the Setnakhts.
Were that all they had done, Pyotr would have set
them free. He would have pitied them for their choices
and sent them off to make their own way in the world.
What sealed their fates was their alliance with each
other, their agreement to share knowledge among themselves and to use it to create an offshoot sect, a group
that wanted to steal all that the Setnakhts had worked so
hard to build. Their actions were tantamount to treason.
That, he could never allow.
A lifetime of planning and dedication had brought
him to the brink of success. He had come to the fold
as a mere child, angry, aggressive, a poster boy for the
rebellious teenage years. His mentor, Abasi Abubakar,
had trained him, nurtured him and in the end entrusted
him with the vision he had created.
The earliest foundations, the sacrifice of one of
Aset’s Daughters, had been before Pyotr’s time. But in
the past eleven years, since he had donned the mantle
EVE SILVER
107
of power, Pyotr had lived up to the sacred trust he had
sworn to carry on the great leader’s work.
High Reverend Abubakar was more to Pyotr than
father or mother or lover or friend. He had been a visionary, totally dedicated to his cause, to the eradication of famine and war and hatred. He saw the way to
end such pain: by calling forth from the Underworld
the most powerful deity, to rule with a wise and fair
hand. Who better to leash chaos than the Lord of
Chaos? He had sacrificed his very life to plead his case
before Sutekh. His dedication was a thing of glory,
and in the intervening years, Pyotr’s admiration for his
