No Mortals Allowed

by Honey Beezleigh

  No Mortals Allowed

  What If Myth, Volume 1

  Honey Beezleigh

  Published by Honey Beezleigh, 2021.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  NO MORTALS ALLOWED

  First edition. October 5, 2021.

  Copyright © 2021 Honey Beezleigh.

  ISBN: 979-8201250225

  Written by Honey Beezleigh.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  ARIADNE SAT ON A ROCK at the edge of the encampment, surveying the busy followers of the god of wine. The majority of them were his female followers, the maenads, but there were more than a few of the distinctly male satyrs. The general lack of clothing was a hallmark of the following of Dionysus, where the festivals famously tended to descend into drunken orgies.

  They all wore the symbols of their god, crowned in vines or carrying large staffs topped with pine cones. Several wore the draped spotted furs of animals she had only heard about. A few wore only animal furs and nothing else. The air was fresh and crisp, with the promise of heady midday heat tempering its bite.

  “Whatcha looking at?” A very pretty maenad leaned over Ariadne’s shoulder, long black curls falling forward.

  “The traveling camp of the wine god. It’s a lot busier than I thought it would be.” Ariadne brushed the other woman’s silky hair from her face but more just fell in its place, leaving her view full of hair.

  “The festival tonight is going to be amazing. But all the festivals are, really.” The maenad seemed to be agreeing to something, and sat next to Ariadne with a flop of splayed limbs and bouncing hair. “I’m Nysa.” She introduced herself casually.

  Ariadne could feel her eyes widen at how far up the other woman’s skirt had risen and swallowed, averting her gaze. “Ariadne.” She offered her name in turn, not bothering with her royal title. She asked, “This festival is based around a ceremony to dedicate wine to the patron god Dionysus, right?” She asked, despite knowing the answer.

  “Yep. Why, you got something you’re going to dedicate?” Nysa’s pale green eyes gleamed as she twisted her whole body to face Ariadne, skirt riding higher and revealing her bare thighs.

  Ariadne chewed her lip, and tried not to look. “Maybe. I want to, but I really struggled making it and don’t want to offend. It tastes like death.” She admitted with a groan, throwing herself backwards, completely forgetting she was sitting on unforgiving stone and not grass.

  Instead of Ariadne’s head hitting hard rock strong hands buffered the impact. She opened her eyes to see the face of the concerned looking Nysa.

  Instead of commenting on Ariadne’s fumble or embarrassed flush, Nysa said, “I’ve been to quite a few of these shindigs. I could try your wine and tell you if it will be offensive.”

  Ariadne sat up and snatched the other woman’s hands, checking them for damage. “Are you okay? What were you thinking?” She didn’t see any bruises but they could still show up.

  “I could say the same thing to you, throwing yourself back against a rock like that.” Nysa countered, letting Ariadne prod and examine her hands.

  They were smooth, with perfectly painted glassy green nails without blemish. On closer inspection they were not soft in all places, with rough callouses in areas. Realizing she was stroking the other woman’s hand, Ariadne dropped Nysa’s hands with a cough. “I’m glad you’re not hurt.”

  Nysa grinned at her, “The wine would be good.” She leaned in to brush Ariadne’s hair behind her ear and traced the shell of it with the edge of her nail.

  Ariadne sat there, stunned for a minute before she registered the words through her tingling ears. “Yes. The wine. You wanted to try it.” Her tongue is awkward in her mouth. She reached into the bag beside her and pulled out the heavy jug of wine. “I don’t have glasses.” She realized.

  “I do!” The maenad waves two wine glasses at her that Ariadne had no idea where she pulled them from. Benefits of being a follower of the god of wine, she supposed.

  Ariadne poured a bare finger width of wine for the other woman. “Stingy!” Nysa mock gasped, holding a hand over her wide smile.

  “This is awful wine. You need to know that. I’m not sure what I was thinking bringing it here.” She added in a mutter to herself, despite knowing she hadn’t cared about the taste of the wine. It was a chance to get out, if she could be accepted into the traveling followers of Dionysus.

  “I’ll be the judge of that.” Nysa drank and immediately spat the wine back out, coughing and wheezing.

  Ariadne sighed and dug in her bag for a cloth, handing it to the wine splattered woman. “I suppose that answers that question.”

  “Where did you make this?” She wheezed, mopping her face gently to not smear her makeup.

  Ariadne let her gaze drift to the horizon where the walls of the labyrinth loomed over the city below it. “A graveyard. Like I said, I don’t know what I was thinking.” Mostly that the Minotaur hated green things and wouldn’t eat grape vines. Even if it would have been better for the rest of the world if he had. Grapes were less precious than children, after all.

  The other woman followed her gaze, eyes sharpening at the sight of the looming labyrinth. “I don’t know, it was wine. Terrible wine, but still wine.”

  Ariadne snorted. “Would you put it in your mouth again?”

  Nysa closed her mouth. “No.” She admitted. “Still, Dionysus appreciates all efforts at making wine. Some people are just more talented than others. But, a graveyard, really?”

  “It’s all I had available for space.” Ariadne defended, then added thoughtfully, “Do you think I should dedicate it to the Gods of the Underworld? Give them something to serve unwanted guests?” Hades had a reputation for discouraging even divine visitors to his realm with the exception of his Queen, Persephone.

  Nysa grinned, face stretching into a terrible expression that reminded Ariadne that the sacrifices to the god of wine used to include human dismemberment. “He would like that.” She answered far too knowingly for Ariadne’s comfort.

  “Will I still be welcome tonight, even though I don’t have a sacrifice?” Ariadne glanced at the camp setting up and bit her lip.

  “Don’t worry about it. You tried. Besides, I can make you my plus one.” Nysa gave Ariadne an appreciative once over, followed by her hands trailing down Ariadne’s sides to clasp her hands. “If you’d like.”

  Ariadne returned the look and realized something about her companion. “Are you a man?”

  Nysa raised a perfectly painted eyebrow. They challenged, “Does it matter?”

  “No, but I don’t have any,” Ariadne’s face was on fire and she pulled a hand free to gesture at her lower abdomen, tongue suddenly in knots. “For being with a man.” Granted, the doctor had told her she was sterile when her period had failed to arrive, but a baby wasn’t a surprise she wanted. Ever.

  “Contraceptives.” Ariadne blurted out, finally remembering the right word. She wanted a hole to open up in the ground to swallow her.

  Nysa’s expression softened. “I understand. I can get you some, no pro
blem. But there are other things that can be fun that don’t require any contraceptive measures if you’d like, instead.” They wiggled their eyebrows at Ariadne, hands sliding back up her arms slowly.

  “Both?” Ariadne wiggled her eyebrows back, hoping this was the correct confirmation signal, making her laugh.

  “Both.” Nysa agreed with a purr, pulling her in for a kiss.

  ARIADNE woke up to the smell of flowers, heady enough to choke on. Light crept needle thin fingers of light through the tent flap gap, illuminating the room. Nysa lay face down on Ariadne’s lap, the both of them naked. The tiger skin covering them both had slipped off and puddled on the floor.

  Ariadne observed all this as she drifted awake, puzzle pieces about her new lover from the night before slotting into place. Drank like a fish and remained standing and flirting, check. Danced like a wild thing possessed, check. Unusual sexual stamina, check.

  She could have passed all that off as traits of servants of the wine god or having not much previous experience with lovers without a second thought. She could have even passed off their eyes bleeding from pale green to glowing during sex as a trick of the light.

  But the damn wine. It was always on hand, whether there had been a jug there before or not. After a certain point, there hadn’t even been a jug, just never emptying cups of wine. Ariadne’s head didn’t even hurt from drinking what had to have been at least three bottles of wine.

  “The wine gave you away.” She told the god of wine in her lap lazily, carding fingers through his hair.

  “Was wondering if you would say something about it.” Dionysus mumbled into her bare thighs, rolling over with a sigh and blinking sleepily up at her through a tangle of hair.

  “I wasn’t sure if you were honestly trying for undercover or just trying to give hints without coming out and saying it.” She traced his makeup smeared green eyes. God or not, they left them looking like a badly masked bandit.

  “Bit of both.” Dionysus yawned, stretching like a cat and then settling back in her lap to blink sleepily up at her. “Did you have fun?”

  Ariadne grinned, feeling her whole body flush at the memories. “Definitely.”

  Dionysus leered up at her. “Wanna do it again?”

  She leered back down at them. “Definitely.”

  “Did you honestly think you would get away with it?” The leader of King Minos’s personal guard scoffed, kicking her in the ribs with a booted foot and sending her sprawling over her picked flowers.

  Ariadne had honestly thought she had gotten away with it. It had been two full days since she had ran away from her upcoming ‘duties’ and no one had come after her. Stepping foot outside the camp grounds to pick flowers had been a mistake. But the wild roses had reminded her of how her new lover made her feel and she had sat down and woven a crown, careful of the sharp thorns.

  She hunched over it, looking up through her eyelashes at the guard, stomach sinking as she counted four more guards with him. The soldiers all wore the markings of elite soldiers from the brutal war with Athens. The other country had conceded to tributes being sent to the Minotaur out of desperation to stem the tide of slaughter. Fourteen children every seven years was a terrible price, but cheaper than what they had been paying.

  Ariadne looked toward the camp, colorful tents and banners fluttering in the warm wind. If she screamed, the camp would wake and come for her. They would come and the peaceful, friendly partiers would die. Her lover had went back up to Olympus that morning with a leer and promise to ‘come again’.

  She set the crown of wild roses down, fingers bloodying the white petals. “Fine. Let’s go then.” She lifted her chin at the head guard like the princess she was, and not the prisoner she felt like.

  The guard backhanded her casually, sending her sprawling into the flowers again. “None of that, princess. You abandoned your post, so you don’t get any of its privileges.” He leaned down and grabbed her by the front her dress to give her an up close view of his ghastly amusement. “King Minos said tonight you’re to go with the tributes inside the labyrinth. No room for traitors in the royal family.”

  He jerked her to her feet and hauled her over his shoulder like a sack of vegetables, grinding her flower crown under his heel. The soldiers didn’t even look at the camp as they left, it was like they couldn’t even see it. Ariadne tried to be grateful for the small mercies.

  Chapter 2

  SHE WAS THROWN IN WITH the tributes. They were called tributes, sent by Athens every seven years since they lost the war. The reality was they were sacrifices, human flesh to feed the half man, half bull that was the Minotaur. By some twist of fate, he was Ariadne’s twin. She had never been able to accept that she had shared a womb with someone who preferred to eat the flesh of children while they screamed.

  There is a prince among the tributes. The prince is not just royalty but the crown prince of Athens, heir the the throne. His father was the god of the sea, Poseidon. His pedigree is no small thing, but the way he announced it loudly to her like she was hard of hearing made it lose much of it’s effect. He then visibly looked Ariadne up and down like he was deciding whether to buy her at the marketplace or not. He seemed to like what he saw, trying to grab her ass.

  Ariadne smacked his hand away, but that didn’t seem to deter him the slightest. He wrapped an arm around her waist like a snake and vowed to the room at large, full of dejected and terrified tributes,

  “None of you shall perish this night, nor will I allow this to ever happen again. For I will end the senseless system at it’s source. I will kill the monstrous Minotaur!” The tributes all cheered, for varying values of cheer.

  One girl stared at him with a flat expression and patted her hands together, making no sound at all. Her younger brother on the other hand, was wildly cheering and had jumped to his feet and had joined a few of the others chanting “Prince Theseus!”

  “When we return to Athens, I’ll make you my bride.” He told Ariadne confidently, despite not even having told her his name. There was a massive difference between taking a lover in the following of a god famous for drunken orgies and being the wife of a future king. A foreign wife and queen in a land her father had ravaged with war and routinely sentenced their youth to slaughter, no less.

  Theseus was an idiot. A horny one, given the way his hand once more dipped down and caressed her ass. Ariadne grabbed the offending hand in hers and did her best to distract him.

  “I have a sword hidden in the labyrinth.” She told him. Mostly because her father had threatened her with the labyrinth before and she hadn’t wanted to be helpless should the worst happen.

  The distraction worked and his face lit with eagerness, hands squeezing hers too hard. “Yes! Is there a way I can navigate the labyrinth?”

  She looked away, biting her lip as she thought. She caught his gaze sharpening and focusing on her mouth. “I have a ball of thread. If you tie it to the start then-”

  “Then I’ll be able to find my way back to the start!” Theseus cuts her off and finished the sentence for her.

  “I'll guide the rest of the tributes out a secret way while you battle the Minotaur. You’ll have to fight the guards once you return to the entrance of the Labyrinth. They will try to stop you from leaving or getting to the shipyard, dead Minotaur or not.” Ariadne warned, heart aching as she realized there would be no way for her to get back to the camp before it had moved.

  “You’re kidding. Why can’t I go in first, alone? I could defeat the monster and return without anyone else being in any danger.” Theseus scowled at her as if he thought she could do anything about it. She might have been able to before she tried to leave, but that was then. This was now.

  “Because the first year when tributes were released one per day, and after the city council petitioned the king for him to release them all at once. The screams went on for two weeks and were disruptive to civic order.” She informed him with a wince.

  He grimaced, wide mouth twisting downward
. “The screams of innocents inconveniencing them.” Theseus spat to the side, and Ariadne couldn’t blame him for his disgust.

  “It’s not the citizen’s fault their king is the way he is.” She told him with a heavy sigh. “I will guide them out safely as I can. You will have to tell them to obey me or risk death. The labyrinth is full of deadly traps.” She fibbed slightly. There were traps, but they deactivated on the night the tributes were sent in. They existed only to keep the Minotaur in. The confusing nature of the labyrinth itself kept all who went in lost until the Minotaur hunted them down.

  Theseus didn’t ask how she knew how to escape or navigate the labyrinth. He just nodded and then he kissed her. While Ariadne was still in shock he said, “I will speak to them.”

  He left to speak to the tributes on the other side of the large waiting chamber, not waiting for a response.

  She touched her mouth gingerly. It had felt like he was trying to claim her. Like she was a thing he could have. To own. The way he thrust his tongue inside her mouth and probed at her without her consent made her scrub her lips futilely to get the invasive sensation off.

  He was planning on doing that to her again. Ariadne had the feeling he would say he was claiming his ‘prize’. If his dick felt as violating as his tongue had inside her...She shuddered and vowed to get him to find her unappealing enough to let her go.

  Going from the prisoner of one man to another wasn’t a pleasant prospect.

  THESEUS hadn’t been pleased she had taken a length of the thread that was to guide him through the labyrinth from the yarn ball. She had pointed to the the youngest child, who had started crying in terror. It was the child that had been jumping up and dawn, chanting the prince’s name after his speech.

  “Do you really resent sharing the thread so that they won’t get lost and die alone in the labyrinth, monster or not?” Theseus had finally subsided his sulking after that, stalking away to brood against a wall and stare meaningfully into the unlit labyrinth before them. The heavy metal gates had torches welded into their holders that lit only the entrance to the labyrinth.