Jason stared at her while she spoke. When she finished, he said quickly, “I accept. I swear to the gods, we will do as you ask and I will keep my men in line. Then we will repair our ship and leave your shore.”
Hypsipyle smiled, cut Jason free and gave the order to her hunters to revive the crew. Begrudgingly, the hunters lowered their weapons. They moved among the unconscious men with vials of the amber liquid.
The Argonauts didn’t come round quietly. As soon as they woke, most strained violently against their bonds, swearing at the hunters. The Lemnians shouted back and raised their weapons.
“Listen to me, Argonauts!” Jason shouted. “I have made a bargain with these women—”
“I’m not agreeing to anything,” growled Pollux.
Ancaeus spat at the hunter nearest him.
Jason raised his arms in a placating gesture. “I will explain! Please, calm yourselves...”
He was interrupted by the crack of splintering bark. Danae spun around to see Heracles rip the tree he’d been tied to from the sand and toss it across the beach, his bindings shredded on the ground. Chest heaving, he glanced down at his muscled torso and pulled fistfuls of darts from his skin.
Danae’s throat tightened. The hero’s pupils were swollen, his eyes crystalized with hatred.
Silence rippled across the beach. Then the hunters charged.
Heracles swatted them away like flies. He grabbed one woman by the throat, crushing her windpipe, while punching a hole straight through the chest of another. Jason just stood there, gaping at what was happening.
“No!” Danae shouted, running toward Heracles as he backhanded another couple of hunters, sending them crashing into the undergrowth.
She skidded to a halt as the hero swung around to face her and she was hit by a wave of fear. His handsome features had morphed into something terrible. He didn’t look human.
“Heracles, it’s all right, they’re not going to—”
A dart embedded itself in Heracles’s neck. The hero snarled, pulled it out and looked around for the woman who’d shot him. She dropped the pipe, but Heracles grabbed her before she could run. Screams tore across the beach as he ripped off the woman’s arms one after the other.
Danae froze, unable to look away. Something inside him was broken. He was going to kill them all unless someone stopped him. As though answering her call, her limbs began to thrum with energy.
Use your power,said the voice. You can save them.
But after the mountain village, could she risk revealing herself again?
Another hunter shrieked as Heracles caught her.
Danae’s nails bit into her palms. She couldn’t stand by and watch more people die.
She closed her eyes.
Breathe, said the voice.
She listened, her lungs inflating like a pair of bellows. And then she felt it, like the clouds parting to reveal the sun, the power of the life-threads running through her veins. She hadn’t known how she’d accessed the energy before, but now she understood. It was her life force, always there inside her, waiting.
Bending the threads to her will, she gathered a clutch of glowing strands and pushed them out of herself into the earth. The ground quaked. Trees vibrated, and birds rose from the shuddering jungle like sparks escaping a bonfire. No one was left standing.
Jason, Heracles and the hunters scrambled back up, gazing around in shocked confusion. Fighting the sudden weariness that threatened to drag her to the sand, Danae raised her arms to the sky.
“The Lord of the Sea and Shaker of the Earth has spoken to me!” she called. “Poseidon in his wisdom, demands peace.”
24
The Daughters of Artemis
The gods, the great unifiers. Whether inciting love or fear, they could always be relied on to hold an audience captive.
For what seemed like a lifetime, no one spoke. Then Idmon the seer cried out, “Lord Poseidon, we hear you!”
