River god

Taita is a eunuch slave of exceptional talent in the household of Lord Intef, a powerful and corrupt nobleman of Ancient Egypt. He serves Intef's daughter Lostris and loves her in secret. She loves the soldier Tanus, a match her father would never allow.

Tanus is sentenced to death after speaking too bluntly to Pharaoh. He is spared on one condition: he must end the threat of bandits across Egypt within two years. The hunt leads to a discovery that Lord Intef himself leads the bandits.

Lostris is then married to Pharaoh. A stolen night with Tanus leaves her pregnant, and the secret child is raised as Pharaoh's heir. Later the Hyksos invade with horses and chariots, weapons Egypt has no answer to, and Pharaoh is killed.

The surviving nobles flee up the Nile into exile. There Taita, who has watched the invaders fight, sets about rebuilding Egyptian military technology from what he saw used against his people.

This is historical fiction and the first book in Wilbur Smith's Ancient Egypt series. It moves through court intrigue, war and invention, and it carries real losses along the way.