The Quest: A Novel

the silverware was real, Purcell noticed, and each piece was decorated with the Lion of Judah. The dishes, too, had the heraldic lion hand-painted on them. The dinner theme, Purcell saw, was lions.
    Fading sunlight came through the high louvers, and oil lamps flickered on the table.
    On the menu was grilled goat, some sort of root vegetable, and flatbread, with bowls of dates scattered around the table. Fermented fruit juice was poured into bronze goblets that looked like the ones Prince Joshua once owned, and the one that he, Purcell, had overpaid for in Rome.
    Two ladies in middle age served the simple meal and kept the fizzy fruit juice flowing. Miriam promised fresh coffee at the end of the meal.
    She was an intelligent and interesting lady, Purcell saw, and he could see why the other old goat in the room—Sir Edmund—was taken with her.
    Dinner conversation began light, and in answer to Vivian’s question, Miriam explained, “Most of the Solomonic line are Christian, of course, but some are Jewish, and some are even Muslim. The line from Solomon and Sheba is well recorded, but over the centuries, the three religions have influenced the faith of some families.” She added, “The Jews are not the oldest religion in Ethiopia—the pagans are. If you call that a religion.”
    Purcell had just learned that the pagan Gallas ate human testicles, but he didn’t know how to work that into the dinner conversation—or if he should try.
    Purcell also wanted to ask Miriam why, in her early thirties, she was not married yet with ten kids, but to be more subtle and polite, he asked, “So do you have to marry within the Solomonic line?”
    She stayed silent for a few seconds, then replied, “I was married at sixteen, to a Christian ras, but we produced no heirs, so my husbanddivorced me. This is not unusual.” She added, “Most of the rasses are now dead, or they have fled, so I have few prospects for marriage.” She looked at her boyfriend and said without cracking a smile, “So I have settled for an Englishman.”
    Everyone got a laugh at that, and Gann said, “Could do worse, you know.”
    Vivian asked boldly, “Do you two plan to marry?”
    Miriam replied, “We have no word for knight, so here they call him Ras Edmund, which makes him acceptable.”
    Again everyone laughed, but clearly this was a touchy subject, so the nosy reporters did not ask follow-up questions.
    Miriam switched to another touchy subject—her benighted country. “This is an old civilization in the middle stage of history—a medieval anachronism. The Muslims keep harems and slaves. The Christians dispense biblical justice, and men are made eunuchs, and women are sold for sexual purposes. The Jews, too, have engaged in Old Testament punishment. The pagans practice unspeakable rites, including castration and crucifixion. And now the Marxists have introduced a new religion, the religion of atheism, and a new social order, the mass killing of anyone who is associated with the old order.”
    Purcell needed another drink after that. When he was first here, in September, living at the Hilton in Addis, he had almost no idea what life was like outside the capital, which itself was no treat. Their trip out of Addis to the northern front had opened his eyes a little to what Ethiopia was about. Gann, however, had known this place since 1941, and Mercado even longer. And yet they’d returned, and in Gann’s case, he found something compelling about this country—something that drew him to it the way some men are drawn to those places on the map marked “terra incognita—here be dragons.” And Signore Bocaccio… he’d forgotten there were better places to do business.
    Vivian, like himself, had come here clueless and freelance, but she had discovered that she was chosen by God to be here, which was better than being chosen by the Associated Press.
    And then there was Frank Purcell. He needed to think again about why he was still here.
    In his mental absence, the subject had again turned to dark matters. Miriam said, “Mikael Getachu’s father worked for my father in Gondar in the weaving shop. My father treated the family well, and paid for Mikael’s education at the English missionary school.”
    Purcell informed everyone, “Getachu’s biography says his parents went without food to pay for his education.”
    Miriam replied, “They went without nothing.”
    Gann said, “Miriam’s brother, David, was actually lured by Getachu to