The solar calendar, year 775, fifteenth day after the passing of King al Haddad.
I watched the sky blush with the colors of dusk as I rapped upon Queen Balqis's suite to tell her that our preparations were complete. From dawn a furtive rumor had run among the palace guard that something momentous would occur before night's end, yet I Shames of the Ray, First Guardian of the Sun and four others of her elite protectors alone knew the truth. We were to slip from Sun Shield City on a covert journey into the desert's heart in search of a temple most men regard as myth.
I lingered at the threshold, one eye on the door and one on the corridor. Within, whispers rustled like moth wings. The door opened gently; for an instant the Queen's gaze met mine, and in it I read deep tension braided with unflinching resolve. Wrapped in a dark cloak that concealed her royal bearing, she glided into the passage and with a silent nod bade me follow. The hour had come.
At the palace's rear gate, we found the others already waiting Zuhayr the Luminous, Liyan the Golden, Zuhayb Shield of Heaven, and Naran the Flame Bearer. Night's veil was settling over the capital; their faces showed eagerness tinged with dread. I whispered, "Are we all prepared?" Zuhayr exhaled a breath that sounded almost like courage. "Prepared, Shames if fate ordains we swallow mirage itself before we find this fabled temple."
Balqis surveyed them, her voice soft yet edged with steel. "We walk into shadows woven of conjecture. None believe Aww am real; I myself doubt its whereabouts. Yet I will not remain captive to hesitation. I would take this road alone if I must."
Zuhayb's eyes flared with adamant faith. "You are not alone, my lady. When the crown of Sheba was set upon your brow we swore to guard you. We will not let your brave seas of sand unaided, though the night itself turn to quicksand." His tone, solid as iron, lent me fresh calm.
I spoke, sealing our intent. "If this Temple of Aww am is your bulwark against the storm of plots, we shall be your shield amid the dunes and trials." A hush fell a meeting of eyes in eyes then the Queen led us beyond the walls with a secrecy unknown to royal processions. Through back alleys and lesser gates kept by trusted sentries we slipped; past the final rampart of the city, we were free of stone but stepped at once into a wilderness no one chooses to lose himself in.
First we mounted our camels north eastward, guided by a tattered chart the late king had left perhaps a thread toward legend's fringe. I rode beside Balqis while Zuhayr lifted a great torch whose flame the night wind fanned and throttled by turns. Now and then we heard Liyan's footfalls as he shifted the scant provisions and water that must suffice us. Naran urged the beasts onward, and Zuhayb swept the horizon, wary of bandits or a sudden sand storm.
As we travelled, I ventured to sound the Queen's thoughts beneath the vast silence. "Majesty, do you truly believe this quest will grant the support you seek? I know you crave a proof to still the tongues at court…" Her answer came, wistful and somber: "All I desire is to find that temple and be certain of my father's word that some covenant predates all Sheba remembers. If it is true, any who dispute my right will face a text older than tribal law. And if it is but legend… I do not know how I shall return, after stirring the capital with tales of my resolve."
I sensed the weight she bore and tried to soothe her. "If we fail to find Aww am it is I who will have failed first, for I swore to keep you safe and would wrestle the deserts if need be." She did not answer at once, yet gratitude, laced with a quiet dread, shone in her eyes.
Part of that first night passed without peril. We halted in a small circle for rest; Naran brewed a pot of hot water with stored herbs to lend warmth against the desert's bitter breath. Liyan laid a friendly hand upon my shoulder. "Why so vigilant, Shames? Are we not five against every danger?" I allowed a small smile. "Since I became First Guardian I have never shed my dread of the unknown most of all when our Queen walks with us in a land whose paths no man knows."
I nodded to Liyan in silent accord; his answering smile was a gentle balm for the company.
Conversation drifted about our small fire, thin threads of speech to ease the darkness. Zuhayr the Luminous retold tales he had gathered from caravanners who claimed to have perished in the desert while chasing Aww am one swore he met a gate that stripped away his soul, another that shifting sands swallowed his entire caravan. Zuhayb Shield of Heaven laughed.
"Were we to credit every legend we'd never set a pace beyond Sun Shield's walls yet perhaps it takes the impossible to witness the truth."
Queen Balqis kept her silence at the camp's edge, clothed in an aura of grief and gravity. None of us dared jest too freely while she bore such weight.
With the dawn of the second day our ordeal steepened. The sun's heat struck harder; the wind cut like shards. Though we wrapped our faces in gauze, the desert's lash found us. Camels stumbled; our tongues cracked for want of water. Zuhayr searched for charted wells, yet the land had altered its face as if to mock us. Liyan broke his quiet.
"Where are we? What guides us?"
Zuhayb, forcing calm, replied, "Hold fast. The desert scourges all alike."
The Queen led our column, pausing to match landmarks to her father's brittle map. Many markings were at odds with what lay before us. By the third or was it the fourth? day we lost all sense of time. The skins sank toward half empty and hope slackened in every eye. Naran sighed, "My lady… I fear we circle the same emptiness."
"Nothing is lost to one whose faith grants him patience," she answered, her resolve veiling long fatigue. "I feel… as though a second sun is drawing me onward."
More days slid by. Liyan moved beside me like a pale wraith; Zuhayr fought dunes that erased our tracks at a breath. One night, under a vault thick with stars, the Queen lifted her eyes and prayed:
"Father al Haddad, send a sign if this path is true."
The desert exhaled a cool breath. Far off I spied a dark mass perhaps a lone escarpment, anything other than monotonous sand. We turned toward it, nursing half formed faith that it might prove our deliverance.
Hours later, through thinning haze, we beheld an enormous frame of black stone inlaid with unreadable glyphs a gate of awe-struck height. I halted, robbed of speech; Balqis advanced, torn between trepidation and longing to touch reality. Zuhayr stared as though numbed, and Liyan whispered, "Impossible… an actual gate!"
I moved to examine the carvings: entwined beasts in mythic combat, radiant solar circles, curling script I could not decipher. A hidden heat breathed from the stone, grazing our skin as if bidding us know its majesty before entry. When I turned back, my limbs grew leaden, as though an unseen hand pressed me down. Zuhayr clutched his temples; Zuhayb stood stone still, wide eyed.
Queen Balqis bent toward the central emblem of the sun, fingertips tracing its superb relief. Something within hauled me toward the ground; breath jammed in my chest and darkness swarmed my sight. A voice distant, dreamlike intoned: "The gate will open… or it will not…" Then, in a last flicker, I glimpsed Balqis lay her palm upon the stone, a burst of light flaring. Perhaps she cried my name "Shames!" or perhaps that, too, was illusion. My limbs abandoned me, and through the thunder of my heart I heard a murmured decree from the bowels of rock:
"Enter only if you are chosen…"
I sank to my knees, battling the spiral of unconsciousness, yet my mind betrayed me; I felt my spirit drift away as though plunging into a bottomless abyss. The last thing my eyes beheld was the Queen's cheek bathed in a wan glow, her gaze alight with indomitable resolve, her lips trembling around some incantation I could not discern. Ah, wretched fate have we arrived, or have we perished midway? Perhaps I shall learn when breath returns to me… if it returns at all.