Free Truth and Sparta by Camille Oster Page A

morning.
    “ This must be done,” she repeated her mother’s words over and
over on the walk back to the cottage. This wasn’t technically an
unhappy event; they were a future together—a happy and healthy
future, maybe even a prosperous one if the gods were kind. Chara
knew this would be the most difficult part of the plan, but it was
absolutely essential. If she didn’t stay behind, the rest of her
family would suffer. A bittersweet sorrow now would have great
rewards and the thought reassured her. There were so many things
that could go wrong, but she would visit the shrine every day to
pray for assistance.

Chapter
11
     
     
    Nicias
accepted his orders—he was being redeployed. He’d had to stand by
and watch as the Athenians took the prisoners from Pylos. They had
a truce that had allowed them to take food across the island to the
prisoners and they had done so every day. The prisoners had asked
for instruction from the Assembly and had been given none, which
lead to their eventual surrender. The blow had been hard to their
deflated morale, as well as to their faith in the strength of
Sparta and the elders who made decisions for them. The elders had
proved that they had no answers and now they stood here watching
while their countrymen were being taken away on ships. The Spartan
navy lay decimated and could do nothing to stop it. There was no
way to describe the situation other than bleak.
    Nicias, along
with the others, started the trek to the eastern coast, where the
Athenians were making themselves into a nuisance. There were
soldiers who wanted to march on Athens, to take the losses of the
prisoners and to make the Athenians pay in blood for this—ransack
the whole city and kill the men, fuck the women and then sell any
survivors into slavery. All of Greece would rejoice if Athens was
burnt to the ground.
    Spartans had
never surrendered and the unconscionable had just happened. Winter
refused to relent its grip on the land, compounding their
misery—the warm summer days seemed far away. He suspected the
summer coming would not be easy either as defeat has placed them in
a poor position and the Athenians would likely press their
advantage. It wouldn’t seem so bad if the Assembly didn’t seem
divided and hamstrung, and unable to make a coherent decision.
    Long days of
marching stretched before them promising nothing but drudgery. If
they were rested and refreshed, it was an easy march with high
spirited camaraderie to keep them entertained, but high spirits had
been absent for a long time.
    He wished he
was going home to his father’s house. He wanted to spend some time
with his girl, buried in her warm, tight flesh—forgetting all these
troubles. But he had no excuse to divert and they were needed on
the coast now that the Athenians had cut their supply lines with
Alexandria, which would hurt them. The men were itching for a
fight. They wanted someone to bear the brunt of their
frustration—preferably some Athenian soldiers, but Nicias was not
sure they would be allowed to engage now that Athens had
prisoners.
    They were
exhausted when they got back to their barracks. One of his father’s
slaves was waiting for him when he arrived. A waiting slave never
proved good news.
    “ You father sends a message that you must come,” the thin man
said at the door of the barracks.
    “ Why?” Nicias demanded with annoyance.
    “ Your father wishes to inform you that there have been some
consequences with a Helot girl that you must deal with,” the man
said with a bow. Nicias knew full well that the euphemism stood
for—the girl had fallen with child. Nicias growled with dismay and
frustration, and the Helot cowered in fear. “Go,” he told the man
before he actually did take his frustrations out on him.
    He knew that
it was a risk when he took up with the girl—being neither unusual,
nor uncommon. Such associations were actually encouraged by the
elders, the army needed men and it was a good way of