Styxx didn't speak a single word the whole way back. While they rode, his gaze kept going to the guards who had been sent along to protect him. Guards his uncle had bribed ...
Not with coin, but with Styxx.
Even now, he could hear their mocking laughter. They thought what had been done to him was funny, and they had watched and participated with a glee that was nauseating.
Spoiled son of a king ... Here's for all the times I've had to lower my eyes to you and your father. Let the royal prick take a prick in the ass for all the pains I've had to suffer....
Next time I avert my gaze from you, Highness, know that it's banging your sweet ass I'll be thinking of.
Styxx didn't know if he'd ever be able to leave his room again, knowing they were in his father's service. How could he face anyone ever again?
And when his father met them at the palace steps with a wide smile, shame and humiliation slapped him even harder. How would his father look at him if he knew how he'd been used?
Styxx's gaze fell to the scar on his arm that his father had given him. And he knew the truth.
His father would hate and blame him for it.
"How did it go?" his father asked with a delight that sickened Styxx even more.
Estes laughed. "We rode mostly. I tell you, brother, there's nothing better than feeling your favorite royal stallion under you."
Bile rose in Styxx's throat.
"Styxx took his first buck and we made a man of him. It's been a great week, brother. One we'll all remember for the rest of our lives, is that not right, Styxx?"
Styxx cringed at the double entendres he now fully understood.
His father frowned at him. "Are you all right, boy?"
He wanted to tell him the truth, but one glance at Estes and he knew his uncle was right. His father thought the world of his brother and was suspicious of a son he wasn't really sure belonged to him. It was why he favored Ryssa so. With her birth, there was no doubt.
Styxx would never hold his father's full confidence or love.
"Prince Styxx was stuffed with too many rich figs this past week for his taste, I'm afraid."
Styxx winced at Nestor's bold reference to their rape that went right over his father's head. It was meant to shame him, and that arrow hit its target dead on.
Estes ruffled Styxx's hair. "Nestor's right. He partook too much of our potent nectar, brother, and is still sick from it. Forgive me for corrupting your heir and opening him to more manly activities than he was ready for. Still, the event has stretched him quite a bit and taught him things he won't soon forget."
Every single word cut him like jagged glass across his heart. All of them openly mocked his pain and degradation at their hands. Worse, they reveled in it.
Styxx ground his teeth to keep from showing any emotion whatsoever. Estes was testing him and he knew it. Throwing what they'd done in his face to see if he'd break and betray them while Estes was here with his friends to lie against Styxx should he say one single word about what they'd done.
That was why Estes had brought them along. Who would ever believe one mad boy against two princes, one of whom was a decorated war hero, and four noblemen? They would stand united to call him a liar so that Estes could have him returned to the temple. And from there ...
He felt his stomach cramp with utter misery.
His father pulled him into his arms and clapped him on the back. "My poor Styxx. The first hangover is the worst of all. But you have to learn to work past it. Or never get another." Kissing his forehead, he released him and went to greet his brother.
Styxx glared at his uncle as his father embraced Estes, resenting the affection his father had for him. Over his father's shoulder, Estes raked him from head to toe with a lecherous, taunting grin. Averting his gaze, Styxx caught the smug smiles of his uncle's friends. And when Nestor winked at him and dropped his gaze to Styxx's groin as he licked his lips, he all but ran up the stairs and into the palace.
Ryssa met him just inside the door and swept his body with a sneer of her own. "You must think you're something truly special now. Having gone off with Uncle and his friends like you're their noble equal. But you're not a man, Styxx. You're still a pathetic, spoiled child."
He'd never wanted to punch her more than he did right then. How could she look into his eyes and not see the horror inside his heart? Not see how shaken and upset he was? It took everything he had not to put her through the wall behind her. "And you're a stupid bitch."
She gasped as he stormed past her. Shrieking, she ran to tell on him.
Honestly, he didn't care. There was nothing worse his father could do to him now. No beating that could possibly hurt more than this did.
He started past the upstairs larder then paused and opened it to grab two jugs of wine. With them in hand, he retreated to his room and bolted himself in. He had no intention of leaving the safety of these four walls until long after Estes and the others were gone.
Pulling the pillow from his bed, he placed it on the floor to cushion his sore body and guzzled down the undiluted wine, wanting it to take away his shame. But all it could do was create a very temporary shelter and he knew it.
Over and over, against his will, his mind kept replaying the utter misery he'd just survived. No matter what he did, he heard their voices and felt their hands on his flesh.
Please, gods, talk to me and drown it out.
But all he heard was Estes and the others laughing and mocking him. How ironic that the only thing he'd found to fully silence the sounds in his head were memories he'd sell his soul to banish....
August 30, 9533 BC
For two full days, Styxx stayed barricaded in his room until he heard the horses gathered in the drive for his uncle's departure. Making sure to stay out of sight, he opened his window only enough to look down and verify the sounds.
Thank you, gods, they're leaving....
"Where's the prince?" his father demanded on the steps below.
Ryssa made a derisive face. "No one's seen him, Father. Most likely he's off impregnating a servant. After all, he went a whole week without one. Gods forbid."
Styxx despised her for that.
Estes shrugged Styxx's "rudeness" off. "Don't worry about it, Xerxes. I'm not offended. I'm sure he feels like he's had enough of me this past week. Give him my regards when you see him and tell him that I can't wait until my next visit. I look forward to being his riding partner in the future."
Styxx's stomach shrank at those hated words and the veiled threat beneath them.
"You are far too kind, Uncle." Ryssa kissed him lightly on the cheek. "May the gods speed you home."