up and down. He dipped his head. 'As far as I can see, any mercenary who's stupid enough to get frisky with you deserves whatever happens to him.' 'I'm a peaceable man, captain,' Diokles said. A slow smile spread over his face. 'But I might - I just might, mind you - remember what to do in case somebody else didn't happen to feel peaceable.' 'Good,' Menedemos said. 'OoP!' Diokles called. The other rowers in the Aphrodite's boat rested at their oars. The boat grated on the sand. Sostratos wore only a tunic and a knife belt. As he stepped onto the beach, he wished he had on a bronze corselet and crested helm, greaves and shield, and long spear and shortsword. Armor and weapons might have made him feel safe. On the other hand, they might not have been enough. 'This is a place with no law,' he murmured to 'If anyone takes it into his mind to try to kill us, what's to stop him?' 'We are,' Menedemos replied. Sostratos found that unsatisfactory. But his cousin was grinning from ear to ear and strutting a jaunty strut. Just as some men were wild for women or wine or fancy opson, so Menedemos was wild for trouble. He sometimes seemed to get into it deliberately so he could have the fun of getting himself out. A couple of mercenaries dressed like Sostratos and Menedemos except for wearing sandals and having swords on their belts instead of knives came up to them. 'Ail,' one of them said in Ionian dialect. 'What are you selling, sailors?' 'Passage to Italy,' Menedemos answered. 'We're bound for Taras. Always something lively going on in Great Hellas.' He used the common name for the colonies the Hellenes had planted in southern Italy and Sicily. 'That's so.' The second mercenary dipped his head. 'How much for the trip?' He sounded like an Athenian - his dialect wasn't far removed from Ionian, but preserved rough breathings. Menedemos turned to Sostratos. As toikharkhos, he set fares. 'Twelve drakhmai,' he said. Both mercenaries winced. 'You won't find many who'll pay you that much,' said the one who spoke Attic. 'We can't take many,' Sostratos answered. 'We've got a full crew and not a lot of room for passengers. But you'll get where you're going if you travel with us. We don't have to stay in the harbor for half a month if the winds are against us, and we won't get blown to Carthage if a storm comes up at sea.' 'Even if all that's true, it's still robbery,' the mercenary said. He looked as if he knew plenty about robbery. How many men have you murdered? Sostratos wondered. How many women and boys have you forced? He didn't let any of what he was thinking show on his face. If he had, the mercenary probably would have yanked out that sword on his belt and gone after him with it. Instead, he just shrugged. 'No one says you have to pay it if you don't want to.' Grumbling, both mercenaries walked on. Menedemos said, 'Don't take such a hard line that you turn away business.'
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