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

best woman among them to serve as their summer queen." He held up the scroll. "It's the highest honor they can bestow upon their citizens. Well, to their women, anyway. And we are the ones who are going to choose her!"
    "What's the catch?"
    Iolaus made a noise that sounded as if he were being strangled. "Catch? Why does there have to be a catch? We go, we pick, we eat, we drink, we leave. What catch?"
    "Right. What's the catch?"
    Iolaus slumped back in his chair, nearly defeated. "I don't get it. I just don't get it."
    "Neither do I," Hercules said. "That's why I asked you what the catch is."
    Iolaus' voice rose as he slapped the scroll against his palm. "There. Is. No. Catch!" He looked to Alcmena quickly. "Sorry. He just makes me crazy sometimes, that's all."
    Without looking up from her work, Alcmena gestured an it ' s all right, he does that to me, too.
    Hercules pushed a hand through his hair. He was tired of arguing, but he wasn't so tired that he could so easily be swept into another one of Iolaus' schemes. His friend had been trying for what seemed like forever to find a woman for him; not to replace Deianera, but to fill what the man knew was an emotional gap in Hercules' life. Unfortunately, as good-hearted and well meaning as Iolaus was, his eagerness to help sometimes fuddled his brain.
    Still, spending a few days by the sea looking at beauty didn't seem all that bad.
    This summer festival actually sounded like it might be fun. According to Iolaus, it was an annual celebration, held to ensure that the growing season would produce a rich harvest. Offers to Demeter for her favor on land, and to Poseidon for his on the sea, were accompanied by feasts large and small, parades, street entertainments, and what sounded like a continual round of parties, culminating in the ritual selection of the summer queen.
    The problem was the catch.
    There was always a catch. A trick. A hidden clause. A corner around which the unexpected lay in wait.
    Hercules didn't mind surprises in general, just the ones that tended to take off his head.

    With Iolaus, such surprises were the rule.
    "Listen," he said patiently. "Do you remember the last time you got involved with a beauty contest?"
    Iolaus winced.
    Hercules laughed. "Artemis, Athena, and Aphrodite, remember? You had to choose between them, and you nearly started a war."
    "Wasn't my fault," Iolaus muttered. "Aphrodite tricked me with her damn golden apples." He lifted his head defiantly. "And there are no goddesses involved this time, okay? This wi ll be different."
    "Okay,"Hercules said cautiously. "Then why us? We've never been there, we don't know anyone there, and we're not related to whoever runs the place."
    "Because," Iolaus explained with exaggerated patience, "we are known far and wide for our good deeds, our honesty, and our unimpeachable integrity."
    "Of course. I should have known."
    Iolaus closed his eyes, breathed deeply several times, and sighed. Loudly. "All right," he said, flopping a hand over in his lap. "I'll go alone. It'll be tough, but I think I can manage it."
    Hercules swallowed a laugh. "I think so, too."
    For a long moment Iolaus watched the fire. "I hear Themon is a lovely city."
    "I'm sure it is," Hercules answered warily.
    "Right by the sea."
    "Yes, so I've heard."
    Iolaus inhaled deeply. "All that fresh air, that salt air." He thumped his chest. "It does something to the appetite."
    "Which one?" Hercules asked.
    Iolaus gave him a now that hurt, that really hurt look, and appealed to Alcmena with a tilt of his head.
    "Now wait a minute," Hercules began, sensing a conspiracy in the making.
    "I think you should go," his mother said calmly.
    "What?"
    "See?" Iolaus nodded. "Even your mother thinks it's a good idea."
    Hercules scowled. "This isn't fair."
    Alcmena kept her face hidden, but he suspected she was grinning. "You need the time away. You need to see Themon; it's as lovely as Iolaus says." She did look up then. "And you need to leave before I have