The Pillars of Hercules by David Constantine Read Free Book Online Page A

She’s either asleep or piloting this thing.”
    “I wonder if that’s the real cause of your annoyance,” said Lugorix.
    “I still think she’s playing hard to get,” muttered Matthias.
    “She must have friends in Athens.”
    “You trying to make me jealous?”
    “I’m trying to make sense of all this,” said Lugorix. “We know she’s worried about Athenians bought by Mack gold. That’s how Egypt fell, right? So she not going to trust anything we encounter on the high seas. Maybe least of all an Athenian warship.” He looked at Matthias. “You got any contacts in Athens?”
    “Never been there.”
    Lugorix looked surprised. “Really?”
    “Really.”
    “And all along I’ve been thinking you the worldly Greek.”
    “And you the uncouth barbarian? Zeus, you’ve probably seen more of the world than I have.”
    “Didn’t you serve a tour in Athens?” said Lugorix.
    “Not in Athens. One of the fortresses to the north, before they were all overrun. They don’t like to let mercs into the capital. Especially not ones from the Greek cities in Asia Minor who might have a grudge against Athens for selling the whole place out to Persia a few decades back.”
    “Do you have a grudge against Athens?”
    “I take her money, don’t I?”
    “Answer my question.”
    “No more than I have a grudge against Persia.”
    “I’d say that grudge has been paid off. After what Alexander did to the place—”
    “Look,” said Matthias, “we’re just hired hands, is all. And gold talks louder than words. Athens preens herself for her democracy, but all that really means is that a gang of asses in a single place get to decide what happens in a hundred other places.”
    Lugorix mulled this over. “It’s more complicated than that.”
    “How so?”
    “Athens puts democracies in all cities that join their alliance.”
    “Only the Greek ones. And sometimes not even then.”
    “But when they do, a city’s people know that their democracy depends on Athenian power. Without that, local oligarchs take control.”
    “Oligarchs?” Matthias laughed. “Where the hell does a barbarian learn words like that?
    “By listening.”
    “So Athens plays off the Many against the Few to sustain its empire. So what?”
    “So you prove my point,” said Lugorix.
    “Which is?”
    “It’s complicated.”
    “It doesn’t have to be. You stay a mercenary long enough, you’ll get a little more cynical.”
    “Fact remains. Dealing with Athens is still a damn sight better than dealing with the Macks. Look at their propaganda. Look at their massacres. You don’t hear the Athenians babbling about their right and duty to conquer whole world. If Alexander has his way, we’ll all be slaves or dead and that’s the truth.”
    Matthias said nothing.
    “And with Egypt in his hands,” Lugorix added, “he’s on way to making that happen. So the big question now is what Athens will do next.”
    “If we make it there, we may actually find out.”
    “And more besides.”
    “Not if that bitch keeps holding out on us,” said Matthias.
     
    But late that afternoon, as the sun was setting, the woman in question joined Lugorix while he was on watch. He didn’t hear her emerge from the hatch, though he probably should have, as the ship’s aelio-mekanikos —wind-motor, as the women called it—was no longer making a racket. It had been turned off and the mast and sails had been extended.
    “By Taranis,” he muttered. “How long have you been standing there?”
    “Not long,” said Barsine. The breeze blew her hair about her face. She narrowed her eyes against the glare of the vanishing sun. There was something about the way she did that which stirred at his memory—he wasn’t sure why. “But I’m not sure you’re doing a very good job at keeping watch.”
    “I’m watching the ocean .” He was embarrassed to have been so startled—had almost lunged for his axe which he’d leant against the railing. “If something comes