Medea (35 page)

'What shall we do, my princess, my dearest lady?' he asked.

'We shall talk before we fight,' I replied. 'I am - I was - a priestess of Hekate and, although Trioda has cast me out, I still have some skills. If we can find the right herbs on this island, I can send them to sleep as I did Ophis, or darken the moon in their eyes to cover our escape. But we also need to acquire something which belongs to them.'

'Such as?' asked a gnarled man with a wry grin.

'Something which has lain next their skin, a shift, an amulet; even a sandal would do,' I replied.

'Trust me,' declared the man, 'I am Autolycus, and my father was Hermes, patron of thieves. There is nothing which I cannot obtain for you, Priestess.'

'Without their knowledge?' I asked sceptically.

'Once I was challenged to steal the most closely guarded thing in Libya - a wager for my life and safe passage out of the territory - and I stole the crown of their king.'

'Why was that so hard?' asked Akastos.

'He was wearing it at the time,' said Autolycus simply. 'And he never noticed it was gone until I produced it from his chief counsellor's hat.'

Meleagros scoffed, 'You are a boaster, Autolycus. How could you do such a thing?'

I would have sworn that Autolycus did not move within touching distance of Meleagros, but sat on a rowing bench near me, dangling one hand idly over the thwart of the ship. He grinned and asked Meleagros, 'Haven't you lost something?'

'No,' scowled Meleagros, casting a quick glance around his property.

'What about the Samothrace amulet which preserves you from drowning?' asked Autolycus, with every appearance of concern. 'No sailor should be without such a valuable piece of protection.'

Patting his chest, Meleagros exclaimed, 'It's gone!'

'On the contrary, it's here,' said Autolycus, producing a little purple bag on a leather thong.

Meleagros accepted the amulet, examined it minutely and said, 'Yes, it's mine. How did you do that?'

'Oh, I can't do that sort of thing. I'm just a boaster,' replied Autolycus, straight-faced. 'I just found it here in my hand.'

'Beware, friends,' said Meleagros, relaxing into a huge grin. 'We have on board the very prince of thieves.'

Clearly there were several kinds of magic on the
Argo
, not mine alone.

The Colchian ships moored within spear-throwing range of the ship, and I saw that my detestable half-brother was indeed in command.

Aegialeus yelled to Jason, 'You have the Golden Fleece and the bones of Phrixos. My father is willing to allow you to keep Phrixos. He was a stranger in Colchis and belongs, perhaps, to you - also his ghost has been walking and may want to go home. The Golden Fleece you won; the terms are met.'

'Then we have no quarrel, son of Aetes,' responded Jason.

'You have with you my half-sister, the Princess Medea, black bitch of Hekate. If you will return her, son of Aison, I will allow you to depart without battle,' called Aegialeus.

I sniffed. What a ludicrous proposal! My lord would not give me up, not after such a profession of love.

'Let us meet,' said Jason, 'to arrange this matter.'

I thought I had misheard at first. But the Argonauts were all looking at me sadly and I knew that he had said it. I was appalled. I bit back a scream of protest and something inside me turned instantly to ice. Kore and Scylla, sensing my shock as they always did, burrowed through the massed legs of the Argonauts and came to me, sitting one either side.

What had I done? I had abandoned everything dear to me and followed a foreigner without a second thought, and now he was going to hand me back to my half-brother. I would lose my maidenhead, not to my chosen husband, but to Aegialeus. He would use me to become king, and then he would kill me. Death did not seem a more dreadful fate. I knew about death. Hekate's priestesses are trained in the dark and are perfectly familiar with death - on friendly, even sisterly terms.

But I knew nothing at all about love. It hurt so much that I was beyond tears. I hugged the hounds and waited to see what this perfidious, this monstrous, beautiful Achaean intended to do with me. I was resolved. I would kill myself before Jason sold me to Aegialeus for his own release; if I could. And if I could not, if I was bound and delivered to my half-brother, I would kill both him and myself as soon as I was able.

I was shaking with pain and shock. Scylla leaned closer to me, laying her head on my shoulder, and Kore sprawled half across my lap.

The ship was hauled up the beach. The crew, with the economy of long practice, began to set up camp, light a fire and find shelter for the coming night. Still I sat on the after-deck, waiting to hear my fate.

Nauplios brought me a dish of mealy porridge, but I could not eat. The dogs enjoyed it, however. The boy smiled nervously at me as he came to collect the empty bowl and said, 'Lady, fate is cruel, but you are strong.'

'Not strong enough, it seems,' I replied, concealing my face from his concerned eyes. I would not cry in front of an Achaean, even this very young and sympathetic one. After a while, he went away.

Dark came, the moon rose. I heard someone picking their way through the tangle of lines and bundles between the rowing benches.

It was Jason. 'Princess,' he said, and took my hand. I snatched it away.

'Traitor,' I replied. 'What are you going to do with me? Are women in Achaea so common that you can afford to waste me? I gave you the ointment for the bulls, Achaean, outraging my oaths to Hekate. I sent Ophis to sleep so that you could take what you came for. I believed your oaths, sworn by your gods, that you honoured me.' I choked, but recovered. I could see his face, silvered in the moon, and he was so beautiful that my heart was moved, despite my horror.

'Lady,' he began, running a hand down my shoulder to my hip. His touch made me shiver with desire, but I pushed him away.

'May your own Furies pursue you, Achaean,' I said as softly as I could. My voice seemed to be failing me, along with my heart and my wits. 'The man to whom you are going to deliver me will rape me and then he will kill me. Have I deserved this of you? But you shall not sell me for your own safety. I will die first. I have a potion here, snake venom and hemlock. Tell me that you are giving me to Aegialeus, Jason, and I will drink it.'

'Medea,' he said softly, and his voice was so musical that I had to listen. 'Lady, there is no other way.'

'And if I find you another way?'

'My own love, any other way and I will take it. I love you, Princess. But I will sacrifice even my own heart to save my shipmates.'

Of course. He would be wounded, hurt, by losing me, but he was so noble that he would bear such injury. Loyalty to his own crew, his relatives and friends who had travelled with him so far and borne so many perils for his sake, must win over love. I drew a breath, the first deep breath since I had heard him reply to Aegialeus.

'Let us meet my half-brother,' I said. 'I will call him down from his fellows. He will not want to let any other see this rape. I will lie down for him, and you will kill him.'

'How will that make us safe?'

'I will then make a spell which will cover our escape. They will not be eager to pursue anyway, if Aegialeus is dead. His will was in this, not the king's. In fact, he was probably told just to retrieve the fleece and the bones and possibly me, and kill you all. He is trying to make his own bargain. This makes him vulnerable.'

'We will do as you say,' replied Jason. 'My sweet witch, my most beautiful sorceress.'

'But if you ever betray me, Jason, son of Aison, if you break your most solemn oaths, then you will die.'

I foresaw; which I did very rarely. I have no gift for prophecy. But I saw Jason lying dead under the keel of a ship, crushed by a fallen timber. It was a bright little picture, clear as real life.

He seemed taken aback, even alarmed. He gave me his hand and this time I took it. I summoned Autolycus to me, gave him some instructions, and allowed him to kiss my hand. He was a clever rogue, this son of Hermes, and I trusted him to carry out what he had sworn to do, especially since it would ensure our escape. I sang my spell for sleep. We clambered down from the ship and went, thus linked, along the sand to the camp which the only son of Aetes had established at the other side of the little beach.

'Ah,' said Aegialeus as he saw me held by my Achaen gaoler, 'Hekate's bitch, you are mine.'

'I am captive,' I said, lowering my head so that I should not have to look at his self-satisfied face. 'But I will not lie down under you in the midst of your men, brother. Such an act - such a dreadful act - must not be watched by any.'

'I will make you scream with lust,' he promised, mistaking my shudder for desire. 'Achaean, you are free to leave. I have what I came for,' he said, and his hands grabbed for my breasts.

 

He found a nipple and squeezed hard. I gasped with pain. Jason stepped away from me as Aegialeus dragged me down the beach to a little cove. There he tripped me suddenly, laughing in triumph, and flung himself down on top of me.

No animal likes being turned on its back, its vulnerable belly exposed. I was suddenly terrified that Jason would not come in time, or that he would make another, better, bargain with the others, and I would be violated by the intrusion into my body of the hard thing which butted into my belly. He had both hands on my shoulders, pinning me to the ground, and his weight was cutting off my breath. My legs were parting - he had dug his knees into my thighs - despite my struggle to keep them together. Trioda had lied when she told me in the cave of Hekate that I would never be so frightened again.

The cloth of my robes was torn, my body bared, his tunic cast aside. He had not even searched me. I had the phial of poison, but I could not reach it. My half-brother was mad with lust and stronger than me, and I was weakening because I was so desperately afraid.

'I will make you bleed,' he promised, sparing one hand to thrust between my legs, seeking the entrance to the womb. His sandy fingers were thwarted for a moment by my dry, shrinking flesh, then they found an entrance and thrust, hard, and his mouth smothered my scream. His touch hurt in a deep, personal way which mere injury could never even rival. I struggled, feeling for my torn robe and my venomous potion, my only escape.

'Stop fighting, virgin bitch of Hekate,' he said softly. 'In a moment you shall be maiden no longer, and then you will be soft in my arms, conquered, wholly mine.'

'Never,' I spat into his face. 'Never. Hekate will smite you, Aegialeus, for incest and for rape. And for this you will die.'

'Perhaps,' I could not move under his weight. The fingers moved inside me, then he withdrew them. He shifted his weight, still as heavy as the earth, and I felt the phallus positioned at the mouth of my womb; a hard spear with a rounded end. 'But first you will be mine. One thrust,' he gloated. 'I will take your maidenhead with one…'

He fell on me. I screamed. Then I realised that he was not moving. The violation had not taken place. His mouth was on my throat and from it ran a hot sticky fluid. I smelt blood. Not the virgin blood of my sacrifice, but Aegialeus' blood. Jason's voice asked urgently, 'Medea? Medea, my own love, my princess, are you alive?'

'I live,' I groaned under a dead weight. 'Lift him off me, I'm suffocating.'

He rolled the body aside, pulling me up into his embrace. His arms were strong, and I wiped my face against his shoulder. I was shuddering so that my legs would not hold me up. He carried me away from the corpse, holding me close, until he came to the ship. There he laid me down in someone's bedding and sat beside me, stroking my hair. Telamon brought me a terracotta goblet full of wine and Nauplios, who was acute, a bowl of hot water.

In the darkness, I laved my insulted flesh. There was sand inside me, and the edges of the parts which we call the vessel were lacerated by Aegialeus' contaminated touch. My neck and breast were sticky with my half-brother's blood, and I tasted it. I have never been so pleased that anyone was dead.

I washed as well as I could, drank neat Achaean wine, which was powerfully sweet, and lay back in the bedding, clutching my torn robes around me and shaking as though I was snow-bound. I could not stop shivering. I was as cold as the grave.

The hounds lay close to me, both on one side; for on the other lay Jason, who had rescued me. We waited for the rest of the plan to take effect. I warmed slowly between the animal heat of the dogs and the man, but I could not sleep. The horrible strength of Aegialeus, the nearness of my escape from death and rape, the gloating voice, the intruding fingers, repeated like a vision, until I could have shrieked exorcisms at it.

By dawn we knew that the potion which I had given Autolycus had been included in both the wine and the drinking water of the Colchians. They lay asleep on the beach like seals.

'There is one more thing which will delay them,' I said. 'But it is a horrible thing to do, even to a dead man.'

'I am in your debt, Lady. We are all in your debt. What shall we do?' asked Nauplios, who was now lying at my side to warm me, since my lord was inspecting the fallen Colchians.

'The men of Colchis must be cocooned entire, or they will not reach the afterlife,' I explained. 'Therefore, strike that vile half-brother of mine, that rapist Aegialeus, into pieces and scatter the limbs in the ocean. The fleet will not dare return to Aetes without every finger, every toe, and as much as can be found of the king's son.'

Nauplios winced, but nodded. 'I will tell Jason and we will do as you suggest,' he said, getting up and finding a cleaver.

I rose and, with Kore and Scylla flanking me, I stood unmoving, the wind plucking at my torn robes. Jason, Nauplios and Telamon hacked the despised corpse of the monster into quarters and then into pieces and gathered up armfuls of Aegialeus, Aetes' only son, and flung them into the sea. His head rolled almost to my feet with the violence of Telamon's blow, which severed the neck. The face looked surprised, the eyebrows raised, the mouth open.

I spurned it with my foot, still sick with terror and loathing. I noticed that several of the Argonauts made signs of warning at me, and I heard Authalides whisper, 'She is a true Colchian witch, daughter of Hekate the Black Bitch, Mother of Death.'