He thought back to the white walls of Lahun when he had met the lone desert wanderer begging for bread to fill his empty stomach. Wrapped in black robes with a scarf tied around his head, he had a face as wind-blasted and sun-burned as the wastes through which those habiru travelled. In exchange for a dry crust, he’d told Hui of the Ka Stone and the attack on his caravan. Hui’s eyes had lit up when he heard the potential in the story. It could be nothing, of course. Those tribes of wanderers loved their tales. But if true, the gods had presented him with a chance to seize something greater than he had ever known, for himself, for his father and family, for Lahun.

He didn’t dare speak of it widely. His father, Khawy, would have banished him to his room - the dangers were too great. The bandits had left trails of blood across all Egypt. Yet he imagined the Shrikes’ camp in the hills, swelled by captured girls to be sold into slavery and vast tents filled with unimaginable booty from their raids along the Nile’s fringe south of Dahshur. The bandits would no doubt be drunk, celebrating their great success and basking in the certainty that they were the ones who would be blessed by the gods. Drunk and sleeping it off and too stupefied to notice little rats scurrying among their tents to relieve them of their great prize.

Hui leapt from his rock. ‘Nothing great was ever gained by timid hearts. But if you wish to turn back, I cannot stand in your way.’

Kyky looked down the hillside to the empty wastes. ‘Alone?’

‘Or you could follow me towards a great destiny. Think: a gift from the gods themselves. What eminence would be heaped upon the man who brought that back to Lahun. Why even the pharaoh himself would shine his magnificence upon such a hero. Or heroes.’

Kyky bowed his head, undecided. ‘I am content with my lot. Hero sounds like a dangerous title. No, tell me once more what we stand to gain by risking our necks? Something I can hold in my hands.’

‘Riches beyond your wildest imaginings. Something so blessed, so rare, will be coveted by great and powerful men everywhere. They will pay anything to possess it. That is why the desert wanderers first took it. That is why the Shrikes stole it from them. Seize this moment, Kyky, and we will be the wealthiest most honourable men in all Lahun. You will never want for anything again. There is no prize more valuable in all the world.’