The Gates of Hades: A Novel

by John Gregory Betancourt

Overview

A Time of Myth and Legend...
The epic saga of Jason and the Argonauts has endured for thousands of years. United under Jason's command, the Quest for the Golden Fleece brought together many of the greatest heroes of Greek mythology, including Atalanta, the ancient world's finest female athlete, and Hercules, the legendary son of Zeus.
Tragedy strikes the Argonauts when Jason himself is slain by treacherous pirates. Blaming himself for his friend's death, Hercules embarks on a perilous quest to rescue Jason's soul from the underworld. But the realm of the dead holds may challenges for Hercules and his companions as they dare to brave...
THE GATES OF HADES
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466853874
Publisher:	Tor Fantasy
Publication date:	05/21/2025
Series:	Hercules , #3
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	246
File size:	667 KB

About the Author

John Gregory Betancourt has published more than twenty books, including several best-selling Star Trek novels and game books for TSR, Inc.

Read an Excerpt

The Gates of Hades

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By John Gregory Betancourt

Tom Doherty Associates

Copyright © 2001 John Gregory Betancourt
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4668-5387-4

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CHAPTER 1

The drumbeat paused, and Hercules paused with it, holding his oar just above the water. Had something happened? He half turned on the rower's bench, craning his neck to see Jason and Theseus in the Argo's bow. Both men were staring intently across the low waves, but neither seemed particularly alarmed. Another ship? Or a town? Hercules couldn't tell from where he sat.

On the benches around him, men began to sigh and lean back, enjoying the break. Even Hercules had to admit it felt good to stop and catch his breath. He might be stronger than any ten mortal men, but the constant rowing made even his powerful shoulders ache.

He brushed sweat from his forehead with the tail of the lion skin he wore. Over the last week, as their ship approached the Black Sea, the weather had gradually turned against them. First a hot, sticky wind began to gust the wrong way, and then slate-colored skies slowly darkened, threatening rain. He tilted his head and studied the swollen clouds far above. Had Jason felt the first raindrop? If so, the Argo would have to take shelter in a cove or inlet until the storm passed. They might have the greatest ship ever built, but it was always wise to protect her from the sea's fury. This far from home, it would be difficult if not impossible to repair her if she crashed upon rocks.

"I wish the wind would turn in our favor again," Atalanta said loudly from behind Hercules. "I signed on to help win the Golden Fleece, not row a ship!"

Hercules laughed as he glanced over his shoulder at her. "First we have to get to the Golden Fleece," he said. "You know how impatient Jason can be. Why wait for favorable winds when he has fifty followers willing to row?"

"Make that forty-nine!" Atalanta pulled a sour face, pushing a strand of limp black hair out of her eyes. "I'll row, but not willingly!"

Hercules laughed again. She had pitched in with the rest of the Argonauts when the winds turned the day before yesterday, and they had spent the last two days rowing the Argo toward the Black Sea. The work had taken its toll on her, too, Hercules saw; the legendary female athlete looked exhausted. For that matter, almost everybody around them looked exhausted. He probably would have felt the same way, he supposed, had he been a mortal instead of a demigod. But with Zeus as his father, he could row all day and only begin to feel the strain.

"Ship oars!" Jason called from the bow. "Rest for five minutes!"

Powerful muscles rippling beneath his lion skin, Hercules slid his oar up onto the Argo's deck, then stood and began to twist left and right, stretching the kinks from his muscles. Around him, the other Argonauts did the same. He heard half a dozen quiet discussions starting, mostly speculation as to why Jason had called a halt. Nobody seemed to have any idea what their leader had in mind.

"Something must have happened," Atalanta said softly. Hercules found her peering toward Jason. "We still have plenty of daylight ... and it's far too soon to take a break. Not that I'm complaining, of course!"

"They must have seen something," Hercules said. "Look how they're staring ahead."

"Pirates? Or maybe some kind of sea serpent?" Atalanta suggested hopefully.

Hercules laughed. Atalanta had an obsession with killing monsters — not that he objected; in this part of the world, you could still find many savage creatures.

He said, "If it's a monster, Jason doesn't seem very concerned. You know how careful he is — he would raise an alarm at the first sign of danger."

Atalanta sighed. "I suppose. It's probably nothing."

"Probably."

And yet Hercules wondered. He knew their leader's greatest fear involved damage to the Argo. Sometimes it seemed as though Jason cared more for his ship than his crew, but Hercules knew better. Jason had quite a lot of problems back home in Thessaly ... most of all his uncle, who had refused to yield the throne to its rightful heir, Prince Jason. A civil war would have been devastating to the kingdom, so Jason had set out to find the Golden Fleece. Winning it would prove him a champion worthy of his throne, and then his uncle would have to step aside. Jason's obsession with the Golden Fleece drove him ever onward, sometimes almost recklessly.

Atalanta was nodding. "True," she said, "he would call us if he saw danger. After all, he's got the greatest heroes of Greece on board. He would have to be crazy not to ask for advice in dealing with any monster."

"And Jason isn't crazy."

Atalanta frowned. "Perhaps it's a whale," she said, "or sharks."

"There's only one way to find out. I'll ask!" Hercules rose and strode briskly toward the front of the ship. Behind him, he heard quick, light footsteps following, and he had to smile to himself. Atalanta refused to be left out of any adventure, no matter how exhausted she might feel.

He joined Jason and Theseus in the Argo's bow. From here, he could see a small island just ahead. Both men seemed to be watching it intently.

Hercules stared at it silently for a moment, then frowned. What had they seen? Savages? He saw no sign of boats or rafts ... and no smoke from cooking fires, for that matter. A monster? He saw no sign of one. Had Jason and Theseus spotted something else?

Then he felt a drop of water hit his arm and he blinked. Rain — that had to be it. Jason was searching for a place to put ashore to wait out the storm.

"We passed a cove about twenty minutes ago," Hercules said. "Shall we head back?"

"Shh! Wait!" Jason said, holding up one hand. "Watch the channel!"

Hercules heard Theseus counting under his breath: "... three ... four ..."

Squinting, Hercules studied the narrow stretch of water between the island and the coast. What had they seen? This shore offered rocky beaches fronting a lush green tangle of trees and underbrush. He had assumed they would sail through the channel to save time.

Theseus continued to count: "... five ... six ... seven —"

And on seven, in the exact center of the channel, a plume of water shot twenty yards into the air, hung for a moment, then fell back with a tremendous splash.

Hercules blinked. "What is it?" he asked. Some natural phenomenon? Or had a god or a monster of some kind caused it?

"I don't know. I've never seen anything like it before," Jason said.

"Nor have I," Theseus added. "Whales and dolphins breathe that way, but it would take a hundred of them to make a waterspout that big."

"It's a monster," Hercules said. He had a sudden premonition of danger from ahead and felt a prickle of excitement. "It has to be!"

"Don't get any ideas about fighting it," Jason said with a sharp warning glance. "We're not here to kill monsters. We're out to win the Golden Fleece."

"I know that," Hercules said. He felt a little hurt by Jason's tone, but shrugged it off. After all, Jason had his own problems. Since winning the Golden Fleece might well solve them, Hercules understood the rush to get on with it.

Quickly, Theseus said, "Hercules doesn't go around slaughtering monsters for the pleasure of it, but to help people. He refuses to let a single injustice go unpunished."

Jason sighed, then gave an apologetic nod. "I know. It's just that we keep getting sidetracked! We've taken an extra two months to get this far!"

"You need to relax more," Hercules said. "The Golden Fleece isn't going anywhere. You'll live longer if you enjoy yourself. After all, this is supposed to be an adventure, and adventures are supposed to be fun!"

A new water plume erupted before them. Like the previous one, it fell back into the sea with a tremendous splash. Hercules stared. Had it moved? Wasn't it closer to the Argo than the last time?

Theseus began to count again. "One ... two ..."

"Besides, we don't even know it's a monster yet," Hercules said. "Maybe it's something else."

"Poseidon?" Atalanta asked. "Could it be your uncle, Hercules?"

Hercules hesitated. "I don't think so."

"Whatever it is, we won't provoke it," Jason announced. He turned to the rowers. "Oars to the water, Argonauts! Prepare to turn the ship! We'll go around the island!"

There were a few grumbles of disappointment — it would add several hours to the day's rowing, Hercules realized — but everyone seemed resigned to the task. They had all sworn to follow Jason, after all, and follow him they would ... right around the island, if that's what he wanted. Besides, Hercules told himself, as long as the monster left them alone, they had no quarrel with it.

Theseus said, " ... five ... six —"

This time, the spout came a second earlier.

Hercules hesitated, staring out across the waves. Clearly the creature was heading toward them. Should he return to his bench to help the others row? Or should he prepare for a fight?

"I don't think we will have a chance to go around the island," Theseus said to Jason.

"What!" Jason said. "Why?"

"It's heading this way faster than we can row!"

Biting his lip in frustration, Jason stared out across the water. His knuckles grew white, Hercules noticed, from the strength of his grip on the railing. What looked to Hercules like an expression of supreme annoyance crossed Jason's face.

In happier circumstances, Hercules might have laughed. Instead, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck start to prickle in alarm once more. When monsters approached, he knew from long years of experience, men often died.

Theseus began counting again: "One ... two ..."

Leaning on the forward railing, Hercules stared down at the water. Although still two hundred yards away, he glimpsed something like a shadow beneath the waves, something huge and dark that sent a sudden shiver through him. This was no mortal creature, he realized, but a monster from the earliest days of the world, when the Titans had ruled. You could still find such things in remote corners of the world ... like this one.

"What is it?" Jason whispered beside him. "What does it want?"

Theseus said urgently, "Give the order to break out weapons, Jason. We're going to have to fight!"

"If we must ..." Jason muttered. He turned to the crew again, cupped his hands to his mouth, and called, "Break out swords and spears! Prepare to defend the ship from a sea monster!"

Half a dozen men scurried to open the deck's main hatch. Orestes and Philoran disappeared into the hold for a moment, then began handing up weapons — spears, swords, bows and arrows. Spears would probably be best, Hercules thought ... although edged weapons like swords might prove more useful if the creature had tentacles like a giant squid or octopus.

Another plume of water rose and fell only thirty yards ahead now. A cold, salty spray settled over Hercules, and he wiped his face dry on one of his lion skin's paws.

"There's its head!" Atalanta cried, pointing.

Hercules leaned forward, peering deep into the water. At the front of that inky patch of darkness he spotted a pair of yellow disks, glowing faintly with a cold, weirdly flickering light ... eyes. Hercules felt an unpleasant prickling along the back of his neck. This was no mere beast, something told him, but a creature with a cunning and deadly intelligence.

"Look at the size of that thing," Atalanta whispered. "It's larger than a whale."

Hercules nodded. "Ten times larger than any whale I've ever seen," he said.

Twenty yards out, the eyes veered to the left, the creature circling the Argo. Hercules turned slowly, following its course. If only it would surface, he thought. Suddenly he wanted a closer look at it. Was it more fish or squid? Or something else entirely? At least it seems slow-moving, he thought. It seemed to be circling them at an almost leisurely pace, as though it had all the time in the world.

Armed men began crowding up against the port railing, trying to see the monster. When it sent another gush of water into the air, everyone began shouting eagerly, pointing and waving their weapons. Several men began calling, "Here, monster! Here, monster!" and whistling as though for a dog.

"Just what we need!" Jason said with snort. "Another epic battle!"

Atalanta shot him a mischievous look. "You did want songs sung of your voyage, didn't you? Well, we could use a few more epic battles!"

Hercules tried to hide his own smile. Sometimes Jason didn't have much of a sense of humor. "At least it keeps the voyage from getting dull," Hercules added. "I certainly needed a break from all that rowing."

"I would have rather put ashore early," Jason grumbled. "If I wanted epic battles, I would have fought my uncle for Thessaly's throne. Besides, I think we've already had more than enough excitement for one voyage."

Hercules knew Jason had a point. Every time they set sail for the Kingdom of Colchis and the Golden Fleece, something seemed to get in the way. First they had found bandits and a sea monster near Troy. Then a fierce storm blew them off course to the island of Thorna, with its resident cyclops, who devours six boys and six girls each year as tribute. And finally the goddess Athena had diverted them to the island of Sattis to destroy a colony of flesh-eating birds called the myserae. All told, the last month had been full of more adventures than Hercules normally saw in an entire year.

"Well, the monster's here, and it's not going away, so you might as well make the best of it," Theseus suggested to Jason. "Why not lead the attack yourself? Have some fun, for once! You might never have another adventure like this again!"

Jason looked at the older man, then gave a nod. "You're right, of course," he said. He took a deep breath — then grinned happily, and Hercules realized his young captain had been holding his natural enthusiasm in check. It was almost as if he needed Theseus's permission to loose the tight reins he kept on himself. Hercules nodded to himself. This was a good time to do it, too. Everyone aboard needed a break from the last week's monotony and backbreaking labor.

"Ready your weapons!" Jason called, striding back along the deck. "Wait until it attacks! We don't know that it's hostile!" "Have you ever met a monster that wasn't hostile?" Atalanta asked Hercules.

He thought back for a moment, then shook his head. "No. They all wanted to eat me."

"I was afraid of that!"

He shrugged. "That's why they're monsters, after all."

"I don't suppose you'd let me have this one all to myself?" Atalanta asked, still grinning. They'd had a friendly competition on the islands of Sattis and Thorna, Hercules recalled. More by accident than design, he kept slaying the monsters she fought. Through it all, he kept promising the next one would be hers.

"Not a chance!" he said. "I think this one belongs to the whole ship!"

Hercules glanced back at the channel again. The monster continued to circle. "I think," he said slowly, "I better get a couple of spears. And you need your bow."

From behind him, a low voice said, "I already have them, Hercules. Catch!"

Hercules turned and found Hylas behind him. The youth held a pair of spears, which he offered to Hercules with a quick grin.

"Still want to be my spear-carrier?" Hercules said.

"Well ... you do need one," Hylas said. Next he pulled Atalanta's bow from his shoulder and passed it to her, along with a quiver of arrows. "Here, I brought your weapons, too."

"Thank you." Atalanta strung her bow in one swift motion, then notched an arrow.

"Don't mention it." Turning, Hylas jogged back toward the open hatch. "I'll get you more spears!" he called over his shoulder. "I know you'll need them!"

To Hercules, Atalanta said, "He worships you, you know. And you could use a spear-carrier."

Hercules sighed. "Ever since his brother died, I've been trying to watch out for him. Now he wants to be just like me. It's hero-worship, that's all."

"I can't fault him for that. He couldn't find a better hero to worship, after all. Well? Are you going to do it?"

"Do what?"

"Make him your shield-bearer?"

Hercules hesitated. "He's a little old…"

"True. But he wants it very badly."

Slowly Hercules nodded. Yes, he knew Hylas wanted very badly to learn the arts of war at his side. But at sixteen, Hylas was already a man and a proven warrior. Most spear-carriers began at half his age ... some even younger.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from The Gates of Hades by John Gregory Betancourt. Copyright © 2001 John Gregory Betancourt. Excerpted by permission of Tom Doherty Associates.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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