Styxx (DH #33) (41 page)

She held her hand up to stop the man’s approach. For several seconds she debated then nodded. “Follow me.” She led the way to a small room in the back part of the brothel.

The moment the door was shut, Styxx lowered his hood.

All the color drained from her face as she sank to her knees in front of him. “Your Highness, please forgive—”

“It’s all right,” he said, cutting her off. “Now get up.”

She stood immediately. “What can I do for you, Highness?”

“It’s my understanding that you have a … an employee here who looks like me.”

“Acheron.”

He wasn’t sure if he should be relieved or appalled. “It’s true then?”

“It is.” Fear and worry lined her brow.

“Relax, woman. I only want to make sure he’s cared for.”

She scowled. “I don’t understand.”

For the first time in his life, Styxx took full advantage of his rank and position. “It’s not your place to understand. Only to obey.” He pulled his purse out and opened it. “I don’t want you to overwork him. He’s to have half the week off to do as he pleases, and you’re to make sure he has the best of everything you can provide him, including care when he’s sick.” He set his purse on her desk. “So long as you abide by that, I’ll have money delivered to you every month. If any word of his abuse reaches me, I will see you personally held responsible, and the repercussions will be neither pretty nor enjoyable.”

Her eyes glittered with greed. “Yes, Highness. Is there anything else?”

He shook his head. “Just take care of him.”

She opened his purse and her eyes widened then she smiled. “Most gladly.” She hesitated before she closed it and slid it into her desk. “May I speak frankly, Highness?”

“If you must.”

She ran her gaze over the length of his body. “At first, it is quite startling how much you favor. But you two are nothing alike.”

If only that was the truth. They were a lot more similar than anyone would guess. However, there was one important matter they differed on.

“Believe me, I know, madam. I’m the one who’s a lethal bastard when crossed.” And with that, he lifted his hood and left.

December 10, 9532 BC

It was war. Open and full-scale. His father had received the notice just an hour ago and Didymos, along with all Greek city-states, was rallying troops. They had to leave immediately.

Styxx sighed as he found no sign of Bethany at their spot. “Beth?” he called, hoping she was wandering about, as she did sometimes when she didn’t know he was coming.

There was no answer.

Damn it.

He’d be gone by dawn. All he’d wanted was to see her one last time, and tell her what was happening. But then, she’d know. Everyone was well aware that the Atlanteans were stepping up their attacks and determined to conquer all of Greece. They planned to slaughter every royal family they could find.

But it wasn’t his family he cared about.

“I will fight for you, my Bethany.” And he would make sure that Greece stayed free from Atlantean control to keep her, alone, safe. The rest of them could go straight to Tartarus for all he cared.

He looked down at the ring he’d brought for her. A ring he should have given her on his return from Halicarnassus, but it’d been tainted by Apollo and he’d wanted to wait and give it to her when he didn’t have something so brutal to tarnish the joy of watching her receive it.

Unsure if she’d ever find it, he tucked it into the base of the tree where they met and hoped that she’d understand why he couldn’t wait for her.

His heart broken that he wouldn’t see her again for who knew how long, he mounted his horse and left.

*   *   *

B
ethany wanted to
scream. She’d been waiting here for hours, hoping Hector would come. Given the vicious attack Apollo had led against his own people and blamed the Atlanteans for, she knew they’d be sending Hector to war again and she wanted to see him before he left.

This time, she was going to mark him so that she’d know which soldier he was.

Frustrated, she lay down and flung her hand over her head. She grimaced as it slammed into the tree behind her. Then it brushed against something with a sharp edge. Frowning, she turned over and patted the small knothole in the tree where Hector would occasionally leave something for her.

No …

Tears filled her eyes as she realized he’d come here and she’d missed him. Aching, she pulled the small box into her hands and opened it to find a ring inside.

Desperate to know for certain if it was from him, she took it to her temple on Katateros. Biting her lip, she pulled it from the box to see a beautiful gold ring that was impressed with a winged horse—something she’d told him she fancied without telling him she actually owned one. And on the inside of the band was stamped the words
Δ
I
ΚΟΣ
ΣΑΣ
.
Faithfully yours.

He had been there and she’d missed him. Pain shredded her as she realized she might never see him again.
Please remember to carry my necklace with you. Please.

What if he didn’t?

No, she wouldn’t think about that. She couldn’t. If anything happened to him …

She would rain Kalosis itself down on every Greek. Archon would never again have to fear Apollymi’s child.
She
would be the one to tear this world apart.

But how would she find him?

Because it was open war, the Greek troops would be combined and split. Some of the Didymosian regiments could be in the southern part. Some in the north. Or if enough men were lost in Hector’s regiment, he could be assigned to one from another city-state. There was no way for her to know which regiment he’d be assigned to.

“I
will
find you, Hector.”

She had no idea how, but she wouldn’t rest until she was sure he was safe and whole.

Most of all, protected.

May 23, 9531 BC

Hephaestion, the Atlantean messenger god, shoved open the doors of the gods’ main hall on Katateros. “The Stygian Omada is on our beaches!”

Bethany looked up from the precious letter Hector had paid a messenger to hide in the tree at their meeting spot while the gods around her scrambled to action. She grabbed Hephaestion’s arm as he started past her to notify the gods who weren’t in attendance, and pulled him to a stop. “What has happened?”

“They just landed on the beach at Ena. If we don’t stop them now and turn them back to Greece, they could make it to the mainland and take the city.”

She saw red at the mere thought of a Greek in her beloved country. How dare they! “Who leads their forces?”

“Styxx of Didymos.”

Oh, it figured …

Athena’s dog they’d named the
Στύγι
o
ς
o
μάδα
—Stygian Omada—after. Fury blinding her, Bethany manifested her armor and summoned her horse and bow. This time, she was going to teach that bastard a lesson. In Greece, her powers were limited even when she rode with the Atlantean army, but here in her own lands …

Prince Styxx would feel her full bite this day and wish to the gods he worshiped that he’d stayed home.

*   *   *

E
xhausted from battle
, Styxx wiped the blood from his face as he watched his army move inward from the beach where they’d landed. Though it’d been a fierce fight, they’d overtaken the Atlantean guard who’d been charged with the safety of their outermost island. Most of the Atlantean guard lay slaughtered on the beach. But a small contingency had escaped inland to warn their people.

“Fortify!” he called to his commanders. They’d need to be ready when the next onslaught came. There was no way the Atlanteans would leave them to advance without a staunch, brutal fight every step of the way.

Styxx winced as his side started bleeding again. Damn it … Bethany’s token only protected him from weapons. Not from broken wood poles and blatant stupidity. During the fighting yesterday, he’d stumbled against one. Somehow, it’d gone between the laces of his cuirass to slice and stab him across his ribs.

And it burned like Greek fire.

Trying to ignore the pain, he went to retrieve his horse then paused as he saw fires off to the north, not that far away, in one of the villages. At first, he thought the people there might be signaling the mainland. Until he saw the Greek banners that had been placed in the sand in front of it.

Shit …

Against orders, his men were raiding.

“Galen!” he shouted to his second-in-command. “I need my
dekarmatoli
. Fast.” The
dekarmatoli
were the ten men his former tutor had hand-selected and charged with making sure Styxx was safe at all times. After what had happened at Halicarnassus with Apollo, Galen had guarded him like a psychotic mother hen.

But right now, Styxx was going to need loyal men to quell this rebellion before it started.

He swung up onto Troian’s back and spurred his horse to the site as fast as he could.

*   *   *

B
ethany was furious
as she flashed into the small Enean village where their followers had been desperately imploring the Atlantean gods for rescue. While the rest of the gods had gone to render aid to the bulk of their forces, she’d agreed to come and check on the inhabitants here.

The village had taken in wounded Atlantean soldiers … wounded men who had been slaughtered by Greeks at the foot of her great-grandfather’s statue in the center of their small hamlet.

She raised her hand to blast them all straight to their beloved Hades.

“Halt!”

That deep, fierce, commanding tone froze them all. Even her.

Curious, she frowned at the sight of the Didymosian prince as he leapt from the back of his ebony horse and strode angrily through the fallen bodies and looting Greeks without any backup whatsoever.

Was he insane?

The Greeks here weren’t from Didymos. And they would have no love or respect for the young prince. Something evidenced by the derision on their faces.

His blue eyes full of angry verve, Styxx headed straight for two soldiers who had hauled a beautiful young girl from her home and into the street. It was obvious by her torn gown what they intended.

“Release her!” Styxx demanded.

Instead of following orders, the large, burly soldier wrapped his arm around the girl’s waist. “She’s spoils,
Highness
.” He sneered the title.

“She’s a girl, not property. Now release her or you will regret it.”

“What? You’ll have your men whip me?” He laughed. “I’m a Thracian. We don’t bow down to a Didymosian crown and we hold no fear of your men.”

The Thracians with him cheered in support.

Undaunted, the prince approached him like a fierce predator who was aware of every sword around him and yet feared none of them. “Then it’s time you learn to fear me.”

They all laughed at Styxx’s bold words.

Wanting a closer view, and to make sure the terrified girl wasn’t harmed in any way, Bethany flashed herself into the girl’s body. Her arms burned from the soldier’s brutal grip.

He buried his face in her neck. “She smells sweet for an Atlantean whore. I’m sure we can find one for you, prince. Now go back to your own men and leave this to those of us old enough for pubic hair.”

Styxx’s celestial gaze didn’t waver as he slung his arm out. An instant later, the soldier released her and fell back, dead, with a small throwing knife planted between his eyes.

Bethany’s jaw went slack at the sight.

Styxx had killed one of his own men?

To protect her people?

Drawing his sword, the prince put himself between her and the men who’d come here with him. “Get to your mother, girl. Fast.”

Stunned at his flawless Atlantean, she obeyed then watched in absolute fascination as he stood alone to defend his enemies from his own army.

The Greeks attacked him.

He downed six of their soldiers before his reinforcements arrived to stand with him against the rest of the angry Thracians. His men quickly subdued them, and drove them back.

Styxx grabbed the one who had stood beside the first man he’d killed. “Send word to your Thracians that we are not here to rape wives, sisters, and daughters. Our fight is with the Atlantean queen, her soldiers, and their gods, not their women or children. Any Greek who defies my orders will be castrated and offered as a sacrifice to the Atlantean god Dikastis for their crimes against his people.”

“Do you think they’d be so kind to our women?”

Styxx shoved him away. “That is why we’re on Atlantean soil, fighting them before they reach our homelands. We’re here to protect our families from Atlantean slavery, and I will not shame our innocents by slaughtering and debasing theirs. Now go and warn your men.”

The prince returned to Bethany and the small hut where the girl had been hiding with her mother and sisters.

To her complete stupefaction, the prince retrieved a fallen doll just outside the hut then came to kneel in the doorway, on the ground by the girl’s little sister who was probably no older than ten.

He held the doll out to her as she clung to her mother’s skirt. “It’s all right, little one,” he said again in flawless Atlantean. “We are not here to harm you or your family. You have my word.”

She looked up at her mother for confirmation.

Her eyes wide, the mother snatched the doll from his hand then stepped back to protect her daughters.

Styxx bowed to them before he stood. “Tell your villagers to gather together here in the square and I will personally see all of you taken to your city walls to be protected. If anyone is unable to walk or travel, let us know and we will carry them.”

She eyed him suspiciously. “Is this a Greek trick?”

“I swear on my life that it’s not. Please, good mother, for the sakes of your daughters, hurry. I don’t know how long my army can hold the other Greeks back should they choose to fight my orders. We must get you to safety.”

He went to relay his intentions to his own men who acted as if the orders were typical and expected from him. It wasn’t until he stumbled and caught himself against his horse that Bethany realized he was badly wounded. Blood trickled down his left leg.