The Amulet of Power Read Online Free PDF

moment.
    “All right,” said Mason. “After Omdurman, the Mahdi called a sixty-day halt to his war on the unbelievers while he went into the desert alone to commune with Allah and plan his next move—and Gordon used that time to hide the Amulet.”
    “I don’t remember hearing or reading that Gordon ever returned to Egypt after he was sent to stop the Mahdi,” protested Lara.
    “He didn’t,” answered Mason. “But he sent his most trusted aide, Colonel J. D. H. Stewart, to Egypt. Stewart spent only a single day there before returning to Khartoum.”
    “How do you know that?”
    “He was seen out of uniform in Edfu, entering the Temple of Horus, by a local journalist.”
    “If you know it, why didn’t the Mahdi know it—and if he knew it, why didn’t he come after the Amulet?”
    “The newsman never published what he saw,” explained Mason. “He was British, and since he didn’t know why Stewart was there, he didn’t want to endanger his mission by publicizing it—but his diary turned up a few months ago, and he described the incident in some detail.”
    “So that’s the real reason you were there,” said Lara.
    “Yes,” said Mason. “And that’s what I assumed you were hunting for, too.”
    “You were mistaken. I had bigger fish to fry.”
And an evil god to capture.
    “There are no bigger fish.” He frowned. “The problem is that we’ll never convince
them
of it.”
    “Who
are
they?”
    “Fanatical fundamentalists.”
    “There seem to be a lot of them around these days,” commented Lara with a grimace.
    “Not like these,” said Mason. “These are Mahdists—absolute believers in the power of the Mahdi. The Mahdi died only five months after Gordon, and they’ve been waiting for more than a century for someone to pick up his mantle and lead them in a
jihad
against the infidels.”
    “I should think they’ve had their choice of leaders over the years,” said Lara.
    Mason shook his head. “They know that the true successor to the Mahdi will possess the Amulet of Mareish—and the Mahdists believe in the power of the Amulet. ‘Belief’ is almost too weak a word. They worship it like a god. They think that if they can just gain possession of it, it will somehow call forth a new Mahdi, an indestructible man who can purify the world by slaughtering every last infidel.”
    “And they’re what’s been chasing us?”
    He nodded. “That’s right.”
    “Well, then they should know I don’t have it! I mean, I’m obviously not invulnerable. So why do they keep attacking?”
    “It’s not that simple, Lara.”
    “Somehow it never is.”
    “The Mahdists believe that for the Amulet to function at its most powerful—at full throttle, if you will—the possessor must believe in it totally. If you are a Jew, or a Christian, or even a traditional Moslem, you believe in other things, in God or Jesus or Mohammed, and to the extent that you believe in them, the power of the Amulet is weakened and you
can
be killed. That’s why Gordon couldn’t use it to defeat the Mahdi. He must have been tempted—after all, it would have worked to
some
extent—but he knew it was ultimately evil, and he was devout enough to turn his back on it and hide it where no one could use it.”
    She considered what she had heard for a moment, then looked directly at him. “Do you believe in it?”
    “I believe it exists. I believe that the Mahdi accomplished things that seem almost like magic. And I believe he was never the same after he lost possession of it.”
    “Why should you say that?” asked Lara curiously. “He took Khartoum and killed Gordon, didn’t he?”
    “Yes, he killed Gordon and overran Khartoum—but he outnumbered Gordon’s forces twenty-to-one, and even so, Gordon held him at bay for almost half a year. And don’t forget—he himself died just months after defeating Gordon.” He sighed wearily. “So maybe there’s something to it. But what I believe doesn’t matter. What matters is