The Sunbird

In Elizabeth Wein's third entry in her post-Arthurian saga, The Sunbird, young Telemakos, skilled in stealth and subterfuge, is enlisted by the emperor to travel to neighboring Adulis. As the author profiles the lives of sixth-century Ethiopian royalty and their interactions with their British colonials, plague spreads across the land, which has led to quarantines. But someone in Adulis is defying the blockade in order to establish a black market to trade salt.