Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - Two-Book Collection by David L. Seidman

Author:David L. Seidman [Seidman, David L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781443448338
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

“What?”

“I said no!” Hercules declared. He felt new strength rushing into his body. “No more lies. The game’s over.”

“You’re darn right it’s over!” Pan screeched. “You’re over! You’re dead!”

He blew wild, shrieking blasts on his pipe and the outer ring of trees began to rise again, pushing up the roots of the inner circle of trees.

Hercules looked up. The trees trembled, branches shaking. The tree tops began to dip lower. The trees started to fall in on top of him.

Outside the circle, Pan was dancing a jig. Eyes closed in ecstasy, he raised his pipes high, sending notes screaming from the reeds, and leapt into the cool, misty air.

A body hit him in the back, slamming into the ground. Pan, coughing dirt, opened his eyes to see Vicius grabbing for the reed pipes in his hand.

Pan pulled the pipes away from the soldier and struggled to stand. Hands grabbed his wrists. He saw the face of Honorius crouching over him, pinning his arms to the ground and squeezing so hard that he had to let go of the pipes.

“Get them, son! Get the pipes!” Honorius yelled.

Peuris dived to the ground and grabbed them.

Pan felt the heavy bulk of a Mercantilian soldier landing hard and sitting on his legs. A Pastoralian shoved his shoulders into the dirt. Many more soldiers, from both sides, looked down on him, blotting out the sky.

Pan began to sing, but Vicius grabbed his hair and banged his head on the ground.

“It won’t work, Pan,” Honorius growled. “We know too much. You can’t panic us anymore.” Honorius looked up. “Peuris!”

“Yes, Dad. I mean, yes, Captain Honorius, sir.”

The soldiers moved aside to let Peuris reach his father.

“Stick the pipes in his mouth. Now, Pan, you’re going to reverse what you’ve done to Hercules, or we’re going to bury you under seven hundred bodies.”

Pan spat the pipes out. “Can’t!”

“What?” Honorius started as Peuris grabbed the pipes again.

“I can’t,” Pan wailed. “I’m a fertility god. I make things grow. I can’t make ’em ungrow.”

Honorius was getting angry. “You know my men want to kill you for what you’ve done. If you’re making up an excuse to keep Hercules trapped, you’re telling it to the wrong people.”

“No!” Pan screamed. “It’s true. I’m not lying this time.”

“He’s not, you know.”

The voice, calm and low, came from up on the ridge. It was rich and feminine, sweet and satiny. All the men turned as one.

Dryope glided down through them, as if she knew that they would part before she reached them. Behind her trailed a line of her most beautiful nymphs. When she reached the centre of the crowd, she knelt and stroked Pan’s sweating brow.

“Oh, Pan, Pan,” she purred. “I could always tell when you were lying. I even saw through that disguise when you came to me as ‘Slaughterius’ to get my help. I never knew you’d go quite this far.”

She rose regally to her full height. “Let him go, boys,” she declared. “He can’t help you anymore. Or hurt you.

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