THE NEXT morning, Theseus and Pirithous awoke with the sun, as both were too preoccupied with the coming journey to sleep soundly. When he opened his eyes, Theseus found Pirithous was already awake, but lying still and quiet. They met eyes and kissed, then giggled together, their confession of love making them giddy with their shared secret. Pirithous leaned over and kissed Theseus on the lips, then the throat. He moved down to his stomach, then slipped his lips over the head of his cock, already hard with the morning. Theseus sighed and arched his back, letting his cock slide all the way into Pirithous’s mouth.
Pirithous sucked and sucked—all the while massaging Theseus’s balls and the space between his legs—and drank hungrily when Theseus ejaculated.
The prince shuddered and lay still for a moment, then recovered and latched his mouth onto Pirithous’s member, already leaking fluid with his excitement. Theseus savored the taste of Pirithous’s juices mixed with the flavor of his skin. He drew his tongue over his lover’s testicles, taking the soft, delicate ovals within his mouth, and he licked down to Pirithous’s hole before traveling back to his cock and sucking until Pirithous erupted.
They kissed, their lips spiced with semen, and then reluctantly got up and headed to the bath. They scrubbed each other’s body in the warm water with soap made from the pressings of olives, and Theseus amused himself by dragging a cloth between Pirithous’s toes and feeling his lover’s legs spasm at the tickles. When they were clean, Pirithous drifted over to Theseus in the water and straddled him.
“Are you ready again so soon?” Theseus asked as his cock nudged against Pirithous’s hole under the water.
“No, I don’t want to come again.” Pirithous wrapped his arms around Theseus’s neck. “I just want to hold each other before we go downstairs.”
Theseus embraced Pirithous and clutched him close. He caressed the back of his head, fingering his long wet hair. Pirithous kissed him, and after several minutes, he said, “All right. I think I’m ready.”
“We can stay a little longer if you want,” Theseus said.
“No. I just wanted to remember this moment. This last moment of safety.”
They dried themselves and dressed in matching blue tunics, which draped over one shoulder and left half of their chests bare. They tied their feet into sandals with braided golden rope and placed elaborately decorated chlamyses over their shoulders, pinning them with gold brooches. They then joined a very somber Aegeus at his great table, where they broke their fast, and at Theseus’s insistence Iphitrion ate with them. Aegeus did his best to hide his scandalized expression while breaking bread with the slave boy. When they finished eating, Aegeus asked if he could have a moment alone with his son.
When Pirithous and Iphitrion exited, Aegeus held Theseus close. “Please don’t go,” he whispered.
“My mind is set, Father.”
“There’s no dissuading you?”
“I’m afraid there is not.”
“Then do me this one favor, my son.”
Theseus raised his eyebrows.
“The tribute ships we send out are fitted with black sails. I saw to it that the ship you travel in today has a set of white sails in its storage hold. If… when you succeed in vanquishing the Minotaur and you return to me, let fly the white sails. Let me see from the distance that you have survived.”
“I shall see to it, Father,” Theseus said.
Aegeus kissed his son on both cheeks, then held him out at arm’s length, inspecting him. His eyes clouded and he turned away. “The gods be with you, my son,” he said, and he was gone.
THE REST of the morning raced by, and soon Theseus set out with Pirithous and the rest of his entourage to much fanfare. When they reached the coast, they were united with the contingent of seven female tributes. Six of them wept, but one, a fiery and fierce-looking girl with red hair and dark green eyes, was stoic, her lips as unwavering as a statue.
They embarked the ship, and very soon after set sail. It was a relatively short journey to Crete, just a few nights, and Theseus took the time to gather his thoughts. He roamed the ship, gazing out at the Middle Sea and going over in his head all the combat techniques he had been taught in the two months’ training with Aegeus’s warriors. He tried his best to imagine what the Minotaur looked like and winced with fear when he did.
As he wandered the ship, he ran into one of the girls—the one who had refused to cry at the docks. She stood at the bow, absentmindedly scanning the horizon, looking just as lost in her thoughts as Theseus himself.
“Good day to you,” he said.
She turned and locked eyes with him. “And to you, Prince.”
“You recognize me,” he said, surprised.
“I do.”
“And you do not bow.”
“Would you have me bow?” She turned toward him. It wasn’t defiance in her eyes. Simply a question.
“I am still new to the idea of being a prince. Bowing isn’t necessary.”
She nodded.
“And you are?”
“Autolyca, I am called.”
“You do not seem to be frightened, Autolyca.”
“I am, my lord,” she said, her eyes narrowing as she looked out at the sea. “But that is not to say I will allow my fear to be my master.”
“And how is that?”
“I have hope. Because I know of your plan.”
“Is that so? What plan might that be?”
“I do not believe the son of Aegeus would just happen to be named tribute to Minos. And the other male tributes… with the exception of the very slim one, they all look like soldiers.”
Theseus smiled, knowing Pirithous would be flattered at being mistaken for a soldier. Slender Iphitrion, however, though now lightly muscled from the two months of training, still had a long way to go before being able to pass as such.
“You go to slay the Minotaur,” she said.
“As it happens, I do.”
“And you’ve brought reinforcements.”
“Indeed I have.”
Autolyca looked out over the sea, her face unreadable. “That works well in conjunction with my plan, then.”
“Which is?”
“To kill Minos.”
Theseus tried to contain his shock but failed. “You aim to kill the king of Crete?”
“My brother was a tribute a few years back. He never returned. No tribute has ever returned. So I prayed to the gods to let me be chosen, and this year my prayers were answered. When we settle in the king’s palace, I will find an opening, and I will end his wicked life.”
“You fancy yourself a hero, then, Autolyca?”
“No, my lord. A pragmatist. I have never balked at doing what must be done. My city needs my service.”
Theseus looked at her in awe, this marvelously brave girl. “Then we are truly allies. And we must do whatever we can to help each other achieve our goals.”
“Yes, of course, my lord.”
“The other girls, where are they?”
“Below deck, my lord. Past the partition that the captain put up. He said it wouldn’t be right for the girls to be forced to sleep beside the boys.”
“Would you accompany me there?”
Autolyca eyed him suspiciously.
“Trust me, I don’t intend to slake my lust,” he said. “The girls deserve to know of our plans. It might save them from despair.”
Autolyca nodded, and a smile slowly blossomed on her lips. “Yes, my lord.”
She took him to the girls’ area, and the six other female tributes listened in shocked silence when Theseus introduced himself as Aegeus’s son. When they learned that this voyage had the potential to be the last of Athens’s tribute ships, Theseus could feel the mood in the room shift. Now they had hope. And hope, Theseus was learning, could be much more powerful than fear.
Theseus emerged from the girls’ side of the ship and onto the deck, where he found Iphitrion and Pirithous.
“We were looking for you,” Pirithous said. “You disappeared.”
“I was telling the girls to hold on to their courage,” Theseus said.
“Mindful of slaves and women,” Pirithous said softly. “You are such a good man, Theseus. You will make a great king.”
“Agreed,” Iphitrion said.
“We should retire for the night,” Theseus said. “A long day lies ahead.”
The three young men descended into their designated area of the ship, also partitioned off, and when they entered they discovered the four soldiers sitting on the tiny cots, facing each other. All of them had lifted the bottoms of their tunics and were furiously masturbating, their faces slick with sweat.
“Well, well,” Pirithous said, laughing. “This looks fun.”
The four soldiers, automatic in their training, instantly stood at attention when they saw Theseus. So did their cocks.
Theseus laughed at the comical sight, and Iphitrion and Pirithous did, as well.
The largest of the soldiers, a mountain of muscle named Braxius, spoke up. “Apologies, my lord. We, uh… we were just….”
“Easing the tension of our mission?” Theseus suggested.
“Yes, my lord.”
“That sounds like a fantastic idea. But why not play with each other instead of just touching yourselves?”
The four soldiers looked at one another, confused.
“We’re all equals, my lord,” another one, Hadaclus, said. “So we can’t penetrate each other.”
Theseus rolled his eyes. “Even mouths?”
“It’s a dishonor to be penetrated by anyone but a superior, my lord. You can penetrate us, and we could penetrate the slave boy there, but that’s it.”
Theseus stood defensively in front of Iphitrion. “Look, all of you. I will clarify two points. The first is this slave boy has a name. Iphitrion. And what’s more, he is a slave no longer. I convinced my father to grant his freedom.”
He turned and winked at Iphitrion. It was a lie, of course, as Aegeus was adamant that he keep Iphitrion as a pleasure slave despite nightly protests from Theseus. But there was no reason the soldiers need know that, and so Theseus had told Iphitrion that this would be their story should it ever come up.
“The second is we have to dismantle this ridiculous penetration hierarchy. You’re only depriving yourselves of a great deal of pleasure. All of you, since your cocks are already poking out from underneath, remove your tunics.”
The four soldiers, given a direct order from their prince, obeyed immediately. They stood there naked, their four gorgeously hard cocks on display. Theseus approached Braxius.
“Now then, Braxius, I am your superior, yes?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“According to custom, it would dishonor me if you were to penetrate me in any way?”
Braxius hesitated. Theseus looked down and saw the man’s erection twitch and grow harder. “It… would, my lord.”
“But it seems you rouse at the thought.”
Braxius bit his lip. “I… apologies, yes, my lord, but I….”
Theseus knelt down and placed a hand under Braxius’s huge ball sac. The testicles inside were large and heavy. His meaty cock now pointed skyward, desperate for contact, and a tiny pearl of fluid leaked from the slit. Theseus smiled, then wrapped his lips around the soldier’s cock and drew it deep into his mouth. Braxius let out a gasp, which quickly turned into a moan. Theseus indulged himself on the cock a moment more, then stood and looked the man in the eye.
“Do I seem dishonored to you?”
“N-no, my lord.”
“I certainly don’t feel dishonored.”
Braxius nodded.
“Now that that’s out of the way,” Theseus said, “surely some of you must be curious about what it feels like to suck cock.”
The four soldiers all looked at one another, and eventually they all broke into shy grins, nodding and chuckling.
“I know I have,” another one, Telemedes, said. “Aeson there’s got a huge one. I always wanted to see if I could fit my mouth around it.”
The other three soldiers laughed uproariously, and the one called Aeson blushed, looking down at his cock, which was indeed quite thick. “It’s not that big,” he said bashfully.
“It’s really wide,” Telemedes said.
“Well,” Pirithous interjected, “give it a try.”
His cheeks now quite red, Telemedes shyly moved next to Aeson and stared down at the man’s cock.
“You should kiss me first, like a proper whore,” Aeson said, and Braxius and Hadaclus laughed even harder.
Telemedes yelled, “Shut up, you two!” Then he looked back at Aeson. “You think I’m afraid to kiss you?”
“Maybe.”
Telemedes leaned forward and pressed his lips against Aeson’s, and the other two soldiers chuckled at the awkwardness of their brothers-in-arms. But then Aeson relaxed and parted his lips, and Telemedes melted deeper into the kiss. He reached down and grazed Aeson’s cock, and Aeson returned the favor. Telemedes then dropped to his knees and swallowed the large member halfway down its length. It fit in his mouth, after all.
“Shit,” Braxius said. “He’s really doing it.”
“Well, I’ve been left out for far too long,” Pirithous said. He winked at Theseus, then walked over to Braxius and Hadaclus. “Face each other, you two,” he instructed, and the two soldiers obeyed, bringing their cocks together. Pirithous delighted himself by licking and sucking both penises, and the soldiers, facing each other and with nothing better to do, began to kiss, slowly at first, then with more ardor.
Theseus smiled and rubbed himself, enjoying watching the scene unfold before him. Beside him, Iphitrion also rubbed himself, then leaned against Theseus. Theseus turned and kissed the young man, who then explored underneath Theseus’s tunic, grasping the hard cock inside.
Iphitrion knelt and took Theseus in his mouth, and Theseus sighed and felt his body surrender to the sensation. He lifted his tunic up over his head and let it drop on the deck beside him as Iphitrion continued licking and sucking him. Theseus smiled down at him. On their first night, he wanted to ensure Iphitrion felt no responsibility toward giving them pleasure—as a slave, he had been forced to do that enough. But now that all matters were understood, Iphitrion gave pleasure just as happily as he received it.
Soon Theseus and Iphitrion drifted over to the soldiers and Pirithous, and everything became blurred, seven bodies sliding over one another, looking to service and be serviced. Theseus saw at one point Hadaclus, the soldier who had informed him of the penetration limitations, enthusiastically sucking Iphitrion’s cock, throwing the old rules away.
Theseus and Pirithous both worked their way around the room, sampling all the soldiers had to offer, but soon found each other, as Theseus knew they always would. Amazing, he thought, his connection with this man. They both loved to indulge their senses in carnal delights, and they loved doing this together. There would never be jealousy, never discord. Just understanding and delight.
“I could stand to get fucked by a soldier,” Pirithous said, smiling devilishly.
“You always have the best ideas,” Theseus said.
Pirithous broke out the jar of oil, and he and Theseus lay down on the bedding. They faced each other, lying on their sides, so they could hold each other and kiss. Braxius lay behind Theseus and Telemedes behind Pirithous, and soon they were rocking back and forth, the motion of being fucked matching the gentle swaying of the waves. Theseus felt ecstasy firing up and down his whole body as the soldier pounded into him and Pirithous’s lips met his. He was vaguely aware of Iphitrion nearby, who had somehow talked Aeson into letting him fuck him as he himself was simultaneously fucked by Hadaclus, a trio moving in rhythm as one.
Theseus sighed, delighted, knowing that no matter what fate might meet them tomorrow, at least there was the bliss of tonight.