The Ring of Solomon

heavy-lidded eyes. ‘Forgive me, Priestess,’ he said slowly. ‘My slave, great Tybalt here, says the taint of silver is very strong about your person.’ Upon his shoulder the mouse rubbed his whiskers furiously with a paw. ‘Tybalt says it makes him want to sneeze.’
    Asmira could feel her silver daggers pressing hard against her thigh. She smiled. ‘Perhaps he refers to this.’ From beneath her tunic she pulled out her silver necklace. ‘It is a symbol of the great Sun God, who watches over me throughout my life. I have worn it round my neck since birth.’
    The vizier frowned. ‘Could you possibly remove it? It may aggravate spirits such as Tybalt, who abound across the palace. They are sensitive to such things.’
    Asmira smiled. ‘Alas, to do so would cut my birth-luck short, and bring the wrath of the Sun God down upon me. Do you not also have this custom in Jerusalem?’
    The magician shrugged. ‘I’m no expert, but I believe the Israelites worship some other deity. Well, we each must follow our beliefs as best we may. No, Tybalt – hold your tongue!’ The mouse had been uttering shrill protests in his ear. ‘She is a guest; we must make allowances for her oddities. Priestess Cyrine – please follow me …’
    He left the room and moved away across the cool, dim slabs of marble, framed in a gliding star of light. Asmira followed close behind. From its perch upon the magician’s shoulder the green-eyed mouse continued to look her keenly up and down.
    Off through the palace they went, the magician limping a little in his long white robes, Asmira stalking along behind. Along torch-lit corridors; down marbled steps; past windows overlooking gardens of dark trees; through grandiose galleries, empty save for plinths supporting fragments of ancient statuary. Asmira glanced at the pieces as she passed. She recognized Egyptian work, and certain styles from north Arabia, but other forms were unknown to her. There were sculptures of warriors, women, animal-headed spirits, battles, processions, people working in the fields …
    The vizier noticed her inspection. ‘Solomon is a collector,’ he said. ‘It is his greatest passion. He studies relics from civilizations of the past. See there – that monumental head? That is the pharaoh Tuthmosis III, taken from a colossal statue he erected in Canaan, not far from here. Solomon found the fragments buried in the earth, and had us bring the pieces to Jerusalem.’ The magician’s eyes glittered in his mage-light. ‘What do you think of the palace, Priestess? Impressive, is it not?’
    ‘It is very large. Bigger than the queen’s house in Himyar, if not so beautiful.’
    The vizier laughed. ‘Was your queen’s palace built in a single night, as this was? Solomon wished his residence to exceed the glories of old Babylon. What did he do? He summoned the Spirit of the Ring! The Spirit commanded nine thousand djinn to appear. Each carried a bucket and a shovel and flew on butterfly wings, so that the sound of their labours would not wake the wives in the harem camp below the hill. As dawn broke, the final brick was eased into place, and water began to flow from the fountains in the garden. Solomon breakfasted beneath orange trees that had been brought from eastern lands. From the first it has been a house of marvels, like nothing yet witnessed in the world!’
    Asmira thought of the fragile mud-brick towers of Marib, painstakingly tended and patched by her people down the centuries, now threatened by this self-same Ring. Her teeth clamped tight; still, she affected a tone of guileless wonder. ‘All in a single night!’ she said. ‘Can this truly be the work of one small ring?’
    A sidelong glance beneath the heavy lids. ‘It is so.’
    ‘Where does it come from?’
    ‘Who can tell? Ask Solomon.’
    ‘Did he make it, perhaps?’
    The green-eyed mouse chittered with mirth. ‘I think not!’ the vizier said. ‘In his youth Solomon was a magician of small competence, not yet a great one of the world. But always a passion for the mysteries of the past burned like a flame inside him, a love of long ago, when magic was first practised and the first demons brought out of the abyss. Solomon collected artefacts from those early civilizations, and to that end travelled extensively in the east. The stories say he grew lost one day, and came upon a place of ancient ruins, where, hidden beyond the sight of man or spirits for who knows how many years, he chanced