Her next gust uncovered Jason, blindly battling an Earthborn. The captain was in the process of wrenching his blade from the belly of the beast when Danae’s wind blew the mist away. He stared around wildly, swinging his sword as the creature tumbled to the ground. Then, out of the retreating fog behind him, someone lunged forward. Jason spun around, driving his blade upward.
Cyzicus stumbled into the light. Danae dropped her arms and stared in horror at the King of the Doliones impaled on Jason’s blade. Jason’s mouth moved wordlessly as Cyzicus slumped onto the sand.
Danae tried to reach them, but her legs buckled. She’d overspent herself. She didn’t know her limits yet and had used too many life-threads.
A scream pierced the air. Cleite was standing on the rocks at the far end of the isthmus, her mouth stretched open long after the sound left her throat. Then she half slipped, half ran down the rocks, pausing only to take up the sword of a fallen Doliones.
She hurled herself toward Jason. “Murderer!”
Jason tugged his sword from Cyzicus’s chest and parried her blow.
“I couldn’t see him, I—”
Cleite swung at him again. Jason pushed her back, but she continued to throw herself at him.
“Doliones, your king is slain! Murdered by this monster in man’s flesh! Avenge my husband, kill them all!”
All around the now clear isthmus, the Dolionian soldiers retreated from the few remaining Earthborn and turned toward their queen. They saw Cyzicus slain and Cleite rounding on Jason. Like wildfire, her wrath leaped from man to man, igniting them all. Despite having to defend the isthmus against the remaining Earthborn, several of the Doliones turned on the Argonauts. These people had promised to save them, but instead had murdered their king.
Jason locked blades with Cleite. They struggled for a moment, but his strength outweighed hers, and with a shove he sent her crashing to the ground.
“Argonauts, back to the ship!” he yelled, while sprinting along the isthmus toward the rocks where theArgowas tethered.
Danae clenched her teeth and managed to heave herself onto her knees. Then an Earthborn came charging toward her, ropes of spittle flailing from its gnashing jaws.
The next moment, she was lifted from the ground. Hylas slung her over his shoulder and ran along the stretch of sand. He slowed as he reached the rocks and attempted to clamber one-handed toward theArgo. She could feel his muscles straining and lungs heaving. She was slowing him down.
“Leave me,” she croaked.
“Never.” Hylas tightened his grip around her waist.
Argonauts scrambled past them, pursued by incensed Doliones and raging Earthborn.
“Heracles!” Hylas shouted as the hero’s huge frame appeared beside them, battering away two Earthborn as they clawed their way up onto the rocks. “Help her.”
Danae became weightless in Heracles’s arms. He bounded across the last stretch of rock and passed her up to Atalanta who stood ready with the rest of the archers to haul the fleeing crew members aboard. The warrior dropped her onto the deck and stretched an arm back to Hylas, as Heracles leaped over the side of the ship.
Danae grasped a bench and heaved herself upright. Atalanta pulled Hylas up to the ship’s rail, and Danae’s eyes met his. The feeling that blazed from him hit her like a sudden summer storm. She wondered how she’d never seen it before.
He loved her.
An Earthborn reared up from the rocks. The surprise had barely registered on Hylas’s face by the time two sets of blood-smeared claws closed around his torso. To her credit, Atalanta held on, but she was no match for the beast’s strength, and her fingers slipped from Hylas’s as the creature yanked him backward.
Before the scream had left Danae’s chest, Heracles launched himself overboard and ran across the rocks after them.
Jason, seemingly oblivious to what had happened, leaned over the stern feverishly undoing the tether. “Row!” he yelled, as the rope slithered free of its knot. “Gods damn you, row!”
The remaining crew rushed to take up the oars.
“Heracles, Hylas, we can’t leave them!” Telamon shouted.
Jason’s eyes were wild as he glanced back at the shore, still crawling with Earthborn and enraged Doliones. “I’m not risking the rest of the crew for two men.”
“But Heracles—” Tiphys began.
Jason pushed the navigator aside and grabbed hold of the tiller. “If you want to live, row!”
The men didn’t need to be told a third time. The mist had turned the tide of the battle, and with the Doliones now on the attack as well, they knew the fight was lost. The Argonauts grabbed the oars and pushed the ship away from the rocks. Atalanta launched herself at Jason but was brought thudding to the deck by Pollux before she could reach him.
