She let her mind empty, then formulated her question.
Will Heracles join my quest?
A single thread danced across the blackness. She focused on it and felt the now familiar tug as her mind traveled down its length, weaving into the tapestry of life. Then the strands unraveled and threaded together to create a new image.
She saw a figure, wearing Heracles’s impenetrable lion hide, climbing what appeared to be a storm-swathed mountain. It must be the Caucasus Mountains, where Prometheus was tethered.
She dropped the stone and returned with a sickening jolt to the dunes. She had her proof, the stone did not lie. She didn’t have to do it alone.
Heracles would come with her to find Prometheus.
By the time Danae arrived back on the beach, a camp had been erected. A cluster of tents lined the shore, and theArgohad been dragged onto the sand, a tarpaulin stretched over the deck to shelter Peleus and any others who wished to sleep aboard. She spotted Heracles sitting with Telamon and Atalanta beside a large stone-ringed fire.
“Daeira!” Telamon set down the metallic bird he was stripping and beckoned her over with a large hand, encased in several pairs of hide gloves. Atalanta was fixing the discarded feathers to the ends of her arrows.
The warrior took in the sand on Heracles’s lion hide and the grains in Danae’s ruffled hair. She twisted the feather in her hand so violently it flicked off the end of the arrow and landed between Danae’s feet.
Their eyes met, and Atalanta looked at her with all the disdain of their first encounter, as though the months they’d traveled together had been swept away. Danae didn’t know why she cared so much, but it hurt, like a fist to her gut.
Heracles placed a hand on the warrior’s shoulder. “Daeira is one of us. I trust her, and that is enough.” His tone was friendly, but the look in his eyes was final.
Telamon’s gaze slid from the hero to Danae. “Now I know why Dolos went to sulk with the horses,” he said with a smirk.
“Daeira!”
Danae looked across the camp to see Jason, sitting on a large piece of driftwood, beckoning to her.
She sighed. “Back in a moment.” And strode across the beach.
“Sit.” Jason gestured beside him as she approached. “Why has he returned?”
She was taken aback by the abruptness of his question.
“You must have got something out of him on the dunes?”
Her mouth twitched. She lowered herself onto the log. “He and Dolos were tracking the Stymphalian birds, which led them to us.”
Jason’s scowl deepened.
“He can’t rejoin the crew.”
A whisper of panic fluttered through her. “Why not?”
“The men aren’t happy about it.”
She knew exactly which men he meant and shot a barbed glance at Castor and Pollux on the other side of the camp.
Attempting to smooth the worry from her face, she said, “But think of the strength you would command with two demigods in your crew.”
Jason laughed. “That man is a law unto himself. He’s dangerous and volatile. The others won’t have it. Not now they know his true nature.”
Jason was a coward who didn’t want to be overshadowed. That’s what this was about.
“They will do what you tell them to, Captain.” Before he could respond she added, “Let me speak to my father before we sail tomorrow. It would be wise to arrive at Colchis knowing what the fates have in store for us.”
Jason regarded her for a moment. Then nodded.
She was about to leave when he said, “You should have told me.”
