The Bekhen Road

The Bekhen Road is historical fiction set in late Naqada III Upper Egypt, roughly the thirty-third century BCE-centuries before Dynasty 1 unification and long before the Old Kingdom pyramids. In this time, where the green Nile meets the Eastern Desert, greywacke from Wadi Hammamat builds the maceheads and palettes of emerging power. Chief Ka proclaims a divinely ordained expedition to quarry stone for a massive offering to Min. A desert wind deposits foreign resin at the god's colossal feet; Ka calls it covenant. Five lives in Coptos will pay the price of proving him right-or reshaping what the stone actually means.Meryt, junior temple attendant, reads the omen. Ipu, master stoneworker betrothed to her, volunteers when his brother Nekhu is conscripted as a porter. Seneb, carver of early symbols, sees a chance to shape the language of kingship. Djut, caravan provisioner, trades for secrets that may save or ruin them all.Into Wadi Hammamat they march: copper on stone, sledges creaking, water rationed from the first day. Rivalries sharpen. A dust storm traps the quarry. The main supply fouls. And the macehead forming beneath Seneb's graver shifts from one man's dominion toward something wider-Min's fertility joined to Horus's reach.