east.' 'Easy enough for us to come too far north with nothing much we could use to judge our course,' Sostratos said. 'I suppose so.' But Menedemos still sounded discontented. He took as much pride in his ship-handling as Sostratos did in his bits of historical lore. Trust Menedemos to be the one who's proud of something from which he can actually get some use, Sostratos thought. Towards evening, the weather finally began to clear again. 'Land ho!' Aristeidas sang out. 'Land dead ahead, and also land to starboard.' Sostratos saw the land, too, as did everyone else aboard the Aphrodite. The akatos lay forty or fifty stadia offshore, in no danger of running aground. To Sostratos' surprise, the beach ahead and the curve of the coast looked familiar. He needed a moment to realize why. Then, turning to Menedemos, he said, 'Isn't that where we got rid of Alexidamos after he tried to steal the peafowl eggs?' 'Why, I do believe you're right,' Menedemos said after a little study of his own. 'I half expected to see him bearing down on us in Taras, spear in one hand, shield in the other, blazing for revenge because we threw him off the ship,' Sostratos said. 'He must have fallen foul of the Samnites before he made it to the polis,' Menedemos replied. 'I can't say I'm sorry, either. The only thing worse than a thief on board is a man with a sickness that spreads.' 'How far are we from Kallipolis?' Sostratos asked. 'A couple of hundred stadia, maybe a little more,' his cousin answered. 'If I have this stretch of coastline straight in my mind, it's about halfway between Taras and Kallipolis.' 'Can we make Kallipolis by nightfall?' 'I doubt it.' Menedemos didn't sound happy about having to doubt it. He swung his leg in a way that meant he would have kicked at the dirt had he not been aboard ship. 'I hadn't planned on spending two nights in a row at sea, but I'm not going to beach the Aphrodite on this coast.' 'I should hope not.' Sostratos shuddered at the thought of losing all the silver they'd worked so long and hard to gather. Every crewman within earshot dipped his head to show he didn't want to ground the ship, either. 'It's the rain's fault,' Menedemos said. 'We'd have gone faster and I'd have navigated better without it.' 'Maybe it'll work out for the best,' Sostratos said. 'We'll have a little chance to dry out, so we won't look like such ragamuffins when we do come into port.' 'We haven't got much left to sell,' his cousin said. 'It isn't worth worrying about.'
Вы читаете Over the Wine Dark Sea
