by Eliza Raine
There was a buzz of noise from the other end of his table, and he looked over. Theseus was walking up the aisle between the tables and came to a stop opposite him.
‘Hercules,’ he said with a nod of his head.
Hercules stood up, because he knew he was the tallest of the two of them. ‘Theseus,’ he nodded back. He did not smile. Theseus thought he was better than him. He was younger and thought himself more popular. His eyes flicked to the woman stood behind him, and his breath caught involuntarily. His hatred for Theseus deepened further as he recognised her as Hedone, the demigoddess of pleasure.
‘Allow me to introduce my crew,’ Theseus grinned, having obviously noticed Hercules’s reaction. ‘This is Hedone, my medic.’
Hedone was wearing a draping silk toga, as most of the women here were, but somehow hers hung in a way that was much more suggestive than the others he had seen. Her long black hair framed a face that held eyes darker than any he had ever seen, and voluptuous lips that once he had looked at, he could not take his eyes off. He knew at that moment he needed to have her. If he was going to be immortal, it would be with a woman like this at his side.
He smiled at her, relaxing his shoulders and allowing an easy charm to show on his face. He reached his arm across the table to her, and she returned his smile as she put her hand in his.
‘A pleasure,’ he said, more huskily than usual.
She narrowed her eyes seductively, and his stomach flipped.
‘And my first mate and gunner are over there,’ Theseus said, gesturing to two people who had been talking to some seated guests on the next table.
Hercules blinked at them, not caring in the slightest who they were. The woman was dark skinned with braided hair, like Theseus, and was wearing a gold dress. The man was young and soft, with pale hair and pretty features. Hercules knew instantly that Hedone did not want these young, pretty male clones. She wanted a real man. Someone who looked like him, with muscles obvious through his clothes, dark hair and a beard deliberately shot through with grey in precisely a way that made him look experienced and distinguished.
‘And who are your crew?’ Hedone asked. Her voice made his muscles constrict. It was as sensual as she was.
‘This is Asterion, my first mate,’ he said. There was a loud scraping as the whole bench moved backwards as Asterion stood. A few people in the vicinity quietened as they looked over. Theseus didn’t flinch, though, as the Minotaur to Hercules’s right nodded gruffly at them.
Asterion was huge. He wasn’t as tall as the giants, only about eight feet in height, but his bulk matched even Hercules’s. His massive torso and thighs were that of a human, but his head and his lower legs came from a bull. He was covered in short black fur and had black hooves at the bottom of his animal lower legs. Mighty horns curled out of his sturdy black skull, and cruel red eyes glinted above his bearded snout.
‘Ah, and here is Evadne, my gunner,’ Hercules said as Evadne returned, followed by a servant carrying a huge decanter of wine. She blushed as Theseus bowed to her, and Hercules made a mental note to address that later. It would not do to have a member of his own crew infatuated with Theseus.
‘Well,’ Theseus said with a wink at Evadne, ‘we’re having a bit of a celebration on the Virtus later. Feel free to join us.’
They all carried on up the table, Hedone throwing a lingering look back at Hercules over her shoulder. Hercules and Asterion sat down.
‘I assume we will not be visiting the Virtus tonight, Captain,’ said the Minotaur. His deep voice was so low it didn’t carry at all. As much as Hercules wanted Hedone, there was one thing he wanted more.
‘Of course not. When the first Trial is announced tomorrow, we will be ready to go. Speaking of which … Evadne, I have a job for you.’ He turned to the girl, who had just returned to her seat.
Annoyance flickered across her face, but she quickly replaced it with compliance. ‘Yes, Captain?’
‘I want you to go and tell one of the giant crew that we have inside information about the first event tomorrow. They have had too much attention and support. I want to crush their morale before they even get started. Do you think you can make them believe that the first Trial is going to be on Leo?’ he asked her, taking a sip of wine.
‘Of course I can, but how do you know the first event won’t actually be on Leo? They’d have a massive head start if it is,’ she said, helping herself to a handful of plump olives.
‘I’m not an idiot,’ he growled. ‘There’s only a one in twelve chance of Leo being the actual location of the first Trial. I can live with those odds. Besides, if they do get lucky and end up in the right place, I will still beat them at whatever the challenge is.’ He sat back and took another long draught of wine.
‘Right,’ Evadne said, sucking on an olive. ‘And you’ve picked Leo because it’s more believable that Zeus would have tipped you off if it was your home realm.’
Hercules looked at her.
‘Of course.’ She nodded and stood up again.
11
It wasn’t hard to spot the crew of giants. They were surrounded by other creatures who lived on Poseidon’s and Hephaestus’s water worlds. Evadne found the Telkhines the most unpleasant. They looked like dogs, except that they had flippers for front legs and a squelchy finned fish tail at their back end. They were supposed to be incredible metal workers, but she couldn’t see how when they were shaped like that.
The giants’ ship was called Orion, and there were five of them on the crew. She knew Captain Antaeus by sight since the ceremony earlier that day, and she knew that he was one of three full giants. The other two were half-giants. The groaning table she was approaching seated giants of all sizes, as well as two Cyclopes. She decided to go for one of the men at the edge of the group, to draw less attention to herself. Fixing a broad smile on her face, she sat down next to a striking-looking half-giant who was examining a leg of meat closely.
‘Hi,’ she said.
The large man started and dropped the piece of meat. It thudded onto a shining metal plate. He looked down at her, and she was surprised by the handsomeness of his face. He had electric-blue eyes and thick, dark hair pulled back into a knot at the nape of his neck. Like the others around him, his face bore the scars of the life of a fighter. An erratic orange scar ran from his full bottom lip all the way down to his chin, standing out against his pale skin. Also like his fellow giants, he was wearing green cargo trousers, but he was the only one with his chest covered. He wore a fitted black shirt, open at the top. He frowned at Evadne, and she decided that she couldn’t tell how old he was.
‘Why are you over here?’ he asked her bluntly, and reached for a huge tankard. The mug was almost the size of her head.
‘It’s boring over there,’ she said, tilting her head towards the middle of the platform, where Hercules sat. ‘And that’s not a very polite way of saying hello.’ She pouted.
He took a long drink and then put the mug back down on the table hard enough to make her jump. She waited for him to respond, but he just picked up the bone with the meat on it again.
‘I’m Evadne,’ she tried. ‘I’m the gunner on the Hybris.’
He stopped midway through tearing the meat off the joint with his teeth and looked down at her again. He spat out the meat. ‘You’re on Hercules’s crew?’
‘Yes,’ she said.
He snorted and threw the bone back onto a big platter in the centre of the table. ‘Then you definitely shouldn’t be over here. Leave before Bergion or Albion see you.’
‘Who are they?’ she asked, as innocently as she could. It was hard not to feel intimidated when everyone around her was so much bigger than she was. A roar of laughter came from the centre of the group, and a number of equally huge mugs were clanged down on the table, and she suppressed a flinch. ‘And who are you?’ she added, trying to smile convincingly.
‘I’m Eryx, and Bergion and Albion are the twins over there.’ He leaned back so that she could see, and
pointed to the end of the table. Two black-skinned, shirtless giants were mid-arm wrestle. They both looked to be a similar height to Captain Antaeus, but one of them was much fatter. They both had shiny bald heads, and the thinner one had a long black-and-grey beard. She couldn’t see their eyes, as they were both squinting and straining as they tried to push the other’s arm to the table, but she was willing to bet they were bright blue like those of the other sons of Poseidon. She tried not to gulp visibly.
‘It’s a party; I can sit where I like,’ she said, straightening her back.
Eryx raised his eyebrows and then laughed. ‘You won’t last long in the Trials,’ he muttered. ‘Are you even old enough to take part?’
Evadne bristled and reminded herself that she was playing a game. That’s what she wanted him to think of her.
‘Of course I am, I’m seventeen.’ She needed to make sure he was on the crew of the Orion. The colour of his eyes suggested he was, but she had to be sure. ‘What do you do on the ship?’ she said.
‘Gunner,’ he grunted back.
Bingo, thought Evadne. It was time to turn on her best acting skills. She sighed loudly. ‘This party is so boring. I was hoping Captain Hercules was going to let us go to Theseus’s party on board the Virtus, but he says we have to prepare for tomorrow.’ She made her voice whiny and young. She needed him to think she was vacuous and impulsive for this to work. ‘Are you going to the party?’
He snorted again and threw her a sideways scowl. ‘Do I look like someone who goes to parties on pleasure ships?’
She fluttered her eyelashes and inched closer to him. His big hands clenched into fists.
‘Sure you do,’ she said. ‘I could go with you.’
He turned on the bench so he could see her better. ‘Why are you talking to me?’
Evadne mentally cursed. She’d overdone it, and now he was suspicious. ‘I just thought you looked bored too, and you might be up for a little adventure,’ she smiled up at him.
His hands relaxed a little as he laughed again. ‘A little adventure!’ he said incredulously. ‘Do you have any idea what we’re starting tomorrow?’
‘Exactly!’ she said. ‘I don’t understand why we can’t have some fun tonight!’ She scowled this time and folded her arms. ‘I mean, it’s not like Leo is far away, and we’ve prepped the ship every way we can. What else are we supposed to do tonight?’
He was staring at her, and she looked innocently back at him.
‘What? I think I’d enjoy spending the evening with someone like you,’ she said coyly, unfolding her arms and leaning towards him. It was difficult when he was so much taller. He opened his mouth to reply but said nothing. He had definitely noticed that she’d said Leo, she thought, but she didn’t know if he would point out what she had just ‘let slip’.
Eventually, he spoke. ‘Your captain is right; you should go back to your ship and prepare yourself for tomorrow. That’s what I’ll be doing. You should leave this table. Now.’
She let out another big petulant sigh. ‘Fine. I’ll know next time not to bother coming to giants for fun.’ She stood up and left him sat alone as she performed her best flounce up the long table and back towards the other guests.
‘You’ve done well,’ Hercules said as she rejoined him after mingling convincingly for a while. He raised his wine to her. She flushed. ‘Ten minutes after you left him, he went to talk to his captain, and now the whole crew are leaving.’
Evadne picked up her own drink and took a gulp. Now she just hoped that the first task was not on Leo, or Hercules would not be happy.
Dealing with Hercules’s temper was worth it for the most part. Since taking a place on the crew of the Hybris, she had lived in luxury. She wanted for nothing, and Hercules was the greatest lover she could ever hope for. He was a celebrity, and he had chosen her to be the only woman on his crew. And most importantly, she now had a very real shot at immortality.
A shiver went through her, and she tried not to think about it, for fear of overexcitement. She needed to be able to concentrate. It was most likely that the first event would be in one of the eleven other realms, and she wouldn’t have to deal with his wrath at all, but if she did, she just needed to remember why she was here. She had a chance at fame, fortune and an infinite life.
12
Lyssa was a little concerned about Len. She knew having an entirely male crew could be a liability around some creatures, like sirens or nymphs, but she hadn’t realised quite how enthralled they could all become with one woman.
Hedone, on the crew of the Virtus, had collected a gaggle of admirers as the evening had worn on. She was apparently the demigoddess of pleasure, and it looked to Lyssa like she had quite a bit of power. Len’s short stature had helped him to push between the legs of a lot of the other adoring creatures, both male and female, so that he could sit at her feet. Lyssa could just see him through the group, gazing up at Hedone with his mouth hanging open slightly as she regaled the group with a story about a party in her home realm of Pisces. Lyssa couldn’t tell whether the story was actually funny or whether everyone was just laughing uproariously because they had drunk so much fine wine. Or maybe it was because such an attractive storyteller was telling the jokes that everyone was laughing at. Abderos couldn’t get through the crowd because of his chair, so he was sitting behind the group, craning his head to see round people.
Lyssa shook her head and stood up. It had become late, and many of the guests were starting to leave, having filled their bellies with the excellent food the gods had provided. She tapped Abderos on the shoulder. ‘Come on, Abderos. Time we left, anyway.’
‘No way, Cap. Hedone says they’re carrying on the party back on their Typhoon.’
‘And you think we’re going?’ Lyssa raised her eyebrows. ‘Not a chance.’
‘Cap, we might die tomorrow. You heard what Zeus said. I wanna see Theseus’s Typhoon!’
‘We’re going back to the Alastor. Now.’ She stared at him, one hand on her hip. They both knew Captain’s orders were always followed.
Abderos rolled his eyes. ‘Fine. Let’s all mosey on to our deaths stone cold sober,’ he grumbled, and reversed his chair away from the group. She suspected he never thought he had a chance of going in the first place and was trying his luck.
Len would be harder to dissuade. She was just about to attempt to work her way through the group to get Len’s attention when a loud crash took hers. Everyone turned to look over at the source of the noise.
Hercules was standing, the bench he had been sat on was overturned, and there was a large platter of fruit tipped over and scattered across the table. In one hand, he was holding a large jug and waving it, laughing. Opposite him, on the other side of the table, were three centaurs. Centaurs were rarely seen outside of their home realm, Artemis’s Sagittarius. They were insular, unfriendly people, and Epizon had spent all night trying unsuccessfully to engage one of the delegates in conversation.
‘Your wine?’ boomed Hercules, and the remaining guests all fell quiet. Even the band stopped playing, their attention fully on the muscular man in the black shirt. ‘I think you’ll find it’s my wine now!’ He waved the jug at them again and took a glass from the table.
The centaur in the middle took a step forward. Lyssa guessed he was male, because his sculpted bare human chest was flat, rising out of the body of a sleek black stallion. He was taller than Hercules, at least seven feet from head to hoof. His voice was soft when he spoke, but it carried across the silent platform.
‘That wine has been brought from Sagittarius. It is all we centaurs may drink, and only centaurs may drink it. I ask you again not to insult our people by indulging in something so personal to us.’
Hercules stopped pouring wine from the jug into his glass and looked at the centaur. He slowly began to tip the contents of the glass onto the marble platform at his feet. The two centaurs behind the black male began to stamp their feet, their tails flicking. Lyssa felt herself tense.
> ‘I find it insulting that you will not share it with me,’ hissed Hercules, and he put the jug to his mouth. As he began to tip the jug back to drink the wine, there was a roar, and the pale brown-and-cream-coloured centaur leaped over the table. Hercules caught the creature around his human waist before his back legs had landed and flung him backwards into the table. There was an almighty crash as the force collapsed the table, and the other two centaurs sprang forward.
The group Lyssa was standing with was suddenly animated, some scrambling to get out of the way and back to the longboats, and some trying to get a better look at the action. She ducked under the table in front of her and stood up on the other side, unable to take her eyes from the fight.
The first centaur was lying in the wreckage of the table, unmoving. The other two were either side of Hercules, the black centaur not facing him as he was trying to land kicks from his stronger back legs on his opponent’s body. Hercules’s eyes were alive, a maniacal smile on his face as he swung at the horse-people, ducking their flying hooves. The jug lay broken on the platform, red liquid spilling slowly across the white marble.
There was another roar, and it was impossible to tell whether it came from Hercules or the black centaur he had managed to grab by the back left leg. Hercules pulled hard, and the powerful front legs of the centaur gave out, and his torso crashed to floor as he was dragged backwards. Hercules began to swing the creature up into the air and then carried on in an arc, around and around, like the centaur was a toy.
Lyssa’s stomach lurched as she realised what he was going to do, and the silence of the crowd was broken by a number of gasps. Hercules let go as he came to face the edge of the platform. The centaur’s arms and legs scrabbled as he seemed to hover in the air for a moment, and then he was falling. Lyssa saw people on the other side of the platform rush to the edge and look over. She had no desire to see. She knew what would happen. He would be sucked into the Olympus Void.
