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.
* * *
“Maahes?” 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.
No one would call her a peasant in this.
“It’s perfect.”
“Very well then. Whatever mischief you’re up to, I wish you luck.”
“Thank you.” She kissed her aunt on both cheeks then went to see how Maahes was progressing.
A slow smile curled her lips as she saw the small army he’d assembled. Huge and well muscled, they were dressed in short shendyts made of leopard skins with jeweled collars and anklets. Even better, he’d brought along eight of his personal pet lions, which were lying next to her gold seat.
Maahes wore an elaborate headdress and mask in the shape of a lion’s head that had a uraeus at the top of it. His shendyt was made of lion skin and covered with a gold drape and belt. Like hers, his ankh collar was massive and encrusted with rubies, and he had matching gold wristbands and armbands.
His dress surprised her. “You’re coming?” she asked.
“Absolutely. No one insults my girl without a severe thrashing from me.”
She tsked at him. “No bloodshed.”
He poked his bottom lip out playfully. “Can I have a little, please?”
“Maahes…”
He pouted even more. “One eyeball? Or a testicle? Please give me something, Bet, my pet.”
Laughing, she hugged him. “Please restrain yourself, cousin. This is a peace mission.”
“Don’t say that P word around me. It causes me great agony.”
She shook her head then took her seat on the barge.
Maahes gave the signal and they were dropped in an area just in front of Didymos so that they could make a grand appearance at the docks without raising human suspicions.
As soon as they were moored, Maahes had his men bring an elaborate gold jewel-encrusted litter up from storage to carry her in.
Ryssa was about to get a severe lesson in manners she hoped the snotty bitch choked on.
* * *
Styxx jumped as someone pounded on his door.
Angry at being interrupted again, he answered it to find a guard there.
“His Majesty summons you, Highness. Immediately.”
He started to tear the man’s head off, but refrained. It wasn’t the guard’s fault he’d been sent on this errand, and Styxx didn’t want to bring an innocent man into conflict with his king. However, his father would have the same reaction to Styxx’s appearance that Ryssa had, since Styxx was still filthy.
And covered in Galen’s blood.
Screw it …
He followed the guard downstairs to where his father and Ryssa were waiting in the foyer.
As expected, his father scowled at his bloodstained clothing.
“What?” Styxx asked irritably.
For once his father didn’t comment on the disrespect. “We have an envoy here from Egypt. Judging from the report, I think it might be Nefertari.”
Styxx rubbed at his forehead as he tried to understand what was going on. “Why would she be here?”
His father shrugged.
Styxx passed an irritated glance to Ryssa who was still angry at him over Bethany then he looked back at his father. “I really don’t want to deal with this right now.”
“You never want to deal with your duties,” Ryssa sneered.
Their father stiffened. “And I will have words with you later over what you said earlier to your sister.”
I really don’t care.
Crossing his arms over his chest, Styxx hung back in the doorway as his father and sister went outside to greet the impressive envoy that came through the palace gates.
There was so much gold wrapped around the people and litter that it was hard to look at them directly. There were twenty-five men in all and one elaborately dressed woman. Six huge Nubian males set the litter down and a man dressed like a lion helped the tiny woman out of it. He tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow and led her up the stairs with eight massive lions leading the way for them.
It wasn’t until the couple rudely bypassed his father and Ryssa that Styxx recognized the woman through the heavy eyeliner and makeup she wore.
“Bethany?” he breathed, rushing forward.
She let go of the man escorting her. “Styxx?”
Reaching her, he pulled her into his arms. “It’s me, akribos.”
Bethany held him tight against her as Maahes and his men closed rank around them to keep anyone from approaching them. Styxx trembled in her arms as his tears fell against her neck. Her heart shattered at the loss she knew he felt. “I know, precious. I’m so sorry about Galen. I loved him, too.”
“Excuse me?” the king demanded. “What is this?”
Maahes growled deep in his throat. “None of your business.”
“Do you know who I am?”
Maahes gave a rude snort. “Not a clue. Don’t care, either.”
“But you might care about us.”
Styxx lifted his head as he heard Apollo’s irate voice. Damn, he thought that tone was only reserved for him whenever he defied the god. The Olympian stood beside Athena, and neither of them appeared pleased.
Apollo glared at Bethany and the men with her. “What are you doing here, Maahes?”
The man in the lion mask shrugged nonchalantly. “We’re here on a mission of peace to pay respects to a fallen Greek hero. But if you want to start some shit…” He stepped down toward Apollo. “It’s been awhile since I had Greek for dinner.”
Bethany put her hand on Maahes’s shoulder. “Please, behave.”
He gestured toward Apollo and Athena as if to say they were the problem then deflated with a sigh. “All right, Bet, my pet. But you’re killing me.”
Athena stepped around her brother to address Bethany. “Why are you really here?”
Bethany placed her hand on Styxx’s arm. “For Styxx, who suffered a harsh tragedy today. I tried to come earlier and was very rudely insulted and denied entrance to the palace by Apollo’s bitch-whore. And you’re all very lucky I’m not calling out for her blood over the public embarrassment she maliciously and willfully caused me.”
Maahes lifted his mask and bent down to Bethany. “Oh, I expect blood. I need that bitch beaten for any insult dealt to you.”
Bethany touched his arm again and shook her head. “No war today.”
Maahes screwed his face up as if in agony. “All right, pet. I really, really love you. Today I prove it. Next time, though, gut me
. It’d be less painful.”
Apollo started forward, but Athena caught his arm and shook her head.
Athena nodded to Maahes and Bethany. “Please, pay your respects. We are deeply honored by your presence and homage to one of our own.” She gave her brother a harsh glare. “There will be no war today. Only peace.”
Confused, but not wanting to cause any more of a spectacle in public, Styxx led Bethany into the palace. Maahes and his men and lions followed after them.
As soon as they were inside and out of hearing range, Xerxes turned to Apollo. “Who is that?”
Athena answered for him. “The man in the mask is Maahes, Lord of the Massacre. He’s the Egyptian god of war and serves his mother Bastet and aunt Ma’at. Bet is known by all as the Princess of Thebes. Her father is the Egyptian god Set, the embodiment of pure evil and chaos. Bringer of war and storms. And she is the light in his darkness. There is absolutely nothing Set would not do for his most cherished daughter and only child. Not to mention that the rest of the Egyptian pantheon is every bit as loyal and protective of her.”
“That is Styxx’s Bethany?” Xerxes glared at Ryssa who took a step back.
“How was I to know, Father? She was dressed as a peasant.”
Apollo ignored them. “What should we do, sister?”
“Bet, I trust. Maahes … he’s not devious, just bloodthirsty. He loves war above all. We will stay and make sure he leaves without incident.”
* * *
Bethany bit back a sob as she realized what Styxx had been doing on her arrival. “Is no one helping you with Galen?”
“No.”
She opened the door and had four of the men come in to take over the body preparations. Styxx started to protest, but she placed her finger to his lips.
“You’re too upset for this. Come, my love. Let me take care of you.”
He kissed her hand. “Someone should be taking care of you.”
“Shh,” she breathed then she whispered, “Maahes doesn’t know, and we can’t risk him telling my father before I do.”
Styxx frowned at the men and the wealth that dripped from every piece of expensive fabric and jewels they wore, and the elaborate outfit on Bethany. Even her sandals were made of gold and trimmed in coral, turquoise, and pearls. When she’d said her father was wealthy, she had greatly understated his means. “Who exactly is your father?”
Styxx (DH #33) Page 58