And he'd tried to find that out. He'd gone to city after city, town after town and they'd all been the same. There was nowhere to go and no one who wanted him for a moment longer than it took for them to screw him. The only reason he'd returned here had been the memory of his sister and the one summer when he'd felt like a person and not an object.
Sick to his stomach, he looked up the hill to where the palace twinkled like a magical star.
And still those Atlantean voices whispered to him.
Come to us, Apostolos. Come home . . .
Acheron laughed bitterly. "Why? So you can fuck me like everyone else?"
There was nowhere for him to go. No escape from this torment. The only reason he had to live was for the two people in this world who didn't judge him.
Ryssa and Apollodorus. May the gods have mercy on him if he were to lose them. He would never be able to go on should they leave this world without him.
February 18, 9527 BC
"I don't know what it is about you and that baby, but you are the most amazing nurse ever born."
Acheron laughed at Ryssa's comment as she took Apollodorus from his arms. Neither of them could understand why Acheron's presence calmed his nephew, but there was no denying that anytime Apollodorus was fussy, he calmed down immediately for Acheron. In fact, Ryssa had begun bringing the babe to him virtually every night so that she could sleep.
"You know you can leave him with me any time at all. I think we get along so well because we both function on the same level." Acheron ruffled the soft hair on his nephew's head.
Smiling, Ryssa wrapped the blanket around Apollodorus. "Thank the gods I have you. I don't know what I'd do if you weren't here to help out with him."
An instant later the doors to Acheron's room crashed open. Six guards stormed in to tackle him to the floor.
"What is this?" Ryssa demanded.
They didn't respond. Acheron fought them, but in the end they shackled him while the baby screamed in protest.
"He's done nothing!" Ryssa shouted as she followed them out of the room and down the hallway.
They didn't stop until they'd taken him to the throne room and forced him to his knees in front of his father and Styxx who sat smugly on their thrones while they stared at him in disdain.
Acheron glared at them. "Why am I here?"
His father came off his throne with a bellow of rage. "You do not ask questions of me, traitor!"
Stunned, Acheron couldn't even blink for a full minute.
"Father!" Ryssa snapped. "Have you lost your reason?"
His answer was to backhand Acheron. "Where were you last night?"
Acheron panted at the pain that exploded through his cheek and eye. He'd been with Artemis, but he didn't dare tell his father that. "I was in my room."
His father struck him again. "Liar. I have witnesses who saw you in a stew, plotting my murder."
Stunned, he couldn't even respond. All he could do was look at Styxx and the fearful light in the prince's eyes told him exactly who'd been in the stew. "I've done no such thing."
His father hit him again before turned to the guards. "Torture him until he decides to tell us the truth."
Acheron cried out a denial as he fought the guards holding him.
"Father, no!" Ryssa moved forward.
The king turned on her with a feral snarl. "You're not going to save him this time. He's committed treason and I will not allow that to go unanswered."
His breathing ragged, Acheron who was being restrained by the guards, met and held Styxx's gaze. How could his brother plot the death of a man who worshiped the ground he walked on? He would sell his soul to have just a portion of the love Styxx spurned.
But there was no need to ask for clemency. His father had already made up his mind. Only the bastard Acheron could be the traitor. Never Styxx. The only person who could exonerate him was Artemis. And she'd rather die than openly admit he'd been with her in her temple last night.
Acheron was hauled out of the throne room and taken to the prison below.
Even though he fought the guards every step of the way, it wasn't enough to prevent them from stripping his clothes off his body and then chaining him down on the interrogation block. The granite stone chilled him to his bones. There were blood stains permanently dried in the stone and there was no doubt that his own blood would soon mix with that of the others who'd been tortured and killed before him.
Closing his eyes, Acheron tried to think of something, anything to protect himself from what was about to happen. But as the interrogator came forward, he knew there was nothing he could do.
Nothing could save him from this.
"The king wants the names of everyone you met with."
Acheron winced in fear of what would come when he told the truth. "I didn't meet with anyone."
He brought a hot steel whip down across Acheron's chest.
Acheron screamed out as he realized just how impossible this was going to be.
Ryssa was terrified as she returned to her room and handed her crying son over to his nurse. What was she going to do?
Unlike her father, she knew who the real traitor had to be. If witnesses saw someone tall, blond and looking like Acheron, it was Styxx. Acheron would have nothing to gain by killing the king, other than vengeance and he wasn't the kind of person to go seeking that.
Not to mention Acheron would never have been in public uncovered, especially not a stew. Had he done so, he'd still be there, beating people off him.
"What have you done, Styxx?" she whispered through the tight lump in her throat.
Why would he plot against his own father? But then she knew, the history of mankind was written by sons wanting more and willing to do anything to get it. Even so, she'd thought Styxx above such scheming. Who could have poisoned his mind?
"I have to find Artemis." There was no one else who could help save Acheron.
Ryssa headed for her door to leave, but before she took three steps, the doors opened to admit the same guards who'd arrested Acheron.
"Your Highness, you're to be taken for questioning."
Her heart chilled at those words. "Questioning? This can't be."
But it was. Surrounding her, they took her to her father's war room where he waited with Styxx.
She gave them both the coldest look she could muster. "What is this, Father?"
He'd never looked older than he did right then. His handsome features were drawn tight with sadness. "Why would you betray me, Daughter?"
"I've never done anything to betray you, Father, ever."
He shook his head. "I have a witness who came forward and said that you were with Acheron last night."
She leveled a killing glare at Styxx. "Then they are lying as they lied about Acheron. I was with Apollo last night. Summon him and see."
Styxx's face went white.
So, he'd thought to rid himself of her too. She couldn't believe her father's stupidity where Styxx was concerned.
Relief etched itself across her father's brow. "I'm glad they're mistaken, kitten." He laid a gentle hand to her face. "The thought of my beloved daughter turning on me . . . "
What of his beloved son?
She looked past her father to see Styxx staring at the floor. "Acheron is innocent."
"No, child. Not this time. I have too many witnesses who saw him there."
Why couldn't she make him see the truth? "Acheron would never be in a stew."
"Of course he would. He worked in one. Where else would he go?"
Anywhere but there. Acheron had hated every minute of being in those places. "Please, Father. You've done enough to him. Let him be."
He shook his head. "There is a nest of vipers coiled around me and until I uncover the name of everyone he spoke to, I won't stop."
Tears filled her eyes as she considered the nightmare they were going to put Acheron through. Again. "The priests say that Hades reserves a special corner of Tartarus for betrayers. I'm sure the name of your real traitor is being carved there even as we speak."
Styxx refused to meet her gaze.
So she looked back at her father. "In all these years, Acheron has sought nothing but love from you, Father. One moment of your looking at him with something other than hatred burning in your eyes. Nothing more than a kind word and at every turn you've denied him and hurt him. You have shattered the son who only wanted to love you. Let him go before you do irreparable harm, I beg you."
"He's betrayed me for the last time."
"Betrayed you?" she asked, aghast at his reasoning. "Father, you can't believe that? All he's tried to do is stay out of your sight. Away from your notice. He cringes any time your name is brought up. If you'd stop being so blind for one minute, you'd see that he has never mixed with people and he has never betrayed you."
"He was a prostitute!" he roared.
"He was a boy who had to eat, Father. Thrown away by his own family. Betrayed by the ones who should have protected him from harm. I was there when he was born and I remember how all of you turned away from him. Do you? Do you even recall when you broke his arm? He was only two years old and could barely speak. He reached for you to hug you and you knocked him away so forcefully that you broke his arm like a twig. When he cried out, you slapped him for it and walked away."