The Amulet of Power by Mike Resnick Read Free Book Online Page A

laid the plate before her. She inspected the meat, and nodded her approval.
    “Don’t forget the tea,” she said as he began retreating.
    The tea arrived just as she was chewing her first mouthful of lamb, which she had already decided was going to be her last mouthful of lamb. She’d encountered strange diets in her travels, eaten foods that would have revolted most of her countrymen, but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out how anyone survived on the cuisine of the
Amenhotep
.
    She drank her weak tea, then stood up.
    “You are finished?” asked the waiter, who had been watching her from the kitchen door, and now gingerly approached her table again.
    “I am finished,” she said. “I would throw the lamb into the Nile, but why kill innocent fish?”
    This time the two large men chuckled, but the waiter stared at her uncomprehendingly. She considered going into the kitchen and grabbing a piece of the melon she’d had earlier in the day, but she didn’t relish the thought of having shared it with every insect on the boat, so she simply pushed her chair back and walked out onto the deck.
    The sun was low in the sky, but it wasn’t appreciably cooler. Once night came it would drop a quick thirty degrees or more, but it would stay warm for at least another hour.
    She couldn’t bear the thought of returning to her tiny, airless room, so she walked to the back of the boat. All three chairs were taken, and she received another round of surly glares. Then it occurred to her that she could kill two birds with one stone: get a little breeze and prepare anyone who might be wandering the deck after midnight for the fact that there was nothing unusual about seeing the crazy Englishwoman in one of the lifeboats.
    She went to the less unseaworthy of the lifeboats and made quite a production of slinging a leg over the railing and climbing into it. She made enough noise that all three men seated on the chairs noticed her, and so did a fourth man who was emerging from his cabin.
    Lara lay back on the lifeboat and closed her eyes. She hadn’t planned to sleep, but when she opened them again it was because she had suddenly become quite chilly. She sat up, looked at the brilliant full moon, and estimated from its position that it was close to eleven o’clock.
    She looked out across the Nile, but couldn’t make out anything large enough to be Elephantine Island.
    Oh, well.
She shrugged and stretched.
We’ll be up and traveling all night. At least now I won’t get sleepy. I hope.
    She sat in the lifeboat, adjusting to the cold night breeze, for almost an hour. Then she heard Mason’s voice.
    “Lara,” he whispered. “Are you on deck?”
    “Over here,” she said softly.
    “Over where?”
    “In the lifeboat.”
    Then he was leaning over the rail, looking at her. “Am I late?”
    “No. I was a little early.”
    “Did anyone see you?” he asked.
    “No,” she said. It was easier than explaining it to him.
    He climbed over the rail and into the boat, then began working the pulley that held it in place. A moment later the boat touched down gently in the Nile, and he cut the ropes loose.
    He began rowing, then looked back at the
Amenhotep
.
    “Oh, crap!” he muttered.
    Lara turned to see what had distressed him. It was the waiter from the restaurant, staring curiously at them.
    “The disadvantages of a full moon,” said Lara.
    “I suppose we could go into a romantic clinch and make him think we just wanted to be alone,” suggested Mason.
    “We have our cabins if we wanted a tryst,” she said. “You keep rowing. I’ll take care of this.”
    She pulled out a pistol and pointed it at the waiter. With her other hand, she held a forefinger to her lips.
    He understood immediately, and mimicked her gesture, then placed his hand to his heart to show his sincerity.
    “That’s it?” asked Mason dubiously. “Can you trust the little bugger?”
    “For ten or fifteen minutes,” answered Lara. “Until he knows