Free Queen of Sheba by Roberta Kells Dorr

delicately designed building. Badget noticed that she was alone and walked as though in a trance. Over her shoulder was thrown the leopard cape, but she didn’t seem to be wearing the short sword or the breastplate.
    Her maidens were not with her, and her counselors were left at the foot of the steps. The crowd grew deathly silent as she majestically stood in the torch light’s glow before the great door of the small pavilion. Then, as though summoning her courage, she moved forward into the darkness of the sanctuary and was lost to sight. The crowd erupted with a roar of approval. They clapped and stamped and even danced until the cobblestones rang with their enthusiasm.
    At sight of the full moon rising over the distant mountains all eyes were leveled on the door of the beautiful little marble pavilion through which the queen had disappeared. “This is where the alabaster idol is kept and where the queen will meet Ilumquh,” the small man shouted over the uproar to Badget.
    The processions were now forming and people who had been standing beside Badget began to scramble to get down from the wall. “Where are you going?” Badget demanded.
    “To the place of meeting—the temple. We must dance and sing before the altar so Ilumquh’s seed will grow within our queen and the curse will be lifted.”
    “Curse? What curse?” Badget was now totally caught up in all he was hearing and seeing.
    “Never mind. You wouldn’t understand. Come along with us and you’ll see everything.”
    Badget didn’t hesitate. He wanted to know more of what was happening and so he scrambled down from the wall and followed the crowd until he came to the great temple. He hesitated only a moment and then mounted the marble steps that led into the dimly lit sanctuary.

    Bilqis stood for a moment in the doorway of Ilumquh’s small pavilion listening to the deafening roar of the crowd. They strengthened her resolve. Her people expected her to be brave and fearless and she was determined not to disappoint them.
    Gradually her eyes became accustomed to the darkness. The room contained nothing but a long, low slab of alabaster raised only slightly from the floor. There was a strange, unearthly glow emanating mysteriously from its entire length. Flung across its surface was a fur spread. Therewas nothing else in what appeared to be a circular room.
    Every nerve was alert and tense. Her ears were tuned to even the slightest sound. A vast silence surrounded her, broken only by the distant drumming and high, lilting voices of priestesses in the oval place of meeting.
    Suddenly behind her the great doors through which she had entered closed with a resounding thud. There was a rush of stale air and then a sliding, clanging, metallic sound as a bolt fastened them shut. Voices of the mob outside faded.
    For a moment panic seized her. Her hand flew to the leopardskin cape and she breathed a prayer, “God of the leopards, help your queen.”
    There was no other sound. Gradually she relaxed and looked with fascination at the alabaster slab. It was undoubtedly intended for an altar, but there was no fire, only the mysterious glowing of the stone. She reached out her hand and found it wasn’t even warm, yet it continued to glow as though burning with some internal fire. “Come, Ilumquh must not be kept waiting.” The voice seemed to come out of the wall and echo round and round the room. There was no one in sight and yet the voice was distinct as though whispering in her ear.
    “You must do exactly as I say and nothing will harm you.” A face, creased with wrinkles and outlined with gray wisps of hair materialized in the darkness. Bilqis saw that the old woman had evidently been there for some time, but she was completely dressed in black that melted into the darkness of the room. She held a lamp in one hand and a clay bowl in the other and it became obvious that the lamp had been covered by the bowl.
    “This is your marriage bed.” Her gnarled hand