The Sunbird

The third adventure in Wein's Arthurian-Aksumite cycle reintroduces young Telemakos, the white-haired, dark-skinned grandson of both Artos, a British royal, and Kidane, who serves on the emperor's council in sixth-century Aksum (now Ethiopia). Telemakos is called a 'freakish little crossbred snoop' and worse, but the boy's bravery, skill, and resolve never fail to honour his noble heritage. Someone has infected Afar's salt mines with a deadly plague to jack up the market value of salt, and Telemakos' aunt, Britain's ambassador to Aksum, commissions the boy to go to Afar and find the traitor. Travelling through the unforgiving desert disguised as a deaf-mute slave, Telemakos is captured and suffers terrible indignities and cruelty and an unbearable loneliness.