About Betharaba

Betharaba means House in the Desert, and the name has become literal. Arid, waterless, and without a single major river, it is a land of armadillo lizards, owls and sand cats, where the only permanent shelter is Lalibella, eleven churches carved underground with a twelfth said to be hidden. Its people were a warrior nation once, raised on the motto that Benjamin is a wolf that raveneth, trained to shoot and fight left-handed so their enemies could never find their footing.

Then Cape Guard refused to trade, and the King of Morass brought his fury. Six hundred people remain. Benjamin and his wife Emine raise ten sons among the ruins, teaching them to fight behind their father's back while he tries to keep them out of war. Some say a warrior named Alexander guards the border. Some say he is a myth. Betharaba follows El Shaddai and waits, remembering, for the morning when the wolf devours the prey again.