by Gene Wolfe
Drakaina said, "Yes, let's go. Perhaps they'll keep you again. But will the guards let us go up?"
Io nodded. "They let anybody go. There's a temple at the top to Kalleos's goddess, and some other temples and things."
The city is full of people, all hurrying to someplace else. Many are slaves and workmen with no clothes but their caps; but many are wealthy too, with gold rings and jeweled chains and perfumed hair. Men are carried about the city in litters. Drakaina says that in Thought only women and sick men use them, and this place is much more like the east, where she comes from. The truly rich have their own litters and dress four or six slaves alike to carry them. Those who merely wish to be thought rich hire litters, with two bearers or four.
"If we had the money," Drakaina said, "we could hire two litters ourselves, so we wouldn't have to climb all those steps. You and Io in one and I in the other." (I believe she had at first planned to suggest that Io ride with her but seeing the expression on the child's face knew it to be useless.)
"You've got money," Io told her. "The regent gave it to you, that's what you said, and you paid the boatman. So go ahead and hire yourself a litter, and Latro and I will walk."
I nodded, and in truth I wanted to stretch my legs, which feel as though they have not had much exercise lately.
Drakaina said, "Not enough. But we could sell something."
Io looked at her askance. "What? Sell one of those rings? I never thought they were real gold."
"Not my rings. But we've other commodities, if only we can find the right buyer."
A soldier tried to shoulder past us, and she caught him by the arm.
"Not now," he said, and then when he had seen how lovely she is, "Call on me tonight. You'll find me generous. I'm Hippagretas, Lochagos of the City Guard. Across from the Market Temple of the Stone God, and two doors north."
"I'm not from Tower Hill," Drakaina told him. "Not that I'd mind having a lover so distinguished and handsome. I only wished to ask you who commands the army of this city."
"Corustas is our strategist."
"And where can we find him? Will you guide us?"
"In the citadel, of course. But no." He shook his head, tossing the purple plumes of his helmet. "Much as I'd like to, I have important affairs."
I smiled to hear that even the soldiers of this town hurried about like merchants.
Drakaina smiled too. "Might Corustas not reward an officer who brought him people with information?"
The lochagos stared at her for a moment. "You have a message for the strategist?"
"I have information, which I will give him only in person. But I suppose I may tell you that we have just disembarked from the ship carrying the aide to the regent of Rope."
Soon Drakaina and Hippagretas were in one big litter and Io and I in another, each litter carried on the shoulders of four bearers. "You and the black man had to carry Kalleos like this," Io told me. "But there were only the two of you, and I bet Kalleos is as heavy as you and me together."
I asked whether we had to climb so steep a slope, and she shook her head. "It was uphill, but not nearly as bad as this. I was following you, and you didn't know it." She giggled. "I'd watch the litter and wonder which of you would give up first, but neither of you did."
I told her no man likes to admit he's weaker than another.
"A lot of women do-that's one reason why so many of us like men better, besides their being easier to fool. Look there, you can see the water already. And there's the slipway. Thirty-six stades from the gulf to the Sea of Saros. That's what the man we talked to yesterday said."
I asked her whether Drakaina had been with us.
She shook her head. "She stayed on board, because Pasicrates was there, if you ask me. We went with the captain, and they seemed happy enough to see us go."
I scarcely heard her. With the few steps since she had mentioned the water, the bearers had turned a corner and ascended a bit more; and the bright patch of water Io had pointed out had grown to an azure sea, as a child grows who is a woman as soon as your attention is distracted for a moment, at once restless and restful, alluring and dangerous. And it struck me then that the sea was the world, and everything else-the city, the towering crag of limestone, the very ships that floated upon it and the fish that swam in it-was only exceptional, only oddities like the bits of leaf or straw one sees in a globe of amber.
I was myself a mariner on that sea, a sailor at the mercy of wind and wave, lost in the mists and hearing breakers on the reefs of a rocky coast.
"This is it," Io said as the bearers lowered our litter before a frowning building. "This is where they kept us, Latro, in a cellar down a lot of steps." Drakaina and the lochagos were out of their litter already.
The interior seemed a cavern after the heat and brilliant sun outside. I understood then why so many gods and goddesses are said to live under the earth or among the everlasting snows of the mountaintops; no doubt we would do the same if only we were not bound to our fields for sustenance.
Corustas proved to be a beefy man in a cuirass of boiled leather molded with lions' heads. The snarling faces woke some faint fear in me, and I seemed for an instant to see a lion rear and threaten a mob in rags with its claws and fangs.
"You were on the ship with the young Rope Makers?" Corustas said. "I take it you are not Rope Makers yourselves."
Drakaina shook her head. "I am from the east. The man-who will be able to tell you little or nothing, by the way-is a barbarian, and neither he nor I can tell you his tribe. The child is from Hill."
"And your information?"
"And your price?"
"That must be determined when I have heard you. If it will save our city"-he smiled-"ten talents, perhaps. Otherwise much less."
Drakaina said, "Your city's in no immediate danger, as far as I know."
"Fine. You'd be surprised how often people come here to warn me of oracles and the like." He took out a silver owl and held it in his palm. "Now tell me what you've come to say, and we'll see if it's worth this. My time's not unlimited."
"It concerns an oracle," Drakaina said. "A dream in which the regent places complete trust." She extended her own hand.
"And it concerns my city?"
"Not directly. It may eventually."
Corustas leaned back. His chair was of ivory, inset with garnets and topazes. "Your ship is the Nausicaa, out of Aegae, bound for Hundred-Eyed. A hundred young Rope Makers are aboard, sent by the regent to offer praise at the temple of the Heavenly Queen in fulfillment of some vow."
Io smiled behind her hand, and Drakaina said, "You've been questioning the sailors. That was what they were told."
"And the young Rope Makers," Corustas added. When Drakaina said nothing, he muttered, "When we could," and dropped the owl into her hand.
"The hundred men are not bound for Hundred-Eyed, nor for any other place on Redface Island. Nor are they being sent in fulfillment of a vow, nor for any other sacred purpose."
"I know that, naturally," Corustas said, gauging Drakaina with his eyes. "They wore full armor when they went to threaten our slipmaster today. The Argives aren't fools enough to let a hundred armed Rope Makers through their gates." He took out another owl.
Drakaina shook her head. "Ten."
"Absurd!"
"But for nothing I will tell you they are picked men, taking their instructions directly from the regent."
"I knew that as soon as young Hippagretas told me you had said the regent's aide was aboard."
I asked whether Nausicaa would be taken on the slip today. "Ah!" Corustas winked. "You can talk after all. But you know nothing about all this."
"No," I said. "Nothing."
"You think a woman can get more and is less likely to be tortured. You're wrong on both counts. To answer your question, whether the ship crosses the isthmus today or never depends on the message I send our slipmaster. That in turn depends on what we say here." He looked back to Drakaina. "Five owls for the true desti
nation."
"One word only."
"Agreed, but no tricks."
"Sestos."
For a moment I thought the strategist had fallen asleep. His eyes closed and his chin dropped to his chest. Then he opened his eyes again and straightened up.
"Yes, isn't it?" Drakaina said.
"And a dream told him to do it?"
Drakaina rose, knotting the six silver owls into her robe. "We really should go. The child wants to see your city from the summit."
"One more for the dream."
"Come, Io. Latro."
"Three."
Drakaina did not sit down again. "The dream-"
"Who was it? The Huntress?"
"The Queen Below. Had it been the Huntress, I wouldn't be telling you these things. She promised him that the fortress would fall soon after the young men arrived, and the regent believes her implicitly. Now you know all I do."
As Corustas counted out three more owls, he asked, "Why the Queen Below? It should have been the Warrior, or perhaps even the Sun."
Drakaina smiled. "A strategist, and you've never seen the fall of a city? Believe me, there's little enough drill or light then, but a great deal of death."
Outside, she asked the bearers whether the lochagos had paid them, and when they said he had, ordered them to carry us to the temple at the summit. They protested that they had been paid only to bring us up from the city and return us to the place where they had found us. Drakaina said, "Don't trouble me with your impudence. We've been conferring with Strategist Corustas, and if you won't earn your money like honest men, he'll have you whipped in the marketplace." After that they did as she told them.
The temple was small but every bit as lovely as it had looked from below, with slender marble pillars and elaborate capitals; its pediment showed a youth offering an apple to three maids.
When the bearers were out of earshot, Io whispered, "You didn't tell him about Latro. I thought you were going to."
"Certainly not. Suppose Corustas had decided to keep him here? Do you think the regent wouldn't have guessed someone talked? And that it was you or me? Now have a look at the view; I told Corustas you were going to."
Io did and so did I, feeling the sea breeze would never be so pure again as it was today, nor the sun so bright. The white city of Tower Hill spread in two terraces below us. Its gulf, stretching away to the west like a great blue road, promised all the untouched riches of the thinly peopled western lands, and I felt a sudden longing to go there.
"By all the Twelve, that's Nausicaa!" Io exclaimed. "See, Latro? Not on the skid, but waiting to get on. Notice her cutter bow?"
Drakaina smiled. "Quite the little sailor."
"The kybernetes taught me when we sailed with Hypereides. And I talk to our sailors too, instead of holding my nose in the air."
A jeweled and scented woman with golden bells in her hair passed us, jingling as she turned her head to smile at Drakaina; she carried two live hares by the ears.
CHAPTER XXXVI-To Reach the Hot Gates
A ship can follow either of two courses, as our captain explained. He is a white-haired old man, fat, and stiff in all his joints, but very knowing of the sea. When he saw I did not understand, he sat on a coil of rope and drew the coast on the deck for me with a bit of chalk.
"Here's the skid where we went across." He drew as he spoke. "And here's Water and Peace."
Io asked, "Does that name [Salamis (Gk.???????). Latro translates the Phoenician root. -G.W.] really mean 'peace'? That's what Latro says. It seems like there's been so much fighting there."
The captain looked far away, out over the dancing waves. "Because in the old times it was agreed with the Crimson Men there'd be no raiding on the island. In the old times-my grandfather's times-everybody took what he could, and there was no shame to it. A ship came to a city, and if her skipper thought his crew could take it, he tried. If you met a ship that could beat yours, you ran, and if you didn't run fast enough, you lost it. A man knew where he stood. Now maybe it's peace, and maybe it's war, and you don't know and neither does he. Last year the Crimson Men were the best in the Great King's navy. I mean the best sailors-the Riverlanders were the best sea fighters. And the Crimson Men would have fought on Peace if they could have landed. The old promises don't count, and the new aren't lived up to.
"Kings used to look for places where both wanted the same. Then they'd make an honest bargain and keep it, and if they didn't, they'd be disgraced, and punished by the gods, and their people too. Now it's all trying to get the advantage by tricks. What's the use of a bargain, when the other man's not going to keep it as soon as he sees it's a trick?"
Io pointed. "Thought must be right about here."
"That's Tieup. Thought's up here on the hill. I don't go there much any more. We're way past all that anyhow. Here's where we are." He continued the coast to the north, then made a long mark beside it. "That's Goodcattle Island, a great place for sheep. With a regular crew, we'd be going wide of it; there's a narrow channel, and the wind's from the north, mostly. But with all these stout lads to pull the sweeps, there's no reason to, as the noble Pasicrates says. We'll spend the night at the Hot Gates, and he can make his sacrifice. There's nothing like a fair wind, but the ash wind blows whichever way you want."
By "the ash wind" he meant the sweeps, long oars that one or two pull standing up. There are twenty on each side, and I took my turn at one with the men of Rope. It is hard work, and it blisters the hands; but it is made easier by singing, and it strengthens the whole body. My head cannot remember for long, but my arms, back, and legs do not forget. They told me they had been wasting in idleness and desired to strive with the blue giant; so I did, and laughed to see men (who so often make poor beasts serve their will) rowing the bawling bullock tied to our mainmast across the sea.
None of these things are of much importance, perhaps, but they are the first I remember; thus I write them, having waked from my dream.
Only eighty could be used at the sweeps, and we have more than four hundred, with Pasicrates and myself and the crew, a number that let all of us rest far longer than we rowed. When the sun was halfway to the hills on our left, a wind rose behind us. The crew hoisted both sails, and we ported our sweeps.
Pasicrates proposed wrestling matches, there not being room enough on the deck for any sport but wrestling or boxing. A lovely woman called Drakaina came to watch, taking a place close beside me. She has a purple gown and many jewels, and the Rope Makers moved aside for her very readily; she must be a person of importance.
Sniffing the wind, she said, "I smell the river-that air has crocodiles in it. Do you know what they are, Latro?"
I told her I did and described them.
"But you do not remember where you saw them?"
I shook my head.
"Are you going to wrestle, when your turn comes? Throw the other man over the railing for me."
It was something the victors often did to show their strength. Our ship trailed a rope, and the loser swam to it and climbed back on board, many saying the cool plunge was so pleasant after the heat of the deck that it was better to lose than to win. I promised Drakaina I would if I could.
"You're a good wrestler-I've seen you. You nearly defeated Basias, and I think you could have if you had wished."
I asked, "Is Basias here?" because I did not know the names of most of the men from Rope and thought I might wrestle him again.
She shook her lovely head. "He has gone to the Receiver of Many."
Hearing that, I feared I was defiled by his blood, for I know something is not well with me. "Was it I who killed him?"
"No," she told me. "I did."
Then it was my turn to wrestle.
Pasicrates had matched me against himself. He is very quick; but I am a little stronger, I think, and I felt I was going to win the first fall; but just as I was about to throw him to the deck, he slipped from under my arm so that I was left like a man who tries to break an unbarred do
or.
The railing caught me at the hip, and Pasicrates got my right leg behind the knee and tossed me over.
How cold the water was, and how good it smelled! It seemed to me that I should not be able to breathe it as I did; but though it was much colder than air, it was richer too and strengthened me as wine does.
When I opened my eyes, it was as though I were suspended in the sky like the sun; the blue water was all about me, a darker blue above, a paler, brighter blue below, where a great brown snail with a mossy shell crawled and trailed a thread of slime.
"Welcome," said a voice above me, and I looked up to see a girl not much older than Io. Her hair was darker than Drakaina's gown-so dark it was nearly black. Almost it seemed a cloud or aureole, and not such hair as men and women have.
I tried to speak, but water filled my mouth and no sound came, only bubbles that fell to the pale ground and vanished.
"I am Thoe, daughter of Nereus," the girl told me. "I have forty-nine sisters, all older than myself. We are permitted to show ourselves to those who are soon to die."
She must have seen the fear in my eyes, because she laughed; I knew then that she had said what she had for the pleasure of frightening me. Her teeth were small and very sharp. "No, you are not really going to drown." She took my hand. "Do you feel you are suffocating?"
I shook my head.
"You see, you cannot, as long as you are with me. But when I leave, you'll have to go down there again, unless you want to die. It's just that mortal men aren't supposed to see us too often, because they might guess at things they're not to know; mortal women hardly ever see us, because they know when they do. We can show ourselves to children as often as we like, though, because they forget the way you do."