Scarab - Smenkhkare — Max Overton

An archaeological dig in Syria has revealed the presence of the tomb of a royal princess - Beketaten, also known as Scarab. The narrative on its walls reveals hitherto unknown events surrounding the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten and his successors.

In the second book of the Amarnan kings, Scarab's brother Smenkhkare has been made co-regent but the Vizier Ay, his uncle, finds he cannot bend the young king to his will and sets in motion a plan to destroy him.

Egypt is plunged into civil war with an ineffective king still in his City of the Sun, another king on the run, and Vizier Ay's fist of bronze on the throat of the kingdom.

Scarab, believing her brother dead, goes into hiding with her mother's people the Khabiru until word reaches her that Smenkhkare is marching on Thebes to reclaim his kingdom.