The Parting by David Niall Wilson

Author:David Niall Wilson [Wilson, David Niall]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: SF
ISBN: 9781937530020
Amazon: 1937530027
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 2012-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

The trucks stopped a quarter of a mile from the banks of the Nile. Men scrambled out the backs and crawled over them like ants, attaching cargo netting and camouflage. Within only a few moments, it would have been difficult to separate the vehicles from the sand and scrub surrounding them from any distance greater than a few hundred yards.

Amunet stood to one side. She watched them for a moment, distracted, and then turned to stare off toward the river. She always felt energized in the desert, and when she was in Egypt, the sensation was even stronger. It was as if the strength of her ancestors reached up to her from the sand and steadied her.

The moon was high and bright, glimmering off the water on the river. They were not at the widest point, but it was far enough that objects on the far side were small, like toys set up for a child's game. Amunet tried to imagine the people on the opposite shore, but it was impossible. Instead, she focused on the water. There would be few crocodiles so close in to Cairo, but she had a vivid memory, and she had known the river for a very long time. It was not without its secrets, and its dangers.

"We are ready," the squad leader said, stepping up beside her.

She turned and saw that he watched her with curiosity, and fear. A few hours earlier, she knew, this man's general had thought the whole mission a joke of some kind, or the plan of a deluded sheikh with more money than sense. She wondered if that other man's skin still burned. This man had not experienced her power, and he could not completely wipe the skepticism from his eyes, but it warred with his fear.

"Keep your men back from the water," she said, striding forward. "You will know when to move. This is larger than anything I have attempted. We may have a limited amount of time to complete the mission. You will have to move quickly."

The man nodded. She felt his eyes on her back as she walked away. He made no move to follow, but must have signaled the others, because they cleared her a path to the water's edge.

Amunet felt the cool metal of the cylinder she wore about her neck press into her flesh. She raised her arms first, and then her eyes, to the moonlit sky. She moved slowly down the shore toward the river. She reached out to the water, sensed it's mass and motion. Then, as she neared the waterline, she closed her eyes, and began to chant.

She had memorized the words, and in some way, they'd become a part of her. The first time she repeated the verse, she drew it from memory, but from that point on, it flowed from her lips, and she drew energy from the words. She didn't open her eyes, but kept walking forward. When she reached the banks of the Nile she continued walking.

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