THESEUS GRABBED the key and raced back in the direction of the menagerie. As he turned a corner, he all but ran directly into one of Minos’s guards, dressed in the standard uniform of helmet, armguards, boots, and cape—and nothing else. It made Theseus wonder momentarily how anyone, from king to guard to slave, got any business done in this palace, seeing as how they all had their cocks out all the time.
The guard raised his spear and aimed it at Theseus’s heart. “You are one of the tributes.”
“I am, sir.” Theseus subtly slipped the key into the iron cuff on his wrist.
“What are you doing out of bed? Trying to escape, are we?”
“No! No, I was just coming back from the piss chamber, and I got lost.”
“The piss chamber is right next to the celebration hall. There’s no way you could have gotten lost.”
“There’s one right next to us? I had no idea. I—”
But Theseus could not finish his sentence, for another voice approaching them from behind him quickly cut him off.
“Now, now, might as well be honest.”
Theseus spun and saw Acarius the satyr shambling toward them, his stride inhibited by the chain connecting his ankles, his hooves scuffing the stone floor.
“What business have you here, satyr?” the guard asked.
“He’s splendid, boy. Well done,” Acarius said, staring at the guard and licking his lips.
The guard looked at him, baffled. “What are you going on about?”
Theseus just looked from Acarius to the guard and back again, not knowing what to say.
“This tribute caught my eye,” Acarius said, “and seeing as how the king sucked my cock only for a few seconds tonight and then forgot about me, I’m in need of some pleasuring, so I roused this one from slumber and asked him to find us a suitable third party to play around with. And it looks like he found one, you handsome guard.”
Acarius lifted one eyebrow saucily and ran his hand across the guard’s muscular chest.
“A likely story,” the guard said suspiciously.
“You think I deceive?” Acarius asked. “Look me in the eyes, and you’ll see I’m telling the truth.”
The guard did, and suddenly he was transfixed by the satyr’s gaze.
“That’s right,” Acarius said, “look into my eyes.”
The guard was completely silent, mesmerized.
“You want to shoot your seed with us, don’t you?”
The guard nodded.
Theseus watched in awe as the satyr’s sensual thrall overwhelmed the guard’s mind. He looked down and saw that the guard’s cock was at full-mast. Seeing this caused his own cock to twitch, even though he had not fully recovered from his jaunt with Ares.
“Take off your helmet,” Acarius whispered, and as the guard did, exposing his face, Theseus found himself overwhelmed with lust.
Without another thought, he dropped to his knees and took the guard’s cock in his mouth. While he sucked, Theseus looked up and saw that Acarius was licking and suckling at the man’s nipples, and ecstasy crossed the guard’s face.
The guard ran his fingers through Theseus’s hair, easing his cock farther into the prince’s mouth. Theseus licked the underside of his shaft and swallowed each of his balls in turn, rolling them around on his tongue. He felt something large poking the side of his neck, and on turning, he discovered Acarius’s gargantuan member in front of his face. Consumed with desire, Theseus licked all around the head and took it into his mouth while still stroking the guard with his hand. He heard the sounds of kissing above him.
“Fuck me,” Acarius said.
“Gladly, as long as this one fucks me at the same time,” the guard responded.
Theseus looked up. “Do you have any oil?”
“Always,” the guard said. “Minos insists we carry oil with us at all times.” He reached into the folds of his cape and Theseus saw there was a pocket sewn in. From this pocket the guard produced a clay jar.
Theseus stood, his cock pulsing and as stiff as a spear. The guard handed him the jar. As Theseus smeared the oil on himself, the guard kissed him deeply. Theseus applied more oil to his hand and slipped three fingers into the guard’s hole, moving them around.
As Theseus explored, Acarius backed himself onto the guard’s cock, and soon they were fucking, the guard sliding into Acarius as Acarius braced himself against the wall. Theseus stepped close behind the guard, who slowed his movement to allow Theseus to enter him.
For many minutes they fucked this way, creating a chain of pleasure, until the guard’s gyrations sped up and Theseus knew his time was drawing near.
The guard’s increased bucking was bringing Theseus close to the edge.
“Can I come in you?” he asked, biting the guard’s ear.
The guard reached behind him and grasped onto Theseus’s buttock. “Do it!”
Theseus quickened his thrusts, and soon he was spurting deep within the guard’s body. The guard, who must have been feeling the warm jets of fluid, released his own seed within Acarius, who then shot gallons of the stuff from his own cock.
Theseus shuddered and withdrew his slippery cock from the guard. It had been a full night of fucking, indeed.
Acarius turned and kissed the guard, whose eyes had grown drowsy.
“Tired?” he asked, his face a mask of innocence.
“A bit,” the guard said, sleepily. “I think maybe no one’ll notice if I just lay my head down for a second.”
“You should do that,” Acarius said. “Definitely.”
The guard lay down on the ground and bunched up his cape beneath his head to make a pillow. In seconds he was asleep, snoring quietly. Theseus looked down at him, surprised.
“It takes a lot out of a mortal, fucking a satyr,” Acarius said. “Oftentimes they need a little nap to restore their vigor.”
“This was your plan all along,” Theseus said. “You wanted to get him unconscious. To save me.”
“You’re the first mortal I’ve met in all my years here who is even attempting to help us. It was the least I could do.”
“Well, good news, my friend! I believe I have what is needed to liberate you. All of you.”
Theseus withdrew the key from his wrist cuff and slipped it into the lock on Acarius’s chains. It fit perfectly, and, with a quick turn of his hand, the satyr was free. Acarius looked at his wrists and ankles in disbelief.
“Where did you find that key?”
“I fucked Ares, the god of war, and he gave it to me for the effort.”
“Ah, very good.”
Acarius rubbed his joints and stretched. Theseus took in the sight of him, the very human torso with its small chest muscles and lean abdomen, the curly hair that surrounded the magnificent cock. Arousal swelled in him, and he felt himself begin to stiffen.
“I can’t believe I’m getting hard again already!”
“It’s satyr magic,” Acarius explained, waving a hand in dismissal. “It can’t be helped. But thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Theseus. You have freed me!”
He grabbed the back of Theseus’s head and kissed him passionately, his tongue caressing the inside of the prince’s mouth. Then he pulled away. “I must be off before they find me.”
“Yes, go. And may the gods be with you,” Theseus said, though he wished the satyr would stay long enough for Theseus to have a chance to suck his cock once more.
“And with you, Prince. As it seems they already are.”
Acarius smiled, reached down for one last squeeze of Theseus’s cock, then bounded away down the hall. In awe, Theseus watched the smooth lines of his back, the pert round buttocks swaying, the funny gait his goat legs provided. He rounded a corner and then was gone.
As soon as he was out of sight, Theseus noticed his erection subsiding. Satyr magic was powerful, indeed.
Theseus turned and headed back in the direction of the menagerie, but when he rounded a corner, he saw in the distance a wall of guards completely blocking the menagerie’s entrance. Without any other options, he resolved to free Daphnis and the other captives at the next earliest possible moment. Reluctantly, he returned to the celebration hall. He lay down beside Pirithous, who stirred, and his eyes half opened.
“Where did you go?” Pirithous asked sleepily.
“It’s been a more eventful night than I anticipated,” Theseus whispered back. He quickly explained all that had transpired since he left the room.
“Wow, that’s a lot of fucking,” Pirithous said. “You’re a stallion.”
“It’s all right? That I did that?” Theseus asked.
“Well, it sounds like most of that fucking was out of necessity,” Pirithous said. “I’m jealous—not that you’ll leave me for one of them, just that you got to have all that fun. But like I’ve said before, as long as our bed is the one we both climb into at the end of the night, by all means, let’s fuck away.”
Theseus smiled and kissed him. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that Pirithous’s cock was growing hard. He reached down and took it in his hand.
“You can’t possibly be up for another go after the night you had,” Pirithous said.
“My cock is spent, yes. But my mouth isn’t.” Theseus bent down and wrapped his lips around his lover’s cock, sucking as silently as he could so as not to wake the other captives.
Pirithous bit down hard on his lip to keep from moaning. He bucked his hips, sliding in and out of Theseus’s mouth. Soon he released, and Theseus drank every drop of fluid.
Theseus then kissed Pirithous, his lips still traced with seed, and lay down next to him. Pirithous flung an arm over Theseus, pulling him in close, and they slept that night as they had many nights, in a tight embrace.
THE BLAST of a trumpet interrupted their slumber. All the tributes were startled awake, and as they rubbed their bleary eyes, Minos entered with an entourage of guards behind him. A crimson robe trimmed in black fur hung over the king’s shoulders, and a matching crown, bejeweled with onyx and rubies, sat atop his head. The robe was open, exposing his body underneath, naked but for golden circlets trimmed with jewels that wrapped around his biceps, wrists, and ankles. Theseus had never seen anything so simultaneously ghastly and alluring.
“It is time, my lovelies,” Minos said. “The first of you shall be sent into the Labyrinth. But who should it be…? Let me think….”
He made a flourish with his hands, and it was clear he delighted in dragging out the moment.
Theseus cleared his throat and stepped forward. “If it pleases his most beautiful and powerful lordship, I would like to volunteer to be the first.”
The other tributes looked at Theseus silently. He had told them this would be his plan, of course. But all of them, Pirithous included, couldn’t help but marvel at their young prince’s bravery.
Minos, for his part, simply let his mouth fall open like a simpleton. He sputtered for a moment, disbelieving. “What did you say, boy?”
“I said, if it pleases Your Majesty, I’d like to go first.”
Minos walked over to him, stopping a few inches from his face. Theseus caught a whiff of sweet wine on his otherwise atrocious breath. “You fool,” Minos said. “You idiot! Do you not know what’s inside the Labyrinth?”
“I do, my lord.”
“And still you volunteer.”
“I do, my lord.”
Minos squinted, staring deep into Theseus’s eyes. Theseus caught the look on his face. Suspicion. Distrust.
“No….” Minos said slowly. “No. I’m not sure what your game is, but I promise you it is fruitless. No, I think I’ll keep you around to watch your friends be picked off one by one.”
Theseus cursed himself. It had never occurred to him that Minos might refuse his request. But of course he would. He was mad! How stupid could I be?
Minos paced along the line of recruits, back and forth, back and forth. His eyes occasionally flicked toward Theseus, gauging his reaction. Theseus’s heart sank as Minos stopped in front of Pirithous.
“This one, I think,” the king said.
“No!” Theseus said, too loud. A plea of desperation.
Minos whipped his head around at Theseus. His guards tightened their grips on their spears.
“Please, my lord, just send me in,” Theseus said. “I beg you.”
“Save your begging for when you go before Hades,” Minos spat, then turned to his guards. “Take that one. Now.”
“No!”
This time it wasn’t a plea. It was a war cry.
Theseus leaped in front of Pirithous as the guards moved in, and as quick as lightning, he wrested the spear from one of them, kicking the man in the chest. The guard hit the ground and, forced by the mighty blow, skidded far across the room. Theseus spun the spear above his head and brought the blunt side down on the next nearest guard. His fellow Athenian soldiers, as well as Pirithous, Iphitrion, and Autolyca jumped into the fray as Minos’s guards attacked. Minos yelled shrill words, but Theseus could not make them out over the sound of his own beating heart, deafening as a drum.
The Cretan guards were well trained. One guard slipped unnoticed behind Theseus while he was fighting another. Theseus heard a scream. He turned and saw Pirithous, his beautiful, beloved Pirithous, with a spearhead sticking into his side. All color drained out of his vision, replaced only by red. He took one step and was at the guard’s side just as the man was pulling the offending spear out of Pirithous’s body. Theseus, reacting on instinct, seized him. With one hand he grabbed on to the cloak clasped around the guard’s throat and with the other found the soft meeting of legs, right behind the scrotum. Theseus lifted the man above his head and threw him. The guard soared high and far, landing on the other side of the room with a sickening crunch. His arm was twisted underneath him at an unnatural angle, his neck was bent, his eyes wide open. A dark pool began to flow out from under his head.
All in the room held their breath as they saw this; it was a feat beyond the strength of any mortal man.
“Enough!” Minos cried, but it was unnecessary. The violence had stopped when Theseus performed his miracle of strength.
Theseus grabbed Pirithous, who had grown quite pale, and together they sank to the ground. Iphitrion, remembering the soldiers’ medical training, pulled the cape off of a nearby fallen guard and pressed it against Pirithous’s wound. Theseus’s mind flashed back to their last night in Athens, when Pirithous had first told him he loved him.
You saved me, Pirithous had said to him.
You saved me, Theseus.
Theseus looked down at his beloved. Pirithous’s face had already grown pale. How could he have let this happen?
Theseus stroked his face. “Stay awake,” he said. “Stay awake, my love.”
Pirithous winced and bit his lip.
The fact that he had no witty remark worried Theseus more than anything. Tears welled in Theseus’s eyes.
“I don’t know what to do,” he said, feeling helpless as he looked at Iphitrion stanching the wound. The tears spilled now, heavy and hot.
Minos strode up to them, red-faced and huffing. He stuck a finger on Theseus’s chest. “Come with me. Now!” he screamed, then turned and marched out of the room.
Theseus looked back to Pirithous, whose eyes fluttered up to him.
“It’s not like he can overpower you,” Pirithous rasped.
Theseus clutched him close. “I’m not leaving you.”
“For the good of our city. Go. Talk to Minos.”
“No.” Theseus stroked his face and kissed him. “No. I’m not letting go of you.”
Autolyca knelt beside them. “Prince Theseus,” she said gently, “perhaps you should. Injuries are on both sides now. The rules of war state a parley must be honored.”
Theseus just shook his head and cradled Pirithous to him.
“Go, my love,” Pirithous said again, and then he grimaced and could say no more.
Theseus hesitated. The last thing in the world he wanted was to be away from Pirithous’s side. But he had to admit to himself there was wisdom in Autolyca’s words. He kissed Pirithous delicately on the lips.
He turned to Iphitrion and Autolyca. “Care for him.”
They nodded.
Theseus wiped his eyes, rose to his feet, and followed Minos, leaving the guards to collect their injured comrades. Minos led him into a smaller room, less grand than the celebration hall. A room to conduct business in, not pleasure.
Minos whipped around. “Who are you?” he hissed. “Such strength could only belong to either Heracles, or—” His eyes narrowed. “—or a descendant of Pandion, it is rumored.”
Theseus raised his chin, looking down at the mad king. He saw no reason for further deceit.
“Indeed, I am Aegeus’s son.”
Minos took a step back, defensively.
“You are not what I’m here to kill,” Theseus said, “however much I might like to. In the interest of diplomacy, I chose to play by your rules. You asked Aegeus to send fourteen tributes, and so he did. Even though I will slay the Minotaur, we are still abiding by the terms of your treaty. I’m here to end this madness.”
“Madness?” the king snarled. “You think me mad?”
“The case could be made.”
“Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong, little princeling. I’m very sane. All that I do, I do in service to my country.”
Theseus flinched. They were the same words, more or less, that his father had used. It seemed all kings could find ways to justify their atrocities.
“You may have great strength,” Minos continued, “but still you’ll be no match for the Minotaur. I’ll honor your request and send you in first. I’ll be more than happy to be rid of you.”
“Tomorrow,” Theseus said.
“What?”
“I’ll be the first to enter the Labyrinth, but tomorrow. Give me this day to tend to my injured companion.”
“Hah!” Minos said. “I think not.”
Theseus seized the king by his neck and viciously slammed him against the wall.
“Do not make me show you the full extent of my strength, Minos!” he yelled.
“Insolent swine!” Minos shouted, trying to force authority into his voice, though it was a fruitless attempt. He struggled in vain against Theseus’s arms, beating at them like a powerless child. Finally, he gave up.
“It is not much that I ask,” Theseus said. “Just a day.”
“Fine! Fine, you fucking fool. Unhand me now!”
Theseus did. Without another word, he turned around and walked toward the exit.
“You think you’re brave now, do you?” Minos called after him. “Hah! We’ll see how your courage fails you tomorrow!”
Theseus walked out of the room and closed the door behind him. Once he was out of Minos’s sight, he ran back down the corridor toward the great hall where Pirithous lay wounded. He was about to attempt to summon Poseidon once again, when a woman’s voice called out behind him.
“Stop.”
Theseus halted in his tracks and, turning, beheld a beautiful young woman, whose age Theseus guessed to be around his own. She was dressed in robes of deep purple inlaid with onyx, and her hair was braided elaborately upon her head. A small golden circlet decorated her brow, and her fingers were fitted with rings of diamonds and emeralds. That she was royalty, there was no doubt.
“You are Theseus,” she said. “The one who volunteered.”
“I am,” Theseus responded. How odd, he thought, that a girl of her status went about the palace without any servants to attend her. Out of respect, he covered his cock with both hands.
“I don’t have much time,” she said, looking around. Distress was written clearly on her face. “I am the princess Ariadne.”
“You are Minos’s daughter?”
“Yes. But I am not your enemy.”
“I somehow doubt that’s true, Princess.”
“Listen to me closely,” she said. “My father is a madman.”
“Well, on that we agree.”
“My entire life, I’ve looked over my shoulder every night, worried he might decide to kill me… or worse. I’ve prayed for a way to escape him with my infant sister, Phaedra, but my prayers went unheeded by the gods. Now, I believe, that time has come at last. But I need your help.”
Theseus hesitated, desperate to return to Pirithous. After all, this was not his problem, and the last thing he needed was anything more to complicate his already pressing situation. And yet he had seen the type of home that Minos kept. The idea of two girls being forced to grow up in it tugged at his heart.
“How can I help you?”
“You are here to slay the Minotaur, yes?”
“How did you—?”
She held up a hand. “I am not stupid. The guards said you volunteered to go first. Clearly, you believe you can kill the beast and save your countrymen. I will aid you in your quest, but you must promise me that when you are successful, you will take my sister and me with you on your ship, away from here.”
Theseus thought it a small price to pay for victory. “I will.”
Her eyes blazed. “Swear it on the gods.”
He touched his heart. “I swear it. On every god from Zeus above to Hades below.”
That satisfied her. “Just inside the entrance to the Labyrinth, there is a plant in a large urn. I’ve heard the soldiers say they keep a sword hidden in this urn in case one of them ever becomes trapped inside by accident. But there’s more: the Minotaur lives at the center of the Labyrinth, and even if you do kill him, you’ll need to find your way out again. Daedalus, the builder of the Labyrinth, has said that finding one’s way out is impossible. But I’ve thought of a way to do it.”
“How?”
Ariadne reached into the folds of her robe and produced a very large ball of red string.
“I don’t see how weaving will help me,” Theseus said.
Ariadne rolled her eyes. “When you enter, tie the string around the urn and unravel it as you go. That way you’ll always know which way you’ve gone, and you’ll be able to follow the string back out again once you’ve slain the beast.”
Theseus took the string, marveling at how elegant in its simplicity her plan was. “Brilliant. But how will I get it in? Your father’s decree is that every tribute must go in naked and holding nothing.”
“I’m afraid that’s up to you,” Ariadne said.
Theseus nodded. She had already done him a world of help. He could manage that last bit himself.
“Thank you, Ariadne.”
“There’s one more thing I must warn you of.”
“What?”
“My father discovered a guard who says he was seduced by a slave and Acarius, right before the satyr disappeared. This has aroused my father’s suspicions. He has increased the number of guards, particularly around the menagerie. If you are attempting anything to do with freeing his captives, I’d advise against it.”
Theseus nodded. He would have to find a way around this too. But first, the Minotaur.
Ariadne gripped his arm. “Remember your oath. Slay the beast, and save my sister and me.”
“I solemnly vow it will be done.”
She kissed him on both cheeks. “I thank you, Theseus. And the gods be with you.”
Then she hurried away, and Theseus turned and bolted back in the direction of Pirithous.