The Ring of Solomon

insanity did she fall?
    ‘Kill King Solomon,’ the girl said brightly, ‘and take his Ring.’ She smiled at me. Her bright eyes shone.
    Right on the very end, that’s where.

    1 Humans don’t often suffer such indignities, I know, but it has happened. One magician I worked for once called for my aid during an earthquake which was toppling his tower. Unfortunately for him, the precise words he used were: ‘Preserve me!’ A cork, a great big bottle, a vat of pickling fluid, and – presto! – the job was done.
    2 Bottled imps require less stringent Bindings and their glass is usually transparent. Being regrettably low-minded, they thereupon perform countless contortions to shock and repulse any passers-by. Needless to say I never stooped to anything like this. It’s no fun doing it if you can’t see the reaction.
    3 I was, in fact, the living embodiment of a kusarikku , a less civilized sub-type of utukku, which used to be employed in some of the old Sumerian cities as executioners, tomb-guardians, baby-minders, etc.
    4 It was close , though. You could tell at once that she wasn’t practised at it. Every last syllable was painfully precise, as if she were in some public-speaking competition. At the end I felt like holding up a mark card with a ‘6’ on it. Contrast this to the best magicians, who throw off multiple summonings casually, while clipping their toenails or having breakfast, and never put a phoneme wrong.
    5 First Injunction : traditionally spoken in all summonings since at least the days of Eridu. Usually something along the lines of: ‘By the constraints of the circle, the points on the pentacle and the chain of signs, know that I am your master. You will obey my will.’
    6 Ward : a short incantation which turns the spirit’s own power back on itself. High-level Wards, used by trained magicians, include barbarities such as the Systematic Vice and the Stimulating Compass. These can do real damage to a djinni. Low-level ones, such as the girl knew, are pretty much the equivalent of a quick spank on the bottom, and about as sophisticated.
    7 Knowledge of someone’s birth-name allows you to nullify many of their magical attacks. As not demonstrated here.
    8 Zealots : wild-eyed persons afflicted with incurable certainty about the workings of the world – a certainty which can lead to violence when the world doesn’t fit. My personal favourites, some centuries after Solomon, were the stylites , hairy ascetics who spent years sitting atop high pillars in the desert. There was nothing violent about them, other than their smell. They summoned djinn to beguile them with temptations, the better to prove their abstinence and faith. Personally I didn’t bother with the temptation bit. I used to tickle them until they fell off.
    9 Other forbidden activities in the palace included: fighting, devouring servants, running in the corridors, cursing, drawing rude stick-figures on the harem walls, causing unpleasant smells to permeate the kitchens, and spitting on the upholstery. At least these were the ones I’d got told off for; there were probably others.

24
    A smira had expected the djinni to say something after her revelation – he had not exactly been short of comments hitherto. But instead his stillness deepened, and the little flames that had been flickering along the contours of his body dwindled suddenly and went out.
    Still as a stone he stood, and as silent as one too – yet the silence he projected was utterly ferocious. It filled the room like a poisoned cloud, bearing down upon her with such intensity that her knees began to buckle. Quite unconsciously she stepped back a pace upon her cloth.
    She closed her eyes and took a long slow breath. Calm . She had to remain calm. Bartimaeus, despite his threats and protestations, was hers now. He had no choice but to obey.
    Only calm, swift action, almost without thought, had enabled Asmira to survive the previous half-hour. If she had halted to assess what she was doing – robbing a powerful magician, summoning a demon far stronger than any she had ever attempted – her fear would have overcome her, she would have faltered and been doomed. Instead, as was at the heart of her talent, she carried out each stage with detached concentration, focusing on the practicalities and not the implications.
    The hardest part, in fact, had come beforehand, during the endless wait at the banquet table, while Khaba and several of the other high magicians drank