Page 135 of Axios

Eryx smirked. “By the way you were gasping and groaning? Yes. I believe the whole camp heard us. Perhaps even the army across the valley too.”

I slapped his damp chest and chuckled, noticing how sore my abdominal muscles were from all the contracting they had endured.

Through my aches, soreness, and fatigue, I had also never felt more alive than I did right then. With battle so near, I needed to sleep so that I’d be well-rested and alert, but something kept me from doing so.

The sooner I fell asleep, the sooner we’d have to fight. And I wasn’t ready for that moment with Eryx to end.

I’ll never be ready.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Battle of Leuctra

There was no greater silence than the one before battle. It was as if all heartbeats were counted, all breaths measured. A deafening calm carried over both armies, affecting all men. The itching on our scalps and the blood flowing through our veins. The anxiousness that caused us to fidget in place and our palms to sweat all the while keeping our shields raised and our weapons readied.

Inhale. Exhale.

And waiting. Waiting for the order that would echo throughout the lines, breaking through the silence like a whip, and send us forward.

It was the worst part—waiting—for it gave me too much time to think, to observe the opposing hoplites on the other side of the plain. Their army was large, but we outnumbered them.

If the fight at Tegyra had taught me anything, though, it was that sometimes number was of no consequence.

Epaminondas led the Theban army, but the special force of the Sacred Band was led by Pelopidas. Both generals had reputations for being fearless and brilliant in their commands.

Sparta has a fearsome reputation as well, I reminded myself.

Inhale. Exhale. Clanking of a shield against another.

I checked my right to see Eryx standing there, and then my left to see Haden. Quill was in the line behind us with Felix, Ian, and Melias. I searched for Demetrius and Cassius, nearly panicking when I didn’t see them. But then I recognized Cassius’ large frame to the upper left of me and a shorter man standing beside him.

We were positioned on the right side of the army near King Cleombrotus, with the allied forces in the middle and on the left. The king had wanted only real Spartiates surrounding him—Spartan born and raised men. We were the best and so we were ordered at his side.

Our cavalry went to the front of the lines, and as ours moved, the Theban army sent theirs to do the same.

The king shouted, and the men hit their shields as they chanted. I did not join them for my grip on my spear was failing, and it took all my concentration to pull myself from my thoughts and concentrate.

Both armies’ cavalries charged, clashing together in an uproar of battle cries and clinking swords. Men fell from their horses and were trampled on. Some of their heads were taken off with one forceful swing, their blood spurting from the wound and coating any man who was close by. Brutal and merciless.

But that was war.

Focusing on them was not wise because the Theban hoplites would be charging us any moment. I tried to peer through the wall of shields and combating cavalry to see them, but was having difficulty seeing anything.

Everything was chaotic and moving so fast.

“Whatever happens, stay strong,” Eryx said, turning his head to look at the surrounding men. “Hold formation and protect the man at your side. Remind them who we are… why the Greek world fears us and trembles in our presence.”

Ourenomotiaresponded with hollering and hitting their shields.

Eryx’s green eyes focused on me, and he said quieter, “Do not leave me.”

His words had varying meanings: staying by his side so we’d not lose sight of the other and also a deeper denotation.

“I will not leave you,” I swore to him.

In life and death, I am yours.

“They’re retreating!” a man yelled up ahead. “And so are our allies!”