Read Timothy Boggs - Hercules Legendary Joureneys 01 for Free Online

even the gods."
    Nikos huffed. "That's because he hasn't met Hercules."
    "Even then."
    "Oh, I don't think so."
    "My hat."
    Nikos frowned. "What?"
    Theo said, "My hat. I can't see. My bloody hat's fallen over my eyes."
    Hercules couldn't help it; he looked. And it had. He looked back to the road that led them away from the setting sun and thought, I have fought against veritable armies; I have battled a couple of gods and more than my share of monsters; I have been bloodied and had some bones broken, I've been chained and whipped and nearly drowned, and come close to ending up in the Elysian Fields more than once . . . and this is where it all leads?
    To a man who calls himself Theo the Mangier and complains about his stupid helmet? He should look in a stream sometime—those horns made him look like a sickly goat.
    Nikos leaned over and straightened it.
    "Thanks," said Theo.
    "A peace-loving man," said the innkeeper, "always knows how to keep his customers happy." Then he turned to Hercules. "Really. I'm not a fighter."
    "All right, Nikos, all right," he said wearily. "What's the point?"
    "Ah. Well, you see, the point is, we're going to the king, right?"
    "Right."
    "Ha!" Theo said.
    "Now, when we get there, the king will want to hear the whole story, right?"
    "Right."
    "Ha!" Theo said.
    "And when he hears the whole story, he'll be upset because Zorin's back in his kingdom. Plying his trade, so to speak. The king, the gods love 'im, he'll have to send out part of his army—which isn't all that big in the first place, since we're such a small kingdom in the second place—to try to drive Zorin away again-Right?"
    Hercules agreed, although it took him a moment.

    Theo said, "You wish."
    Nikos sighed. "And that means he'll want us—you and me, that is—to be a part of that army. On account of what we've already done. And I can't be, you see. I have a business to run. I'm not a professional fighter—"
    "Got that in one." Theo sneered.
    "—and I have a young son to take care of. Why, any one of Zorin's men would see through me in an instant, and then who would take care of Bestor? Who would keep him from living in the streets and becoming an urchin?"
    "Nikos..." Hercules began.
    "I'd probably have to carry a sword, too."
    "Nikos."
    "And wear armor and things. I hate armor. Have you ever had to wear armor, Hercules? It binds. The leather's not so bad, I guess, but to wear one of those breastplates? Forget it. I mean, you can barely breathe in the stuff."
    "If you're a man," Theo said, "you can breathe."
    "No," Nikos said, ignoring the raider, "I don't think I can do it."
    Hercules had been afraid of this. The innkeeper's nerves had been twanging like the strings of a badly tuned lyre ever since the sun had been high. Now that they had to find a decent place to camp for the night, simply touching him on the shoulder would probably send him shrieking off the wagon and into the hills.
    "Maybe you won't have to fight," Hercules said calmly.
    Up ahead, he noticed a small stream near a stand of oak, not far off the road.
    "I won't?"
    "No, my friend, you won't. I'll see to it."
    Nikos sagged in relief. "Oh."
    "Besides," Theo scoffed from the back, "you'd be dead in an instant, one look at Zorin and his fire.
    Cowards are like that. They die easily."
    He laughed.
    His men laughed.
    Nikos reached down into the gap beneath his legs, pulled out his club, turned, and whacked Theo none too lightly on his skull. "Peace-loving men," he said smugly in the abrupt silence, "don't have to take any crap from a man who can't keep his stupid horns on."
    The fire was low and warm, the stars high and cold. Beyond the reach of the flames, the stream babbled softly. The horses had been unhitched and led away to be tethered in a rich grassy area, the raiders were still in the wagon bed, snoring, and Nikos had wrapped himself a furry cloak and was even now mumbling, "Not a fighter," in his sleep.
    Hercules took the first watch.
    He sat with his back