Chapter Two
When Abraxas awoke for the second time in whatever time span he had been unconscious, he felt a cool cloth being pressed to his brow. Immediately he sprang up and with a strength he didn't realize he had, grabbed the hand that held the cloth and threw the person across the room. A bowl of water fell to the floor and broke. Before finishing his attack, he noticed the person that he had thrown to the floor was not his attacker, but a thin woman with long red hair that now wildly covered her face. He ran to her and grabbed both of her arms in his, hoisting her off of the floor and shook her.
"Who are you? Why am I here?"
"Abraxas, calm yourself. I am Gaia. You are here because Orphée is a bastard and decided he wanted you here. Now if you will control your temper, I will finish cleaning your wounds. You are very nearly healed, it won't take long." With that, Gaia picked up the wet cloth from the floor and stared Abraxas in the eye.
Abraxas looked at his chest and saw four slashes scarred in his skin from his pectoral muscles down to the bottom of his ribcage. Teeth marks circled his left nipple, which by some miracle was still there. He looked back into Gaia's glowing green eyes and saw a fierceness in them that he had never seen in any other woman. Most women were tender and gentle, even cowardly. Gaia, however met his gaze levelly until he dropped his eyes and sat back on the kline.
She applied a paste of herbs on his chest and the marks stung a little, but nothing like the pain he had experienced during his attack. Abraxas said nothing to Gaia as he watched her work on him. She smelled good, like spices. He seemed to be able to detect each spice, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Together they made Gaia smell intoxicating and exotic and he wanted to bathe in her scent. He smelled chamomile in her long fiery red hair and it soothed him. He watched her long white fingers dip into the herb and oil mixture and gently press it onto his wounds. Her pale, creamy skin against his dark flesh made a spasm of lust shoot through his loins.
Gaia finished her work on his wounds and stood up, her blue peplos ended just over the tops of her feet. This blue color of her clothing set off the red of her hair into a beautiful inferno. He watched her pick up the broken pieces of bowl that had fallen earlier and she turned to leave the room.
"Gaia?"
"Yes?"
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
"Gaia?"
"Yes?"
"I'm a prisoner here, aren't I?"
"Yes. Until Orphée believes you will stay of your own accord, he will not release you. Trust me on that matter. He will own you and you will eventually let him. He is very powerful."
"The hell I will! He may be powerful or strong, but he will never own me. I am no slave. I am a free man and no one will deny me my freedom!"
Gaia smiled kindly at Abraxas and said only "we shall see". With that she walked out of the room and shut the door. A rage Abraxas had never known welled inside his heart and he shook with heat and anger. He had no strength to fight Orphée now, but he would later, and this time he would not be caught by surprise. He hoped.
Abraxas got up and walked across the room to a large mirror that leaned against the wall. He had been dressed in a light-weight, golden chiton which had been draped over both of his muscular shoulders. His skin had been cleaned with something that made him smell sweetly of olive leaves and his body was smooth and soft. He took the draping off of his shoulders and let his chiton fall away, revealing his naked form. He wanted to see the extent of damage done to his body by his hated attacker.
His chest seemed to have borne the brunt of the damage, the scars still glistening with Gaia's healing oil. These scars would be visible for the rest of his life, this much he knew. They were big, each about an inch wide and fleshy pink. He wondered how a man could rip someone's skin the way his had been ripped. He thought that perhaps Orphée was some kind of god. He could think of no gods that dripped poison from their very mouths though.
He walked across the stone floor of the small room and pulled at the heavy wooden door. It was locked as Abraxas assumed it would be. In frustration, he hit the door with his fist and left a splintered dent in the rough wood. Though his hand bled, he marveled at the fact that he had just cracked the door. This was no soft wood, it was something hard, probably imported. He rubbed his split knuckles and walked across the small, rectangular room to look out of the window. Below was the aula, or courtyard, with bay trees and he could see a small stone alter to Zeus. A slave boy ran across the courtyard into the home, carrying a basket of goods.
"That one is Kalidas"
Abraxas spun around so quickly he almost fell over when he heard Orphée speak. He had not heard him enter the room.
"What?" he asked.
"The boy, the one you were looking at is named Kalidas. He is beautiful, is he not? I believe he is only ten or eleven years old."
"You bastard", screamed Abraxas, rushing towards Orphée, "release me now, or I swear I will tear you apart right here".
Orphée laughed a hollow laugh and turned from Abraxas and the window. "If you think you can do it, be my guest. Otherwise, do not threaten me with false promises. Besides, I have things to do in the market and I was hoping you would accompany me. I have so much to show you before you are ready to be on your own".
"The market? You are going to let me go with you to the market?"
"Well, yes, unless you prefer to stay here."
Abraxas looked at Orphée skeptically. "Who are you, and what is it you want from me? You have answered none of my questions, and have brutally attacked me, though unprovoked".
"I did answer your questions" replied Orphée. "I told you my name and told you that I wanted your company."
"Your name tells me nothing about you and if you intended to make a friend, you went about it all wrong."
"Your friendship will come later, for now I wanted a companion, and I made you into that. Of course it doesn't always have to be so brutal, but I think that makes it more entertaining, don't you?"
Abraxas rushed Orphée and made to grab him around the neck but before he could get a good grip on Orphée's throat, he was hit so hard in the jaw that he heard his bones crack and felt his head hit the wall on the opposite side of the room. He slid down the cold, solid wall as his knees buckled underneath him. He caught himself just before smashing face first into the floor. His ears rang like a thousand bells and he could not focus his eyes on any one thing in the room. Abraxas knew that this man must be at least ten years older than himself, and therefore not as strong as Abraxas himself. He wondered at the physical power of the older man as he pushed himself into a sitting position. He leaned his head back on the wall and tried to make the room stop spinning around him.
Orphée looked curiously at Abraxas and didn't say anything until he was sure Abraxas had his wits about him again. "You are strong. Good, that will be an asset to you. However, I asked you not to provoke me and you did anyway. That was a mistake you should never make again. I realize we all must test our strength against other men, though. Now that you have tested yours against mine, do not forget it. Come now, I must get out of this house, and I want to show you things that you have never seen before!"