Authors: Gene Wolfe
"Artembares," I repeated.
Polos would not look at him, though I saw his eyes roll. "When did he come? Did you call him?"
"Certainly not," I said. "He was cold and saw the fire; he asked if he could sit here until he got warm, and I said that he could."
"He spoke to you first?"
"Of course," I said. "What is it that's bothering you so much, Polos?"
Artembares said, "I spoke first here at your fire, but you had spoken to me already at another fire, when you asked about Oeobazus. I don't like to speak to people who haven't talked to me first." He hesitated. "It doesn't seem right."
Polos announced, "I'm going to the stream to get a drink," and I gave him some wine to mix with the water so that he would not become ill. I asked whether he had met Artembares before, and he shook his head and ran away.
Now I am going back to sleep.
I have been talking with Oeobazus, who speaks the tongue of Hellenes better even than Artembares. He came to me while I was sharpening Falcata with the farmer's stone and told me his name, saying that though he knew that all of us had fought to save his life, he also knew that I had done the most, and that he wished to thank me for it.
"It's not our custom," he said, "to spend many words—not even on great matters. But for as long as I live, you've only to call on me whenever you need my help."
"You may spend few words," I told him, "but no man could have said more."
He smiled at that and held out his hand, and I took it. I believe we were both somewhat ill at ease; after a moment he chuckled, indicating the whetstone. "I see you've blunted your sword on the necks of our enemies."
"No," I said. "I did it last night, chopping firewood. I thought I'd find her edge wrecked this morning, but it's hardly worse than it was— this is a very good blade." That reminded me of Artembares, who had come to our fire just after I split the last of the deadwood. I said, "There's somebody of your nation with us, a boy from Susa. Have you met him?"
Oeobazus looked mystified and shook his head.
Io had been listening; she said, "My master forgets. You said the mantis told you about him before we got here."
"Yes, he and I had a long talk yesterday. Your master may forget me, and I'll understand if he does; but I'll never forget him."
"Did he tell you, too, that sometimes he sees things other people don't?"
Oeobazus nodded.
"Sometimes people think they're not real, but once I saw the same thing he saw. I think it depends on what each person means by real."
Oeobazus smiled at her. "Spoken like a true Hellene! I've listened to your wise men argue such things all night—and never reach any conclusion. For us, there are only truths. And lies. We don't trouble ourselves about unreality."
"That's good. Just after we woke up, my master said he'd found a boy from Parsa who knew where you were, and he was going to guide us. Badizoe and I wanted to know where he was, and my master said he'd already gone as far as the next hilltop, and he pointed. We could see a young stallion there, kind of red brown and about half-grown, only we couldn't see anybody riding him. And when we asked Elata, she just laughed. But that horse led us right to you."
Oeobazus fingered his beard, which is black and very thick. "Perhaps you should ask Hegesistratus."
"I have," Io told him, "only when he was through answering I didn't know what he'd said."
"Or Seven Lions. He tells me he knows your master better even than you do."
Just then the black man himself dashed into the shed where we were talking, pointing with his chin and talking very fast to Oeobazus, who appears to understand his tongue; Oeobazus told us, "He says that there's a chariot coming, and the rest of the Amazons are following it."
We all ran out to look. Hegesistratus and the lovely Elata were already there, and Badizoe galloping off to meet her queen. A Thracian was driving the chariot, but the man who rode beside him looked like a Rope Maker, a tall soldier in a scarlet cloak. As they drew nearer he waved and shouted, "Noble Hegesistratus! Latro! By every god, it's good to see you both!"
TWENTY-TWO
There's Where We Camped
IO TOLD ME, "I'LL BET if we went over and hunted around for it, we could see exactly where we built our fire. Look, our altar's still there."
I admitted the place seemed familiar, though I could not actually recall having been there.
"The Amazons were with us then," Io said.
They left after the first meal, half a dozen strong women, of whom two are badly hurt. They took all the white horses, and they have a guard of Thracians sworn to ride with them as far as the fords of the Hebrus. Hegesistratus says the Hebrus is the western border of Apsinthia. They bear tokens from three lords here to other lords, their kinsmen in Cicones. Besides these, their queen has a letter written with this stylus upon a strip of white lambskin by the strategist from Rope; it declares them to be under the aegis of King Leotychides and Prince Pausanias the Agid Regent.
"I'll miss them," Io told me. "You won't, master, but I will. And I miss Polos—I miss him a lot. Do you remember him?"
I shook my head, for I did not.
"He was just a boy—a Thracian, I guess. Anyhow the way he talked sounded a lot like Thracian. He was younger than me, but it was nice to have somebody around who was about my age."
I told her I hoped we would someday live in a place where there were other children, and a wise woman who could teach her all the things that women must know.
"I learned a lot, just watching the Amazons," Io declared. "Queen Hippephode liked me, and Hippostizein and Pharetra tried to be nice to me because they liked you. I didn't like Pharetra because you looked so silly every time you saw her—then she got killed, and I felt so bad.
I still do. You don't remember her now, do you, master?"
"I do a bit," I answered, because I sensed the knowledge in me, though the mists hid it. "What did she look like, Io?"
"She was almost as tall as you, with great big cheekbones." Io pulled up her own cheeks to show me. "She had red hair and lots of freckles, and her legs weren't quite straight, I think from riding so much."
I sighed, as I sigh now. "She sounds very beautiful."
"Well, I wasn't trying to
make
her sound like that!"
"No," I said, "but you couldn't hide it." Then I leaned from my horse to Io and kissed her cheek.
"Anyway"—she wiped her face—"that reminds me that I have to talk to you as soon as we're by ourselves. About him"—she gestured swiftly toward the chariot—"and Hegesistratus, too."
"All right," I said. I decided then to write down all that we had said, and I now have.
We are in a fine big house in Cobrys, the property of one of the lords who have sided with Thamyris. There are servants, though I doubt that they are to be trusted. When we had given our horses over to them to be watered, fed, and stabled, Acetes drew Oeobazus aside, and me with him, and told us that he was not truly a strategist from Rope, as he has told the Thracians. All the others had recognized him, of course, and would have smiled at our amazement. I am glad they did not see it.
Oeobazus said, "I wondered why Hegesistratus was so cordial. He hates the Rope Makers."
"I'm not very fond of them myself," Acetes admitted, "but I understand them better now. It's great sport to be one."
At the second meal, we had to act as though he were a Rope Maker for the benefit of the servants; but when it was finished, he sent them off and we gathered before the fire to drink the harsh wine of the country and crack nuts.
"Hypereides is staying here, too," he told us. "He has the room next to mine. The rest of you will have to sleep in here, but I daresay you've slept in worse places."
Everyone laughed and agreed we had.
Oeobazus voiced the question that was on my own lips: "Who is Hypereides?"
"The captain of our ship," Acetes told him. "He's the one Xanthippos told to fetch you. The rest of us are just working for him, one way or another."
Io said, "Well, I wish he were back here now. I'd like to see him, and he shouldn't be out so late."
"He's bargaining about food and wine for the voyage home," Acetes explained, "and doing a bit of trading on his own account on the side, if I know Hypereides. Don't worry your head about him—he can take care of himself."
Oeobazus asked, "He sent out Hegesistratus with Elata, and Seven Lions—the black man—and Latro with Io, is that correct?"
Acetes and Hegesistratus nodded. Hegesistratus added, "We met the Amazons by the favor of a certain goddess. They were on an errand for the War God, but we could have accomplished nothing without them."
Oeobazus nodded, mostly to himself, I think. "I ran across a tribe years ago who believe that the War God's none other than Ahura Mazda—Ahura Mazda incognito, as it were. Perhaps they're right. How did you know where to look for me?"
Acetes grinned. "Hegesistratus here sniffed you out, or so Hypereides says. What I don't understand is what you were doing here. You can't have been heading for Media or Parsa."
Oeobazus shook his head. "I was going to Thought."
"To Thought!"
"Yes." The Mede seemed to hesitate, looking around at our faces. "Hegesistratus, you're the only person present who knows me at all well. What do you know about me? Tell them, and me."
"You are a brave soldier, a superb horseman, and a skilled technician. You were Artayctes's adviser on fortifications and siege engines." [I assume "Latro's" abbreviation TC indicates Lat.
technkus.
Presumably the word Oeobazus employed was Gk., which would have been immediately recognized by a speaker of Latin. In translating such terms, it is often impossible to escape the appearance of anachronism.—GW]
"And nothing else?" Oeobazus pressed him.
Hegesistratus fingered his beard. "Let me see. You are a Mede, and though you told me once that you have an estate near Ecbatana and a wife, you also told me—on a different occasion—that you have no heir. And there is this: you were practically the only man at Artayctes's court who never asked me to read his fate."
"We once had three sons." Oeobazus's expression had grown sad. "Fine young men, all of them. They entered the Imperial Army. Noblemen of my nation, you must understand, go into the king's service as a matter of course; anyone who did not do so would be highly suspect."
Hegesistratus said, "Certainly."
"The king—Xerxes, the Great King, as you call him—planned an expedition against the barbarians of the north. You have all met their warrior women now, so you know what they're like—wild horsemen who follow their herds. One may defend oneself against them, but to attack them is like attacking smoke; they fight and flee, then circle back, having neither cities nor crops to lose. The expedition was bound to be a travesty, and everyone realized it save the king. But Susa was crammed with supplies that would be sent north to the army at need."
No one spoke. I glanced around at the boy from Parsa, who was sitting beside Elata well back from the fire. He seemed to be listening attentively, though I could not see his expression.
"Spring came, and the army camped about the city wall," the Mede continued. "My sons were with it, cavalrymen all of them; and so was the king. Artayctes presented me to him, praising me as the man who had contrived so much storage for his supplies. The king was pleased; he smiled and offered to grant me a boon, as a reward for my service. Greatly daring, I asked that one of my sons be permitted to remain with me."
Oeobazus fell silent until Io asked, "Didn't he do it?"
"Yes, he did. He nodded and smiled again, and promised me that all three would be left behind in Susa. Next morning, when the army marched north, my sons lay beside the road with their throats cut, so that every soldier who passed might see with his own eyes what happened to those whose—" Oeobazus stood up, and seemed for a moment to wash his face in his hands. "I apologize. You asked why I was trying to get to Thought, and instead of the straightforward reply to which you were entitled, I've inflicted this rigmarole on you. If you'll excuse me now, I think a quiet ride around the city might help me sleep."
When the door had shut behind him, Acetes cleared his throat and spat into the fire. "He really ought to have somebody with him, but you can put me down for an idiot if I see how we can do it."
A boy's voice from the back of the room called, "I'll go, sir. He won't see me."
I turned around to look, as did everyone else. It was not the richly clad youth from Parsa (as I had expected), but a boy a good deal younger, clothed in a ragged sheepskin.
Io shouted,
"Polos!"
as he slipped out the door; a moment later we heard the clatter of hooves as he galloped away. Io was on her feet. "Master—"
"Absolutely not!" I caught her arm and forced her down again.
"I just wanted to ask him where he'd been," Io explained. "I haven't seen him since last night."
"He was with us before?"
Hegesistratus told me, "Yes, in the Great Mother's sacred cave. This morning you said he had been talking with you beside your fire last night, but had gone for water and never returned. I suppose he must have followed us."
Elata, who I think must seldom speak to more than one, now said, "He makes himself useful whenever he can and bears a happy heart— I'm glad that he's decided to stay with us. But, Io, your master's right. The night streets of this troubled city are no place for a young girl."
The black man nodded emphatically.
Hegesistratus refilled his cup. "They will be back soon, I think; if either was going into danger, I did not sense it. Io, this seems to me a good time for sharing nuts and telling ghost stories, not worrying about absent friends. You told me a fine one on the ship—how your master was present when a necromancer raised a dead woman, remember? I know he cannot recall it, and I doubt that the others have heard it; so why not tell it again?"
Acetes exclaimed, "That! By the Maiden, I've never been so frightened in my life. Io wasn't there. I suppose she got it from the poet— he was from Hill, too. You don't do that sort of thing, do you, Hegesistratus?"