Page 15 of Eryx

“Tell me again,” he said, resting against a low-hanging branch. He kept a straight face but his lips twitched. “I will keep an open mind this time.”

I grabbed the branch he leaned against and swung up into the tree, dangling my legs near his face. With a challenging gleam in his eyes, he snatched hold of the opposite branch and sat across from me.

“Years ago, there was a young Spartan boy called Adonis.” I rested my back against the tree trunk and slowly swung my feet. “He was twelve years of age, perhaps thirteen, and he stole a fox with the intent to kill and eat it. But he then noticed Spartan soldiers approaching him and he knew that if he was caught with the fox, he would be punished severely for stealing.”

I paused, casting a look his way. He sat straight faced, but the twitching in his lip continued.

“So, he hid the animal beneath his tunic,” I said. “It clawed and bit at his flesh, and still, he made not a sound. When the men confronted him, Adonis allowed the fox to chew through his stomach rather than confess his crime. Legend has it that he stood there and did not allow his face to express the pain of it.”

And there it is.

Axios grinned. “It is just as absurd upon the second hearing as it was the first.”

“Only because you whine when you scuff your knee,” I countered, amused by the way his lip snarled when I teased him. “You cannot fathom having so much self-control.”

“Is that so?” he challenged.

I met his stare with a half-smile. Teasing him had become one of my favorite pastimes.

Axios jumped down from the branch and, before I registered his intent, he grabbed my leg and pulled me out of the tree. Taken off guard, I crashed into him, causing him to lose his footing. We toppled over into the grass, me landing on top of him.

Laughing, I peered down at him. “Your impulse control is low as well, dear friend. You get annoyed and act first without thinking.”

“And why is this a flaw?” he asked, meeting my smile with one of his own. “It is to my advantage to be of quick mind.”

When had his smile become so endearing?

“But you see…” I shifted my weight, pinning him down. Trapping him beneath me. “Your action was poorly executed for now I have the upper hand.”

Axios didn’t react to my teasing as I thought he would. Instead of answering with another quip, he stared up at me with his mouth slightly agape. His chest rose and fell faster when his honey eyes flickered to my lips.

And I found myself staring at his lips too. His lips, the freckle beneath his eye, and his long dark lashes. Blood rushed through my veins so fast that my skin tingled. Warmth traveled from my neck, to my chest, and gathered in my groin.

The smile slipped from my face as I felt things inside my body I’d never felt before. Axios’ soft skin warmed mine more than the hot sun above us ever could. Light broke through the branches of the tree, setting his eyes on fire. More like amber now than honey.

My body hardened and I needed… something.

I leaned in closer, dropping my gaze to his mouth. His breath touched my lips, as I was sure mine did to him. I felt it in my chest then, a gnawing sensation that shook my very core. This boy… this raven-haired boy with burning eyes of amber… would be my downfall. If I were to close the gaps between our mouths, I wasn’t sure I’d ever pull away.

With that thought, I broke the connection between us and sprung up to my feet. “We should get back. The sun will be setting soon.”

Though there were streams of golden light breaking through the clouds, the day was nearly at an end. A harsh punishment awaited us if we weren’t in the barracks by nightfall.

Axios stood and said nothing as he walked at my side down the dirt path back toward the city. He stared at Mount Taygetus, and I wondered if his mind took him to the place mine had taken me earlier—to the stories of Spartan males being thrown into the chasm.

He hadn’t believed the story about hearing infants’ cries coming from the mountain. Or perhaps he only wished for me to believe he didn’t.

A scream tore through the quiet.

Axios snapped his head to the left, and I followed his movement. Three Spartan youths surrounded a helot boy. The helot was on the ground, one hand stretched before him, and begging to be released.

His pleas were futile. The boys would never let him go.

Most helots were forced to wear animal skins and leather caps on their heads to better distinguish them as slaves. The boy who begged for his life wore such a manner of clothing. One of the youths snatched the cap off his head and tossed it to the dirt before stepping on it.

The helots had rebelled once. The earth shook Sparta one day, many years before my birth, and the quake killed countless citizens, including youths in theagoge.With the city in chaos, the helots took the opportunity to revolt. King Archidamus called upon our allies to help stop the rebellion. Athenians answered the call and sent four thousand soldiers to assist Sparta. Some of the helot rebels who survived the conflict fled to Athens and settled in the town of Naupactus.

As for the ones who remained in Sparta? Their rebellion would never be forgotten. Therefore, the helots were annually beaten. Spartan patrols, called the Krypteia, rounded up the slaves on occasion and killed them. The helots had to fear our wrath so they’d never think to betray us again.