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review—of the man who would make the most famous discovery ever in the Valley of the Kings.

Chapter 15
Amarna
    1345 BC
    THE FIERCE AND BELLICOSE General Horemheb could not believe what he was hearing from this silly, useless pharaoh.
    “We will not be waging war on our neighbors,” Akhenaten decreed, slouching in his throne.
    The general should not have been cowed by the words of the pharaoh, but the intensity with which Akhenaten stared into his
     eyes was unsettling. Some men took power from privilege. Others took it from their position. And still others took it from
     physical prowess. The pharaoh pretended he possessed all three. This gave him a surety that Horemheb found disconcerting to
     say the least.

    Horemheb. This statue is on display at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
    So while Horemheb longed to topple the pharaoh’s misguided government with some great military takeover, he found himself
     listening to this most incredible statement delivered by a freakish weakling, and there was nothing he could do about it.
    “But Pharaoh, if I may, we depend on war for many things: our wealth, our security, our status. This will mean the ruin of
     us. Your father—”
    “I don’t want to hear about my father. My father is in his tomb. His ways and his gods are things of the past. Just as dead
     as he is.”
    “But, sire, we are the most powerful nation in all directions. Certainly we must protect that.”
    Things have changed for the worse since the move to Amarna,
Horemheb wanted to shout.
The country is going soft. The king never even leaves the palace. The great cities of Memphis and Thebes are in decline. We,
     as an Egyptian people, are in rapid decline.
    But he said none of these things. Instead, Horemheb listened to the pharaoh drone on in his stupid, idealistic way.
    “And we will. We will worship Aten, who will protect our borders. But I see no need to wage war. What is so wrong with being
     a peaceful nation?”
    “I believe in peace through strength, sire. We know this works from long experience.”
    “I would expect to hear nothing less from you, General. That is your job.”
    “And what is strength if it is not wielded? May I ask you that?”
    The pharaoh smiled in a most condescending manner. “General, when was the last time you spent a day just dreaming?”
    Horemheb’s jaw nearly dropped off his head. “I beg your pardon?”
    “You heard me. Do you ever write poetry? Do you ever lose yourself in thought? Have you ever completed a painting?”
    “I am a warrior, sire. I am not trained to sit and think; I am trained to do.”
    “Then do
this.
”
    Akhenaten said nothing. Instead, he closed his eyes as if to meditate.
    Horemheb waited until he could wait no longer. “Sire, what is it you would like me to do?”
    “Relax. Take your mind off war. Egypt no longer needs conflict, for we are protected by the great sun god, who will provide
     for all our needs.”
    And lead us to ruin,
Horemheb thought angrily.
    “You are dismissed,” said the pharaoh with a gentle wave of his hand. “Go write a poem.”

Chapter 16
Amarna
    1341 BC
    “TUT. MY POOR TUT. What shall become of you?”
    Nefertiti held her newborn son in her arms and feared for his life. Technically, the child was not her own, for he did not
     spring from her loins. But that idiot husband of hers with the wandering eye was the father, so the child might as well be
     the son of the queen.
    The birth mother’s name was Kiya, and the pharaoh had given the pretty young harlot the title Greatly Beloved Wife, which
     placed her above even Nefertiti in esteem.
    Kiya was—had been—a Mitannian princess named Tadukhepa, sent to Egypt by her father, as a peace treaty between the two nations.
     For three long years Nefertiti had endured the woman’s presence, watching her repeatedly take the queen’s place in the pharaoh’s
     bed. The man whom Nefertiti once loved had become a stranger to her, devoted to his beloved Aten and