Lion Head Mesa Earthly scene

“Worried,” her look is firm but her brows fold, “for Toula. And for us,” she confides. How the summer palace might divide their kingdom. How Pharaoh could.

“I like our home. I do not wish for it to change. Though I understand it must.” They were protected here, the Queen, and her fellahin, and Eset had welded herself to its red foundation.

She pushes into a light trot as they descend into the flatlands. “We’re looking for ochre clay,” she tests a little scratch in the ground with her foot before carrying on.