"Yes, there is only a hairbreadth difference between truth and falsehood. Do you know the secret? The first Osiris has been, the second is to come; this man is but a shadow cast by Him; this one has spoken but the One to come will act."
"What will He do?"
"Destroy the world."
"Or perhaps the world will perish for His sake and be happy in doing so?"
"And will you be happy, too?"
"Perhaps I, also."
"Do you love Him, then?"
"I do. How can one help loving Him? He is more beautiful than all the sons of man. The devil knew well how to tempt man. I love His shadow, too, King Akhnaton; I love and hate him at the same time. And he knows it—he knows I want to kill him...."
Without speaking Ptamose took a ring off his finger and put it on Merira's.
King Tutmose the Third, King Akhnaton's great-great-grandfather, gave this ring to Hatuseneb, the high priest of Amon. A tiny cup of poison was concealed under the fiery yellow carbuncle—'Amon's eye.' On his deathbed the king commanded that if any king of Egypt were false to Amon he was to be killed with that poison.