Over fifty days had passed since Leonidas and his small band had departed from the city, intent on eradicating the rebels and raiders that had already killed hundreds of innocent Spartans. The days were blistering hot, the nights only slightly cooler. Leonidas and his fellow warriors hardly noticed the weather; they had edured all forms of hardships in their agoge, this was nothing in comparison.
As of yet they had found but traces of the raiders. A few footprints, an abandoned campsite, broken spears and arrowheads. In the king's estimation, they were perhaps three days from their quarry. Once word had spread that true warroriors, led by the king himself, had come to defend the citizens, the rebels had wisely run off. Their trail was erratic in an effort to confuse the Spartans chasing them, but it would do them no good.
The only thing that they had accomplished by prolonging the chase was to enrage the Spartans further. Leonidas was not the only man whose wife was with child. Dilios, the captain, and five of the other warriors were impatient to return back to their women and hopeful sons.
Leonidas sat on a smooth boulder, taking his turn on the perimeter watch as the man he'd replaced went off to sleep. The moon was full and bright in the night sky, it's perfect round shape reminding him of Gorgo's growing belly.
"My wife waits with child as well," Dilios had told him earlier that day. "Halcyone has born me two sons, and hopes this time for a girl. I think she is lonely for a daughter in the house."
Leonidas had smiled at his friend. "This will be my first. I hope for many children; sons, of course, but Gorgo once told me that she would someday want a daughter. I think women are like us- they want a child to take after them."
Dilios agreed. "You are correct, sire. Halcyone has told me that if Aphrodite answers her prayers and she is given a daughter, she will teach her all the secrets that she has learned in the kitchen. I hope only for another son."
Leonidas had raised his brows. "Why another son, Dilios? I have met your boys. They are large, fast and strong. The agoge will be child's play to them, they will be prize additions to my armies. Why not allow Halcyone a girl to share her cooking skill?"
Dilios had laughed then. "Because, if she should have a daughter, the girl will know the secret of attracting many suitors- Halcyone seduced me with her wonderful food. Once I had a meal with her family and learned that had cooked it all herself, I asked her father to give her to me that very night. If she passed on her secrets to a girl, all of Sparta's young men would be begging at my door!"
The men had laughed then, but Leonidas no longer felt so humorous.
Gorgo was with child; he wanted to be by her side, not rummaging around abandoned campsites searching for murdering scum. Suppose something happened while he was away? His child could be lost, his wife injured or worse!
He had to stop the grim thoughts, he had only to complete the task of tracking the raiders, and then he would return. His eyes burned out into the distance, his anger growing within, urging him to chase the rebels, faster and farther, all the way to the sea if it would only bring him back to Sparta.
Gorgo rested her arms on the balcony of the royal bedchambers; the grand rooms where she had slept alone for many nights. She stared at the moon, hoping that somehow Leonidas was watching it as well. It would connect them, in a way, even if neither of them were aware of it.
She glanced down and pressed a hand to her bulging womb. The child was within, moving inside of her. It had began shortly after Leonidas had left the city to hunt down the raiders that were slaughtering Sparta's innocent people. Gorgo hoped it was a good omen that their child was so restless. It meant that the little boy or girl would be restless in life, always striving for greatness and earning pride. She had once dreamed that Leonidas would return, and kiss her belly just in time to feel their child kick.
It would be a great thing if he would return to her that very night, as their babe seemed more restless than usual.
Ten more days had passed, and Leonidas had still not returned to Sparta.
Gorgo knew that he was Sparta- the world's- finest warrior, but how could she not worry? The raider killings might have been a diversion, a way of baiting him to leave the city, taking only a handful of his fellow soldiers. Could they all have walked into a trap? To be ambushed by hundreds?
She shuddered at the thought as images of bloodshed flashed through her mind.
"You must think only happy thoughts- otherwise, the poisonous worries of your mind may harm the child."
The words of the palace midwife were not so comforting. Gorgo knew that worrying over her husband for days on end was not healthy. She had gone about her queen's duties the same as she had before, and tried to keep herself as useful as she was able. As she began to swell, it was not so easy as it once was.
Still, there was time.
Leonidas would return to Sparta in time to see the birth of his child, the future heir to all of Sparta.
He had to.