Infinite Sacrifice by L.E. Waters

a dangerous time to
travel with krypteia coming. Ophira hugs him, and he leaves on his
horse.
    Two weeks later, Nereus is banging
on our door. We run out to see Arcen, bloodied and bruised in the
back of Nereus’s cart.
    Nereus steps off the cart and wipes
his brow. “That old friend of mine in agoge brought him to me. Said
he found him by the road like this and thought we should take care
of him before the agoge boys got to him.” Nereus gives me a serious
look. “For him to lose like this is a disgrace punishable by death
or exile.”
    “Please thank your friend for
me.”
    Ophira and I carry him in while
Nereus ties up the horse. Ophira gathers everything we’ll need to
try to fix him and lays him down on his old mattress. He’s gotten
so much taller since the last time we’d seen him, but his growth
has stretched his already frail flesh thinner. We do what we can
and go to bed. It takes two days before he can speak to
us.
    As we’re feeding him chicken broth,
he tells us what happened. “I was sent out for krypteia with
nothing but my cloak. I had to steal everything I needed or find it
in the wilderness. I was alone, with no one else to help
me.”
    I turn my eyes away as he breaks
down in sniveling tears.
    Ophira hands him a piece of cloth
to wipe his nose, and he continues, “I couldn’t come back until I
killed a helot. I knew I had to prove myself, knew I could finally
make them respect me. That’s when I saw him—this big, strong helot
walking down the road alone at night. I grabbed a stick, snuck up,
and clubbed him on the back of the head. He fell, and I hurried to
strangle him before others could come to help him. As I was choking
him, I saw it was Theodon.”
    Ophira’s hands fly to her mouth and
stomach.
    A wave of fear sweeps through me,
and I grab by his scrawny shoulders. “What did you do, Arcen! Tell
me what you did!”
    He winces in pain and cries out,
“Of course I stopped! But he went mad, started punching and hitting
me like I’d known it was him! I didn’t even get a chance to explain
to him!”
    Ophira starts crying as I put my
hands to my head. “Was he hurt?” I ask.
    “Oh, you would care about him
first! I’m your son, but whom are you concerned with? The helot
boy!”
    Ophira flees the room as I stand
above him and say in a low tone, “You’re lucky you’re so badly
damaged, son, because if you were not, I would beat you until you
realized how disrespectful you are.”
    I walk out, and neither of us
checks on him the rest of the day.
    Nereus returns a week later at
night and says he has to sneak Arcen back into Laconia as agoge
reassembles. I go in to fetch Arcen, who still lies in his
bed.
    “I’m not going back,” he says, arms
crossed.
    I expect this. “You’re going
back.”
    “I can’t go back. You don’t even
know the hell I’ve been through since you sent me away. They starve
you. Freeze you. Beat you and have all the other boys beat you! I’m
not like them. I’m not good at this!”
    I grab his cloak and whip it at
him. “Arcen, you’re a Spartan. There is no choice for a Spartan!
You can’t learn a trade or be a philosopher. It is not allowed in
Sparta. There is nothing else!” I stand right in front of him.
“Stand up, go back, and finish agoge. Once you get into the army,
it’ll be much easier. They’re hard on you to make you stronger.
You’re almost through. You must finish!”
    He grasps his cloak and bunches it
up in idle hands. “If I go back without killing a helot, they will
not pass me.”
    “Nonsense. Go back, tell them you
fought, and you don’t know if the slave was killed since two helots
came to his defense and took him away.”
    A smile breaks across his face like
it just might work. I feel so disgusted he’s mine.
    “Now come. Nereus will take you
back under the cover of darkness, and please, whatever you do, stay
away from Theodon! Don’t fight anyone! Focus on feeding
yourself.”
    I stick a whole loaf of bread