The Amulet of Power - Mike Resnick [33]
Lara looked at the canteen, then shrugged and slung it over her shoulder. “Six hours. That’s not too long to go without a drink.”
“I warned you before,” cautioned Omar. “You may become ill from the water.”
“You informed me of the alternative,” said Lara distastefully. “Let’s let the camels keep the water they’ve already drunk.”
Omar laughed. “That was done only in situations of the greatest desperation. Our situation may be desperate, but thankfully not in that way. We are being hunted by enemies. If they catch or confront us, we have rifles and pistols and can return their fire. Who do you shoot at when you are lost in the desert and there is no water?”
“Point taken,” admitted Lara. “Tell me about the Mahdists.”
“What do you wish to know?”
“The Mahdi’s grandson, whose name eludes me. . . .” began Lara.
“Sadiq al Mahdi,” provided Omar promptly.
“Sadiq al Mahdi,” she repeated. “He was elected as the Sudan’s prime minister back in the 1960s, wasn’t he?”
“In 1965,” said Omar. “But his government fell in 1967.”
“But then he came back again, didn’t he?”
“He was elected in 1986,” answered Omar. “And he was thrown out a second time three years later.”
“Then my question is simply this: Since there’s still a bloodline tracing to the Mahdi, and since one of them was popular enough to be elected not once but twice, why don’t the Mahdists support one of the Mahdi’s descendants to run the country? Why waste all this effort trying to find the Amulet?”
“Sadiq al Mahdi was elected twice because of his bloodline, and he was removed twice because of his performance in office,” answered Omar. “This served to show the Mahdists that merely having the blood of the original Mahdi is not enough. Their hoped-for leader must have the power as well, and that power resides in the Amulet.”
“If they should find it before we do, will they give it to a descendant of the Mahdi?” she asked.
“Whoever possesses it will be the Mahdi,” explained Omar. “The grandson and others took it as a family name, but the original Mahdi was actually named Muhammad Ahmad. The word Mahdi actually means the Expected One; in your culture, it would be the equivalent of the Messiah.”
“I see,” said Lara. “So the Mahdists really have no ties to the current Mahdi clan?”
“No,” answered Omar. “In fact, should the Mahdists come into possession of the Amulet, I think they will probably slaughter all who bear the name as heretics, just as they will kill those of us who do not accept the possessor as the true Mahdi.”
“Then shouldn’t those who carry the Mahdi’s blood be willing to help us?” she asked.
“The descendants of Muhammad Ahmad believe authority over the people and affairs of the Sudan should be theirs by right of birth. They oppose the Mahdists because of the Amulet, but they oppose us because we do not agree that their blood gives them the right to rule us.” Omar smiled. “In this case,” he concluded, “the enemy of my enemy is not my friend.”
“Exactly how many Mahdists are there?”
“Who knows? A hundred thousand, a million, five million. They are spread across all of North Africa, and as far away as Istanbul. Wherever people await the Expected One, there are Mahdists.”
“And how many of your anti-Mahdists are there?”
“There are anti-Mahdists, those who do not want the Amulet found, but we do not call ourselves anti-Mahdists,” said Omar. “In fact, we do not call ourselves anything at all. We number a few thousand at most. We coalesced when we learned of Colonel Stewart’s visit to the Temple of Horus. There simply wasn’t anything to do before that, because no one knew where the Amulet was. Once we knew it still existed, it became our holy mission to find and destroy it.”
“There was nothing in the Temple,” said Lara.
“But the Mahdists don’t know that.”
“That fact has been forcibly impressed upon me,” she said grimly.
“And that is why we must now find it, rather than simply stopping anyone else from finding it,” continued Omar. “Otherwise they will kill you, and