Chapter 35 - The Maiden and the Unholy Madonna

Lex woke up with a feeling of panic and a huge headache, listening to loud conversation and music in the background. He had bound hands and feet, and was lying on a luxurious rug, which confused the young Greek's aching head.

His last recollections were of his brother Narces fainting in his arms, in his last breath, and soon after being pulled from this last embrace by rough hands. Captured.

Thick tears streamed down the crossdressed maiden cheeks, having lost her beloved, closest brother, and being alone in the world.

For the first time Lex felt unwilling to live another day on earth. The thread of his destiny was longer than he apparently wanted, and it was also the stranglehold that had taken the lives of his entire family.

He cried over it, hiccupped even. All of them, killed because of his cursed existence.

"I don't deserve to live!" he sobbed, almost drowning in his tears. One person approached and crouched beside him. The man wore a strong scent of benzoin and frankincense, and pulled Lex's hair so that the youngster looked up.

He was a man of white skin and refined appearance, but for whom Lex immediately felt revulsion.

"Yes, it's the cutest boy I've ever seen. Is this Alexios, who seduced the megadux of Constantinople?"

Lex widened his eyes, not believing that it would start over.

"Yes, Maestro Rinaldo. They say he dressed as a woman to seduce the megadux and kill him," a faceless man's voice was heard.

What a big lie! Each time the story changed form and version, becoming more and more stupid and senseless. But the maiden had no strength or desire to explain the truth. Those bandits didn't deserve the truth. And Rinaldo… this name was not strange to his ears…

"Where am I? Who are they going to deliver me to? For the megadux?"

This man, Rinaldo, laughed with pleasure, caressing Lex' face,

"It would be interesting, little pagan, but I have even more delicious plans for you. You are at Palazzo Ottieri. What I want to gain from you is so much more than pleasing a foreign idiot. You can say you're in luck. Yes, definitely being in the Palazzo Ottieri means luck for many."

The men with Rinaldo in the room all laughed, clearly happier for the gold bags the elegant man gave each of them, than for sharing whatever his plans were. Lex's tears dried when the place's name finally made sense to the young Greek. Palazzo Ottieri was a mansion on one of Venice's many private islands, where a luxurious brothel was run by a pimp named Rinaldo.

This fate was unexpected and worse, far worse than having died beside his brother, but at that moment Lex thought it was heavenly punishment for his miserable existence.

But his mind, even against his willingness to just accept his punishment, began to devise ways to gain time and escape.

If she turned out to be a girl, surely her virginity would be publicly auctioned and soon have to sell her body on a daily basis. With luck, she might become a lover of some powerful man, who would afford her some luxury while the relationship lasted. She would have unwanted children and many miscarriages.

But if he could keep up with Lex's identity… The customers would have to be more discreet and the pimp would probably choose carefully, maybe even be taken off the island to visit a customer who would want to hide his vice… It would be much easier to make way for an escape. So he continued his farce hoping to break free soon.

He simply did not expect to be bound by one foot to a very heavy iron ball attached to a thick chain. Though he could walk around the room and even reach the open window, Lex found no way to loosen his foot from the shackles.

Whatever was Rinaldo was planning, Lex was kept in this room alone, and only one old woman came everyday to bring meals and clean the place. She was deaf, Lex soon found out.

Until one day a pretty boy's garment was brought in, and Lex understood that perhaps his opportunity was coming, so he bathed and dressed as expected, and waited. In the middle of the afternoon, Rinaldo entered the room accompanied by a tall red-haired man, sunken and sickly in appearance.

"Maestro, here is my secret. Is this the most beautiful boy you have ever seen, or not?"

Lex remained impassive, inside seething with hatred, wondering if Rinaldo just pretended to believe the scam for convenience, or was he even the stupidest pimp in the world? Rinaldo put his claws on the young Greek's shoulders, leading him close to the window, where the afternoon light entered the room.

"See what I see? These lips like rose petals, keeping a sweet secret? The eyes that look like two shiny amethysts? That ivory skin and hair like… a crown of gold threads?"

"I'm not blind, Maestro Rinaldo, you don't have to sell out your fish to me. It is certainly the most beautiful boy I have ever seen. You are right. You said you had first rate material, but I still don't understand…"

"Yes, I commissioned you, Maestro Jan Peter, to make me a madonna, and I said I would provide you with the model. Well, this is the model."

It was Lex who couldn't stand the surprise, and turned to the pimp indignantly,

"Sir, aren't you going too far? What madness is this? I can't be a model for a madonna! I refuse!"

"I will not paint it either, Master Rinaldo!" said the painter in disgust. Rinaldo laughed cinically,

"I paid your debt in good faith that you would make me a picture with your exceptional technique. I don't care the hypocritical shame of a painter that accepted my gold."

In the face of their shocked expressions, the madman continued, with a delirious expression,

"In the end, everyone comes to Rinaldo, accepts my wine and my gold, even when they offend me behind my back and blame me for their sins. In fact, by the end of the year, it will be me who laughs at everyone,"

and turning to Lex, he said, "If you collaborate, I will consider of setting you free, my beautiful bird of colorful feathers. Even looking at you brightens someone's day, haha. They already call you a heretic, lie down on the bed of your fame and enjoy it fully. Laugh at the face of the ones trying to destroy you!" and,

Isn't he really handsome? The very little snake of shiny scales in the Garden of Eden! You're really the sweetest of traps."

Changing the tone though,

"But you'll find I can be spiteful, so weigh down your actions, little one."

For 10 months Lex, trapped in his room, posed for Master Jan de Bruges, a foreigner disgraced by his vices, but a fine artist nevertheless, to the unholy madonna he painted.

Rinaldo always came to see him, the moods swaying as he treated him as if Lex were indeed an exotic animal held captive, just to be seen. Other times he revealed his most secret thoughts, so the young Greek imagined that he would be killed as soon as the painting was finished. That was how he discovered the reason for all this crazy convoluted plot.

Rinaldo intended and had all the means to make the madonna painting the gift that the Venetian Archbishop would bring to the Catholic Pope at Christmas. His plan was to reveal the secrets of the work and disgrace the Archbishop soon after. Apparently this Archbishop had mortally offended Rinaldo, but Lex didn't care to know the details on how. Probably both were the same kind of perverted people; two sides of the same coin.

The seasons passing by her window, and her wretched situation, as well as the memories of her family, took the mood of the distraught maiden forced, once more, to live and behave as a boy. If her identity as girl was discovered, surely Rinaldo would discard her as a dead dove by the morning.

She saw the painter cease to be the silent and contrite man, forced by a situation to participate in the sordid plan, to begin to become indifferent to the supposedly heretical act. Indifference that soon began to become a kind of euphoria. He commonly said that if he could capture the beauty of Alexios, this would be his masterpiece and the most beautiful madonna of the papal palace. Rinaldo, of course, applauded this attitude, also euphoric by the idea of heresy and taboo infused in his perverse ploy.

One afternoon, while posing, indifferent on his usual position, Lex felt the painter's gaze burn on his skin, and as he looked up, he realized something he had never realized before.

Lasciviousness.