Lara Croft Tomb Raider The Amulet of Power

PROLOGUE She awoke to a dull throbbing at the base of her skull. She tried to touch it gingerly with her fingers, but found that she couldn't move her left hand. What's happened? she wondered hazily. And then: Why can't I breathe? Her mouth was filled with dust, and some instinct made her turn her head slightly before she inhaled through her nostrils. Where am I? Then, very slowly, it came back to her. She almost wished it hadn't. She was buried in the rubble of a tomb beneath the Temple of Horus in the Egyptian town of Edfu. Something was pinning her left arm to the ground, something bigger than a rock, smaller than a boulder. Were her legs pinned too? She didn't know. She couldn't feel them. She tried to open her eyes to see if there was any light in the tomb. Her left eye opened. It was pitch black. Her right was stuck shut; a tear had mixed with the dust to form a layer of mud that glued her eyelashes together. All right. Don't panic. Can I move my right arm? She tried. It worked. Okay, I can't free the left arm. Is it broken? Do the fingers work? The fingers moved. What am I doing here? Slowly it came back to her. Set, the evil Egyptian god she had inadvertently set free, the battle, and finally his capture. And then, in her moment of triumph, the collapse of the temple. How about the rest of me? Can I roll over, sit up, move one way or another? She tensed, ready to try, and the pain in her skull became so great that she passed out again. She dreamed that she was stuck to a gigantic spider web. The more she tried to pull free, the more she was held motionless. "Is someone there?" Oh my God, she thought, still in her dream, the spider is talking to me! She squirmed, trying to free herself, but she couldn't move her left arm or her legs. "If you're there, call out!" Call out and let the spider know where I am? How foolish does it think I am? "Hang on! I'm almost there!" It's almost here! I've got to get loose! She twisted desperately, but the web held her tight. She heard noises, rocks scraping against rocks, and the air was filled with clouds of dust again. Then a beam of light fell upon her. Her skull began throbbing once more. The fingers of her right hand gathered up a handful of dust. This isn't an ant or a fly you're coming after, spider. This is Lara Croft, and I don't plan to die without a fight! She forced her left eye open, and saw a hand reaching for her. It was puzzling. She could have sworn spiders didn't have hands. It had to be a trick, a way to get her to trust it. She waited until the spider's hand was inches away, then threw the dust where she knew its eyes would be. "Damn it!" snapped the spider in perfect English. "What did you do that for?" She tried to rasp out the words, "Get away from me or I'll kill you!" but her mouth was still filled with dust, and she could only cough weakly. Two hands began moving the rubble off her. That's very strange behavior for a spider. Suddenly the spider's face was very near her own. It looked exactly like a human being, a rather handsome one at that. "You're safe now," it said as it began lifting her up. She was trying to remember whether spiders could lie when she passed out again. PART I EGYPT This time she was able to open both eyes, and was almost blinded by the brilliant whiteness of her surroundings. She wondered if her left arm was worResnick, Mike is the author of 'Lara Croft Tomb Raider The Amulet of Power' with ISBN 9780345461711 and ISBN 0345461711.