5,202 years ago, in this 2nd book of the Raising Up Pharaoh epic, the princess and husband flee Ausgrenor as the invaders arrive. Their adopted orphans are deep in the desert with friendly Bedu, protected from the city's king. Pursued by the king's assassins and blocked by an approaching invader horde, the couple must flee into the Desert of Death. At an oasis, evil confronts them, then great good. They discover their destiny and new hope, but are attacked. Mysterious help prevents disaster. As their numbers burgeon, they yearn to go west. Can they move so many gentlefolk across the desert to the western sea? Is the goal worth the risk? Which route is least deadly? Thus continues the six-novel romantic adventure chronicling the origins of the city-states in the Fertile Crescent at the dawn of written history, and the planting of the longest lasting civilization and cultural roots of today's world. The series is written for readers of all ages. The tone is controlled by zooming back to avoid close-ups of violence or sexuality, yet without stripping its intensity. The story unfolds through the viewpoints of the teenagers, the couple, others drawn to them, and their foes. The setting of this second book ranges through the northwestern mountains of what is now called Iran, throughout Iraq from the southwestern desert across the central Tigris and Euphrates valley and down to the delta with the Gulf, and into northeastern Syria. In later books, the setting expands across the Middle East and North Africa. Each book has its own maps. The diverse cast speak a pidgin of proto-Indo-European and proto-Afro-Semitic, which is presented in U.S. English.