Truth and Sparta (14 page)

“
Della came, but she returned to her house when it became clear
that the plans had changed,” her father said.

“
Della came?” Chara asked, relieved to hear that her friend had
decided to travel with them. Life in Attica would be more pleasant
with her friend there. It warmed her heart to think of them
together living freely. It only made it more important to find
another way.

“
The road to Megara will not be friendly to us. The Athenians
and Spartans are meeting there. We have to find another
way.”

“
That will be difficult,” her father stated.

“
Where is Doros?”

“
I haven’t seen him.”

“
He didn’t come?”

Her father
shook his head. Chara felt a deep sense of disappointment, she was
sure her brother would be there. She swallowed a lump that was
building in her throat. She knew that underneath his gruff
treatment of them, he did care about his family. He must think what
he was doing was really important.

“
I have to go talk to Della,” Chara said. For some reason, she
didn’t want to burden her father with her concerns and the problems
with their travel plans. She’d brought all this to them and she
felt responsible for having a plan that they could follow. Her plan
was jumbled now and she needed to talk to someone, wishing Doros
had been the one she could confide in, but he was unhelpful at
every turn.

Chara walked
to the village trying to work out what to do. The simple solution
would be to switch the ox for mules, but they needed the ox. She
tried to think of some other way. Perhaps they could achieve both
if they left the cart and walked the ox through the rugged land
away from the road.

She felt eyes
on her when she walked through the village. It was like it had been
when she had been pregnant—everyone knew and no one said anything.
She wasn’t entirely sure why they were all watching her now. She
wondered if they knew of her activities with the Spartan over the
last few days and maybe her softening stance to him was plain for
everyone to see. She felt guilty for her own reaction to him and it
would be completely understandable that they didn’t trust her if
they knew. Maybe someone had seen her riding around the country
side with him.

“
Chara,” Della said when they came around the corner. “We
waited, but you didn’t come.”

“
I am sorry I got waylaid and I couldn’t return until
now.”

“
The Spartan.”

“
Yes,” Chara said quietly.

“
Might have been a blessing in the end, it is likely we would
have run into trouble if we had left as planned. They are marching
for Megara.”

“
So I’ve heard.”

Della urged
her into a more private alley between two houses. “We are being
approached,” she said seriously. “Others have heard of what we are
going and there have been some who want us to take their boys. The
Spartans are actively looking for young men.”

Chara
considered this and the problems it posed. “We can’t take many
more. Maybe one or two, but we are already four—it will look highly
suspicious. Perhaps if we have two convoys… But the road is
blocked.”

“
Then perhaps we must sail,” Della suggested.

“
You know we don’t have the funds to support going by sea.” It
was an interesting idea, but there was just the small issue of
payment. They could sell the ox, but that provided the same
problem—they needed it.

“
People have offered to pay,” she said quietly so there would
be no chance of anyone overhearing. “They don’t have much, but they
are desperate and they will pay.”

Chara
considered what Della was saying. She hated the idea of taking
money from desperate parents—but if they had funds, they could
perhaps charter someone to take them across the Corinthian Sea.
Chara’s mind started spinning with new ideas and possibilities.

“
How would we find someone to sail us?”

Della shrugged
slightly. “There must be a way. There must be someone who knows
seafarers.”

“
It is a risk asking around.”

“
But it might be worth taking.” Della waited quietly while
Chara thought through that it all meant for them. Chara needed to
talk to her father now, he knew more people than her and might know
of someone who could make an introduction for them. It also dawned
on her that Della was waiting for instruction from her, that she
had become the leader in this little venture. Chara supposed it was
understandable since it had been her idea.

“
Talk to your parents, see if they know anyone who can
introduce us to someone with a vessel.” Della nodded. “I will do
the same with my father.”

They said
goodbye and Chara started walking back to her father’s farm. She
felt the pressure intensely now—having a half plan was almost more
pressure than having no plan. She had to find a way; all these
people depended on her—as did Elphia. At least the walk home gave
her time to think. If they did take the payment offered by people
they could conceivably sail. It would solve their problems and get
them away from the Megaran region entirely, where discovery was
highest. On the other hand, taking payment from people meant they
would travel in a larger group which brought new risks and
dangers.

She was
halfway home when she heard Della running to catch her. She knew
immediately that something was wrong, she could tell from Della’s
expression. Then she noted that Della had been crying, she could
see the evidence on her cheeks where her tears had fallen.

“
They found him,” Della said through ragged sobs. Chara felt
goose bumps travel up her entire skins.

“
Who?” she asked, but she already knew the answer.

“
Doros. They found him in a field.”

Chara felt the
earth give way and her balance failed, crumpling her down to the
ground. She knew this had been coming, she knew it would happen.
She’d told him and he hadn’t listened. His rebelliousness had
finally killed him. She was too shocked to breathe. The intense
pain was further exacerbated by the knowledge of what this would do
to her parents. Chara could only sit where she was with her hand
over her mouth. It felt like all the color had been taken from the
world. She was unable to get her mind to do anything else. Della
was crying. Chara knew that Della cared for Doros and maybe even
saw a future for them together. She also suspected that Doros had
been the reason that Della had agreed to come to Attica.

Chara’s father
took the news badly. He disappeared for a few days and Chara didn’t
know where he went; he wasn’t there when Doros’ body was returned
on a cart—covered by a cloth. The village men carried him inside
and left after given their deepest condolences. Della stayed
outside, but she didn’t leave.

Chara lifted
the cloth off her brother’s body. He looked different somehow, but
peaceful. Chara saw a deep laceration in his chest. He’d been run
through by a sword, which meant it was a Spartan who’d done
this—Helots were not allowed swords. An image of Nicias flashed
through her mind, but her mind rationalized that it hadn’t been him
who had done this; they had been together at the time this had
happened. It might not have been him, but she felt nauseating guilt
at her own activities while her brother was murdered by the people
who were oppressing them.

Chara started
to clean his body. It was her job to prepare him for burial. She
prayed to the gods to grant him safe passage—wishing there were
things she could send with him to help him, but they had so little.
All they could do was pray.

When she
finished, she chose a spot near her grandparent’s graves and they
started digging.

The grave was
dug when Chara’s father returned. Chara had no tears left to cry by
that time and it seemed to be true for Della as well. Chara knew
her hair would be cut as part of the burial ritual, it would be her
mother, but as she was absent it would fall to her. Della sheared
her hair with a blade and placed it with Doros in the grave.

Chara’s father
dismissed them when the ritual was complete and they were ordered
to the house while he covered Doros with earth.

“
This is wrong,” Chara said. “It is not right that they do this
to us. They can’t just kill our people like this.” She felt anger
seep into her bones and consume her.

“
This is what they do.”

“
Doros was right, they must be stopped.”

“
It was those beliefs that got Doros killed,” Della
said.

“
And his sacrifice will not be for nothing. We must escape from
here. They don’t deserve us and the labor we provide. They live
because we feed them and they kill us with complete
impunity!”

“
They fear a revolt.”

“
Maybe we should give them one.”

“
We can’t fight them. I wish we could. I wish we could make
them suffer as they have made us suffer.”

“
We can’t fight them, but they can’t live without us,” Chara
said with more confidence, letting her rage rule her thoughts.
“Then let’s make it hard for them. How useful will they be if there
is no one to fight? It is all they knew. Let them sow their own
crops and starve if they don’t.”

“
What are you saying?”

“
Let’s leave and let’s take anyone with us who wants to come.
We’ll take them all. If they treat us like this, we will leave. The
only reason that people haven’t is because they’ve had nowhere to
go. You said yourself that people are approaching us, desperate for
us to take their boys. Let’s not stop with boys, let’s take
everyone. We’ll take every man, woman and child. It’s time to put a
stop to this. Fighting has never served us and now Attica is in
need of people and we have people desperate to leave. The
conditions may never be like this again.”

“
We can’t just march out like an exodus. Your speaking complete
insanity,” Della said. “Could you imagine though? How long do you
think it would take before the Spartans would notice?”

“
They are distracted in Megara, distracted by Athens. We will
sneak away and hopefully when they do notice, it will be too late
and there will not be enough left of us to harvest the crops or to
plough the fields. They certainly would not be enough left for them
to kill off as they please.”

“
It would undermine the whole Spartan society.”

“
Good,” Chara said.

“
It is not something we would do by sneaking oxen over
mountains, or by finding a ship to sail,” Della said. “This would
need careful planning and we would need help. Do you think the
Messinians would help? They have offered to take men—maybe they
would be open to something grander in scale.”

“
It is the Athenians who would make the final
decision.”

“
We would need their agreement; although undermining their
enemy would be in their interests. This is treason beyond
anything.”

“
This is for Doros.”

“
I think you have lost your mind, Chara. Grief if speaking for
you.” Chara could only see the beauty of the idea; although she was
reasonable enough to realize the absurdity of it, but sometime
swords were not the most decisive move against an enemy. Maybe when
her rage settled, the true insanity of the idea would as
well.

Chara's declaration seemed like complete madness in the harsh
light of the morning. She wasn't sure how, but she had managed to
fall asleep at some point.  It was late in the morning when
she woke; her father had already gone to the fields.  She
wondered if he found the work soothing as he continued even though
they would not be here for the harvest.

Anger had left her today, but she knew it would return.
 Doros did not deserve the fate he’d been given—none of the
people here did.  Doros had been right in that regard, they
didn't deserve such treatment.  She might not be able to
achieve the scale of defiance she touted in her anger, but she
would try her best to take anyone who wanted to come, particularly
any young boys who might meet their death at the end of a Spartan's
sword.

She felt
driven.  She needed to get these boys to safety and to a new
life of freedom without oppression.  Granted the Athenians
weren't the guardians of Elysium, but they were nowhere near as bad
as the Spartans.

Della seemed to think going by ship was the best way; it
couldn't be a worse solution than travelling through Megara at the
moment.  The only drawback was that they needed funds to do
so.  She needed to talk over the idea with Della, returning
into the village again after breaking her fast with some
bread—bread that had appeared at their doorstep through someone's
act of kindness and sympathy.  The gesture made her tear up
again, but she had to pull herself together, she had too much to do
to sit here and cry.  Doros would much prefer that she did
something to help, to fight.  It was insane that such a task
would fall to her, but they were so depleted and deflated, she
wasn't sure there was anyone else.

"Who has indicated that they could pay?" she asked when she
found Della.

"Well, there is Stefano's boy and the other one—the cousin—who
is younger, but his parents are desperate for him to leave. My
mother has offered to sell her jewellery."