ENTRAPPED ₂

62

THE BOOK, WHICH WAS CALLED THE HERCULES GUIDE TO THE MARE NOSTRUM, WASN'T VERY HELPFUL. This, of course, was no surprise to Madeleine.

"If this is a magic island," Piper grumbled, "why couldn't it be a nice magic island?"

They tromped up a hill and down into a heavily wooded valley, swatting away at mosquitos. Piper and Jason were careful to avoid the black-and-red striped snakes sunning themselves on the rocks, but Madeleine reached down to stroke one's back. She had always liked snakes.

The island wasn't all bad, really. Piper clearly just wasn't used to hard work, what with her movie star lifestyle. The trees were mostly stunted olives, cypress, and pines. The chirring of the cicadas and the oppressive heat reminded Madeleine of her quest with Percy and Annabeth and Tyson to find Grover all those years ago.

Unfortunately, they hadn't found a river yet, and Madeleine was dreadfully aware of the sun's slow descent in the sky.

"We could fly," Jason suggested again.

Madeleine was privy to Jason's suggestion, but Piper shook her head.

"We might miss something," she said. "Besides, I'm not sure I want to drop in on an unfriendly god. What was his name? Etch-a-Sketch?"

"Achelous," Jason corrected. He was trying to read the guidebook while they walked, so he kept running into trees and stumbling over rocks. "Says here he's a potamus."

"He's a hippootamus?"

"No. Potamus. A river god. According to this, he's the spirit of some river in Greece."

"Since we're not in Greece, let's assume he's moved," Piper said. "Doesn't bode well for how useful that book is going to be. Anything else?"

"Says Hercules fought him one time," Jason offered.

"Hercules fought ninety-nine percent of everything in Ancient Greece."

"Yeah. Let's see. Pillars of Hercules..." Jason flipped a page. "Says here this island has no hotels, no restaurants, no transportation. Attractions: Hercules and two pillars. Huh, this is interesting. Supposedly the dollar sign―you know, the S with the two lines through it?―that came from the Spanish coat of arms, which showed the Pillars of Hercules with a banner curling between them."

Madeleine, who usually liked history, was not in the mood. Piper looked about as thrilled by this fact as Madeleine did.

"Anything helpful?" she asked.

"Wait," Jason said. "Here's a tiny reference to Achelous: This river god fought Hercules for the hand of the beautiful Deianira. During the struggle, Hercules broke off one of the river god's horns, which became the first cornucopia."

"Corn of what?"

"It's that Thanksgiving decoration," Jason said. "The horn with all the goodies spilling out? We have some in the mess hall at Camp Jupiter. I didn't know the original one was actually some guy's horn."

"And we're supposed to take his other one," Piper said. "I'm guessing that won't be so easy. Who was Deianira?"

"Hercules married her," Jason said. "I think... doesn't say here. But I think something bad happened to her." He looked at Madeleine. "Didn't you mention her, when you were... talking to Hercules?"

"Yeah," Piper agreed, frowning in Madeleine's direction. "What's your deal with that, anyway?"

Madeleine had no desire to get into her dead girlfriend again, especially not with Piper, who was looking more like Zoe every day. She forged ahead, swatting at branches. "Here's what we should pay attention to: Achelous is a river god, so his source of power is going to be connected to his element. If he tries to fight us, we stay out of the water, because we're not Percy."