The Covenant of Kadesh
Flanked, burning, and cut off on the Orontes, Ramesses II has minutes to live when the goddess Bastet offers eighteen supernatural cats to save his army — for an oath he must swear before the next spear lands.
At Kadesh, 1274 BC, the Hittite king Muwatalli springs his trap and Ramesses II's personal guard is pinned between the river and a closing chariot line. As fire eats the last escape lane, Bastet manifests to buy him seconds, not safety, and names her price: eighteen cats bound to Earth's listening towers, kept together, kept secret, forever. Femi and Babu — already at the pharaoh's side, more than they seem — push him to swear before the offer, and the chance, burns away. The cats arrive raw into the middle of the battle, their powers turning the field even as they draw the Hittite reserve down on the light. A chariot-drill war-chant becomes the only way to reform the broken Egyptian line in time to meet the charge — and as the smoke clears on Ramesses holding the field, a shape that isn't Hittite watches the oath sworn from the burning reeds.