released all four prisoners, well down the beach, almost as far as the threshing floor where the goats play.
We were gone around the point before the freed men joined their friends. Briseis asked me to take her around to Eresus. How could I refuse? Eresus is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Briseis had made that fart Aristagoras buy her a house there, on the back side of the acropolis, good land with figs and olives, like a little piece of Boeotia in the desert of eastern Lesbos. The jasmine on the slopes of the acropolis perfumes the air, and the sun is bright on the cliffs over the town.
The people came down to meet us, then Briseis took me up to the acropolis, where I met Sappho's daughter – an old, old woman. She was strong, the lady of the town and still fully in command.
'You are her husband?' she asked.
I shook my head, no, but she smiled.
'You are her true husband,' she said.
She was an odd woman, a priestess of Aphrodite, and the lady of the Aeolian goddess, and a famous teacher. I was a tongue-tied killer in her presence, but I saw another Briseis that day – a witty, educated woman who could sing a lyric as well as an Olympic competitor.
That night we lay together in her house, with the doves cooing and the jasmine smell, and I have never forgotten it. It was the first time we had been together without an element of fear. It was different. She was different. I knew love that night – not the maddened, half-angry love of the young, but the gift of the Cyprian that turns your head for ever.
I would have stayed a second day, but Paramanos came to me, pounding on her door, and his words were hard.
'You are mad!' he said. 'And she is no better.'
And that is what is wrong with the world, thugater. Because I accepted his words. We shared a last drink of wine under her fig tree.
'You are Helen,' I said to her.
'Of course I'm Helen,' she said. 'Why shouldn't Achilles have Helen? Why can't Helen have Achilles?'
'I have to sail away from you for a time,' I said. 'Otherwise, one of us will die, or I'll kill Aristagoras and be an outlaw.'
She put her arms around my neck and it felt like the most natural thing in the world. 'When I've had my way with the world, I'll call you to me and we will make love until the sun stops in the sky,' she said. 'I'll send you a copy of Sappho's epic to pass the time.' She laughed.
I kissed her. 'I love you,' I said.
She laughed. 'How could I have doubted you? Listen, Achilles – when you have a chance, kill my husband. If you don't, I'll have to do it myself, and men will talk.' She laughed again, and ice touched my spine.
There was never anyone like Briseis. And if you know your Iliad, you'll know that it was on that very beach that Achilles took her.
She made me feel more alive.
She climbed the cliff while I walked down to the beach, and then she watched us sail away from the top.
I never promised you a happy story. Miltiades was waiting for me on the beach at Mytilene. I hadn't learned, yet, that he was the greatest spymaster in the west, and knew of every event long before it happened. Indeed, his reach was long.
He embraced me as I stepped ashore, but he was curt. 'Walk with me,' he said.
He was my commander. I walked away with him, thinking of Briseis. I saw the cloud on his face and wondered how I could next see her.
'You had Aristagoras's wife in your boat,' he said.
'The bastard tried to ambush me.' I didn't know what else to say.
'He tried to ambush you when you sneaked off to fuck his wife,' Miltiades said. He turned to face me. 'That's what he's going to say.'
'She's two months pregnant!' I said – which was not, strictly speaking, a denial. 'I went to get my ransoms!'
'What ransoms?' Miltiades asked me, and he was as shrewish as a woman buying fish in the agora.
I hadn't told him, and suddenly I realized that this, not Briseis, was the real matter. 'I had Phoenicians to ransom after the fight at Amathus,' I said.
'You thought to take the money for yourself?' he asked, and his voice was dangerous.
I stopped walking. 'What?'
'The ransom for the Phoenicians,' he said. 'You sought to sneak away? You thought that I wouldn't know?' This was a different Miltiades – a sharper, more dangerous man.
'What?' I asked, foolishly. And then, 'What concern is it of yours?'
'Don't try that on me,' he said. 'Half of anything you take is mine. You expect me to squander political capital to save you from Aristagoras and then you try to steal my money?'
I stepped back. 'Fuck off,' I said. I shook my head. 'Those are my ransoms from Amathus. Nothing to do with you.'
'Half,' he said. 'Half of every penny you take. That is the price of being my man. I pay the wages on your ship. You agreed to the contract.' He spat. 'Don't act like a fucking peasant. You got more than a talent.'
I think that my hand went to my sword hilt, because he looked around – suddenly the great Miltiades was afraid to be alone on the beach with me. It wasn't the money, thugater. I am a killer and a lecher, but I have never been a greedy man.
But I thought that he was cozening me, and I can't stand to let other men get the better of me. 'This is my money from before the contract!' I said. 'I've promised part of it to my men!'
'That will have to come from your half, then,' he said. He crossed his arms. He was a little afraid – even then, men saw me as a mad dog. But he was bold, and he must have needed the silver.
If you want to know how great a man truly is, see him talk about money.
I sighed. 'Why didn't you come to me – like a man?' I might have said, like a friend, but I had just discovered that pirates have no friends.
'If you ever speak to me that way again, I'll have you killed,' Miltiades said. 'Now pay up your half, and we can forget all about this.' He was shaking with fury, and yet he was above mere insults of manhood. He didn't point at the boat behind me, but he did jut his chin at it. 'You think it's going to be easy to keep you alive after this? He hates you. And you come sailing back from a rendezvous with his wife.'
Oh, I can be a fool.
I paid. Perhaps you'll think less of me, but Miltiades was the only anchor I had in that world. I had no family and no friends, and I was living far above my birth. So I walked back down the beach, took the rolled cloak out from under the floorboards of my boat and I paid Miltiades half of the ransoms that I had earned without him.
Paramanos watched me do it without a muscle moving on his face, but I knew who the sycophant was by watching. Herakleides wouldn't meet my eye.
I couldn't believe it. He was such an upright man.
But he was an Aeolian, and such men can be bought.
Cheap.
I cursed.
Miltiades counted it out and threw me back a gold bar – an enormous sum of money. 'That's to take the sting out,' he said. 'I'm going to assume you misunderstood. Don't let it happen again, and let's just forget.' He grinned and offered his hand.
I took it and we clasped.
Miltiades looked over his shoulder. Then he looked back. I think he was measuring my value to him. I met his eye. I trusted Miltiades. As I heard it from him, Aristagoras had plotted to kill her, and me, and that was enough.
Later, he came back and told me. 'I earned every penny of the ransom you tried to hide from me, ungrateful boy,' he said. Then he waved, always the great man. 'Forget it,' he chuckled. 'We're going to have some wonderful times together.'
I never forgot, though, and I assume he didn't either. He sent me to sea immediately, that evening, with
