Coroebus assesses Hybanda. Just ten stadia in length, eight across, he estimates. A low rocky hill rises from its centre, carpeted with olive trees and wild cypress. On its top, the white walls of a stone building gleam in the sun. Coroebus sees few opportunities for safe landing except for a sandy beach on its south shore, below the hilltop.
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This is what is left of Hybanda today. The marshy land used to be sea. I figure the temple stands where the post is in the pic. There are more trees at the time of your visit.
"Look, Archon," says a sailor. "Armed folk in the trees above the beach--see that flash!"
"I am Dion, the captain of the Priene, our ship. I give way to the Archons in all things, but I advise this. Let us ground our ship short of the beach, in those shallows. Then lie low, with the hull as our wall against arrows. They will waste their spindles, or need splash into the waves to get us."
" Yourself, Coroebus can swim ashore there with a few hand-picked Myrmidons. While we pass those rocks, under their cover. And make your way through the trees to the temple while these fools think that they hold us off on the beach. Zorus must stay aboard with us, unmistakable as he is, to maintain the ruse. And he is a seaman of sorts. "