Chapter 3 – The Dark Waters

Rameses II, soon to be King, Chosen of Ra, Justice of Ra, stood in the prow of the Beak of Horus, looking northwards into the darkness that had fallen like spilled ink onto the smooth waters of the great river. There was nothing on his mind; he was exercising his considerable powers of mental control to keep it as empty as the still, black surface below him. To know when to do nothing was one of the skills he had learned from his former mentor, now missing somewhere in the nearby hills, with behaviour sadly typical of his advancing years.

The day had been fraught with difficulties. His plans to spend the night in the small port of Faris had been thwarted by a failing rudder that had grown progressively heavier to turn, reducing their normal progress to a series of zig-zags as an…