I took the proper path to the Hephaistion today, instead of scrambling up through the bushes on the hillside. A few men and women were paying their respects to the god, their voices echoing softly around the pillars of the colonnade that surrounds the walls of the inner sanctuary. Then we heard the sharp sound of hammering from the far end. We found a young priest fixing nails to the walls of the porch that shelters the sanctuary door.
There was a stack of lead tablets on the floor. I picked one up and read the words roughly scratched into the soft metal.
I, Nikochoros, alert Hephaistos to the villain who took my cloak in the Grove of Kolonos. If he steals it away, may the fires of the god’s forge sear him with fever. If it was taken in error and is returned to me, I will make an offering in thanks.
I wondered if the unknown Nikochoros had indeed been robbed, or was just careless. Either way, I hoped he got his cloak back without paying too much for the privilege. Some of the agora’s idlers make a nice profit at the big festivals ‘accidentally’ gathering up other people’s property before taking the spoils to a temple in hopes of getting a finder’s fee.
‘Thank you,’ the young priest prompted me, his hand outstretched. He’d finished hammering in his nails and was ready to hang the curse tablets up for visitors to the sanctuary to read.
Nymenios was scanning the ones already fixed there. He reached up to tap a broad square of lead placed where everyone would see it first. ‘Excuse me, what do you know about this?’
I read the summons for divine vengeance.
I, Emphanes, humble servant of mighty Hephaistos, declare the hides taken by deceit from this temple are property of the god, now stolen. Let those who have so vilely betrayed my trust and misused the god’s bounty pay with blood and boundless suffering. But let those who may have handled these hides in ignorance of this theft be spared by Hephaistos’s grace. May they be blessed and rewarded if they reveal those guilty of this impiety.
Dexios was right. Emphanes, the priest who’d been tricked, was absolutely furious.
‘No one’s come forward as yet?’ It wasn’t just cloak thieves who regularly checked these tablets. The agora idlers who kept their eyes and ears open could earn useful money by supplying information that helped to solve a crime.
Today, the young priest shook his head. ‘Maybe after the festival.’
‘What a bizarre thing to happen. Forgive my interest,’ Nymenios explained as he introduced himself. ‘Dexios, the tanner who was cheated, he supplies my business with leather. This sacrilege is causing us all serious trouble.’
‘You may rest assured we’ll show Hephaistos our gratitude,’ I added quickly, ‘as soon as he smites the thieves.’
Nymenios shot me a glare, but he played along. ‘If someone brings you evidence good enough to drag the guilty men into court, we’ll split the damages we’re paid with the god.’
I saw the young priest hesitate, swapping his hammer from one hand to the other and chewing on a wisp of his straggly beard. The lad knew his duty to encourage offerings to the temple. I could tell he’d also seen things he was eager to share. On the other side of that hypothetical drachma, he knew he wasn’t supposed to gossip.
‘Dexios is livid,’ I prompted, to weight the scales. ‘They must have heard him bellowing up on the Acropolis.’
That tipped the balance. ‘I know. I was there. I thought he was going to hit Emphanes,’ the lad confided.
‘Surely not!’ I leaned forward like a comedy slave, avid to hear more.
The young priest stepped closer as I’d hoped he would, and so did Nymenios. Unfortunately, the lad only repeated what we’d already learned from Dexios. It seemed Emphanes couldn’t have looked more of a fool if he’d been up on stage with a red leather cock in his hand.
Nymenios tried to rein in his exasperation. ‘And now there are no hides to be had anywhere. Do you know who’s outbidding us all?’
‘I’ve no idea,’ the lad said unconvincingly, before he added pointedly, ‘though a month or so ago, we were offered half the usual silver for that selfsame cartload.’
I seized on that unsubtle hint. ‘For the hides that were stolen? Who offered the god such an insult?’
‘Nikandros Kerykes,’ the young priest said with sudden venom. ‘Swanning about like he was doing us some gracious favour. Emphanes sent him off with his ears ringing.’
I had to swallow a profane exclamation. I’d hoped for answers but this was an unlooked-for blessing. When we got to the bottom of this, I’d be showing Hephaistos my gratitude with my own silver.
‘Good to know the prick doesn’t always get his own way.’ I managed a chuckle. ‘I’ve crossed paths with that arrogant bastard.’
‘He didn’t care.’ The boy’s resentment boiled over. ‘He sent some bare-knuckle fighter to tell us to take the silver and keep quiet, or we’d lose our teeth or worse. I—’ His nerve abruptly failed him and he hastily gathered his tools. ‘I must be about my duties.’
As the young priest scurried off, Nymenios looked at me, narrow-eyed. ‘What?’
‘Just a moment.’ I ushered him out of the porch and a little way around the colonnade. ‘Wait here.’
I hurried to the far end of the sanctuary where the rear wall offered an alcove for sundry dedications to Hephaistos. My memory hadn’t played me false. A handful of masks from Ephialtes’s Discus Throwers were hung there. A group of friends devoted to Hephaistos must have been in that chorus.
I walked back to my brother. ‘What does Nikandros Kerykes want with a cartload of fresh hides?’
‘How hard did they hit your head last night?’ Nymenios raised a sardonic eyebrow. ‘Megakles Kerykes owns three tanneries that I know of, though
