The king uncovered his face and looked at Dio. His face was as still as the sleeping desert and the starry heavens above. But Dio shuddered: she recalled the Sphinx with the face of Akhnaton; if a man had been tortured for a thousand years in hell and then came to earth again, he would have such a face.
"Dio, my sister, my beloved, why did you come to me, why did you love me?" he said, wringing his hands. "It was easier for me without you: I did not know myself then, did not see myself. For the first time I saw myself in you and was terrified: who am I? who am I? Go away, I beg you! Why should you be tortured with me?"
"No, my brother, I shall never go away from you, I want to suffer with you!"
"You have escaped one fire and now you seek another?"
"Yes, I want to perish in your fire!"
PART THREE
I AM NOT HE
I
The days of the floods were approaching.