He poured the potion into Heracles’s mouth. The hero gagged.
“He’s choking!” Danae tried to turn him on his side, but Dolos pushed her back.
“He’s got to drink it, it’s the only thing that will help.” He tilted Heracles’s head back, forcing the liquid down his throat. “Swallow! Gods damn you, swallow!”
Danae’s heart was in her mouth. Heracles sounded like he was drowning. Then he gulped. Relief seeped through her as the hero sucked in a lungful of air. She grinned, hastily blinking the moisture from her eyes.
Dolos wiped his forehead, and the pair of them helped Heracles prop himself up onto his elbows. He looked blearily from the healer to Danae, then took in his surroundings.
“Have another,” urged Dolos, handing him a second vial. Heracles downed the contents in one and smashed the bottle on the ground. He pushed himself to his feet, grabbing onto the tree for balance.
“You need to be careful,” said the healer, leaping up to steady him. “We don’t know how long you’ve been without your tonic...”
Heracles pushed him away. “Just tell me how to get out of this gods-forsaken place and who I need to kill for putting me here.”
28
Fire and Fury
Danae stared at Heracles’s back. His muscles were rippling like sand under the weight of an ocean tide, and his wasted frame appeared to strengthen with every step he took through the jungle. The divinity in his father’s blood must be potent. The divinity she somehow had to destroy.
Ahead of them, Dolos held up a fist.
“We’re almost back at the clearing.”
“Good,” muttered Heracles. He had barely spoken to either of them since the cave.
“I think it would be wise if you stay here for now,” said the healer.
“I’m coming with you.” Heracles’s eyes were hard as sapphires.
Danae placed a hand on his arm. “You will have your vengeance. But the Argonauts are drugged and would be defenseless if we attack now.”
Heracles’s brow darkened.
Danae glanced at Dolos. “Do you trust us?”
The hero’s eyes swept over her, then the healer. He placed a hand on Dolos’s shoulder.
“I trust this man with my life.”
Dolos’s eyes crinkled to the corners of his face. He clasped Heracles’s arm in return.
“Then wait for our signal,” said Danae. “Together, we will free the crew and get off this damned island.”
“What did you give him?” Danae whispered as she peered through the tangle of vines to the clearing beyond.
Dolos didn’t answer.
“That blue liquid?”
The healer remained silent.
“If it’s some kind of reviving potion we could give it to the Argonauts—”
“No,” Dolos said sharply. He paused for a moment. “It’s merely a health tonic, to support his demigod constitution. It would do no good to a mortal.”
Danae glanced back into the depths of the jungle, where Heracles crouched a few trees behind them. “For a moment there I didn’t think he was going to agree to wait for us to drug the hunters.”
