expression on his face would have done credit to a comic mask. 'You didn't even need me,' he said indignantly. 'Well, now that you mention it, no,' Sostratos answered. 'But thanks for bringing help anyway.' 'I still think he just ran off,' Menedemos muttered. But he did no more than mutter, for Teleutas had returned promptly, and the reinforcements he brought might have been useful. 'What do we do with Alexidamos here?' Aristeidas asked. 'One of the useful things you might do would be to pluck that dagger from the sheath on his belt,' Sostratos told him. After Aristeidas had done that, Sostratos said, 'Listen to me, Alexidamos.' 'To the crows with you, you stinking son of a whore.' Alexidamos' voice didn't sound right. He probably couldn't breathe very well through that ruined nose. 'You've maimed me. May the gods curse you forever.' 'This is what you get for being a thief,' Sostratos replied. 'I told you once, you'd better listen to me. If we let you go, will you leave us alone after this?' A considerable silence followed, punctuated by wet snuffling noises as the mercenary struggled for air. At last, he said, 'How can I say no?' Menedemos spoke before Sostratos could: 'You'd better mean it when you say yes. Otherwise, we might as well cut your throat and offer you up for fair winds, the way Agamemnon did with his daughter before he sailed off to Troy.' Considering the misfortunes that befell Agamemnon after he sacrificed Iphigeneia, that didn't strike Sostratos as the wisest threat to make. But Alexidamos was not inclined toward literary criticism. 'You're more trouble than you're worth,' he growled. 'You've shown me that twice over now.' Menedemos looked a question at Sostratos. Sostratos was mildly surprised to find his opinion sought. He shrugged and said, 'I don't think we'll get any better promise out of him. It's either let him go, kill him, or stay here and go to law against him.' 'May that not come to pass!' Menedemos exclaimed. 'We might be stuck forever, and we haven't got the time to waste.' He relaxed his grip on the mercenary. Sostratos and Aristeidas followed his lead. Menedemos said, 'All right, Alexidamos. Count yourself lucky.' Gingerly, Alexidamos felt of his nose. He hissed in pain at the slightest touch, and cursed at the blood on his fingertips. It was running down his face, too, but he couldn't see that. 'Lucky?' he said. 'I'm going to be ugly for the rest of my days on account of you - ' Remembering he didn't have the advantage, he swallowed a couple of choice epithets. 'You are lucky,' Sostratos said. 'You still have the rest of your life.' Even though I did my best to knock your head right off your shoulders when I threw that stone. 'You were ready to rob us of ours, the same way you tried to rob us of our peafowl eggs.' Alexidamos didn't
Вы читаете Over the Wine Dark Sea
