Hope of Earth (28 page)

Wona took it, holding it awkwardly. “If I tried to use this, I would bash myself in the leg,” she said ruefully.

“Any weapon takes time and practice to master. Strike it against tree trunks and rocks as we pass. You will get the feel of it.”

The woman nodded uncertainly. “I’ll try.”

“We may be as well off here as in the settlement,” Jes remarked as they resumed their westward trek. “At least we have freedom to travel without hindrance.”

“And freedom to sleep in peace,” Wona said.

“We would have had that in the settlement.”

“You
would have that, there,” Wona retorted. “What did you think would have been the price of our admission?”

The bowmen would have wanted to use her body, Jes realized. “I thought you liked it.”

“The way you like slaying men.”

A telling thrust! “I do that only when I have to.”

“Exactly.”

“But you so readily show your body to men,” Jes said. “Why, if you don’t want them to have it?”

“Why do you keep your bow and knife ready for immediate use, if you don’t want to use them?”

Jes nodded. “I do what I hate, because the alternative would be worse.”

“Exactly,” Wona repeated. “And you make sure you are good at it, for the same reason. My breasts and thighs are instruments of another kind.”

Point made. Except for one thing. “But what of Ned?”

“How else was I to get a smart child?”

Jes was taken aback. “You did that only for the child?”

“Which I didn’t get. Why would anyone want to go through all that, with a stripling, if she didn’t have to?”

“I would,” Jes said defensively. “If any decent man were interested.”

Wona turned to her in surprise. “Have you done it with any man?”

“No.”

“Then how do you know you would like it?”

That set her back again. “Because—because I’m interested. I want—to do it. To enjoy a man. I know I’d like it.”

“This is weird. I’ve got the body, you have the passion. I could live years without sex, but men will never let me be, so I use it to gain favors I need. You, who actually have desire—”

“Am not desired,” Jes finished. She was surprised at herself for telling Wona her secret. She normally spoke with candor, but had not expected any such dialogue with this particular woman.

Wona pondered. “Last night I asked you why you hated me, and you answered. But you also said you envied me my body. I thought you meant so that you could befuddle men and gain ready advantage. But now I think that wasn’t it.”

“That wasn’t it,” Jes agreed. “I would like to—to have a man enjoy being with me.”

“I think we can make a deal. I have after all something you want.”

“A deal?”

“You teach me the use of this club. I will teach you how to make men notice you.”

Jes laughed. “With my body? My face? Impossible.”

“No more so than teaching me to wield this weapon effectively. We both have weapons; they merely differ in nature.”

Maybe she had a point. “If you could teach me that, I—I would be amazed and grateful.”

“I can teach you. But you must be able to learn.”

“Like you with the club?”

“Yes. I think it is a good analogy.”

Jes paused. “It occurs to me that we have no rush to reach Athens, because it may still be under siege. We are finding some food out here, while the people are gone. Is this a good time to exchange skills?”

“I think it is. I want to get to Athens, but I don’t want to fight any more men. Neither your way nor mine. We should approach it cautiously.”

“Then we are of one mind. Let’s find a place to instruct and practice.”

They searched out a farmstead that was in better shape than most, and settled in for the time being. They made sure that there was no ready access without discovery—so that no raiders could come on them by surprise. Then they foraged for more food, and excavated a chamber in the collapsed house for their temporary residence. This would do, for a few days. Jes felt slightly guilty about taking what was not theirs, but reminded herself that the laws of hospitality decreed that any man open his house to travelers in need. So they were simply discharging their host’s duties for him, since his absence prevented him from doing it himself. Certainly they were not doing any harm to the premises.

By the time they had done all that, the day was over. They made a final check of the premises, and almost as an afterthought set a trap by the main path: a small pit covered over with a thin layer of sod, that would cause an intruder to take a fall and give his presence away. Then, satisfied, they retired to their chamber for the night.

“I am sorry about what I did to your brothers,” Wona said. “They deserve better.”

Jes didn’t answer. She did not want to be friendly with Ibis woman, but neither did she want to antagonize her unnecessarily. That would only interfere with her mission. She was not inclined to forgive what Wona had done. So what was there to say?

“That was why I agreed to leave without a fuss,” Wona continued. “It was the cleanest way to end it. Your family will be better off without me.”

Again, Jes didn’t answer. The woman was speaking truth.

“If I should ever have opportunity to make it up, I will do so. But we both know that this is unlikely. So all I can do is leave my apology with you, and hope that both Sam and Ned will have better times hereafter.”

“I hope so too,” Jes agreed, glad that she finally could speak without offense.

“And tomorrow” you will show me how to use the club, and I will show you how to use your body in a new way.”

“Tomorrow,” Jes agreed. Then they slept.

The next day they traded expertise, starting with the weapon. Jes showed Wona how to swing it so that it put little stress on her wrist and arm, yet developed formidable clout. She showed her how to block with it, by anticipating the opponent’s likely attack and countering it before it really got started. How to gain advantage, by being ready at the moment of the countering, then to strike with precision while the other party was still pursuing his wasted move. “Keep your head, and watch his body and his weapon,” she said. “You can prevail using a fraction of his energy, if you are cool. One well placed, well timed blow can finish it almost before it starts; you don’t need a lot of muscle.” Wona was clumsy, but eager to learn, and she soon got the essence, if not the expertise.

Then it was Wona’s turn to instruct, and Jes was surprised to discover just how much science there was in Wona’s feminine art. When she walked, she didn’t just walk, she swung her hips. Jes had thought it was natural to Wona, but in due course she herself was walking similarly. When Wona spoke to a man, she didn’t just speak, she murmured with a certain lilt. When she stood still, she didn’t just stand, she put her weight on one leg and angled the opposite knee in to half cover it, so that the line of her hip and thigh was accentuated. Her breathing was controlled, so as to make her bosom rise and fall noticeably. Every action was studied, for a single purpose: to make an impression on any nearby man.

“Of course you would have to adapt your clothing,” Wona said. “You are small-breasted, so you need to have a halter that lifts and compresses. It can be done, if you wish.”

“To what purpose? No matter what I do, I’m not going to impress a man.”

“Yes you are,” Wona insisted. “Many men like plump, but as many like slender. The way you look at a man can make most of the rest irrelevant.”

“Look at?”

“Picture yourself as a man for a moment, and look at me.”

Jes did that. Wona met her gaze sidelong with half-lidded eyes, and a trace of a smile. And Jes felt the lure of it That amazed her, for she had no interest in actually being with any woman. How much stronger that look must be with a genuine man.

She practiced that too, and though it seemed highly artificial, Wóna said she was getting it.

So they continued, for the day, alternating instructions. Betweentimes, they foraged, and rested. They saw no other raiders, so concluded that the Spartans had vacated this area. Soon the local citizens would emerge from their walled settlement and reclaim their lands.

“They are Delians, as are we,” Jes said. “But I think we had better be gone from here.”

“Yes. They don’t trust us.”

So on the following morning they resumed their travel, but did not hurry. They remained alert for people of either side, and continued their exchange of information. It was clear that Wona would not be a very effective warrior, and that Jes would not be a very effective seductress, but both were making progress. Wona was acquiring the extra twitch of the wrist that made the clubhead swing with extra force just as it connected to the target, and Jes was learning how to use her hair to cover enough of her face to make the rest seem dainty. Both of them were discovering the pleasure of mastering new skills.

“I can almost believe that I could knock out a man, if he didn’t take me seriously,” Wona remarked with wonder.

“And I might almost seduce a man, if he didn’t get too clear a look at me,” Jes said with similar wonder.

“Should we look for two men to practice on?”

“No!” Jes replied with sudden alarm. Then they both laughed. Jes realized that it was the first time they had laughed together, at the same thing.

They continued cross-country, crossing over the mountain range rather than following the more convenient road. The trek was considerably rougher, but the foraging was equivalently better. They found a spring, and camped near it another night, then followed its trickle down into the valley, where it became the River Ilissos, leading right to Athens. They knew the city by its massive wall, looming ever higher as they approached.

And there the people were emerging in force. Streams of them were moving outward along several great roads that converged at the city. That meant that the last of the raiders was gone. They had timed it well. Not only that, they were better rested and fed than they would otherwise have been, and had learned things from each other that might or might not benefit them in the future.

But for now they were brother and sister. Brother Jes was here to find a suitable husband for his lovely sister Wona. Great Athens was the place to look.

They rehearsed their roles, and stepped onto a road leading to one of the mighty open gates. The fact that they were going the opposite way from the overwhelming majority might attract attention, but more likely they would be taken for two who had turned back for something forgotten in the city. Attention was something they did not want, at present.

Athens was huge. It dwarfed the walled settlement they had approached before. The great outer wall was three times the height of a man, and the gate was guarded by several armed men. But this time there was no challenge; they were admitted without fuss, when there was a break in the stream of people leaving the city.

Inside, it was reasonably chaotic. It looked as though the majority of the refugees from the raiders had camped just inside the wall. The region stank. The two of them hurried on toward the center of the city.

They passed the Acropolis, which was a rocky citadel on which stood the great monuments of the city. It rose well above the surrounding plain, overlooking everything else. They saw the Temple of Athene, and the Parthenon, built of shining marble, including even the roof. Jes was amazed by its grandeur, and would have liked to walk through it, but Wona was more practical: they had to find a place to stay. She hardly cared about monumental architecture; she preferred creature comfort.

They circled the Acropolis and walked on to the Agora, where there was a structure that did impress Wona: the immense two-storied colonnaded market called the Stoa of At-talus. “I could shop there forever!” she breathed.

“Not without gold,” Jes muttered. She was aware of how little of that they had. They would have to find work to sustain them, while searching for a suitable man for Wona to marry. They couldn’t forage, here in the city.

Now they made their way to the nearest residential suburb. There were no towering marble buildings here, just close set dwellings that jammed in together so tightly that there was little or no space between them. Some were larger, containing a number of little chambers. These were the rental units for visitors.

For one of their few silver owls they rented a house for half a month. It was a modest brick structure with a courtyard but no windows and no furniture. But it was a base of operations, not far from the market, and that was good. It was dirty, because it had just been vacated that morning, but they knew how to clean it.

Now they went to the market and bought bread and wine. There were many fancy things on sale, and Wona would have liked to buy them all, but Jes knew better. “We have to earn more money before we can eat well. Otherwise we will soon starve. Remember, we can’t forage here.” Wona reluctantly agreed, and they bought a bag of dry beans. They would swell when soaked in water, and would last for some time.

They returned to their house. Jes used her knife to carve off slices of bread, and Wona poured wine into clay cups. They dipped the bread into the wine, to soften it and flavor it, and chewed. It was a good, if ordinary, meal.

“Now we must consider,” Jes said. “We shall need to become familiar with this city, in order to ascertain where the best prospects are. You don’t want a man of the streets, you want a citizen. You don’t want single nights, you want marriage. That means not only locating the good men, but getting to know them. This may take time.”

Wona nodded. “There should be some at the Acropolis.”

“Yes. But to impress them, you will need better clothing. That means more silver. So our first priority is to earn it. How can we do that?”

“You might join their military force.”

“Then I’d be shipped away to wherever they were fighting a battle, leaving you here alone.”

“No.”

Jes nodded. “I suspect we should get a job together. Maybe weaving; we both know how to do that.”

“But that’s woman’s work.”

Jes grimaced. “I may just have to be a woman, here in the city, until I can go home.”