"Forgive me, my lady. I meant no offense. I'm merely trying to see if you will understand what they do to him. Do you know what a tsoulus is?"
"Of course, I . . ." Absolute horror consumed me. It was an Atlantean term that had no real Greek translation, but I knew the word. They were young men and women trained as sexual slaves for the wealthy and noble. Unlike prostitutes and others of that ilk, they were very carefully trained and sequestered from an early age.
The same age my brother had been when they took him away from home.
"Acheron is a tsoulus?"
She nodded.
My head reeled. This couldn't be. "You lie."
She shook her head no. "It's why I told you to come, my lady. I knew you wouldn't believe it unless you saw it for yourself."
And I still didn't believe it. It wasn't possible. "My uncle would never allow such."
"Your uncle is the one who sells him. What do you think paid for this house?"
I felt sick with the news and still part of me denied what was truly obvious. "I don't believe you."
"Then come, if you dare, and see for yourself."
I didn't want to and yet I followed her into the back passageways of the house. We walked endlessly until we reached the antechamber where Acheron had been bathing.
She held her finger to her lips to caution me to silence.
It was then I heard them. I might be virgin, but I wasn't naive. I had overheard others copulating at the parties my father forbade me to attend.
But worse than the sounds of pleasure were the cries of pain I heard from my brother. The man was hurting Acheron and he was taking great pleasure in the pain he caused him.
I started for the door only to find the woman in my way.
She spoke in a low, deadly tone. "Stop them, my lady, and your brother will suffer in ways you cannot imagine."
Her whispered words went through me. My soul screamed out for me to stop this. But the woman had been right about everything so far. She knew my brother and uncle far better than I did.
The last thing I wanted was to see him hurt more.
Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, there was silence.
I heard heavy footsteps cross the bedchamber, then the door opened and closed.
Stunned, I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move.
The maid opened the door to his room to show Acheron chained to the bed by those circles. The ones at his wrists and ankles had been slid onto the bird beaks that decorated the four posts.
And I'd stupidly thought them to be hooks for bed curtains.
"I wasn't prepped on what you paid for. I assumed from your looks that you wanted me gentle. Am I wrong?"
Those words tore through me as I watched the woman unfasten him.
I couldn't take my eyes off the sight of him lying there, naked. Injured. Bleeding.
My brother.
Tears filled my eyes as I remembered him the last time I'd seen him. His plump face had been hurt, but not like this. Now his lips were split, his left eye swelling, his nose bloodied. There were red handprints and bruises forming over most of his body.
No one deserved this.