Styxx (DH #33) (73 page)

“And that is?”

“Love, Father. Even when I’m not at my best, even when I fail, he is proud of me, and he is there whenever I need him. He doesn’t judge or condemn me for being human.”

“Because he doesn’t dare.”

Styxx scoffed. His father knew nothing of Galen’s fearless temerity. “I have no wish to argue with you on this.” He turned to leave.

“Wait … you should know that I’ve entered into talks with the king of Ithaca for his daughter. I’m arranging a meeting for the two of you.”

Sighing, Styxx turned back around. “And you can un-enter them, Father. I’m already betrothed.”

Rage mottled his cheeks with color. “To whom?”

Styxx braced himself for the full force of his father’s wrath. “My Bethany.”

“A peasant! Are you out of your mind? You’re my heir, boy! She’s not even Greek!”

“Neither was Nefertari. But if you want the Ithacan princess, I suggest you marry her to Acheron or yourself. I am bound to my Bethany and I will take no other bride.”

“I forbid it!”

Ignoring him, Styxx continued up the stairs. “Forbid it all you want. I care naught what you say or do. I will have her as my bride.”

I will see you dead first!

Styxx winced at his father’s threat.
Go on and try it, bastard
. Let him learn what Acheron had. So long as his brother lived, he was free and clear of death.

April 6, 9527 BC

Styxx shook his head at the ring the jeweler held out to him. “Too small a stone.”

“This is the one.”

Styxx looked over at Galen’s selection which appeared tiny in Galen’s massive calloused paw. Even so, it was much larger than the one he’d been examining, and it would be large on Bethany’s delicate hand. The stone was a deep celestial blue that glittered brightly even in the dim light of the store. “What stone is that?”

The jeweler smiled in approval. “Sapphire, Highness. It symbolizes purity, and is thought to protect against evil thoughts and wishes.”

Styxx nodded at Galen. “You’re right. It’s perfect for her.” He glanced back at the merchant. “I’ll take this one.”

While the merchant went to box it, Galen laughed. “Two men picking out a wedding ring is like two women shopping for swords. Both of us out of our element. Next thing you know, we’ll be shopping for dresses and panas.”

Styxx snorted. They had both amused the merchant to no end with their questions and comments. “Let’s just hope the baby’s a boy. After this travesty, I don’t want to even contemplate trying to shop for a daughter.”

Galen’s laughter was deep and rich. “It’s not so bad, really. I rather enjoy it, and unlike boys, daughters never hesitate to hug and kiss your old whiskered cheeks. There’s a lot to be said for having a daughter. Then again there’s a lot to be said for having a son. Either way, I’m sure you’ll be very pleased.”

He was sure about that, too.

The jeweler returned with his purchase. Styxx carefully tucked it into the pouch he carried.

Leaving the store, he started home then stopped with Galen by his side. “Is a ring enough?”

“For your Bethany? Aye, boy. She only wants you.”

Still, he wasn’t sure. He looked to the end of the street. “It just seems so insignificant to what I feel for her. Perhaps I should get—”

Galen shoved him back toward the store, cutting him off mid-sentence. Irritated, he opened his mouth to bark at Galen when he realized that something wet and warm was on his leg. Something bright red.

Blood.

His heart racing, Styxx caught Galen against his side as the old man staggered. “Galen?” he cried out, cradling him in his arms as Galen struggled to breathe.

Someone had cut his femoral artery. Deep and ragged, the wound shot blood everywhere.

No!

Who would have dared such?

“Someone fetch a physician!” Styxx called as he sank to the ground with his mentor in his arms. “Hold on, Galen.” He tried his best to stanch the blood. But it was impossible.

And it kept coming and coming no matter how hard he tried to stop it.

Galen’s gray eyes stared into his as the old man smiled and patted his blood-soaked hands. “This is how it should be, boy.”

“How what should be?”

He swallowed hard. “No man should ever outlive his son. Never mind thrice in one lifetime. This time when I saw the assassin’s blade, it ended the way it should have.” He touched Styxx’s cheek. “My beloved son is safe from harm.”

Tears blinded Styxx as he bit back a sob. “Don’t you die on me, Galen! You hear me? That’s an order! You are not to die for me … please … please, don’t leave me.”

Galen licked his lips. “I couldn’t love you more had I been lucky enough to sire you myself. It’s been my greatest honor to fight with you, Styxx. To teach and protect you at home, and in battle. You are the greatest hero Didymos has ever bred. And I couldn’t have asked for a better son … you’ve done my old heart proud time and…”

As he watched, the light faded from those gray eyes. Galen went limp in his arms.

Styxx couldn’t breathe as tears fell down his face. He tried everything he could think of, but it was no use.

Galen was dead.

And it was his fault. He should have protected him. Why hadn’t he been paying attention? Why?

It was so unfair.

“Damn you, gods! Damn you all!” Sobbing, he held Galen to his chest.

I can’t die … why did you interfere, old man? Why?

Had the assassin’s blade gone into him, it would have hurt. But it would have healed. Why had he never told Galen that secret?

Now, it was too late.

What have I done?

He’d killed the only father he’d ever known. Hating himself completely, Styxx rocked his mentor in his arms as his heart splintered into pieces.

“Why, Galen?” he whispered against Galen’s grizzled cheek. “Why did you do this for something as worthless as me?” But he knew. Galen had loved him. For whatever stupid reason, the old man had.

“Highness?”

Styxx looked up to see the physician standing over them. “You’re too late.” Even so, he laid Galen down on the ground so that the man could examine him.

After a few minutes, the physician sighed. “I’m sorry, Highness. I shall fetch—”

“No. I’ll take care of him.” Styxx picked Galen up and carried him to the palace in his arms.

As he entered the foyer, his father came out of his study to scowl at him. “What is this?”

Styxx didn’t speak to him. He couldn’t. Instead, he carried Galen up to his room to make final preparations.

*   *   *

Bethany ran to
the palace with Dynatos in front of her. Even now, she heard her great-grandfather’s laughter as he announced Galen’s death to the Atlantean gods.
They barely missed Prince Prick, but they got the old bastard who rode with him.

Styxx would be absolutely devastated.

The doors opened and she stepped inside.

“May I help you?”

Holding on to Dynatos so that he wouldn’t hurt or frighten anyone, she paused at the voice of a servant on her right. “I’m here for Prince Styxx. Please show me to him.”

The servant started to lead her until a sharp female voice halted them.

“What are you doing?”

“The prince has a visitor.”

“No, he doesn’t. The prince doesn’t receive commoners in our private quarters … only in the throne room on designated days.”

Bethany went ramrod stiff at Ryssa’s haughty tone. She felt the air stir as the princess moved to stand in front of her.

“And in the future, we don’t let whores through the front door. In fact, they are not to be admitted to the premises at all.”

Unable to not respond in kind, Bethany arched her brow. “Then where do you plan to live?”

Ryssa sucked her breath in sharply. “Do you know who you’re talking to?”

“Styxx’s sister, I presume.”

“That would be prince to you, peasant, and
princess
when you address me.”

Bethany started past her, but Ryssa caught her by the arm and dug her nails into Bethany’s skin.

“Did you not hear me?”

Bethany held Dynatos back as he growled angrily at the princess. “I heard you and I don’t care. Styxx needs me.”

“Get out before I have you whipped for your insolence. My brother has whores aplenty. I don’t even know which one you are, and I don’t care. I am not having him bring his whores under the same roof as my son … the son of the god Apollo.… Guards! Throw this trash to the street where it belongs.”

Bethany snatched her arm free. “I’ve always found it intriguing how humans project their sins onto others. Your brother isn’t the beast. And if you’d ever once in the last five years had a conversation with him, you’d well know my name.”

Dynatos started barking and growling.

Bethany sank her hand into his fur to calm him. “I promise you, bitch. I will be back, and you will be very sorry for this.”

Ryssa started for her, but Dynatos kept her away.

Without another word, Bethany left.

*   *   *

Styxx frowned as
he heard something that sounded like a dog barking in the foyer. Leaving his room, he went to check.

Ryssa was coming up the stairs in a complete pique.

“Did I hear a dog downstairs?”

She raked him with a sneer that should have stripped the flesh from his bones. “Yes, your Nubian whore was here to see you and I threw her out.”

Rage clouded his vision as he ran past his sister and went to find Bethany. He rushed through the doors and scanned the crowd on the street, but there was no sign of her or Dynatos.

Damn you, Ryssa. You selfish bitch.

Still, Bethany had come to him. That alone meant everything.

Furious and heartbroken, he returned inside to find Ryssa at the top of the stairs.

“In the future, tell your whores they are not welcome in the palace. And for the sake of the gods, wash yourself. You’re disgusting.”

Styxx ignored her as he walked past her.

“Did you hear me?”

He started to ignore her again, but he’d had enough. “Bethany is my fiancée, you stupid quim. She’s not Nubian, she’s Egyptian. And I’ve had enough of you insulting her. So help me, if you say one more word against her, I will have you exiled.”

She started to slap him, but he caught her wrist. “How do you think Apollo will deal with your treatment of me when I tell him of this?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll ask him the next time he corners me for a grope.”

“How dare you defame him!”

“Go fuck yourself, Ryssa.” Releasing her arm, he headed back to where he’d been preparing Galen’s body.

Alone.

He’d already sent an envoy to Antigone to escort her and her family here for the funeral. And while the task of preparing a body was normally reserved for women and priests, he didn’t want anyone near Galen who didn’t respect or love him. He owed him that much.

But it was so hard to be here. To do this.

Agony and regret mixed with his grief until he couldn’t breathe. Shutting the door to his room, he went to finish.

*   *   *

“
M
aahes?” Bethany called
as she entered her cousin’s elaborate gold-encrusted temple in Thebes.

With his dark brown hair completely covered by his pschent headdress, and his bright green eyes gleaming, he appeared in front of her before she finished the last syllable of his name. The smile on his face faded the instant he saw how upset she was. “Baby, what is it?” At six foot six, he was a huge wall of muscle who dwarfed her, and yet he’d always been a cuddly pup with her.

Bethany sniffed back her tears. “I need twenty-four of the biggest, strongest, scariest men you have in your army for an envoy to Greece.”

He arched a brow that had been darkened by cosmetics. “Are we going to war?” he asked hopefully.

As the Egyptian god of war, he was often too eager for battle.

“No,” she said petulantly as the horror of what had just happened in Didymos replayed through her mind. She was furious, hurt, grief-stricken, and embarrassed. “A friend is dead and the bitch won’t let me in to see Styxx. I want to terrify her and show them that I’m not a piece of trash to be thrown out!”

Maahes frowned as he tried to make sense of her rushed words. “What?”

“Nothing.” She drew a ragged breath. “Please … I need the most impressive envoy you can muster, right away.”

“Anything for my dearest. You want elephants, too?”

She let out a pain-filled laugh at the thought of Ryssa’s expression should they ride into town on those. “No, we’ll be arriving by barge.”

“I can have the elephants carry it or fly it in.”

And this was why she loved her cousin so. Maahes was ever a gem.

“A little more believably subtle, please.”

He kissed her forehead. “Okay, baby. How soon do you want it?”

“Twenty minutes?”

“Done. I’ll meet you at the docks.”

“Thank you.” Bethany kissed his cheek then went to her aunt Ma’at’s temple. Invisible to the priests, she walked through the sacred south wall into the antechamber the priests knew nothing about. It was here her aunt kept some of her choicest items.

“Aunt Ma’at?”

Her aunt appeared even faster than Maahes had. “Child, you’re pregnant!”

Bethany cringed then brought her finger to her lips to silence her aunt. “Don’t tell my father, or anyone, please?”

“Never.” As tiny and delicate as Maahes was large, Ma’at wrinkled her nose. “I’m not that brave.”

Bethany smiled then hugged her aunt for the kindness. “I need some help. May I borrow your most elaborate dress and jewelry?”

Ma’at arched a regal brow. “May I ask why?”

“To make a point to someone who was very rude to me. She treated me like a peasant and called me trash!”

Fury glittered in her green eyes. “In that case…”

Bethany lifted her chin proudly as her aunt dressed her in Egyptian finery.

Ma’at manifested a bright bronze mirror for her to see herself. Her aunt leaned against the mirror’s side as she eyed Bethany with a smile of satisfaction. “Too much?”

In spite of her pain, Bethany laughed. Ma’at had put her in a solid black sheath with a muslin scarf threaded with gold draped around her hips and a golden jewel-encrusted sash that held it in place. Gold and turquoise bands held a matching gold muslin drape to her arms. Her huge ankh-embellished collar was made of coral, pearls, gold, and turquoise with matching earrings. But it was her headdress that was perfection. Elaborately sculpted, it was a large gold bird with a single gold feather at the back of it. The sides of the headdress were gold beads that fell down to her shoulders, overlapping the collar. Her eyes were heavily lined and she dripped with the wealth of Egypt.