Soldier of Arete Read Online Free

that, and suited to my height." He is half a head shorter than the black man and I. "And make certain it's thick and warm."
    I nodded, and he handed me four silver drachmas. The black man touched his shoulder and pretended to tug at a rope of air.
    "Ah, the voyage! You're right, I promised I'd tell you about that. Well, it's simple enough. Do both of you know about the Great King's bridge?"
    I said, "I remember that the heralds said this was where it ended.
    I imagine that the Great King's army must have marched up the same road we came down to get here."
    "Right you are. It was a bridge of boats, scores of them, I would think, all tied together by long cables, with planks laid over their decks to make a road. It was here for nearly a year, according to what I've heard, before a big storm finally broke the cables."
    We nodded to show we understood.
    "The People from Parsa didn't fix it, but they stored the cables here in Sestos. They must have been very costly, and of course they could be spliced if the Great King ever ordered the bridge rebuilt. Xanthippos wants to take them back to Thought to show off. They should cause quite a stir, because nobody at home has ever seen cables anything like their size." Hypereides held out his arms to indicate the circumference of the cables, and even if he was doubling their diameter, they are very large indeed.
    "Well, as you can imagine," he continued, "the first thing that everybody's sure to ask is who made them and what happened to him. Xanthippos had me look into that, and I found out that the boss was a fellow called Oeobazus, one of the barbarians who let themselves down from the city wall with Artayctes. And last night, when you and I talked to him, Latro, Artayctes said that they had intended to go north, maybe as far as Miltiades's wall. Xanthippos would like to have this Oeobazus to trot out for the Assembly as well as the cables, so we're to go after him as soon as Europa's ready."
    I asked when that would be.
    "Tomorrow afternoon, I hope." Hypereides sighed. "Which most likely means the day after. The men are touching up her caulking now, and they ought to be finished today. Then we'll have to load the stores. But there's still some to get, and I'm not getting them by standing here talking to you two. So go and see about those cloaks, like I told you. When you've done that, pack up everything—we may not come back here, I don't know."
    He hurried off toward the docks after that, and the black man and I returned to Sestos and the house in which we had slept to fetch Io.
    We found it empty, however.

THREE
    The Mantis
    HEGESISTRATUS INTERRUPTED ME, BUT NOW I write again. It is very late now, and all the others are asleep; but Io has told me that soon after the sun rises I will forget all that I have seen and heard today, and there are things that I must set down.
    When the black man and I returned to this house and found Io gone, I was anxious about her; for though I cannot recall how it is I came to have such a slave, I know I love her. The black man laughed at my gloomy face and said by signs that he thought Io had followed us to see Artayctes killed, and I was forced to admit he was probably right.
    Accordingly we left the house again and went to the market. Several of the shops fronting on it offered cloaks for sale. I bought rough, undyed ones for the black man, Io, and myself, new cloaks made without washing the oil out of the wool and woven so tightly they would shed rain. I knew that such a colored cloak as Hypereides wanted would be costly, so we bargained for a long time over ours, the black man (who is a better bargainer than I, I think) speaking much to the shopkeeper in a language I do not understand. I soon realized, however, that the shopkeeper knew something of it, though he feigned otherwise. And at length even I was able to catch a word or two— zlh, which I believe is "cheap," and sel, "jackal," a word the shopkeeper did not like.
    While they were haggling,