The Corn King and the Spring Queen. Naomi Mitchison

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The Corn King and the Spring Queen - Naomi  Mitchison Canongate Classics

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He was as brave as any of them, and, if possible, even more anxious for the change in Sparta.

      Gradually the King unstiffened; he began to poke the dry walnuts in front of him more hopefully. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘this much for tonight. Now—a song before we go.’ His eyes travelled round the table till they lighted on Panteus, and stayed. ‘You,’ he said, very tenderly, so that every one looked up, smiling at one another, because this love of the King’s was, as it were, their own Spartan flower, the sign of the new times, and every one cherished it and watched it grow.

      Panteus stood up and came slowly over towards the King, who took off his own garland and crowned him with it. All shifted a little towards the song, except Therykion, who was afraid of music or anything beautiful, anything that might possibly tempt him out of the straight path. Panteus picked up the small lyre and rubbed the strings of it softly, thinking what the King would like from him. He was three years younger than Kleomenes, and not so tall, with blue eyes and rough, light-brown hair that grew low on the middle of his forehead and curled and tangled over his ears. He had an extraordinarily compact, strong body, that seemed of itself to know the way of things, to run and jump and wrestle without his mind being quite aware of it. Like the rest of the younger men, he wore the short tunic, one loom’s-width of wool doubled, pinned at the shoulders, and belted with the edges loose and open at the left, hanging forward from the brooch as he stooped to the lyre, so that the skin of his side and thigh looked wonderfully pale and beautiful against the deep red of the stuff. He sang them old songs, in the mode they knew and liked and thrilled to now, ‘Swords Tomorrow,’ ‘The Barberry Bush,’ ‘You go my Way,’ and so on, then a very early thing, ten lines by Tyrtaeus, that had become less a song than a symbol of past turning future, and then a last, even shorter one, of soldiers waiting before a charge, as they themselves might be soon. His voice just filled the room, very sweet, and unelaborate as a shepherd on the hills.

      Then suddenly the King stood up, tall and thin, with his long neck and jutting brows, and the frown that stayed as part of him, even when he was smiling. ‘Good night,’ he said, ‘good night, friends.’ They went out by twos and threes; as they pushed back the leather curtain from the door, great waves of frosty air blew in and shook the flame of the lamps and chilled the room. Outside it was starry—a calm, deeply arched sky with that familiar closing inward and upward of mountains on each horizon, the valley of Sparta like a cup to hold so many stars. The King’s brother, that much younger and less assured, less complicated, stopped a moment. ‘Are you sure the ephors are going to send you, Kleomenes? Suppose they don’t want the war?’

      ‘That will be all right, Eukleidas,’ said the King.

      ‘But—’ the brother began. And then, ‘Well, I suppose it’s got to be your way, Kleomenes,’ and he went out too, after a worried and questioning kiss.

      Panteus waited easily, as if his body were asleep and his mind only half awake. Suddenly both came alive, his eyelids lifted, his hands turned inwards towards the King.

      ‘Look!’ he said, ‘I wanted to show you this.’ It was the letter from Philylla.

      Kleomenes read it laughing. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘you’ve got your answer!’

      ‘But she didn’t mind, did she?—about the arrows?’

      ‘Dear, you’ll have her falling in love with you if you don’t take care. Don’t you see from her letter? She’s got as far as speaking truth to you, and that’s a long way for a woman.’

      ‘She’s not a woman, she’s a child.’

      ‘She’s a little bit of a faun. Hadn’t she got prick ears, Panteus? No, but truly, Agiatis loves her, and I trust Agiatis to see into people’s hearts. Why don’t you take Philylla out and teach her to shoot properly? Teach her to throw a spear and ride.’

      ‘Kleomenes, is she as much of a boy as all that?’

      ‘You would teach my girl if she were older, Panteus. Perhaps you will if—if things go right. And I know Agiatis thinks Philylla could do all this, if she had the chance. But her own father and mother—well, we know Themisteas. Catch him and Eupolia having their daughter taught to be anything but a pretty softy!’

      ‘But they let her come to Agiatis?’

      ‘Yes, but they didn’t know what Agiatis is like. People don’t. You do, Panteus.’ He took hold of the other’s shoulder and pressed it gently.

      ‘Yes,’ said Panteus. ‘Shall I ever have the luck to marry someone like her, Kleomenes?’

      ‘There aren’t two of her, any more than there are two of you. Your wife will be the lucky one, Panteus.’

      ‘I don’t think so,’ said Panteus seriously, sure to the bottom of his soul, as is perhaps right in love, how much less good he was than his lover. ‘Besides, that’s a long way off.’

      ‘Yes,’ said the King looking deeply at him, and seeing after a time that he was shivering, partly with cold, took half of his cloak and wrapped it round, over his friend’s shoulders and bare arms.

      It was three days later that a Hellespontine merchant ship put into harbour at Gytheum, after a long and anxious but not very adventurous voyage. Tarrik and his Scythians had stayed at Byzantium for the worst weeks of mid-winter and there changed ship. Even on the way south, after that, they had delayed at a dozen small ports, kept in by contrary winds or the fear of them, often turning back maddeningly at the harbour mouth. Their captain had attended to every possible omen! But here at last they were. Before it was light enough even to guess at the coast-line, Sphaeros had been on deck, standing with his books and change of clothes all done up in a bundle under his arm. By dawn they were fairly near in with Kythera behind them and the two sides of the great bay gradually closing in on them and the great ridge of Tainaron rising to the left and Taygetos far and high ahead of them, misted and silvery in the first light; it was not different from ten years ago. The Scythians were all dressing up, putting on armour and swords and elaborate bows and quivers and necklaces and bracelets and fur-cloaks, and their best coats and breeches sewn with gold and silver, so that they jingled proudly and fantastically about the ship. Only Tarrik, who had been there before and remembered or guessed a little about it, had put on nothing but a plain shirt and trousers and coat, white linen bordered with white fox fur; the only gold about him was a belt-clasp in branching leafwork that Berris had made on the voyage, and a narrow circlet of gold on his head. He was not armed either, except for a small hunting-knife insignificantly tucked into the side of his belt.

      He had told the others that this was the best thing to do, but none of them chose to follow his advice, and after all, they were free nobles and could dress as they wanted. Only Berris was much as usual. He had been so thrilled for the last few days, while they were touching at one after another of the Greek Islands and getting nearer and nearer to the country of his dreams, that he had not thought about things like clothes; as far as he considered them he felt ashamed and inappropriate with his barbarian things—the solid stuff of coat and trousers, the thick boots and childish ornaments. He wanted to slip quietly ashore and creep into the heart of Hellas unobserved.

      They had to wait about by the harbour for the best part of that day while their things were being unloaded; a good deal stared at, but still, nowadays there were so many odd foreigners going to Hellas that no one was really surprised. Probably they had come to hire officers for some infinitely remote war of their own. In the meantime the only problem was how much money was to be extracted from them here at Gytheum—before these robbers of inlanders could get at the pickings! Sphaeros managed to look after them to some extent, but a few insisted on making purchases. All of them could speak Greek fairly fluently and they liked

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