The Ever-Changing Sands

Al-Hasan ibn Ali al-Razi wanted justice. Instead, he got blood on his hands, a price on his head, and the dying words of an Imam: "The greatest testimony to truth is not victory?it's refusal."

After Al-Hasan's beloved mentor dies in a desert sandstorm, he vows to free his teacher's imprisoned friend?Imam Askari?from the tyrant Atabeg's impregnable fortress. To infiltrate the court, he becomes an accountant, learning to navigate the deadly politics of an oppressive regime. His childhood friend Hasan Mashadi tells him: compromise is wisdom. The advisor to the Atabeg, Abu Hamid whispers: oppression is God's will. And Sirrah?Imam Askari's warrior-philosopher granddaughter?warns him: "Power changes people."

In a court where silence is called peace and compromise is called wisdom, Al-Hasan must decide what he is willing to lose?and what he is willing to become. Justice has a price. The question is who will pay it.

The Ever-Changing Sands is a 31,000-word historical fantasy novella set in an 11th-century Islamic world inspired by Seljuk Persia. It will appeal to readers of Guy Gavriel Kay's The Lions of Al-Rassan (moral complexity, bittersweet romance, lyrical prose) and S.A. Chakraborty's The City of Brass (Islamic setting, political intrigue, magic rooted in theology). The novel explores how refusal itself?not victory?can be the highest form of testimony to truth.