Chapter Two

‘Well! Tell me about this Queen of Sheba and her country,’ Solomon demanded of the envoy who had just returned from the South. Akil proceeded to give Solomon a detailed description of what he had seen in Sheba. As usual it was difficult to follow a line of thought when giving a report to the King because he constantly interrupted. Akil was well aware that he owed his status in the community to the patronage of the King, so he suffered it silently. Not only that, he was also aware that it was not a good idea to upset Solomon because he was not averse to ‘dispose’ of those who questioned the way that he did things.

Akil continued to describe what he had seen - a land rich in spices and where gold and precious stones were mined.

‘The Queen also rules over a land across the sea in the east called Ophir, from where they get a great deal of gold,’ he said. That made Solomon’s eyes light up.

‘Is she old?’

‘No, your majesty, she would be about twenty-five summers.’ The envoy once again saw the King’s eyes light-up, and then a frown.

‘Is she ugly?’

‘On the contrary my lord, by many she is thought to be one of the most beautiful women in creation’. Akil could almost feel the reward he would receive jingling in his pocket. The King had a thought, and the frown reappeared.

‘Is there a King of Sheba?’

‘No my lord,’ said Akil, thinking ‘This is going to be my most successful trip.’

As he left the palace Akil was in a state of delirious euphoria; the reward had been well beyond his wildest expectations. ‘I’m a rich man,’ he thought. He was, but there was to be a price to pay.

The next day he received a summons to attend the King. No sooner was he in the King’s presence than he was told to proceed immediately to Sheba and take a ‘Royal Invitation’ for the Queen to visit King Solomon in Jerusalem.

‘And if you fail, you will be no friend of mine,’ added the King.

The veiled threat was not lost on the envoy. The euphoria of the previous day was seriously dampened as he left the palace to make the preparations for the journey south again. He had been home for just two days. Before going to the market to arrange a small caravan for the journey he carefully hid most of the reward inside his house. Together with a retinue of half-a-dozen men, he left just before dawn the next day.

On the journey south, which took just under three moons, Akil spent much of the time pondering on how he would manage to ensure that the Queen of Sheba accepted King Solomon’s invitation. Eventually he decided that he would adopt two approaches. The first would be to tell the Queen that King Solomon, because of his renowned wisdom, would be able to answer any question that she might wish to ask him, no matter how difficult. Akil was fairly confident that Solomon’s fame would have travelled as far as Sheba. The next approach would be to stress that in Jerusalem, with the help of King Solomon, a means of trading the produce of Sheba with the rest of the world could be established, and this would be of great advantage to Sheba.

Afterwards, Akil could only guess which of his arguments had held sway. But the Queen had accepted the invitation and he travelled back to Jerusalem with a much lighter heart than on his outward journey.

***

It was only a tiny noise - virtually inaudible. But it was the wrong noise, at the wrong time, in the wrong place, and Kariz was instantly awake. He had been part of the Queen of Sheba’s retinue for eleven summers and had risen to be the chief bodyguard by virtue of his extreme loyalty, heightened sensory awareness and impressive fighting skills, which over the years had become legendary.

The caravan was only ten days out of Marib on its long journey north to Jerusalem where the Queen was to meet King Solomon. Just one moon earlier she had sent word accepting the invitation. In the tent next to the one where Kariz was sleeping was the chest that contained jewels worth a queen’s ransom and which were to be a gift to King Solomon. In the treasure tent were two soldiers who had been assigned to sleep alongside the chest.

Kariz was quickly on his feet and at the entrance flap of his tent with no more noise than a shadow flitting across the sand. First he looked towards the Queen’s tent: the two bodyguards outside were standing up and not squatting down, so they had heard the noise. Of course they would not leave their posts. A glance at the ‘treasure tent’ a few paces away to the right showed that all was not well. Its entrance flap was not secured as he had set it earlier.

One of the many camels which were bedded-down to the left of the camp grunted in its sleep, and then there was another noise, from within the treasure tent - a muffled gurgling gasping sound, just like the one that had awakened him. Within the space of two heartbeats, and with less noise than a single heartbeat, he was inside the tent.

Many believed that Kariz could see in the dark, and that was not far from the truth. What he saw were the bodies of two dead soldiers with their throats cut. He also saw, in the near total darkness, the outline of two people who should not have been there - the assassins. Neither of these intruders was aware of anyone else within the confines of the tent before it was far too late for them to make their peace with their maker. Neither of them saw or heard the avenger of evil that despatched them from this life.

As soon as Kariz was sure that there were no more intruders in the immediate area and that the Queen’s tent was safe, he went to where the rest of the bodyguards were sleeping and quietly awoke four of them. Two were sent to stand guard outside the treasure tent while Kariz and the other two made their way in a well-practised manner, silently and stealthily, unseen and unheard through the camp, then a hundred paces north from the edge of the camped caravan. Kariz then indicated to them that they should circle to the right while he set off to circle the camp in the opposite direction. When the two bodyguards were almost due east of the camp they came across two brigands hiding among some rocks with four tethered camels. These two were much younger, neither of them had seen fifteen summers, and neither of them saw another dawn. They were barely aware that they had been discovered and had not even drawn their daggers before they were despatched.

‘Is this all of them?’ whispered Kariz.

‘Yes, leader. We’ve checked the area within hundred paces.’

Satisfied that there were no more brigands in the area, they returned to the camp. Kariz told them that they could return to their tent. Although the bodyguards were far too fired-up to sleep, that was not the case with Kariz. After he had arranged for the removal of the bodies of the two murdered soldiers he went to his own tent and was asleep within the time taken by twenty heartbeats, or more accurately he fell into a state of suspended animation from which he could emerge in an instant.

The sky was just becoming light enough to draw the outline of the distant mountains. Kariz had mustered his twelve bodyguards close to the Queen’s tent ready to form a protective presence around her when she made her usual appearance before her subjects at dawn. The bodies of the two dead soldiers had been wrapped in cloths and laid with their heads pointing towards where the Sun God would make his appearance. Ordek, commander of the soldiers - now reduced to fifty-eight - who were accompanying the caravan, stood ten paces further from the royal tent, slightly to the left of Kariz, with the soldiers arranged in four ranks. The remaining fifty or so people who made up the rest of the caravan were assembled in front of the soldiers.

One of the Queen’s attendants rattled a tambourine, everyone became silent, and as the Queen came out from her tent, the whole assembly turned to face her, knelt and bowed their heads. The tambourine was slapped. This was the signal for all to stand and face to the East. Then at the first glimpse of the dazzling orb as it burst through the distant horizon the tambourine was slapped for a second time and everyone fell prostrate before its presence, and remained there until the orb in all its majesty was visible, which was signalled by a third slap of the tambourine. The spirits of the dead soldiers were offered to the Sun God and then their bodies were placed on a funeral pyre, which had been prepared earlier by their former comrades. The bodies of the brigands, including the two outside the camp’s perimeter, were gathered up and thrown among the rocks for the wild animals and carrion to dispose of.

Once the funeral pyre had burnt down, the long hard journey to Jerusalem was resumed. It was to take a further one hundred dusty thirsty days, much of it across a barren waterless land, until they reached the fertile crescent in the land of milk and honey.

The attempted robbery was only the start of their problems.

Ordek, who had been selected for this journey to Jerusalem, had been part of the Queen’s retinue for twelve summers. He had been in the employ of her majesty for just over a year before Kariz appeared on the scene.

‘Why should he be chosen over me to lead the royal bodyguard and be closer to the Queen?’ He had asked this question of all those who had joined the royal household over the past ten years, ever since Kariz had been elevated to his present high position within the court. ‘It doesn’t seem fair’ was the invariable reply. Not because that is what they thought - they were all aware of the reasons Kariz held the position that he did. Those who were asked indulged Ordek and agreed with him because he was known to have a fiery temper and a vicious and malicious streak. They all knew that he could and would make life very unpleasant for them if they showed any kind of support for Kariz.

Kariz was quite puzzled as to how the two brigands had managed to get into the encampment undetected by Ordek’s perimeter guards. ‘They wouldn’t have got past any of my men,’ he thought. During the brief skirmish he had immediately assessed - as a matter of instinct - that the intruders were not very competent and should not have got past any sentries. When he mentioned his concern to Ordek the only reply that he received was:

‘Are you trying to blame me, so that you don’t look so bad in the eyes of the Queen? And why did you wait until sunrise to let me know that two of my men had been killed while they were guarding the treasure? I expect you were just trying to make yourself look good. Don’t think that I haven’t noticed the way she looks at you.’

Kariz didn’t pursue the matter, not because he was afraid of Ordek. He stood a head and shoulders above the commander and had a physique that was a testament to his years of unrelenting training, but he knew from past experience that it would serve no good purpose.