by K. T. Tomb
Both the priest and Phoe looked at him.
“That’s where we get the word decimate or decimation. Every tenth, deci or deca, soldier.”
“More orders of a similar fashion followed, which were also refused, as encouraged by Maurice. A second decimation was ordered. When a third order to attack fellow Christians was given, the Theban Legion refused again. In response, Maximian ordered all of the remaining members of the unit to be executed.”
Fr. Soliman read on silently for a few minutes and then began to wrap up his summary.
“They were executed in a place known as Agaunum, which is now called Saint Maurice en Valais. There is now an abbey known as the Abbey of Saint Maurice en Valais standing on that sacred ground. He was venerated in 926 and became a patron saint of the Holy Roman Emperors.”
He read silently for a few minutes more. As he did, his eyes began to grow larger and a smile spread across his lips. “My dear Miss Phoenix, your partner Peter was correct: This just might be the link that you’ve been seeking.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, feeling the priest’s building excitement. “What did you find?”
“Well, though it cannot be confirmed as true, legends say that the Theban Legion and Saint Maurice, himself, were guardians of a sacred relic from the hand of Solomon, even the wise king’s signet ring.”
“Are you serious?” Phoe rose up in her chair, feeling the blood rush from her face. Had they finally caught a break? It seemed impossible, but there it was. She felt a chill go up her spine.
“It supposedly had fallen into the hands of Jeroboam, one of the three invaders of King Solomon’s kingdom and wound up being placed under the care of the Theban Legion who—now, mind you, this is all speculation and rumor—carried it with them when they went into battle. That’s where the record ends.”
“Is that it?” Phoe asked. “There’s no confirmation as to whether it fell into the hands of Maximian?”
“Were you expecting a treasure map with a big red cross on it or something, Phoe?” Jonathan chuckled. “I’d say we’ve run across one hell of a lead. I apologize, Father.”
“Quite alright, my son,” he chuckled, making the sign of the cross in front of Jonathan as a blessing. “Unless I’m mistaken, you’ll be rushing out of Cairo on your way to the abbey in Switzerland.”
“We will, indeed, Father,” Phoe laughed. “Thank you so much for all of your help. I hope we didn’t use up too much of your valuable time.”
“It has been a pleasure to be of assistance, Miss Phoenix,” he replied. “It can get dull around here. Our little mystery has livened things up for me for a few days. I do hope you’ll pass this way again.”
“I will be sure to look you up whenever we are in Cairo,” Phoe promised.
Chapter Twelve
And he said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you (but he shall have one tribe for the sake of My servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel), because they have forsaken Me, and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the people of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways to do what is right in My eyes and keep My statutes and My judgments, as did his father David. However, I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, because I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of My servant David, whom I chose because he kept My commandments and My statutes. But I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand and give it to you—ten tribes. And to his son I will give one tribe, that My servant David may always have a lamp before Me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for Myself, to put My name there. So I will take you, and you shall reign over all your heart desires, and you shall be king over Israel. Then it shall be, if you heed all that I command you, walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as My servant David did, then I will be with you and build for you an enduring house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you. And I will afflict the descendants of David because of this, but not forever.’”
Solomon therefore sought to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon. – 1 Kings, Chapter 11.
With a view of the Fortress of Saint Maurice out the window of Phoe’s room in the Swiss Chalet where they had set up camp, the team began to lay out everything that they had already gathered. Jonathan had taken the lead in retelling the legend surrounding St. Maurice and the Theban Legion as well as that which everyone had already heard several times, the rumor that St. Maurice and the Theban Legions were keepers of the Seal of Solomon.
“Okay, so let’s put this all together,” Phoe suggested. “Because we’re here in Switzerland, which is a nice place and all, but we still haven’t discovered anything that points directly to whether or not the Seal of Solomon was ever here. For all we know, we’ve hit another dead end. Can we link anything else that we’ve discovered in each phase of this wild goose chase to the Theban Legion or St. Maurice?”
“Thebes was located very near the border of Sudan, so it was certainly in proximity to the excavations that were taking place in Sudan,” Guy began, jumping at another opportunity to demonstrate his superior intellect. For the most part, since he and Peter had returned from Israel, he’d been subdued and, at times, even pleasant to be around, but all good things must come to an end. “That would have been in what was known as the Nubian Kingdom, which was referenced not only in the Riddle of Riddles but also the Pillar of Sheba. It seems that the pharaoh at the time was fond of placing his favored guests in that part of his kingdom. It is certainly possible that he placed Jeroboam over the region around Thebes.”
“That does fit well,” Eric agreed. “I mean, sure, it’s full of all sorts of holes and speculation, but we’ve at least placed someone who might have had access to the seal in or near the same place where it supposedly turned up several thousand years later. Maybe if we had more time to dig through some of the Coptic poems and stories, we might be able to find a link…”
“Or we could reverse direction and come at it from the other end,” Jeremy interrupted. While they were recapping, he had been tapping away at his computer, in much the same way that he always did. When he stopped tapping and spoke up, all eyes turned toward him.
“Go on,” Phoe encouraged.
“Okay, this is going to take a minute, because I’ve got to get everyone out of the Solomon and Sheba mindset and back over to the Cordoba and Umayyad Caliphate mindset,” he said.
“But the Umayyad Caliphate was almost 400 years later, and the Cordoba Caliphate was close to 600 years later, Jeremy,” Peter objected. “That’s a huge crevasse in time to jump across from St. Maurice of Thebes to the Caliphate of Cordoba.”
“Granted,” Jeremy agreed. “But hear me out. I’ve got a theory that I want to run by everybody.”
Everybody but Guy looked at Phoe for consent.
“Run with it, Jeremy,” she said.
“Okay, so, has anyone ever wondered why the Umayyad Caliphate so easily and successfully conquered the entire Iberian Peninsula, but as soon as they crossed over the Pyrenees, they were stopped almost cold? What little influence they had in the south of France was marginal at best.” He looked around the room at a group of confused faces.
“Stay with me, because I just discovered something that’s going to knock your socks off.” He grinned.
“Get on with it then,” Guy said impatiently.
“Well, I decided to start trailing St. Maurice and all of the places that he is the patron saint, right? That led me, by fate or accident, depending on how you believe, to Séte, France, whose patron saint, ironically, is not St. Maurice, but St. Louis, because when the Saint Louis church was consecrated in 1703, Louis IX became the patron saint of the town. Oh, and Phoe, you’re goin
g to love this one. Séte is known as the Venice of Languedoc, because it has waterways to navigate through the town, just like in Venice.”
“Jeremy, please,” Phoe smiled patiently. He was a complete genius and grade AA computer whiz, but he had a tendency to run off on rabbit trails worse than Professor Whitherby.
“Yeah, right, sorry. I thought you’d find that interesting. Anyway, the reason Séte came up was because there is a small medieval church there that is named after St. Maurice…”
“Why would there be a church there with the name of St. Maurice?” Eric asked.
“That’s exactly what I thought, so I got to digging a little bit more and discovered that it is, indeed, named for the very same St. Maurice that was martyred here. Now, if you consider that the medieval period runs roughly from the 5th century after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire to what is considered as the Renaissance in the 15th century, it all starts to come together.” He paused to look at the confused faces, hoping to see the light coming on in at least one of them. Not seeing it appear, he kept going. “So, the invasion of the Caliphate and the setting up of the Caliphate of Cordoba would have existed during the latter half of that period.
“St. Maurice Church was established roughly the same time that the Caliphate invaded France, but, as I pointed out earlier, basically failed. It took some digging, but I located a myth that ironically led to the establishment of the church. It’s not substantiated, of course, that’s why it is still considered a myth. The myth is known as the Reincarnation of St. Maurice.”
“Oh, for the love of God!” Guy exclaimed. “If we’re going to listen to some computer geek tell tales about some mythical reincarnate saint…” He trailed off, losing what he meant to say in his frustration. “I’m not going to listen to this!”
Each of the members of Phoe’s team remained silent and exchanged glances, wondering what had come over Phillips. When Phoe caught Peter’s glance, she mouthed the word, “Creepy.”
Chapter Thirteen
The Reincarnation of St. Maurice matched up with the countless myths and legends that were connected with the Seal of Solomon, yet there was an element to it that was different. They had read through nearly all of them and discussed them at length throughout the time that they had been on their quest.
There was the story of how Solomon built the temple through the power of the magical signet ring that had been given to him by God. With the ring, he was able to control a magical worm who was able to form and cast stone, precious metal, gems or wood into any shape that was necessary simply by the power of its gaze. Via the combined powers of the signet ring and the worm, Solomon had been able to construct the most incredible building of the day.
Another story told of how King Solomon, with the use of the signet ring from God, had sealed up a genie who displeased him and tossed the vessel into the sea. The genie, hopelessly trapped beneath the power of the seal, was destined to drift upon the sea for a thousand years until a fisherman found the bottle, broke the seal and set the genie free. Of course, the story continued to talk about how the fisherman’s wealth and influence rapidly grew due to the powers of the genie.
It was said that the power of the ring allowed Solomon to talk with animals and to control all forms of demons, spirits, angels and other paranormal beings.
In accordance with the legend that Solomon could control the demons, one account was the most common. One legend concerning Asmodeus, who was said to be the master of all demons, tells how Solomon one day asked Asmodeus what had made demons powerful over man. Asmodeus asked to be set free from his bondage to Solomon and to be given the ring so that he could demonstrate. Solomon agreed; however, when Asmodeus was set free, he threw the ring into the sea and it was swallowed by a fish. Asmodeus then swallowed King Solomon, stood up until one wing was touching heaven and the other touching the earth, and spat out Solomon to a distance of 400 miles.
The legend continued to tell how Solomon was forced to wander from city to city, until he eventually arrived in an Ammonite city where he was forced into service for the king in his kitchens. Solomon’s opportunity to prepare a meal for the Ammonite king came and it was said that it was so impressive and the king was so satisfied that the king got rid of the previous cook and Solomon put in his place. Of course, the king's daughter, Naamah, fell in love with Solomon, but the king, believing Solomon to be a commoner, disapproved. He was so angry, in fact, he decided to kill them both by sending them into the desert. Solomon and the king’s daughter wandered the desert together until they came to a coastal city. They purchased a fish to eat. Wonder of all wonders, inside the fish was the magic ring that it had swallowed. With the ring, of course, Solomon regained his throne and expelled Asmodeus forever.
The number of legends gave little doubt to the reason why any talisman or amulet was said to be linked in some way to the great powers of King Solomon had become so wildly popular with the occult and witchcraft. It seemed that King Solomon was equally revered by Jew, Christian, Muslim and pagan alike and was thought to have been the greatest of all sorcerers in history.
The story that Jeremy had dug up about the reincarnation of Saint Maurice had placed the signet ring of the wise king in the possession of a fisherman whom no one had ever seen before and never saw again once his duty was complete. The fisherman, having the appearance of Saint Maurice, came up out of the sea and entered the small village of what later became known as Séte. This happened during the time of the Caliphate’s greatest push in Europe.
Once over the Pyrenees, they were intent on expanding throughout Gaul, using their foothold on the Iberian Peninsula to support them. However, they were stopped cold when an attachment of their armies advanced along the coast and encountered this lone fisherman standing in the road.
“Bearing the ring of King Solomon upon his finger,” Jeremy read, “the fisherman turned his back upon the advancing forces, raised his right hand, bearing the ring over his head and, in the Hebrew tongue, said only five words: ‘By the power of Solomon.’ The instant that the name of Solomon left his lips, the advancing army of the Caliphate disintegrated into dust.
“The fisherman turned to a nearby peasant, removed the ring from his hand and entrusted it to the lowly being. ‘Do not seek wealth and power with this ring, but rather wisdom. Hide it, keep it safe and reveal it to no one for the greed of men will overpower good sense. Guard also against your own greed and keep it hidden, for it, like faith in our Lord, unseen, will grant thee many blessings. Do you swear it?’ The peasant swore the oath and the ring was given over to him.
“Satisfied with his accomplishment and encouraged by the peasant’s oath, he blessed the peasant and then turned toward the sea. The fisherman, who bore the likeness of St. Maurice the great Theban defender of the faith, disappeared into the sea and was never seen or heard from again.”
There was a long stretch of silence as each member of the group ran the story through their minds.
“Well?” Jeremy finally asked.
“Weighing it against the other myths and legends,” Peter ventured, “it does seem to match up in some regards. It is consistent with the concept of the sea being the place where the ring always tended to disappear or be found. Of course, those are myths and legends, but that one element makes you wonder if, like so many other stories, it doesn’t have some veracity to it.”
Eric jumped in at that point. “The fact that the peasant was warned by this alleged reincarnate St. Maurice to hide the ring and not succumb to its power is a little bit different. There was no tale of how the peasant became wealthy or powerful because he possessed the ring?”
“Not that I have found,” Jeremy replied. He continued tapping on his keyboard.
“If the true power of Solomon was his wisdom, then the true bearer of the ring would not only have the power of the ring, but the wisdom of how and when to use it,” Jonathan began. “Perhaps the power of wisdom came first to the possessor and the ring truly was hidden. Maybe that wisdom
kept the one in possession of it from ever making use of its other powers.”
There were nods around the room as each weighed Jonathan’s idea. Their thoughts were interrupted as Jeremy spoke up again.
“I know this is sort of off the subject of where the ring is and how we find it, but might speak to the motivation for relocating it. I just ran across something here that says that in all three religions, many who recognize Solomon as a significant figure in their history, believe that the ring is the only protection that the faithful have against the coming apocalypse.”
The final phrase weighed heavy upon the room and that odd feeling of impending doom instantly returned to Phoe. When her eyes met those of Jonathan, she could tell that it had returned to him too.
Chapter Fourteen
Added to her feeling of impending doom was another feeling similar to the one that she had had in Santa Fe before she had been called upon to go in search of the Ark of the Covenant. That feeling of being followed had been very real and had resulted in the capture of her entire team.
The feeling hadn’t come on strong until after she heard the story that Jeremy had found, but it had been lingering, almost hidden to her, since they’d arrived in Switzerland. The thought that she was putting them in harm’s way once more made her sick to her stomach. She couldn’t do that again, so she devised a new approach. It didn’t go over well with her team, but, to her, it was the only right thing to do.
“If you’re worried about being followed, then you can’t go alone.” Peter was emphatic about it. He had always believed that it was his duty to not only assist Phoe as a professional archeologist, but to also be her protector.
“I’m not going in alone,” she retorted, equally emphatic about her decision. “I’m taking Jonathan with me. Besides, we will still be in contact with the team and utilizing all of the various tools, but by dividing, we make whoever is following us have to choose whom he is going to follow and watch. That makes them weaker.”
