Chapter 24
Evadne
Iknow I’ll pay later for letting it show how furious I am, but I can’t actually believe he’s picked today, now, in a moment this important, to cast me off to play with some girl he’s just met. What in the name of Hades is he thinking?
Asterion has already left to find the harpies when I exit the taverna, so I pick a random direction and start marching down the paved road. I’m so angry that I’m not paying any attention to where I’m going or what’s around me.
Why couldn’t he have just asked the redhead a few questions and moved on?
There’s only one reason he would want to be alone with the girl.
I growl aloud, drawing the alarmed attention of a woman buying fruit at the stall I’m passing.
He’s an idiot. A fucking fool.
Is he so cocky, so arrogant, that he thinks he has time for this sort of thing?
I know the answer to that, too. An overwhelming feeling of uselessness washes over me, and I slow down, almost reaching a stop.
“Whoa!” a man exclaims as my sudden halt causes him to almost crash into me. He skirts around me, his arms full of bags, and shoots a glare back at me.
I look around myself. I’m in a square with many more food stalls than there are on the promenade.
Taking a deep breath, I try to calm down and consider my options.
I need to prove that I’m useful, or Hercules might decide he doesn’t need me. Or worse, keep the redhead.
Anger surges again inside me at the thought.
I’ve gone through too many of his sordid punishments to be dumped now. The fuck will I let all the humiliation be for nothing.
I will be on the winning team at the end of all this, and I will become immortal.
So, what can I do? We came here for information, so I’ll fucking get some. If I can find out where the lion is before him, he won’t be able to ignore me.
I turn, looking for someone who might talk to me among the busy shoppers. A woman with golden hair tied up in a complicated knot is pulling a white tarpaulin down over the front of a vegetable stall a few feet away. I walk toward her, concentrating on masking the fury still pulsing through me.
“Excuse me,” I say as timidly as I can.
The woman turns toward me, still holding the heavy tarp.
“Just a minute,” she says, and wrestles the sheet down to the ground, where she begins tucking the weighted ends under the wooden feet of the stall.
When she’s finished, she stands and faces me, dusting her hands off on her long skirt. “What do you need?” she asks.
“Well, I’ve heard that the first of the events is being held here,” I start. I’m trying to sound innocent and young.
The woman cocks her head at me. “Yes,” she replies. “To rid us of the Nemean Lion.”
Nemean Lion? That’s already helpful.
“I would so love to get a glimpse of the heroes. Do you know where they might end up?” I smile, and the woman’s eyes narrow.
“Girl, you take us for fools. I know who you are.” My smile vanishes.
“You’re on the crew of the Hybris. And I’ll be damned if I’m helping that murderous captain of yours.
I hope she eats him,” spits the woman. “Now, you’ll excuse me.
” She sweeps away from her closed-up stall and into the throng of people in the market square.
I clench my fists and take a breath. Well, at least I’ve learned some new information. Hercules isn’t as popular as he thinks he is, and the lion is from Nemea.
I resolutely school my face into a calm expression. I’ll keep talking to people until I have enough information to take to my distracted captain, and then I’ll make him listen.
The fourth person I stop is a harried-looking male satyr. He’s the only one of his race I’ve seen so far, and I know satyrs have a reputation for succumbing to flirtation, so I have high hopes as I step in front of him. He looks up in annoyance and I smile. He looks less annoyed.
“Is there a reason you’re in my way?” he says to me gruffly.
“Oh, yes. I hoped you might help me.” I make my voice sound girlish, and grin.
“What do you want?” He sounds cautious, and his horns twitch as he looks me up and down.
“I wondered if you knew where I might find the heroes of the Trials. I just want a glimpse of them,” I say hopefully.
He snorts. “They’ll all be eaten, girl, just as everyone else who’s tried their hand at slaying her has. You don’t want to see that.” He tilts his head up to see my face better. I’m at least two feet taller than he is.
“How do you know the lion is female?” I ask.
“She can be anything she wants to be. That’s why pretty young things like you shouldn’t be sniffing around this sort of thing.
She’s dangerous.” I pretend to look shy at the compliment.
The goat-man shifts the bag on his back.
“Why don’t you come along to my friend’s taverna, down by the docks?
Maybe you can see the heroes from there, if they dock at Port Nemea. I hear Hercules already has.”
“He has?” I sound delighted. “What if he’s already found the lion?” I switch to looking worried.
“Pah! She’ll have found him, more like. I heard he’s just her type, womanizing and immoral.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, the youthful innocence slipping from my voice slightly.
“The Nemean Lion is a creature of Hera’s.
Sure, she says the lion is out of control, but that’s horseshit.
Hera created her, and she does her bidding.
The lion lures single young men with no intention of marrying to their deaths.
Does that sound like something the goddess of marriage would want to put a stop to? ”
I shake my head slowly.
“I won’t be on Cancer any longer than I can help it, I tell you,” the satyr rants on.
“No fun at all. You’re the only girl I’ve seen on her own in three days!
Not that I’m desperate or anything, you know.
Just would be nice to have some female company.
” He stops, and I realize he’s waiting for me to agree.
“I’m sorry, but I have a friend that I really should find.”
The satyr’s face falls. “A male friend?” he asks.
I give him an apologetic smile. Not just a male friend, I think, as I begin to hurry back toward the docks. A single one with no intention of marrying.
I have a stomach-twisting feeling that Hercules may have come across the Nemean Lion sooner than he intended.