The Amulet of Power - Mike Resnick [97]
“Yes,” said Ibraham weakly.
“Who was he?”
He tried twice to get the words out, and failed. “Praslin,” he finally rasped. “They know you are going to Praslin.”
Then his body jerked spasmodically, and he died.
“Maybe we’d better postpone our trip to Praslin until we can enlist some help,” suggested Oliver.
“No,” said Lara firmly. “I’ve had enough of Mahdists and Silent Ones and things that go bump in the night. Tomorrow we’re going to Praslin after the Amulet of Mareish, and one way or another I’m going to settle matters.”
“Meanwhile, what are we going to do about poor Ibraham?”
“Make sure he didn’t die in vain, that’s what.”
“I mean, about his body. We can’t just leave it lying here. We have to dispose of it somehow.”
“I don’t suppose you brought along a pride of hungry lions?” Lara asked.
“Sorry,” said Malcolm. “I reckon we’ll have to try and sneak him out without anyone seeing us. If the police start asking questions, you’ll never get to the Amulet.”
“Check and see if the coast is clear,” said Lara. “Meanwhile, I’ll get the sheets off my bed to wrap up the body.”
When Lara returned to the room, the bedsheets bundled in her arms, she found Malcolm looking at the empty spot on the floor where the body had been. Now there was only a small pile of sand.
“You didn’t take the body into the bedroom while I was gone, by any chance?” asked Malcolm.
“No,” said Lara. “It was the Amulet. Like I said, it wants to be found. And it looks like it wants me to find it enough to smooth my path a little.”
Malcolm looked pale. “But . . . what do you suppose happened to the body?”
Lara shook her head. “I don’t know, and I don’t want to know.”
“Amen,” said Malcolm.
32
Lara waited until the first rays of sunlight appeared on the horizon before knocking on Oliver’s door. He emerged, totally dressed, a few seconds later, and they walked to the lobby and checked out of the hotel.
They hailed a cab and took it to the waterfront at Victoria, then transferred to the ferry, and two and a half hours later set foot on the smaller island of Praslin.
“It’s everything Gordon said it was,” remarked Lara, looking at the empty white sand beaches, the endless variety of flowering shrubbery and trees, and the palms looming over the beach. “It’s not difficult to see why he thought he’d found Eden.”
“I think it had something to do with the coco de mer,” said Oliver. “I read somewhere that he was sure it was the forbidden fruit, and that the breadfruit tree was actually the biblical Tree of Life.”
“I’ve seen photos of the coco de mer,” replied Lara. “If he really thought it was the forbidden fruit, he must have thought Eve was thirty feet tall. Those things are the size of a basketball, and it would take an enormous set of jaws to bite into them.”
“Well, we’re here, for better or worse,” said Oliver. “What now?”
“Now we stop by the Solare Car Hire and see if the car I reserved is waiting for us.”
“You rented a car?” he asked. “Just to get to the hotel?”
“I may have other uses for it,” said Lara, looking around at the various small buildings for the Solare agency. “Ah, there it is.”
They walked over, and a moment later they were driving down the narrow tarmac road in a late-model Mercedes convertible.
“I don’t even know where we’re going,” remarked Oliver.
“Our hotel.”
“That’s what I meant,” he said. “Which hotel are we staying at?”
“Well, it’s not exactly a hotel,” she replied. “Don’t look so distressed, Malcolm. The Chateau de Feuilles has a five-star rating.”
“I’d have thought you’d be staying at L’Archipel,” said Oliver. “It’s supposed to be the most luxurious hotel in all the Seychelles, and I know you like your luxury.”
“I wish you’d seen some of the places where I slept in the Sudan before you told me how much I liked luxury,” she said with a smile. “Anyway, I chose the Chateau de Feuilles because it consists of one main house with half a dozen rooms and four cottages, all built into a hill. It’s very difficult to get to, and it’s so small that once you’re there it should be even