Gary Corby - The Marathon Conspiracy

“I’m getting married,” I said proudly.

Pericles pursed his lips in distaste. “That Diotima woman, no doubt.”

“Of course.”

“You’re young to be marrying,” he said.

I shrugged. It was true, but I was happy. Most men married at thirty. I would be wed at twenty-one.

“A man of your station, with your prospects, you could do better.”

I knew Pericles had never liked Diotima, but his words made me angry. So much so that I raised the thorny issue between us. “There’s another matter we must discuss, Pericles, before I continue. My pay.”

“You’ll be paid,” he promised.

“I meant payment for the first commission you ever gave me.” If Pericles had any skill greater than his rhetoric, it was his ability to avoid spending money. “You offered me a small, steady income if I succeeded. Well, I succeeded, but you never paid me. This can’t go on, Pericles. Soon I’ll be a man with responsibilities. If I’m to take on this new commission, I must have payment for the first.”

“Oh.” Pericles sat down and drummed his fingers on the desk. They made a loud sound in the silence. I waited, knowing he couldn’t rightly deny the debt, especially not when he needed me now. Eventually he said, “I admit there’s been a certain amount of inadvertent tardiness. Very well, Nicolaos. I’ll see to it.”

“When?”

“Before ten days have passed. Does that suit you?”

I’d heard such promises before, but I could hardly call Pericles a liar to his face. “Yes,” I said reluctantly.

“Good. I’m glad we have that sorted. Now, what is your next course of action?”

“I must discover who knew about Hippias. Only someone who knew that we had the body, or what was left of it, could have committed these crimes. Tell me, Pericles, how long between the Basileus receiving the package and the archons coming to see you?” I asked.

Pericles hesitated. “I didn’t ask,” he said. “I should think it rested with the Basileus for at least a day before he got around to it. He’s a busy man. Then he had to arrange a meeting with his fellow archons. Then they had to come see me next day. All together it would be … three days? Five days?” he hazarded.

“Plenty of time for someone to learn of the rumor of a skull and scroll case,” I said. “It would mean nothing to anyone who didn’t know the story, but to the true killer, it would mean his crime had been discovered. Plenty of time, too, to send an agent to deal with the rest of the evidence, including the children who found the body.”

“You may be right,” Pericles admitted. “If so, it means something else. Whoever killed Hippias still has something to hide.”

“What, with everyone else lining up to confess?”

“Don’t you see, Nicolaos? Upright citizens want to be known as his killer. But the true killer … remember I told you, there were rumors, at the time, that someone or some people within Athens were secretly dealing with Hippias and the Persians.”

The implication was clear. Those traitors, identity unknown, were still among us, and they’d turned to killing.

Doris had departed early, to let the sanctuary know we were on the way. Before we left, I had to convince our parents that it was all right for Diotima and me to be a mere half-day’s travel away. I expected our parents would be happy to have us out of the way while they arranged our lives for us, and Diotima and I were as happy not to have to watch it happening.

Diotima’s stepfather, Pythax, had grunted his agreement while he drilled his Scythian Guard at the barracks and told me to stay out of trouble.

The mothers proved more difficult. For some reason neither of them trusted us. I had to promise to return my bride whenever necessary for wedding arrangements. Or as Phaenarete put it, “We’ve already sent out invitations to our friends. If I find out you two have disappeared to some foreign city, I’ll send your fathers to hunt you down and kill you.” And Euterpe had nodded grimly at those words and offered in such an eventuality to supply the instruments of torture. It was the only time I’d ever seen the mothers-in-law-to-be agree on anything.

My surprise came when I asked my father for permission. Sophroniscus had been in his workshop as usual, chiseling marble for his latest piece. He put down his chisel and turned to face me with an expression as hard as any I’d ever seen upon my sire.

He said, “Son, I understand that this dead man is Hippias the Tyrant?”

“It’s not certain, Father. But probably, yes.”

“Then the man you seek once supported Hippias?”

“It’s one possibility.”

“You didn’t live through the days of the tyrant.”

“No, sir.”

“You can’t know what this means. I was only a young man myself,” my father mused, recalling those days. “Hippias was evil, beyond a shadow of a doubt. I don’t know how many men he killed, merely on suspicion that they might be plotting against him. Your grandfather-my father-do you know they came for him once?”

I was startled. I’d never known my grandsire. “Sir? No, why?”

“For the crime of saying a good word about a man who’d been arrested, a friend of my father’s who had spoken out against the tyranny. He was an honest man who paid for it. Other men were killed merely for looking at the tyrant with the wrong expression.”

“Then … how did my grandsire survive?” I asked, perplexed. Father had never spoken of this before.

“By bribing the guards who came for him. He gave them almost everything we owned to leave him alone, a man who was entirely innocent. I was present. I saw my own father beg for his life. He fell upon his knees before men in his own courtyard. He died shortly after. I don’t think he ever recovered from the shame of it.”

“I didn’t know,” I said.

“And I’ve never forgotten. It impoverished us. We’ve never regained the wealth we once had. Do you know why I fought the battle at Marathon?” Father asked.

“To defeat the Persians, sir.”

“Wrong! I fought, and I killed, to keep Hippias from returning. The Persians brought the old tyrant with them and, if they’d won, they would have restored Hippias to power.”

He looked off into the distance, and I knew he was remembering.

“I was sure, as we marched in, that it was my last day on earth,” he said quietly. “I was never a good soldier, but I had to do what I could. You know we were outnumbered ten to one?”

“Yes, Father.”

“I fought anyway. Because anything, anything was better than life under Hippias.”

He picked up his hammer and chisel.

“Very well, son. I didn’t approve when you took up this investigation work. I thought it was foolish, a waste of time. But I’ve changed my mind. Not only do I give you permission to hunt down these traitors, but I do not give you permission to do anything else until you have. If that means your marriage must wait, then so be it.

“Because anything is better than allowing the supporters of Hippias to live.”

Sophroniscus brought down his hammer in an angry arc. It struck the workbench beside him. The wooden top splintered under the force of the blow. My father barely seemed to have noticed.

I swallowed back the lump in my throat. There was only one thing I could say to that.

“Yes, sir.”

I’d anticipated we’d be back and forth to Athens while the investigation at Brauron went on. I was determined travel time would not slow us down at either end, and nor should my bride have to wear down her feet with a lot of walking right before her wedding. Diotima couldn’t ride a horse, but anyone can drive a cart. Incredibly, my father didn’t even own a cart, so I had to hire one.