Page 31 of Eryx

My insides coiled when one of the soldiers stood from the table, having also seen the interaction between the slave and my friend.

“I believe another lesson is to be learned this night,” the man snarled as he grabbed the helot boy. He then regarded Axios. “You. I noticed the way you looked at this creature. Do you think it equal to us?”

Axios gritted his teeth and looked to be seconds away from talking back to the older male. His eyes flickered to mine, and he must’ve seen the warning in my expression because he refrained from doing so.

“No,” Axios finally responded. “Spartans are far superior to the helots.”

His response stunned me. My friend didn’t hold such beliefs. Yet, he knew the severity of the situation. He could confide in me with his honest views of the world, but he couldn’t do the same with others.

The helot’s eyes filled with fear. His head was then smashed on the table by the man holding him. When the Spartan lifted the slave’s head back up, he grinned at the blood dripping down the boy’s face. The slave whimpered as the man tightened his hold.

Axios tensed beside me, and I saw it written on his face. He was about to rise from the table and attack the Spartan. I squeezed his leg like he’d done to me earlier. A warning to keep still.

“Unlike other Greeks, we do not water down our wine,” Belos said, grabbing the vase of wine. “That is why it’s so potent and why the smaller boy became inebriated so quickly.”

Quill, still humiliated, hunched lower in his seat.

Approaching the helot with the wine in hand, Belos flashed a cold smile. “Hold him, Paris.”

The slave struggled in Paris’ grip as Belos pried his mouth open and forced wine down his throat. He thrashed and attempted to escape the soldier’s hold, causing some of the wine to run down his chin and splash on the floor. When he gasped and tried to spit out the wine, Belos dug his fingers into his jaw and told Paris to hold the boy’s nose.

“Swallow it or suffocate,” Belos said.

Once again, Axios seemed as if he was about to interfere.

“Do not even think it,” I whispered and grabbed his thigh, yanking him back onto the seat. “Accept them as being inferior to us. The sooner you realize that truth, the better.”

As his honey eyes met mine, my heart sank. He stared at me as if I was a stranger. “This is barbaric, Ery. How can you be so calm? That boy did no wrong.”

“No, he did not. His treatment is your doing, my friend,” I said, saddened by my words. He’d never forgive himself for this. “You must toss away any qualms about the slaves being equals and see them for what they are.”

His heart was pure. He fought against our customs. And if he continued to do so, I wouldn’t be able to protect him for forever.

When Paris laughed, Axios focused on the helot again with tears in his eyes. The slave staggered in place and wine trickled from his swollen lips.

“See this pathetic waste of life.” Paris pushed the helot.

The boy stumbled forward and caught himself on the edge of the table. “M-m-mercy.”

“Hear the way it begs,” Paris stated with disgust before sneering at us. “Who wishes to show this filth the Spartan’s mercy?”

When the helot tried to flee, Paris grabbed a handful of his pale hair and yanked him back. Tears streamed down the boy’s face. It wasn’t until that moment that I felt any kind of sorrow for him. Since our birth, it had been instilled in us that the helots were beneath us. But when I saw the helot’s trembling body and tear-stained cheeks, it reached into my soul and touched my humanity.

Instantly, Belos looked at Axios. I knew what he intended just from the malice in his eyes. My friend’s kindness toward the slave made both of them a target. It seemed Belos wished us all to learn another lesson this night, and he’d make Axios kill the slave to teach him that lesson.

No. I cannot allow it.

Axios had already killed one boy before—Darius—and that death had nearly broken him. If he was forced to take another life, I feared the toll it’d take on him.

“I do,” I said, keeping a calm tone. “It shall be a pleasure.”

“Very well.” Paris removed a blade from the holder on his waist and held it out to me. “Do what must be done. The rest of you… watch and learn.”

I stood and approached Paris, taking the blade from his hand. The helot stared at me, his body shaking with fear. His pale hair reminded me of the silver light of the moon, and his blue eyes shone like a clear winter’s day.

Axios had a weakness for pretty things… did he find this boy pretty too?

The thought made me tighten my hold on the blade. An ill feeling landed in the pit of my stomach as I imagined Axios fancying this slave… craving his touch. The anger faded when I came back to myself and realized what I was about to do.