Dark Hunt

Iolaus and Hercules made their way through the village square where the market day crowd had thinned out for the hot afternoon and some of the stalls were already closing up. Iolaus took the opportunity to examine Perseus' sandal. Its tiny but powerful wings had stopped flapping frantically and were furled against the straps; the gold still glinted in the bright afternoon sunlight, but quiescent it looked like an ordinary ornamented sandal. Autolycus had only stolen the one, but then Iolaus supposed it was more annoying to the victim that way. He glanced up at Hercules with one brow lifted. "How long do you think Autolycus is going to keep up this war with Perseus?"

"Far, far too long." Hercules smiled faintly. "But it's--"

"Not our problem," Iolaus finished with a grin, tucking the sandal away in his pack.

Just then a familiar voice hailed them from across the square. "Hercules! Iolaus!"

Hercules turned, smiling as he recognized the woman waving at them from the entrance to the innyard. "Cassandra! What are you doing here?"

She hurried toward them and they started across the square to meet her. Cassandra was an old friend, a seer and the last survivor of Atlantis. Without her help, Hercules would never have gotten himself or the crew of the ship he had been travelling in off that doomed island alive. She had also helped he and Iolaus track down some of Daedalus' stolen weapons, though it had gotten far more complicated than that. She had been living in Calydon since then and Hercules hadn't seen her in far too long. "I'm so glad to see you two are all right," she said delightedly as she reached them. Dressed in a dark yellow gown, her features were strong rather than classical and her figure was slender and athletic rather than full. But combined with her lush dark hair and warm brown eyes, she had an elegant beauty that quickly made you forget any lack of resemblance to Aphrodite's ideal. "I was beginning to worry."

Hercules' brow furrowed. "What, you were having prophecy dreams?" With everything that had happened lately, it wouldn't surprise him in the least.

"No, but I heard these terrible rumors."

"Oh, great." Iolaus passed a hand over his face, squinting up at Hercules, obviously shifting the job of explaining to him.

Hercules winced. "The rumors. Ah.... Well, I'm glad you're here. Come back to the house with us, you can meet Jason."

Cassandra studied them both for a thoughtful moment. "I think we have a lot of catching up to do." She smiled. "Just let me run back to the inn for my bag."

Watching her cross the square toward the inn, Iolaus said slowly, "You realize, sooner or later, everybody we know is going to hear those rumors and show up wanting to know what in Tartarus happened."

"Yeah." Hercules sighed, resigned, then looked absently around the market. "Maybe I'd better pick up some extra fruit for dinner."

***

They followed the path through the woods to the farm, the breeze cool and the heavy green canopy overhead turning the hot sun into dappled shade. Hercules gave Cassandra the severely edited version of the past season and she took it in silently, her face creased in concern.

"It explains a lot," she said slowly, biting her lip. "I knew I was having prophetic dreams, but I couldn't remember anything they showed me. Just...darkness. I convinced myself it was just my imagination. Or that perhaps my Sight was going away somehow. Which," she added with an ironic twist to her lips, "would not have been an unmixed blessing. Then a little over a month ago the dreams just stopped and everything seemed back to normal." She shook her head regretfully. "I wish I'd come to you. Maybe I could have helped."

"Better you didn't." Hercules put an arm around her shoulders. He noted Cassandra had said her dreams had ceased a little over a month ago, when they were still in Egypt, and not earlier in the year when Dahak had been vanquished in Greece. Possibly Cassandra had been picking up on Iolaus' ordeal on the Paths of the Dead. But it could also be more evidence for his belief that some small part of Dahak had still been alive and operating in Egypt, and that something that had happened there had finally destroyed the last remnant of the demon-god utterly. Only Kheper knew for sure, and Kheper wasn't saying. "If you'd tried to help, you would have just become another target for Dahak."

"That's right." Iolaus' mouth set in a thin line. "A seer with your ability, it would been-- No, it's a good thing you didn't come."

Cassandra threw him a glance and Hercules knew she had seen that flicker of pain cross Iolaus' face too. Making her tone light, she said, "Now tell me about Egypt. Is it really as strange as people say?"

Hercules looked at Iolaus, and they both started to laugh.

They were almost to the farm when Iolaus paused, cocking his head as he listened to the forest. The birdsong had ceased.

One brow lifted, Hercules glanced at his partner. "Something?" They had come across ambitious bandits on the way back from Epidaurus, but this close to Corinth it seemed unlikely.

Iolaus shook his head, frowning. "Not sure." He stepped off the path, moving through the brush and undergrowth of ferns.

Hercules followed, hanging back enough to keep from obscuring Iolaus' view of any tracks or signs, but moving off to the side so he could readily cover him if this was an ambush. Cassandra trailed a few steps behind him, peering ahead cautiously.

It grew darker as they moved further off the path. Iolaus couldn't spot any tracks but after a moment he heard crashing in the brush. It sounded like an animal caught in a pit trap.

He stepped past a lichen-covered boulder and found himself at the edge of a ditch, the bottom full of gravel, dead leaves, broken branches and other debris, carried there by runoff from the spring rains. Flailing around in the detritus at the bottom was a familiar green and black-clad figure, trapped under a heavy fallen branch. Iolaus snorted. "Long time no see."

Autolycus thrashed wildly, then spotted Iolaus. He shook his fist at the sky and declared sourly, "Oh, wonderful. Thank you, O Great Zeus! An audience was all I needed."

"Autolycus." Hercules emerged from the trees and eyed the situation. "What happened?"

Autolycus twitched around, glaring up at him. "It was Perseus, what do you think? He's got it in for me now, but the King of Thieves is not easy prey." His eyes fell on Cassandra. "You! What are you doing here?"

"Me?" Cassandra regarded him, one brow lifted. Autolycus had been some help recovering Daedalus' stolen inventions, but it had been mostly against his will. "I'm travelling along the path like a normal person. What are you doing? Surely there isn't anything to steal at the bottom of that ditch."

"So Perseus did this." Iolaus sat on his heels, studying the scene skeptically. "Then why do you still have your head?"

Autolycus gestured theatrically, as best he could from his current position. "It was an incredible battle, one for the bards--"

Hercules gazed up thoughtfully, eyeing the recent damage to the branches above. "I think you fell out of this tree."

"Oh, I see." Cassandra peered upward. "That branch near the top. He must have slammed into the trunk--"

Autolycus glared up at them. "All right, all right, can you stop rejoicing at my misery long enough to give me a hand here?"

***

Autolycus insisted he was well enough to walk, or at least hobble, then fell down twice trying to reach the path. Walking along with Cassandra, Hercules let Iolaus deal with it as payback for all the times he had done the same thing himself.

They reached the top of the hill where the trees thinned out and Hercules stopped for that first view of the house, nestled in the center of the valley with the animal pens, outbuildings and tilled fields spread out around it. Vines climbed its porch, nearly all the way up to the three gabled windows in the roof, and Alcmene's flower garden occupied a good section of the yard in front. "That's home," he told Cassandra, knowing he sounded foolishly fond of it.

"It's lovely," she said, smiling. "What a wonderful garden. And is that Jason?"

Hercules looked again and spotted the former King of Corinth standing near the barn, talking to another man. Iolaus, he thought, recognizing him instantly, despite the distance and the fact that his back was turned to them. That is, the other Iolaus. The former Jester had cut his hair short and wore brown pants, low boots and a dark red shirt. The last time Hercules had seen the man he had noted the resemblance was now more apparent at a distance than it was at close range. He glanced self-consciously at his Iolaus, just drawing even with him as he helped a grumbling Autolycus along. His partner looked up for that first glimpse of the house and froze. He said under his breath, "Oh, great."

Cassandra shaded her eyes. "Your brother?" she asked Iolaus.

"Uh, no."

"No?" Cassandra frowned, squinting.

"It's a long story," Hercules interposed carefully.

Autolycus, leaning heavily on Iolaus and immune to tact, said, "While Blondie Alpha here was pushing up daisies, the Big Guy went to some other world and picked up Blondie Beta see, and-- Ow!"

"Sorry," Iolaus said grimly.

"And I'll explain later," Hercules added firmly.

As he started down the hill, he heard Iolaus mutter, "I've heard that before."

***

As they reached the yard, Iolaus said, "Jason," and nodded a greeting to his duplicate, but his attitude made it clear that Autolycus was too cumbersome a burden to stop and talk. He dragged a protesting King of Thieves up to the house and inside. The other Iolaus watched him, then looked up at Hercules, his expression rueful. "Another bad time?"

"Oh, no, he just...ah.... This is Cassandra, an old friend." Hercules flicked a careful glance at the other Iolaus and saw from his open expression that he didn't recognize her. The man's past made introducing him to friends problematic; Hercules hated the idea of unintentionally forcing him to confront the duplicates of people who had tortured him in his own world. "Cassandra, this is Jason of the Argonauts, and Iolaus."

"Cassandra." Jason nodded to her with a smile and kissed her hand, then turned to Hercules, lifting his brows. "Have to get rough with Autolycus?"

"No. Perseus was chasing him and he fell out of a tree."

Cassandra turned to the other Iolaus. "So...Hercules said you come from another world?"

"Uh, yes." He threw an uncertain look at Hercules, who nodded at him to continue. "It's a long story...."

Jason used the distraction to draw Hercules aside to ask, "How is Iolaus?"

"He's fine."

Jason eyed him sharply. "Really?"

Under that scrutiny, Hercules admitted, "I don't know."

"He talked to Asclepius while you were in Epidaurus? Did that help?"

Hercules let out a long breath. "I...don't know."

"Hmm." Jason rubbed his chin. "Well, the reason Iolaus came back is that he wants to talk to Iolaus."

Hercules paused a moment to reflect that even for a demigod, his life had taken some strange turns to get to a point where that sentence made sense. He nodded. "I thought so."

"What are the chances of that actually happening?"

"I don't know."

"That's what I thought." Jason considered a moment. "What if he left it for now, came back and tried again later?"

"A couple of years later?" Hercules suggested, only partly joking. He shook his head. "No, if he really wants to talk to him about this, he should try to do it now."

"You're probably right." Jason glanced back at the house. "He's not coming out again, is he?"

"No, I wouldn't count on that." Hercules let out his breath. "I'd better go talk to him."

***

Iolaus deposited Autolycus on the couch with the concentrated air of a lion delivering prey for the rest of the pride, then dumped his pack and bow down on the table.

"So what's the deal with you and Blondie Beta?" Autolycus demanded as he unlaced his boot.

"Nothing," Iolaus snapped, wandering aimlessly around the room. It was only the second time they had been back here since Egypt, since Sumeria, and it gave him the same ache of familiarity. The round hearth, the long plank table with carved chairs, the carpets on the stone flag floor and the chests and cabinets and painted pottery standing against the walls, not one thing had changed. Belatedly remembering Autolycus had been on hand for his initial surprise encounter with the other Iolaus, he added gruffly, "That was just-- I'm over that."

"Ah. Yeah. You look it." Autolycus eased his boot off and contemplated his bruised and swollen ankle with an air of grim resignation. Moron, he told himself bitterly. It's a fine day when the King of Thieves is waylaid by an injury a slack-jawed yokel could get tripping over a pile of cow dung. "Don't worry, I'll remove myself from the stage immediately so you all can get on with the drama."

"What?" Iolaus had also remembered what he was looking for, and sat on his heels to open the carved chest where Jason kept the medical supplies. Rummaging in it, he pulled out a length of linen bandage and stood, glaring at Autolycus. "You're staying here, at least until you can walk. Why did you think we pulled you out of that ditch and dragged you here, you idiot?"

Autolycus caught the bandage Iolaus tossed him, a look of startled, embarrassed gratitude crossing his face before he hastily leaned over to wrap his ankle. Flushing, he blustered, "Well, the King of Thieves doesn't usually grace just any dwelling with his presence, but in this case I'll make an exception."

Iolaus watched this performance, thinking, He really expected us to just kick him out. It didn't surprise him; Autolycus had always led a solitary existence, depending on no one, not even his few friends. Iolaus supposed it had its advantages, though the loneliness must outweigh most of those, whatever they were. You'd think he'd know by now that Hercules wouldn't leave...Perseus in a ditch to be caught by Perseus. He winced as that innocuous thought caused a cold chill to sink into his stomach; he was learning to realize that meant something had stirred a buried Dahak memory, though he couldn't consciously recall it.

"So what about--" Autolycus looked up, but Iolaus had left the room.

***

Finding only Autolycus in the main room, Hercules had a moment to wonder if Iolaus had headed out the back door and kept going, then heard movement in one of the bedrooms.

Iolaus was in the room they had been using since coming back from Egypt, crouched on the floor, pretending to look for something in his pack.

The room had been a barren guestroom, relieved only by a blue and black patterned blanket woven by Alcmene and an oak chest carved with grape and laurel leaves. Now it looked as if they had moved in permanently, or at least that Iolaus had. Their packs were piled in a corner and the battered old cabinet was open, revealing Iolaus' hunting bow and a smaller goathorn one he had acquired on the way back from Epidaurus, with quivers hanging on the pegs and Iolaus' scabbarded sword propped against the wall. Hercules leaned against the doorframe, waiting.

He had to admit this particular aspect of the situation was all his fault. He hadn't told Iolaus about the other Iolaus' presence in this world. It hadn't been intentional; Hercules hadn't seen Iolaus' duplicate in a long time. Their paths had diverged before Hercules had discovered that Iolaus wasn't in Elysium where he had expected him to be. In Egypt, after Kheper had returned Iolaus to life, he hadn't thought about the other man at all. Then they had returned to Greece, and Iolaus had unexpectedly run into his duplicate, and things had gone to Tartarus in a handbasket for a while.

At the time, Hercules hadn't thought about what the situation would look like to an outside observer, that it would seem as if he thought his partner was interchangeable with a man who wasn't even a warrior. Or that Iolaus would realize it all too well, and that his sense of identity would be threatened by it.

What Hercules had found most distressing about it was that unless deliberately provoked to anger, Iolaus had seemed inclined to take the whole thing lying down.

Finally Iolaus, still rummaging in the pack, asked with a studied effort to sound casual, "So. Why is he back here?"

"He just wants to talk to you, that's all."

"About what?" Iolaus demanded, obviously giving up on the effort to sound casual.

"I don't know." Hercules let out a resigned breath. I have the feeling I'm going to get very tired of saying that. It would be nice if somebody asked me a question I could answer.

Iolaus got to his feet, facing him with a faint air of desperation. "I don't have anything to say to him. He's your friend. I don't know him."

"Maybe he has something to say to you." Hercules planted his hands on his hips and said reasonably, "Look, you're overreacting."

Iolaus shook his head, his lips pressed together, but after a moment his sense of humor began to emerge and a reluctant smile tugged at his mouth. "Me? Overreact?"

"Just a tad." Hercules rested his hands on Iolaus' shoulders and squeezed reassuringly. "Maybe he doesn't have anything to say to you, maybe he just needs to see who you are. When he was here before, he didn't exactly get to see us at our best."

Iolaus winced, running a hand through his hair. "Oh, thanks for reminding me."

"So just relax." Hercules shrugged. "It's only going to be for one night, he told Jason he wants to leave for Athens tomorrow."

"One night." Iolaus nodded to himself. "I can act normal for one night."

Hercules' brow creased. "You are normal."

"That's what I meant," Iolaus assured him.

***

Hercules found dinner a little strained.

Perhaps unnerved by the tension he sensed, the other Iolaus had fallen back into the habit of unconsciously checking Hercules for disapproval before he did or said anything. Iolaus was the only one who seemed to notice, and he viewed it with an expression that, fortunately, only Hercules could interpret. It's that slight droop to his left eyebrow that's making me uncomfortable, Hercules thought, tearing off a hunk of bread. I can't decide whether it means he's about to burst out laughing or hit me in the face with the main course. He wished Iolaus would just pick one and end the suspense.

Autolycus, whether he was trying to help smooth over a tense situation or just seizing the opportunity presented, kept the conversation moving with wild tales of his own adventures. "And then the jinn, having made me a prisoner in its hidden fortress, told me if I didn't rescue the Caliph's daughter from the man-eating cyclops--"

Jason snorted. Cassandra shook her head wryly and took a sip of wine. "You are incorrigible."

"Hey!" Autolycus glared in mock outrage. "Do you want to hear the story or not?"

"Oh yes, I do," she admitted readily, setting her goblet aside. "It's better than the last novel I read. Please go on."

At least, Hercules thought, if he ever gives up thieving he can make a good living as a bard.

Dinner was nearly over when Hercules heard a horse's hooves crunch on the gravel out in the yard. The front door was open to the evening breeze and he got up to look out, frowning. The man reining in near the garden wore Corinthian livery. "Jason, I think it's for you."

With a preoccupied expression, Jason pushed his chair back and stood, tossing his napkin on the table. "I bet this is the damn Parthians again."

As Jason stepped out onto the porch to greet the new arrival, Hercules explained to the others, "It's a messenger from Corinth, from my brother Iphicles."

His partner got up, coming around the table to watch as the messenger led his horse to the water trough near the barn and Jason unrolled the parchment the man had just given him. "You think it's trouble?" he asked Hercules, trying to sound worried rather than hopeful.

Hercules gave him a quelling look. "I don't think so. They've just been negotiating with the Parthians and Iphicles probably needs Jason's advice."

Iolaus folded his arms, disgruntled. "Oh." Damn.

***

To Hercules' relief, after dinner things were more relaxed.

Jason had been acting as one of Iphicles' advisors for some time and the message said that the former King of Corinth was needed for an unexpected meeting called by the Parthian ambassador in the morning. Jason had decided to leave tonight, loaning the messenger a fresh horse and pausing only to pick up a travelling cloak.

Having successfully kept the topic of conversation firmly on himself most of the night, Autolycus then started to interrogate the other Iolaus on what the Sovereign's world was like. Seated in Jason's armchair near the fire, Hercules debated coming to the man's defense, but decided that if he couldn't fend off Autolycus on his own, it was time for him to learn.

His partner didn't interrupt either; Iolaus was sitting on the floor on the other side of the hearth fletching arrows, listening to Autolycus' questions with only an occasional snort. Cassandra sat curled up on the bench behind him, leaning on a cushion, smiling in bemusement. The firelight glinted off Iolaus' tangled blond mane and her rich dark hair, casting them both in red and yellow shadows. Hercules found himself trying to remember the last time he had been part of such a warm domestic moment. Too long, he thought, smiling ruefully to himself. Far too long.

With a wry expression, Iolaus lifted an arrow, fitting a feather to the end of the wooden shaft. "It's not complicated, Auto, just what is so hard for you to get?" he said finally.

Ignoring him, Autolycus leaned toward the other Iolaus, still seated at the table, saying, "So everybody in your world is the opposite of what they are here, right?"

The other Iolaus nodded cautiously. "Right."

"And you've never seen me before?" Autolycus seemed to find this incredible.

"Not there, no."

Autolycus considered this, then nodded wisely to himself. "Ah, I get it. It's so simple I should have thought of it before." He gestured triumphantly. "I'm probably the undercover King of Thieves."

"Autolycus," Cassandra began in amused frustration, "That's not the way it works, can you not understand that? You'd be something entirely different, like a warrior or a fisherman or a...a tailor or something."

"Maybe you're the King of Obscure Thieves. Or just the King of Obscurity," Iolaus contributed.

Autolycus gave him a sideways glare. "Look, Sidekick, there is no way in Tartarus I'm an obscure anything anywhere. Why, I'll have you know--"

The sudden knock at the door made everyone jump.

Hercules tensed and saw Iolaus and Autolycus were suddenly silent and alert, and that the other Iolaus had flinched violently. Hercules got to his feet, reflecting that Cassandra, not being a travelling warrior or thief or an ex-prisoner of the Sovereign, lived in a world where people came to the door after dark for perfectly legitimate reasons. Jason, now living in that world too, probably had visitors all the time.

At worse, it was probably Perseus in quest of Autolycus. Now that would make for an interesting evening. Hercules opened the door to the cool damp night.

The woman standing there in the flicker of firelight from the lamps, wrapped in a plaid travelling cloak, was a wholly unexpected sight.

"Morrigan." He stared. Of all the people he had expected to see. "What are you doing here?"

She looked up at him, her face shadowed. "I came to see you."

Hercules nodded slightly. "I meant, in Greece. I didn't realize a ship from Eire had arrived in Corinth."

"Same reason." Morrigan added a trace self-consciously, "My ship landed in Lechaeum." She gave him a thin smile that was probably meant to be friendly. He realized she was just as uncomfortable if not more so than he was. So why is she here?

She looked past him, her eyes moving around the room. Cassandra was puzzled, Autolycus was craning his neck to see. Iolaus had set the arrows aside and gotten to his feet, hands planted on his hips, watching with guarded confusion, probably at Hercules' attitude. His brows lifted minutely as Hercules' gaze crossed his, silently asking, I thought she was your friend? Hercules gave him a faint head shake, telling him he would explain later. The other Iolaus still sat at the table, with that immobile expression that said he sensed uncertainty and was trying to be part of the furniture. Hercules looked back at Morrigan to see her eyes skip over Cassandra and Autolycus and move from one Iolaus to the other. Suddenly realizing she knew nothing of what had happened in the past couple of months, he began, "Ah, that's a long story--"

She interrupted, "I had it in a letter from Nebula."

Caught offguard, Iolaus flinched minutely at the name, and Morrigan's gaze settled on him.

"I see." Hercules felt a sudden qualm that had nothing to do with his discomfort at being unexpectedly confronted with an ex-lover. His voice hardening, he said, "And you just came to discuss old times?"

Morrigan focussed on him, putting on a painfully artificial smile. "Yes."

Hercules stepped back to let her inside. "This is Iolaus, and Iolaus, and our friend Cassandra, and that's Autolycus."

"Charmed, I'm sure," Autolycus put in, eyeing her warily. It was obvious he had picked up on the tense undercurrent too. He gestured to his injured leg. "Forgive me for not getting up."

Morrigan looked him over thoughtfully and didn't reply.

Hercules cleared his throat, leaning to look out the door. "That's your horse? I'll put it in the barn for you."

As Hercules stepped out, Cassandra smiled politely and asked, "You came all the way from Eire? How was your trip?"

"The sea was rough." Morrigan sat on the bench near the door, letting her plaid slip off her shoulders. She wore leather armor beneath it, over a short underdress. Iolaus watched her, puzzled. Slim as a rail, her red hair cropped short, she wasn't at all like he had pictured her. He had been expecting somebody more physically like Deineira, Serena, or Rheanna, the three women Hercules had fallen head over heels in love with: tall, voluptuous, and jaw-droppingly beautiful. And sitting there on the hard wooden seat, she didn't look like someone who had just come to a friend's house with a warm hearth after a long hard trip. She looked like someone who was forced to camp in enemy territory.

After a moment it became apparent that "rough sea" was all Morrigan was going to say on the subject. "Yes, it often is." Cassandra shifted uncomfortably but tried again gamely, "Have you been in Greece long?"

Morrigan looked around the homey room, her expression closed and stoney. "Not long."

"I see." Cassandra lifted an ironic brow, sitting back and folding her arms.

It was obvious she felt she had been roundly snubbed and Iolaus couldn't blame her. "Uh...." Taking a seat on the bench next to Autolycus, he searched desperately for a topic of conversation. We've done 'how was your trip' and 'have you been here long' and those fell flat. It didn't leave a lot of options. "Did you travel all that way alone?"

"I'm used to travelling alone." Morrigan turned her cool eyes on him. "Except for the time I travelled with Hercules. It was a change for him to have a companion who could," She paused delicately, and gave him a cold little smile, "Keep up with him."

Autolycus, finishing off his goblet of wine, choked and sputtered. Iolaus stared at her, caught flat-footed by the sheer unexpectedness of it. Then the implications of the insult hit and he gritted his teeth, barely suppressing an observation on Hercules' normal taste for women with breasts and that Morrigan must have been quite a change for the demigod in that department too. In the silence Cassandra said dryly, "Excuse me? What can you mean by that."

It had been meant as an elegant way of saying, my, aren't you rude, but Morrigan looked at her, faint lines of impatience creasing her forehead. She obviously expected the other woman to take her snub and shut up. "I'm a demigod as well."

Cassandra's smile was almost painfully thin. "How nice for you."

Morrigan turned back to Iolaus, waiting for a reaction. Forcing himself to take a breath first, he said quietly, "Herc has never had any complaints."

"Ah." Morrigan eyed him deliberately again. "The first time I met you, I thought he might have a few."

Iolaus felt heat streak through his body, settling in an angry flush in his cheeks. His eyes narrowed and his jaw set, and he said gratingly, "We haven't met. That was Dahak."

He was distantly conscious of Autolycus' sudden stillness, Cassandra's consternation, and the fact that the other Iolaus' appalled silence was so complete the man must have stopped breathing some time ago. Morrigan held his gaze, then said softly, "My mistake."

Hercules led the horse into an empty stall in the barn. It was a calm-tempered farmhorse and nuzzled him affectionately while he got her settled for the night. As he rubbed her down he observed that she hadn't been ridden long. Certainly not from Lechaeum, the next port over from Corinth, unless Morrigan had changed horses at the village, or stopped there for most of the afternoon for the animal to rest. And she didn't do that, because we'd have run into her.

Maybe recent events had made him paranoid, but he didn't like unexplained things.

Crossing the dark yard back to the house, he reflected that maybe Morrigan was just here to ask his help with something and as a side benefit, to tell him once again why she had left him. Lucky me, he thought with wry bitterness. Morrigan had explained her actions but leaving him in that secretive way had put paid to any serious friendship between them.

Hercules paused in the flicker of the hanging bowl lamps on the porch to scrape the mud off his boots, then stepped inside. Everyone was oddly silent. His eyes went to his partner, hoping for a silent assessment of the situation, but Iolaus avoided his gaze, his jaw locked and his cheeks dark with what Hercules readily interpreted as suppressed rage. He took in the rest of the room, noting Morrigan's bland expression, that Autolycus appeared to have had some sort of minor accident with his wine and was muttering darkly to himself, that Cassandra's face was cold, and that the other Iolaus was sunk in his chair, his posture indicating that where he really wanted to be was under the table. Right.

"Glad to see everyone is getting along," Hercules said as he took his seat again. Morrigan threw a startled glance at him but none of the others seemed to think the irony worth commenting on. He smiled blandly back at her. He hadn't told Nebula about the other Iolaus being here. He had written her from Egypt, not long after Kheper had brought Iolaus back to life, when he hadn't seen the other Iolaus for months and his existence was the furthest thing from Hercules' mind. Someone not knowing the real story might have assumed the two men were just closely related, as Cassandra had; they didn't look exactly alike anymore and anomalies such as having identical scars on their foreheads weren't noticeable unless you were looking for them. But Morrigan had seemed well-acquainted with the facts.

And he was going to find out why.

***

The main room might have been a sinking ship for the speed with which everyone deserted it. Iolaus managed to escape on the pretext of helping a badly limping Autolycus, whose leg had stiffened up from sitting so long. Other Iolaus had used the distraction to flee into the kitchen and Cassandra had simply followed them without bothering to make up an excuse.

Once they were in the safety of the back hallway and out of earshot, Cassandra said grimly, "Well, that was...different."

Iolaus let out his breath, rubbing his forehead. He was still twitching with the urge to yell or punch somebody. "Yeah, she's not exactly his type, is she."

"That's one spooky dame," Autolycus agreed, propping himself against the wall and folding his arms. He eyed Iolaus sharply. "What's her problem, Curly?"

Iolaus shook his head, wishing he could answer that. "I don't have any idea."

Hercules came down the hall then, his face preoccupied. He stopped when he saw his friends in a conspiratorial huddle. One brow lifted inquiringly, he said, "Problems?"

Autolycus snorted. "Well, big guy, if you really want to know--"

"Auto, you need to get off that leg," Iolaus interrupted, knowing Autolycus was about to tell Hercules about Morrigan's little Dahak dig at him. He would rather his partner not know about that, at least until he had a chance to figure out the reason for it himself; Hercules' other wives and girlfriends, even Nemesis who had initially been ordered by Hera to kill him, had all been good friends and he had no idea how to deal with one who hated him on first sight.

Cassandra caught his expression and added hurriedly, "He's right, Autolycus, if you keep hobbling around like this you'll be that much worse in the morning. Come along, I'll help you to your room." She seized Autolycus' arm before he could object.

"Why, this is so sudden--Ow!"

As Cassandra hauled the King of Thieves away, Iolaus considered Hercules. He had given up on trying to read the undercurrents between the demigod and Morrigan and decided to just ask. "You want me to sleep with Autolycus tonight?"

Hercules stared blankly at him. "What?"

Iolaus rolled his eyes, explaining pointedly, "So you can have the room?"

"Oh. Oh, no. No, that's the last thing I need."

Iolaus ran a hand over his face, shaking his head in annoyed resignation. At least she already hates me and this can't make it any worse. "Will you tell me what's going on with her?"

Hercules looked thoughtful. "I'm not sure yet."

Iolaus threw his arms in the air. "Fine. I'm going to bed."

***

Hercules came back into the main room, finding Morrigan on her feet, studying the Eye of Horus amulet where it hung from a hook over the fireplace mantle. The blue and green faience caught the light like gemstones. It was the one Kheper had used in the ritual that had returned Iolaus to life; he had given it to Iolaus the day they left Egypt. Hercules took a seat on the bench, saying, "You want to tell me why you're really here?"

She looked at him sharply, stepping away from the hearth. "Why...just as I said."

Hercules watched her a moment. "You're a bad liar, Morrigan."

She lifted her brows challengingly, but her heart wasn't in it. "You call me a liar?"

"Nebula may have written you, but she didn't tell you about Iolaus from the Sovereign's world coming here, because I didn't tell her."

She wouldn't meet his gaze. "Very well. The Chief Druid scryed it."

"There are more druids in Eire now?"

"Yes, others were chosen to replace those Dahak killed. The new Chief Druid saw you go to Egypt, saw you return to Greece." Her face grim, she jerked her head toward the back of the house. "Saw both of them."

Hercules frowned. He wasn't sure he liked the idea of the Chief Druid being able to watch him like that. In fact, he was pretty sure he didn't like it at all. "So why are you here?"

Morrigan took a seat opposite him and said seriously, "I was afraid for you."

Hercules frowned. "Afraid for me? Why?" He stared at her as realization gradually dawned. "Not Iolaus?" It was so ridiculous he could hardly believe she was serious. He could hardly believe she had the gall to speak like this to him. He said flatly, "You've got to be joking."

She shook her head. "Bringing him back to life. Nebula did write me about that. It was too easy, Hercules."

"There was nothing easy about it. It was grueling, and painful, and it was nothing compared to what he had already gone through. When I found out where he was I had to free him. Asking Kheper to bring him back--" He shook his head helplessly. "That was part luck, part wishful thinking."

She leaned forward, saying urgently, "But don't you see, this is exactly the kind of trick Dahak would pull. It knows that you would want him back so blindly that it could fool you."

Hercules pressed his lips together, exasperated. Not this again. "It never fooled me to begin with, Morrigan. I knew it wasn't Iolaus."

She eyed him with pity. "Are you so sure of that?"

"Morrigan." Hercules stared at the darkened ceiling beams. Anger was started to overcome exasperation. "You have to decide whether you think I'm an idiot because Dahak was Iolaus or if you think I'm an idiot because Dahak wasn't Iolaus. Arguing both points at the same time doesn't work." She looked blank and he rubbed his brow, trying to hold on to his patience, reminding himself that Morrigan had never had an education that included logic and rhetoric. "Even if you think I'm that blind a fool, Kheper would have known if--"

"A foreign sorcerer." Morrigan shook her head, dismissing it. "Is that who you've put your trust in?"

At least he actually listened when I talked and even let me finish a sentence occasionally. "Not entirely. I've put my trust in myself and my own judgement."

"But how can you be sure?"

Hercules closed his eyes briefly, trying to control his temper. That's where the judgement comes in. "Morrigan," he said through gritted teeth, "What is the point of this?"

"I'm concerned about you."

"You don't have to be." Hercules abruptly got to his feet. The conversation seemed pointless and he was too angry to humor her. "If you'd like to stay for the night, Jason's in Corinth, and you can use his room."

She blinked up at him, startled. Hercules realized in that moment that she had expected him to make an attempt to get her into his bed. If she wanted to keep that option open, she should have picked a more honest way to end the relationship, he thought grimly. But he didn't want to hurt her, and he was guiltily searching for a way to soften the cold offer, when she said slowly, "The woman, Cassandra. She's yours?"

Hercules' guilt vanished. "She's my friend," he said pointedly, managing to stop before he added, it's a common occurrence, here in civilization. In another moment he was going to be doing his impression of the Sovereign, a complete bastard but with more wittily sarcastic remarks, and he hated that. He told himself it was just that Morrigan was used to wild Eire, where a woman who wasn't a warrior wouldn't be able to travel alone.

Morrigan's face hardened anyway. "Thank you for the kind offer." She stood up, looking around the firelit room. Her expression changed to honest confusion, and she said, "I've never understood the way you live."

Hercules found himself looking around the room too. The hearthfire needed to be banked for the night but someone had tidied away the cups and plates from the table and picked up the fallen pillows and cushions; probably the other Iolaus, slipping it in during the confusion of the general retreat to the back of the house. "What's to understand?"

She looked up at him, her eyes hooded. She said finally, "The way you live among mortals. Follow their ways." She shook her head helplessly. "We're not like them."

He regarded her for a long moment. You taught her to follow her heart and do good. You never managed to teach her to be human. Morrigan was a demigod and in Eire she lived like one, alone, her daughter fostered with the druids, helping and fighting for the people of the villages but never being one of them. That life of isolation wasn't one he had ever chosen or ever felt the least inclination toward, especially after spending a short lonely time as a god. He said carefully, "I am. You could be too."

"I can't." She looked away, her mouth hardening into a thin line. "We'll talk again."

Managing not to say, Oh joy aloud, he showed her Jason's room. She gave him one last enigmatic look and closed the door. Still torn between anger and a kind of vastly irritated pity, Hercules went to bank the hearth fire, poking at it with a good deal more force than necessary. It would be wonderful if a villager would appear right now begging help against a rampaging monster or warlord, but for once that didn't happen. Well, he consoled himself, maybe one will show up in the morning.

He turned around and jumped slightly, unexpectedly finding himself facing the other Iolaus. The ex-Jester might be helplessly inept in woods or fields, but on plank or stone floors he could move in complete silence. "Oh, there you are," Hercules said to cover his slight start.

The man looked up at him worriedly. "Did she tell you why she was here?"

"She said she wants to make sure I'm all right." Hercules read the doubt in his expression. "What?"

He glanced back toward the hall doorway, then lowered his voice a little. "She's up to something."

"I wouldn't say that. At the moment."

The man gave him a look that managed to combine respectful acquiescence with a conviction that Hercules was hopelessly naive, and headed for the kitchen.

Hercules sighed. One normal night at home with friends, was it so much to ask? He made it into the hall before Autolycus accosted him in the doorway, saying in a low voice, "Hey, Big Guy, Blondie Beta there is right, something's rotten in Damascus."

Hercules rubbed his forehead wearily and stepped past him. "I can't accuse her of anything until I get some kind of idea of what to accuse her of."

"Due process never stops you when it comes to accusing me!" Autolycus called after him.

"You're always guilty." Hercules opened the door to his room, the dying fire showing him Iolaus sprawled on the bed face down, the tumbled blanket pushed down around his hips. His partner's clothes and boots were in a pile on the floor and a couple of discarded pillows lay nearby. Relieved to be able to postpone further discussion until morning, Hercules sat down on the bench near the hearth to pull his boots off.

Iolaus immediately twitched around, wide awake. He sat up on one elbow, demanding, "Well? What's going on?"

"She's spending the night in Jason's room." Hercules let out a weary breath. "I'm still not sure exactly why she's here."

Iolaus lifted his brows. "What, you think she came here for your help with something but she won't tell you what it is? That doesn't make sense."

Hercules absently tapped his boot against his leg, thinking that over. Iolaus was making the natural assumption that Morrigan had come here for help. So why didn't I make that assumption? Because as soon as he had opened the door to her he had felt that something was wrong. "She wasn't entirely truthful about Nebula's letter, and if she landed at Lechaeum she didn't come straight here." Those little evasions had just confirmed his initial misgiving.

"So she's lying to you? Why?" Iolaus sat up, impatient. "Herc, what is it?"

Hercules looked at him for a long moment, then stood, moving over to sit next to him on the bed. He admitted reluctantly, "It's you. She's here about you." He added, "At least that's what she said."

Iolaus frowned, wary. "What about me?" If that Dahak line had been more than just a cheap shot.... "She thinks.... She can't really think...." He shook his head helplessly. "What, that I'm Dahak?"

"No! But...." Hercules gestured in exasperation. "She never really understood about what happened. I thought she believed me when I told her that it wasn't you, but...I realized she was just humoring me. It's so frustrating. How can you argue with someone who is so insufferably certain she's right?"

"Beats me." Iolaus propped his folded arms on his knees, disgruntled. He didn't even feel like making the obligatory 'It's not like I ever have that problem' dig at Hercules. "So what is she here to do? To warn you about me?"

"Apparently." His brow creased in thought, Hercules stared absently at nothing.

Well she's done that, can she leave now? Iolaus wanted to say, but managed not to. Maybe she was just trying to help Hercules. But in many ways the pain of his experience was still just too fresh. He didn't want to think of it now, and he sure as Tartarus didn't want to have to listen to accusations that he was out to get Hercules somehow.

Hercules read his expression and squeezed his shoulder, giving him an affectionate shake. "Hey, don't let this bother you."

"Oh no, I'm not bothered." Iolaus did his best to sound convincing. "When did she say she was leaving?"

Hercules grimaced. "She didn't."

***

Breakfast the next morning wasn't much fun either. It was just Iolaus, Hercules, Autolycus and Morrigan. The other Iolaus, apparently too canny to allow himself to be trapped in a room with this group again, had eaten early and was sitting out on the porch ostensibly reading a scroll. Cassandra had come in pale with her forehead creased in pain to brew some tea, explaining that she had had a disturbed night due to bad dreams.

"What kind of dreams?" Hercules asked her sharply.

Cassandra smiled and shook her head. "I'm not certain yet. I'll let you know if I can tell anything later." Carrying her mug, she vanished back down the hall.

Iolaus saw Morrigan's lips thin with contempt as she spooned her porridge, apparently putting Cassandra's illness down to weak female nerves or something equally annoying. He managed to keep his snarl sub-vocal.

Autolycus, watching Morrigan with hooded eyes, obviously felt no such restraint. He stroked his mustache and with just an edge of sarcasm said, "You'll have to excuse Cassandra. Being able to tell the big guy ahead of time where the doom is likely to happen is a worthwhile job but a little hard on the constitution."

Hercules, occupied with spreading a piece of bread with honey, flicked a thoughtful glance at him.

Morrigan set her spoon down and regarded Autolycus with cold eyes. "You're a thief," she said flatly.

"Ah, true, but far, far more than that." Autolycus smiled winningly. "I'm the King of Thieves. There's quite a difference."

Her face was cool with contempt. "A difference? You're a common criminal."

"Oh, there's nothing common about me." Autolycus lifted a water goblet to himself in a toast. "At least, that's what my public and all the ladies tell me and who am I to argue?"

Iolaus bit his tongue to suppress a snort.

Morrigan didn't deign to acknowledge it. She looked at Hercules. "I don't understand why you allow him in your home."

Hercules regarded her for long enough to make most people distinctly uncomfortable, his expression betraying nothing, then pointedly went back to his food. "He's a friend." His tone put a period to the discussion.

Ignoring it, Morrigan said, "I can't approve your taste in...friends."

Iolaus looked up and saw she had delivered that line while looking straight at him. "He's never killed anybody," he said shortly, feeling as if he didn't say something, the top of his head was going to explode. She's got me defending Autolycus' honor. How ironic is that? But if he couldn't defend himself he might as well defend Auto. "He steals from warlords and rich merchants, mostly. He doesn't prey on his own people."

He realized he had inadvertently scored a bull's eye as Morrigan's face went white, then her cheeks flushed scarlet. Iolaus suddenly remembered what Hercules had told him of Morrigan's past, of how Hercules had helped her reform and what she had done before then, and thought in self-disgust, Oh, crap. If you were a mute your life would be a lot less complicated. He wasn't sorry, she had asked for it, but he didn't like backhanded insults, even unintentional ones uttered by himself. He said stiffly, "Sorry."

Morrigan said nothing. The moment stretched. The only one still eating, Hercules lifted his brows at his plate but made no other comment. Iolaus saw the other Iolaus, sitting outside the front door, lean over for a cautious look inside, curiosity overcoming his timidity.

Then Autolycus nudged Iolaus with an elbow and demanded, "Curly, pass the olives," and the meal dragged on.

***

Feeling an urge to get some air and some room to breathe it in, Iolaus escaped as soon as he reasonably could. He stopped in their room for his hunting bow and quiver, then went out the back of the house. The day was a little overcast and the breeze cool, with the scent of rain. He crossed the open yard, past the square well with the wooden roof and bucket winch. To one side was the gray stone bathhouse and on the other the shed that housed the forge and the stone-walled pig pen. Weaving his way through the rows of the vegetable garden and past the cow pond, he crossed the field to a stand of trees. Years ago a rough target had been carved in the one with the biggest trunk. He dumped the quiver in the grass, strung the bow, and proceeded to occupy his thoughts with distance, wind shear, and driving arrow after arrow into the scarred wood.

After a time he became aware that someone was watching him, and the prickle on his neck told him that it wasn't with the benign interest that Hercules, Autolycus, Cassandra, Jason's elderly housekeeper, the fieldhands, the kid who took care of the goats, or even his double would regard him.

An arrow notched, he deliberately turned to look and spotted Morrigan immediately. She was standing across the field on the far side of the vegetable patch, in the shadow of the forge, her red hair a bright spot against the brown and green. Realizing she had been seen, she started toward him. Iolaus held out hope that it just looked like she was coming toward him, that she was really going back to the house, but had to give it up when she crossed onto the path through the field. "Oh, brother," he muttered under his breath, and slammed the arrow into the tree. You would think the woman would have taken the opportunity to tell Hercules all about how his partner was secretly evil or whatever it is she was determined to tell him, but no, she had to come after Iolaus instead.

She stopped about ten paces away from him and he ignored her, taking another arrow from the quiver at his feet and notching it. "Well," she said finally. "Hercules told me your...tale."

Iolaus sighted carefully along the arrow at the wooden target, then let fly. He turned to regard her, not falling for the bait though the implication that he was a liar made his blood pound. "And?" he prompted quietly.

She paced a few steps, hands behind her back. "He didn't say how you came to end up in this Egyptian hell."

"He didn't say because I don't know."

She threw a skeptical glance at him. "So you just happened to appear there when Hercules fetched up in Egypt."

"He went there to look for me."

"He was headed to Sumeria to look for you," she corrected archly, "Not Egypt. That was an accident."

Iolaus turned away, notching another arrow. "Accidents happen."

"I think it was no accident. I think he was lured there by someone with these false dreams of the friend who betrayed him--" She stopped abruptly, staring down at the arrow that had suddenly blossomed in the dry grass at her feet.

Iolaus said tightly, "If I was Dahak, believe me, you'd know by now."

She looked at him, her cool gaze turning speculative. "I realize that. Perhaps you're telling the truth, and you really don't know."

"Don't know what?" Iolaus demanded in exasperation. He knew it was a mistake a moment later when Morrigan smiled enigmatically and walked away.

Iolaus watched her go, eyes narrowed. Swearing under his breath, he strode over to yank the arrow out of the ground. He collected his quiver and the other arrows in a slow fume, not sure if he was more angry at Morrigan for her provocative remarks or at himself for falling for them.

He stamped back to the yard, heading for the forge instead of the house, since he wasn't fit company for anybody right now. Stone workbenches lined the three walls of the little wooden building and there was a round hearth under the smokehole in the flat roof. He dumped the quiver on the workbench, cursing under his breath. Turning around, he nearly jumped out of his skin. The other Iolaus was standing in the doorway, watching him worriedly. "Don't believe her," the other man said.

"What?" Iolaus stared at his double, incredulous. "Were you listening?"

"No!" He stepped back, uneasily eyeing the bow Iolaus still held. "I don't want an arrow shot at my feet, but I saw her, I could tell she was telling you something--"

"It's none of your business."

"I know that. But you have to know she's lying to you about whatever it is."

Iolaus glared at him. "Why? Why would she do that?" he asked, mostly because he really wanted to know.

The man shook his head, apparently frustrated at Iolaus' naivete. "I can't believe you can't see it."

"What, to get close to Hercules? She is close to him. Or she was, or--" Iolaus flung his arms in the air helplessly. "I don't know what she wants, but she doesn't have to get me out of the way to get it. That's crazy."

"But we don't know anything about where she's from. She might not understand that." The man hesitated, then added, "Just...be careful. I've seen this happen before."

"Well, this is not that cockeyed hell world you come from," Iolaus snarled. "This isn't a palace, and there's no court intrigue."

"I know that, too." His double watched him a moment, then said cautiously, "I stayed because I didn't want you to be angry with...because of me."

"I'm not," Iolaus said shortly, looking away. He still has trouble saying Hercules' name. All those years of avoiding the Sovereign's name wouldn't be easily unlearned. And he's trying to warn you, and he's not the one implying that you're Dahak, or Dahak's buddy, or whatever it is she's implying. He relented, dragging an impatient hand through his hair, feeling guilty at his outburst. "It wasn't really you at all, it was Dahak, and what it did." Dahak had had a creative way of using irrelevant bits of truth to lie, to distort things, and it was hard to explain just how devastating that could be when it was your only reality. "It told me Hercules brought you here to replace me, because you were loyal and obedient where I was the opposite, that your existence here would wipe out any memory of me and that was what Hercules wanted."

The other man didn't reply. Iolaus looked up at him to see an expression of incredulous shock and dawning horror. "But that wasn't true," he protested.

"When Dahak says it, it doesn't matter if it's true." Iolaus was suddenly weary of the whole thing. "Look, it's my problem, it's just me being an idiot, it doesn't have anything to do with you. Hercules said you wanted to talk to me. What did you want to know?"

"No, that wasn't.... I just...." The other man looked away. "I found out what I wanted to know."

"Oh." Iolaus eyed him uncertainly. "Well, good."

***

While visiting Alcmene's grave after breakfast, Hercules had gotten occupied with weeding, something that could be a full time occupation in the spring, and then with solving a small drainage problem around the lilies. Cassandra came out to join him after a time with a basket, saying, "I thought I'd collect some herbs for dinner."

"Is your headache better?" Hercules asked her, sitting up on his knees in the gladiolus bed.

"No, but I'm going mad for something to do." She knelt next to a patch of rosemary. "I hate this, when I can feel a prophecy dream coming. I hate the waiting."

Hercules nodded, watching her with concern. "Try not to worry." His lips quirked. "The Peloponnese is probably not in danger of sinking."

"One would hope," Cassandra agreed dryly. She turned back to the herbs, but she was smiling now. "I'd certainly take it personally if it did." After a moment she glanced back at him and said cautiously, "Have you spoken to Morrigan?"

"Not really." Morrigan had spoken to him briefly after breakfast but Hercules didn't really call it a conversation. He had been hoping she would either give this up or at least decide to move to the village to conduct her campaign of warning him against his best friend from there, but she didn't seem inclined to it. He couldn't throw her out; the rules of hospitality forbid turning away a travelling stranger from the door, let alone someone Hercules had once fought side by side with. And Zeus himself was the god of hospitality and foreign travellers.

No, better get this over with now, he thought, grimly resigned. Let her say what she had to say, however many times she had to say it, and get it out of her system once and for all. He just hoped it didn't take long. He had been planning to get on the road again once Jason returned and Autolycus was fit enough to avoid Perseus on his own. He and Iolaus obviously had a lot of lost ground to make up for in Greece, at least as far as outbreaks of bandits went, and he was anxious to get started.

Expecting Morrigan to appear at any moment for round two, Hercules had worked his way around to the orchids when he heard the crunch of footsteps on the gravel path. He sat up, knowing it was the other Iolaus from the familiar/not familiar sound of his tread. The man circled around a bushy fern and stopped, blinking at the sight of a demigod kneeling in the dirt among the sun orchids with a neat pile of weeds collected on the path. "Looking for me?" Hercules asked, smiling faintly. The only light moments he had had during the time he had travelled with this man had involved the way he could surprise him so completely by doing things that were utterly normal. I'll never forget the look on his face when I stopped to help that farmer with the collapsed outhouse.

"Oh, yes, Cassandra said you were here." He looked at the ground, frowning a little. "I wanted to tell you goodbye, and ask you to thank Jason for me. I'm going back to Athens now."

"Oh." Hercules got to his feet, dusting his hands off on his pants. "So, ah, did you manage to talk to Iolaus?"

"Yes." He shook his head slowly, his expression pensive. "I didn't realize what my being here meant for him. It just never occurred to me that it might look like I was taking his place somehow, in any way." He looked up at Hercules sharply. "Did you know?"

Hercules winced. "No, I didn't realize it until he told me." He smiled a little. "Well, he told me part of it, the rest I inferred from the yelling and when he tried to pound my head into a mud puddle."

Iolaus looked shocked but also impressed at this further evidence of lese majeste on his double's part. He said helplessly, "I just didn't think anything I was or did could affect him."

"We both did the best we could at the time, the only thing we could do at the time. He knows that too, even if he's still too close to things to say it now."

Iolaus nodded slowly. He looked away for a moment, his eyes hooded. "Morrigan was talking to him."

"Was she," Hercules said thoughtfully.

Iolaus flicked a cautious glance at him, then added, "I didn't hear what she said, but it didn't look...friendly. I just thought you might want to...."

"I'll keep an eye on...things," Hercules finished the thought. "Thank you for letting me know."

***

After his double left, Iolaus sat on the edge of the cold stone hearth, his thoughts going in circles. He was right about one thing, he decided eventually. She is lying to me. She can't know anything about Dahak or what happened. Even I don't know all of that and I was there. He still wasn't sure if he believed Morrigan's motive was some kind of misguided jealousy as the other Iolaus had implied. It just didn't make sense to him. She was the one who had left Hercules, sneaking out on him in the middle of the night; if she had changed her mind, Hercules himself was going to be a far larger obstacle to that goal than any of his friends. No, Iolaus was beginning to incline to the theory that she was just trying to rattle him out of pure dislike.

He heard a familiar step outside the open doors and looked up as Hercules wandered in.

Brows drawn together, Iolaus watched him. "Did Iolaus leave?"

Hercules stopped, idly examining the ironworking tools that hung on the wall. He scratched at a rusty spot thoughtfully. "Uh huh."

Iolaus felt a combination of guilt and relief. Mostly guilt. "I think I chased him off," he admitted.

Hercules looked at him sharply. "No, he wanted to leave for Athens today anyway."

"I shouldn't have told him about that, about what Dahak said about him and me." Iolaus shook his head. He should have just kept his mouth shut; he had no business dumping that on anybody else.

"You told him the truth, Iolaus." Hercules leaned back against the stone work bench, looking absently out the door at the overcast sky. "Dahak was all about lies, half-truths calculated to deceive, twisted reality. Being truthful about what happened just makes what it did...futile."

Iolaus stared at nothing for a long moment, thinking it over. "Even if it hurts?"

Hercules shrugged slightly, a rueful smile twisting his lips. "It hurt a lot already."

Iolaus snorted. "Yeah." He got to his feet, dusting off his hands.

"What did Morrigan say to you?" Hercules asked, watching him thoughtfully.

Iolaus rolled his eyes. He turned to give his partner a challenging look. "Nothing that's any of your business." Yet. "When it is, I'll tell you."

Hercules let out his breath in resignation. "Right."

"How does she know so much about us, anyway?" Iolaus gestured in exasperation. "So Nebula wrote her, but how did she know we were back in Greece already, or that we were back here?"

"She didn't find it out from Nebula, or not all of it. She told me the Chief Druid scryed it." Hercules pressed his lips together. "That he saw you, me, the other Iolaus, saw us coming back here. That must have been before we left for Cenchreae."

Iolaus stared. "Scryed it? So this guy can watch us whenever he wants? Whatever we do? Everything?"

Hercules hadn't considered that aspect of the situation before and he frowned. "I hope not. The farm is under Zeus' protection. You'd think he wouldn't be able to see us here. He must have seen us start back from Egypt...and he could have seen the other Iolaus where he's been living in Athens.... Morrigan would have had to take ship from Eire right after that, though that doesn't give her much time to get that letter from Nebula that started all this." He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. The timing of it all didn't seem quite right. "I'm going to have to find out more."

"Yeah." Iolaus nodded slowly, preoccupied. "Me too." Did she know something they didn't know because the Chief Druid had seen it? If she did, then why hadn't she told Hercules already? It still didn't make any sense.

Hercules shook his head, letting his breath out. "I'm sorry about this."

"About what?" Iolaus looked up absently. "Oh, her? Why are you sorry? You didn't invite her."

"I wish I had invited her, then I could ask her to leave." Hercules looked out the open doorway again. A light rain had started, pattering the dry ground of the yard. It came in through the smokehole above the hearth, stirring the dust and old soot. "People usually listen to me," he added with a trace of rueful bitterness. "This is so important, why can't I convince her?"

Iolaus nodded. When Hercules put his mind to it, even the most stubborn people usually listened to reason in the end. Of course, in some cases that might have more to do with his preternatural persistence than the logic of his arguments. Iolaus was pretty sure logic wouldn't work with Morrigan, and maybe not even persistence. "Maybe it's because she's a demigod," he said, then the natural corollary struck him and he added wryly, "Maybe demigods are more pig-headed than mortals. There's some evidence to suggest it."

Hercules gave him a not you too look, but a reluctant smile tugged at his mouth. "Now, I asked you not to insult the pigs."

Iolaus snorted, then laughed outright. Hercules reached out a long arm to yank him into a hug, which turned into an impromptu wrestling match. Iolaus managed to hook Hercules' leg out from under him, causing the demigod to sit down heavily. Iolaus pointed and laughed when he should have been dodging backward and the next instant Hercules lunged at him. Iolaus got the demigod's shoulder in the stomach then his feet left the floor. He tried to buck free but Hercules hooked one arm around his thigh, pinning him to his shoulder, and Iolaus was too overcome with hilarity to fight effectively.

Then he heard, "I hate to intrude."

Iolaus froze. It was a female voice, and not Cassandra's smoky, amused tone; it was Morrigan's higher pitched voice, coldly offended. Hercules straightened up, turning to face her. Iolaus looked around Hercules' elbow to get an upside down view of her standing in the doorway, watching them both with an expression as hard as marble. Oh, great.

"Yes?" Hercules asked her, laughter still in his voice.

"I wanted to speak to you," she hesitated, then added coldly, "But I see you're occupied."

Hercules stared at her a moment, then his jaw set grimly. "No, let's talk right now."

I think I'll give this a miss, Iolaus thought. Hercules had forgotten to put him down so he twisted free. Landing on his feet, he moved immediately to the workbench to collect his bow and quiver. Morrigan stepped into the forge, flicking an arch glance at him, and leaned against the wall. He started for the door, trying to keep the sour expression off his face, but Hercules said, "Iolaus, stay here. We're going to have a talk."

Iolaus stopped in the doorway, staring incredulously at him. One look at Hercules' face told him the demigod was serious. "Oh, brother," Iolaus muttered under his breath. He went back to the workbench, deposited the bow and quiver on it again, and folded his arms. This is not going to be fun.

Hercules sat down on the hearth, as if planning to stay for awhile. "So, Morrigan. What would you like to talk about?" he said, his tone clipped.

She gave Iolaus a long stare, then asked Hercules, "Do you think this is wise?"

Iolaus had been trying not to look sulky and rebellious, but at this he had to roll his eyes in exasperation. "I don't."

Hercules ignored both of them. "Tell us again why you came here."

She stared at him stonily for a long moment, as if expecting him to give in. Fat chance of that, Iolaus thought, looking away. Finally she said quietly, "As I said before. To warn you."

"About Iolaus?"

She favored him with another long look. "Yes."

Iolaus' lip curled. "I got that part already."

Watching Morrigan intently, Hercules spread his hands, asking her, "Why do you feel you have to warn me?"

She took a sharp breath. Iolaus could tell she didn't like being put on the spot this way. He wondered if it was just that she preferred divide and conquer and didn't like facing them both at once. She said through gritted teeth, "I can't believe you are this naive."

Hercules rubbed the bridge of his nose, obviously marshalling his patience. "Really? I have no trouble believing you think I'm that naive. You seem to think I'm a complete idiot. Have you listened to anything I've said to you?"

"I've listened to you." Morrigan shook her head, her face a stubborn mask. "But words can't convince me."

Iolaus' jaw set. "What would you like me to convince you with?"

"Then you can give it another try," Hercules said tightly, still ignoring Iolaus' side commentary.

Morrigan shook her head helplessly, as if he was the one being unreasonable. "Hercules, if you listen to me--"

Hercules stood up, ignoring the interruption. "Dahak knew nothing about me. It never spoke of either of my wives, my children, my mother. There's plenty of things I've done that it could have taunted me with but it didn't know anything it could use. If Iolaus was helping it, why did it know less about me than any stranger on the street of Corinth would be able to tell you if you asked?"

Iolaus hunched his shoulders uncomfortably. He had heard it before, when Hercules was trying to convince him of the same things. But listening to it now was a little like having his soul laid bare. Again.

"And Iolaus is a deadly fighter, who has been sparring with me since we were old enough to walk. I've fought him in earnest too and I can tell you that if I had to do it when he had god-like strength and the ability to pass through solid objects, we wouldn't be having this conversation now, unless it was in the Underworld. Besides, until I opened the tomb in Sumeria, I didn't know Dahak had taken Iolaus' form. If Iolaus wanted to kill me, all he had to do was appear as himself and stab me in the back." With the Hind's Blood dagger, Hercules started to add, and stopped. He didn't want Morrigan to know about that. He no longer felt he knew her well enough to trust her with the knowledge of a weapon that could kill gods. He folded his arms, watching her sharply. "Now tell me why you believe I'm wrong."

She pressed her lips together and Iolaus was glad to see that he wasn't the only one to look sulky and rebellious. She said tightly, "It was a feeling I had."

Iolaus passed a hand over his face and shook his head, not knowing whether to swear from vexation or relief. If it was Cassandra having a feeling, then I'd worry.

Hercules prompted, "A feeling?"

She shook her head, looking bitter and desperate. "I knew nothing of what had happened. I thought...perhaps...."

Iolaus eyed her warily. Maybe she had never encountered Hercules with all his self-possession intact, maybe that was why he was able to make a dent in her thick skull now when he hadn't before. He asked carefully, "What did your Chief Druid see that gave you this feeling?"

She stared at the ground a long moment, then met Iolaus' eyes, her face as hard and sharp as glass. "I saw you."

He stared at her, baffled. "So?"

She glared at him, gesturing sharply. "You don't show remorse, you don't show pain, you act as if nothing happened!"

"What would you like me to do, gibber in a corner?" Iolaus snarled, losing his tenuous hold on his temper. There had been moments when it had taken all he had to pretend to be normal, and he hated himself for the times when he had given way, taking his temper out on Hercules and the other Iolaus, who had to be the most harmless person in Greece. "Sorry to disappoint you. If I'd known I was being spied on, maybe I could have put on a better performance." He pushed off from the workbench, heading for the door, telling Hercules, "This is pointless."

"Iolaus." The demigod's quiet voice halted him in the doorway. "Stay here. Please."

Iolaus leaned his head against the rough wooden doorframe, breathing hard. He found Hercules' ability to keep his temper in situations like this more daunting than the Sovereign's random rages. There was a tone in his voice that suggested he had gone past anger to a state far more profound.

He looked up to see that Morrigan had gone still, watching Hercules with a startled expression, as if she had suddenly seen him for the first time. In that deceptively quiet tone, Hercules said, "The Chief Druid couldn't see into Kheper's house, could he? Maybe a little towards the end, when Kheper was weak from keeping the spells going so long, but not before, and not after." She didn't reply. "And he can't see all of Greece, can he?" His voice sharpened just a hair. "Answer me."

Morrigan blinked, then admitted, "No, no, he couldn't."

"So you really don't know anything, do you?" Hercules persisted.

"I know all I need to know." She turned on Iolaus again, her face tight with rage. "You don't even consider him in all this, do you?"

Iolaus snorted derisively. "Well, I could be really inconsiderate and show up at his stepfather's house uninvited and pick fights with all his friends." He clapped a hand to his forehead. "Oh, wait! You already did that."

She pressed her lips together. "You're the one who's held him back from becoming a proper demigod."

Hercules swore under his breath, knowing the argument had just spiraled out of control. He planted his hands on his hips and contemplated the roofbeams in frustration. Maybe it will help if they both get it out of their systems.

"A 'proper' demigod?" Iolaus stared at her, derisively amused. "If that's what you are I think he's better off being improper." He shoved away from the door, crossing the yard in long strides, determined to get away from her before she provoked him further.

Morrigan was right on his heels, furious. "You keep him from being what he should be! In Eire he had powers he can never have here."

Iolaus had to laugh. "He told me about that. Your Druids sound like the 'means justify the ends' types that he usually has to kill. You can't force somebody to learn Ch'an by trying to drown him. Of course, it does take longer, but funny thing, nobody dies of it."

He turned to see a flicker of confusion cross her face and realized she didn't know the proper name of the skills the Druids had so clumsily tried to teach Hercules. "You don't know what you're talking about," she sneered. "How could you?"

Knowing a gods-sent straight line when he heard it, Iolaus turned on his heel, skirting the back garden and heading for the cowpond. "Ch'an's a skill, not a god-given power," he said over his shoulder. "Anybody can learn how to do it, if you have a good teacher." He walked out onto the rickety wooden platform over the limpid surface and turned to face her. "And you gotta believe." He flung his arms out and fell backward, striking the water with a huge splash.

Reaching the pond, Morrigan stared baffled at the surface as the ripples faded and the wavelets lapping the muddy bank gradually died away. No bubbles rose from the bottom.

Hercules stepped up beside her, rubbing the back of his neck wearily. "Oh, great," he muttered. "I hate it when he does that."

Morrigan looked up at him, shocked and incredulous. "How does he know-- How could he--"

"It's an Eastern mental discipline. He learned it years ago when he went to Chin," Hercules explained, watching her. "He can do other things with it, but this is his favorite. It's saved his life a time or two."

Biting her lip, she stared at the now still pool until it was long past the time when anyone else would have had to surface gasping and sputtering or drown. Then she turned abruptly, walking through the wet grass out into the open field.

Hercules followed, saying nothing, just walking beside her. He felt, oddly, the same way he had when he had first met her in Eire, as if she was still an enigma to him, as if he hadn't known her at all. It wasn't what he wanted. He didn't want to ruin the memory of the good times they had had together. But he didn't need her permission to get on with his life, and she was going to have to realize that whether she liked it or not. She said finally, "Does it not occur to you that after all of this, you can no longer trust him as you once did?"

"No, that didn't occur to me." Hercules shrugged equably. "But considering he saved my life last week, dragged me down a mountain while I was badly wounded and unconscious, and got me to my cousin Asclepius' healing temple in Epidaurus, I don't think it's going to affect my opinion any."

She looked at Hercules for a long moment, then ran a hand through her short-cropped hair, suddenly weary. "Perhaps, perhaps I was.... I don't know," she muttered finally.

Hercules nodded, looking off across the field toward the hills. His voice quiet, he said, "You say you came all the way back here to help me. Then help me by keeping an open mind. Can you do that?"

She looked up at him, and he realized her face was drawn and she looked as if she had been fighting a battle. At least this doesn't seem to be much easier for her than it is for Iolaus. "I have to do some thinking. I'm going for a walk."

He nodded, and watched her cross the field under the gray sky, making toward the deep green shadow of the forest.

***

Hercules returned to the cowpond, watching the water, ostensibly occupied only by a few dragonflies buzzing around the pads of the water lilies near the bank. One brow cocked, he said loudly, "Iolaus!"

He stepped back from the spray as Iolaus surfaced with a huge splash. He watched, bemused, as his partner slung the wet hair out of his eyes and reached the platform in a couple of strokes, hauling himself up onto it. "Is she gone?" he asked, plunking down on the battered wood to pull his boots off and dump the water out.

He nodded. "She went for a walk. I think I convinced her to listen to reason. I think." Suddenly serious, he looked down at Iolaus, his brow creased worriedly. "I'm sorry I had to drag all that out but I thought it was the only way--"

"No, no, you were right," Iolaus admitted. "If you're going to convince her, telling her everything is the only way." He retied his last boot lace and bounced to his feet, the old boards creaking ominously at the unexpected pressure. "But how long is this going to take? And how am I supposed to prove I'm not Dahak?" It was impossible to prove a negative, but maybe Morrigan didn't know that.

"You don't have to prove anything," Hercules reminded him. He rested his arm on Iolaus' shoulders as they walked up the bank through the tall grass. "Just...give her some time. At least she's a little more willing to listen now."

"Yeah." It was a relief that Hercules had forced her to admit she had no real evidence. Now Iolaus was sure she had just been trying to make him angry with her hints about things he didn't know.

Iolaus stopped to squeeze some of the water out of his clothes and Hercules continued on. The demigod passed Cassandra just coming down from the porch and stopped to exchange a few words with her. As he went on into the house she came to meet Iolaus, eyeing his wet clothes with an ironic lift to her brow. "How goes the war?"

He ran a hand through his hair to shake the water out. "Well, there's supposedly a truce."

"Supposedly?"

As they walked back he told her the gist of the argument, and Cassandra frowned. "I see. Supposedly is right."

Iolaus stopped at the back porch, leaning on the railing. "You don't trust her." He didn't either, much, but he was surprised that Cassandra agreed with him.

She pushed her dark hair back, looking thoughtfully out into the fields toward the cow pond. From the distant look in her eyes she was seeing something else besides the dark green of the pine-covered hills outlined against the overcast sky. "In Atlantis I had a great deal of experience with people who were so enamored of their own beliefs, so unable to see any fact that didn't fit into their foregone conclusions, they died for it. She could be one of them. A fanatic. If she's clever enough to pretend otherwise...." Her mouth twisted ruefully. "I confess, that worries me even more."

"Me too." Iolaus let out his breath. "I don't know, maybe...."

"Maybe she realized the big guy was about to boot her out on her narrow little fanny, and laws of hospitality be damned," Autolycus said, appearing from behind the corner of the house. He was using a broken broom handle as a crutch, and limping heavily. "And that would throw her cunning plan out of whack."

Iolaus eyed him skeptically. "You think she's got a plan now too." He was surprised to see Autolycus still having so much difficulty walking. His injury must have been much worse than it had looked. Good thing we found him when we did. But it was worrying that two such disparate individuals as Autolycus and the other Iolaus both thought Morrigan had some ulterior motive. Of course, they both had paranoia in common.

Autolycus leaned on his makeshift staff and snorted. "I thought Spooky Dame had a plan the instant she stepped in the door."

He sounded, for once, dead serious. Iolaus exchanged a troubled look with Cassandra, and asked, "So what do you think it is?"

Autolycus shook his head, biting his lip thoughtfully. "I got no clue, Curly, and that's what worries me."

***

Morrigan was gone through lunch, a relief which Iolaus felt keenly. Afterward as Hercules and Cassandra cleared away the dishes, he leaned in the doorway, watching the dark clouds heavy with rain come in over the hills. So far it had just been light drizzle, but the sky looked as if it would open up any moment.

He calculated that he had been alive nearly two full months now, if you counted the first days in Egypt when it had been a hit or miss proposition. Most of the time had been spent in that exotic country, or on the grain barge coming back to Greece.

At first coming home hadn't felt real to him; it had all seemed like some idyllic hallucination. He had gotten past that, but now it was starting to seem as if what had happened before wasn't real, except in his nightmares.

Hercules stepped up beside him, drying his hands on a rag, looking thoughtfully at the darkening sky.

After a moment Iolaus stirred, and asked slowly, "Do you think--"

Hercules snorted. "No."

Iolaus looked up at him, brows drawing together in irritation. "You don't even know what I was going to ask."

Hercules gave him a skeptical look. "You were going to ask if I thought Morrigan was right, that you act as if nothing happened."

Iolaus hesitated, toying with saying that he had really been about to ask if Hercules thought it would rain, but gave it up as childish. He shifted uncomfortably, looking out the door again. "Well?"

"She doesn't know you. I do. I can tell what you're feeling," Hercules said quietly. He rested a hand on the back of Iolaus' neck. "I just wish...."

That it never happened, Iolaus finished. Before he could reply, Autolycus bustled up behind them, saying loudly, "Coming through, coming through."

Hercules stepped out of the way, watching Autolycus limp painfully along, leaning on his makeshift crutch. His expression turning exasperated, Hercules reached for the man's arm. "Auto, let me take a look at your ankle."

"Hey, hey, hey!" Autolycus avoided him with an eel-like movement and hobbled rapidly away off the porch. "Hands off, the King of Thieves is in top physical condition! Top physical condition, I tell you!"

There was a crash around the corner as the King of Thieves almost knocked the rain barrel over. Iolaus shook his head in resignation. "He is completely crazy."

"I know." Hercules sighed. He looked out toward the garden and frowned warily. "Now what?"

Iolaus followed his gaze and saw a young boy jogging up the path from the woods. Hercules stepped off the porch to meet the visitor and Iolaus moved after him, hoping this was a messenger from some village in distress. This had to be about a warlord or a monster, something that would take them away for a few days. Autolycus and Cassandra could be relied on to explain to Morrigan why they had left and to be just vague enough about the name of the place and the direction it lay in.

But as the boy reached them he realized it was Diocles, the son of Demades, one of Jason's old generals, retired now to his family farm. "Diocles," Hercules said, smiling at him, "What are you doing here?"

Breathing hard, the boy said earnestly, "It's a message for you. Jason said he needed to ask you about something and wants you to meet him at my father's house."

Demades' farm was about halfway to Corinth, and a good meeting point between the two places, but Hercules frowned, puzzled. "Did he say what about?"

"No. But it wasn't Jason that gave me the message, it was someone from the palace."

"Oh." Hercules looked at Iolaus with a shrug. It was probably some question about their last dealings with the Parthians, which had been more than a year ago. "I'd better get over there."

Iolaus absently scratched his chest, trying to hide his disappointment. "Want me to come?" he asked without much enthusiasm. A warlord or a monster, is that so much to ask?

Hercules thought it over. "No, if it was something serious, he would have sent a courier to the house. If I'm wrong, I'll send Diocles to let you know where to meet me." He ruffled the boy's hair.

"All right." Iolaus scuffed his boot in the dirt, mouth twisted in an ironic smile. "Tell Jason he's missing all the fun here."

Hercules snorted wryly. "I'll do that."

***

Thunder rumbled in the distance as Hercules and Diocles headed up the path into the woods. Squinting up at the sky, Iolaus decided to bring in some firewood before the real rain started.

He had carried enough inside to fill the box in the kitchen and was replenishing the stack beside the house when he felt someone watching him from the far corner of the barn. A casual glance as he bent to pick up a fallen log confirmed it; Morrigan stood there, her arms folded. He leaned on the woodpile for a moment, drawing a hand over his face, thinking, Oh, here we go again.

Not bothering to acknowledge her, he continued piling up the wood. He was aware of her approach and didn't bother to look up when she stopped a few paces away.

After a moment she said archly, "I didn't realize you performed servant duties."

Iolaus stacked the last log on the pile, frowning thoughtfully. "Damn, that one's a little vague and general. Did you run out of specific insults for me?"

He started around the house to the back yard and she followed. He listened to her footsteps in the grass, making sure she kept her distance, just in case she decided to solve the problem with a stab in the back.

Behind him, he heard her say, "I saw Hercules leave. I wanted to talk to you alone."

Iolaus kept walking. "Lucky me," he said dryly.

"I came back to answer your question."

He stopped to face her, planting his hands on his hips. It was probably a mistake to ask. "What question?"

She halted a short distance away, watching him carefully. Water beaded on her short-cropped hair and there was mud high on her boots and staining her plaids, as if she had been climbing. "You asked me what the Chief Druid saw that brought me here."

Iolaus studied her narrowly. This again. What kind of game did she think she was playing at? "And what was that?"

"That you aren't him, that you aren't really Iolaus."

Fed up with this, Iolaus rolled his eyes. Oh, right. He shook his head, turning away from her. "You've lost your mind, you know. Maybe you should ask your Chief Druid to look for that."

Her voice suddenly tight with tension, she said, "The Chief Druid told me that what Hercules had brought back with him was not you, no matter what it looked and sounded like."

Iolaus halted at the edge of the muddy yard. He turned to look back at her, exasperated. "That's ridiculous. Hercules and I have known each other since we were kids, how could anyone or anything else possibly fool him?"

"He told me this Egyptian wizard made that body you're wearing, that at first you remembered nothing of what you were." She hesitated, her eyes like chips of ice. "Whatever came back in Iolaus' place.... It could fool Hercules, if it was fooling itself."

"You're lying," Iolaus said harshly, but his skin had started to creep. "That's impossible."

She studied him for a long heartbeat, assessing him. Then she said quietly, "I have proof. Something the Chief Druid gave me."

"What proof?"

"I hid it up in the hills before I came here. Come with me and I'll show it to you."

Iolaus looked away, ran a hand over his face. It didn't sound like the kind of lie she would tell. He might have expected her to say she had proof he was Dahak, if not to offer to produce it. He wasn't sure she knew enough to make this kind of thing up. And if she didn't.... "This doesn't make sense. Why didn't you tell Hercules this?"

She said urgently, "I knew he wouldn't believe me. And I had to learn if you truly thought you were his friend. I think you do." Her hard gaze softened. "And if you feel anything for him, you will want him to know the truth."

Iolaus stared at her, a cold feeling settling in the pit of his stomach. It might be a trap. But he had to know. "Let's see your proof."

***

From the little scullery porch on the back of the house, Autolycus watched Iolaus and Morrigan head off across the fields. Now what's that about, I wonder? Even by flattening himself against the wall of the house and then crouching behind the slop jars, he still hadn't managed to accidentally overhear their conversation.

He heard a faint step on the boards behind him and turned rapidly, remembering to lean heavily on his crutch, as Cassandra appeared in the doorway. "Just out here taking the air, ah yes, I love the country--" He stopped, realizing her dark eyes were distant and her face was white as bleached parchment. "Hey, whoa there, are you all right?"

She stumbled forward and he caught her arm to steady her. She gasped, "Auto, you've got to follow Iolaus, you've got to stop him."

"What do you mean? You had a dream, a vision?"

She swallowed hard. "Yes, You've got to-- I saw--"

Abandoning his prop crutch, Autolycus pulled her into the house, helping her up the hallway and into a chair in the main room. "Come on, honey, give me some clues, tell me all you saw."

Cassandra pressed her hands over her face. "To the west, a cliff where the stream comes down, there's a waterfall with a pool, a cave behind it." She pointed past him, through the back of the house, toward the forested hills that lay past the fields. "That way!"

"Right." Autolycus nodded to himself. "I knew Spooky Dame was up to something. The King of Thieves can always spot a rival troublemaker." He had been so sure of it he had taken the precaution of making his injury look much worse than it was, so the screwy dame wouldn't think of him as a threat. "You stay put, honey. I'll go after them."

He was out of the house in a few long strides and crossing the yard in a loping run.

***

The deep gray clouds were low and threatening by the time Hercules reached Demades' house. He had to slow his pace to keep from leaving Diocles behind, but then Jason hadn't implied it was urgent.

The farmyard was quiet and he was surprised to see only the old general, leaning on the paddock to feed an apple to one of the horses. The barn doors stood open and there was no sign of Jason, his horse, or any Corinthian couriers.

"Hercules!" Demades came toward him, wiping his hands off on his tunic. "Good to see you."

"Demades." Hercules stopped, Diocles panting beside him. "Isn't Jason here?"

Demades frowned. "Jason? I haven't seen him for a week."

"Diocles said he wanted to meet me here."

The frown was transferred to the boy. "When was this, son?"

"It wasn't Jason who told me, it was someone from the palace," Diocles explained, shrugging helplessly. "He came to the house while you were out with the cows."

The boy had said that before, and Hercules had taken it for granted that he meant a courier. He felt a sudden twinge of unease. "Someone in Corinthian livery?"

Diocles shook his head. "No, but it was a warrior. And he had an amulet with a jewel in it, that's how I knew he was from the palace."

Hercules looked up to meet Demades' sober expression. The general said, "I'll send to Jason and Iphicles at once, tell them not to believe any messages asking them to meet you in some likely spot for an ambush."

"Good idea." Hercules nodded grimly. But I don't think this trap is for Jason. "I've got to get back home."

***

Morrigan led Iolaus through the fields and up into the woods, climbing rapidly up along a shallow gully into the hills. The rain had started and the trees were dripping, filling the green shadows with surreptitious sound and movement.

Iolaus kept telling himself that the sensation of knocking around inside his own body, as if it was a boot that didn't fit, was his imagination; he hadn't been the least aware of it until Morrigan had said he wasn't really himself. But he kept remembering what Hercules had told him of the first days of Iolaus' return to life in Egypt, of how he couldn't speak at first, hadn't remembered being human, how he had been hostile to Hercules and had seemed to think himself a prisoner. After being back in his body long enough, his memories had returned all in a rush.

If I wasn't me, that wouldn't have happened, he assured himself grimly, ducking under low-hanging branches, his eyes on Morrigan's back as she plowed up the slope just ahead of him. A traitor voice whispered that it might very well have happened, if whatever spirit had been put inside his body had finally just given in and believed what everybody was telling it. He shook his head, scattering raindrops from his hair. No, he knew Morrigan had to be lying or mistaken. But I have to be certain.

He also knew he should have waited for Hercules, that they should have confronted this together. But he couldn't stand not knowing. He wanted to find out and get it over with now, whether it was a trap he had to fight his way out of or.... Or the worst thing you can possibly imagine: that you're not you and that whatever you are, you've unintentionally betrayed Hercules.

Ahead the sound of another trickle of water joined the dripping rain; they were nearing the stream. The hill was rocky and steep now, still sheltered by heavy trees and a cool mist that had settled in to cling to the branches and pine boughs.

Morrigan made her way toward the stream where it ran down the rocks, stepping across it. Iolaus started to follow when her boot slipped on a wet stone and she stumbled. Iolaus reached out automatically and she grabbed his arm above the gauntlet to steady herself. She let go immediately and he expected her to wipe her hand off on her plaids, but she just threw him an enigmatic look and continued on.

Iolaus hesitated, then stepped across the gravelly streambed. His skin felt warm where she had touched his arm, probably because the rest of him was chilled all the way through by the dank rain and his own grim thoughts.

As they made their way further up into the hills, deeper into the forest, Iolaus started to see signs that someone else had been up this trail. Recently broken twigs at shoulder-height, disturbed spots in the leaf mold, mud scraped onto a rock. She must have come up here on that little walk she took. When she had promised Hercules she would think about what the demigod had said. But why, to look at her proof again? Except.... He realized he could hear the distant rush of a small waterfall and spotted another broken branch. Except she did an awful lot of damage along the way for one small woman.

The trees suddenly opened into a little clearing with a small waterfall draped in the white mist, stretching thirty or so paces up the side of a bluff. The rocky pool at its feet took up most of the open area.

And there was a track in the muddy bank, a bootprint much larger than Morrigan's. Iolaus stopped, looking away, shaking his head at himself in disgust. Oh, here we go. It's option alpha, the trap. "How many friends do you have up here?"

Morrigan stopped at the edge of the pool, turning to face him with a smile. "Too many for you."

Iolaus glanced behind him, confirming that at least four men were moving into position in the cover of the trees behind him. They were bearded, dressed in rough leather and plaids. She brought them from Eire; she planned this all along. She had chosen the place well; the rain and the waterfall's din had masked the sound of their movements. He saw branches shift in the trees on the far side of the pool and three more figures stepped out of concealment. "So you thought you'd help Hercules by killing me?" he asked her, still incredulous at the depth of her treachery. "Are you demented?"

Her eyes narrowed and she said grimly, "I told you the truth. I'm going to show Hercules what you really are."

Iolaus heard someone charge at his back and he ducked, catching the arm that wrapped around his neck and rolling forward, catapulting the man right into Morrigan and knocking them both back into the pool.

Two more were on him then and Iolaus dropped to the ground and swept his legs around, knocking his first opponent to the knees. As the man struggled up Iolaus jackknifed back to his feet and snapped a kick into his abdomen, then punched him as he went down. Iolaus ducked a swordthrust and dived to get the bluff at his back, rolling back to his feet and twitching his vest back into place. With the pool on his right hand and the solid rock wall behind him they could only come at him from two directions. But as more men burst out of the brush that might be one direction too many.

Another man sprang for him, swinging a short spear. Iolaus ducked the blow, grabbing the shaft and kicking the wielder in the head. Two more rushed for him and he knocked one aside with a blow to the head and stopped the other with a hard jab to the belly with the spear-butt. He wheeled and swept the legs out from under the one coming at him from the side, but another three charged him.

Then a familiar yodel split the air and a figure in green and black suddenly slammed into his opponents, sending them sprawling.

Autolycus somersaulted to his feet and landed at Iolaus' side. "Fancy meeting me here," he said, eyeing the warriors and twirling his grappling hook menacingly.

Watching the Eirish warriors cautiously advance, Iolaus grinned tightly. "Not that I'm not glad to see you, but what in Tartarus are you doing here?"

"Cassandra finally made with the fortune-telling and said your future prospects didn't look so great if you wandered off with the Champion of Justice there, so I went after you." Autolycus swung his grappling hook at the men nearest him and they dodged back. "Lost you both as soon as you hit the woods, but fortunately Cassie saw this waterfall."

"Right." The warriors held their position, apparently not liking their odds now. Morrigan had climbed out of the pool and stood behind them, not joining the battle, just watching Iolaus with a hawk-like intensity. The mist had shifted and Iolaus spotted a cave in the bluff, close enough to the waterfall to catch its spray. There was an older man standing there, dressed in leather armor and a rich fur-trimmed cloak. Great, more of her buddies. We need to get out of here. He looked around, spotting a large branch that looked heavy enough to support their weight. "Can you make that--" The ground swayed under his feet and Iolaus staggered. Uh oh.

"Time to blow this little party, what are--"

Iolaus lost the rest in a wave of dizziness that sank him to his knees, blood pounding in his ears and a black wave washing over the edges of his vision. "Oh, no." He looked at his arm. There was an angry red weal in the spot where Morrigan had touched him.

Autolycus glanced back at him then did an alarmed doubletake. "What's wrong?" he demanded.

"It's this--" He shook his head, holding out his arm. "Auto, get out of here."

Autolycus stared. "Ah, for the love of-- You've been poisoned!" He rounded on Morrigan, shouting, "What did you give him?"

"As I said." She folded her arms as if satisfied with her work. "It will show us what he really is."

"Are you out of your mind, you screwy dame? Don't bother to answer that, it was a rhetorical question!" The warriors edged closer and Autolycus muttered, "I don't know how we're going to get out of this one, Curly."

"Auto, you idiot," Iolaus managed to gasp, "Get out of here, go get Herc." The ground rushed up to meet him and everything went dark.

***

He felt a hard tug on his wrists and knew he was being dragged over rough stone. Voices came out of the ocean of darkness. "Who is he?"

I don't know who I am, he wanted to say, but instinct told him that keeping his mouth shut might be a good idea. "A thief, probably paid to spy for Hercules." Morrigan's voice. He remembered her, sort of.

"Paid, hah! Hercules doesn't have two dinars to rub together." The scuffling sound of a struggle, then, "Look lady, you kill Iolaus and Hercules will hunt you down to the ends of the earth! And further!"

That was Autolycus. He wished he knew if the voices were real, or what real was. It was impossible to think; everything was drifting, unsteady. Memories rushed in and out and he couldn't remember where he was, what was happening. Whoever was dragging him released him abruptly; stoney ground came up and slapped him in the face again. It was cold and damp as well as hard and grainy with dirt; the contact revived him a little. He managed to push himself up on his forearms and somebody stepped on his back, shoving him down again.

From about ten paces away, her voice distorted slightly by an echo, Morrigan spoke impatiently, "We aren't going to kill him. The real Iolaus is already dead and gone. What Hercules brought back with him from Egypt is a fake, an imposter, a spirit of the ether put in that body by the accident or design of a foreign sorcerer. Or perhaps by Dahak itself. The elixir I gave him will reveal what this creature truly is."

"Elixir? That poison you slapped on him? Are you nuts?"

"The Chief Druid prepared it to undo this Egyptian sorcerer's spell, to detach the creature from this body and show what it truly is." Morrigan heard her take a step toward him, her voice softening, almost with what might be regret. "When we reveal this to Hercules, he will understand and know that he has to destroy this thing."

That is so not fair, he thought hazily, adrift in a sea of images, none of which made sense. If I'm some spirit that got put here by accident, it's not my fault.

There was a moment of silence, then Autolycus said, "Trying to put it as politely as possible -- considering how your boy here has a knife at my throat -- you people must be more than a couple pigeons shy of a flock. That's the most ridiculous load of--"

The unfamiliar male voice said, "Get rid of him."

"No." Morrigan hesitated. "He's harmless, just a hireling."

He managed to open his eyes a slit and get a distorted misty view of a cave. Torches were orange glares of intolerable light, people were dim dark shapes. Then a man turned and he saw gray hair, the sheen of a jewel, of gold-stitched leather armor and soft fur. "No one is harmless, my daughter."

"Oh, let me guess, I'm not really Autolycus, the King of Thieves! I'm actually Gunga, the Dog-Faced Triple-Horn Terror of Thrace in disguise. Sheesh! Has it occurred to you that Graybeard here is handing you a load of malarkey for reasons of his own? Every nutcase on Gaia's green earth with a bad attitude and a half-assed plan has it in for the big guy, have you not twigged to that by now?"

He wasn't listening anymore; he was mostly tired of this guy standing on his back. He shot out an arm, grabbed an ankle, and yanked. A heavy form hit the ground with a thump and a grunt and the weight was off him. He shoved to his feet but only made it a step before the world swayed erratically and he slumped to the ground again, barely managing to hold himself half upright. The kick that caught him in the stomach came out of nowhere.

It knocked him over sideways and he curled around the pain, gasping. Bootsteps came dangerously near his head.

"Stop!" Morrigan ordered sharply. "Back away from him."

He rolled back to his knees, the need to retaliate on someone overwhelming any caution, but as he looked up he thought he saw Hercules standing behind Morrigan. Hercules or Dahak. It frightened him that he couldn't tell the difference anymore. But Dahak is dead, right? He couldn't remember that part. In case it was Hercules, he said desperately, "It doesn't make sense to kill me. You'll still need this body. You'll need it when you go back to Egypt. And I'm still your friend, I could help you find me...us...him."

Morrigan stared down at him, her brows drawing together. In the sudden silence Autolycus said, his voice rough with desperation, "See? He's out of his head and he still wants to help Hercules! What does that tell you?"

Morrigan took a step toward him, leaned down and grabbed his chin, looking into his eyes. He blinked, not sure what she saw, then suddenly annoyed by the scrutiny he jerked away from her. She stepped back, still frowning, and spoke to the older man, "He's just hallucinating. You said a change would happen right away. You said it would show us the truth."

"It will show me the truth, in many ways."

She turned slowly to face him. The whole cave was quiet except for the distant rush of the waterfall and someone's harsh breathing. "What do you mean?" she asked in a flat voice, as if afraid she already knew the answer.

The man stepped forward, touching Morrigan's face gently. "My daughter, there are matters you can't understand."

She pulled back, saying urgently, "You said if he was truly mortal, if he was who he claimed to be, you would release him."

He smiled regretfully at her. "I lied."

***

Hercules plowed steadily through the rain-soaked woods, grimly intent on his goal, moving rapidly despite the ethereal mist that clung to the branches and obscured his vision in every direction.

He had found only Cassandra at the house and she had told him about her prophecy, that Autolycus had gone after Iolaus but that neither had returned.

It can't be what it looks like. If it was.... What did Morrigan think she could gain by it? It didn't make sense, it was mad. Maybe she is mad. I really thought she had changed, like Xena.

But Xena wasn't a demigod, with certain things inherent in her nature. And Xena had been ready to change for a long time and had only been waiting for an excuse, the right moment to tip the balance.

He just wished Cassandra had been able to get some hint of Morrigan's intentions, something besides the shadow of overwhelming danger.

Hercules crashed through the brush and the clinging mist, emerging from the woods suddenly only to halt in shock. He was on a cliff looking down on the open fields of the farm, not a hundred paces from where he had entered the forest following Iolaus and Morrigan's trail.

"Dammit," he snarled. "I'm going in circles. What--" His jaw set. It's the mist. There's something about it, something unnatural.

He turned back into the woods and closed his eyes, concentrating on the sound of the waterfall that permeated the forest. Close. Right. If someone had called that mist to fool his eyes, then he would just have to use his ears instead.

***

He thought it had been a while since he had heard Autolycus or Morrigan's voices, though time's passage had ceased to have much meaning. The world swam in and out of his awareness, hazy and dim and impossibly confusing. He couldn't remember if this was something Dahak had done or not. But it had to be. They said I wasn't really mortal and gave me back to Dahak. Isn't that what the plan was?

As the world swung into hard reality again he realized there was something new in the chamber, something waiting like a crouching beast. He could feel a breeze on his sweat-soaked skin that hadn't been there before, hear a breathy exhalation, smell something like the raw air in the aftermath of a lightning strike.

He heard voices again, all unfamiliar except for one. He felt cold gritty dirt under his cheek and realized he was still slumped over on the cave floor. He managed to drag one arm up under his chest and half push himself up. He squinted but the world swayed and danced, gray rock, the flicker of torchlight, moving figures. Uh oh. Here we go again.

Something strode toward him, a dim shadow that grew solid as it drew closer. He dug his fingers into the dirt, making a confused effort to scramble back.

It reached him in another long stride and grabbed a handful of his hair, halting his escape attempt and jerking his head up. He saw vague figures standing over him, made looming and terrible by his confusion and the awkward angle. He tensed for some further violation, knowing it was Dahak, but the deep voice was the one he knew, the old man in the rich clothing, the one who was in charge. It said, "It's not working."

"Perhaps if you gave it more time--" Another man, unfamiliar.

"We don't have more time. And it was useless from the beginning." The hand gripping his hair shook him like a dog with a rabbit and said in deep annoyance, "This Egyptian sorcerer kept you under Horus' hand until you were useless."

The "useless" comment sure sounded like Dahak. He said through gritted his teeth, "Too bad for you."

They ignored him. "It's time to get rid of him and be gone from this place." The hand released his hair and he caught himself before he collapsed. "You two, throw him in."

Then hands grabbed him, jerking him up off the ground, hauling him toward the thing that breathed on the far side of the cave. Blue light filled his eyes, sending a knife of pain through his skull. He winced away, then the scene suddenly leapt into focus.

It was a blue swirly doorway, a whirling mass of light and color, hovering a foot or so off the cave floor. "No." He choked out the word without realizing it, a part of him that understood what all this meant horrified beyond measure. "Oh no."

He planted his feet, twisted, tried to wriggle free but he was shoved inexorably toward the blue glow of the living portal. So close he could feel it more than see it, the alien air that streamed from it, the prickle of energy on his face and chest.

At the last instant he wrenched out of one hold and grabbed the other man, swinging him around, trying to sling his captor forward and catapult himself away from the portal. But the man clung to him, yelling in alarm, and a hard shove caught him in the back, sending them both through the doorway.

***

Eyes tightly shut, wet branches scratching his face, Hercules moved steadily toward the growing din of the waterfall. The confusing illusion that made the mist so deceptive wasn't confined to just his vision; he heard strange sounds, growls, whines, and once something that sounded frighteningly like huge footsteps pounding through the forest. But he didn't open his eyes until he stumbled in mud and stepped into water.

He saw the pool, the waterfall dropping from the top of the bluff. This is it. But where.... Aha. To one side of the falls the rain and spray curved away from rock. There was another illusion there shielding something, and the force of the magic was deflecting the rain.

Hercules splashed around the edge of the pool, heading for that supposedly innocuous section of the bluff. As he neared it a man, bearded, dressed in rough armor, leapt out of solid rock, swinging a sword at his head. Hercules ducked under the blow, seized the man and threw him into the cliff. As the flailing body passed through the illusion it shattered like glass, shards of gray rock vanishing to reveal an open cave mouth.

Hercules charged inside, slamming two more men out of his way almost without noticing. It was a large cave, high-ceiling, winding back into the bluff. Erratic torchlight flickered off moss-slick walls and several figures ran at him, shouting. He ducked a blow from a club and punched the wielder, slammed two more men together and tossed them aside.

Disposing of each opponent unlucky enough to encounter him, he plunged further into the dark space, rounding a corner and halting abruptly at the sight of a blue blaze of light.

Across the chamber a blue swirly doorway hovered in the air, the breeze from it stirring his hair. A man standing before it turned to face him. He was older, with long graying hair and a beard, dressed in fine leather armor and a fur trimmed cloak. He wore an amulet carved in an intricate pattern that Hercules remembered from Eire, set with a cut emerald. This has got to be the man Diocles spoke to, Hercules thought grimly. This also explained why Morrigan and all these men had managed to arrive in the area unseen and unremarked, and why she had lied about coming to port in Lechaeum. He said, "I take it you're the new Chief Druid. And I'm betting you didn't come here on a ship."

"The portals make quick work of a long journey." The man smiled tightly. "They are also good places for disposing of troublesome intruders." He lifted a hand, a ball of light forming in his palm. Knowing exactly what that was, Hercules dove forward, hit the ground rolling, grabbing up a rock. He came to his feet as white fire splashed the stone where he had been standing. He flung the rock, striking the sorcerer in the head, knocking him to the ground.

The last two warriors still standing had fled from the cave, the others lay where they had fallen, unmoving. Hercules strode toward the sprawled form of the sorcerer, prodding him with a boot to make sure the man was really unconscious. He groaned faintly, but didn't stir.

Hercules scanned the cave quickly, but there was no sign of Iolaus. A sick sensation was settling in the pit of his stomach and he didn't want to look at the portal. No, that has to be their way back to Eire. Taking one of the torches that had fallen to the cave floor, he searched the winding crannies in the cave walls, thrusting it into the dark spaces. He found tumbled pallets made from cut branches and blankets woven with more Eirish designs, the remains of a fire, some pots and cups and provisions, but no sign of Iolaus. He realized suddenly that he hadn't called out for his partner because he was afraid of not getting an answer. Swearing at himself, he lifted his voice in a shout, "Iolaus!"

There was an answering yell from the back of the cave, oddly muffled.

Flushed with relief Hercules ran toward it. At the very back of the cave he found a low narrow opening, blocked by a boulder shoved into it. He dropped the torch and shoved the boulder aside.

Autolycus popped out of the passage like a jinn released from a bottle. "Damn, that's a relief!" He shook himself all over. Morrigan followed him more slowly, looking around the cave. Hercules caught up the torch again and stared into the opening. It was a small chamber, water dripping down its mossy walls, empty.

"Where's Iolaus?" Hercules demanded, his nerves tightening.

Autolycus shook his head, running a hand through his hair, still looking a little wild-eyed. "I don't know, that sorcerer guy did some kind of mojo on me and I was out like a light. Next thing I knew I woke up in there."

Morrigan said in a rush, "Hercules, I'm sorry. He lied to me--"

"It was the dame all right," Autolycus interrupted, glaring at her. "She lured Iolaus here somehow and then slapped some kind of contact poison on him when he wasn't looking. Only it wasn't a poison, it was some kind of crazy potion."

"Quiet!" Morrigan snapped at him. She took a deep breath, facing Hercules. "The Chief Druid told me--"

Hercules said through gritted teeth, "What did he do to Iolaus?"

I don't know." She looked up, her face drawn and white in the torchlight. "He isn't here? I don't--" She saw the portal and stared at it, her words trailing to a halt.

Hercules turned, walking slowly toward the swirl of light and color, his flesh going cold. "It doesn't go back to Eire," he said flatly.

"I don't know where it goes. It isn't the one he created to allow us to come here." Morrigan bit her lip. "He told me that Iolaus was not really human, that you had been tricked into bringing something else back with you, something that didn't know what it was. That his elixir would reveal the truth." She shook her head, her expression anguished. "But it was a trick, he admitted it."

Hercules swallowed in a dry throat. He could think of only one reason why a sorcerer would be interested in Iolaus. "Sorcerers can use souls who are in a state between life and death for magic. One of them tried to take Iolaus when we were still at Kheper's house, before the spell was finished. But Kheper said once Iolaus remembered who he was it wouldn't be a danger anymore."

"The old guy seemed to think his potion would do the trick, whatever the trick was." Autolycus stared at the unconscious sorcerer, aghast. "You don't think he-- You don't think this character could reverse what your Egyptian buddy did, do you? Put Iolaus back into that 'between life and death' bit so he could--" Autolycus looked up at Hercules' face and his voice dried up in his throat. "Ack."

Hercules was looking at Morrigan like divine judgement, with an expression that might have been carved from stone. He said, quietly, "Was that it?"

Still staring at the portal, Morrigan whispered, "I don't-- I think so."

"Did it work?"

"No. Iolaus was confused, seemed not to know who he was. But the Chief Druid...Malabore wasn't pleased. It wasn't what he wanted." Her voice trembled and she said, "Hercules, I swear to you, he lied to me."

Hercules handed the torch to Autolycus and turned to regard Morrigan one more time. His voice completely without inflection, he said, "Get out of my sight."

She stared at him. "Hercules--"

"If I come back without him and you're here-- Don't be here, Morrigan." Without another word, he caught up a fallen sword and walked into the portal.

***

Iolaus hit rocky ground, the Eirish warrior landing heavily on top of him. He shoved the bigger man off and rolled free, bouncing to his feet. It was dark, the blue light of the portal revealing dirt, gravelly rock tufted with sparse grass, the dim outline of a narrow gorge. The sky was limitless blackness, no moon, no stars. Iolaus squinted, trying to decide if it was his eyes or the place was really this dark. It hardly mattered; he couldn't remember if he was here because he was himself or because he wasn't, but he could move now and mostly see, and he meant to take advantage of it.

The warrior scrambled to his feet, his eyes wild, and darted for the portal. Watching with interest, Iolaus still didn't see it happen. In the space of one blink, the blue light of the doorway was gone and the man slammed face first into a rock wall. He staggered back, gasping.

"Yeah, that's going to happen," Iolaus said thoughtfully. Without the portal's ghostly light the darkness was absolute. He stepped forward, finding the wall by touch. If it was an illusion, it was a good one; he couldn't smell the burnt air at the mouth of the doorway or feel the faint breeze that came through it. "They always disappear, right when you need them."

"You did this," the man growled, grabbing the shoulder of Iolaus' vest, yanking him forward.

"Did not," Iolaus snarled back, suddenly furious. In his current confused state, it came across as an accusation that he had helped Dahak and he was damn tired of hearing that. He punched the guy in the throat, stepping back as the man gagged. He felt the return blow coming and ducked under it, punching the warrior in the stomach, then snapping a kick into his chin when he doubled over.

Iolaus faded back a few steps, knowing he had spent too much time in one place. That was one thing he remembered clearly. If this was one of Dahak's places, whether Dahak was really dead or not, you had to keep moving, you had to look for the way out.

He could hear the warrior staggering, gravel crunching under his feet. The man was swinging wildly, trying to find him in the dark. Iolaus decided he couldn't be bothered with that and found the stoney ground at the base of a cliff wall, moving back along it silently.

"Where are you?" the man shouted. "Where are you, you bualadh craicinn Greek bastard?"

Iolaus snorted, not understanding most of the insult. And if I'm not who I am, it's not going to apply to me, is it? "You're going to have to do better than that." The man charged and Iolaus tripped him, then moved across the gorge, finding the opposite wall when he bumped into it. "You should shut up, you know," he said, annoyed. "You act like you want it to get you."

There was a moment of startled silence, then the man struggled to his feet, growling, "There's nothing here. You're lying, you mad--"

Something moved in the darkness at the top of the cliff, a black patch of absolute night, and Iolaus stopped listening. "You got its attention," he muttered resentfully. "You deal with it." He heard the other man swear and shove clumsily to his feet, plunging toward him, but Iolaus was already moving away rapidly along the wall. Behind him, he heard a scrape against the rock and the other man's tirade abruptly turned into a scream. Told you so, he thought.

Iolaus made his way swiftly down the gorge, feeling his way carefully in the dark. The screams echoed behind him, finally dying away.

The wall vanished under his hand twice but he was getting the hang of that. Then he went still, head cocked, listening. For a moment the wind had sounded like Hercules calling his name. He shook it off, moving on. His memory was a jumbled mess and he didn't even know who he was for certain, but he had learned the hard way that there were things in these places that were just sensitive enough to pick up on his desire for rescue and exploit it, able to make him hear what he wanted so badly to hear. Nobody's coming for you, he reminded himself. The only way you're getting out of here is if you find the doorway. He had found a way out of the place where Dahak had imprisoned him, he could find a way out of this one.

***

It was dark. Hercules stopped abruptly, nothing but the cold blue light of the doorway to show him this world. "Iolaus?"

No answer. All he could see was a stretch of dirt and gravelly rock with tufts of sparse grass, then pitch blackness. The grass was mildly encouraging. If the sun never touched here it couldn't exist. At least, as far as I know, he thought, remembering the bizarre natural laws of that between-world place he had been trapped with the Sovereign. But he wasn't planning to wait for the sun to come up, if it ever did. He took another cautious step forward, raising his voice to a shout, "Iolaus!"

His voice echoed in the silence. No night birds, no insects, just dust moving over rock, through dry grass. It might have been an entirely dead world. Hercules crouched down, feeling around on the ground for a branch, wood, something. If Morrigan was right -- if she wasn't lying again -- and Iolaus didn't know who he was, this could be difficult. Because he's always so easy to deal with when he doesn't know who he is, he thought in frustration. If the druid's elixir had somehow managed to undo part of Kheper's spells, or even if it had somehow made Iolaus think he was back at that point between life and death, Hercules could find him in any state between indifference and overt hostility.

Groping in the dark, moving further away from the portal, he found a twisted broken branch that would do for a makeshift torch. Gathering some of the dry grass, he got a small fire started by striking the Hephaestus metal on his gauntlet against the stone. He stripped off his undershirt, using it to bind a clump of the grass around the end of the branch, then held it in the flames until it caught. Standing up, the flicker of firelight showed him a flat rocky area, clumps of sickly vegetation throwing spidery shadows against the dusty ground. Then he turned to get his bearings on the swirly doorway and found himself facing a solid wall of rock.

Hercules stepped back, staring in shock. He had moved at least ten paces from the portal before he found the wood, maybe more. The rock was barely a few feet away. He would have had to walk right through it. Or it would have to move into place.... Its sudden appearance reminded him of the deliberately confusing mist in the forest. He lifted the fitful torch, examining the barrier suspiciously. It looked like a perfectly normal cliff face: rough gray rock, scored by wind and water, as if it had been there forever. The light of his small fire and the torch must have blinded him to the sudden disappearance of the portal's blue illumination. "Oh, great," he said under his breath, turning away. "That makes my day complete."

He picked up the sword again and moved along the cliff face. After a short time the open space narrowed into a winding gorge, a trickle of foul-smelling water running down the center. The rock walls were stepped back, riddled with ledges and crannies and little tunnels leading back into the stone. "Iolaus!" he shouted again, trying to ignore the sharp despair that twisted his gut. This is going to be impossible. If I climb this cliff, maybe I could see--

Hercules turned and started, nearly jumping out of his skin.

Iolaus was on a ledge not ten paces away, sitting on his heels, watching him suspiciously.

"Iolaus!" Hercules started forward but his partner scrambled to his feet in alarm, putting his back against the cliff wall.

Hercules froze. He wasn't sure Iolaus recognized him at all, or even recognized him as another human. He forced himself to lower his voice, to sound calm. "Iolaus, it's me." He realized he was still holding the sword in his free hand and dropped it behind him.

Iolaus squinted, tilting his head sideways, eyeing him with wary curiosity. He said slowly, "You don't think I'm me, so why should I believe you're you?"

Hercules gritted his teeth. Morrigan, this is your work. "I do believe you're you. I know it."

Iolaus snorted in disbelief. "So what, it was a test?"

All right, I think I follow what he's saying. He answered carefully, "Not a test. A trick. Both of us were tricked."

Iolaus' expression went still. Then he pushed away from the wall and jumped down off the ledge, landing lightly on the path.

Hercules took a step toward him but Iolaus backed away, still wary. "Wait, wait," Hercules said hurriedly. He was all too aware that the only reason he had found his partner so quickly was because Iolaus had deigned to be found. "It is me. Let me prove it to you, ask me anything you want."

The moment stretched as Iolaus stared at him. Hercules could see him more clearly now in the torchlight. He looked unhurt, except for a scratch on his cheek and dark hollows under his eyes. "I know it's you," he said finally.

"Right," Hercules said under his breath. Iolaus didn't look that thrilled by the conclusion. "Iolaus, that druid, sorcerer, whatever he is gave you some kind of an elixir, and it's making you hallucinate."

The suspicion in his eyes deepening, Iolaus said warily, "Hallucinate what? So you're not really here? Or I'm not really here? And which me are we talking about?"

"Uh.... I.... Forget that, I'm wrong about the hallucinating part," Hercules lied, knowing he didn't have time to fight his way through the complexity of whatever delusions the elixir had given his partner. Just get him through the doorway and home, then worry about when this is going to wear off.

Fortunately, Iolaus seemed to take the words "forget that" literally. He hesitated, then took a step closer, with the air of someone approaching a dangerous creature only because he was desperately in need of something it possessed. He said cautiously, "Do I have to kill it to get out of here?"

"I'm not sure what you mean." Hercules took a careful step, reached out slowly, and lifted Iolaus' chin, gently angling his head until he could see his eyes in the torchlight. They were all pupil, the blue nearly obscured. He's been drugged all right. He touched the scratch on his cheek, relieved to feel a bead of blood. If Iolaus had been in that state between life and death, his body would breathe on its own, but he wouldn't bleed. It seemed more like a drug-induced waking dream, part hallucination and part bad memory.

Iolaus jerked his head away suddenly, falling back a step. He eyed Hercules resentfully. "If I have to believe you're you, then you have to believe I'm me."

"That's not what I was looking for." It would have sounded like raving madness to anyone who hadn't survived Dahak, but Hercules knew exactly what Iolaus meant. It was one of the more coherent things he had said so far. "The doorway disappeared behind a cliff face as soon as I got here. Do you know where it is?"

Iolaus stared up at him, that same look again, wary and distrustful. "Is that what you want?"

"Yes, so we can leave here, get back home."

Iolaus looked away, taking a sharp breath. Hercules watched him in consternation. He had the distinct feeling he had said the wrong thing, though he had no idea how else to say it. It's as if he's hearing something else, or the words mean something different to him. Then Iolaus flicked him an enigmatic glance, stepped past him to scoop up the fallen sword and headed up the gorge.

"Okay," Hercules muttered. He caught up with Iolaus in a couple of long strides. "You know where the doorway is?"

Iolaus didn't answer, moving with swift confidence, sure-footed in the dark and on the rough ground. He stopped suddenly at the bottom of a bluff and Hercules thought he had taken a wrong turn until he realized one of the shadows was a narrow opening.

Iolaus glanced back at him, his face shadowed. Not sure he could fit through the gap, Hercules stepped forward, leaning down to thrust the torch into the opening. It got immediately wider. Doubtfully, he said, "This isn't the way I came."

"It changes," Iolaus said from behind him.

"I know, but--" Hercules turned and stared. The sloping path they had just climbed was gone, in its place a solid rock wall that stretched up past the edge of the fitful torchlight. "Uh oh," he said softly.

Iolaus slipped past him into the crevice, pausing to say, in the tone of someone admonishing a child not to play with its food, "Don't pay attention. It just makes it worse."

Hercules crouched, maneuvering through the opening after him, straightening as soon as he made it into the larger tunnel. Following Iolaus through some twists and turns, he wondered if he could bash through one of these walls if they suddenly found themselves trapped in a chamber with a vanishing door. Or if it would just make it worse.... He saw his partner stop abruptly and caught up with him in one long stride.

Stretched on the ground in a pool of blood was the body of a man, one of the Eirish warriors. His chest had been torn open though his face was unmarked, set in a wide-mouthed grimace of horror. So, Hercules thought grimly. We're not alone here. He stepped forward, crouching to examine the body. Whatever had done this had been big and extraordinarily vicious. And hungry; the man had been disemboweled and Hercules saw no sign of any remnants of the organs. "Iolaus, did you see this happen?"

Iolaus threw him an annoyed look. "It was dark." He circled the corpse, a light, feral quality in his movements. "I have to kill it, right?"

Hercules stood, frowning thoughtfully. "No, not unless we have to. I'd rather not tangle with--"

"Then what?" Iolaus shouted suddenly. "What do I have to do? There's nothing else here!"

"Wait, Iolaus, just calm down!" Hercules reached for his arm and grabbed empty air as Iolaus lightly stepped out of reach.

"What?" he demanded, anguished and desperate. "Why? If I try to kill it, doesn't that prove it? What else am I supposed to do?"

Hercules stepped forward, trying to calm him. "Iolaus, you don't have to prove anything to me--"

Iolaus backed away. "Why don't you just leave me here, like you did in the first place? Why go through all this and make me think everything was all right?"

"I didn't-- What? Leave you?" Even as Hercules spoke incredulously, he felt a sick realization sinking into his stomach. The words triggered a rush of memory and he saw it. He saw all of it. What had happened in that other place, after they had killed Dahak. He shook his head, aghast. "I thought you were gone, I thought it was over, I thought--" A trick, Iolaus had said. Hercules had been tricked all right. Tricked into leaving Iolaus behind in that place.

"I found the way out, I can find it again!" Iolaus said furiously. "Was that why? Because I might find the right way out?"

"No." The denial was automatic, but it wasn't Iolaus' question he was answering. He was speaking to the memory he could see played out in his mind's eye. Zarathrustra had convinced him to leave, that Iolaus was free and had already passed on. Even now the false memory was fading, dissolving like salt in water so he couldn't even recall what the man -- or thing -- had said to make him believe that with such conviction. He wondered if Zarathrustra had ever been real at all, or if his whole appearance had been part of the trick. If the man himself had ever existed or if Dahak had simply stolen his appearance from somewhere as it stole everything else it used. Hercules pressed a hand over his eyes, sick at heart. "Just give me some time--"

"Time?" Iolaus echoed incredulously.

You can't deal with this now. Just get him home. "Yes, at home. Let's go home."

Iolaus stared at him, breathing hard. "Really?"

Hercules nodded. "Really. It's time to go home."

Iolaus took that in. He looked, suddenly, as if the outburst, the accusations, had been completely forgotten. Hercules realized that might be exactly the case, that the elixir might not just be interfering with his memory of the past but also of the present, from one moment to the other. Iolaus shrugged. "Okay."

***

Using one of the extra lines for his grappling hook, Autolycus finished tying up the last unconscious Eirish warrior. He had trussed up the sorcerer first, not that he was sure that would help much if the guy woke. Straightening up, he cast a sideways glance at Morrigan, still standing near the blue whirlwind of the portal. He didn't think she had moved since Hercules had walked through it to gods-knew-where. He growled, "Are you still here?"

She cast a stoney glance at him, her eyes opaque in the half-light. But then, he had never been able to guess what was going on inside her head. She said, "I didn't realize it was a trap."

"You ditzy dame, it's always a trap." Autolycus approached her warily. He had managed to get a couple more torches lit as the gray afternoon outside was failing rapidly; the firelight flickered in the cool air from the cave entrance. "You heard the big guy: blow." He wasn't sure what he was going to do if she refused, or if she decided to take out her frustration on the only moving target.

She eyed him coldly for a long moment, then turned away, facing the portal again.

Autolycus grimaced in frustration. "Look lady, take off now, you could still get yourself a good head start. If he comes back without Iolaus, you'll need it."

He saw her lip curl in contempt. "I don't run."

Oh, goody, she's decided to go the martyr route, Autolycus thought in disgust. He hated martyrs. He had never met one who wasn't motivated by self-centered self-pity. And with an ego the size of mine, that's saying something. Genuinely pissed off now, he swore. "No, you don't, do you? You'd rather make him kill you so he can live with that too."

She faced him, furious, her pale face paling further. The moment seemed to stretch to the nerve-breaking point. Then she strode toward him.

He tensed, his hand twitching toward his grappling hook, but she walked past him toward the cave entrance.

Autolycus followed her cautiously, reaching the opening in time to see her vanish into the shadows at the edge of the sodden forest. "Phew." He pushed his hand through his hair, letting his breath out in relief.

Stepping back into the cave, he stopped on the threshold, sensing faint surreptitious movement. Oh ho, perhaps one of our sleeping beauties wakes. The roar of the thrice-damned waterfall outside covered any low noises, like the unconscious breathing of all the trussed warriors, the crackle and pop of the torches, and what had to be the steady sussuration of the swirly doorway. And didn't that thing give him the creeps. Autolycus wanted to search around the rest of the cave, but hated to turn his back on that glowing portal.

He hesitated, realizing the momentary movement might have come from the doorway. It suddenly struck him that something else might come through the damn thing besides Hercules and Iolaus. He grimaced and muttered, "Oh now, that would be just dandy."

Moving further into the cave, he eyed the druid guy suspiciously. Oh crap, I think he moved. Autolycus reluctantly edged closer to the still form, peering down at him. "Hey, you, sorcerer. You awake?" Not quite daring to give him a nudge with his boot, he leaned down over the druid, peering down at him.

The sudden burst of light knocked Autolycus flat on his back.

***

They reached another narrow opening and Iolaus hesitated, saying, "This is it. Put the torch out."

The cloth had burned away, leaving just glowing charred embers at the end of the branch so it wasn't much help anyway. Hercules ground it against the wall and dropped it.

Iolaus ducked through the opening, edging sideways as Hercules squeezed through after him. He could tell from the air movement that they were in the open again and instinct told him there was a drop-off nearby. He eased down to feel around, discovering they were on a shelf of rock a couple of paces wide.

Hercules sank down next to him and the demigod's voice came hesitantly in the dark. "How do you know the doorway will appear here next?"

"It's already here. It's always been here. We're just waiting for the walls to move." Without the torch, Iolaus' eyes were adjusting to the dark again and he could make out the shape of the cliff wall opposite them. He judged they were only about twenty feet above the floor of the gorge. He could hear the faint trickle of water somewhere, so the stream had moved back into its channel.

"And when we see it, we're going to run for it, right?"

Iolaus hesitated, realized that was a mistake, and said casually, "Sure."

Hercules was silent for a long moment, long enough to make Iolaus uncomfortable. He could tell there was angry frustration under the demigod's studiedly calm questions. He let his breath out, exasperated at himself. His memory was all in pieces, he couldn't even recall now how long they had been here, or if Hercules had come with him or followed him here or if Iolaus had followed him here, for that matter. He couldn't recall what he had done to make the demigod so furious. He realized you aren't Iolaus, he thought, fearing it was the only thing that made sense. "If this is about the body, you can have that back." But since he still didn't think any of this was his fault, he couldn't help adding defensively, "I already told Morrigan that."

Hercules snarled under his breath, seemed to wrestle with himself for a moment, then said more calmly, "I was going to ask if you believe you're you now, but there's not much point in that, is there?"

Suspicious again, Iolaus sidled away a little on the ledge. "Is that a trick question?"

"No." Hercules sighed, obviously still struggling for patience. "Iolaus, this thing isn't Dahak."

Iolaus shifted uncomfortably. "I know that." He was pretty sure he knew that.

"You're not...associating it with Dahak? Thinking that if you kill it, it would...make it easier for you to go back?"

Since Iolaus still couldn't decide whether he was here because he was Iolaus or because he wasn't, killing the creature seemed like an ideal solution for either scenario. He said cautiously, "If it was -- hypothetically -- associated with Dahak, wouldn't killing it do just that?"

He heard Hercules mutter in exasperation, "Oh, great." The demigod stirred. "Iolaus, if--"

Iolaus tensed at a faint rasp on the stone above their heads. Hercules said grimly, "Never mind. It looks like we're going to fight the damn monster anyway."

Something huge moved above them in the dark and Iolaus dove sideways, going off the ledge and landing badly in the rock chips and dirt of the gorge floor. He rolled to absorb the shock and came to his feet, hearing Hercules hit the ground and recover not far away.

He sensed more wild movement in the dark and yelled to warn Hercules, diving sideways as the clawed hand swiped for him again. He came back to his feet, dodged in and sliced at it with the sword. He felt a satisfyingly meaty connect and the creature whipped away from him with an ear-splitting shriek. He darted forward and out, swinging at it, and felt the breeze as it grabbed for him again and missed. Then it retreated hastily, slamming back into the cliff face with a thump and rain of dislodged gravel and dirt. "Hah!" Iolaus yelled in triumph, then remembered he hadn't struck it that time. Hercules must have hit it with something.

He heard Hercules' bootsteps on the grass and then the demigod was at his back. "This has to be a different one," Hercules was saying, sounding as if he was talking to himself. "It's too big to be the thing that killed that warrior."

"No, this is it," Iolaus argued. "It got bigger because there's two of us and you're a demigod." It seemed obvious to him and he couldn't understand why Hercules couldn't see it.

Hercules was silent a moment. Then he said with feeling, "We have got to get out of here."

Darkness moved above their heads and the creature made a strange sort of low whistling snarl, giving Iolaus a very creepy picture of what its mouth must look like. He thrust the sword upward and felt it bite deeply into flesh. Something whipped around and knocked him sideways, slamming him into the rocky ground.

Ow, now that hurt. Stumbling to his feet, feeling blood trickle down his face, he could just see the outline of Hercules grappling with something much larger than he was. Then the creature shrieked again, twisting away. Hercules staggered back and the creature recovered, darting back toward him, a giant amorphous shape in the dark.

And Iolaus felt the world around them shift. With a wild yell he tackled Hercules, knocking him back out of the way.

The cliff wall slammed down where the demigod had been standing, blocking the creature's path. It shrieked again, this time in rage, the high-pitching keening echoing off the rock.

Iolaus rolled off Hercules and sat up, breathing hard. The new wall of rock was just touching his boots. "That was cutting it a little close," he admitted, edging back.

He heard gravel scrape as Hercules pushed himself up. The demigod said slowly, "But the timing was...just right."

Iolaus rubbed the sweat and dust off his forehead. He had hit the ground face first and his nose was bleeding. "It's too big now. We can look for it when it's smaller."

After a moment he realized Hercules hadn't answered him and he looked toward the demigod, squinting to see. All he could make out was an outline, but Iolaus could feel Hercules staring at him. "It's a good plan," he said defensively. Then he vaguely recalled something about waiting for the doorway, and added uncertainly, "But you wanted to leave, right?"

"Iolaus, how do you know when the walls are going to move, and what's going to be there when they do?"

"I don't know. I just do." Iolaus climbed to his feet, beginning to feel like he had done something stupid.

"I think you're making them move."

"I am not!" Iolaus sputtered, outraged. "Even if I'm not me, we wouldn't do that."

"No, no, no, I didn't mean-- I meant, this place is... malleable. It probably moves on its own constantly, but there's something about the way that potion affected your mind that's letting you tap into it." His voice turned thoughtful. "That creature might be able to do it too. After all, it lives here. Damn it, I should have figured this out sooner."

"Were all those sentences supposed to be connected?" Iolaus asked desperately. He had the sudden realization that this place was making him worse, making it harder for him to hold onto a thought from one moment to another, and he knew Hercules had to have noticed it.

The moment of clarity slipped away as Hercules stepped toward him. Iolaus backed away, stumbling on the slippery rocks in the stream, suddenly flashing back to a cave and the rush of water and somebody telling him he didn't belong here, he was only pretending to be Iolaus and they were going to send him back to where he came from. Stuck somewhere forever alone, with Hercules hating him for what he had done. Then Hercules caught his shoulders and said with gentle persuasion, "Iolaus. We have to get out of here now."

"Okay." He had to agree with that.

"We need to find the doorway, so we can go home."

"Who's we?" he demanded suspiciously.

"Me, you, and whoever else you think is in there with you."

Blue light filled the gorge. Blinking, Iolaus stared at the blue swirly doorway, startled. It was only a few paces away, close enough for the steady flow of air from it to rustle his hair. "Hey, there's the--"

Hercules grabbed him by the back of the vest and flung him through the doorway.

***

Jumping through after Iolaus, Hercules hit the ground rolling, coming to his feet and turning to face the doorway.

The blast caught him square in the chest, knocking him backward into the cave wall. He struggled to stand, ears ringing, feeling as if he had been hit dead-on by one of Hera's lightning bolts. He looked up to see the druid Malebore facing him, holding a ball of glowing crackling energy in one hand. Oh, this is just great. Hercules eyed him grimly. "You again. You should have run while you had the chance."

Iolaus had landed closer to the doorway, sprawled on the ground a few places to the left of the druid. Hercules saw Autolycus against the far wall of the cave, an unmoving heap of rumpled green and black.

"I didn't expect you back." Smiling slightly, Malebore glanced at Iolaus, who was pushing himself up on his hands and knees, shaking his head dazedly. "Perhaps I should have chosen a more interesting destination for your friend."

"Then you admit that you know he's really Iolaus. All that about some other being in his body was just a lie to get him into your reach." Hercules wanted Malebore to say it in front of Iolaus, hoping that would snap his partner out of this spell.

Malebore laughed indulgently. "I could assure him of that myself, and he wouldn't believe me. The elixir might not have been able to return him to that useful bridge between life and death, but it's made him helpless, with no idea if any of this is real or a product of his fevered mind." At the word "helpless," Iolaus' head came up and he looked at the druid through the fringe of his hair, his eyes flat and feral. Never helpless, Hercules thought. I have the feeling Malebore didn't see what happened to Unis in Egypt. The last sorcerer who had tried this with Iolaus had not fared well.

The druid lifted a brow and continued, "You can order him about all you like, but he won't help you. I could tell him you were this demon Dahak that tortured him and he would probably attack you."

Hercules saw Iolaus' gaze turn thoughtful. Uh oh. Hercules wasn't sure if Iolaus would do that or not, but he wanted to get the druid off that subject. "Look, you've admitted yourself he's of no use to you. Why don't you just open a doorway back to Eire and go?"

"I couldn't trust you to leave me in peace, now could I? And our gullible friend the Champion of Justice now knows more about me than is wise. She is relentless, and will return to Eire to destroy me." Malebore lifted the ball of chained lightning. "No, we will finish this now--"

Iolaus moved so swiftly Hercules didn't see it until his legs caught Malebore in the back of the knees, knocking him over backward and sending the ball of energy splashing into the cave roof. Hercules shoved off the wall, charging through the rain of dust and rock chips.

Malebore scrambled backward, then turned and flung himself through the doorway.

Hercules slid to a stop. Iolaus bounced to his feet beside him, eyeing the doorway. "That was a mistake," he said with feeling.

"Mistake for who?" Hercules studied the swirl of blue light with alarm. "For him?"

"Yeah. It was mad." Iolaus nodded, still watching the doorway with interest.

"The monster?" Hercules thought. It had seemed to stay near the doorway. "I wonder if he knew it was--"

The portal winked out with a faint whump of displaced air, vanishing as if it had never existed. "Guess not," Hercules commented, then turned in time to grab Iolaus as his partner slumped toward the ground, unconscious.

***

Hercules managed to revive Autolycus enough to walk and with Iolaus slung over one shoulder, the demigod started back to the farm through the rain.

Halfway there he met Jason and a small troop of men from the palace. Jason had received Demades' warning and headed off in a slow fume to find out just what in Tartarus was going on, and Cassandra had told him about Morrigan. He tried to stop and help, but Hercules didn't want help at the moment and he certainly didn't want the more detailed explanation of what had happened that Jason would certainly demand. Hercules sent him on to the cave to take care of the Eirish warriors left there, and continued on to the farm, a groggy King of Thieves stumbling after him.

Once there Hercules put Iolaus down on the bed in their room. Iolaus had been unconscious throughout the walk though he twitched and murmured occasionally. Hercules managed to remove his friend's damp and muddy boots, gauntlets, and vest but when he went for the pants he got an unexpected punch in the jaw that would have felled a mortal.

Cassandra, just coming through the doorway with towels and a bowl of water, halted in surprise. "Are you all right?" she demanded.

He barely glanced at her. "Yes." Iolaus subsided without waking, rolling over and curling around a pillow. Since he was still capable of fighting in his sleep, Hercules decided to leave him the pants.

He got Iolaus' cuts cleaned up and sponged the dried blood off his face. Then he sat down on the bench, leaning back against the wall, and waited.

Cassandra came in several times to check Iolaus or to try to get Hercules to eat or sleep. She gave up on that finally and just sat on the hearth stone next to him, rubbing her arms, the firelight flickering over her.

He knew it was near dawn when he heard the front door open. He listened, head cocked, but then heard the voice of Theocles, one of the men who had been with Jason, speaking to Autolycus. Cassandra got up hurriedly and went down the hall. She came back after a moment, leaning in the doorway to say quietly, "Hercules, Jason sent a man to tell you that he saw Morrigan on the road, when they were taking the Eirish warriors to Corinth. He thinks she's coming here."

Hercules nodded grimly. That was what he had been waiting for.

***

Iolaus had vague flashes of the dripping forest in gray evening light, everything upside-down because he was slung head down over someone's shoulder. He kept hearing voices: Jason, Autolycus, Hercules, Cassandra, other people he didn't recognize, but the words might have been in some other language. Then it blurred into darkness.

The next thing he knew it was warm and he was lying on something soft and dry. That seemed like an incredible luxury, except it was hard to breathe, because his face was buried in a pillow and his nose was filled with the odor of wool.

"...Thinks she's coming here," someone was saying.

"He's waking up." Hercules' voice.

"Who's waking up?" Iolaus tried to say. It came out as "Mmph." That was no good. He made a enormous effort to move and managed to heave himself up enough to turn his head. This did get him some air, but his hair was draped over his eyes and he couldn't see a damn thing. He let out a breath in frustration.

Someone lifted the curtain of hair out of the way. The room was dark and he saw a Hercules-shaped form leaning over him. "How do you feel?"

Iolaus blinked and cleared his throat experimentally. "Okay--" His voice came out in an awkward unused rasp and he tried again, "I think." He was dressed only in his pants, lying in a nest of pillows and blankets in the bed in their room at the farmhouse. His nose hurt and he had a headache that was making his eyes cross.

"Do you remember what happened?"

Iolaus concentrated, his brow furrowed. "I...." His last coherent memory was the conversation with Morrigan, after Hercules had left with Diocles. "I followed Morrigan up into the hills, then some guys jumped me." He rolled half onto his back, scratching at a red welt on his arm. "And I think I was poisoned." He frowned, trying to make his sluggish brain cooperate. "I remember Auto saying that."

"Why did you go with her?"

The question was quiet but the tone was implacable and it drew Iolaus' eyes back to Hercules. Leaning over him, the demigod's face was shadowed and Iolaus couldn't read his expression. He wet his lips, suddenly feeling like he was turning somebody over to Spartan justice. "She said she had proof."

Hercules nodded to himself, as if this confirmed a supposition of his own. "Go back to sleep." He straightened up.

"Wait," Iolaus protested. He wanted to ask what in Tartarus was going on. He pushed himself up on one elbow, flipping the hair out of his eyes again. Hercules halted in the doorway.

With the light falling in from the hall, Iolaus saw him clearly for the first time. The demigod's expression was stony and emotionless and completely enraged, all at once.

Iolaus' head cleared as if he had been shoved under a winter-cold waterfall. "Wait. What are you doing?"

Hercules said quietly, "Go back to sleep."

Iolaus stared at him. He knew he was seeing the Hercules who had destroyed Hera's temples, rescuing the sacrifices only by accident, who had been inches from driving a Hind's Blood Dagger into Ares' heart, who had watched Nebula's crew die without care and expended his rage on a Sumerian Death God. Hercules stepped out the door and Iolaus heard him go down the hallway.

Uh oh. He struggled to sit up, staring at the shuttered window. He realized that was early morning light coming through the slats. Morning. And Hercules had had all night to sit here worrying and building up a good head of rage.

Climbing out of the feather-stuffed mattress was like trying to fight his way out of a bog; Iolaus finally managed it by falling out of the bed. The rest of yesterday was starting to come back to him in flashes, none of it particularly illuminating. Dizzy with what felt like the mother of all hangovers, he shoved himself to his feet and staggered to the door.

He ran into Cassandra, almost knocking her over. "Iolaus," she gasped as he caught her around the waist, grabbing the doorframe to keep them both upright. "Are you all right?"

"Sure." He let her go as she got her balance. "Is Morrigan out there?"

"Not yet." Cassandra threw a worried glance toward the front of the house. "But one of Jason's men said he saw her on the road through the woods." She looked at Iolaus, her brows drawing together in concern. "But would she really come back here? After what she did? I know she's arrogant, but surely--"

"Oh, yeah, she would." Iolaus pushed off from the doorframe, wavering down the hall, Cassandra following him anxiously. Uncompromising and rigid in her beliefs, he knew Morrigan would demand an accounting of herself the same way she had demanded it of him.

Autolycus was in the front room, holding one of the shuttered windows open just enough to peer out. "He's out there, waiting for her," he reported. He glanced back at Iolaus, brows lifted. "Nice to see you on your feet more or less, Curly."

"You too," Iolaus said, distracted. Autolycus didn't look so great either; the King of Thieves had two black eyes that made him look like a raccoon. Iolaus made it to the other window and opened the shutter. In the dim gray light of dawn, Hercules was standing on the far side of the garden, facing toward the woods, waiting. Oh, crap. Iolaus pressed his lips together; he doubted anybody else had noticed. The Sovereign was ostentatiously mad, crashing around and yelling like the idiot he was. Hercules would be calm, careful and convince everyone else that what he was saying was logical by the very force of his personality. It worked on you before. You were willing to help him wreck temples because it sounded like such a great idea at the time, he thought, closing the shutter. Well, I was younger then, and I'd only been dead the once.

He started for the doorway but the floor swayed and he stumbled. Autolycus caught him and shoved him down in a chair while Iolaus was off-balance, saying, "Whoa there, Sidekick, what's the rush?"

His head swimming as the room rocked back and forth, Iolaus said, "I need to stop him." The words were out before he thought.

"I don't think he's going to kill her," Cassandra said, but she sounded uncertain.

Iolaus rubbed his face, more to hide his grim expression than to clear his head. So it had crossed Cassandra's mind too.

Autolycus frowned down at him. "What, you think the big guy's going to whack Spooky Dame? Miss Goody Two-Shoes 'Let's All do Just What the Demigod Says' here doesn't think--"

Iolaus shook his head and hauled himself to his feet. "No, he's fine. I just need to be out there."

Autolycus grabbed his arm as Iolaus reached the door. "You sure?" he asked.

Iolaus nodded. "Yeah, it's okay."

Autolycus and Cassandra watching him worriedly, Iolaus stepped outside. Getting across the porch was a struggle, but the cool air revived him and walking made his sluggish blood start moving again. The sky was still cloudy and gray with early dawn and the damp ground was cold on his bare feet. He couldn't think what it was. People have tried to kill me, tried to kill him, tried to kill Alcmene, Jason, Deineira, everybody. It never made him this angry before. It wasn't like she had suceeded. What's different this time? True, it had been a betrayal by a trusted friend. And worse, by someone he had slept with, and Hercules wasn't a man who bestowed his favors lightly. And he reformed her. He never had anybody he reformed go back on him again. But it still didn't feel like the right answer. He was beginning to wonder if something more had happened that in all the hallucinatory confusion, he just couldn't remember.

Hercules must have heard him on the graveled path but he didn't turn until Iolaus reached his side. Brows lowered, Hercules gave him the thunderous pissed-off Son of Zeus glare and said, "Get back inside."

Iolaus barred his teeth in bitter amusement. "I think you have me confused with someone else."

The thunderous glare turned withering and Hercules looked away. The only evidence that the shot had hit home was the angry red flush creeping up his neck. He said pointedly, "Get. Back. Inside."

Iolaus eyed him grimly. He's trying the old 'he can't argue with me if I won't argue with him' gambit. He had to get him talking, shake him out of this state he was in. "This is my business, considering it was your girlfriend who tried to poison me and send me to Tartarus."

Hercules said through gritted teeth, "She is not my girlfriend."

Hah, made you talk. "What are you going to do out here that you don't want me to see?"

Hercules looked at him again, trying to make his expression cold, but that tide of rage still lay under it. He had fallen back on not talking, but Iolaus had broken that defense once already and knew he could do it again. "If you can kill her, you can do it in front of me," he persisted.

He was hoping Hercules would snarl that he wasn't going to kill her. Instead the demigod looked up at the gray sky, planting his hands on his hips, then stared off across the fields.

"What is it?" Iolaus demanded finally, trying to sound more angry than desperate.

"You don't remember." Hercules' voice was quiet again.

"Remember what?"

Hercules looked at him finally and his eyes were bleak. "I left you there."

"Huh?" Uncomprehending, Iolaus stared at him. The only "there" he could think of was the other world Malebore had sent him to, the one he remembered as just one confused darkness. Frustrated, he spread his hands. "Hello? I'm standing right here!"

"After we killed Dahak," Hercules said, still watching him.

"No." Iolaus shook his head, frowning, baffled. "I don't--"

"I didn't remember it, until you said--" Hercules grimaced, as if it hurt to speak the words. "Dahak, whatever was left of it, tricked me into leaving you there."

Iolaus went still. The memory was suddenly there, mixed in with all the other fragments of that long nightmare spent trapped with Dahak. The demon god telling him that Hercules thought Iolaus was just a possession to be discarded when it became too much trouble to deal with, using the demigod's own words to the Sumerian Death God to prove it. Showing him the other Iolaus as proof he could be replaced. Then Hercules' sudden arrival, long after Iolaus had given up any hope, after Dahak had convinced him that the demigod thought he was a willing participant in this and not a prisoner. Fighting Dahak in one of its nastier forms, killing it.... Then Hercules suddenly gone and Iolaus facing the sickening fact that he wasn't going anywhere, that this place was coming apart, disappearing as the demon god's influence faded away and if he was still here when it did.... Dahak had come and gone from that strange otherworld place it lived but until Hercules had appeared there it had never occurred to Iolaus that there might actually be a portal he could use. You found your own way out, somehow, through one of the doorways, and ended up on the Paths of the Dead. He shook his head again slowly, coming back to the present. Still a little dazed, he looked up at Hercules. "Okay."

It was Hercules' turn to stare in incomprehension. "Okay?" he repeated, sounding flabbergasted.

Iolaus shrugged helplessly. Dahak had tricked them so many times; one more didn't seem to matter that much. "I'm over it."

Hercules swore, the anger rising again. "I'm not."

Iolaus snorted in exasperation. "So you're going to kill her because if she hadn't done this neither of us would have remembered it? It doesn't work that way. It would have come out one way or another." He realized suddenly that was what Asclepius had been trying to tell him about his dreams. "That's why Kheper wouldn't tell you why he thought Dahak was still a danger one day and then said it was dead the next. Because it would mean telling you how you were tricked and he knew you -- we -- weren't ready to hear it."

Hercules looked away, his jaw set.

One of us isn't so ready to hear it now. Iolaus let out his breath. But Hercules was talking and listening and that was the important thing. They stood there without speaking for a time, Iolaus feeling gooseflesh rise on his bare skin from the cold and the tension. Then Hercules said, his voice rough, "How can I ever make that up to you?"

"You could give me my life back." Iolaus rubbed his arms absently, looking away toward the woods. "Oh yeah, you already did that."

Hercules took a sharp breath but said nothing. Then Iolaus saw movement among the trees, just where the path came down the hill. His eyes narrowed as Morrigan emerged, walking toward the house. Hercules didn't react and Iolaus realized he had been aware of her approach long before.

He looked at Hercules for a long moment. Iolaus didn't think Hercules would kill her now; that dangerous rage seemed to be on the wane and the demigod's emotional turmoil was occupying him more now than Morrigan's betrayal. But it was better to be on the safe side. He made his voice hard. "Hercules. This is my fight."

Hercules gaze snapped to him. He hadn't looked at Morrigan yet, though she had reached the end of the yard and was coming down the path under the shade trees. "If it wasn't for me--"

"This is my fight," Iolaus repeated deliberately. He could tell Hercules was aware now of what Iolaus was trying to do and didn't particularly appreciate it. But that Iolaus could handle. "You want to make it up to me? Then let me deal with her."

Morrigan stopped ten paces away, standing stiffly, holding her plaids wrapped around her against the morning cold. It made her look small and vulnerable. "Hercules." Her voice was quiet. "I came to ask your forgiveness." Her eyes avoided Iolaus, the only sign of human weakness.

Finally Hercules looked at her. His expression was cold and hard as stone, still deeply angry. Iolaus wasn't sure Morrigan understood just how angry, or how close a call it had been for a time there. The demigod said, "Your friend Malebore is dead."

It was a last-ditch attempt to make her say something that would justify rage, but she shook her head. "He was not my friend. He lied to me, tricked me--"

Unfortunate -- or maybe fortunate -- choice of words, Iolaus thought, watching Hercules' face.

"I was a fool to believe him," Morrigan finished, looking up at him. She was pale as a shade and it emphasized the lines of old pain at her eyes and mouth.

"Hercules," Iolaus said, drawing the demigod's cold gaze to himself. Hercules didn't look particularly comprising at the moment either, but Iolaus weathered it. The moment stretched, then the demigod turned and walked toward the house.

Morrigan watched him go, her brows knit. When he entered the house she finally turned to Iolaus, facing him for the first time. "He's angry with you," she said, still quiet.

Iolaus eyed her. "He'll get over it. He's angry with himself; that he won't get over so easily."

Her face grew even more bleak and she looked at the house again. "He will not forgive me."

"Sure he will. You have to give him time." Iolaus shrugged slightly. "He won't trust you again. But then he probably shouldn't, should he?"

"I did what I thought was best."

"Yeah, well, there's that," Iolaus agreed dryly. "And I'm sure you'll do it again."

She swallowed, obviously trying for control. "I must ask your forgiveness."

Iolaus nodded slowly. "I suppose you must." He looked at her directly, very aware he wasn't doing this for her sake or even his sake. "If I say I forgive you, will it be as if nothing happened?"

She winced, looking away. "Of course not."

"Then I forgive you. Until the next time you decide to do what you think is best."

Her eyes came back to him and they held that gaze for a long moment. Then she nodded gravely and walked away.

Iolaus let out his breath in a long sigh, rubbing his eyes. I've only been alive a month or so and I need a vacation. He waited until she went up the hill and into the forest, then he turned back to the house.

Cassandra met him at the door, eyeing him worriedly. "Are you all right?"

Iolaus nodded, stepping inside. "Yeah. She left."

"We know." Shutting the door behind him, she cast an annoyed glance at Autolycus. "I told him not to watch--"

The King of Thieves glared at her. "I wanted to be prepared for any eventuality."

Iolaus moved to the hearth, standing with his back to the fire and letting it warm his chilled skin. His headache was starting to fade but he still didn't feel like doing any cartwheels. "Hercules went out the back?"

"Yeah." Autolycus stroked his mustache. "Looked pretty grim."

"That's an understatement," Cassandra added ruefully. "He had...a very bad night."

Iolaus nodded, absently scratching his chest. Hercules was probably working off his tension in a hard run through the hills. "He needs to be alone." He considered a moment. "I need a nap."

***

Hercules didn't come back until late that afternoon.

The day had been uneventful; even Autolycus, still shaky from being hit by one of Malebore's lightning blasts, had been less annoying than usual. The only excitement had occurred when Jason had returned and Iolaus had given him the whole story.

Sitting at the table in the main room, Jason had said, "I saw him in the woods on his way back here with you and Autolycus yesterday. I thought something was wrong, but--" He shook his head, grimacing. "If he goes back to that state he was in while you were gone-- Well, Morrigan will have a bigger burden on her conscience and I may have to move to Thrace."

"That's not going to happen, Jason," Iolaus had told him. "He just has to come to terms with what happened. And besides," he added in frustration, "everything worked out all right and he needs to get that through his thick head."

The rainclouds had left by the afternoon, leaving the sun bright and the sky a brilliant blue. Iolaus had gone across the fields to the very end of the farm, to a small lake at the edge of the forested hills. After a swim, he laid out on a flat rock on the shore to dry off, drowsing and letting the sun soak through to his bones.

After a time he heard familiar bootsteps in the grass behind him. He didn't sit up, tracking Hercules' progress by ear as the demigod reached the pebble-strewn shore, stood there contemplating the water for a time, then finally wandered over to Iolaus' rock.

As the demigod's shadow fell over him, Iolaus squinted up. "Well?"

Hercules grunted. Iolaus interpreted that as meaning he was recovering but not up to any advanced communication at the moment. He sat down next to the rock, stretching his long legs toward the water.

After a time, Iolaus could feel Hercules staring at him inquiringly. He ran a hand through his drying hair and answered the unspoken question, "I feel pretty good, actually."

Hercules contemplated him, brows drawing together. "You do?"

Iolaus turned his head to study him. He had noticed before that Hercules had lost his undershirt somewhere and looked sort of rakish without it. His expression was more pensive than upset, something Iolaus was glad to see. "Yes. I think this must have been in my head, trying to get out, since we got back. It's a big relief." Iolaus figured he owed Asclepius an apology. The god of healing had told him his dreams were trying to bring memories to the surface and Iolaus hadn't entirely believed it, even after what the Egyptian dream powder had revealed.

Hercules nodded slowly, considering it. "I can understand that." He pressed his lips together. "I'm going to send a message to Kheper, ask him what else he knew that I didn't."

Iolaus lifted a brow. "I wouldn't phrase it just that way."

Hercules glared at the lake but snorted in unwilling amusement. "Yeah, that would be all I need."

Iolaus stretched lazily, then sat up, propping himself up on his hands. "Hey, let's go somewhere." He prodded Hercules with his foot. "Cassandra said she needs to start home, so we could walk her to Calydon and then head out from there. Do a sweep through that part of the country, see what's going on."

Hercules smiled faintly. "That sounds like--" He hesitated, looking up at the blue sky arching overhead. In a completely different tone, he demanded, "Oh, tell me that's not what I think it is."

"What?" Iolaus glanced up, frowning. High in the air, coming in over the hills, was a white and gold figure. "Is that Hermes...?" The figure's flight was oddly erratic and it kept bobbing up and down like it was.... Like it was missing one winged sandal. Cursing, Iolaus jumped to his feet, scrambling for his pants. "It's what you think it is." It was Perseus, making a beeline for the farm.

Hercules waited impatiently for Iolaus to get his pants on and to snatch up the rest of his clothes, then they bolted off toward home.

end

Please post a comment on this story.