With a reassuring smile he turned to the boys, speaking to them in that unknown language. Then, a few lashes on the boy’s backs indicated that the hour of the pleasantries had passed and that it was time to get started. Almices was getting tired of friendly smiles and being hit.
The man marched into the centre of the city, entering through the south gate of the small wall. The other three followed him, pushing, and mocking Almices and the other boy. The city constituted a complicated and chaotic network of streets that twisted and turned without any order. They passed through densely populated neighbourhoods, their inhabitants barely paid attention to the small group. The boys were still walking with shackles on their ankles, which made the march slow. The wounds on Almices' ankles started to bleed again. They passed through stinking streets, some sections flooded with faeces and urine, giving off a strong smell that the boy already considered normal for a big city. Both boys were disoriented, the zigzagging streets had made them lose their sense of direction. They turned one corner and were surprised to see the sea. The alley ended by a narrow opening of the wall, which led to a long avenue bordering the coast. From there they continued northward. In the distance that what was once the original city of Tyre was perfectly visible. Thanks to Alexander the great, it was forever connected to the continent.
The long street, actually a narrow strip of land between the ocean and the wall, was full of people fishing. Almices recognized the tackle that his father and the other men in the village used. The tanned fishermen repaired the nets or prepared the fish in salt to take inland. Some women and children helped with the work. The fishing boats were somewhat different, they had more elongated shapes and most did not have portholes nor were the bows extravagantly decorated, although some of the sterns featured a carved equine figure. The small constructions built between the street and the wall were very fragile and small in sight. Almices thought many of them would house whole families like his. He remembered his mother preparing food next to the window of his house.
The road continued north. As they approached the peninsula that was once the great and impregnable Tyre, small houses gave way to increasingly large warehouses. The fleet of ships docked at the bottom was no longer formed by fishing boats; most of them were cargo vessels, or warships, probably from the same city.
The man turned again toward the wall, in that place slightly further from the coast, and entered through another small door, zigzagging through a few streets to end up in a square full of merchants who exhibited their items on the ground in view of potential buyers. Weavers, cattle ranchers, horticulturists, scribes, fortune tellers, healers, charm sellers; everything one might need could be found in that square. They crossed it through the centre and entered cul-de-sac, which ended up in a small courtyard preceded by a large arch. They headed to a door on the right. A servant greeted the man and opened the door. They entered another inner courtyard, which looked more like an orchard than the inside of a house. Tall palm trees stretched up to the sky and rounded orange trees scattered the courtyard, surrounded by thick, low hedges forming a geometric structure around the trees. The small group stopped under the shade of the palm trees.
In the middle of the courtyard, an old man, now in his forties, gave instructions to a gardener while he looked closely at the leaves of an orange tree. The group waited in the shade, apparently waiting for that man. Time passed slowly while the old man inspected the leaves of the orange trees. The two young men, standing, guarded by their companions, occasionally looked in anger. Almices saw how the other boy had cried when he was taken away from his mother which continued throughout their journey. Now they both looked nervously at the enclosure. The old man approached the small group and looked at them as he headed to the man who had bought them. They began to speak in that language, they glanced from one boy to the other. The old man then addressed them in Greek.
"Good morning, I am Abta, a Tyrian merchant and from today your new owner.” Almices was surprised that the man addressed them in Greek. “I have acquired you because I need strong, young hands for my harbour business and I also need the port people to speak Greek. You are Greeks, are you not?”
"Yes," Almices confirmed, while his partner looked down.
"You must know that I like to call my slaves by the place from which they came. I understand that one of you is from Naxos and the other from Samos. Which of you is Naxos?”
"Me," the other boy muttered glumly.
"Well, then from now on we'll call you Naxos and you, Samos," he concluded looking at Almices. “Now Aylos,” – referring to the man who had bought them, “will explain to you how the order works in my house. You must bear in mind that I am very strict with slaves. At the least trouble, I will sell you or have you executed; yet if you serve me as you should, I may at the end of your days grant you freedom to die as free men. But that depends on you. If you have any skills or if you possess any special virtues, I want to know, anything you think is important can be passed on to Aylos and he will bring it to me. If you do not behave as we hope, you will be punished. If, on the contrary, you exceed my expectations, you will live much better than you could have lived in your places of origin, you will not be short of women and if you want over the years to have a family you will also be allowed, as long as it is with the members of my property.”
The boys did not know how to answer, although their addresser did not expect a response from them either. Abta once again addressed Aylos in the foreign language and then returned to the garden contemplating again the green and lanceolate leaves of his precious orange trees.
* * *
When she was brought down from the platform, Janira did not understand what was going on. She tried to resist, grabbing at the handrails. Once inside the shop, an older woman, over thirty, had her feet shackled and placed a smaller, lighter chain around her neck. She tried to explain to the woman that they were mistaken, that her siblings were still on the platform, but they all spoke that strange language that she did not understand.
The woman nervously left the shop, dragging Janira with her. She was pleased with her new purchase. It had taken her a lot of time and cajoling to convince her husband to buy a slave to take over her chores in the business. Her friends told her that she would never have the chance to acquire a slave to help her and her two daughters in the tavern. They needed more hands without having to pay any wages for this, the most practical solution was to buy a cheap slave. She would have liked to have paid the same for some of the older ones, but her budget was small and had to settle for the little one. The girl would eventually become helpful and she could shape her to her liking. On the other hand, it would not be a problem with her husband, her biggest fear was that he could be unfaithful with anyone, including a slave.
Janira grabbed the chain with her hands to avoid jerking her neck, she knew what shackles on her ankles were capable of, and did not want to imagine what could happen to her neck. They entered the city centre and wandered through the intricate alleys. The journey was not long. Soon they arrived at a two-story building. The woman opened the door and entered the tavern. The little one had never been in one before, but she knew by Telma’s description what the tavern of the village was like, even though she had never stepped foot in it. Her sister had told her that men gathered there to drink and eat and that some even had room to spend the night. It was a large room, with half a dozen extended tables where several guests drank and ate in the midst of the yelling. The girl lowered her head, feeling embarrassed. Her mother always told her to avoid these places, because self-respecting girls should never step foot in one. The ground was full of food scraps and insects scurried in search of it. Janira felt disgusted. She turned her eyes away. On the left, a bar separated the space with the tables and the kitchen area. A large man grabbed some plates of food