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"By all the Twelve, that's Nausicaa!" Io exclaimed. "See, Latro? Not on the skid, but waiting to get on. Notice her cutter bow?"
Drakaina smiled. "Quite the little sailor."
"The kybernetes taught me when we sailed with Hypereides. And I talk to our sailors too, instead of holding my nose in the air."
A jeweled and scented woman with golden bells in her hair passed us, jingling as she turned her head to smile at Drakaina; she carried two live hares by the ears.
CHAPTER XXXVI-To Reach the Hot Gates
A ship can follow either of two courses, as our captain explained. He is a white-haired old man, fat, and stiff in all his joints, but very knowing of the sea. When he saw I did not understand, he sat on a coil of rope and drew the coast on the deck for me with a bit of chalk.
"Here's the skid where we went across." He drew as he spoke. "And here's Water and Peace."
Io asked, "Does that name [Salamis (Gk.???????). Latro translates the Phoenician root. -G.W.] really mean 'peace'? That's what Latro says. It seems like there's been so much fighting there."
The captain looked far away, out over the dancing waves. "Because in the old times it was agreed with the Crimson Men there'd be no raiding on the island. In the old times-my grandfather's times-everybody took what he could, and there was no shame to it. A ship came to a city, and if her skipper thought his crew could take it, he tried. If you met a ship that could beat yours, you ran, and if you didn't run fast enough, you lost it. A man knew where he stood. Now maybe it's peace, and maybe it's war, and you don't know and neither does he. Last year the Crimson Men were the best in the Great King's navy. I mean the best sailors-the Riverlanders were the best sea fighters. And the Crimson Men would have fought on Peace if they could have landed. The old promises don't count, and the new aren't lived up to.
"Kings used to look for places where both wanted the same. Then they'd make an honest bargain and keep it, and if they didn't, they'd be disgraced, and punished by the gods, and their people too. Now it's all trying to get the advantage by tricks. What's the use of a bargain, when the other man's not going to keep it as soon as he sees it's a trick?"
Io pointed. "Thought must be right about here."
"That's Tieup. Thought's up here on the hill. I don't go there much any more. We're way past all that anyhow. Here's where we are." He continued the coast to the north, then made a long mark beside it. "That's Goodcattle Island, a great place for sheep. With a regular crew, we'd be going wide of it; there's a narrow cha
By "the ash wind" he meant the sweeps, long oars that one or two pull standing up. There are twenty on each side, and I took my turn at one with the men of Rope. It is hard work, and it blisters the hands; but it is made easier by singing, and it strengthens the whole body. My head ca
None of these things are of much importance, perhaps, but they are the first I remember; thus I write them, having waked from my dream.
Only eighty could be used at the sweeps, and we have more than four hundred, with Pasicrates and myself and the crew, a number that let all of us rest far longer than we rowed. When the sun was halfway to the hills on our left, a wind rose behind us. The crew hoisted both sails, and we ported our sweeps.
Pasicrates proposed wrestling matches, there not being room enough on the deck for any sport but wrestling or boxing. A lovely woman called Drakaina came to watch, taking a place close beside me. She has a purple gown and many jewels, and the Rope Makers moved aside for her very readily; she must be a person of importance.
Sniffing the wind, she said, "I smell the river-that air has crocodiles in it. Do you know what they are, Latro?"
I told her I did and described them.
"But you do not remember where you saw them?"
I shook my head.
"Are you going to wrestle, when your turn comes? Throw the other man over the railing for me."
It was something the victors often did to show their strength. Our ship trailed a rope, and the loser swam to it and climbed back on board, many saying the cool plunge was so pleasant after the heat of the deck that it was better to lose than to win. I promised Drakaina I would if I could.
"You're a good wrestler-I've seen you. You nearly defeated Basias, and I think you could have if you had wished."
I asked, "Is Basias here?" because I did not know the names of most of the men from Rope and thought I might wrestle him again.
She shook her lovely head. "He has gone to the Receiver of Many."
Hearing that, I feared I was defiled by his blood, for I know something is not well with me. "Was it I who killed him?"
"No," she told me. "I did."
Then it was my turn to wrestle.
Pasicrates had matched me against himself. He is very quick; but I am a little stronger, I think, and I felt I was going to win the first fall; but just as I was about to throw him to the deck, he slipped from under my arm so that I was left like a man who tries to break an unbarred door.
The railing caught me at the hip, and Pasicrates got my right leg behind the knee and tossed me over.
How cold the water was, and how good it smelled! It seemed to me that I should not be able to breathe it as I did; but though it was much colder than air, it was richer too and strengthened me as wine does.
When I opened my eyes, it was as though I were suspended in the sky like the sun; the blue water was all about me, a darker blue above, a paler, brighter blue below, where a great brown snail with a mossy shell crawled and trailed a thread of slime.
"Welcome," said a voice above me, and I looked up to see a girl not much older than Io. Her hair was darker than Drakaina's gown-so dark it was nearly black. Almost it seemed a cloud or aureole, and not such hair as men and women have.
I tried to speak, but water filled my mouth and no sound came, only bubbles that fell to the pale ground and vanished.
"I am Thoe, daughter of Nereus," the girl told me. "I have forty-nine sisters, all older than myself. We are permitted to show ourselves to those who are soon to die."
She must have seen the fear in my eyes, because she laughed; I knew then that she had said what she had for the pleasure of frightening me. Her teeth were small and very sharp. "No, you are not really going to drown." She took my hand. "Do you feel you are suffocating?"
I shook my head.
"You see, you ca
She wriggled off through the water like a serpent, waving for me to follow. I shouted but produced only a rush of water from my mouth.
"Europa told me about you. She's rather a friend of mine, except that she's too fond of herself because she used to lie with the Descender. Sometimes Father shows himself to sailors before storms, if he thinks the storm will kill them all. Do you know about that?"