Hercules: The Legendary Journeys Two Book Collection (Juvenile) by David L. Seidman

“That’s the woman who hit me!”
    The dryad queen calmed herself. “I knew it was you right away.”
    â€œHold it,” Hercules said. “I haven’t seen you since that big party on Olympus last year. I didn’t reject you last month,” Hercules said. “I didn’t even
see
you last month.”
    Dryope and Slaughterius sniggered. “Very funny,” the general sneered. “Next you’ll be telling me the earth isn’t flat.”
    â€œSlaughterius,” Hercules called urgently, “please listen! The Mercantilians are going to attack at dawn. Ares is spreading lies to start a war. But—listen to me!—you can stop it. You can kill the lies, if you’ll just work together. I know they don’t trust you, so you’ll have to send them an ambassador, somebody neutral. Have them contact the Mercantilians. If you can just talk honestly—”
    Slaughterius and Dryope laughed again. “Thank you for telling me their secret strategy, Hercules,” Slaughterius sang down. “Now, do excuse me. I simply must get ready to wipe them out.”
    â€œSo long, loverboy,” Dryope hissed.
    The two black shapes receded from the grassy edge of the starry square.
    â€œNo, you fools! Come back!” Hercules yelled angrily.
    Something rumbled above. “Just for that, I’ve got a little gift for you. I was saving it for the Mercantilians, but you can have it now.”
    Hercules looked up. He was saving it? he thought. He knew about the war all along!
    A round silhouette moved over the hole. It was a cauldron.
    â€œAgainst the walls!” Hercules shouted.
    At top speed, all three men jumped backwards. The slopping red fluid hit the centre of the rocky floor with a splash and a hiss. Cactus and Salmoneus shouted in alarm.
    As the droplets bounced up from the floor and splashed on to his thigh, Hercules knew why. His skin stung as if it had been burned.
    Acid!
    That stuff’s not going to eat an escape hatch through the walls, Hercules thought. It’s not going to burn through the floor. It’s just going to eat us!
    As the acid continued to pour down from above, rivers of red oozed from the middle of the floor towards every edge and corner. Salmoneus shifted his feet out of the path of one snaking flow, but the acid slid across the uneven floor, splitting into a dozen rivulets that chased him wherever he went.
    The river hit Salmoneus’ toes. He wailed, dropping his torch. It fizzled in the acid and went out, leaving the room lit only by thin starlight from above.
    Hercules slid around the waterfall of acid and ducked towards Salmoneus’ feet. He ripped acid-covered rocks from the floor. The acid fell away from Salmoneus and into the small crater.
    Cactus shouted in alarm as the acid hit his feet. Hercules jumped over to him and started digging more rocks out of the floor, creating a new channel. The acid flowed away from Cactus, towards Hercules’ digging hands.
    There was a huge slab sticking up in the uneven ground. Hercules grabbed it, hoping to pull it out, but the top edge just broke off in his hands. In frustration, he pounded the ground. The floor vibrated, as it had when he’d fallen on it.
    Hercules’ mouth fell open. It shouldn’t do that. If that’s solid ground, it shouldn’t move. So, maybe it’s not the ground . . .
    Hercules clasped his hands tight and swung them into the pit’s floor. He felt rock shatter and watched as jagged chunks floated to the surface of the shallow acid lake that now covered the floor and kept rising as more acid fell from above. The acid dissolved his sandals and started biting at his feet, but he continued to pound the floor.
    â€œHercules!” Salmoneus screamed.
    Then the acid began to flow away. As the downpour from above began to ease off, the level of the acid dropped away. The same thing happened around Cactus.
    The trickle from above