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Seti's Heart
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Seti's Heart
by Kiernan Kelly
Torquere Press
Copyright ©2007 by Kiernan Kelly
First published in www.torquerepress.com, 2008
NOTICE: This eBook is licensed to the original purchaser
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Seti's Heart
by Kiernan Kelly
Prologue
5,000 years ago
Nile Valley, Egypt
Camp of the Children of Setekh
Blowing in fiercely across the dunes, the storm whipped
the sand into a maelstrom of biting particles that could flay
flesh from bone. Within moments, it could fill a man's lungs
with sand, drowning him with the blood of the desert. In the
animal skin tents of King Seti's tribe, his people cowered and
quailed before the power of the sandstorm.
Seti alone stood against the onslaught, feet braced apart,
chin held high. In the face of the storm's fury he was
immoveable, as solid and unyielding as stone. Bare-chested,
his only garment was a short linen loincloth. He stood with his
head thrown back, his warrior braids whipping about his
head: long, black, beaded scourges that flailed his face and
sun-bronzed shoulders. Arms spread wide, he welcomed the
wind, embracing its stinging wrath as one would embrace a
son.
In a way, the tempest was Seti's child—he had nothing to
fear from it. He had created it; it was he who had called the
demon from its lair and unleashed it upon the land. The storm
was Seti's shield, keeping him and his hidden from the eyes
of his enemy. It was also his fist, his spear, and he wielded it
without mercy, striking down all who dared defy him.
This time Seti's enemies had gone too far. Bidden by their
god, they had stolen Seti's heart from him, had ripped it away
and fed it, still beating and warm, to the jackals.
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Seti's Heart
by Kiernan Kelly
For that crime they would pay with their lives.
Ashai had been more than a lover, more than another
pretty face in Seti's harem. He had been Seti's favorite, the
only one capable of easing the tension from Seti's body and
the worry from his mind with a single caress. Ashai's unusual,
light-colored eyes, the color of an oasis, had twinkled with
good humor even on the darkest of days. His smile and his
arms had always been warm and inviting.
Seti had loved him above all others. For Ashai, Seti would
have moved mountains, drained oceans. It was for Ashai that
Seti had led his people across the dunes, seeking greener
lands. Ashai had wished to settle, to build, to see their people
grow fat and happy along the rich, fertile banks of the Nile;
he grew weary of their nomadic life. In addition to wanting to
grant Ashai his wish, Seti had found that the land along the
great river to be rich in resources that would assure his
camp's growth.
Each year it flooded, the waters nursing the earth. When
the waters receded, the land was left ripe for planting. The
wealth reaped from the river's bounty would assure Seti of a
vast kingdom. He had led their people to this place, near
where the wind rippled the waters of the great river.
But Seti's people were not the only ones to covet the
fertile land. There were others, but they were of no more
importance to Seti than the gnats that worried his beasts of
burden. He had marched through their camps, leaving behind
little but footprints in the sand. The dead were discarded; the
living assimilated into Seti's camp. His numbers swelled.
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Seti's Heart
by Kiernan Kelly
Within Seti's own tribe there were those who were jealous
of his riches, of his power. Seti's priests, grown envious and
greedy, tired of Seti's rule. Wishing to make a weaker man
king, one who they could manipulate, they sought out Seti's
enemies and made a pact with them.
Together, they called upon Setekh, the god who had
bestowed upon Seti's family their power; they lied and
convinced Setekh that Seti had dishonored him by giving
Ashai honors due only to the gods.
One night, when darkness had settled over Seti's camp like
a thick, suffocating shawl, as Seti sat with his advisors
readying for war, his enemies had stolen in and taken Ashai
from him. Almost before Seti knew he was gone, Ashai's head
was returned to Seti minus his beautiful green eyes, the
name of the god Setekh carved into his forehead.
Seti's priests told him that the warning had been clear:
Seti should seek to please no one but the gods; the land of
the Nile was not to be his. Give over to his enemies, or be
destroyed.
A King of his people, Seti was a warrior to be reckoned
with, but more, he was a sorcerer. In his veins flowed an
ancient magic, gifted to his bloodline in the time before time,
before the gods had wiped the dust of the earth from their
feet. A gift bestowed upon Seti's family by the very god for
whom he was named, as was his father, and his father's
father before him back through the mists of time.
That Setekh, the god to whom Seti owed his powers and
who he and his ancestors had worshiped and burned offerings
to was the same god who had demanded Ashai's blood as
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