Hope of Earth (25 page)
Authors: Piers Anthony
T
RIERES
Circa 430
B.C.E.
Greece was one of the centers of advancing civilization. The polis or city-state was the essential political economic; and social unit Most were not large, by later standards; populations of 5,000 to 50,000 might have been typical. Athens, with 250,000, was a giant, and thus one of the dominant cities of the region. Its main rival was Sparta, about a hundred miles distant by air, but considerably farther by foot. Most cities were oligarchies, with about 10 percent of their populations having power; Sparta was a monarchy. Athens was unusual, in that it was a democracy—that is, run by male citizens, not women, slaves, or foreigners (there are, after all, limits); each year 500 citizens over age thirty were chosen by lot to govern it. However, the principal power was wielded by a board of ten generals who were elected for one-year terms. Popular generals could be re-elected, so some became quite powerful. An example was the statesman Perikles, who was in power at this time, having been in office for twenty-eight years. He was a clear thinker and a great orator, able to use both reason and emotion to guide his followers. He was one of the factors in the greatness of the city.
But this was now threatened. Athens and Sparta went to war in 431
B.C.
, and because of their networks of alliances, this meant that most of Greece was involved. Athens was matchless on the sea, while Sparta dominated on land. Sparta marched her army into Attica, which was the home territory of Athens, and ravaged the countryside. The Athenians, outnumbered two to one, had to retreat. The population of Attica poured into Athens, hiding safely within its walls while the Spartan forces ranged outside. But Athens was not in much trouble, because her fleet of ships kept her supplied from elsewhere. Her fleet also launched naval raids against Sparta and her allies. Thus Athens more than held her own despite being under siege, and Sparta had to withdraw. It was a standoff. But the war was far from over; it was merely in remission for a few months. These were surely not great months for the residents who returned to their devastated farms and dwellings.
One family lived on the large long island of Euboea, to the east of the Greek mainland. They were in the hinterlands, and had not had to flee to the city walls, but they, too, had surely felt the ravages of the war. The island had been strategically significant during the Persian wars, being a staging area for the Greek defense, and was widely regarded as Athens’s most important possession. It was a vital region for grain, being better than Attica for farming. When the war broke out, the people of Attica sent their cattle and sheep to Euboea for safety. Yet the association was not entirely easy; there had been a rebellion before the war, and would be another during it. So though there was no enemy invasion of the island that we know of it was under stress. This family’s resources had been severely depleted by the required “voluntary” support for Athens; and its fields had been overrun by poorly tended cattle belonging to others. The neighbors were in similar straits. They had to take strenuous measures to ensure their survival.
J
ES BROUGHT IN A BUNDLE
of wheat stalks she had scavenged from the leavings of the rogue cattle and dumped it down before Flo. “What they didn’t eat, they trampled on,” she said, disgusted.
“That’s the point,” Flo said, shrugging. “To starve us out.” She squinted at the bundle. “This is good enough; we’ll thresh it and get enough.”
Lin agreed, opening the bundle. She picked up her makeshift stalk beater.
“We need more.” Jes turned to go back to the small coastal pocket of arable land that was their farm. Damn these cattle! She and the men would have driven them off, but the animals had been unstoppable, and they were not allowed to kill them. Three men, a boy, and a woman were not enough; they would have been trampled too. So they had had to hide like cowards, and let the creatures do what they wished. That meant the destruction of their gardens, severe damage to their house, and trampling of their crops. But it was not as bad as an enemy raid would have been; their men had not been killed, their women had not been raped, and their children had not been enslaved. They had been able to come out the moment the cattle left, thus saving some of their things. On the whole, they were well off, compared to those in Attica who had fled to the nearest walled settlements.
“Stay,” Flo said, looking around. “We have something to do, while Sam is away fetching supplies.”
Jes had heard that tone before. “Wona?” she asked.
“Yes. You know the problem?”
Jes glanced at Lin, who at twelve was becoming a lovely young woman. Except for those fingers. “Maybe.”
Lin looked up. “She’s seducing Ned.”
So they did know. “Ned told me, and I didn’t like it, but I kept his secret,” Jes said. “We’re close. He keeps my secrets too.”
“I have no quarrel with that,” Flo said. “Trust must not be broken. But I suspected, so I had Lin spy on them to verify it. I think you will break no trust if you tell us the rest of it now. We need full information before we act—and we must act.”
“Now, while we can,” Lin said. “While Sam is north, and Ned is buying wool in Geraestus.” That was the city on the extreme southern tip of Euboea, their closest metropolis. They were country folk, but they did need supplies, and a market for their weaving.
Jes felt a load leave her. “She wants to bear his child, because he’s smarter than Sam. She came on to him, and he—he was inexperienced, and didn’t know how to stop her. She—he said she had overwhelming sexual appeal. It was like a conquering army, and he was vanquished before he ever tried to fight.” She paused, ruefully wishing she herself had appeal like that. Ned had told her about it in excruciating detail, and she was ashamed to admit even to herself that it had driven her into a private sexual ecstasy of desire and frustration. “Then when they had done it—really, when he had stood still and she had done it to him—she told him that if he told, she would tell Sam he had raped her, and that Sam would believe her. He knew Sam would. Sam—”She shrugged, and both Flo and Lin nodded. Sam was a good man and a good brother, but what he didn’t know about women would fill a long scroll. “Ned wants to get out of it, but doesn’t know how.”
Flo nodded. “That’s what I thought. Ned is our smartest member, but a woman with a figure and a will can make a fool of any man when she sets her mind to it. Ned can’t free himself. Neither can Sam, if he even suspects. That’s why we’ll have to do it for them.”
“She won’t go without reason,” Lin said, glancing across to where Wona sat watching the children. The children didn’t really need watching, but Wona never volunteered for any hard work, and this was easy work.
“I don’t like killing,” Jes said. “Not when it’s someone I know.” Actually she had never killed a human being. But she had been ready to, once when she and Ned had been caught away from home by men intent on rape and murder. She had distracted them, and Ned had stabbed them, and she felt responsible. Jes had no affection for Wona, but she did know her personally, and that made the difference.
“Neither do we,” Flo said. “So we’ll have to make a deal with her. I have thought this out. If we can get her a better man, by her definition—one who can put her in idle luxury—she’ll desert Sam. Sam may be unhappy for a while, but he’ll be better off, and he’ll be able to find another woman.”
Jes nodded. “With those muscles, he can get a woman. But who would take Wona? Anyone who knows her would know better. Sure, any man would make a wench of her, for a night or a fortnight, but wouldn’t marry her.”
“So we have to go farther afield,” Flo said. “In the big city there should be men who judge by nothing but appearance. That is the one thing she’s got. We’ve all seen how the men stare at her.”
“And how she encourages it,” Jes added. “It’s amazing how her robe falls open when she’s near a handsome or powerful man.” Jes was again privately jealous of that ability, but would never say so.
“Big city?” Lin asked. “Do you mean Geraestus?”
“No; that’s far too close. We don’t want her ever coming back. Athens.”
“But that’s seven days’ trek from here,” Jes protested.
Flo shook her head. “Three days, if you row across the bay. You can do it; you row every day.”
Jes nodded. “I like to row. Yes—and that would avoid Sam, if he is returning.”
“That was also my thought.”
“So I should take her, and find her a richer man,” Jes said. “So she is gone when Sam returns.”
Flo and Lin nodded.
“What of her child?”
“Wilda can remain with us. Wona’s not much of a mother to her anyway. She wanted a boy.”
True. Wona would be glad to be free of her daughter. “But it is not safe for two women traveling out of their territory.”
“A woman and a man to guard her,” Flo said.
“Her brother,” Lin added.
Jes pondered. “I don’t like it, but I agree it must be done. Can you talk her into it?”
“Yes,” Flo said grimly. “I Will give her harsh alternatives.”
“I have no stomach for that,” Jes said.
“You are too manlike,” Flo said, smiling. “You can’t bear to hurt a woman.”
“A beautiful woman,” Lin added teasingly.
“But you keep your word, once given, like a man,” Flo said. “She knows that.”
They had thought it out. “Then tell her I will conduct her to Athens, and not leave her until she is satisfied with a new man.”
Flo and Lin got up without further word and walked across to talk with Wona. Jes picked up the flail and began beating the wheat stalks. But as she worked, she watched, covertly. She saw Flo talking to Wona, gesturing forcefully. She saw Wona’s amazement, her defiance, then her capitulation. Jes knew that Flo had threatened to kill Wona if she didn’t go—and Flo did have the stomach to do what she had to. So she had offered Wona a less harsh alternative, and Wona had had no choice but to accept it.
Wona got up and went to her daughter Wilda, a child of three. She was saying farewell, and the child hardly seemed to notice. Wilda cared about Sam, who played with her, and Flo, who nursed her; to the child, Wona was just another person in the family.
Then Wona came across to Jes, while the other two remained with the children. She looked grim, and there were tears on her face. So the separation was not entirely easy for her. Jes disliked her less, for that.
“You will guide me safely to Athens?”
“Yes.”
“And neither harm me nor allow me to come to harm?”
“As best I can.”
“And not leave me until I say it is all right?”
That was harder. “Until you have a satisfactory man.”
“No. Until I say it is all right. I want a man satisfactory to me, not to you.”
She had a point. She feared that Jes would declare a man to be suitable, just to be rid of her. “Agreed.”
“Swear it.”
“I swear it.”
Wona looked at her cannily. “You will travel as a man?”
“Yes.”
“Then make an oath of brotherhood to me.”
“I’m not going to be a man to you!” Jes said, embarrassed. She liked to emulate the ways of a man, but she was always a woman beneath.
“But others won’t know that.”
Jes considered. A non-family man might indeed seek to make sexual use of a woman he guarded, while he had the opportunity. A brother would not; he would be seeking her best interests, and other men would appreciate that. “I swear to be your brother, for this mission,” Jes said reluctantly.
Wona smiled. “I trust you, Jes. Others may twist their logic, seeking ways around their oaths. You don’t. You hold to your given word without equivocation.”
“Yes.”
“Then I will travel with you now.”
“Now?”
“Flo wants me out of here now.”
Jes looked across to Flo. They were too far apart for Flo to have heard, but the woman nodded. Jes realized that she didn’t want to give Ned any chance to reappear either. This had to be clean, involving no man. So it had to be now, while Sam was on a distant mission, and Dirk and Bry were out foraging for rebuilding materials. All the men must be innocent of this deed, though they would surely suspect its nature.
“Then get your things,” Jes said. “I will get mine.”
They went to the half-repaired house and packed their bags. Then they set off together, saying farewell to no one else.
They walked to the shore. They lived near the southern tip of Euboea, and so were part of the Delian League. The stately trieres of Athens, the ships with three banks of oars, protected them from any direct attack by the Spartans, who were not strong on water. It wasn’t enough, however; that was why Sam had gone far afield to trade for vital supplies, and why Wona had become too much of a burden to support any longer. Wona was mischief, certainly, and had to be dealt with; but even if she had not cheated on Sam, she would still have been a liability, because she didn’t pull her weight.
Jes’s small rowboat was one of the things they had that was especially useful. She employed it to get around the long coast, trading supplies (in better times) with neighbors for many leagues around. Jes liked to row; the boat was so smooth, and carried so much, compared to portage across land. She could, and often did, keep it up for many hours at a time, pretending she was an oarsman on a trieres. There was a special joy in sustained moderate exercise that made her forget for a while her general dissatisfaction with life.
They got in. Wona made no pretense of helping; even had she been of such a mind, her thin arms would not have been able to do much. So she sat in the bow, watching ahead, while Jes faced back and took the oars. She hardly needed to see where she was going; she was well familiar with this shore.
They crossed to a small island Jes knew, and another island, heading west as darkness came. Then, at the western shore of the island, they camped. Jes had used this site before, and had no hesitation. She dug out blankets from the cache she kept here; then threw out a line to fish. Then she made a small fire and cooked the fish, sharing it with Wona. There was no point trying to make the woman do anything constructive, and Jes did not bother. Neither did she attempt to engage in conversation; Wona had nothing worthwhile to offer there, either.
