"What choice did I have? I traveled far and wide, while trying to find work doing anything else, but no one would hire me to work. When people see me, they only want one thing from me and I happen to be very good at it. Tell me, Princess, if Father threw you out tomorrow, naked on the streets, what would you do? What do you know how to do?"
I lifted my chin. "I could find something."
"I defy you to try it, Princess." He gestured toward the door behind me. "Go ahead. I don't even know how to sweep a floor. All I know how to do is use my body to please others. I was sick and alone with no references, friends, family or money. I was so weak from hunger that even a beggar stole your himation from me while I lay on the ground, wanting to die and unable to stop him from taking it. So don't come here now with your disdainful eyes and look at me like I'm beneath you. I don't need your charity and I don't need your pity. I know exactly what you see when you look at me."
"Do you really?"
He stood up and spread his arms wide, showing me his perfect naked body. "I see it clearly on your face. What you see is the pathetic little boy who kissed his father's feet and begged him not to send him back to whoring. You see the whore who pleasured a prince and was then thrown from his home."
I shook my head in denial. "No, Acheron. What I see is the little boy who used to run up to me and ask why his parents didn't love him. The same little golden-haired cherub who chased sunbeams in my room and laughed when they filled his palm. You are my brother and I will never see anything bad about you."
The anger on his face intensified to the point I actually thought he might strike me. "Get out."
Covering my head, I turned and left.
I waited for him to stop me. He didn't.
And with every step I took, I cried harder for what I'd found this morning. My precious Acheron was gone and in his place was a man who wanted nothing to do with me.
The worst part was, I couldn't even blame him for it. This was all so unfair. He should be in his royal apartments with servants at his beck and call.
Instead he was locked into a nightmare that neither of us could release him from. Surely this wouldn't be his life. Surely Acheron was meant for more than this.
Yet how could I deny what I saw? He was right. People only wanted one thing from him. And unless Father was willing to protect him, Catera was better than nothing.
My little brother was a whore. It was time that I realized the truth.
August 23, 9529 BC
The day had dawned with the most wretched of meetings. I'd been told that my father and his senators had decided to try and placate the god Apollo with a human sacrifice.
Me.
Ever since war had broken out between Greece and Atlantis, the Greek kings had been trying to think of some way to stave it off. But the Apollites who ruled Atlantis hated us and were determined to make the whole of Greece nothing more than an Atlantean province.
Afraid of being slaves to the superior technology of the Atlanteans, the Greek city-states had been fighting with everything we had.
Unfortunately, it didn't seem to be enough. Apollo favored the Atlanteans and the Apollites he'd created who shared Atlantis with them. So much so that as long as they fought during the light of day, they were invincible.
The Greek kings were at their end. So the priests and oracles had gathered to see what, if anything, could return Apollo's favor to the people who'd originally worshiped him.
"The god can only be distracted and tamed by the most beautiful of all princesses," the oracle of Delphi had proclaimed to them all.
Some lunatic had then named me as said princess.
That man, I could kill.
"Father, please," I begged, following in the wake of him and Styxx. They were headed toward the Senate room and had no time for me. Not that that was unusual.
"Enough, Ryssa," he said sternly. "The decision is made. You are to be offered to Apollo. We need him on our side if we're to win this war against the Atlanteans. So long as he continues to favor and aid them, we will never stand a chance. If you are his lover, he will look more kindly toward our people and might be swayed to our cause."
It stuck in my craw that I was to be bartered and sold without so much as . . .
I stumbled as I thought of Acheron. I finally understood exactly how he felt. Understood what it was like to have no say in what was done to my body.
It was an awfully sick feeling. No wonder he'd thrown me out of his room. No doubt in my innocence I'd seemed quite sanctimonious about something I had no understanding of.
However, I wasn't through with them. Determined, I followed Father and Styxx into the back corridor.