The Guardians of the Desert are twelve Bedouin riders, the ancestral protectors of Akhenaten’s stele and of the gate of the Temple of Thoth, keepers of a faith older than Islam passed down by blood.
Description
They ride Arabian horses and wear dark tunics and keffiyehs, faces covered, armed with long rifles and curved swords. They appear in silence, closing a circle around the trio’s fire. Several share the ice-blue eyes of Irti: the blood of Siwa, a guardian line he believed extinct. Their leader says: “Nosotros guardamos la puerta. Lo que hay dentro es asunto de los dioses” (“We guard the gate. What lies within is the business of the gods”).
History
Their prophecy holds that when the daughter of war returns bearing the lost dagger under the red moon, the gates will open. Camille’s gesture as Nefertiti fulfills it, and they bow. They protect the gate but do not cross it. In the end they fight Roeder’s Germans and receive the dagger back from Irti.