Free Athena's Son by Jeryl Schoenbeck

fingers.
    On her right hand was a silver ring with an image of Alexander the Great wearing a lion’s head. On her left was a gold ankh, the Egyptian symbol for life. Another ring was a deep blue sapphire in the shape of a scarab beetle. The papyrus crackled in protest as she opened it. “Can you read this?”
    Archimedes bent close and the smell of old papyrus betrayed its age. It was longer than a normal scroll, spanning nearly the length of his arm. In addition, it was rolled on a bronze tube instead of a wooden rod. Valuable books were rolled on bronze because the metal did not rot papyrus like wood did. Several languages translated through his mind as he scanned the scroll. He followed the writing with his finger to where it ended in a frayed, torn edge.
    “ I’m sure it is not hieroglyphs,” Archimedes said. “It is certainly not Greek, although it is close to Coptic.” The Coptic alphabet he studied in Syracuse was similar to the Greek alphabet. “And it is not Phoenician.”
    “ You know your languages, Archimedes, I’ll give you that. The reason you didn’t recognize it is because it is demotic.” To keep the scroll from rolling up, Berenike held one end down with her hand and laid a piece of smooth glass on the other. It was a clear flattened globe and about the size of her palm. “Tourists think all Egyptian writing is in hieroglyphs, pretty pictures of snakes and birds. But writing in hieroglyphs is time consuming and used exclusively for public and religious displays.”
    Archimedes picked up the elliptical glass and held it up to the light. “This has almost no color. Where did you get this?” Blue or green glass was common, like his chemical bottles, but he never saw glass that was clear. “Did you know a piece of glass like this has the ability to reproduce and focus the heat of the sun?” It would make a great addition to his alchemy kit.
    Berenike grabbed the globule away from him and set it back down because the scroll was rolling up. “A small gift to father from some rich merchant,” she replied impatiently. “Can you concentrate on this?” She traced a line of the demotic script. Archimedes watched her slender hand and the silver ring flow across the papyrus. “Demotic is the script used for official Egyptian writing, such as legal and scientific documents.”
    “ So you’re learning different languages?” he asked.
    “ Like a fish needs swimming lessons,” she said. “I already read and write five different languages. My problem, Archimedes, is that my father or anyone else I talk to about this scroll thinks I’m wasting my time. I need you for your medical background.”
    “ OK. What does it say?” Archimedes asked.
    “ Ah, that’s just it. The first question is not what does it say, but how it is written,” Berenike said.
    “ It’s written in demotic,” Archimedes stated the obvious.
    “ Exactly!” Berenike said. “This scroll is from one of the doctors attending to Alexander as he lay dying. The doctor, named Meti, wrote this scroll in demotic so none of the Greeks could read it.”
    “ Why didn’t he want the Greeks to read it?”
    Berenike’s green eyes shifted up to lock with his. “Because this scroll reveals the plot to cover up Alexander’s murder.”
    “ Murder?” Archimedes repeated too loudly for Berenike. She quickly shushed him with a wave of her hand. Archimedes lowered his voice to match her conspiratorial tone. “All the written sources say that Alexander died from a prolonged sickness.”
    “ Lies, all lies.” Berenike set the glass globe off to the side and began rolling up the scroll. “None of Alexander’s generals wanted people to know he was killed. They wanted his kingdom for themselves. They knew Alexander’s young wife Roxanne was pregnant with his son Alexander IV, who would inherit his father’s vast kingdom. Both Roxanne and Alexander IV were later killed so Alexander IV could not become king. Someone wanted Alexander and