the noon sun
_ But they had been friends , and more than friends , for two years , and from time to time each needed to be alone . They both understood that . And so , when the naqeeb Mahmoud gave them a day of rest after the trek down from El Kahira , and Nicetas said he wanted to go out alone to get himself a pair of antelope horns , Daoud simply hugged him and sent him on his way . Daoud felt the murderous heat of the noon sun on his head through his burnoose . Ten times hotter here than at El Kahira , now a hundred leagues to the north . The wind filled the air with red dust , and he had wrapped a scarf over his nose and mouth . Only his eyes were exposed , looking for Nicetas .