me. It felt as if I was talking to the face of a granite wall.