Rahotep threw himself on a tangle of fighting men, his hands slipped on flesh that had been thickly oiled. Then they met hairy skin, an animal's pointed ear! Pharaoh was fighting for his life against some monstrosity that mounted a beast's head on a human body!
The captain struck out with his fists, blindly, with all the strength he could muster. Something grunted as a light flared in the doorway. The monster wriggled toward the corner. Rahotep took a step forward in pursuit and came down on one knee as his foot caught under a second body. He groped and his fingers closed about metal.
As the smoking radiance of a torch was swung under the bed canopy, all the crowding guard could see clearly. Rahotep knelt by Sekenenre. The Pharaoh was moaning faintly and in his upper breast a dagger had been thrust, a dagger whose hilt was now in Rahotep's hold. Save for those who had just entered, the room was empty. To these witnesses he was an assassin caught in the act!
No more exciting time could have been chosen as a setting for a thrilling novel than the beginning of Egypt's fight for freedom against the hated Hyksos invaders about 1590 B. C. Two young princes were the mighty heroes of the day, aided by the shadow hawk of this story—who spurred them on and fought magnificently himself at the head of his tiny group of Nubian archers.
This tale will be enjoyed not only for the vivid background but for the organization of the army, the raids and forays, the taming of the war lion, and the dramatic siege of Neferusi . . . This is an intensely masculine Egyptian historical novel. . ." — New York Herald-Tribune
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