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Sunship
by Maggie Morris Wyllie
The little ship, carved from a slice of carnelian hung from its copper disk.
‘Look I said, that’s the sun, and that’s the ship of a god called Ra. He sails across it every day.’
Beyond the edge of the world A.D. 44
When the gentle young Egyptian slave, Siva, is sent to join his master at the camp of the XX Legion Valeria Victrix, the deadly force leading the invasion of Britain, not only does he find himself thrust into the brutal reality of war but trapped inside the mysterious world of those Rome calls The Painted People.
Bloodcurling tales have gone before him. ‘Is it true they can live beneath water, that they’re really not human but ravens and crows, that their singing has power to waken the dead?’
It’s only memories of his early life serving the priests of the temple of Amun Ra, where he learned the secrets of the cosmos and how to map the stars, that might have the power to save him…along with his sacred sunship.
Published by Leporello Books on 2025-03-21
More books from Maggie Morris Wyllie
Maggie Morris Wyllie is an art historian whose love of Renaissance Italy tempted her to write her first novel, The Secret of Villa Favoni.
Her grandfather was an antiques dealer, which meant that as she grew up, many beautiful and interesting objects passed through her family’s tiny flat in Glasgow. It was her fascination for these treasures that led her into the world of art history.
She admits to being a rather boring child. Her most exciting memory of those early years is having her library books marked with a stamp...and starting to read them on her way home. All this changed when she finished school and stepped on a train to Milan.
There was no turning back, the magic had struck. After Art school and University she worked in Italy, first as an art historian in Florence, Venice and Rome and then with The British Council in major museums throughout Europe.
After two decades living and working abroad, she and her husband are now back in London… a city they adore... but they do return to Scotland to visit their families, walk along the beach at Crammond, and go to the odd rugby match.
