watched; she made them drunken captives of her art. Her silken costumes were sewn with crystal shards, which glittered in the light of ruddy lanterns like the scales of many-colored serpents, and the gliding movements of her body were like the swaying of an asp in thrall. When she leapt up high with her white arms thrown wide, she was like a creature in flight: a lamia with frail wings, or a delicate dragon’s child.
When Salome the enchantress danced, she stirred the fires of Hell in the hearts of those who watched; she made them willing slaves of her passion.
* * * *
Salome was never taught to dance; hers was a spontaneous art born of inspiration and nurtured by an altogether natural process of growth. She danced because dancing was the most precious aspect of her nature, and she began to express herself in the rhythms of dance as soon as she began to know who she was.
Her earliest dances were witnessed only by the female slaves into whose charge she had been delivered when her mother died in bearing her. She first danced for her father, who was Herod the Magician King, when she was seven years old. He immediately commanded that the tongues of her slaves should be cut out, so that they could not speak of it, and that their eyes should be scored with thorns, so that they would never again see anything clearly.
In the seven years that followed, only Herod and his brothers in blood were permitted to watch Salome dance, and to watch the magic grow within her as her art grew to perfection. She obeyed her father’s command to reserve her gifts for his own delight, and for the seduction of his noble friends.
Herod used the spell that Salome’s dancing cast to increase his power over his brothers in blood. He took advantage of the state of intoxication into which she delivered them to bind them to his will, and paid them for their servitude by granting them the privilege of watching Salome dance. The greater privilege, of slaking the lusts which Salome’s dancing excited, Herod reserved to himself.
Herod believed that in taking carnal possession of Salome’s unripened body he was protecting himself from the kind of sottishness that she inspired in her other admirers, but he was wrong. Although his eyes had never been scored with thorns, he saw unclearly, and although he was a Master of Magicians and not a slave, he was captive without knowing it to the magic of his daughter-wife.
* * * *
When the mother of Salome had died in bearing her, Herod had used his magic to procure the death of his brother Philip. He did this in order to make a widow of Philip’s wife Herodias, so that she would become his property under the law of his people. Herodias was very beautiful then, and well pleased with what Herod had done in order to possess her, for she knew the worth of a Master of Magicians, and was ambitious to be his mistress in every possible way.
Inevitably, with the passing of time, Herod became bored with Herodias, and left her alone in her apartments for months on end. There she played perpetually with her magic mirrors and her cards of fortune, by which means she sought—hopelessly—to discover a way to rescue her ambitions. Herodias never saw Salome dance, nor heard any trustworthy report of the artistry of her dancing, but she divined in the end that it was Herod’s infatuation with Salome that had obliterated any trace of affection for herself that had ever lodged in his heart.
For this reason, Herodias grew to hate Salome with a very violent passion. She tried to hurt her niece with curses and maledictions, but her own magic was not powerful enough to prevail against Herod’s protectiveness and the armor of Salome’s maturing art. She was therefore forced by circumstance to be patient, although she could barely contain her rage against the irresistible pressure of time that leached away her glamour.
Herodias was chafed and teased by her frustration for seven long years, but she never despaired. She knew that there would come a day when Salome ceased to be a child and became a woman, and she knew that when that day came, Salome would be ready to be made captive in her turn by the savage grip of infatuation.
* * * *
As the fourteenth year of Salome’s life drew to its culmination, there appeared in the borderlands of King Herod’s petty empire a man named John the Prophet, who preached to the common people whenever and wherever they could be induced to listen to him.
John the Prophet told his hearers that those whose mastery of men was achieved by command of magic, wealth and privilege were doomed to burn in Hell for all eternity, but that the common people might acquire a kingdom of their own beyond the grave, if only they were virtuous and humble and hopeful. This kingdom beyond the grave was named “Heaven” by John the Prophet; he told his hearers that there was no suffering there, and that no man had power over another, because all were equal in the eyes of God.
Herod was glad when news of John the Prophet’s teachings reached his ears. He was a clever statesman, and knew that it was always to the advantage of rulers when prophets appeared to promise the common people fabulous reparation for their current misery. Such notions helped to make his subjects content with their subjection, by deferring the promised settlement of all their grievances to an imaginary life beyond death, and deflecting their ambitions away from rebellion and revolution.
Like all petty emperors, King Herod loved to see his subjects confirmed in a determination to be virtuous, humble, and hopeful.
Although Herod was very pleased to have John the Prophet wandering in his kingdom, he knew that he would eventually have to destroy the preacher. It was in his interest to make it seem that he feared such men, and that he did not want their message to be heard. For this reason, he followed the methods of all wise rulers, making it his habit to imprison, torture and ultimately martyr all the prophets who came to his attention.
This way of dealing with prophets invariably brought rewards to all who used it. It lent careful emphasis to the sermons they preached, and made their teachings all the more precious to those foolish and unlucky persons who had found hope in them.
In his dealings with John the Prophet, King Herod was careful and methodical as he usually was. His first move was to have his quarry hunted for a while without actually being caught. He sent out instructions for the arrest of the prophet, but made sure that rumors flew ahead of his instructions, so that John would always be one step ahead of the officers who came to take him. Then, at his leisure, Herod closed in. He issued a public proclamation banning John the Prophet from entering the gates of his Capital City, thus making sure that the preacher would be all the more enthusiastic to carry his message within the walls. Finally, he had the man seized, as publicly and as violently as possible, and brought before his fully-assembled court to be mocked, scorned and condemned.
* * * *
When John the Prophet was brought to stand before him, Herod deemed it desirable that as many people as possible should be looking on, so as to create a proper sense of occasion. He had summoned all his brothers in blood, and he had invited Herodias to descend from her apartments in order to appear at his left hand. At his right hand he set his beautiful daughter Salome.
When everything was ready, Herod asked John the Prophet to repeat all his heresies, in order that they might be debated by the wise men of the kingdom.
John the Prophet stood up bravely, in spite of the bruises that had been inflicted upon him at the time of his arrest, and stated the items of his faith. All magic, he said, was evil; those who owned and used it were impure and ungodly, and would be condemned to the flames of Hell for all eternity. All men who exercised power over others, whether by right of birth or wealth or strength of arms, would likewise be punished for the abuse of their power. Only the meek, the virtuous and the pure in heart would be rewarded after death; they would be taken into the kingdom of Heaven, where they would dwell eternally in peace and harmony, without want or pain.
Herod’s brothers in blood then stood, one by one, to ridicule the preacher. With clever sophistry and cunning logic they demonstrated the fatuity of his claim that there would be a further life beyond death for anyone save those gifted in magic, whose souls were immunized against extinction. Then they charged him with sedition, saying that his ideas were an insult to the honor and station of King Herod. Then they proceeded, each in his turn, to offer suggestions as to the particular way in which the false prophet might best be put to