Dark Enchantment (23 page)

‘Who is this?’ muttered the King under his breath.

So the young man was revealed to us: the Prince of Athens, son of Aegeus, come as part of the tribute so that he might pit himself against our monster. He was a champion wrestler in Athens, he boasted, and had slain single-handedly many brigands and rebels. He was not afraid because he carried the blood of Poseidon in his veins as well as that of his mortal father, he said. His demeanour was not respectful.

‘Prove that boast,’ said the King sourly, taking from his finger a gold ring and tossing it into the harbour. The Prince marked where it plopped into the blue waters, then shed his cloak without a word and dived down between the anchored boats. For as long as I could I held my breath, willing him to endure. I had to yield and draw air though, before he reappeared and raised his hand over his head. Over his thumb was the ring, glinting in the light. A frond of seaweed was wrapped about his dark head like a victory wreath. And when they pulled him from the water back onto the dock, the salt droplets shone on his sleek golden body like gems.

It was at that moment that I lost my heart to him, for his beauty seemed to me as unearthly as that of Narcissus or of a god.

They put the Prince in the same wing of the palace as the other Athenian prisoners, but in a separate room in deference to his rank. That meant that I had to wait until the right guards were on duty who could be bribed to keep their silence. I laid it on thick that the goddess Artemis had moved me to confront
him,
and by now I had such a reputation for my strange moods and unconventional ways that they probably believed me. Nobody understood why a prince should volunteer to be part of the annual sacrifice when there were plenty of other youths of no importance available, so the muttering of the soldiers was that we were as mad as each other. When I entered his chamber he was sitting upon his bed, sharpening the edge of his sword. He looked surprised to see me, then pleased. My heart bumped about painfully at the sight of his smile and I felt my limbs weaken.

‘Ariadne, isn’t it?’ he asked, standing and approaching me. It gave me a better look at his perfect body and I could feel the heat soaking through my own. As for his eyes, they could not help falling to my bare breasts. I think our island style of dress is disconcerting for mainlander men, who cover their own women in shapeless draped sacks. ‘I’m honoured, but what is the daughter of the King doing in my chamber?’

‘I came to let you know that the steward has agreed that you will be the last to be sent into the Palace Below.’

He frowned. ‘Why should he do that?’

‘Because I asked it of him. It is only courteous, as you are of royal blood.’ I didn’t add that I’d given the steward the use of one of my maidservants in return for the favour. ‘There is every chance, if the other Athenians remain well and the ship next year arrives on time, that you will not be required at all.’

‘No. That’s wrong.’ He slapped the leaf-shaped blade across his palm. ‘I am going in first. I will demand the right!’

‘Why?’

‘Why do you think? It is my intention to slay the monster.’

I could feel my face twisting. ‘Do you think you’ll have the chance? They won’t let you take your sword in with you – Asterion is of royal blood!’

‘Then I will wrestle him and crush his throat.’

Words nearly failed me. ‘He is a cubit taller than you,’ I said with difficulty. ‘He will break you like a green stick. Oh please, don’t be foolish.’

The Prince snorted, flung himself away and paced about the room. ‘You’ve seen the monster then?’

‘Of course.’ I didn’t like his language and I know I sounded petulant.

‘Then …’ He dived for his bundle of belongings at the foot of the bed, and from a folded piece of cloth extracted a slip of pottery. He came close to show it to me, his hand touching mine, and I tried to hide my sudden trembling. ‘Is it true? Is this what he looks like?’

It was a piece from a broken dish he showed me, with black figures silhouetted on a brown background. Depicted there was the hunched form of Asterion, braced for combat. ‘Yes.’ I ran my fingertips across the clay. There is no depiction of him allowed on our island, because my father is ashamed, but this seemed a precious object to me. ‘Just like that. This is wonderful.’

‘All my life I’ve heard of the monster and of the shame of Athens. Truly, he is real? How did he not slay his mother by being born?’ I could hear the excitement in the Prince’s voice, an almost holy awe.

‘I imagine he was a great deal smaller then,’ I said faintly.

‘But why was such a foul and ugly thing not exposed at birth?’

‘He’s not foul!’ My confusion made me snap. ‘He’s not ugly – he has beautiful eyes and he’s …’

The prince put a hand on my shoulder, quieting me. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. Of course, he is of your house.’ Something seemed to stir behind his expression. ‘You … know his ways well then?

‘Yes,’ I muttered.

‘Would you tell me what you know then? Would you help me?’

‘I was trying to help you. You mustn’t go into the Palace Below.’

‘I am a prince, and the champion of Athens,’ he said, quite gently, as if I were a little child. ‘All my life I’ve dreamt of facing this monster and saving my people. Standing up against this creature of darkness and terror. Don’t you understand?’ I happened to glance down and noticed his phallus twitch, thickening, but the Prince himself seemed not to notice. ‘Don’t you see how barbaric it is to take young men and women who have so much of life and beauty in them, and give them up so this creature can devour their flesh?’

‘He’s called Asterion,’ I mumbled sulkily. ‘And he doesn’t devour them.’

The Prince was a little taken aback. ‘He doesn’t?’

‘Of course not.’ I gestured at the shard of pottery. ‘Look at him – he doesn’t even eat meat.’

‘Then … what does he do to them?’

I shrugged. ‘He takes his use of them.’

The Prince blanched, recoiling from me. I wondered why. ‘Oh great Zeus and Athene,’ he said to himself, swallowing a number of times. ‘So … let me get this straight, Ariadne. He doesn’t kill them?’

‘Well, he kills some of them, yes. He has a hasty temper and he’s so strong. And he can’t stand the ones that scream; that drives him mad him, he says.’

‘He
talks
?’

This seemed so obvious to me that I couldn’t grasp his incredulity. I just nodded, wide-eyed.

The Prince covered his face with his hands for a moment. ‘So,’ he resumed with what seemed like difficulty, ‘he does not
kill
… the quiet ones. Those who submit to him. Not straight away.’

‘No. Sometimes the guards open the door and the previous offering is waiting there to be taken out.’

His inhalation was ragged. ‘And what happens to them?’

‘Oh, they’re sacrificed at the Temple of the Sea Bull.’ I saw his eyes flash and added hurriedly, ‘They are witless by then, they couldn’t go home; their minds are broken. It’s the dark, I think. The dark under the earth.’

He swung away and flung the pottery piece upon the bed and I watched him anxiously. His movements and his face seemed full of rage, but when he spoke to me it was quietly. ‘And this doesn’t disgust you? It doesn’t seem in any way barbaric or offensive or cruel, what is done here?’

I considered this, dumbfounded. It had never entered my head. Of course the rituals were not pleasant; I did not find any amusement in them. But it had not occurred to me to be upset by them, any more than I should be upset by the temple sacrifices or by the daily slaughter of sheep and cattle and fowl in the kitchen yard. Yet clearly the Prince was upset, and I set great store by his opinion. ‘It is unkind,’ I whispered cautiously.

His lips narrowed, pulling wider, though it didn’t look like a smile. ‘So will you help me?’

‘I was trying to, I told you that –’

He seized both my hands in his, holding my gaze. ‘The moment I saw you I thought to myself, There is one whose heart might be touched by my plight. There is a beautiful young woman who – if I were not doomed to a cruel death – might look upon me with tenderness, whose admiration and even love I might win, if only I could live and be free again. Was I wrong?’

My heart felt like it would burst. I shook my head, helpless before his passionate words and yearning eyes.

‘Good. I’m glad I wasn’t wrong. Because even though I am under the shadow of a terrible fate, my own heart beats wildly, full of life and love.’ He pressed one of my hands against his chest, pinning it to the firm muscle. ‘Can you feel it?’

I nodded, wide-eyed.

‘Do you know what it is saying?’

‘No.’

‘It is saying “Let me live, let me live. There is a beautiful maiden I have only just met and I must live … for her.”’

My mouth was dry, my cheeks blazing. When he bent to kiss my lips he must have found them parched, but his tongue was wet and it slid into me like a promise. Asterion did not – could not – kiss, so I must have seemed most inexperienced and maidenly to him. As for me, I was transported. Every particle of my being seemed to be alight with joy and purpose, and I did not resist as he drew me to him, pressing me up against his naked body. I was so overwhelmed with this strange giddy desire that I couldn’t even furl my thigh about his as I might have done with Asterion. All the breath seemed to have left my lungs, all the strength my limbs. I was aware of his phallus hardening against me, but I didn’t have the presence of mind any more to seize it. I just let the Prince kiss me until I felt I must melt in his arms.

He drew back. ‘Do you feel the god Eros here in this room?’

I could feel his erect phallus, certainly, and my sex was slippery with
eros
. ‘I love you,’ I confessed, touching his unfamiliar lips with my fingertips. ‘The moment I saw you rising from the sea …’

‘Ah.’ His eyes were burning. ‘I might love you properly, if I lived. I might take you from this place and wed you,’ he whispered as if it were a terrible secret, ‘and upon the bridal bed of Athens we could consummate our every passion.’

‘Yes,’ I whimpered.

‘Will you help me live, Ariadne?’

I nodded, but only a moan escaped my lips as he cupped my bottom in his hand and squeezed me up against his erection.

‘Will you help me defeat the beast?’

‘Defeat’ is such a clean word. I opened my mouth in protest but he caught my nipple at that moment between his fingers and made my breast his willing slave. ‘Yes!’ I hissed, though it’s hard for even me to say whether I was answering his question or not. He kissed me again. This time I opened eagerly to his tongue.

When we finally broke for breath his troubled eyes belied his possessive hands. ‘Perhaps you won’t come to my aid.’

‘My love –’

‘Perhaps I will fall in battle, whether you aid me or not. Perhaps we will never have the chance to sail to Athens. Perhaps our only chance is here … and now.’ He looked from my face to my stiffened nipples. ‘Perhaps it is Eros’ will that we take that chance.’

‘Yes.’

He took me to the bed and laid me upon it, parting my thighs. He did not expect me to do anything but lie back and accept his kisses and his caresses and, swiftly, his stiff phallus. It was my first glimpse of that weapon in an engorged state and I was so dumbstruck by his facial and physical beauty that at that moment it did not seem to me to be inferior to Asterion’s, even though it was patently not so large. I did try to take it in my hand but he captured my fingers and pushed them aside, smiling. ‘Don’t be frightened,’ he whispered.

‘I’m not.’

‘Good girl. Be brave. Love is the battleground where men and women strive together, and even in submission and defeat you may triumph.’

Then he thrust it inside me and I cried out with pleasure to feel him there. It was the most wonderful moment of my life: his beautiful face lit with rapture, his glorious body slipping and heaving upon mine, my sex opening to him like a gift, his gasps of pleasure – the pleasure
I
was giving him – hot upon my cheek. I wanted it never to end.

But it did. He quickened, shaking my breasts with the rhythm of his climactic thrusts, then shuddered to a halt, falling upon my bosom. I clutched him tight, heaving my pelvis beneath him, feeling myself awash and adrift and suddenly no longer impaled upon his spike but simply enveloping it. Then he rolled away and lay beside me, his face flushed, stroking my breast as he might do a favoured pet.

‘Our love is for ever,’ he said.

I whimpered. I reached for his phallus but it was softening already. I was confused and somehow ashamed; I’d never failed to reach satisfaction with Asterion and this was beyond my experience. Hadn’t I been good enough to keep his interest? ‘My love,’ I said hesitantly.

‘Get me a sword into the depths below for my fight with the beast. Bribe the guards if you must. I need a sword, Ariadne.’

I sat up. My sex ached with hunger and my limbs felt as if they had become detached and no longer belonged to me. ‘I don’t know …’

‘I have to win! I have to live, Ariadne – for us.’

Straightening my dress, I did not dare look at him. ‘I’ll see.’

Hurriedly, he embraced me. ‘You are as beautiful as Aphrodite, my Ariadne. It was wonderful. I must have you as my wife; you know that nothing else will do.’ His kisses descended on my burning cheek and my dry lips. ‘You do know that, don’t you?’

I smiled and kissed him back, but I was seething with
confusion.
As I left his chamber the physical discomfort of my frustration made me walk unsteadily. The sunlight of the courtyards seemed too bright and the people I passed seemed vacant of face and almost inanimate. I considered going back to my room and making sacrilegious use of the statue of Artemis, but there was too much chance of being interrupted at this time of day, and not one of my women could be taken into my confidence. No one could relieve me of this burden that churned inside me, in which desire and doubt and confusion had become a curdled mess. There was only one person with whom I could share my hidden needs, so after pacing up and down the western colonnade in distress for a long time I slipped into the Palace Below.