Beneath the Sunstone

Previously

…Down by the workers' village, where the mudbrick homes huddled close like frightened sheep, the signs were more dire. The familiar scent of dung fires and baking bread was being replaced by the sharp tang of fear and the insistent lapping of water against the lowest walls. Khety’s own home, a sturdy dwelling he’d built with his own hands, stood perilously close to the encroaching tide. He’d left Nefertari that morning with a kiss