Princess Kandake, youngest child of King Amani and heir to the throne of Nubia, has determined to continue her warrior training, but that is not the only thing that complicates her 14 year old life. When the king receives a dispatch from Pharaoh Nakhtnebef of Egypt, Kandake is sent to find out why the pharaoh would need Nubia's warriors to remain in Egypt any longer and why he has included a secret symbol within his message-help. In Egypt, Kandake discovers treachery and a poisoned pharaoh, the identity of the bandits that attacked Nubia's caravans, a Nubian orphan, and that Kandake may be Sakhmet-the Egyptian goddess of war.