Read Timothy Boggs - Hercules Legendary Joureneys 02 for Free Online Page B

trees, he realized the figure was Cire, all hunched over, her face covered by her hands.
    Unless it was Sana.
    He approached slowly, trying not to startle her but still letting her know she was no longer alone.
    She looked up, and he stopped.
    Her face shone with tears.
    "Holix," she said plaintively, and by the husky voice he knew it was Cire. "Holix, help me."
    He hurried over and knelt at her side, and was immediately taken aback when she flung her arms around his neck and began weeping on his shoulder. Awkwardly he slipped an arm around her back and stared out to sea, seeing nothing as he frowned.
    Finally he whispered, "What is it?"
    She loosened her embrace and leaned away without removing her arms. Her head trembled as she cried,
    "I don't want to die, Holix. I don't want to die."
    Jax made his way quickly through the narrow streets north of the plaza. They were not as crowded as the others; most of the festivities were scattered through the southern, seaward side of the city. Yet there were still enough people here to hide him. His simple clothes marked him as a servant. He was, in effect, invisible, and that suited him just fine.
    It was midafternoon when he reached his destination. He was late, but he took several minutes more to make sure he hadn't been followed before slipping into what looked to be an ordinary house.
    The woman waited for him.
    She was of middle years and, as far as he could tell, youthful appearance, seated as she was in deep shadow on a chair in the far corner of the room. As always, she wore a thin veil over the lower part of her face. He had never seen her in clear daylight, wouldn't know her if he passed her on the street.
    He apologized as he entered, and sat on the floor near the entrance, drawing his legs up, hugging his shins.
    "No matter," she said. She kept her voice soft.
    "Did they do it?" he asked.
    She shook her head.
    "But there were nearly a dozen of them," he exclaimed angrily. "That has to be enough."
    "We're not dealing with ordinary men, Jax. You must remember that."
    He scowled. Maybe she was right, but still. . . ten against two ought to have been sufficient odds. Not for the first time he wished he had gone with them. Rotus was a good man, but he had never struck Jax as someone who was capable of leading men into battle.
    "So what will we do?"
    He could sense her patient smile. "We will try again. There is plenty of time, Jax, plenty of time."
    The fingers of his right hand traced a meandering design across the floor by his feet. "What. .." He took a deep breath. "What if we can't stop them?"
    She laughed, but kindly. "Oh, Jax, we won't, don't you know that?"
    "What?"
    "We won't stop them. We can't."
    His scowl deepened. He recognized that he wasn't the brightest young man in the world—Holix, for one, was a whole lot smarter, even if he was a farmer— but he thought he had understood the plan from the outset: prevent Hercules and Iolaus from reaching Themon. As a result, Councillor Titus would have no judges, the summer queen would not be chosen, and the people would rise up in indignation and throw the old fart out of office. Simple.
    If Hercules and Iolaus actually got here, and the summer queen was actually chosen, the people wouldn't rise up and throw the old fart out of office. Simple.
    So why didn't he get it?
    "You'll have to trust me," the woman said. "We've done all right so far, haven't we?"
    Well, he thought as he nodded yes, he supposed so. If you count dyeing the council-chamber doors green, and writing really clever incendiary slogans on walls, and passing pamphlets around that suggested Titus hadn't exactly been elected king or anything, and didn't have the best record around, and wasn't it a little suspicious that the man remained in power after nearly twenty years?
    The trouble was, the council had liked the new shade of green, the graffiti broke up the monotony of all those boring walls stretching one right after the other, and half the people couldn't