The Track Across the Desert

<p>Kay a young man has moved from the city to work in a regional centre. He lives in the countryside in what was an abandoned 1950s house with a dog called Trail and indulges his interest in an image of an Egyptian Princess from the Amarna period.</p><p>He creates a shrine to her on his fireplace mantle and by his observations to it Kay accidentally invites communication on with the Princess' world of Egypt in 1350 BCE.</p><p>Time around Kay becomes unstable and he finds himself waking in a forest near his house with an enigmatic memory of a desert landscape across which winds a track that leads to the City of Akhetaten where the Princess lives.</p><p>In spite of this re-occurring dream he falls in love with a waitress. He tricks himself into thinking he can walk to the princess' city and return to love the waitress but his solution on to reconcile his dream with reality proves glib.</p><p>Arriving in the city we find he is expected called there perhaps by the sorcery of a 9 year old black princess of Kush and the Egyptian an queen; however their sorcery appears to have its own inherent instability.</p><p>Except for the authority of the sun all parties involved in Kay's adventure are misaligned and they struggle to fulfil their original intentions.</p><p>After initially being arrested Kay is given a tour of the city and encounters several notable people; the rebellious Princess of Kush the humane Master of the Road the outsider Chief of Police Mahu and the haunted General Ramose.</p><p>He meets the princess of the shrine and her sisters and in the Mansion of the Aten he experiences the sun-god.</p><p>Because Kay is dreaming he cannot sleep and grows weaker until a social catastrophe forces him to flee. Now he must discover what there is at the other end of the track across the desert.</p>