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
"What in the name of the Dog goes on?" shouted the Greek captain. "What kind of vagabonds are you, to come leaping aboard my ship like sea daemons?"
"Merely a couple of good Hellenes escaping from a Punic slaver," said Zopyros. "I'm Zopyros the Tarentine, presently of Syracuse."
"Oh, so you're Hellenes," said the captain. "That's different." Cupping his hands, he shouted across to the other ship: "You there! Drop anchor so a port officer can board you!"
But the crew of the Sudech, pulling hard on their oars, ignored the command. The Greek captain turned back to Zopyros. "Shall we take those rascals into custody?"
The Sudech was swinging about towards the mouth of the harbor. Moving briskly, the sailors hauled her yard around and shook out her sail. She heeled to the morning breeze and started for the open sea.
"Let them go," said Zopyros. "Those rogues would be hard to catch and harder to convict, and I have my own business to attend to. I got off at the cost of a game set and a night's sleep, which is not bad considering."
Seven – ORTYGIA
The first autumnal gale, with gusts of rain, swept in from the west. Skippers beached their vessels for the winter; hence Zopyros found no ship to take him and Ahiram to Syracuse. He managed, however, to hire a traveling cart in Akragas. He had to hire a driver, too, to return the vehicle to its stable.
The journey took four days—longer than it would have by ship —and was costlier and less comfortable than a sea passage. The road was a pair of ruts of the standard Sicilian vehicle gage, lined with stone and chiseled into rock where the road crossed a ledge. Where the ruts were in disrepair—that is to say, for most of the journey— the vehicle jounced over rocks and roots and splashed through mud-holes. For long stretches of wild country there was little sign of human life, save an occasional peasant's one-room hut of sticks, stones, and mud.
Zopyros braced himself as best he could on the narrow board seat behind the driver. Since Ahiram could not reach the floor with his feet, Zopyros spent most of the journey with the sometimes fretful child in his lap. Both were covered with dust and soaked by intermittent rains. At night, Zopyros slept with the boy in his arms in the rude, bug-ridden huts that served as inns.
Considering all he had been through since he had been snatched from his placid, prosperous home, Ahiram proved a good traveler. While Zopyros entertained him with stories of gods and heroes, he took the hardships of the road in his stride, showed a keen interest in every new sight, and asked endless questions about his mother.
At the Hyblaios River they cut across the southeast corner of Sicily, by way of Akrai. When Zopyros remarked upon the beauty of the Heraean Mountains, now turning from brown to winter green, the driver looked at him queerly.
"Beautiful to you, maybe," he said. "A toff like you looks at mountains and forests and thinks of nymphs and satyrs playing orgy-tag in the brush. So you say: 'How pretty!' When I look at mountains and forests, I think of all them bloody brigands waiting to pounce on me and slit my gullet. No, sir, I don't think they're the least bit pretty!"
They arrived in Syracuse in midafternoon. Zopyros paid off the driver and left Ahiram with his landlady, who gathered the boy to her bulky bosom and cried:
"Just look at the poor little mouse, filthy from head to foot! You men!"
"Then clean him up and buy him a new shirt, my dear Rhoda," said Zopyros. "Here's some money."
Having seen to Ahiram's needs, Zopyros walked to the Arsenal. At the entrance to the building he passed Alexis the Velian, to whom he gave a casual wave. Next, Archytas rushed up to embrace him, saying:
"When you failed to return with Evnos and Segovax, I was sure you had joined the majority. They wouldn't tell me what had happened to you. What did happen?"
"Just a little job of abduction."
"Korinna's boy?"
"Yes."
"Divinity! You're a fox who can slip through any hole!"
"You might say so; we were almost kidnapped ourselves by slavers on the way here."
"By the Dog of Egypt, tell me!"
"It's too long a story. I'll tell you the whole tale this evening."
"You won't have a chance; the boss is giving another party, for off-islanders. We're invited because we are educated gentlemen, forsooth, and he wants to show the people that his friends aren't all spies and ruffians."
"At least we shall eat well; after the road—"
"How is it that you gave Alexis such a casual greeting just now? Oh, I know! You haven't yet been told that he's your new boss."
"What?"
"Yes," said Archytas. "Dionysios decided that the Arsenal gang had grown too large for Drakon alone to oversee. So he gave Drakon two subordinates: one, Alexis, in charge of all research teams; and the other, Pyres, in command of all production."
"Zeus, Apollon, and Demeter! That's a fine surprise to come home to. I shan't need three guesses to figure out how Alexis got the job."
Archytas laughed shortly. "Thrice evil to evildoers! Everybody knows he's Drakon's boy friend, and no doubt Drakon urged him on Dionysios for that reason. Now Alexis thinks he has God by the balls. Still, Dionysios is pretty shrewd. If Alexis can do the job, he'll stay no matter how much you and I hate his shadow. If he can't, he'll be out regardless of Drakon or anyone else."
"Have you had to do with him personally?"
"I've had a few brushes with him. He gives me a pain. I can laugh it off more convincingly than you can, but that doesn't make me like it."
An ominous thought struck Zopyros. "How is my project coming?" He looked around the vast floor of the Arsenal, seeking the space that had been assigned to him for the pilot model of the catapult.
"You won't like it," said Archytas. "Come this way."
At one side of the Arsenal, among the piles of oars and ship timbers, Zopyros found the parts of his pilot model, unassembled and neatly stacked. Archytas explained:
"No work was done on your catapult after you left for Carthage. Alexis claimed he had more urgent need for your carpenters and shifted them to other jobs. I complained clear up to Philistos but— Zopyros! Keep your temper! A Pythagorean never acts in anger!"
Zopyros stood still, his lips drawn back from his teeth, his eyes glaring, and his hands clenching into fists. He said in a low voice:
"By the twelve postures of Kyrene, I'll have it out with that baby-faced catamite—"
"Wait! Calm down! Dear Zopyros, remember: if you lay a finger on Alexis, you'll be out on your arse! And then what of all your fine marriage plans?"
"I'll get that whipworthy rascal, though Dionysios has me drowned afterwards!" Head thrust forward, Zopyros stalked towards the doorway, where he had last seen Alexis.
Alexis was nowhere to be found. Zopyros learned that the new assistant master of the Arsenal had gone home to prepare for the evening's feast.
"It's time we went home to wash up, too," said Archytas with evident relief.
They returned to the island at dusk. The town hall was thronged with prosperous-looking Syracusans, who stood about with a deferential air, staring curiously around them. Among them a few of Dionysios' engineers were to be seen.
The tyrannos' cronies were present in full force. These were a score of trusted friends, like Philistos, who lived on the island and shared Dionysios' table. Mainlanders called them his flatterers or parasites. In truth, however, Dionysios kept them so busy running errands, occupying executive jobs in» his government, traveling about on embassies, and snooping into the affairs of the Syracusans that they had little time for flattery. Among these courtiers were a willowy poet, a scar-faced character from the underworld of some big Greek city, and a stocky man of peasant type, named Lithodomos, who seemed to be kept around mainly as a butt for the others' jokes. Dionysios' brother Leptines, the admiral of the Syracusan navy, was at his brother's side.