Mortuus Virgo by Kevin Ashman Read Free Book Online Page B

face. His good side, so to speak.’
    ‘What about the script?’ he asked and spelt out the letters surrounding the head, ‘M…Y…R…T…A…L…E’
    ‘That is quite strange,’ she said, ‘As the coin postdates the battle, the name is out of sync.’
    ‘Why who is it?’
    ‘It is the name of his wife,’ she said ‘But it is all wrong. When he married her in 357 BC her name was indeed Myrtale but when Phillip’s horse won in the Olympic games a year later, she changed her name to Olympias in honour of the victory.’
    ‘Perhaps she still used it or he preferred it,’ said Brandon.
    ‘I wouldn’t have thought so, going back to an old name was seen as unlucky, and anyway, Alexander was born in the same year and it would have been an insult to him. No, this is one of the reasons I think this is a fake, the coin was minted by a different culture who perhaps got their names or dates wrong.’
    ‘Okay,’ said Phillip, ’What about the other side?’
    She didn’t bother using the magnifying glass for this one, just picked up the sheet.
    ‘This is something altogether different,’ she said ‘And is wrong, wrong, wrong.’
    ‘How?’
    ‘Wrong country, wrong period, wrong culture.’
    He looked at the picture on the coin. To him it looked like a crude attempt at a matchstick man, the type often drawn by young children in their first attempts at drawing. A large round head sat on two vertical thick lines depicting the body and legs, whilst the arms were held tight against the sides.
    ‘Go on.’
    ‘Where do I start?’ she asked, ‘This image is a symbol recognised by many different cultures across the world. It refers to an ideology shared by thousands of religions from Christianity to Catholicism and ranges from the dawn of time right up to modern day. It is Pagan in origin and represents the universe itself or more recently, an actual person or should I say, Deity.’
    ‘Who is it?’ he asked, ‘Do I know him?’
    ‘Not him, her. The image is called the Tyet’ she explained, ‘The original meaning is unknown though it probably undertook different variances throughout time. In particular it is associated with one of the greatest female deities of all time. Her name was Aset, and she lived about nine thousand years ago in the area now known as the Black Sea.’
    ‘I’ve never heard of her,’ he said.
    ‘I expect you have,’ she answered ‘But the more recent incarnation. You see, this design, the Tyet is also known as the Blood of Isis.
    ‘Isis, wasn’t she an Egyptian queen?’
    ‘Not quite, more a Goddess though she was based on a real person.’
    ‘And is there a link between Phillip and Isis?’
    ‘Not at all, there is almost a seven thousand year gap between them.’
    ‘Anything else?’
    ‘Nope, except, as I said, this coin seems to be no more than a few hundred years old. That would explain the mistakes but why anyone in the middle ages wanted to represent these ancient characters is beyond me. Actually, come to think of it, most of what we know now only came to light in the last hundred years or so. People in the middle ages would have known virtually nothing about ancient history.’
    ‘So we are no further forward then.’
    ‘No, sorry.’
    ‘Sod this,’ he said, ‘Come on I need some air.’ He stood up and led the way towards the door.
    ‘Where are we going?’
    ‘Victoria Station,’ he said, ‘Let’s see if there’s anything the police missed there.’
    ----
    An hour later Brandon and India left the station managers office and descended a private staircase into a maintenance tunnel. They stood before a metal door as the manager fumbled with a set of keys.
    ‘It’s here somewhere,’ he said, ‘After the incident we had this door specially installed. Staff have to sign for the key now, here we go,’ He pulled the door towards him and stood to one side, ‘Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you detective?’
    ‘No, we will be fine