mask, no one would care, for you've got the quick-darting mind the part needs.” “Thanks very much,” Sostratos said, and kissed him on the cheek. “I don't think anyone has ever said anything kinder about me.” “I've never denied you have a clever mind, the cleverest I know,” Menedemos replied. But if he gave Sostratos two undiluted compliments in a row, his cousin might die from the shock, so he added, “Now if you only had the good sense the gods gave a gecko . ..” “You're a fine one to talk,” Sostratos shot back. “You're the one who jumps out of second-story windows to get away from a husband home too soon.” “And you're the one who's been mooning over an old skull as if it were a young hetaira,” Menedemos said. They chaffed each other all the way down to the harbor. Menedemos hurried down toward the Aphrodite . “Euxenides had better not keep us waiting. I want to get out on the open sea again.” “So do I.I want to sail for Athens.” Sostratos pointed ahead. “Isn't that the man himself, already on the foredeck? You were right, up by our houses.” “Dip me in dung if it's not, and so I was,” Menedemos said. “Good for him. I don't expect he got out of Phaselis and Xanthos by being late to his ship. And now he'll get out of Rhodes, too.” He started up the pitch-smeared planks of the pier that led out to the akatos, calling, “Ahoy, the Aphrodite !” Diokles gave answer in his raspy bass: “Ahoy, skipper! Passenger's already aboard.” “Yes, we saw him,” Menedemos said. “Do we have all the rowers?” “All but one,” the oarmaster replied. “No sign of Teleutas yet.” Menederaos eyed the sun, which had just climbed up out of the sea. “We'll give him a little while—half an hour, maybe. If he's not here by then, we'll hire one of the harbor loungers, and many goodbyes to him. Rhodes has plenty of men who know how to pull an oar.” “That's how we got Teleutas a year ago,” Sostratos said. “He's a funny one. He will work if you put him to it, but to him getting paid is the only part of the job that really matters.” “I still think he ran away in the market square in Kallipolis, too,” Menedemos said. “He came back with more sailors so fast, I couldn't really call him on it, but I think he left us in the lurch. I wouldn't be sorry to see somebody else on his bench.” He walked down the gangplank and onto the Aphrodite 's poop deck. Standing between the steering oars, even with the ship still tethered to the pier, was in its own way almost as satisfying as lying between a woman's legs. Fishing boats made their way out of the great harbor and onto the waters of the Aegean. Gulls followed them overhead like gleaners in the fields, knowing the pickings would be good. Menedemos drummed his fingers on the steering-oar tillers and gauged the creeping shadows. If he doesn't get here soon. I will sail without him. Teleutas came up the pier and aboard the Aphrodite just before Menedemos set about replacing him. “By the dog of Egypt, where have you been?” Menederaos snapped.
Вы читаете The Gryphon's Skull
