broken pot, the way it seems, they're liable to go at each other any time.' He kept a wary eye out for warships and pirate galleys himself. All he saw, though, were a few little fishing boats bobbing in the chop. A couple of them spread their sails and scooted away from him as fast as they could go. He laughed at that: the akatos looked too much like a piratical pentekonter for them to want to let it get close. 'You're the one who's been hearing most of the news lately, cousin,' he said to Sostratos. 'Do you have any idea what sort of fleet Ptolemaios has at Kos?' But Sostratos tossed his head. 'Sorry - haven't heard that. It had better be a good-sized one, though, because Antigonos has a lot of ports on the mainland and the islands farther north.' He grimaced. 'The same holds for Rhodes, you know.' 'We have got a good-sized fleet, and a good thing, too,' Menedemos said. 'Antigonos knows better than to quarrel with us, the same as a dog knows better than to bite a hedgehog. Now, where have you got those perfumes stowed?' 'To port, a little aft of amidships,' Sostratos answered. 'Are you thinking of trading them for silk?' 'That's just what I'm thinking,' Menedemos told him. 'The Hellenes in Italy can make their own perfume. You can't get silk anywhere but Kos.' 'If we can make a good bargain with the silk merchants, that's fine,' Sostratos said. 'If not . . .' He shrugged. 'If not, we'd do better spending silver on silk and saving the perfumes for a market where they'll bring us more.' 'You'll be the judge of that,' Menedemos said. 'That's why you're along.' 'Nice to know you think I have some use,' Sostratos said dryly. 'Some,' Menedemos agreed, to make his cousin squirm. He pointed. 'And you'd better keep an eye on that peahen, too, before she goes into the drink.' As one had done on the first day it was let out of its cage, a peahen had hopped up onto a vacant rower's bench and was peering over the side. Menedemos didn't know if the bird would try to fly off and fall into the sea, but he didn't want to find out the hard way, either. Sostratos was of like mind. He netted the bird before it could do anything the young men who'd bought it would regret. The peahen pecked Sostratos through the mesh of the net. 'Down to the house of Hades with you, you accursed, abominable thing!' he shouted, rubbing at his ribs through his chiton. He turned to Menedemos. 'If it weren't for what we paid for them, I'd like to watch them drown.' 'So would I,' Menedemos said. 'I'd hold them under myself, in fact.' 'I never imagined sailing with a valuable cargo I hated,' Sostratos said, releasing the peafowl by the socket that fixed the mast to the keel. He pointed a warning finger at the bird. 'Stay down here where you belong, Furies take you!' To Menedemos, he added, 'I don't much care for cargo that won't stay where I stow it, either.'
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