by Eliza Raine
She shrugged.
‘I don’t need them. I just need you.’
‘I’ll have Evadne bring you her clothes. You can choose what you’d like.’
‘She’s smaller than me; I doubt much will fit.’
Hercules pictured the slight, blue-haired girl. It was true, she was nowhere near as curvy or voluptuous as Hedone.
‘They will have to do for now. We shall buy some clothes, just as soon as we can.’
‘We should get some rest. The next Trial will be announced in a few hours,’ Hedone said softly.
Hercules knew there was no way he would sleep. But he was more than happy to take Hedone to bed. Her eyes sparkled as they saw his own fill with lust.
‘My bed is yours,’ he growled, gesturing to his bedroom. She bit her full bottom lip as she raked her gaze over him, and his body responded instantly. He downed the rest of his drink, relishing the fiery feeling as it burned through his chest, and followed her swaying hips into his bedroom.
Everything was going to plan, at last.
4
Evadne couldn’t bring herself to knock on Hercules’s door as she arrived with her arms full of clothes. She didn’t want to see him. She didn’t want to meet his eyes, in case her feelings showed on her face. He revolted her. He terrified her. She couldn’t understand how she hadn’t seen him for what he was months ago, and she hated herself for it.
She laid the clothes down outside the wooden door. Most of them wouldn’t fit Hedone. Evadne favoured tight-fitting leather fighting gear, and the garments would simply be too small for the curvy woman. But most of the dresses could be altered.
Any resentment she felt towards Hedone for helping herself to her wardrobe was overshadowed by her desire to get off the Hybris. Hercules had no need for her any more, and she didn’t want to find out where that would lead. She had almost finished folding the clothes neatly in a pile on the floor, intending to sneak off and leave them there, when the door creaked and swung open. It was Hedone, and she jumped at finding someone right outside.
‘Oh! Hello,’ she said. Evadne blushed. The woman was wearing nothing but Hercules’s shirt, and her olive skin was flushed and glowing. She was stunning. ‘I was on my way to the galley. Where is it, please?’
Evadne pointed.
‘The fourth door on the left,’ she mumbled.
‘Is that Evadne?’ Hercules’s voice came from inside the room and Evadne’s skin instantly began to crawl.
‘Yes,’ replied Hedone.
‘Good. Send her for the food.’
‘Oh. OK.’ The beautiful woman turned back to Evadne. ‘May we have something to eat?’
‘Something hot,’ Hercules called.
‘Um, sure,’ Evadne said, and hurried away down the corridor.
She was heating some leftover slices of beef pie in one of the many ovens in the long galley when Hercules stepped into the room. Her breath caught as his cold grey eyes fell on hers, and her pulse quickened.
‘I’ve been trying to talk to you through mind-speak,’ he said quietly. ‘But I can’t reach you.’ Her skin felt too tight and she concentrated on keeping her face a mask. ‘Do you know what that means, Evadne?’
She did. It meant she was no longer part of the crew. She had rejected the ship, and it her.
‘No, Captain,’ she lied.
‘It means that I have very little need for you on board the Hybris any more. It means I don’t trust you,’ he hissed, taking a step towards her. She visualised the work surface behind her, trying to remember exactly where she’d put the knife she’d been using on the pie.
‘I’m just heating your food,’ she said, unable to think of single other thing to say. He stared at her and she felt sick as she tried not to hold her breath.
‘You will not be joining me on the next Trial,’ he said eventually. Hope blossomed inside her. If he left her on the ship while he took part in the Trial, she could leave, and take what she needed with her.
‘As you wish, Captain,’ she said.
He moved forward before she could blink, reaching past her and scooping the knife off the countertop. She whirled out of the way, backing against the wall of cupboards, moving sideways towards the door.
‘You will stay on the Hybris and you will do exactly as you are bid. Do you understand me?’ His voice was barely audible as he stepped towards her, his massive chest expanding as he pointed the knife at her throat. She nodded quickly. ‘You are now my servant. You will service me and Hedone and you will ask no questions. In fact, you will not make a sound.’ Her heart hammered against her ribs as she nodded again. He lunged forward and she darted to her left under his arm. He caught her swinging ponytail, though, and yanked her backwards. ‘Clearly, you do not understand me!’ he exclaimed, a twisted grin contorting his handsome face as he lifted her by her hair to face him. Pain lanced through her skull. ‘I just told you that you are here to serve me. Not run away from me!’ He dropped her to the ground and she stumbled, falling onto one knee. She felt him grab her ponytail again and struggled quickly to her feet, trying to stop him pulling.
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered.
‘And I told you not to make a sound. Let me show you what happens when you disobey me, Evadne,’ he said, and dragged her in front of the shining metal cabinets lining the end wall. She saw tears spilling from her eyes in her reflection as he sawed the knife through the fistful of her hair he was holding.
‘Next time, it will be something that doesn’t grow back,’ he spat as he leaned close to her ear. ‘Hurry up with that pie,’ he said, and threw her ponytail onto the floor as he stalked out of the galley. Evadne stared at her reflection a long time after he was gone, her blue hair hanging unevenly to her jaw and her cheeks wet with silent tears.
She had to get off the Hybris.
5
Lyssa stared at the orange flames in the fire dish, her eyes heavy and unfocused. She was so, so tired. After waking the entire ship with her Rage-fuelled blast through the skies she had retired to her room, exhausted. The few hours’ sleep she’d managed to get were nowhere near enough, but she’d had no choice. She hadn’t been able to contain her Rage.
The flames flashed white and she sat up straight, shaking her head to clear it.
‘My money’s on Poseidon,’ muttered Len beside her. ‘They’ll save the big two until last.’
‘Good day, Olympus!’ If Lyssa ever met that smiley announcer, she would punch him square in the face. ‘Well, things are really livening up now, aren’t they? Let me just remind you of the scores. There are only three crews left now and the Orion has two wins, the Alastor two, and the Hybris is in the lead with three. Can Hercules win another? Let’s find out...’ His beaming face faded away, replaced by that of Poseidon, his piercing aqua eyes intense.
‘Told ya,’ said Len triumphantly.
‘Heroes. Journey to Aquarius. There your ships will be altered to sail underwater.’ Lyssa’s mouth fell open as the silver-haired god spoke. The Alastor underwater? ‘The sea-shepherd Geryon has a well-guarded flock of hippocampus. Capture one of his pets and bring it to my throne room. The first to do so will win.’
The second Poseidon vanished, Lyssa felt the ship lurch to life. She looked at Abderos. The excitement showing on his face forced a smile to spring to her own.
‘Underwater, Cap! Can you imagine!’
‘It’ll be a new experience, for sure,’ she said.
‘Do you think it matters how fast we get there? Do we need a boost?’ Epizon asked.
Lyssa shook her head, guilt washing through her. She’d burned all her energy hours ago, in useless anger.
‘Sorry, Ep. I have to sleep. The Alastor’s fast enough without me, though. We’ll keep up.’
‘We sure will,’ said Abderos. ‘We’ll be there in about eight hours, I reckon.’
‘Good. Only wake me if there’s an emergency,’ she said, and got up from the captain’s chair.
Lyssa slept like the dead, until she
was woken by a hammering on her door. She groaned loudly.
‘We’ll reach Aquarius in half an hour, Captain,’ came Epizon’s voice. She yelled back an incomprehensible sound and forced her eyes open with a sigh. They needed to win this one. Or at least stop Hercules from winning it. He would be dangerously far in the lead if they didn’t.
She washed and dressed quickly, and tried to ignore the disappointment she felt that she hadn’t heard Phyleus’s voice in her mind since she awoke. I love you. He’d really said those words. Did she love him? There was no doubt she wanted him. And she couldn’t help the swell of hope and yearning she felt when she pictured the life he described. A life together. She needed to pull apart her feelings, try to work out why the prospect of living her life with Epizon and the crew had never made her feel the way Phyleus did. Try to work out why she was resisting him. But her focus was needed elsewhere now. Maybe that was why he hadn’t spoken to her.
‘Morning, Cap,’ said Abderos as she strode onto the cargo deck.
‘Morning, Ab,’ she said, nodding at him. She scanned the deck quickly for Phyleus. He was with Epizon, leaning over the railings under the huge sails. He glanced up at her and her stomach flipped.
‘Hi,’ he said in her head.
‘Hello.’ I love you. The words echoed in her mind.
‘Sleep well?’
‘Yes. Get up here and bring Epizon,’ she said, forcing herself to stop staring at him.
‘Aye, aye, Captain.’
She rounded up Len and Nestor, and when everybody was gathered on the quarterdeck she spoke.
‘This is the most important Trial so far. If Hercules wins this one, then he’s as good as won the whole thing. Theseus was our best ally and a strong competitor, so him being out is only going to make this harder. The whole ship is taking part and I need everyone to obey my commands without question. Understood?’ Her eyes fell on each of them in turn as they nodded. She lingered on Phyleus. ‘You especially,’ she said.
‘As if I would disobey orders,’ he answered in mock indignation, and Abderos laughed.
‘I mean it,’ she said seriously.
‘Of course, Captain,’ he said, his smile falling away.
‘We have to stop him winning this one.’
The tenth labour Hercules was given was to capture the cattle of Geryon from an island surrounded by ocean. Geryon was descended from the Titan Oceanus. He had three bodies that all joined as one at the stomach and his cattle were exceptional.
EXCERPT FROM
The Library by Apollodorus
Written 300–100 bc
Paraphrased by Eliza Raine
6
Hedone leaned over the railing of the Hybris, the wind picking up her skirts as she inhaled the salty scent of the ocean. With a couple of slight alterations, quite a few of Evadne’s dresses had fit her. This one was a sage green, lined with cream. It was cut higher across the chest than the ones she usually wore but she liked it well enough.
They were moving lower as they approached Aquarius, sailing just a few feet above the waves. The only indication that they had reached the realm at all was the intense glow that rippled across the churning surface of the water.
She had never heard of Geryon, the shepherd, but she had seen hippocampus before. They had a horse’s head, chest and front legs, which merged into a fish’s tail, a lot like a mermaids, and a long, shimmering fin that ran all the way down their spine. They were not intelligent or evolved, and back in Pisces many were tamed and could be ridden.
The thought of her home realm made her frown. Where would she and Hercules live when this was over? She didn’t want to go back to sharing her friends and social life with Theseus. So she guessed that meant Leo. She wondered what Hercules’s home looked like. Would she like it? Would he live somewhere else if she didn’t?
A beam of light suddenly shot up from the ocean ahead of them, bright purple. She squinted into the glare, and saw the battered old Crosswind owned by Captain Lyssa fly straight into the beam before shooting downwards, under the water. Then a white light burst up next to the purple one. Hercules’s colour in this competition was white, she remembered.
‘Hold onto something, my love,’ Hercules shouted from his chair on the rear quarterdeck. She didn’t think she wanted to be at the railings if they were about to be sucked under the water, so she turned and ran towards him, taking the steps two at a time. He smiled at her as she reached him.
‘You’re fast,’ he said.
‘I can move.’ She grinned. ‘I think I’m safest here with you.’
‘I agree.’
She moved to stand behind his chair and gripped his huge shoulders firmly as they sailed into the light.
The ship didn’t tilt as it plummeted downwards, instead dropping like a stone. Before she had time to worry about drowning, though, the water crashed against an invisible barrier, like a dome around them. In seconds, they were completely submerged, light shining through the surface of the ocean above them. She gaped as she looked up, watching the light dim as they sank deeper.
‘Can you still control the ship?’ she asked.
There was a pause before Hercules answered, ‘Yes,’ and the Hybris lurched to the left. Hedone stumbled slightly, and Hercules’s arm shot up to grip hers, stabilising her.
‘Thank you,’ she said, and leaned forward to kiss his cheek.
‘Captain.’
Hedone looked up to see the minotaur stepping off the stairs onto the quarterdeck.
‘Asterion,’ Hercules said. ‘Do you know Geryon?’
‘I know of him, Captain. He is well respected in my circles.’
‘Excellent. Do you know where he is?’
‘I do, Captain.’
Once they had been under the water five minutes or so, Hedone felt safe enough to return to the railings. She daren’t put her hand up to the invisible dome, but she wanted to watch their entrance into Aquarius. She loved visiting the underwater realm, although she had never approached it like this before.
The usual way of visiting was via special haulers that floated on the surface of the ocean in narrow towers. From here, though, she could see the hundreds of domes resting on huge slabs, hovering a hundred feet under the surface. Each one glowed with its own light, and was filled with white stone buildings. As they approached she could make out the triangle shapes of the ancient-style temples, and the network of horizontal haulers that connected the domes together. She could see a marketplace as they soared right over the top of the outer domes, filled with people going about their daily business. Mer-people and other sea-folk were popping through the dome’s edge, not needing the haulers to move around. She felt a pang of jealousy.
She remembered that the marketplaces in Aquarius had some of the most beautiful jewellery in all of Olympus. But, gods, how her life had changed since her biggest excitement had been shopping! Changed for the better, though. She glanced at Hercules, regal-looking in his lion skin, on his red-lined chair. Definitely changed for the better.
They continued to soar over the domes of Aquarius until they reached the outskirts on the opposite side, where the domes were larger, but less populated. Wildlife from above-ground, like cows and pigs, lived in many of them, and they acted as underwater farms, providing for the families in the main city. The cattle looked odd and out-of-place, tinged with blue. As beautiful as Aquarius was, Hedone didn’t think she could live in a world where real, fresh air was so inaccessible.
Eventually, they came to an area where barely any domes were visible. There was a giant net, though, that seemed to start in the dark depths of the ocean, and stretch all the way up to the surface. Hedone couldn’t see the edges; it just seemed to go on forever in each direction. The net shimmered and shone, a bit like the solar sails of the ship. She looked up at the Hybris’s sails, which were currently sparkling blue, the rippling light of the ocean reflecting and bouncing off them so that it almost seemed like they were made from liquid themselves.
She looked back at the net, and a shining flash beyond it caught her eye. It was a hippocampus, but the creature was different to the ones she was used to. It was as iridescent as the sails and net, covered in plating that looked like mermaid scales shining every colour of the rainbow. Where its hooves should have been were webbed toes and the long fin on its spine rippled as it moved gracefully through the water.
‘It’s stunning,’ she breathed.
‘It’s our ticket to immortality,’ said Hercules, standing up.
7
Hercules felt Keravnos hum to life in his hand as he looked out past the massive net.
‘Asterion. Hold the ship steady by the net,’ he instructed the minotaur.
‘Yes, Captain.’
Hercules strode over to Hedone and kissed her.
‘I’ll be back in a moment. Stay here.’
Then he took off at a run, leaping onto the railings and launching himself through the barrier around his ship. The water was cool but not freezing, and he powered through it towards the net. He drew Keravnos as he kicked, and slashed at the net. There was a moment’s resistance, then the sword melted through the material like it was nothing.
He slashed a few more times, making the hole as wide as he could, before kicking his way back to the Hybris, where he grabbed the railing and pulled himself through the invisible barrier, taking a deep breath as he left the water. It took him three trips to cut a hole in the net big enough for the ship. When he pulled himself onto the deck the third time Hedone was pointing at something behind them, a worried look on her face. Seeing what had caught her attention, he snarled, running his hands through his wet hair. The Alastor had followed them.
‘Let’s go!’
The ship shuddered forward in response to Hercules’s bellowed command, angling towards the hole in the glowing net. A loud swishing noise made Hercules spin on the spot. He couldn’t work out where the sound had come from, but it was like something being dragged through liquid. He heard it again, from his other side and he whirled around, raising Keravnos. Hippocampus were starting to come into focus all around him now. They were so bright and shiny, it was impossible to miss them. Catching them would be like shooting fish in a barrel.