Painted Blind Part 34

"I was instructed to bring this to you, Queen Persephone." It was appropriate for me to approach her standing, but to curtsy again as I offered her the box.

She took it from my hands and set it on the arm of the throne. "Well done, my dear. You have completed the third task, and by so doing, you have won the right to see Eros again. To celebrate, I hold a feast in your honor."

A feast.

I remembered well t.i.tus's warning about food. Worse, I was hungry. Very hungry. It had been hours since I ate those half-frozen MREs, but I refused to lose my composure or to anger Persephone. "You are very kind," I said. "Thank you."

This pleased her. "Come, Thomas. Escort our guest into the banquet hall." She rose, her bracelets jingling as she moved, and came toward me. "I hope you're hungry," she said, then led the way out of the throne room.

Thomas appeared beside me and offered his arm.

"I can't go into a crowd," I murmured. The skin on my arms and back was exposed. Anyone who brushed against me would feel my warmth.

"You must not displease the Queen," he answered.

Despite Persephone's claim, the task was incomplete. She hadn't opened the box. Persephone had to unlock the metal clasp on the box and reveal Aphrodite's reward before I could return with it to the mortal world. I was forced to keep playing the cordial guest until she allowed me to leave the palace with the open box. I had fulfilled my end of the task, and now I was at her mercy.

We crossed the enormous corridors of the castle to a room as big as my high school's gymnasium. Around the perimeter were throngs of guests, dressed in fine robes and awaiting their Queen. In one corner were musicians, their instruments idle as they stood with folded hands, also waiting. On the far side of the room were several maids and man servants, all dressed in black and waiting for their duties to begin. Long, empty tables stood along one side of the room. Along the other side on a raised platform were two ornate chairs for the reigning couple and half a dozen smaller chairs for their guests. Long, empty tables stood in front of these seats also.

Persephone waited for the sentries to announce her. The already hushed room fell absolutely silent as we walked to the chairs on the platform.

"You will sit here beside me, Psyche," she said softly. "Thomas, you may sit on her other side." Persephone raised her arms. "Let the celebration begin!"

The room burst into motion. The musicians began to play. The waiting guests filled the dance floor and began to move in unison. A set of doors was thrown open, and each maid and man servant fetched a tray of food for the long tables.

Because we sat with the queen, we were served first. A cracked peppercorn roast adorned with sprigs of rosemary was brought to our table. The succulent aroma of roasted beef and hints of garlic made me salivate. One of the man servants sliced off generous portions and slid them onto plates the size of serving platters. Next, he spooned wild rice. By the time he finished, my platter contained meat and rice, steamed beans, a thick slice of bread, a slice of cake, a small bowl of pudding, three strawberries, a slice of orange and a sprig of parsley. It was simply beautiful, and I could not taste one morsel, or I'd be condemned to a life of slavery in Persephone's court.

I sat on my hands to keep them from betraying me. My belly rumbled, and I tried to breathe through my mouth, so I couldn't smell the food.

Persephone ate, so did Thomas. The guests filled their plates and moved to round dining tables beyond the dance floor. A couple paused halfway to their seats. The man fed his companion a strawberry from his plate. She accepted it enthusiastically, and made a great show of licking his finger as she took it.

Thomas leaned toward me, a small bowl of pudding in his right hand. "This is my favorite dessert here at court. They don't make it often."

"You can have mine," I replied.

He dipped his spoon into the pudding and held it toward me. "You don't want to try it?"

I felt his eyes mocking me, but I replied, "No, thank you."

The room rose into a jovial din. When all the guests had full plates, the large doors opened again, and five man servants rolled out an enormous fountain. After moving it to a prominent location near the dance floor, one servant went around the back and cranked the pump until the fountain flowed with wine. A cheer rose from around the room.

Guests crowded to fill their gla.s.ses. Three more servants poured kegs of wine into the fountain until it nearly overflowed.

Thomas rose, took the three gla.s.ses from our table and filled them, serving Persephone's, then mine, then his own. As he settled into his seat, he savored the wine. "It's very good," he told me.

I slid my gla.s.s closer to his plate and tried not to notice that my throat was scratchy.

By far the most handsome group in the room were eleven young men who stood together at one end of the ballroom. All of them wore clothing identical to Thomas-black robe, scarlet sash, a gold cord at the waist, and a golden band around the left bicep. They ate standing and remained apart from the rest of the guests. They varied greatly in appearance. Some were dark while others were blonde. All were muscular, although a few of them were slighter than the rest. Even among the immortals, they held a singular beauty. I realized that if Thomas stood among them, he would match their form and beauty perfectly.

"Who are they?" I asked him, raising only my chin to point.

"Persephone's attendants, the Royal Guard." When I eyed them again, Thomas asked, "Is there one among them that you fancy above the others?"

"They are all beautiful."

He leaned closer and murmured, "You could choose any one of them, and she would give him to you for tonight."

I was stunned that he offered this so freely as if I expected it. "To entertain me?"

"Of course."

I sat back in my chair, and looked into Thomas's worried eyes. "I was under the impression you were a.s.signed to entertain me?"

He bowed his head. "If you don't like me, she will give you someone else."

I tried hard not to grin. "Is there anyone in particular you'd recommend?"

As he sipped wine, his eyes went carefully over the entire guard, then to me. "No," he said finally, "there isn't."

I sighed dramatically. "Then, I guess I'm stuck with you."

He realized then I was teasing him, and he chuckled softly. His teeth were perfectly straight and made his smile brilliant.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Persephone watching us.

Thomas offered me his hand. "Will you dance with me?"

The dance floor was crowded with couples stepping and spinning to the music. I'd only danced with a man once. It was my dad, and we were at his foreman's wedding. I was thirteen maybe. All I remembered was feeling awkward through the whole song.

"I don't know how to dance like that," I protested.

"I'll lead," Thomas replied.

"But there are so many people...."

He knew I didn't want anyone to touch me even accidentally. "They will give us room, I a.s.sure you." Then he leaned forward and whispered, "It will get you away from the table."

I took his offered hand. He led me down the steps of the platform. By the time we reached the dance floor, all of the couples moved aside and created a corridor of bodies with an open circle in the center of the floor.

Every eye in the room was on us when Thomas brought me to face him on the dance floor. He slid his right hand around my waist, and I tried not to shudder when the skin on my arm touched his. His body was so cold. He drew me nearer. "It's just like walking to music."

As the tune started, Thomas pulled me a step forward with his hand, and then pressed me back again. On the next step, he turned, leading me by the hand. We danced four complete repet.i.tions of the same steps before he spoke. "You lied to me."

"I did not," I replied, still very conscious of the audience surrounding us.

"You said you couldn't dance."

"I've done a lot of dancing. I've just never danced like this before. As a couple."

"They don't dance where you're from?"

In my mind flashed images of high school dances, the blaring music, thumping ba.s.s and slow songs, where couples hugged on the dance floor barely moving. Then I thought of my dad's friends and barn dances, sawdust on the floor, the country swing and line dancing. "It's different."

The steps mimicked a waltz, and while I'd never waltzed before, I did know the box step and how to turn at the corner to change direction. Thomas was doing six steps-one forward, one back, then two turns. Each turn contained two steps. Once I understood where the next turn was going, the dance was simple.

"You learn quickly," he replied. When the music ended, Thomas murmured in my ear before letting me go. "Curtsy to me and then to the Queen."

I curtsied to him as he bowed to me. Then he took me by the hand and bowed to the queen as I curtsied again.

As he led me through the throng of guests to the table, I heard someone whisper, "Who is she?"

Another guest replied, "She is Eros's bride."

I shot a look over my shoulder to see who spoke. It was a pair of young women. When they saw my glance, both turned their eyes away. "They know?" I asked Thomas.

"They know who you are, not what you are," he replied.

"They speak English." I expected it from Thomas. It was probably his native tongue, but why would people of the court speak English? The explanation he offered was sickening.

"Most of the women here were once mortals. There are far more men than women in Hades, so the king allows the sentries to go into the mortal world and collect women for the court. Most of Hades speaks English now. I taught it to all the Royal Guard myself."

"They collect women from the mortal world?" That was a nice way of saying they kidnapped girls, brought them to h.e.l.l and forced them to live as slaves. Everything about this place was inhuman.

After we took our seats, Persephone turned to the Royal Guard and gestured toward the dance floor. Immediately they dispersed through the crowd. A moment later, they arrived on the floor in three straight lines, each man holding a young woman by the hand. A gap was left in their formation because Thomas stayed with me.

The women seemed delighted to have been chosen, and they all knew the steps, even though the bulk of the dance was done by the men. It reminded me of movies I'd seen of Victorian English dances. The group moved from one formation to another. However, the dance was powerfully seductive and would have had the Victorians fainting in droves. The exquisite beauty of the Guard, so much of their perfect bodies exposed, quickened my pulse.

I looked down, only to find the platter of food taunting me. Watching the seductive Royal Guard was safer. At least they were across the room.

One of the men caught my eye. For most of the dance he was near the front at the center. He was dark skinned with captivating blue eyes. He completed the dance as if his partner was invisible. His eyes never strayed from the face of the queen.

When the music ended, Persephone applauded. All of the other guests followed her example, and so did I, but our praise was lost on the one attendant who still looked only at the queen. Finally, she smiled at him. She beckoned him forward with one finger.

His excuse to his partner was brief at best. A few short strides and he'd scaled the platform and taken a knee before Persephone. She touched his hair, then lifted his face by the chin. He looked briefly into her eyes, then kissed her hand before resting his forehead on her knee again. She stroked his hair. "Welcome home," she said softly.

I turned to Thomas for an explanation.

He whispered very softly into my ear, "He fell out of favor with the queen eight days ago, and has just returned."

"From where?"

He turned away, but there was no mistaking the tightening in his jaw.

The attendant was oblivious to my curiosity as he rubbed his forehead back and forth across Persephone's knee. Probably no one else could see that his hand had moved from the floor to her calf where he stroked her skin. Finally, the truth struck me. He never left the kingdom. He just returned from the fire.

A gasp of revulsion stuck in my throat. He was so beautiful and so meek. His shoulders and hands, so perfectly smooth, had been burned and healed only to be disfigured again.

I dared to look into Persephone's eyes and found her smiling triumphantly back at me.

My eyelid twitched.

Oh, no, I thought. Not now.

Chapter 28.

Thomas grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. "You look tired. I'll take you to your room.

I couldn't speak.

He begged pardon of the queen, who seemed pleased to have him take me upstairs.

Mercifully, he didn't parade me across the room to the main entrance but pulled me discreetly through the servants' quarters and up a back staircase.

My legs seemed to melt beneath me. I could barely stumble down the hallway. Fear and disgust combined with my hunger and threatened to tear me apart at the seams.

Thomas nudged me through the doorway of the bedroom. The candles in the sconces flickered as he closed the door. When he secured the lock, I could no longer hold back.

Tears blurred my vision as I staggered away, but escape was impossible. There was no where to run, and no one safe to run to. I steadied myself against the bedpost, but the pain didn't bloom in my chest. I willed it away. I faced Theron. I crossed the spine. I vowed never to be disabled by panic again. Whatever Thomas planned to do to me, I would survive it, and I would return to Eros.

"My answer is no, Thomas. t.i.tus said no matter what you do to me, as long as I refuse, I'm still free." I imagined giant hands in my chest packing strips of fear into a ball of courage. I stood straighter and pulled strength from Eros's love, my father's devotion, and t.i.tus's loyalty.

"He's right," Thomas said.

I braced myself for what was next-hands where I didn't want them and that hungry look in his eyes. I tried to prepare my mind to survive being defiled. I squeezed my eyes closed, not wanting to see Thomas turn ugly and mean as he came for me.

"Sit." Thomas opened the drawer on the nightstand. As he drew out two small bottles, I shuddered. He didn't close the drawer fast enough, and I saw what else it held-a pair of golden shackles and a long strip of black cloth, a blindfold.

I swallowed the knot in my throat and sat on the velvet comforter of the bed. The room was deceptively beautiful. On a chiffonier stood a tall vase filled with long-stemmed red roses. Behind the roses was a mirror in a hand-carved wooden frame. The candlelight threw soft shadows on the plush velvet and satin pillows of the bed. The pillows were black satin and red velvet. Some had gold ta.s.sels hanging from the corners.

He did touch me, but not like I expected. When I opened my eyes, Thomas was kneeling at my feet and untying my sandals. He anointed his hands with both oils then took my right foot in his hand. He held it exactly the way t.i.tus did and began ma.s.saging.

I was so confused by his submissiveness that I didn't know what to say. "You learned that at Aphrodite's feet," I said finally.

He thought for a moment. "I guess I did. Why?"

"t.i.tus does it exactly like that, too."

"You like t.i.tus." It wasn't a question.

"He is honest and trustworthy and loyal." Those were qualities one simply could not find around here.

Thomas dribbled more oil on my toes and rubbed it in. "I'm deeply sorry that he lost his father."