‘Horse good,’ he said. He reached out a hand for the flagon.
Coenus handed it to him without a moment’s hesitation. The Scyth took a deep drink, rubbed his mouth with his hand. Then Coenus caught the Scyth in a bear hug. ‘I think I like you, barbarian!’ he said.
Kineas shook his head. ‘I thought you stole the horse.’
The Scyth either didn’t understand or ignored the subject. ‘Where for you go? Leave tomorrow, yes? Yes, yes?’
Kineas was conscious of the sounds of conversation from the drive. Isokles and his family were arriving. It was late. ‘Olbia,’ he said.
The Scyth looked at him. He handed the flask to Diodorus as if he had always been part of their circle. ‘Long,’ he said. ‘Far.’ His Greek wasn’t barbaric. He pronounced his few words well, but had no notion of the complex rules of cases that governed nouns.
‘Ten days?’ asked Diodorus. That’s what the merchants had said.
The Scyth shrugged. His eyes were back on the horse.
‘You’ll guide us?’ asked Kineas.
‘Me go for you. You go. Horse good. Yes?’
‘I think that’s a deal, boss.’ Niceas nodded. ‘I’ll just keep an eye on the bugger, shall I?’
Coenus shook his head. ‘Ataelus and I share a hobby. Let’s go get drunk, my friend.’
Ataelus grinned. ‘Think for like you, too, Hellene!’ he said to Coenus. They walked off together toward the wine shops of town.
Niceas looked at Diodorus. ‘I guess we get to watch the camp.’
‘While I go to a dinner party? Excellent.’ Kineas grinned. ‘He’ll make a superb scout if we can keep him.’
Niceas waited until Coenus and the Scyth were out of earshot before going on. ‘He’s plenty smart.’
Kineas had seen some intelligence in the face, but he was surprised to hear Niceas confirm it. ‘Smart just how?’
Niceas pointed at the horse. ‘If he had just stayed here with us, would we trust him on the plains? But he’s already shown he could ride off, right? Stands to reason we’ll trust him more.’
Kineas saw it, put that way. ‘You’re as much a philosopher as that Spartan kid, Niceas.’
Niceas nodded. ‘Always thought so. And if he’s a philosopher, I’m a Hipparch in the Guards.’
‘Enlighten me.’ Kineas was actually standing on the balls of his feet, that eager to be in Calchus’s house on time, but Niceas was not much given to bursts of conversation and when he spoke it was worth listening to.
‘I heard from Dio about his javelin throw. He swam for an hour, maybe more, before you rescued him, or so I heard it. Spartan bastard. Out of shape — don’t know why. But he’s officer class — Spartiate. The tough ones. Fucking killing machines.’
‘I’ll bear that in mind,’ Kineas said.
‘Don’t marry the girl until we’ve done our contract,’ said Niceas.
Dismissed by his own hyperetes, Kineas headed for the house. He was still thinking about Niceas’s comments when he found himself lying full length on a wide couch with the Spartan himself.
‘I hope you don’t mind sharing with me,’ Philokles said. ‘I asked Calchus to put me here. I think he was going to give you Ajax.’
‘Thanks.’ The Spartan’s breath was heavy with wine already. Kineas moved a fraction away.
‘You are leaving tomorrow?’
‘Yes.’
‘For Olbia?’
‘Yes. That’s where we have our contract.’ Kineas was finding it hard to talk to Philokles, a man who seemed immune to social convention, while the other guests, Isokles, Ajax, and a robed and veiled figure that had to be a woman all stood, obviously waiting to be introduced to the principal guest before taking their ease.
‘Will you take me?’ Philokles clearly resented having to ask. A good deal of suppressed arrogance was very close to the surface.
‘Can you ride?’
‘Not well. But I can.’
‘Can you cook?’ Kineas was in a hurry to end this — Isokles had just shifted his weight, they were being very rude to the other guests, why couldn’t Philokles have kept this until the end of the meal? But he didn’t want to say yes.
‘Not if you want to eat it. Otherwise, yes.’
Kineas raised his eyes to Isokles and tried to pass a message. I know I’m being rude, I’m being importuned by someone whose life I saved. Isokles winked. The gods only knew what he thought was happening.
‘I’ll take you. It may be dangerous,’ he added weakly, too late to make any difference.
‘All the better,’ said the Spartan. ‘Goodness, we’re being rude. We should greet the other guests.’
Isokles and Ajax greeted them and took their places on couches. The girl had vanished, probably taken to the women’s rooms on the other side of the house.
Dinner consisted of fish, all very good; lobster, a little undercooked, and then more fish — the sort of opson — filled meal that moralists in Athens complained of. Watered wine made the rounds, a series of slaves bearing in the ewers of wine and Calchus mixing in the water himself. He was the only one alone on a couch, and he started conversations to include all of his guests; the wars of the boy king of Macedon, the hubris of the boy king claiming to be a god, the lack of piety in the younger generation, with the exception of Ajax. Despite his best intentions, he tended to launch monologues on his views on each of these matters. Ajax was silent and respectful, Isokles didn’t rise to the arguments as Kineas had expected he would, and Philokles applied himself to the fish courses as if he didn’t expect to eat this well ever again.
After the last food course basins of water were brought and all the men washed their hands and faces.
Calchus raised a wine bowl. ‘This is really a family gathering,’ he said. ‘To Isokles, my rival and brother; and to Kineas, to whom I owe everything I have achieved here.’ He poured a libation to the gods on to the floor and then drank the bowl to the dregs and upended it to show it was empty. ‘Since we are just family, it will outrage no god or goddess for your daughter to sing for us, Isokles.’
‘I couldn’t agree more,’ said the older man. He took a full bowl of wine and raised it. ‘To Calchus, for hosting us to this excellent dinner, and to his friend Kineas, who we all hope will grace us with his presence for long years to come.’ He, too, poured off a libation.
Kineas realized that it was his turn. He felt out of place, shy, unaccustomedly foreign. He took a full bowl and rose to a sitting position. ‘To the hospitality of Calchus, and to the making of new friends — for new friends are gifts from the immortal ones on high Olympus.’ He drank the cup down.
Philokles took his bowl and stood with it. Kineas could see on the faces of Isokles and Calchus that Philokles had it wrong — he was not supposed to raise a toast any more than young Ajax — but he did.
‘Poseidon, Lord of Horses, and Kineas saved me from the sea, and Calchus’s hospitality made me a man again.’ His libation to the gods was half the cup, and then he drank the rest. ‘Surely there is no bond dearer than guest to host.’ He subsided back on to his couch.
Ajax recognized the quote and applauded. Isokles raised his bowl in salute. Even Calchus, who at best tolerated the Spartan, gave him a nod and smile of thanks.
Two women entered the back of the room, unveiled, their hair piled high atop their heads and wearing fine linen. The older had to be Calchus’s wife, although this was the first time Kineas, who had lived in the house for three days, had laid eyes on her. She was tall, well built, long of limb and elegant in her movements, and she carried her head high. Her face would not have launched a thousand ships, but her expression of pleasure and her obvious intelligence took the place of beauty. She smiled at all of them.
‘This is Penelope,’ she said quietly, without raising her eyes. ‘Daughter of Isokles. I will just sit by and listen, if I may.’ She never raised her eyes, never mentioned her own name — the very picture of a modest matron — except that surely Calchus had no children or Kineas would have seen them.