I Thule
“To SAIL beyond the world—”
Hanno’s voice faded away. Pytheas looked sharply at him. Against the plain, whitewashed room where they sat, the Phoenician seemed vivid, like a flash of sunlight from outside. It might only be due to the brightness of eyes and teeth or a skin tan even in winter. Otherwise he was ordinary, slender and supple but of medium height, features aquiline, hair and neatly trimmed beard a crow’s-wing black. He wore an unadorned tunic, scuffed sandals, a single gold finger ring.
“You cannot mean that,” said the Greek.
Hanno came out of reverie, shook himself, laughed. “Oh, no. A trope, of course. Though it would be well to make sure beforehand that enough of your men do believe we live on a sphere. They’ll have ample terrors and troubles without fearing a plunge off the edge into some abyss.”
“You sound educated,” said Pytheas slowly.
“Should I not? I have traveled, but also studied. And you, sir, a learned man, a philosopher, propose to voyage into the sheerly unknown. You actually hope to come back.” Hanno picked a goblet off the small table between them and sipped of the tempered wine that a slave had brought.
Pytheas shifted on his stool. A charcoal brazier had made the room close as well as warm. His lungs longed for a breath of clean air. “Not altogether unknown,” he said, “Your people go that far. Lykias told me you claim to have been there yourself.”
Hanno sobered. “I told him the truth. I’ve journeyed that way more than once, both overland and by sea. But so much of it is wilderness, so much else is changing these days, in ways unforeseeable but usually violent. And the Carthaginians are interested just in the tin, with whatever other things they can pick up incidental to that. They only touch on the southern end of the Pretanic Isles. The rest is outside their ken, or any civilized man’s.”
“And yet you desire to come with me.”
Hanno in his turn studied his host before replying. Pytheas too was simply clad. He was tall for a Greek, lean, features sharp beneath a high forehead, clean-shaven, with a few deep lines. Curly brown hair showed frost at the temples. His eyes were gray. The directness of their glance bespoke impiousness, or innocence, or perhaps both.
“I think I do,” said Hanno carefully. “We shall have to talk further. However, in my fashion, like you in yours, I want to learn as much as I can about this earth and its peoples while I am still above it. When your man Lykias went about the city inquiring after possible advisors, and I heard, I was happy to seek him out.” Again he grinned. “Also, I am in present need of employment. There ought to be a goodly profit in this.”
“We are not going as traders,” Pytheas explained. “Well have wares along, but to exchange for what we need rather than to get wealthy. We are, though, pledged excellent pay on our return.”
“I gather the city is not sponsoring the venture?”
“Correct. A consortium of merchants is. They want to know the chances and costs of a sea route to the far North, now that the Gauls are making the land dangerous. Not tin alone, you understand—tin may be the least of it—but amber, furs, slaves, whatever those countries offer.”
“The Gauls indeed.” Nothing else need be said. They had poured over the mountains to make the nearer part of Italy theirs; a long lifetime ago war chariots rumbled, swords flashed, homes blazed, wolves and ravens feasted across Europe. Hanno did add: “I have some acquaintance with them. That should help. Be warned, the prospects of such a route are poor. Besides them, the Carthaginians.”
“I know.”
Hanno cocked his head. “Nevertheless, you are organizing this expedition.”
“To follow knowledge,” Pytheas answered quietly. “I am fortunate in that two of the sponsors are … more intelligent than most. They value understanding for its own sake.”
“Knowledge has a trick of paying off in unexpected ways.” Hanno smiled. “Forgive me. I’m a crass Phoenician. You’re a man of consequence in public affairs—inherited money, I’ve heard—but first and foremost a philosopher. You need a navigator at sea, a guide and interpreter ashore. I believe I am the one for you.”