“My faith in Pericles has not been broken, but it’s been sorely tried one or two times. I cannot honestly say I trust him completely.”
“Some sense begins to penetrate!”
“But nor has he betrayed me, nor done anything to hurt me.”
“Waiting until he does is not a sign of high intelligence.”
I decided to bore on. “It provides you with a motive, doesn’t it? Remove Ephialtes before he can declare for your rival.”
“The leadership is rightfully mine. I worked for it. I slaved for it. I earned it.” Archestratus’ eyes were wide, he was breathing heavily, and his voice became harsh. “I will not listen to ridiculous propaganda put about by the stooges of my, as you put it, rival. And you forget one thing: if I were going to kill for the leadership, the man I’d remove wouldn’t be Ephialtes, it would be Pericles. Then Ephialtes would have had no choice but to support me.”
Archestratus stalked off in a huff. I trudged along more slowly, feeling drained. Archestratus would have made the perfect suspect, except that everything he said in his defense made perfect sense.
“What do you think of him?” Pericles walked up to me. “I saw you talking to Archestratus.”
“What do I think? He’s a bitter man beneath a pose of elegance and urbanity. I don’t know if he’s the master legal technician everyone says he is, but I do know he’s going to do everything in his power to get the leadership of the democrats.”
Pericles nodded. “Yes, I think you read him correctly, but I would add that he’s a man who hates, but doesn’t want to advertise his hatred. He’s also an incisive logician.”
“Dangerous enemy?”
“Very much so.”
“He has similar thoughts about you.”
“I don’t doubt it.”
“And I wouldn’t be surprised if he was right too.”
Pericles chuckled. “So nice for all we democrats to be of one accord, even if it consists mostly of mutual suspicion and nastiness. Let me add another suspicion to your already teeming collection, Nicolaos. I was talking to my father during that appalling spectacle of a funeral. He mentioned to me in oh-so-casual innocence that he will propose a bill before the Ecclesia to promote Pythax to citizen.”
“Why?”
“Inestimable services to the state.”
I considered. “That might be a fair judgment.”
“There’s no such thing as altruistic fairness when it comes to my father.”
“So what do you think?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to ponder it.”
Pericles left me for other men waiting to speak to him. I took the path home.
A form I barely recognized ran out of the nearby bushes, grabbed my arm, and dragged me out of sight among the branches.
“Euterpe, what in Hades do you think you’re doing!”
“Silence!” She put a hand over my mouth. “If you must speak, do it quietly.”
I nodded and she removed her hand.
“What are you doing here?” I hissed.
“Did you think I would let them bury the man who was the closest I’ll ever have to a husband without seeing him off?” She was dressed in mourning but her hair was uncropped.
“All right. That doesn’t explain why you dragged me in here.”
“Do you want Diotima married to that weed Rizon, and bound to the same house as that revolting madwoman?”
“No, but you should be happy. You’re the one who was insisting she marry. Now she has no choice.”
Euterpe hissed, “Not him! Ephialtes would never have chosen Rizon. He was going to find a sensible older man from a good family.”
“What do you expect me to do about it? You need to talk to the Archon.”
“I did,” she surprised me. “He told me he hadn’t much choice. I offered him anything he wanted if only he would marry her to someone better.”
My mind dwelled on the contents of anything.
“Nicolaos, are you listening to me?” she demanded.
“I’m considering your words very closely indeed.”
“The bastard took the anything and then walked out, saying he still had no choice.”
“There’s nothing I can do, Euterpe. I’m a nobody in this game. Everyone I’m dealing with is a high official or a powerful politician, and I’m just a young man.”
“Yes there is, there’s something I didn’t tell you before. Ephialtes was planning to prosecute the Eponymous Archon and the Polemarch as soon as they left office. He believed they’ve been stealing public funds.”
“Ephialtes told you this?”
“Yes. Days before he died.”
“Did he have proof?”
“He must have. He couldn’t take them to court without it. He wouldn’t have talked of it to me unless he was certain.”
Footsteps approached, two men talking. Euterpe and I remained silent while we waited for them to pass, which to my relief they did. If I was discovered under the bushes with Euterpe I would never hear the end of it from Diotima.
When we were alone once more I said, “Then Ephialtes was going to hit the Archon and the Polemarch with this when they went for their public review after their year in office?” It wouldn’t be the first time Ephialtes had prosecuted a high official for corruption or negligence, and he’d nailed quite a few of them.
Euterpe nodded. “That’s what he said. He said the scandal would at least destroy them politically, and perhaps a jury might fine them heavily.”
“What about the Basileus?”
“Ephialtes only mentioned the Archon and the Polemarch.”
“Do they know what Ephialtes had planned for them?”
“I don’t know. They might have. When Ephialtes prosecuted in the past, he told the men beforehand and gave them a chance to withdraw.”
It all made a certain amount of sense, though given what I knew of Euterpe, one thing surprised me. “Why didn’t you blackmail Conon with this? You could have stopped the marriage.”
Euterpe laughed, not her usual light tinkling laugh, but a sound full of scorn. “My word against his? Don’t be ridiculous, I’m not even allowed to testify in court. But I know that somewhere there’s something to prove it. There has to be.”
“You searched your home.”
“Of course. Nothing. I wouldn’t expect it, he never brought work to my house.”
“But he had another home, and that’s where it would be.”
“It’s not a home I can enter, and I thank Aphrodite for that small mercy.”
“But Diotima can. She’s there now.”
“Yes. Tell her, Nicolaos, when she purifies the house, to take every piece of paper, every scroll she finds. Tell her quickly. I don’t know how long she’ll be allowed to remain there.”
I grimaced and shook my head. “I’ve been warned if I compromise her, Rizon might declare her an adulteress.”
“I accept the risk of my daughter’s death in return for not having her married to that man.”
“Are you going to offer me anything to help her?”
Euterpe smiled and leaned forward so that I could feel her breasts pressing against my chest. She put her lips close to mine. “I made that mistake before, but I know you now, Nicolaos, son of Sophroniscus. I don’t need to offer you anything.”
I hurried along to Ephialtes’ house in a state of anxiety and sexual frustration. It was nighttime now, and
