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"Guys, do I turn around?" Leo asked nervously "Or…"

No one answered--ure standing on the beach As the ship approached the columns, she saw a dark-hairedintently at their ship as if he were expecting them Piper couldn’t tellfrom his posture, he wasn’t happy

Frank inhaled sharply "Could that be--?"

"Hercules," Jason said "The o II was only a few hundred yards froently "I can turn, or we can take off The stabilizers are working again But I need to know quick--"

"We have to keep going," Annabeth said "I think he’s guarding these straits If that’s really Hercules, sailing or flying aouldn’t do any good He’ll want to talk to us"

Piper resisted the urge to use charmspeak She wanted to yell at Leo: Fly! Get us out of here! Unfortunately, she had a feeling that Annabeth was right If they wanted to pass into the Mediterranean, they couldn’t avoid this

"Won’t Hercules be on our side?" she asked hopefully "I runted "He was a son of Zeus, but when he died, he becaods"

Piper reod who used to be a deod He hadn’t been exactly helpful

"Great," Percy said "Seven of us against Hercules"

"And a satyr!" Hedge added "We can take hiot a better idea," Annabeth said "We send aroup--one or two at o," Jason said "He’s a son of Zeus I’m the son of Jupiter Maybe he’ll be friendly to ested "Half brothers don’t always get along"

Jason scowled "Thank you, Mr Optimism"

"It’s worth a shot," Annabeth said "At least Jason and Hercules have so in coood ords"

All eyes turned to Piper

She tried to avoid screanawed at her gut But if Jason was going ashore, she wanted to be with hiod would turn out to be helpful They had to have good luck once in a while, didn’t they?

"Fine," she said "Just let e o II between the pillars, Jason summoned the wind to carry hi for them

Piper had heard tons of stories about Hercules She’d seen several cheesy ht about hiine some stupid hairy dude in his thirties with a barrel chest and a gross hippie beard, with a lion skin over his head and a big club, like a caveined he would smell bad, belch, and scratch hirunts

She was not expecting this

His feet were bare, covered in white sand His robes h Piper couldn’t remember which rank of priest wore purple Was that cardinals? Bishops? And did the purple color mean he was the Roman version of Hercules rather than the Greek? His beard was fashionably scruffy, like Piper’s dad and his actor friends wore theirs--the sort of I just happened not to shave for two days and I still look awesome look

He ell built, but not too stocky His ebony hair was close-cropped, Ro blue eyes like Jason’s, but his skin was coppery, as if he’d spent his entire life on a tanning bed The : he looked about twenty Definitely no older He was handsoed but not-at-all-caveman way

He did in fact have a club, which lay in the sand next to him, but it waspolished cylinder of e would have been jealous

Jason and Piper landed at the edge of the surf They approached slowly, careful not tomoves Hercules watched them with no particular emotion, as if they were some form of seabird he had never noticed before

"Hello," Piper said Always a good start

"What’s up?" Hercules said His voice was deep but casual, very h school locker room

"Uh, not much" Piper winced "Well, actually, a lot I’m Piper This is Jason We--"

"Where’s your lion skin?" Jason interrupted

Piper wanted to elbow him, but Hercules looked rees out here," he said "Why would I wear my lion skin? Do you wear a fur coat to the beach?"

"I guess that makes sense" Jason sounded disappointed "It’s just that the pictures always show you with a lion skin"

Hercules glared at the sky accusingly, like he wanted to have words with his father, Zeus "Don’t believe everything you hear about ht think"

"Tell hed

Hercules fixed those brilliant blue eyes on her "Are you famous?"

"My dad…he’s in the movies"