Soldier of the mist

The captain nodded. "I'll land them on this side, from boats. That'll be the safest way."

"Good. Come with us, then. I've promised Latro the sight of your ship, and you'll have to point it out to him." The regent looked about for Tisamenus, but he was gone. The shieldman offered to search for him, but the regent shook his head. "You've got to allow these fellows some freedom, if you want to hang on to them." As we began our walk, he added to me, "He wanted to spare his legs, I suppose. We had to make him a citizen to get his help at Clay, but he's no Rope Maker, just the same."

Though the moon was low and as crooked as my sword, it was a clear night with many stars. We climbed a cliff above the town that gave us a fine view of the little harbor. "There's Nausicaa," her captain said proudly. "Nearest the mouth of the bay." His ship was only a darker shape upon the dark water; yet I wished I were on board already, for I feel there is nothing for me here.

The regent said, "You'll be anxious to get back, I imagine, Captain."

"Anxious to serve you, Highness, but-"

"Go." The regent waved a hand.

I thought we would return to the camp, but the regent remained where he was, and after a time I realized he was not looking at the ship, but at the sea, and at Sestos and the world beyond.

When he turned away at last, he said softly, "What if the beggar boy-Let's not call him Latro; his name is Pausanias. What if Pausanias the beggar boy could become known to the king? You must help me, and I'll help you. I'll give you your freedom and much more."

I said I did not think I could do anything, but I would be happy to do all I could.

"You can do a great deal, I think. You know the servants, Latro. Perhaps you can persuade them to allow me to enter the palace."

He turned to go. The shieldman, who had followed us when we climbed the steep path up the cliff, came after us as silently as ever.

While we returned to the camp, I thought about what the regent had said and all the things I have written here. And I despaired of promoting so great and terrible an enterprise, though I could not say so when I parted from the regent. How is a man, even a prince and a regent, to enter a palace no man has seen? To befriend a monarch whose ministers are gods?

There is one more thing to tell, though I hesitate to write of it. A moment ago, as I was about to enter this tent Io and I share with Drakaina and Pasicrates, I heard the strange, sly voice of Tisamenus at my ear: "Kill the man with the wooden foot!" When I looked around for him, there was no one in sight.

I have no notion what this may mean, or who the man with the wooden foot may be. Perhaps it was some trick of the wind. Perhaps I am to be mad as well as clouded of memory, and this voice was a phantom of that all-obscuring mist.

CHAPTER XXXV-Ships Can Sail Dry Land

Our ship is crossing the isthmus today. I have already read much in this scroll and found in it many things that puzzle me; perhaps I should write of our crossing before it becomes one puzzle more.

I woke with Io asleep beneath my arm and Drakaina awake on the other side. She says we coupled in the night, but I do not believe her. Though she is so lovely, her eyes are as hard as stones, and I would never have intercourse with a woman while a child slept with us. Nor do I believe a man could, without waking the child. Besides, though I ca

True or not, I rose and dressed; so did she. Io woke too, grumbling because she had no chance to wash her little peplos while we were at sea and had none now, though we rode at anchor.

Our ship is larger than most of the others I saw in the harbor this morning. Io says we waited all yesterday for our turn at the slipway, but it is hard without a bribe for the slipmaster. This morning the young man who sleeps in our cabin roused his hundred (they sleep on the deck with their slaves and the sailors, and it was their feet that woke me) and had them rowed to the city. Io said we watched the ships yesterday, and the oxen draw them along the slip much more slowly than a man walks-that is true, as I see now-and thus we could go into the city, too. If Nausicaa were taken on the slip, we could soon catch up to her.

"We've been here before, Latro," she told me. "This is the place where the soldiers came from who took us away from the Rope Makers' slaves. You won't find that in your book, because I had it then. See that hill? Up there's where they kept us till Hypereides came and they gave us to him. Pindaros and Hilaeira and the black man were with us, and I'll never forget how it was when they struck off our fetters-Hypereides told them to, after he'd talked to us-and they led us out into the sunshine. You can see the whole city from up there, and it's really beautiful. Do you want to see it? I'd like to look at the place where they kept us."

Drakaina said, "Yes, let's go. Perhaps they'll keep you again. But will the guards let us go up?"

Io nodded. "They let anybody go. There's a temple at the top to Kalleos's goddess, and some other temples and things."

The city is full of people, all hurrying to someplace else. Many are slaves and workmen with no clothes but their caps; but many are wealthy too, with gold rings and jeweled chains and perfumed hair. Men are carried about the city in litters. Drakaina says that in Thought only women and sick men use them, and this place is much more like the east, where she comes from. The truly rich have their own litters and dress four or six slaves alike to carry them. Those who merely wish to be thought rich hire litters, with two bearers or four.

"If we had the money," Drakaina said, "we could hire two litters ourselves, so we wouldn't have to climb all those steps. You and Io in one and I in the other." (I believe she had at first pla

"You've got money," Io told her. "The regent gave it to you, that's what you said, and you paid the boatman. So go ahead and hire yourself a litter, and Latro and I will walk."

I nodded, and in truth I wanted to stretch my legs, which feel as though they have not had much exercise lately.

Drakaina said, "Not enough. But we could sell something."

Io looked at her askance. "What? Sell one of those rings? I never thought they were real gold."

"Not my rings. But we've other commodities, if only we can find the right buyer."

A soldier tried to shoulder past us, and she caught him by the arm.

"Not now," he said, and then when he had seen how lovely she is, "Call on me tonight. You'll find me generous. I'm Hippagretas, Lochagos of the City Guard. Across from the Market Temple of the Stone God, and two doors north."

"I'm not from Tower Hill," Drakaina told him. "Not that I'd mind having a lover so distinguished and handsome. I only wished to ask you who commands the army of this city."

"Corustas is our strategist."

"And where can we find him? Will you guide us?"

"In the citadel, of course. But no." He shook his head, tossing the purple plumes of his helmet. "Much as I'd like to, I have important affairs."

I smiled to hear that even the soldiers of this town hurried about like merchants.

Drakaina smiled too. "Might Corustas not reward an officer who brought him people with information?"

The lochagos stared at her for a moment. "You have a message for the strategist?"

"I have information, which I will give him only in person. But I suppose I may tell you that we have just disembarked from the ship carrying the aide to the regent of Rope."