The Arrows of Hercules
- Автор: Де Камп Лайон Спрэг
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «The Arrows of Hercules». Краткое содержание книги:
“Exciting and quite believable adventures.”—Classical World
“Rousing piece of fiction...pace is rapid and unrelenting.” —The Arizona Republic
At last the crenelations of the city wall manifested themselves as a saw-edged band of deeper black against the blue-black of the starry sky. The moon was low. Segovax slowed his team to a walk. Presently he stopped the horses, got out, and led them on foot, patting them and talking softly to them.
He stopped where the wall reared up before them to a height of thirty cubits. He tied the horses' bridles to the fronds of a palm that grew beside the road. To Zopyros he whispered:
"Pick up your gear, but leave Evnos' and mine. I'll be taking the rope. Now you see why I didn't bring the white horses. They'd stand out like a tulip in a basket of charcoal."
He led Zopyros and the boy towards the wall. Once there, they had to walk along it for several plethra before they reached a staircase. Again came the whisper:
"I'll go up and scout; wait here in the shadow. The gods willing, a sentry will be just going by. Then we count to five hundred, and over the wall we go. If we go up there when there's no sentry in sight, we never know when one will be coming."
Segovax removed his shoes and stole up the stone stairs. For a big, bulky man, he could move with remarkable quiet.
They waited. Ahiram became restless and increasingly hard to keep quiet. Zopyros did not dare to slap the child or even to threaten to do so, lest Ahiram set up a howl or run away.
Segovax came back clown the stairs, as quietly as a drifting cloud. "There's no sentries at all, at all," he whispered. "Or, if there are, we can't wait till sunrise to greet them. So come on up, Zopyros dear."
They stole up the stairs, panting a little by the time they reached the top. As far as the eye could carry, no sentry could be seen along the broad upper roadway of the wall. Away to the right, the setting moon threw a broad band of silver dust across the surface of Lake Ariana. Far away a jackal yelped.
Segovax put his head out through one of the embrasures of the parapet and whistled. An answering whistle came from below. Segovax tied a loop in the end of the rope.
"You first, my lad," he said, putting the loop around Zopyros' body.
"But what about you? And whom do I pay for all this? And what shall I do with the mule?"
"Don't be worrying about silly things like money. Dionysios is paying for your escape, though he doesn't know it yet, poor man. Give the mule to the witch if you like. Now, over you go! Hold on to the parapet ... Now put your weight on the rope, a little at a time ... That's right. Keep the feet of you firm against the stones."
Segovax had taken a couple of turns of the rope around one of the merlons of the parapet, so that he could let the rope out a foot at a time without undue strain. It seemed to Zopyros that the descent took hours. He was glad he could see nothing below except the irregular black masses of trees and shrubs. As the rope above him lengthened, it quivered and thrummed in disconcerting fashion, and he found it harder to keep his feet braced against the masonry.
At last he felt the ground beneath his feet. Evnos helped him out of the bight of the rope and fastened it around his own body.
"We shall see you in Syracuse," he whispered. "There's the mule; name's Yaphe." He looked upward and called softly: "Ready!"
Up he went, a few inches at a time. This was much slower than lowering Zopyros, even though Evnos was the smaller man. After a few pulls, Segovax had to stop, snub the rope around his merlon, and rest.
Zopyros sought out the mule in the darkness. The animal, tethered to a small tree, was munching at everything it could reach. It bore a saddle pad with a strap in back, to which Zopyros fastened his traveling bag.
When he had finished, Evnos was almost to the top. The Karian pulled himself up hand over hand for the remaining distance. There was quiet for a moment, then the sound of the rope's being paid out rapidly through one of the embrasures.
"Master Zopyros!" came a small voice. "Are you there? I am afraid! I'm being banged against the rocks!"
As Ahiram came down with a rush, Zopyros caught him. The boy had been tied in an elaborate harness, made out of the end of the rope.
Zopyros was still untying the lad when there was a whistle from above. Then came a scurry of feet going down the stair on the other side. The sound of horses' hooves and chariot wheels started up sharply and then diminished. At the same time, the sound of running steps on top of the wall approached. There was a jingle of warlike gear and a sentry's cry:
"Stand! Who goes there?"
Zopyros strained his fingers at the knots in the rope, but his comrades had done their work all too well. At last he took out the smallsword strapped to his thigh and sawed the rope apart. At that moment, the rope was snatched away from above. Another pair of running feet approached from the other direction. Zopyros heard snatches of phrases in Punic:
"Who's there?" "Somebody sneaking over the wall!" "Going in or out?" "That sounded like a chariot." "Behold this rope!" "See you aught below?"
Zopyros boosted Ahiram on the back of the mule, unhitched the animal, and vaulted on behind the boy. "Go!" he said, kicking the mule's ribs with his heels and slapping its flank with the slack of the reins.
The mule stood still, continuing its repast. Zopyros kicked and slapped, to no avail. He did not dare to shout. He thought of drawing his sword and giving the balky brute a prick. He hesitated, for his Pythagorean training had taught him to be kind to animals.
"Somebody's down there!" came one of the voices from above. "What is it?" "I cannot tell." "Give them a shot whilst I rouse the guard!"
Footsteps receded. There were small indeterminate sounds, a faint whir as of a large night insect, a whistle of cloven air, and a smacking impact just behind Zopyros. A sling bullet had struck Yaphê in the rump. With a bray of pain and anger, the mule started off. Zopyros desperately clutched Ahiram with one hand and the saddle pad with the other. Then they were out on the coastal road, rocking along at a brisk canter towards Utica.
Six – UTICA
Cape Utica ended in a wedge of sea cliffs—buff, umber, and tanbark in the slanting rays of the afternoon sun. Above the cliffs, the land, sparsely covered with thorny bush, rolled away to southward. Scarcely any green was to be seen. The dun-colored scrub forest looked as dead as Darius the Great.
Actually, as Zopyros knew, the land was only sleeping. It was lying low, like a leopard snoozing away the noonday heat in the shade of a gum tree. With the first rains of autumn it would spring again into vigorous life.
Overhead, piles of clouds, winging in from the west, now and then obscured the sun. At the base of the cliffs, a choppy surf hammered at shiny black, sea-washed rocks. The sea, too, was awakening from its summer sleep. Soon would come overcasts, gales, downpours, whitecapped swells, and the end of sea travel.
Hoping that he had remembered his directions aright, Zopyros jogged out to the end of the point. Then he turned the mule and ambled a bowshot back along the eastern side of the point. He slid off Yaphê and tied the reins to a branch of a gnarled cork oak.
"Stay on the mule," he told Ahiram. "I shall be back."
"Waits Mother down yonder?" asked Ahiram.
"Nay. I've told you: We must needs take ship."
"I have been on a ship. But I thirst! When eat we?"
Zopyros turned away to scout along the top of the cliff. At first he failed to find a path. He had a horrid feeling that he had been hoaxed or had made some basic mistake. What in Hades should he do if there were no Saphanbaal, or if she could not be found?
Then he saw the path, snaking steeply down the cliffside. It was partly natural but had been improved by the hand of man. Zopyros walked down the slope, cautiously feeling the cliff with his shoreward hand. More than halfway down to the water, the path leveled out. Then it widened to form a ledge, on which yawned the mouths of several caves.