Page 1 of Axios

Chapter One

396 BC in Sparta

“To your feet! The weak do not survive here, boy!” Felix, the man training us, shouted.

All the boys were being put through theagoge, the training to prepare us for the Spartan army, and my small body had yet to grow accustomed to the hardships that such preparation entailed.

My vision blurred, and I placed my hand upon the earth, about to push myself up, when I was hit in the back with a large object, sending me crashing back down into the confines of the dirt.

Everything hurt. As I lay on the ground, I thought it would be easier to give in to the darkness trying to take over. To sleep at last. Three years had come to pass since I’d begun my training, and I was tired of fighting.

“You are a disgrace!” The object crashed down on my back once more. “Do you surrender?”

Surrendering was the epitome of cowardice amongst Spartans.

Opening my eyes, I noticed the other boys watching me.

Some watched with wide, terrified eyes and others with nothing more than slight curiosity. The sufferings we’d faced had desensitized many of us to violence. Pain had become expected.

Then, I sawhim.

A boy stood in a group with the others. I’d seen him around before, but we had never spoken. Not many of us spoke to each other. Most of us were still the scared children who’d been yanked from our mother’s arms at the age of seven.

While the crowd stared at me with indifference, he stared with determination.

“Stand,” he mouthed.

With my eyes transfixed on the fair-haired boy, I found strength within myself I was not aware existed—one that pulled me up and to my feet.

Felix nodded and motioned for me to go stand in another group to await further instruction.

I walked that way, almost falling down several times, but I managed to make it. My knees wobbled and my back felt like it was set aflame, but I gritted my teeth and silently stood in place. I moved my gaze amongst the boys—surveying them—and stopped when I saw the boy staring at me again, a subtle smile on his lips.

His golden hair hung to the middle of his ears in soft waves, some of it curtaining across his right eye, and his eyes locked on to mine. Eyes that I knew were green like the grass swaying in the nearby field, even though I couldn’t see them from my distance. I’d beheld his stare before and remembered the unique shade.

“You! Here,” Felix demanded, pointing at the boy.

After breaking eye contact with me, he walked out of the crowd and calmly approached Felix. No fear clouded his face, only a serenity that was uncommon amongst us. He stood in the spot Felix had instructed, and looked up at the man with the same determination he’d expressed to me moments before.

I stared in awe, both curious to see how he fared, but also afraid to witness his likely failure. Those who went up against Felix never came out of it unscathed.

Felix, the large brute of a man, walked circles around the boy. His black hair was tied in a leather strap at the base of his neck, and his bare chest exposed his scarred flesh to the down pouring of heat from the midday sun. A scowl marked his face. After several more circles, he made his move.

But the boy was expecting it. When Felix raised his blunt weapon to hit him in the back, the boy ducked and rolled to the side, getting to his feet directly afterward and facing off with him.

Felix nodded. “Good.”

Then, he lunged again.

The youth slid under the swing, coming out on the other side and kicking Felix in the back of the knee.

Felix didn’t fall, but he stumbled a little, which was the greatest victory any of us had ever gotten against him before. When Felix swung again, the boy wasn’t fast enough, and the weapon collided with the back of his head.

He didn’t stay down for long. Before the object came down on his back, the boy rolled across the dirt and stood, jumping in the air just as Felix tried to trip him.

“I will make a true warrior of you yet,” Felix said and then motioned for the youth to get back in line.

I hadn’t realized I’d been digging my nails into my arm until I felt a sting and looked down to see a faint trace of pink where they had left indentions in my skin.