Spartan soldiers crowded around him at the base of the pyre and one took the torch from him. Before he could do anything else, two others had hoisted him on to their shoulders. One of them shouted, ‘Lysander!’ at the top of his lungs. ‘Lysander!’ said two more behind him.
Others joined in, until all the Spartans were shouting his name. Then the Helots and free-dwellers took up the chant as well.
‘Lysander! Lysander! Lysander!’
He was carried aloft through the agora, and saw Demaratos and Kassandra behind. The faces of the crowd, rapt with joy, were lifted to his, and their arms reached into the air as they called out his name.
Lysander looked over the heads of the crowd. The heat of Sarpedon’s pyre reminded him how much he had lost, how much had been given for this victory. His father, mother and now his grandfather were all gone. He was almost alone in the world. But maybe not. All of the men and women that surrounded him were his people: not only the Spartans, but the free-dwellers and Helots who lived in the same land. For this, Lysander had fought. And for this, Lysander would fight another day.
ALSO BY MICHAEL FORD
The Fire of Ares
Copyright © 2008 by Working Partners
All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages
First published in Great Britain in 2008 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published in the United States of America in 2008 by Walker Publishing Company, Inc.
Electronic edition published in September 2012
www.bloomsburykids.com
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, Walker & Company, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ford, Michael (Michael James).
p. cm.
“Spartan Quest.”
Summary: When Persians invade Sparta while thirteen-year-old Lysander is training to
be a soldier, he finds his loyalties are divided between Spartan honor and the Helot
slaves with whom he lived most of his life.
1. Lysander, d. 395 B.C.—Juvenile fiction. [1. Lysander, d. 395 B.C.—Fiction.
2. Soldiers—Fiction. 3. Slavery—Fiction. 4. Amulets—Fiction. 5. Social classes—
Fiction. 6. Orphans—Fiction. 7. Sparta (Extinct city)—Fiction. 8. Greece—
History—Spartan and Theban supremacies, 404–362 B.C.—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.F75328Bir 2008 [Fic]—dc22 2008004988
ISBN: 978-0-80272-805-0 (e-book)