It struck near the tail of the raptor, shooting a blast of fire.

The monster screeched, bolting straight up in the air. The cloak ripped out of the raptor’s jaws, and the hunter was flung away. The beast landed, neck stretched low, hissing in fury. Its tail smoked. Flames still flickered up from the sand.

The raptor looked around—then backed away a step, then another. It must have realized it had been abandoned by its pack. Hurt and spooked, it flung its muscular tail, swung around, and raced across the sand. Reaching the top of the dune, it bounded over the ridge and vanished.

Jake turned to the hunter, who was still dazed from hitting the sand so hard. He crossed to help the guy up, but the hunter sprang to his feet on his own.

“You fool!” he shouted.

Jake stopped in his tracks, shocked. The words felt like a slap in the face. He stared over at those goggled eyes.

“How dare you interrupt a royal hunt?”

Royal hunt?

Jake bristled at the hunter’s attitude. He had just saved this guy’s life. A sharp edge entered his voice. “I was only trying to—”

“Silence! Who gave you permission to speak?”

About this time, the other hunters returned. They flowed over the ridge and surrounded Jake. Several dropped to a knee, facing the small hunter. They bowed their foreheads to their fists. The posture was vaguely familiar to Jake, but his brain was too frazzled.

The small hunter raised an arm to encompass half of the party. “Run down this one’s companions. Shackle them.”

“But we didn’t do anything!” Jake blurted out.

The hunter took a pose of amused disdain. He eyed Jake up and down. “From your strange appearance and garb, you are all clearly escaped slaves from some outlying village. So perhaps this hunt has not been a total waste after all. Your lives now belong to me.”

Jake took a threatening step forward, but a pair of spears crossed before him, blocking him.

“Put him in shackles! The rest of the hunt is ruined for the day.”

Jake was driven to his knees.

The leader reached up and tore off his leather hood and goggles, revealing his face for the first time. Black hair came tumbling down. Violet eyes stared haughtily down at Jake. Lips smirked at his surprise. The leader was much younger than Jake had thought. No older than Jake himself. But that wasn’t the biggest shock.

“You’re … you’re a girl!”

Under straight bangs, her eyes were elaborately painted. Blue and crimson lines—possibly tattoos—extended from the outer corner of each eye to her hairline. Jake had seen paintings of such facial decorations.

On the walls of Egyptian tombs.

“I am more than a girl,” she said. “I am the daughter of the Glory of Ra, he who walks the world like a giant: the pharaoh Neferhotep, the glorious ruler of all of Deshret.”

A grandiose wave of her arm encompassed the entire world, along with the sun, moon, and stars. And she clearly believed it.