I respected Chalciope’s point, though I was inclined to think that Hekate would like nothing more than seeing Aeetes perish. But there might be a reason Hekate had not killed him herself during these long years. Aeetes was a child of the sun and possessed of strange magics.
“I have spoken to my contacts among the guards,” Chalciope said, picking her way around clumps of seaweed. “You and I are not the only ones who have grown weary of Aeetes’s cruelty. There are others who share our sympathies, and soon we will make our move.”
“We should wait for your sons to return first,” I said, reaching down to pick up a round stone worn smooth by centuries of sandand wave. “That will make the issue of succession much clearer. If it all goes wrong, Absyrtos might end up sitting on the throne.” A terrifying thought, and it made us both shudder.
“Medea, please, we’ve spoken about this.” Chalciope sighed. “Don’t torment me with hope. The boys have been gone for six long months, they cannot still be alive.”
“The auguries are unmistakable,” I insisted. “The boys still live.”
“You and your auguries,” Chalciope said with a sad smile. She gazed at the distant horizon, the flickering point where sky met water, as if she might catch sight of a small ship carrying four boys.
“Should we... do we have to be the ones to kill him? Father?” I asked, the enormity of the act resting heavy upon me. As much as I despised Aeetes, he was a fixture of the world, like the sky or the glaring sun. To kill him might bring down calamity upon us. I’d dispatched temple sacrifices, but never another human being, and my stomach felt queasy at the thought.
“If not us, then who?” Chalciope replied.
I looked at her profile. She had changed over the years, turning from the gentle sister of my memories to a woman made of iron.
“I will not allow Aeetes to leave any more mothers bereft,” she continued, gazing out at the sea. “I will not let his mad reign continue. And I will avenge my beloved Phrixus, killed too soon.”
Her words surprised me. It seemed that Chalciope really had loved her husband after all. I wondered if I would come to love the man I’d eventually marry, whoever he might be.
From the corner of my eye, I studied my sister. Chalciope was a stalwart woman. If she saw a hungry mouth, she fed it; if she saw a dirty bowl, she washed it. And, it seemed, if she saw a tyrant oppressing his kingdom and people, she sought to end his life.
My sister, I realized, was a stranger. Chalciope had looked after me in earliest childhood, but she’d gone to the home of herhusband when I was still very young, before we could truly come to know each other.
Above us was the stormy sky, and around us the green hills that had been my earliest companions. Once, they’d comforted me, but now they seemed like nothing so much as a prison. The whole of Qulha was like a pillow pressed over my face. I suddenly knew, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that I needed to escape.
No worthy life could be lived here. If I ever wanted to rise to my mother’s sphere, I had to get away.
“I will help you however I can,” I said, thinking of Xanthippus and how to free him as well as myself. “In return... please, help me find a good husband and a new home.”
“You would leave? After what we are about to do, you would leave it all behind?” Chalciope’s eyes were pools of sorrow, but then she shook her head. “No, I understand. I won’t be Aeetes and trap you here. When I’m queen, I’ll summon all the eligible young princes in all the kingdoms nearby, and you shall have your pick among them.”
She threw her arms around me, hugging me tight.
“Oh, my sweet sister,” Chalciope whispered into my hair as I looked over her shoulder at the vast expanse of the shimmering sea. “Remember me, always. Remember that I loved you enough to let you go.”
12
Atalanta
After a week, theArgoarrived at the island of the Doliones, and I was confronted with the unfamiliar prospect of a bath.
A large tub of hot water was waiting, steam rising from its surface. The garish reek of flowers that rose from the petals scattered on top of the water unnerved me, severed as it was from the cycles of the natural world.
“A gift from Queen Cleite,” the attendant explained. “She heard there was a woman among the crew and wished for your comfort.”
I stared at the tub suspiciously, but Meleager laughed at my hesitation. “You’ve faced a monstrous boar, but a little water frightens you?”
I booted Meleager out of the room and lowered myself gingerly into the tub. Hot water really was quite pleasant, like being held in the palm of some great hand. Baths, I decided, were one of the better features of the human world.
Eventually a servant came to call us all to supper. The feasting table of the Dolionians creaked under the weight of the dishes laid upon it: Roasted vegetables and meat, tuna and shellfish. Dripping cuts of pork simmered in spices that made my mouth tingle. Fresh-baked breads bursting with olives, along with goblets of wine, which I had never tasted before; a sharp beverage that burned on the way down and left me feeling unpleasantly dizzy.Meleager told me the names of these items, passing morsels to me and smiling at my reactions. After so long subsisting mainly on the leathery beef and stale bread of theArgo, I ate as much as I could hold.
So did the rest of the Argonauts, lined up on each side of the table, jostling each other. Cyzicus, king of the Doliones, presided at the table’s head. The dancing flames of the lamps suspended over the scene glittered on his golden crown and the chalice he lifted to toast our arrival. Cyzicus gave a long speech about hospitality and the welcome afforded to heroes, though I absorbed very little of it, being completely occupied by a fish cooked so tenderly it seemed to melt in my mouth.
My gaze shifted to the woman next to Cyzicus. Petite, with dark curls piled on top of her head, she watched her husband quietly. My eyes lingered on her, and my mind began to turn. This must be the queen, the one who had sent me the bath. Perhaps she could help me find what I was seeking.
After the king’s interminable speech was finished, I made my way toward her. Cleite looked startled at my appearance, though she calmed a bit when she saw I was not a strange man.
