Tomb Raider: The Ten Thousand Immortals Read Online Free

eaten powdered mica, had remained a virgin, and carried the healing lotus flower for mental and physical strength.
    Then, Lara looked at the Sami mythology and read about Beaivi, god of sanity. She cringed at the similarities to Himiko. Both were depicted as female, and both were associated with the sun and had female attendants, Beaivi in the form of a daughter. Lara dismissed her immediately.
    She continued to search through the Book, looking for anything that might give her some ideas about how she could help her friend. There must be something, some ritual or potion, some prayer or superstition, some ancient remedy.
    Lara would do anything to help Sam, she would go anywhere. She would pluck a lotus flower from Hé Qióng’s birthplace if it would help.
    Chapter 4
    L ara was back at her friend’s bedside the next day.
    There was a new patient in the old woman’s bed, and a new visitor sitting in the old man’s chair. Lara had taken his example and brought a book to read to Sam. She knew that coma patients could often hear, and it soothed her to read. She had settled on Aesop’s Fables. Between stories, she talked about all the things she and Sam had got up to at school, reminding Sam of the stunts she’d pulled and of the games they’d played together. She felt closer to her friend than ever, and more and more resolved to help her in any way she could.
    When she arrived on the third day, Sam wasn’t in bed 1. The bed had been stripped and was being remade by an auxiliary.
    Lara felt the blood drain from her face, but she was determined that she wasn’t going to panic. She’d left her number. If anything had happened, they were to phone her, any time, day or night. Surely they would have called her.
    Lara turned back to the nurses’ station and forced herself to smile at the young man sitting there.
    “Can you tell me if Samantha Nishimura has been transferred to another ward?” she asked. “She was in bed 1.”
    “Um… I just,” said the young man, hitting some keys on the computer.
    Lara glanced at the badge pinned to his tunic.
    “That’s Nishimura, David,” she said. “N-I-S-H—”
    “Yes, I’ve got it,” he said, smiling up at Lara. “Samantha Nishimura is undergoing tests. She should be returning to the ward soon.”
    “Has there been any change?” asked Lara.
    David pointed towards the doors to the ward as they opened.
    “See for yourself,” he said with another smile.
    Sam was being pushed onto the ward in a wheelchair. She was sitting up, and she was conscious. Lara could hardly believe it. Her friend was still pale, and she looked frail in her hospital gown with a blanket folded over her legs, but she was awake. The respiration tube was gone, and all that remained were two narrow tubes in her nostrils and an IV in one arm.
    “Hey, Sam,” said Lara. She didn’t want to sound too excited, but she could feel herself shaking. Sam looked up at her, her eyes huge, with dark hollows beneath them. She said nothing, and Lara followed the wheelchair to bed 1.
    The nurse gestured Lara away, and the privacy curtain was pulled around the bed as she waited. Moments later, it was pulled back, and Lara was able to sit with her friend.
    “Don’t tire her,” said the nurse as she left.
    “I won’t,” said Lara.
    Mostly, Lara was relieved to see her friend conscious. Sam didn’t seem to want to talk, so Lara did most of the talking, and then she read to her for a while.
    “Just tell me you’re going to be OK, Sam,” she said after she’d finished reading one of the stories in the book she’d brought.
    Sam looked at her for a long moment, and then said, “Why do you call me that? Who is Sam?”
    “It doesn’t matter,” said Lara. “Relax. Would you like me to read some more?”
    “No,” said Sam, and she turned her head away, so that Lara could no longer see her friend’s face.
    Lara reached out to touch Sam’s hand, but Sam pulled it away.
    Lara had been at the hospital for an