The Ring of Solomon

prevent my theft. He knew that I couldn’t have returned the Ring to him, even if I’d wanted to.
    There was nothing to say. I set off slowly down the corridor, leaving King Solomon sitting silent in his little whitewashed room.
    *
    Out into the main chamber I went, past the pool, past the doors that led to the observatory and the storeroom, past the golden tables in all their Glamour, and so through the drapes, the nexus and the arch, and onto the balcony again.
    Above me, the stars were still spread out in splendid cold array. Below me, the lights of the palace gleamed beyond the gardens.
    The girl waited at the balustrade, gazing to the south. Her arms were crossed, the breeze flicked at her long dark hair.
    Without looking at me, she said: ‘You’ve got the Ring?’
    ‘Oh, I’ve got it.’
    ‘Take me and it to Sheba. I don’t care how we go. Turn into a bird, or a bat, or whatever monstrosity you please. Get me there quickly and I’ll dismiss you when we arrive.’ For someone who had just carried out her impossible quest, she didn’t seem exactly buoyant. More taut with anger, if truth be told.
    She wasn’t the only one.
    I said: ‘We’ll get to that in a moment. I want to ask you something first.’
    She pointed down to the distant southern gardens, where several lights still flitted like a storm of wasps. ‘No time for talking. What if Solomon alerts the guards?’
    ‘We’ve got this now,’ I said coldly, holding up the parchment ball. ‘That gives us all the time we need. If they spot us, you can simply put the Ring on, can’t you? That’ll send them packing.’
    She shook her head, shuddering at the memory of its touch. ‘Don’t be stupid. I couldn’t do that.’
    ‘No? That’s what you expect your precious queen to do, though, isn’t it? Think she’ll be able to cope with the pain?’
    ‘Queen Balkis,’ the girl said in a toneless voice, ‘will know what to do.’
    ‘Will she, though?’ I stepped closer now. ‘Perhaps you didn’t understand what Solomon was telling you back there,’ I said. ‘He wasn’t lying. You’ve felt the Ring’s power for yourself, Asmira. You’ve heard what it does. Do you truly want that unleashed upon the world?’
    Her anger burst forth then, just a little. ‘Solomon already unleashes it! Nothing’s going to change.’
    ‘Well now, I’m not Solomon’s biggest fan,’ I said, ‘but I’d say he was doing his best not to unleash it. He keeps the Ring cooped up in here, and uses it as little as possible.’
    The girl made a loud, unladylike, scoffing noise. ‘Wrong! He threatens Sheba!’
    ‘Oh, come on !’ My scoffing noise was louder still. ‘You don’t really believe that any more, do you? I was listening to you both back there. Why should he deny responsibility? He was holding you captive – he didn’t need to lie. It’s obvious to anyone with half a brain that there’s some other conspiracy going on, which—’
    ‘Which is irrelevant!’ the girl cried. ‘I don’t care either way. My queen has given me a task, and I am carrying it out. That’s all there is to it. I have to obey her!’
    ‘Spoken like the slave you are,’ I sneered. ‘You don’t have to obey her, and that’s the point. For all I know, Balkis is normally a paragon of virtue, but she’s made the wrong call here. Solomon wasn’t your enemy until you crept into his bedroom with that dagger. Even now I think he’d let you off if you just took it back and— Oh, swan off all you like, young madam, but that doesn’t change the obvious!’
    The girl had spun on her heel with a squeak of rage, and had stalked away along the balcony – but at my words, as if she were doing some primitive Arabian dance, she spun again and jabbed her finger at me. ‘Unlike a faithless demon, who has to be coerced into everything he does, I have sacred bonds,’ she said. ‘I hold true to the duty placed in me. I faithfully serve my queen.’
    ‘Which doesn’t stop you both messing things up,’ I said. ‘How old’s Balkis, exactly? Thirty? Forty, tops? Well, listen, I’ve got two thousand years of accumulated wisdom here, and even I get it wrong sometimes. For instance, I thought you had something about you when I met you in the gorge. Intelligence, flexibility of mind … Ha! How misinformed was I?’
    ‘It’s not about intelligence,’ the girl snapped, proving her point precisely. ‘It’s about trust. I trust my queen and obey her in everything.’
    ‘In