2024/103: The Dragon, the Thief and the Princess — Gillian Bradshaw

2024/103: The Dragon, the Thief and the Princess — Gillian Bradshaw

“I’ll pray to the gods for you, dragon, and ask them to bless you!”
“Stop calling me ‘dragon’ like that, as though I were a dog,” said the dragon. “My name is Hathor. And I don’t believe in your human gods.”
“But you have the name of a goddess,” said Prahotep.
“You mean, she has my name,” replied the dragon. “You humans stole names from us dragons. What’s she goddess of, then?”
“Of love and beauty. It’s very appropriate.” [loc. 467]

First published in two volumes (The Dragon and the Thief and The Land of Gold), this is an historical novel for children set in a fantastical version of ancient Egypt. The 'thief' (though he's not very good at stealing things) is Prahotep, a young fisherman who's nicknamed 'Bad-luck' because that's what he brings; he encounters the dragon, last of her kind, in a cave near the Valley of Queens whilst escaping the gang of quarrying convicts whose overseer he's just injured; we meet Princess Kandaki, who's Nubian, in the second volume.

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