It stood as tall as Nassor. From the flare of the hood behind its head, it was plainly meant to be a cobra. But this cobra had three eyes: two carved out of limestone and a third that rested atop its skull. This last one reflected the firelight, glowing bloodred. It was a fist-sized gem cut into the shape of an oval orb.

Nassor approached in disbelief.

A harsh voice stopped him. It came from the tunnel on the far side of the cavern. The speaker remained hidden in the shadows. Only his words scratched out of the darkness.

“You know what it is …”

Nassor recognized that voice. It had summoned him to this secret meeting. The voice came from the man who had bought Nassor’s silence by paying for his dying wife’s medical treatment. The money had saved her life. Nassor had never regretted the pact he had made.

Not until this moment.

Since the beginning, Nassor had been certain that what the man had sought was pure myth, an object out of dark legend. What harm was there in letting the man dig in a place no one valued, to hunt for an artifact that few believed was real? He never thought the Bledsworth corporation would succeed in finding it.

“You recognize the eye …”

Nassor did. It matched the description in the ancient Book of Thoth. He named the gem. “The Eye of Ra.”

“Bring it to me …”

An arm extended out of the tunnel’s shadows. An iron gauntlet hid the hand. Fingers creaked open.

Unable to refuse, Nassor stumbled to the statue. He reached toward the bright eye. As his fingers hovered over the gem, the small hairs on his knuckles stood on end. He froze, sensing a strange power emanating from the stone. His heart thundered in his ears, but he still heard the order repeated.

“Bring it to me …”

With a great effort of will, Nassor closed his hands over the gem. A shock jolted up his arm, but he quickly dislodged the gem out of the eye socket. He stumbled back and stared down at what he held.

The gem was twice the size of his fist. The firelight flowed over its polished surface, bringing out a thousand shades. Nassor had studied enough geology to recognize a fiery ruby, a gem rare for this region and priceless at this size. It was perfect, except for a single blemish along one side. He ran his thumb over the elliptical vein of black obsidian that coursed over one surface of the stone.

It made the gem look like an eye.

Nassor glanced up at the statue.

A serpent’s eye.

Behind the ancient sculpture, the man who hired him flowed out of the tunnel. Shadows cloaked and swirled around his shape, hiding his features.

Shocked, Nassor took a step back. Despite his terror, one certainty crystallized in the curator’s mind. If even half the stories about the Eye of Ra were true, he could not let anyone possess the gem, especially this shadowy man.