'Arrange terms of surrender.' The prince rose.
'Exactly, Highness.'
'All right, then. It will make things easier for me at home anyway-Gorgo doesn't like her.'
When the winding mountain paths had brought us here again, the regent ordered his bodyguard to form the phalanx; this bodyguard consists of three hundred unmarried men chosen by himself. 'Shieldmen of Rope,' he began. 'Rope Makers! Hear me! You know of the glorious victory of Mycale. There's not a man among us who doesn't wish he had been there. Now word has reached me that our allies, jealous of our glory, were not content with that victory. When our ships set out for home, they remained across the Water, and they have laid siege to the Great King's city of Sestos!'
Though the young soldiers stood rigidly at attention, there was a stir among them, like the stirring of a wood that hears far off the thunder of the storm.
'When we return, I intend to tell the judges we should send an army to aid them-but what if Sestos falls before it arrives? You know how we were late to Fennel Field. You have heard, I imagine, that the men of Thought are claiming credit for the victory at Peace. I ask you, shall we let them say they took Sestos alone?'
Three hundred voices roared, 'No!'
'And I too say no!' The regent paused; the young men waited, tense and expectant. 'All of you know Pasicrates, and you know he has my entire confidence. Pasicrates, step out here!'
Pasicrates left the first line of the phalanx to stand beside the regent, and even to me he looked a young hero in his bright armor.
'Pasicrates will lead a hundred volunteers to Sestos. Those who do not wish to volunteer, remain in ranks. Volunteers! Step forward and join Pasicrates!'
The formation surged forward as one man. 'He'll choose,' the regent shouted. 'Pasicrates, choose your hundred!'
A moment ago, Io asked what I was writing about. 'About the choosing of the hundred volunteers,' I told her.
'What about what we did in the gorge, killing the black lambs?'
I told her I had already written about that.
'Do you think it was really real? That King Cleomenes talked through Drakaina?'
'I know it was,' I said. 'I saw him.'
'I wish you'd touched him. Then I could have seen him too.'
I shook my head. 'He would have frightened you.' I described him to her, dwelling on the horror of his wounds.
'I've seen a lot. You don't remember all I've seen. I saw you kill the Rope Makers' slaves, and I saw Kekrops after the sea monster killed him. Do you think Pasicrates understood what Cleomenes said?'
Drakaina sat up at that. 'Do you remember? What was it?'
'Don't you know? You said the words.'
'No,' Drakaina told her. 'I was not I who spoke. I remember nothing.'
Io recited the four lines as I have given them and added, 'I don't think Pasicrates was right. I think Cleomenes wanted a real peace, and not for the regent to send men to Sestos. That was what he meant when he said the regent should ask who took the fortress. If he didn't send men, he wouldn't know.'
Drakaina said, 'He meant no one would take it. I've seen Sestos, and believe me, what they say is true-it's the strongest place on earth. People talk of the walls of Babylon, but they are gapped to let the river through. That was how the People from Parsa took it the first time. Sestos has no such weakness. As for seeking peace, Cleomenes knows that Demaratus, the true heir to the younger crown of Rope, is one of the Great King's advisers. He naturally hopes for an agreement that will leave the Agids the elder crown and give Demaratus the younger. If such an agreement had been struck two years ago, the whole war might have been prevented.'
I asked if she was feeling better.
'Yes, thank you. Weak, but as though I'll be stronger than ever when I'm no longer weak. Do you know what I mean?' She cupped her full breasts and caressed them, savoring delights to come. 'Something in me knows the best part of this life still lies ahead.'
Io asked, 'Just how many lives do you have? And is there a spring where you take a bath to get back your virginity?'
Drakaina smiled at her. Her lovely face looks hungry when she smiles. 'Don't flutter too close, little bird of joy, or you'll sing a different song.'
Io seated herself at my feet. 'You may be the bird who has to learn a new tune, Drakaina. Prince Pausanias likes you, but we're going with Pasicrates, and he hates you.'
'Because I came between him and the regent-quite literally, as it happens. When the regent's a hundred leagues away, things will be different; you'll see.' With such fluid grace as few women possess, Drakaina rose. 'In fact, I think I'll have my first chat with the noble Pasicrates now. He'll be the one who assigns us space on the ship, I suppose. I want the captain's cabin. Would you care to bet I don't get it?' From the sheen of her dark hair and the grace of her swaying figure, it seemed likely enough she would.
When she was out of sight, Io made a face. 'I think if somebody sliced her up the way you said Cleomenes was, she'd wiggle till sunset.'
I did not want to punish Io, but I told her I thought that an ugly thing for a child to say, even though Drakaina's name was 'she-dragon.'
'It used to be Eurykles of Miletos,' Io told me. 'I know you don't remember, Latro, but it was. Eurykles was a man, and when we lived with Kalleos, sometimes he spent the whole night in her room. Drakaina says he changed himself into her by magic. I didn't like Eurykles much, but I liked him a whole lot better than Drakaina. And if you ask me she changed him into her, somehow.'
I asked her how this Eurykles had looked. Now that she has described him for me, I know he was the man I saw follow King Cleomenes.
A short time ago, the prince regent's runner came to tell me that he will send for me soon. He said I was to wash and put on my best clothes, which I have done. I asked if he would be present, but he said he would be in the town getting supplies for our expedition to Sestos. A shieldman of the bodyguard-one of those who will not be coming to Sestos with us-will probably be sent for me, he said.
Io reports that according to the gossip of the camp, a ship has brought the regent's sorcerer.
CHAPTER XXXIV-In the Regent's Tent
There was no one to meet me. 'Wait here,' said the young shieldman who had brought me. As he turned to leave he added, 'Don't touch anything.'
I do not believe I have ever been a thief; but for a thief it would have been tempting indeed. There were lamps of silver, gold, and crystal, and many soft carpets and cushions. A long knife in a green sheath with gold mountings hung from one of the tent poles, and an ivory griffin spread its wings upon a peak of ebony.
I was admiring this last when the regent entered, bringing with him a sly little Hellene with a beard. 'This is the slave,' the regent said, dropping to a cushion. 'Latro-Tisamenus, my mantis.'
I did not know the word, and my ignorance must have appeared on my face. Tisamenus murmured, 'A mere consulter of the gods, sir, a humble reader of the omens of sacifice.'
'Tisamenus advised me at Clay. Those who know the result know why I think highly of him.'
'His Highness has told me of his dream. I wished to see the man. It sometimes amuses His Highness to accede to my little requests. Sir, Latro, I noticed you were admiring that statuette when we entered. Do you know of those monsters?'
'Do they actually exist? No, nothing.'
The regent said, 'I'm told they live in the country of those Sons of Scoloti who revolted against the royal branch of their people, and that they hoard gold.'
I said, 'Which can't be as precious as this carving, Highness.'
Tisamenus murmured, 'I'd understood they're found north and west of the Issedonians. It's said they put
