Over the Wine Dark Sea

  As terns screeched overhead, Sostratos made a placating gesture. 'All right. I wouldn't want to try crossing him myself, since you put it that way.' Another screech rang out, this one louder, more raucous, and much closer than the high-flying sea birds. Sostratos jumped. 'By the dog of Egypt, what was that?'   'I don't know.' Menedemos trotted away from the Aphrodite. 'Come on. Let's go find out.'   Sostratos flipped his hands in protest. 'Our fathers sent us down here to see if the ship is ready to take out.'   'We'll do that,' Menedemos said over his shoulder. 'But whatever's making that noise may be something the Hellenes in Italy haven't seen before. I know I've never heard it before.'   The horrible screech rang out again. It sounded more like a bugle than anything else, but it didn't really sound like a bugle, either. 'I hope I never hear it again,' Sostratos said, but, as he did so often, he followed where Menedemos led.   Since the screeches, once begun, resounded at pretty regular intervals, tracking them didn't require dogs. They came from a ramshackle pierside warehouse about a plethron from the Aphrodite. The owner of the building, a fat Phoenician named Himilkon, came running out, hands clapped over his ears, just as Menedemos and Sostratos trotted up.   'Hail,' Menedemos said. 'Is that the noise a leopard makes?'   'Or has some Egyptian wizard summoned up a kakodaimon from the depths of Tartaros?' Sostratos added.   Himilkon shook his head from side to side, as Phoenicians did when they meant no. 'Neither, my masters,' he answered in gutturally accented Greek. Gold gleamed from hoops that pierced his ears. He plucked at his curled black beard, much longer and thicker than Sostratos', to show distress. 'That accursed fowl is pretty, but it will drive me mad.'   'Fowl?' Menedemos raised an eyebrow at yet another screech. 'What kind of fowl? A pigeon with a brazen throat?'   'A fowl,' Himilkon repeated. 'I do not recall the name in Greek.' He shouted back into the warehouse: 'Hyssaldomos! Bring out the cage, to show the miserable creature to these fine gentlemen.'   'He wants you to buy it, whatever it is,' Sostratos whispered to Menedemos. The captain of the Aphrodite dipped his head in impatient agreement.   Hyssaldomos' voice came from within: 'Be right there, boss.' Grunting under the weight, the Karian slave carried out a large, heavy wooden cage and set it down on the ground by Himilkon. 'Here you go.'   Menedemos and Sostratos crouched to peer through the slats of the cage. A very large bird with shiny blue feathers and a curious crest or topknot stared back at them with beady black eyes. It opened its pale beak and gave forth with another screech, all the more appalling for coming from closer range.