THE BOY,SEKHEMAR, stood in the small gan:len, Sandaled feet planted apart, sword clutched in his sweaty right hand, a shield of hammered brass over his left ann. His heart pounded, every sense alert, his eyes studying the dark comers behind the shrubberies and trees. He sniffed the air,smelled the night-blooming desert flowers. It seemed peaceful and serene, but he knewattack would come.

He heard a slight rustling in the high, decorative grass behind his right shoulder but gave no sign. He struggled to keep his breathing slow and even, but his body tensed, like a trap, waiting for the right sound to put him in motion.

...

It has been six years since Anok Wati, young warrior of the streets, witnessed his father's murder. Orphaned, forced to run and hide from his father's unknown killers, even to forsake his birth name, he has made a new life in the Stygian slums. Anok and his friends, the Ravens, have gained a repu- tation for courage and honor in a land of lies and treachery.

Now, Anok strikes a pact with an ancient and forbidden god who gives him a seemingly impossible task: To unravel the mysteries of the past and avenge his father's death, Anok must join the sinister cult of the snake-god Set and destroy them from within...