Kylix shook his head. 'I doubt it. The things she said to her mother – Aphrodite, they hate each other.'
I had scribed some words on a piece of bronze. 'Give this to her if she comes.'
Kylix nodded and I gave him a coin. Worship is one thing – service another.
I walked back down the hill. That was the day that Eualcidas had his funeral games. We were a beaten army, but he was a great hero, a man who had triumphed at Olympia and stood firm on fifty battlefields. I felt sick and low, and I won only the race in armour. There was no hoplomachia, no fighting in armour. Stephanos won the wrestling, and Epaphroditos won overall and carried away the prize – a magnificent feathered helmet. Then we all drank until we couldn't stand, and we set fire to his corpse, and the two slaves were formally freed.
Epaphroditos stood by the fire with his arm around Idomeneus and tears streaming down his face. 'May I end as he did,' he said.
Stephanos shook his head. 'I'll take home and hearth, lord.'
I thought of the battlefield. 'He went fast, and in the fullness of his strength,' I said. I nodded. I was drunk.
Herk laughed and held out his hand for the wine. 'Don't camp on the wineskin, lad. When it's your turn – and you're one of them, I know that look – you'll think your time was too short. Me – I'm with the Chian boy. Home and bed, and all my relatives gathered around, arguing over the pile of silver I'm leaving.'
Cleon looked at the fire. 'I just want to get home,' he said.
I stood there, and loved all of them, but the one I wanted with me was Archi. And that door was still locked. Every man in the army knew me now, but I was not a captain or even an officer. So when they had their great conference, I did not go. Aristides went to speak for Athens, and he took Heraklides and Agios and another file- leader. Too many of the other leading men were wounded or dead.
They came back so filled with anger that it showed as they walked towards us on the road.
Aristides ordered the ships loaded. Then he summoned me. 'We're leaving,' he said. 'You served with me and you served well, but you are not one of mine. Yet I don't think I can leave you here. Aristagoras knows your name – what have you done that he hates you so much?'
I shook my head. 'It is a private matter,' I said. Had sex with his bride? But how would the fool ever learn that?
'Why are we leaving, lord?' I asked.
Aristides raised an eyebrow. Even in democratic Athens, men like Aristides are not used to being questioned by peasants from Plataea. 'Apparently, we abandoned the men of Miletus on the battlefield,' he said.
'Ares!' I said.
'Aristagoras is one of those men who not only lie to others but to themselves,' he said. And shrugged. 'I am not sorry to leave. Will you go to Athens?'
I took a deep breath. 'I think I'll go home, lord. To Plataea. Unless you would take me in service? As a hoplite?'
Aristides laughed. 'You are a foreigner. Listen, lad. Here you see me as a warlord with a retinue – but once I go home and lay my shield on the altar, I'm done – I'm just another farmer. I don't keep warriors. We're not Cretans – we're Athenians.'
Herk spoke up for me. 'We could find him work, lord,' he said.
Aristides shook his head. 'He's a killer, not a worker. No offence, lad. I would have you at my back in any fight. But I don't see you as a farm worker.'
I nodded. 'It's true.' I had to laugh. 'I could find a bronze-smith. Finish my training.'
Aristides looked interested. But Agios shook his head. 'You said that you knew Miltiades.'
I nodded.
Heraklides narrowed his eyes. 'I could take him. I have half a cargo for Byzantium, and I can get copper at Cyprus or Crete.'
Aristides shook his head. 'Herk, you'll make a profit off your own death.'
They both looked at me, and I was warmed by how much they both sought to do right by me. 'Lord, I think that it is time that I went home. I will not go to Miltiades,' I said.
'I will write you a letter,' Aristides said.
'Come with me anyway,' Herk said. 'I'll end up in Piraeus soon enough if Poseidon sends a good voyage – you'll make a few coins with me, and be the richer for it this winter at home.'
I was still afraid of going home. There's no easier way to put it. A few weeks with Herk seemed delightful – a respite. 'Yes,' I said. 'But I have sworn an oath, and I must see to getting my release.'
'We'll be off with the evening breeze,' Herk said. 'If you have goodbyes, say them.'
I ran up the hill.
I ran all the way to the gate, and then I knocked, and Darkar opened it, and I pushed past him into the house, until I found Archi. He had a bandage around his head.
'Get out of my house,' he said.
I had had time to think, and I spoke words I had considered. 'I am leaving,' I said. 'Aristagoras has cast the Athenians out of the army – the fool. I'll go with them.'
'Go!' he spat.
'But I swore to support you,' I said. 'And you need to get your family into ships-'
'Support me? The way you supported my father? And my sister? You are the fucking curse of this family!' He rose to his feet and then sank back, still woozy from his blow to the head.
'You have to get out of here!' I shouted at him. 'Pack the slaves and go! When Artaphernes takes the city-'
'I don't need any words from you!' he screamed.
'Have you freed Penelope yet?' I said, and he froze. 'Free her. You owe her. By Ares, Archi, get your head out of your arse.' I stood over him.
Darkar came back with two big slaves. I looked at them, touched my sword and they backed away.
'Go!' Archi said.
'Diomedes has not given up on revenge,' I said. I didn't know it – it came to me from the gods. 'Your father is gone and Briseis's idiot husband intends to hold the city against Artaphernes.'
'Scuttle off, cockroach,' he said. 'We will hold the city.'
I took a breath and let it out. 'I would stay, if you wanted,' I said. All my plans for careful speaking were gone, and I could only beg.
'So you can kill me?' he said. 'Or would you rather fuck me? Whichever way you choose to wreck me? Did you hate us so much? Did we treat you so badly? By Zeus, you must have lain awake plotting how to bring us down. Did you bring Artaphernes into the house, too?' Spittle was coming from his mouth. 'The next time I see you, I will kill you.'
I shook my head. 'I will not fight you,' I said.
'The better for me, then,' he said grimly. 'But your oath didn't protect my father and it will not protect me. Run far, Plataean.'
So much for friendship.
At the door, Kylix pressed a slip of papyrus – a single leaf – into my hand. Written in her hand, it said only 'stay away'.
So much for love.
When we sailed, the men of Chios and Miletus gathered on the beach to mock us as cowards.
There is no fairness, honey.
I thought that I was sailing away towards home – I hoped I was. But when we sailed out of doomed Ephesus, I was leaving home, and I wept. Part IV Scattering the Leaves The wind scatters the leaves on the ground, but the live timber burgeons with leaves again in the season of spring returning. So one generation will grow while another dies. Homer, Iliad 6.147
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