Tarek was a eunuch bodyguard of Princess Amenirdis from the mythical island of Kerma. After Prince Shabako disappeared while searching for his father, Pharaoh Taharka, Tarek joined the princess in her expedition to the old city of Kerma in Africa, where she intended to offer sacrifices to the god Apedemak so that her brother returns home safely. But the whole expedition was captured by slave hunters, and Tarek was sold as a slave on a farm near the British port of Calabar.