About this story
You open the Labyrinth's treasury to feed Egypt. The priests ring it about you, the water gate is betrayed, and the last arrow is Herhor's. Three epilogues play straight through: the granary god they make of you, Herhor ruling your decrees, a charter taught to children. Fifty chapters carry a reformer king to the Weighing of the Heart, where the scale stands level.
Who you’ll meet
Herhor, the shaven-headed high priest and chief minister who halts an entire Egyptian army from a fan-shaded litter, with the barefoot priest whose open palms stop the chariots and the young staff officer Tutmosis arguing upward from below — the three powers standing between you and the road you were ordered to march.
How it opens
Morning heat hardened the road where your regiments marched toward the desert.
TutmosisPrince Ramses, the advance guard will reach the ravine before noon.
Bronze flashed through dust as infantry, chariots, and supply carts kept formation.
EunanaThe minister's observers are counting every pause we make today.
A commander is measured most accurately by an obstacle he did not choose.
Choose
Send a rider forward and keep the column steady.
Ask Herhor who commanded this interruption.