As we approached the main hall, the sound of a small group of senators conversing out in the atrium stopped me dead in my tracks.
"He looks just like Styxx."
My father and Styxx paused as they heard them, too.
"What say you?" another voice asked.
"It's true," the first senator said. "They couldn't look more alike had they been born twins. The only difference is their eye color."
"His eyes are eerie," a third senator interrupted. "You can tell he's the son of some god, but he won't say which one."
"And he's in a stew you say?"
"Yes," the second man said. "I'm telling you, Krontes, you have to visit him. Pretending he's Styxx has helped me immensely in dealing with the royal prick. Spend an hour with Acheron on his knees and the next time you see Styxx, you'll have a whole new perspective."
They laughed.
I felt the blood drain from my face as Father and Styxx's turned red with fury.
"You should have been at our banquet last night," the first man said. "We dressed him in royal robes and passed him around like a bitch in heat."
I felt suddenly sick.
Father charged into the group, calling for his guards to arrest them for defaming Styxx in such a way.
Styxx defamed.
Hysterical laughter welled up inside me as I doubled over in pain. Zeus forbid Styxx ever be insulted. It didn't matter that it was Acheron who was being degraded and made to serve them.
Acheron never mattered.
At least not to anyone but me.
June 23, 9529 BC
It was dawn when I left the palace alone. It was a foolish quest I was about, but I couldn't stop myself. Today Acheron turned nineteen.
In my heart I knew no one had ever given him a present for the anniversary of his birth. I wondered if he even knew the exact day when he'd come into this world. And I thought about the celebration I had planned that our father had ruined by returning him to Atlantis.
I clutched his gift under my himation as I walked through the abandoned streets to the stew I had gone to before.
I knocked on the back door and asked for Catera. After a brief wait, she appeared with a frown.
"My lady? Why are you here?"
I smiled gently at her. "I wanted to see Acheron again. Just for a few minutes."
Sadness darkened her eyes. "I wish I could help you, my lady, but he's no longer here."
Cold dread seized my heart. "What? Where did he go?"
"I know not where he was taken."
"Taken?" I whispered the word cautiously, hoping she didn't mean what I thought she did.
Unfortunately, she did. "He was arrested several months ago. The king's guards came in early one afternoon. They broke through the front door and demanded to be shown the royal imposter. Acheron was pulled from his bed while he still slept and bound into chains, then they dragged him out of here and I haven't heard anything since."
My fingers numb, I felt my gift fall to the floor as I stood there too stunned to move.