Styxx (DH #33) Read online

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  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Writing about history is always a difficult prospect. To begin with historians themselves are extremely argumentative on anything that cannot be proven or that is not carved in stone … which is the vast majority of human history. Years ago, Norman Cantor wrote an amazing book called Inventing the Middle Ages, which goes into how a historian’s views and opinions and background greatly color their research and conclusions. I spent many years in the history field, and in professional groups of historians, and have defended enough papers and opinions/conclusions to know firsthand just how much our opinions differ and how virulently we will all defend them.

  That being said, the first part of this book exists outside of any current hard archaeological evidence, and before the majority of human recorded history. There are thousands of archeological sites that are hotly debated as to their age and how advanced they were when they were thriving. Sites we, honestly, know very little or nothing about that can be interpreted numerous ways. And the historical record is written and rewritten every year as new evidence and discoveries and interpretations are introduced.

  In the realm of Dark-Hunters, at the time this book takes place, the ancient world is much more advanced than the accepted human record we currently have. It doesn’t make it wrong. It simply makes it fiction.

  In my series, after the death of Acheron, Apollymi blows the entire world back into the Stone Age and that is why the ancient Greece we’re taught about in school isn’t as advanced as the one I write about for Acheron and Styxx. It is not historical inaccuracy on my part, or lack of research, but rather it’s the fictional world I have created.

  The Greece and Egypt of Acheron and Styxx predate our current histories for those countries. They had to, since we don’t have written records for the time of Atlantis (other than Plato’s mention of the doomed city many centuries after it’d been destroyed), never mind the thousands of years before Atlantis that made up the world of Bathymaas and Aricles.

  Some of the city-states and countries in the book, such as Didymos, are fictitious while others, such as Athens and Thebes, were real. However, since we don’t have written records for this time period, and given the way cities and countries can change (sometimes very quickly), I have taken liberty with them.

  Also, the Greek that Styxx and Acheron would have spoken is not the same as modern Greek or even traditional written ancient/Classical Greek. Languages are a living entity and the meanings for words are constantly changing. Such as twenty years ago to say something was “sick” would be negative. Today, it can be negative or positive depending on context. Language is always evolving. To give my fictional world a sense of realism, I incorporated that human tendency into the books.

  Likewise there may be words or phrases that might be construed as modern that really aren’t. Ancient man was highly creative with their vocabulary and insults. In some cases, I have used their recorded creativity and in others, I’ve shortened it to things such as “fuck you,” which will sound current. It doesn’t mean it is strictly a modern phrase (we have numerous historical examples of its written use). In the past, they would have said it and usually embellished on the specifics. Meanwhile words such as “moron” that may sound modern are actually Greek in origin—μωρός—which was written in text as far back as the fifth century BC and has the modern meaning of the word. We don’t know how old such words really are, as we can only gauge their age by when they are written. But usually words and phrases are around for a long time before they make it into the written records, especially in historical times.

  The only truly anachronistic term in the book is “hell,” but they did have the modern concept of hell in the ancient world, they would have just used the words Dozakh or Pyriphlegethon. For simplicity sake, I kept our modern term. Much of our current concept can be traced to ancient Zoroastrianism some 3,500 years ago. Which again means the concept was around far longer than we can prove, but that it was popularized by that religion as it spread through recorded history. The word “hell” itself goes back to medieval Norway. I have chosen to use it in the book to simplify things for modern readers and to convey the proper meanings without having to explain and give the history of every ancient, unfamiliar word. While the people of the characters’ time period would have used other words for everything they say and do, I have kept my language more modern to not bog down the reader with constant history lessons that detract from the characters and story.

  My personal belief, given my extensive years of research, is that people are people and have always been people. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Back when I taught courses on ancient societies, one of the things I began the class with was the following quote from Aristophanes’s play The Clouds (423 BC):

  Yet certainly these are those principles by which my system of education nurtured the men who fought at Marathon. But you teach the men of the present day, so that I am choked, when at the Panathenaia a fellow, holding his shield before his person, neglects Tritogenia, when they ought to dance. Wherefore, O youth, choose with confidence, me, the better cause, and you will learn to hate the Agora, and to refrain from baths, and to be ashamed of what is disgraceful, and to be enraged if anyone jeer you, and to rise up from seats before your seniors when they approach, and not to behave ill toward your parents, and to do nothing else that is base, because you are to form in your mind an image of Modesty: and not to dart into the house of a dancing-woman, lest, while gaping after these things, being struck with an apple by a wanton, you should be damaged in your reputation: and not to contradict your father in anything; nor by calling him Iapetus, to reproach him with the ills of age, by which you were reared in your infancy.

  Yet certainly shall you spend your time in the gymnastic schools, sleek and blooming; not chattering in the market-place rude jests, like the youths of the present day; nor dragged into court for a petty suit, greedy, pettifogging, knavish; but you shall descend to the Academy and run races beneath the sacred olives along with some modest compeer, crowned with white reeds, redolent of yew, and careless ease, of leaf-shedding white poplar, rejoicing in the season of spring, when the plane-tree whispers to the elm.

  If you do these things which I say, and apply your mind to these, you will ever have a stout chest, a clear complexion, broad shoulders, a little tongue, large hips, little lewdness. But if you practise what the youths of the present day do, you will have in the first place, a pallid complexion, small shoulders, a narrow chest, a large tongue, little hips, great lewdness, a long psephism; and this deceiver will persuade you to consider everything that is base to be honourable, and what is honourable to be base; and in addition to this, he will fill you with the lewdness of Antimachus.

  His rant against the children of his day and lack of respect and decorum is one found time and again for as long as humans have had written stories and histories. From all my readings of ancient works, in all countries and in many ancient languages, the one thing I always find is that while our toys and civilizations and laws change, the basic human animal never does. While some may try and hope for better, others do not.

  People will be people, and we are all very complicated beings who are the summation of our pasts and emotions, and our sensory intake.

  With every book, I strive to do justice to the characters and to show the complexity of human motivation and emotion. But more than that, I try to show that while some cave to bad situa
tions, not everyone does. And that the tragedy and trauma that can destroy one person can also be what gives another the ability to overcome and build a better future.

  We do not have to become or remain the victims that life sometimes makes us all. With enough strength and courage, all of us can overcome and learn to thrive in spite of the horrors and tragedies we’ve survived.

  As Plato said, “Be kind to everyone you meet, for we are all fighting a fierce battle.” That is the one motto of my life and it is what has seen me through my own hell and dark hours. I believe in the beauty and the power of the human spirit because I know how hard-won the battle for sanity and safety can be. And I know how hard it is to leave behind a brutal past that should have never existed.

  Every day is a new battle and while I may lose some of those fights, I will never lose my war. I couldn’t control the past or some of the nightmares forced upon me, but I can and do control my present and I will not let those vultures steal another moment of my life.

  We all have moments of weakness, but with that comes the strength of knowing that we’re still here. And we still matter.

  All of us.

  With that, I dedicate this book to all of the soldiers in the world, past and present and future, who take up arms every day and stand at the wall of humanity and refuse to see it fall to the vicious onslaught of those who would destroy us for no reason whatsoever, other than they are so malcontent with their own existence that they can’t bear to see anyone else happy. Don’t let them win.

  We are all survivors and we are all beautiful human beings who deserve our dreams and our sanity.

  The gods make kings, fools and pawns of us all …

  In equal turn, but not in equal length.

  —SAVITAR

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Author’s Note

  Epigraph

  Part One

  June 19, 9548 BC

  June 23, 9548 BC

  March 10, 9543 BC

  May 9, 9542 BC

  August 30, 9542 BC

  February 3, 9541 BC

  August 30, 9541 BC

  June 18, 9537 BC

  June 21, 9537 BC

  August 30, 9536 BC

  June 21, 9535 BC

  June 21, 9535 BC

  June 22, 9535 BC

  August 26, 9535 BC

  August 30, 9535 BC

  January 2, 9534 BC

  January 3, 9534 BC

  August 16, 9534 BC

  May 9, 9533 BC

  May 10, 9533 BC

  August 18, 9533 BC

  August 19, 9533 BC

  August 28, 9533 BC

  August 30, 9533 BC

  September 8, 9533 BC

  October 22, 9533 BC

  October 28, 9533 BC

  October 30, 9533 BC

  November 4, 9533 BC

  November 15, 9533 BC

  December 9, 9533 BC

  December 12, 9533 BC

  February 20, 9532 BC

  June 21, 9532 BC

  June 23, 9532 BC

  June 24, 9532 BC

  June 25, 9532 BC

  July 26, 9532 BC

  August 18, 9532 BC

  August 19, 9532 BC

  August 20, 9532 BC

  September 17, 9532 BC

  September 19, 9532 BC

  September 26, 9532 BC

  September 27, 9532 BC

  October 6, 9532 BC

  October 14, 9532 BC

  October 15, 9532 BC

  October 25, 9532 BC

  October 26, 9532 BC

  October 26, 9532 BC

  October 27, 9532 BC

  November 3, 9532 BC

  November 10, 9532 BC

  November 11, 9532 BC

  December 10, 9532 BC

  May 23, 9531 BC

  May 24, 9531 BC

  May 24, 9531 BC

  July 27, 9531 BC

  August 8, 9530 BC

  August 10, 9530 BC

  August 11, 9530 BC

  August 15, 9530 BC

  August 31, 9530 BC

  September 3, 9530 BC

  September 3, 9530 BC

  September 9, 9530 BC

  September 13, 9530 BC

  October 31, 9530 BC

  January 18, 9529 BC

  January 20, 9529 BC

  January 22, 9529 BC

  January 23, 9529 BC

  October 22, 9529 BC

  October 29, 9529 BC

  October 31, 9529 BC

  November 9, 9529 BC

  November 15, 9529 BC

  November 20, 9529 BC

  December 5, 9529 BC

  December 9, 9529 BC

  December 11, 9529 BC

  December 13, 9529 BC

  December 26, 9529 BC

  December 28, 9529 BC

  January 27, 9528 BC

  January 28, 9528 BC

  January 29, 9528 BC

  January 31, 9528 BC

  February 1, 9528 BC

  February 13, 9528 BC

  February 14, 9528 BC

  January 11, 9527 BC

  January 12, 9527 BC

  January 17, 9527 BC

  January 20, 9527 BC

  February 16, 9527 BC

  February 18, 9527 BC

  February 19, 9527 BC

  February 23, 9527 BC

  March 10, 9527 BC

  March 12, 9527 BC

  March 23, 9527 BC

  April 3, 9527 BC

  April 6, 9527 BC

  April 8, 9527 BC

  May 9, 9527 BC

  May 15, 9527 BC

  May 16, 9527 BC

  June 19, 9527 BC

  June 22, 9527 BC

  June 23, 9527 BC

  June 24, 9527 BC

  June 25, 9527 BC

  June 25, 9527 BC

  June 25, 9527 BC

  June 25, 9527 BC

  June 26, 9527 BC

  Part Two

  AD January 3, 2004

  February 17, 2004

  February 21, 2004

  February 24, 2004

  December 1, 2007

  May 4, 2008

  October 1, 2008

  November 1, 2008

  November 2, 2008

  November 2, 2008

  November 3, 2008

  November 4, 2008

  November 20, 2008

  November 21, 2008

  January 19, 2009

  January 21, 2009

  January 24, 2009

  January 16, 2011

  May 14, 2012

  June 23, 2012

  June 25, 2012

  August 8, 2012

  September 3, 2012

  September 8, 2012

  December 21, 2012

  December 23, 2012

  December 23, 2012

  December 24, 2012

  December 28, 2012

  February 9, 2013

  September 21, 2013

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Sherrilyn Kenyon

  About the Author

  Copyright

  June 19, 9548 BC

  “You missed, moron. My son still lives, and one day, we are going to bathe in your blood.”

  Dressed in Greek cavalry armor to hide his identity, Archon, the king of the Atlantean gods, froze in the middle of the dark hallway as he heard the taunting voice of his angry wife in his head. A sick feeling of dread clenched his stomach tight. “What say you?”

  “Well,” Apollymi projected mentally to him, drawing the word out. “Lord High King God Intelligent, ye who knows all, I am still imprisoned in Kalosis and that baby you hold in your arms is quite dead. What does that tell you?”

  That he’d slaughtered the wrong infant.

  Damn it! He’d been certain this was the right child.…

  Wincing in utter agony over what he’d done, Archon heard the screams of the Atlantean queen from where he’d left her in her bedroom as she cursed them all for the death of he
r newborn son. It was an unforgivable act, but Apollymi had given him no choice. She had refused to hand over her son and had hidden the infant here in the mortal world so that Apostolos would live in spite of Archon’s order that the boy be killed.

  If her infant son grew to manhood, all of them would die. The Atlantean pantheon and their people. But Apollymi didn’t care. So long as Apostolos lived, the rest of them could burn.

  Heartbroken over the innocent life he’d mistakenly taken, Archon handed the baby’s body to a guard on his right so that it could be returned to its grieving mother.

  “Where is your son, Apollymi?” he demanded in his head.

  She laughed at his anger. “Where you will never find him. Go on, slaughter every pregnant queen and her brat in the mortal realm. I dare you!”

  Archon glanced at the three gods with him, who were also disguised as he was—in cavalry armor. The Atlantean queen believed them to be vengeful Greeks sent to assassinate her child. Since they were the gods she and her people worshiped, they couldn’t afford for her to hate them. Not when the worship of the Atlantean people fed their powers.

  And if they searched through the mortal realm where other gods ruled to find Apollymi’s son, they would have to do so very carefully. Especially if the mission was to slaughter princes. The humans would call out their own gods, who would then demand retribution for their followers, and it would be a divine bloodbath between feuding pantheons.

  Been there. Done that.

  And it hadn’t been the least bit enjoyable.

  No doubt that was what Apollymi craved as much, if not more, than the return of her child. Born of the darkest powers in the universe, the first goddess of destruction lived only for such warfare. It was the very air she breathed.

  Disgusted and furious over his mistake, Archon flashed himself from the human world to the main temple hall on Katateros, where the Atlantean gods ruled their people. The three gods who’d gone with him to Atlantis followed.

  The moment the four of them were corporeal in their ornate temple, the other Atlantean gods stared at them expectantly.

  “Well?” Misos, their god of war, asked. “Did you get him?”

  Archon shook his golden head and narrowed his gaze on Basi. Beautiful and seductive, the drunken goddess of excess was the one who had taken Apollymi’s son and hidden him out of their reach. Unfortunately, the sot had no recollection of where she’d put the baby, other than in the stomach of an already pregnant human.… maybe. Maybe not.