I was surprised. 'A goddess?'
'Or a god. Whatever. Find some little place, impress the people with my powers, and make them build me a temple.'
Basias told him, 'You'd better put more water in that.'
The Milesian smiled. 'Perhaps you're right.'
'Drinking unmixed wine will drive a man mad-everybody knows that. The Sons of Scoloti do it, and they're all as mad as crabs.'
'Yet I've heard there are little villages along your coast where the people worship sea gods who've been forgotten everywhere else in the world.'
Basias drank again. 'Who cares what slaves do? Or who their slave gods are?'
Io said, 'We had four Sons of Scoloti on Hypereides's ship with us, Latro. But then one left the night the sailor died and never came back.'
Basias nodded. 'What did I tell you?'
The Milesian spun his coin again. 'Not all of them are Sons of Scoloti. Some are Neurians; there was a Neurian in the city.'
'Who are they? I never heard of them.'
'They live east of the Sons of Scoloti and have much the same manners and customs. At least, when we see them.'
Basias poured himself more wine. 'Then who cares?'
'Except that they can change themselves into wolves. Or anyway they change into wolves. Some people say they can't control it.' The Milesian lowered his voice. 'Latro, you don't remember how I raised a woman in the city, but one of them had opened her grave. I had planned, you see, just to produce a ghost; but when I saw that broken coffin-well, the opportunity was too good to miss.'
The innkeeper, who had been lounging against the wall not far away, sauntered over to join the conversation. 'I couldn't help but hear what you said about men who change to wolves. You know, we had somethin' a bit odd happen just last night, right here in Acharnae. Family sleepin' peacefully in their beds, when just like a thunderclap the place was full of I don't know what you call 'em. People talk about Sabaktes and Mormo and all that, kind of like they was a joke. These wasn't, though they didn't write their names on the walls.' The Milesian said, 'They vanished at dawn, I assume. I wish I might stay here another day, so I might exorcise them for those good people; my fame in that line outreaches the known world, though I hesitate to say it. But I fear the noble Eutaktos means for us to march again after the first meal.'
'They're gone already,' the innkeeper said. 'I haven't talked to the family myself, but I know them that have, and they say a man come to the door just as they was runnin' out. He said to give him a skin of wine and he'd fix things. So they did, and he set up the figure of the three goddesses that had been knocked down and poured out a bit to each goddess. Soon as he did that, they was gone.' The innkeeper paused, looking from face to face. 'He was a real tall man, they said, with a scar on his head.'
The Milesian yawned. 'What happened to the wine? I don't suppose he poured it all out.'
'Oh, he kept that. Some people are say in' he probably whistled up those whatever-they-weres just to get it. I say that for a man who could do that, he was satisfied awful cheap.'
'And so would I,' the Milesian drawled when the innkeeper had left. He spun the owl on the table as before. 'But then, it all depends on just whom the wonder's worked for, doesn't it? When I raised the dead woman in the city, I had sense enough to take her around to some wealthy patrons before cockcrow. Most of them weren't my patrons before they saw her, to be sure. But they were afterward. Some people despise wealth, however. I do myself.'
'You don't talk like it,' Basias told him.
'Do you have any money?'
'I thought this was your treat.'
'Oh, it is. I just want to know whether you've got any.'
'Couple of obols,' Basias admitted.
'Then throw them away. They're no good where we're going, or so people tell me. Toss them into the dirt there. I'm sure that fellow who just left will be happy to pick them up.'
Basias darted the Milesian a surly look but said nothing.
'You see, you don't despise money. Nor do I. Wealth is stuffy and stupid and arrogant, and the only good thing about it is that it has money. Money's lovely stuff-just look at this.' He held up the owl. 'See how it shines? On one side the owl: the male principle. On the other, the Lady of Thought: the female principle.' He spun the coin on the table. 'Money always gives you something to think about.'
Basias asked, 'Do you know what Pausanias did after the Battle of Clay?'
The Milesian looked bored, but Io piped, 'Tell us!'
'We killed Mardonius and got his baggage. So Pausanias told his cooks to cook a meal just like they would have for him and his staff. He called in all our officers and showed it to them. I wasn't there, but Eutaktos was, and he told me. Pausanias said, 'See the wealth of these people who have come to share our poverty.' '
'It's perfectly true.' The Milesian nodded, still spinning his coin. 'By our standards, the wealth of the Empire is incalculable. His name wasn't really Mardonius, by the way. It was Marduniya. It means 'the warrior.' '
Basias said, 'I couldn't say that without wrenching my mouth.'
'You'll have to learn to wrench your mouth, if you hope to get rich while you're liberating the Asian cities with Pausanias.'
'Who said I did?'
'Why, no one. I said 'if.' '
'You say too much, Eurykles.'
'I know. I know.' The Milesian rose. 'But now, if you'll excuse me, kind friends, I have to-where does one do it here, anyway? In back, I suppose.'
No one spoke for a moment, then Basias said, 'I'd like to go with him.'
I asked why he did not.
'Because I'm supposed to stay with you. But I'd like to see what he has under all those clothes. Did you ever?'
'See him naked?' I asked. 'Not that I remember.'
Io said, 'Neither have I, and I don't want to. I'm too little for that.'
Basias grinned at her. 'Anyway, you know it. Half don't. But if you change your mind, I'll show you a way.'
I said, 'And I will kill you for it.'
'You mean you'll try, barbarian.'
Io said, 'Latro isn't a barbarian. He talks just as good as you do. Better.'
'Talk, yes, but can he wrestle?'
'You saw him throw your lochagos.'
Basias was grinning again now. 'I did, and it set me wondering. Want a bout, barbarian?' He drained his wine.
'Same rules they use in Olympia-no hitting, no kicking, no holds below the waist.'
I stood and took off my chiton. Basias laid his sword belt on the table and took off his cuirass, then pulled his own chiton over his head. The innkeeper appeared from nowhere with half a dozen loungers in his train. 'Just a friendly bout,' Basias told him.
He was shorter than by a hand, but a trifle heavier. When he extended his arm for me, it was like gripping the limb of an oak. In a moment he had me by the waist; and in a moment more, I was flat on my back in the dirt.
'Easy meat,' Basias said. 'Didn't anybody ever teach you?'
I said, 'I don't know.'
'Well, that's one fall. Three and you lose. Want to try again?'
I bathed my hands in dust to dry the sweat. This time he lifted me over his head. 'Now if I wanted to hurt you, barbarian, I'd throw you into the table. But that would spill the wine.'
The inn yard swung dizzily until it was where the sky should be, then slapped me as a man swats a fly.
