The Isis Covenant (20 page)

‘And for that we have to again thank you. You saved our lives.’

‘I am not so certain that we did, Mr Saintclair.’ Athena said solemnly. ‘Anyone who saw you overcome the large gentleman with the knife would have been very foolish to take your defeat for granted. You
reminded
me of one of the warriors of old; wrathful, certain, dangerous and without fear. A Zealot of Josephus’s time, perhaps, or a gladiator who stood with Spartacus. A man who does not fear death is a man to be feared.’

Jamie accepted the compliment with a shrug. ‘But a man just the same, and all it takes to kill a man, however wrathful, is a single bullet.’

‘A man to be feared just the same,’ she admonished. ‘I, for one, am glad that we were on time, but I would warn you not to overestimate our capabilities. It was very fortunate for you that we were in Berlin, where we could count on the aid of suitably qualified friends. We will help you when we can, but it will not always be like that.’

‘Maybe I’m speaking out of turn here, ma’am, but who is “we”?’ Athena turned to face Danny, and for the first time, Jamie saw uncertainty on her face.

‘How much to tell? Tell all and you would think me mad. Not enough and you will think me a mere fantasist …’

‘We have seen enough of the reality of who you are to believe whatever you tell us,’ Danny insisted.

‘All, then.’ Athena nodded. ‘
We
are The Sisterhood, or more correctly The Sisters of Isis.’ She paused to allow the impact of her words to register. For a moment it seemed to Jamie that all the air had been sucked out of the room. ‘The history of our Order goes back much further than the cult of the Othergod, whose face was
the
Nazarene, Christ, and whose disciples first courted then betrayed us. They seduced the god-emperors of Rome and poisoned their minds, so that we, who were foremost and eldest, were reduced to worshipping in the darkness. We worship in the darkness still, but still we worship.’ She waited to allow some reaction to this heresy, but Jamie Saintclair and Danny Fisher had seen enough of God’s handiwork to be suspicious of His motive, if not his existence. ‘Isis is the Mothergod,’ Athena continued, ‘who gave birth to heaven and earth and will nurture them till darkness falls or she is driven from the minds of man. She is the divine womb of all mankind. She is The Lady, greatest and most illustrious Queen of Egypt. Without Isis,’ her eyes flicked to Danny, ‘woman would forever have been the chattel of man, a mere vessel, and of no more import than the cows in the field. Once, our temples were the glory of the world, now they lie in ruins or are crumbled to dust. All but one. Her influence and her grace spread across the civilized world, but her grace was too gentle, and she was supplanted. She can never return, but she survives, and her influence can once again be felt upon the fabric of our world.’

Danny kept her face expressionless as she registered the significance of Athena’s reference to The Lady. Jamie had his own questions, but it was Danny who had the stage. She said: ‘Then this is about the Crown, or the Eye.’

‘That is correct, Detective.’ Athena acknowledged the
truth
with an aristocratic inclination of the head. ‘But the Crown and the Eye are one. Without the Eye there is no Crown of Isis. Two hundred generations ago, when Rome was still a swamp beside the Tiber, a great civilization thrived on the black earth flood plains of the Nile. Even then, Isis was very ancient. She was revered among men and women alike, and they believed it was the tears of The Lady that provoked the great inundations that each year were the source of Egypt’s prosperity and power. Thousands, led by the Pharaoh and his court, flocked to worship her at the great temple of Abu-Sir, and the focal points of the year were the two great festivals: the one for the annual rebirth of the world, and the other to celebrate the resurrection of Osiris.’

She paused, staring into the far distance and Jamie had the odd feeling that their surroundings had disappeared. It was as if he was listening to some priestess of ancients talking matter-of-factly of her own time, and that time was now. Then Athena’s eyes focused and her habitual serenity was replaced by a grimace of pain.

‘The centrepiece of every ritual was the Crown of Isis, forged in Memphis in ages past by Osiris’s greatest craftsmen from Nubian gold, and at its heart the Eye, the gift of the stars, placed in The Lady’s hand by Ra himself. The Crown was invested with the power of the goddess and under her benign influence Egypt never suffered the traditional blights of plague or famine. While Isis was strong, no widow went without, there
was
justice for the poor and shelter for the weak. Egypt prospered and her Pharaohs amassed great wealth. But prosperity and wealth provoke envy. Such was their faith in The Lady that the Pharaohs became convinced of their own invulnerability. They neglected the strength of arms that had protected them for generations, and became fixated on art and culture. They became weak and indolent. And beyond their shores another power was growing: a sea people, hardy and cruel, too lazy to amass their own wealth, but greedy for the wealth of others. They attacked without warning and swept through the Delta, leaving all in flames. The temple burned. The Crown of Isis was taken.’

Jamie broke the silence that followed: ‘The Phoenicians, or their forerunners.’

‘I see that you are familiar with the legend of Queen Dido’s treasure, Mr Saintclair. Good, that will save us time. So, Egypt began the long decline. The age of the pyramid and the sphinx was past. Over the centuries, Isis continued to be worshipped and her Crown was copied and replicated, but its power could never be reproduced, because the true power was in the Eye, Ra’s gift to the goddess.’

Danny couldn’t contain her impatience any longer. ‘But where does the Sisterhood come in?’

‘My apologies for the history lesson, Detective.’ Athena smiled. ‘It is so long since I have told the story that I am too tempted to prolong it. The story of the Sisterhood begins with the destruction of the temple.
Women
had always been at the heart of the Cult of Isis, and when the temple burned, her priestesses were slaughtered or taken as slaves. All but a group of novices finishing their training at Philae, the other great Isiean centre in the south. They returned, shocked at the sacrilege and the loss of the cult’s greatest treasure, and so distraught that they would have taken their own lives and joined those they had loved and lost. But one of them was a true daughter of Isis. She it was who brought them together and told them that they were now the keepers of The Lady’s memory. They pledged to tend the flame, enact the rituals and nurture her faith. They would restore the temple, and when that was done they would spread the word of Isis far and wide. But the most solemn promise was that they would find the Crown and return it to the goddess.

‘They and their successors made the Cult of Isis great again, and as Egypt waned, they carried the faith to Athens and to Rome, and once more The Lady was a power across the lands. And always, they sought news of the Crown. There were whispers that it had been found among the lost treasure of the Carthaginian queen, Dido, then, for centuries nothing. A new civilization thrived in the east, where a cruel and bloodthirsty despot was said to have enlisted the power of the goddess to give him dominion over the world. More whispers, stories and rumour.’

It was a powerful story and it explained the ability of the Crown to seduce and enslave, but Jamie wasn’t
prepared
to let Athena off so easily. ‘We appreciate the
history lesson
, but can anything that is coveted by so many be quite the force of good you claim? For instance, we’ve heard that the Crown may have reappeared at different times over the centuries,’ he met Athena’s stare, ‘and that far from being a benign influence, it was associated with witchcraft, magic and death?’

The German woman’s eyes flashed. ‘There have been many attempts to tarnish The Lady’s name, and not only by the followers of the Othergod. Octavian, who became Augustus, claimed our rituals were pornographic.’ She shrugged. ‘Of course, a fertility rite would have a sexual element, but what could be more pornographic than forcing men to fight to the death against other men for entertainment?’

‘That still doesn’t answer my question,’ Jamie persisted.

Athena rose to her feet and walked to the window. ‘It is true that through the ages the Crown has been associated with evil and abomination. The Crown of Isis is a potent talisman. Legends attach themselves to such things. Because she was able to restore Osiris’s soul, Isis was said to have power over life and death. At the end of her mortal life that power became inextricably linked with the Crown. It was believed that under certain conditions a person who wore the Crown would be given the gift of eternal life. But if such were the case, would Isis herself not have chosen that path?’

‘I suppose that would depend on the conditions?’

She took a deep breath and her voice became harsh, almost manly. ‘
You must spill the blood of a first born of good family beneath the first light of the sickle moon. Only then will the gateway to the next life open
.’

It was a few moments before the full import of the words sank in. When it did, Jamie flinched at the horrors that lay behind them. ‘Are you saying that one person has owned the Crown of Isis for twenty centuries, killing a child whenever they felt the power of the Crown begin to subside?’

‘No, Mr Saintclair; that would be beyond madness. But the Crown certainly has the power to mesmerize, bewitch and bemuse. What if it was passed down from hand to hand and the legend passed with it? A kind of contagion, which convinced men that, whatever the evidence, possession of the Crown gave them the capability of resurrecting themselves, as long as they had the ruthlessness to meet the conditions.’

‘Jesus,’ Danny breathed. ‘A hundred generations of child killers.’

‘Not quite how I would have put it, Detective, but yes, that is what we fear.’

‘Then they have to be stopped.’

‘But how?’ Jamie demanded.

‘I believe the answer lies with you and Detective Fisher, Mr Saintclair. The ways of Isis have always been mysterious. Can it be a coincidence that you came to our notice in England and a few days later you are in
Berlin
, where we have been focusing our search for the Crown without success for the last sixty years?’ She saw his look of puzzlement. ‘One of our number infiltrated the higher reaches of the Nazi party and recognized the Crown among their plunder when she was trying to escape Berlin in the chaos of nineteen forty-five. It was the first physical evidence of its existence in two millennia.’ She explained how Else Kruger had had the Crown within her grasp on the night of the break-out from Hitler’s bunker and how it had been torn away from her.

‘Hartmann.’

Now it was Athena’s turn to look puzzled.

‘We believe a man called Berndt Hartmann was in possession of the Crown of Isis in May nineteen forty-five,’ Jamie explained.

‘Oh, no, Mr Saintclair, our informant was most precise. The man who carried the Crown was an SS Sturmbannführer called Max Dornberger. But the point is, you found your way to Berlin. That is why we helped you, because we believe you are being guided by the goddess. Because we believe that you and Detective Fisher have been chosen to find the Crown of Isis. If we can do anything to aid you, we will, but there is one condition. The Crown must be returned to the Temple of the Lady, where it can be used to atone for the sins committed in its name for the past two thousand years.’

XXIII

‘HEY.’ DANNY FISHER
nudged Jamie’s arm. ‘A girl likes to be shown a little attention.’

‘Actually, I was just wondering exactly who the Berlin Ladies Sewing and Sub-machine Gun Circle were.’

‘Cops,’ she said emphatically. ‘Berlin’s answer to a SWAT team, or maybe one of those elite anti-terrorist units that have grown like mushrooms since 9/11. It would make sense for the Sisterhood to infiltrate their people into something like that.’

He nodded. ‘Athena referred to them as her Order, which makes them sound fairly military, a female Knights Templar … They were—’

‘I read
The Da Vinci Code
on the way over, Jamie.’

‘In any case, you’re right. If the Sisterhood has survived two thousand years of persecution and living and worshipping underground, they’d need to know how to look after themselves. Even Athena’s name is significant. In Greek mythology she was the goddess of
wisdom
, courage and just warfare. The companion of heroes.’ He looked over his shoulder. ‘I suspect they may still be around.’ They were sitting in a small cafeteria tucked away off the main concourse at Tegel. Athena had advised against taking their scheduled flight back from Schonefeld in case Frederick’s men were aware of it. Instead, they were flying out of Berlin’s biggest airport in seats booked at the last minute.

‘So, Hartmann or Dornberger? Which trail do we follow? They can’t both have had the Crown of Isis.’

‘I don’t know,’ Jamie admitted. ‘But the first thing we need to do is talk to Sir William Melrose. From what his researcher told the Neues Museum, it’s pretty clear that his source had a good description of the Crown. If that’s the case, what other information does he have? And why didn’t he use it in the book?’

‘All right,’ she agreed. ‘I’ll go along with that, but aren’t you forgetting something?’

‘That a hired killer might be waiting for me when I open the door to my flat? Yes, I had considered it.’

‘So what are you going to do about it?’

He grinned. ‘I thought I might move in with you for a few days.’

Paul Dornberger couldn’t believe he’d lost Saintclair. Over the years with Oleg Samsonov he had painstakingly worked to create an organization within an organization: a small group of investigators and highly skilled individuals who believed they were acting for the
oligarch
, but were actually doing Dornberger’s bidding. Thus far, Saintclair had come into contact only with the very fringes of the Hartmann investigation which had taken up so much of Dornberger’s life. That made him of interest, but of fairly low-level interest. The murder attempt had made him more significant. For a time Dornberger worried that some new and unknown force might have appeared from below the radar, but his subsequent investigations seemed to discount that possibility. The private inquiry agent tasked with keeping a discreet watch on the art dealer had reported little or no activity in the days following his release from hospital, apart from a visit from the as yet unidentified woman he had taken to dinner. Then he had disappeared.