Page 25 (1/2)

"But first," Set interrupted, pointing at the Chocolate Museu next to Bes, "I can’t stand surprises What’s in there? A gift for me?"

Bes frowned "Sadie wanted a souvenir I brought her Lenin’s head"

Set slapped his thigh with delight "Bes, how evil! There’s hope for you yet"

"Not his real head," Bes said "It’s chocolate"

"Oh…shame Can I have part of your chessboard, then? I si pawns"

"Get out of here, Set!" Bes said

"Well, I could do that, but since our friends are on their way, I thought perhaps we should lobe of red light appeared in front of hies of six men in security uniforhts blazed to life The cars swerved across a parking lot, then passed straight through a stone wall as if it were made of smoke

"I’d say you have about two ht faded "You remember Menshikov’s ain?"

The dwarf god’s face darkened He crushed a white chocolate chess piece in his hand "You lying, sche--"

"Stop!" I said

Carter groaned in his poisoned daze Either he was getting heavier, or I was getting tired of holding hiue," I said "Set, are you offering to stop thethey’ll kill you, you see But I was going to offer you the location of the last scroll in the Book of Ra That is what you’re after, isn’t it?"

I assu He usually was--but if he was serious…

I looked at Bes "Is it possible he knows the location?"

Bes grunted "More than possible The priests of Ra gave hi"

"Why on earth would they do that?"

Set tried to look modest "Come now, Sadie I was a loyal lieutenant of Ra If you were Ra, and you didn’t want to be bothered by any oldto wake you, wouldn’t you trust the key to your location with your most fearsome servant?"

He had a point "Where’s the scroll, then?"

"Not so fast I’ll give you the location if you give me back my secret name"

"Not likely!"

"It’s quite siet the proper way to say it--"

"And then I’ll have no power over you! You’ll kill me!"

"You’d have ht That’s worth a lot What if I used your secret naed "With a few days to research the correct spell, you e that Unfortunately…" He cupped his ear to his hand In the distance, tires squealed--two cars, traveling fast, getting closer "You don’t have a few days"

Bes cursed in Egyptian "Don’t do it, girl He can’t be trusted"

"Can we find the scroll without him?"

"Well…hts of two cars swerved onto the Nevsky Prospekt, roughly half a et Carter away fro the scroll, I couldn’t just let hiive you one last order"

Bes sighed "I can’t bear to watch this Give me your brother I’ll put him in the car"

The dwarf took Carter and stuffed him into the backseat of the Mercedes

I keptto think of the least terrible way to make this deal I couldn’t siical pact needed to be carefully worded, with clear limits and an expiration date, or the whole spell would unravel "Evil Day, you are not to harm the Kane family You’ll maintain a truce with us at least until--until Ra has been awakened"

"Or until you try and fail to awaken him?" Set asked innocently

"If that happens," I said, "the world is going to end So why not? I will do what you ask concerning your nae, you will tell me the location of the last part of the Book of Ra, without trickery or deception Then you’ll depart for the Duat"

Set considered the offer The thite sports cars were only a few blocks away now Bes shut Carter’s door and ran back over