Fifth Gospel(92)
‘You do not keep your oaths then! Here is a man that cannot be trusted,’ Salome said to those in the room.
Herod said, ‘All I am saying is that you may ask me for something else, if you like.’
‘But I do not like anything else…!’
Herod grew fearful and leant in to Herodias and said in a strangled whisper, ‘This is your doing, you sorceress! You have enchanted the girl and now she wishes me to kill a prophet! I order you to put a stop to it!’
‘I don’t know what you mean, Herod.’
‘Don’t you see…there is a terrible portent in such a doing, someone will suffer for it!’
‘You seem to have become a prophet yourself!’ She said aloud, ‘Come husband, it is poor manners to keep our guests waiting for their entertainment!’
The room resounded in agreement.
She could read Herod’s thoughts. He was stuck between a rock and a wall, cornered by his own oath and beleaguered by his conscience. Facing dishonour on the one hand and, on the other hand, the ire of a God known for his disdain of aberrant kings.
His gaze fell on Herodias, and it said,
You are a witch and there is nothing to be done about it!’
He looked again at Salome. ‘Let it never be said, that Herod Antipas does not keep his word!’ It came out weak and lacked heart, ‘And yet you may change your mind, my dear!’
Salome smiled whitely, clapped and began a new dance. She took her time and listened to her body’s arousal, allowing it to titillate and to frustrate, to insinuate what it felt for itself. Amid a fever of rhythm and discordance, amid the shimmer of gold and silver, the ringing of the little bells and the pounding of drums, she dropped one veil after another, releasing, with her nakedness, the sexual force that she had enticed from the depths of her limbs, the hidden demons of lust in those inner wheels of pleasure embedded in her body. Their abundance made the room spin with an elemental force and caused a storm of passion to rise up into the hearts of men and women alike. And amid this spectacle of lust Herodias sat like a Titan, observing from the heights of her own cold Parnassus.
When it was over a breathless Herod ordered his guards to bring John the Baptist to the hall and Herodias arranged for her servant to bring the sword of David from its resting place.
When the man was brought forth, soiled, dirt encrusted, thin and emaciated, she was struck by his height, for great and awesome did he seem despite his deprivations, like a powerless Goliath! He did not speak, but looked about, taking the room in with a guarded eye. Only when he was forced to kneel and his eye fell on Herodias, did he say something.
‘Behold woman, the judgement of God shall come, and you shall be condemned for your iniquity! Lo, you shall never be at peace but shall wander the earth, bonded to your evil!’
She saw the gleaming of the burnished blade, and John the Baptist’s head come free from his body.
It fell to the floor to a chorus of gasps.
It made a wet thud.
The guard kicked the blood-spewing body out of the way, and brought the head by the hair to a silver platter, which a servant hastened to Herod.
Her daughter, struck by some semblance of remorse, fled the room, her hand preventing the bile in her mouth from spilling out. Herod, ducking and weaving to avoid the devil’s wings that flapped over his head, made a mournful gasp. All men sat shocked, brought back from the din of excess by the reality of death.
Herodias, however, was taken by the head upon the platter, for seeing it increased the magic in her bones, and made her feel so big as to engulf the earth with her jaws, and it was only when a servant removed the head from her sight that she awakened from this fascination. Now, from the night, came the hoot of an owl. But was it a portent of good fortune, or bad? It was too early to tell.
She gathered in the folds of her soul, and attentive, watchful, with her spine as cold as marble, she looked to the moment.
45
EXCALIBUR
John the Baptist was dragged, whipped, pushed and prodded across the cold compound and into the citadel of the castle by Herod’s guards. Upon entering the banquet hall he was blinded by light and stood a moment dazzled at the spectacle of debauchery before him. Demons fluttered before his gaze, having escaped from some foul source. Drunkenness, licentiousness and depravity were everywhere made plain to him.
Then he saw it – the blade of blue-burnished steel. It enticed him.
He was pushed to his knees and looked about until he found her, the witch and sorceress, that Jezebel reborn; Herodias. He saw it then, in her eyes, the kernel of many lives to come when she would bear the weight of the same message he had once proclaimed – that she would wander the earth with no peace. He told her so and waited.