'Syracuse,' Xenodokos said. Sostratos looked at his cousin. He didn't care for the gleam in Menedemos' eye. 'The ship,' he said pointedly. 'I know, the ship.' Menedemos sounded impatient. 'Remember, we have to go by Rhegion anyway.' Sostratos remembered. His heart sank. 10 Menedemos was like a child with a new toy. 'We'll make the family rich with this run!' he said. 'We'll throw grain into the Aphrodite till we're down to about a digit's worth of freeboard, and we'll get paid for it as if we were that full of fine wine. What could be better?' His cousin, predictably, was like a mother watching her son play with a sword he thought was a toy. 'What could be better?' Sostratos said. 'Not getting sunk could be better. So could not getting caught. Not getting killed. Not getting sold into slavery. Not getting gelded. If you give me a little while, I can probably think of some more things.' 'Oh, nonsense.' It wasn't altogether nonsense, as Menedemos knew. But he didn't want to dwell on that. Had he dwelt on it, he would have been just like Sostratos. He had trouble imagining a fate less appealing - or, for that matter, a fate less interesting. As a brisk, hot breeze from out of the north pushed the Aphrodite ahead of it towards Rhegion, Sostratos scowled. Sostratos, in fact, did everything but stamp his foot on the timbers of the poop deck. 'It isn't nonsense. What you want to do is senseless. We already have a profit. This is a needless risk.' 'We'll be fine.' Menedemos did his best to sound soothing. 'From what Xenodokos said, there'll be a whole fleet down at Rhegion. The polluted Carthaginians can't nab everybody.' 'Why not?' Sostratos retorted. 'And you didn't see Xenodokos setting out for Syracuse, did you? Not likely! He went the other way. I wish we would, too.' 'You worry too much,' Menedemos said. 'You were jumping up and down about putting in at Cape Tainaron, too, and that worked out fine. Why shouldn't this?' 'We weren't sailing into the middle of a war when we put in at Cape Tainaron,' his cousin answered. 'You're just asking for trouble.' 'The wind should be with us and against the Carthaginians,' Menedemos said. 'We'll just slide right into the harbor at Syracuse along with all the round ships - and if the barbarians do get after this fleet, they'll have an easier time catching round ships than they will with us.' Sostratos exhaled angrily. 'All right. All right, by the gods. You're going to act like an idiot - I can see that. You lust for this the same way you lusted for that Tarentine's wife. But promise me one thing, at least.' 'What is it?' Menedemos asked.
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