When Gods Grow Old (The Archives of Kadesh)

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At the opening, Ramesses II, the Great, is an ancient man around 90. He is a god. His life companion the Nubian Warrior Asha waits to carry out a certain promise, his Word of Words. A beautiful new queen, a mere child, awaits presentation to the old Pharaoh, and plots thicken. We are then swept back through time to the point when Ramesses is an infant, the son of Seti I, whose father in turn has been chosen by the barren warrior Pharaoh Horemhab to found a dynasty. We also follow the rise of Paser the Superior Scribe, an infamous ‘eater of boys’, in the service of many Pharaohs as he murders his way towards the post of Vizier. Meanwhile as Ramesses grows to youth he captures a Nubian prince , son of the great Gafralla warrior Gafa who has held Egypt at bay for a decade. Unaware that Ramesses is the son of the very man responsible for the death of his father Asha gives his Word of Word to kill the Pharaoh and his son, but has already given his Word of Word to be the companion of this Egyptian who has captured him.

For the Gafralla to fail to keep their Word of Words means suicide. A dilemma. Even so, Asha becomes the protector and friend of Ramesses and develops a hatred for the ‘creature’ of Paser, a handsome psychopath named Matu. Both rise in power. The book is a series of events linked with introductory writings from the time of Asha’s old age, via the hand of his favourite scribe, the remarkable Sethos, who himself is the son of Ramesses in his late 70s and so resembles Ramesses when young that Asha takes him into his life as a virtual son, certainly a protégé.

I have attempted to capture, to recreate, to explore the way it was at the very top of society where the link with living gods and the pantheon of Ancient Egypt’s swarm of deity dwelt. The gap between the mighty and the masses was enormous; the sensuality and cruelty without limit. Yet that society existed for more than 4,000 years… and was already just ticking over 6,000 years ago.